To evaluate my assignment, click here
Assignment topic: What is the theatre of Absurd ? Explain Waiting for Godot and The Birthday Party as a Absurd Theatre.
Name:
Ravi Rajyaguru
Roll no:.26
M.A. Semester: 3
Enrolment No.:
PG15101032
Year: 2015- 17
Paper no.:9
Submitted to:
Department of English
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
In every field we
experiment on various subjects. We all have seen tragedy, comedy, tragy-comedy
etc type of theaters. But there are some persons who really depict the existing
story into the theatres. By using Existentialism they have made the absurd plays.
World is without meaning & life is without purpose. Samuel Beckett, Jean
Genet, Tom Stoppard, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Harold Pinter etc they all have used
Existentialism. Let’s discuss about Theater
of Absurd. Let’s put a glance in what is
Absurd?
What
is Absurd?
“The condition of state in
which human exist in a meaningless irrational universe where in people live
have no purposes or meaning.”
“Theater of Absurd” =
“Expression in art of the meaninglessness of human existence.”
“Myth of Sisyphus” written
by Albert Camus is also full of Absurdity. Myth of Sisyphus defied the god and
put death in chains so that no human needed to die. When god make a decision on
his castigation for all infinity. He would have push a rock up a mountain upon
reaching the top the rock would roll down again.
“what is called a reason for
living is also an excellent reason for dying.” Albert Camus, Myth of Sisyphus.
“Waiting for Godot” written
by Samuel Beckett is also deals with the belief of theatre of Absurd. It is originally
in not depicting any theatrical clashes. In the play, basically nothing
happened, no advancement is to be found, there is no beginning and no end. The complete
action stew down in an absurd setting of a country side road with two tramps
Vladimir and Estragon who simply idle away their time waiting for Godot about
whom they have only unclear ideas.
Indeed this play goes under
"Theater of Absurd". It is a sort of deplorable parody and unlikable
truth about existence and world is portrayed here. There are just five
characters in this play. They are Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, Lucky and a kid.
The impact of existentialism can be discovered particularly here. The play
itself is an image of misery and nothingness. In "Theater of Absurd",
there is no plot, no story, no start and no end. To put it plainly, it
challenges the convention of well house keeper play. This play has same
'nothing'. The dialect is straightforward and dubious.
The Theatre of the Absurd
shows the world as an incomprehensible place. The spectators see the happenings
on the stage entirely from the outside. Without ever understanding the full
meaning of these strange patterns of events as newly arrived visitors might
watch life in a country of which they have not yet mastered the language.
The estrangement impact is a dramatic and realistic gadget "which
keeps the gathering of people from losing itself latently and totally in the
character made by the performing artist, and which subsequently drives the
group of onlookers to be a deliberately basic eyewitness. The term was authored
by writer Berthold Brecht to portray the feel of epic theater. The primary
absurdist plays stunned groups of onlookers at their debuts; however their
strategies are currently basic in Cutting Edge Theater and in some standard
works. Contemporary writers whose work demonstrates the impact of the theater
of the ludicrous incorporate American playwrights Edward Albee and Sam
Sheppard, British producers Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, German
screenwriters Günter Grass and Peter Weiss, Swiss producer Max Frisch, and
Czech screenwriter Vaclav Havel.
Characteristics
of the “Theater of Absurd”
·
Broad comedy
·
Menacing and tragic effect
·
Alienation effect
·
Hopelessness in
characters
·
Fragmentations
·
Parody of the concept
of ‘well maid play’
·
Unconventional writing
·
Irrationality
At some extent similar to the characteristics of Postmodernism.
Main
features of the Theater of the Absurd in Waiting for Godot
Meaningless of Life:
Theater of the Absurd
presented the life as meaningless and one that could simply end in casual
slaughter. This was reflected in the society of the time. It was because of the
following reasons:
·
Mechanical nature of Man of the Life
·
Alien worlds
·
Time
·
Isolation
A play is required to engage
the crowd with coherently manufactured, witty discourse. In any case, in this
play, similar to some other ludicrous play, the discourse appears to have
declined into negligible chatter. 'Nothing to be done' is the words that are
rehashed much of the time. The discoursed the characters trade are inane
cliches.
Lack
of the Plot
·
No Beginning
·
No Middle
·
No End
Absurd plays have lack of
the plot. There is the great deal of the repetition in action and language.
