Characteristics of Absurdists

( V áhi Ð _ Ñorouz Âli ßeik )

 

Albert Camus , " The Myth of Sisyphus "

“A world that can be explained by reasoning , however faulty , is a familiar world. But in a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and light , man feels a stranger. His is an iremediable exile , because he is deprived of a lost homeland as much as he lacks the hope of a promised land to come. This divorce between man and his life , the actor and his setting , truly constitutes the feeling of absurdity.”

 

" THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD "

Just as Ibsen and Strindberg and Chekhov reinvented theater at the end of the nineteenth century, so Beckett and a handful of avant-garde playwrights did so again in the middle of the twentieth. What are some of the characteristics of this new kind of theater?

A rejection of plot, narrative, conflict, rounded characters-all the conventions of the drama that Ibsen had reinvigorated. Instead, an emphasis on situations rather than events, on stasis rather than change, on inertia and entropy rather than action and development. "What passes in these plays are not events with a definite beginning and a definite end, but types of situation that will forever repeat themselves" (Martin Esslin).

A rejection of realism, especially the "fourth-wall" naturalism of the middle class drawing room. Far from striving for realism, this theater strips away layers of reality. Beckett’s style is radically minimalist. It substitutes image for action, leaving behind the socially oriented conventions of traditional drama to expose an underlying reality or condition of the psyche.

Language is no longer an instrument for the expression of the deepest levels of meaning. Beckett and friends are more interested in patterns of images rather than argument and discursive speech. Sometimes language takes on a musical quality, as in the discussion of "all the dead voices" in Godot. When we do find argument in Beckett’s play it is reduced to absurdity. Silence is often more important than speech.

Characters with whom the audience fails to identify are basically comic, even if the conditions they confront are somber. There is a great deal of clowning in Beckett’s work. In an absurd world with no discernible purpose, how else should one pass the time. Moreover, these characters are never fully conscious of who they are or where they are or what they are supposed to be doing. So there is no moment of truth here, no full recognition of the true nature of things, as there is in tragedy.

Another way of saying this: characters who were once comic relief, like the gravedigger in Hamlet, now occupy center stage. Tom Stoppard recognized this feature of the new theater when he rewrote Hamlet in the style of Beckett with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as his protagonists. And because these characters often appear as inseparable pairs, it’s possible to interpret them as polarized parts of a single consciousness or psyche.

There is no separation between the mundane and the lofty: common talk of boots and hats, of bodily functions, goes on simultaneously with dialogue about the nature of existence, solitude, desire, disappointment, grief. "It was his singular, though also profoundly Irish, cunning to bring into shaping collision the sphere of the Divine Comedy, King Lear, Timon of Athens, and the metaphysicians Augustine, Spinoza, Berkeley and Descartes with that of barroom bawdy, the circus, the music hall, and the Tour de France. Music-hall cross talk and the slapstick of both the circus and silent film underlie the choreography of syllable and gesture. But the landscape in which Gogo and Didi mime their own rhetoric is that of the Irish tinker, sleeping it off in a ditch" (George Steiner).

absurd æbsA.rd, a. and sb. [a. Fr. absurde, ad. L. absurd-us inharmonious, tasteless, foolish, f. ab off, here intensive + surdus deaf, inaudible, insufferable to the ear.]

A. adj.
1. Mus. Inharmonious, jarring, out-of-tune. Obs. rare.
1617 Janua Ling. 773 A harpe maketh not an absurd sound.


2. Out of harmony with reason or propriety; incongruous, unreasonable, illogical. In modern use, esp. plainly opposed to reason, and hence, ridiculous, silly.

a. Of things.

1557 Recorde Whetst. Bb iij b, 8min12 is an Absurde nomber. For it betokeneth lesse then nought by 4.

1602 Shaks. Haml. i. ii. 103 Fye, 'tis a fault to Heauen, A fault against the Dead, a fault to Nature, To reason most absurd.

1671 J. Webster Metallogr. i. 5 That they had no other skill but onely to embalm, were absurd to imagine.

1781 Cowper Hope 65 'Tis grave philosophy's absurdest dream, That heaven's intentions are not what they seem.

1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 249 That such reverence may be carried to an absurd extreme is true.

1878 Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 36 It would be quite absurd if a dozen travellers in one party were to light a dozen separate fires, and cook a dozen separate meals.

b. Of persons.

1597 Bacon Ess., Negociating (1862) 196 Use also, such Persons, as affect the Businesse, wherin they are Employed..Froward and Absurd Men for Businesse that doth not well beare out it Selfe.

A. 1674 Clarendon Hist. Rebel. I. iii. 178 The next day after that Argument, Sir Arthur Haslerig, an absurd, bold man..preferr'd a Bill in the House of Commons.

1765 Harris Three Treat. iii. 1. 161 Is not Education capable of..making us greatly Wise or greatly Absurd.

1874 Black Pr. Thule 16 `My dear fellow,' said Ingram at last, `don't be absurd.'

B. sb.

An unreasonable thing, act, or statement. Obs. exc. as a rendering of Fr. l'absurde (Camus).

1610 Histrio-mastix ii. 264 Our heavenly poesie, That sacred off-spring from the braine of Jove, Thus to be mangled with prophane absurds.

1635 Heywood Hierarch. v. 292 Of which Absurds, I'le make no more narration.

1954 H. Read Anarchy & Order 13 He [Albert Camus] suggested a philosophy of the absurd, and his subsequent work..has been an affirmation of `absurdism' in politics and ethics, as well as in metaphysics.

1962 Listener 13 Dec. 1027/1 The theatre of the absurd, whose master remains Camus.

 

“ Theatre of the Absurd ” or Absurdism

Not a movement in the manner of Naturalism, Symbolism, etc.

Not a theory set forth by an artist/practitioner (like Epic Theatre)

Not associated with a radical change in staging or acting

“ Theatre of the Absurd ”

term applied by critic, Martin Esslin, 1959, to form and philosophy shared by selected playwrights in post-WWII Europe.

Influential Plays :

Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano (1950)

Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953), Endgame (1957), Happy Days (1961)

Jean Genet, The Balcony (1956)

Absurdism & Metatheatre

often uses theatre, role-playing, & “scripting”

as metaphors for (absurd) existence

as basis of form, action, language

explores performative dimension of identity

relation bet. self & role

self as constructed

CP. PIRANDELLO

Absurdism : Social & Philosophical Concerns

horror at atrocities of WWII

post-nuclear anxiety

Existentialism (Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus):

atrocities prove not the existence of evil but God-less & meaningless world

philosophy, religion, art, modes of identity = human-made structures that give illusion of meaning

CP. Pirandello

meaning & purpose = attainable only through individual choice and action

repetitive speech undercuts possibility of ultimate meaning

V. dialogue that advances plot & reveals meaning

use of silence

Absurdism tends towards minimalism

CP. Aristotelian plot/action

CP. Brechtian Epic Theatre

CP. avant-garde of 1910s-20s (e.g., Surrealism)

Elements of Absurdist Form [Endgame as example]

self-enclosed settings refract rather than reflect “real” world

juxtapose familiar & unfamiliar, real & unreal or dream-like

characters locked into performances of habit, routine, ritual

use of repetition, stasis, repetition, “dark comedy,” stasis, & repetition

existential problem of identity <-> verification

 

~Martin Esslin The Theatre of the Absurd (1961)

- Categorized a trend that he was seeing in the theatre of the day.

 

~ " Nonlinear dramatic structure "

- Godot doesn¹t go anywhere.

~ " Characters are stereotypical "

- Boy

~ " Language is devalued "

- language games in Godot

 

~ " Symbolic use of stage properties "

- Tree in Godot

 

~ " Concerned with philosophical issues "

- Human loneliness in a world without God

- The inability to communicate

- The dehumanization of the individual

- meaninglessness of life

 

~ mixture of comic and tragic

 

" 5 major playwrights of Absurdist Theatre "

~ Samuel Beckett :

- Born in Ireland, lived in Paris, the first of the Absurdist to win international acclaim.

- Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days.

Themes :

Be aware of existentialist ideas in Beckett. Existentialism, remember, asserts that action in an absurd universe is futile; yet one must act to exist. Therefore, man is always anxious because he or she must find a way to live inspite of this conundrum. The silence, the isolation, the endless boredom that underscores the futility of action are nevertheless balanced by the persistent survival of even the most internally ravaged of Beckett's characters. Beckett's goal is to eliminate all that distracts from contemplation of the human condition. He creates a modern parable which reflects the illogic of the postwar era.

His works are stripped, severe, grotesquely comic, haunted by the threat of non-existence. He depicts the mind questioning itself--the mind purified down to its last bitter, almost unbearably pure negation. His characters talk to avoid despair, but this talk provides minimal comfort and security.

His characters find themselves "without the courage to end or the strength to go on."

New concept of drama: vary the balance between the verbal and visual elements, sometimes to the total exclusion of one or the other. His style is sometimes called the "theater of immobility" because there is so little movement.

Perhaps this reflects the influence of radio and to a lesser degree television.

Total lack of concern with social or political issues. For Beckett, man is not a social animal. In fact, some suggest that the characters in his plays are often merely different voices of the same character. Look for monologues interrupted by silence. Everything is condensed--sometimes into one act, as in Endgame.

His plays are "tragic meditations on the metaphysical condition of man, composed of halting monologue, immobility, and silence, devoid of color in which the words drop like stones into an empty well."

Idea of meaninglessness is most difficult for the human mind to accept--for what is mind if not the apprehension of meaning? In Endgame, Hamm says, "We're not beginning to . . . to . . ., mean something?" To which Clove replies, "Mean something! You and I mean something! Ah, that's a good one!" The most formidable weapon of defense against the absurd is indifference.

Not much plot or scenery, no linear time frame, no realistic characters or setting. Language becomes an emblem of the futility of communication.

For example, in Waiting for Godot, Vladimir says, "Ah, there you are!" to which Estragon replies, "Am I?" In this way, Beckett confronts the essential question of metaphysical thought: the idea of Being and Not-Being. What does it mean to exist?