Ex. It lacks the traditional
standards of drama, no causal chain of effects and events, no Aristotle’s
structure of drama.
Non
Conventional Story:
Theater of the absurd have
not the conventional story which can convince the readers or viewers. Ex.
In this play Estragon & Vladimir always waiting for the man namely Godot
who never come.
Contradiction
and repetition of the dialogues
For instance Vladimir
hollers to Estragon: "Go ahead . . . give back the ball wouldn't you be
able to, once as it were?" Vladimir's protest is expressive of a
significant part of the exchange in the rest of the play; it is especially
similar to two individuals playing an amusement with each other and one can't
keep the ball in play.
In the play props like cap
and boot likewise symbolizes something in the play. While in first we see Hat
and Boots use as props in the play. Both props are means for their time pass.
They changing cap sitting back. In any case, in more profound undertone Boots
is an image of lower request of intuition or related with body just and Hat it
symbolize higher thinking and mind that Vladimir is doing.
Devaluation
of The Language:
The absurd dramatist felt
that traditional dialect had fizzled man and it was insufficient method for
correspondence. The futility of dialect was utilized by the characters
constantly; they talk in platitudes, abused, tired expressions. They utilize
dialect to feel the vacancy between them, to disguise the way that they don't
have anything to discuss to each other.
Cyclical
Structure:
·
Actually, everything is organized by this
retribution intention. Be that as it may, in Waiting for Godot, where there is
no inspired activity, the feeling of nothingness assume the significant part in
deciding the each part of the play. Absurd play has a redundant recurrent
arrangement.
·
Similar setting Debris
·
Timingday
·
to moon rise
·
Actionshat
·
Swapping scene
·
Similar Acts structure
·
Same acts ending
Theatre
of Absurd : The Birthday Party
·
Broad comedy
·
Menacing and tragic effect
·
Shifting Identies
·
Ambiguity and Mystery
·
Hopelessness and Fragmentation characters
To shake audiences from
their more conventional viewing habits, the playwrights of the Absurdist
Theater used traditional settings to ease the audience into their plays, and
then shocked them with surreal imagery, uncommon circumstances, or fragmented
language. Language within the Absurdist Theater often transcended its base
meaning. As in The Birthday Party, nothing is as it seems and no one speaks the
whole truth. Also, the use of silence as language was often utilized in these
plays.
The writer of the Birthday
Party , Harold Pinter explained this absurdist concept best in his 1962 speech
“Writing for the Theater,” which was presented at the National Student Drama
Festival in Bristol. He said, “I suggest there can be no hard distinctions
between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is
false.” The thin line between truth and lies is perhaps the defining
characteristic of the Theater of the Absurd.
Broad Comedy
Mainly it is found in the
characters of Meg, Stanley and Lulu.
“Meg: Stan! I'm coming up to fetch you if you
don't come down! I'm coming up! I'm going to count three! One! Two! Three! I'm
coming to get you! (She exits and goes upstairs. In a moment, shouts from
STANLEY, wild laughter from MEG)”
“Meg: What are the cornflakes
like, Stanley?
Stanley: Horrible.”
Menacing
and tragic effect
- · Frightening effect we find very much as it is “Comedy of Menace” also.
- · In movie background sounds play vital role for it.
- · In movie we have many dialogues and scenes such as Blindmen’s Buff scene( Menace) and Interrogation scene (tragic element).
- · Very much use of screaming and shouting in the play.
Hopelessness
and fragmentation in characters
- · In almost every character we find a kind of disappointment and complain from life.
- · Meg keeps on running meaningless conversations like “how is cornflakes ?” or “didn’t you enjoy your breakfast ?”etc. It is perhaps to fill the emptiness within her.
- And Petey’s indifferent silence.
- Lulu’s frustration comes out when the dialogue between her and Goldberg occurs.
Ambiguity
and Mystery
- Stanley’s past is so Mysterious
- Goldberg and McCann way of asking questions to Stanley
- Kafka’s work intensifies the dreadful angst experienced by the protagonist
Conclusion
:
To wind up this topic,
Absurd theater is a new literary term which introduced by Martin Esslin.
According to some critics, the idea of Absurd theater is anti-theater literary
subject because its totally breach the traditional way of representing work
with theater. But still it has its own success and charm and “waiting for
Godot” and “ The Birthday Party” are examples of it.
Work cited:
hi
ReplyDelete