Beckett has a life-long obsession with Dante's The Divine Comedy, particularly Purgatory. Both Hell and Paradise are outside time, but Purgatory is the place of waiting, waiting for time to run out. Zeno's heap: Zeno was an old Greek philosopher who told of a parable.

If a man were to take a bag of millet and tip 1/2 of the load and make a heap, and repeat this procedure day after day, then one day it would be completed if one assumes an infinite amount of time to complete the task (in pure math, the idea of the infinite will allow this). However, because man is limited, he will never be able to finish the task. In fact, the nearer the man gets to emptying the bag, the slower the progress is. The heap becomes "the impossible heap." Without its completion, there is no release.

Waiting for Godot :

First and best-known play A meditation upon the condition of man imprisoned within the dimension of time.

Bare scene: a country road, a tree, evening. Two down-and-outs (Vladimir and Estragon) are awaiting the arrival of Godot, that enigmatic figure who will decide their destiny, relieve them of the responsibility of living.

We don't know who Godot is, and more importantly, he never shows.

Therefore, the play is about killing time, waiting for something which may or may not happen.

Endgame :

Closer to the end than Waiting for Godot.

Scene: single room (skull-like), two windows like eyes, looking down on an irrelevant world.

Two characters: Hamm--the "self," blind, motionless, not even a reality, but an actor acting the self--scarcely that, perhaps, but rather a stage prop.

Dust sheets removed before performance (in view of audience) and replaced as soon as play is over. Hamm cannot move.

Clove: revolves around Hamm. Servant, perhaps his son. The "I" detached from the "self," having no reality save as a co-exister with self; self is nothing without the I. Both are eternally incompatible with each other. Clove can't sit and can't rest.

Happy Days :

Dramatic monologue, although Winnie's husband, Willie, adds about 47 mindless, irrelevant, and repetitive words.

Time has staggered to a stand still, as in the Zeno-heap of days.

Setting: dazzling desert light

Characters: Winnie, the heroine, is reduced--her head emerges out of the mound. Her body has ceased to be acknowledged and thus to be significant.

Willie browses old newspapers and filthy postcards. He embodies her doom not to communicate. But perhaps the characters are not characters at all, but merely symbols of our own condition. Her making the best of it is only an exaggeration of our current attitudes. Bell ringing??? Does this ring any bells, so to speak? Think Pavlov. Operant conditioning. Behavioral modification. Winnie is conditioned--as we all are--to go through her days. Units of time have grown meaningless, yet she cannot resist them because they have that "old world" flavor that contributes to her happiness. This may be Hell. Is she dead already? If so, Hell is what lies between death and the end of time. Winnie's strangest characteristic is her happiness; it is even more frightening than the despair in Beckett's other plays. She will believe anything to keep her happy. Richard Coe says, "Winnie is a victim, a victim of the human condition; if her only defense against the intolerable is to behave as though it were all natural and very understandable, who is there to blame her? She has the usual consolations of existence--she tells herself stories, she has her 'bag,' her hoard of miscellaneous possessions, and she has the futile consolations of her sexuality. At times, she can even exercise her intellect. Nevertheless, her most formidable weapon of defense against the Absurd is her indifference." Do you believe her to be a stoic or deluded fool or both?

~ Arthur Adamov :

~Russian.

~Characters that can't communicate and are therefore condemned to failure.

 

~ Edward Albee :

~ American Trust Fund Baby.

~ Only some of his plays were absurdist, while others were very realistic.

 

~ Jean Genet :

~ Spent most of his life in prison. Characters rebel against organized society.

- Nothing has meaning without its opposite.

> Can¹t have love without hate.

> Religion and sin, etc.

 

~ Eugene Ionesco :

~ Rumanian playwright focused upon holding against conformity in language thought and action.

- The Bald Soprano, Rhinoceros.

~ Many artists were getting disgusted with a form that they saw as having neither answers nor purpose.

 

~ Dadaism :

- Movement launched in 1916.

- Dada = in French , a child's word for Horse.

> Was decided to be the perfect term to mean nothing and yet everything.

> Because of Dada, Everything, Anything, Everywhere, Anywhere, is Art.

~ The Founder :

~ Tristan Tzara

- Wrote Dada Manifesto (mission statement).

~ Flourished chiefly in France, Switzerland, and Germany from about 1916 to 1920.

- Produced the last play in Dadaism.

> The Gas Heart

> Contained characters like Mouth, Nose, Eyes, Ears, etc.

Theatre and Art Respond to this Craziness.

 

~ The Core of Dada :

~ Dadaism was based upon the principles of deliberate irrationality, anarchy, and cynicism.

~ It was an anti-bourgeois form which was ultimately embraced by the bourgeois it attempted to reject.

Theatre and Art Respond to this Craziness.

- Before Dada art was in Form. After Dada Art is Attitude.

 

~ Dadaism had Three Goals :

~ Invent forms of senseless art with the purpose of shaking up the audience.

- Not necessarily theatre audience: readers, viewers.

~ Advance the notion of chaos so that all order, all systems, all conventions be abolished.

~ Wanted to bring about the utmost degree of misunderstanding between the audience and art.

 

~ A World Gone Mad :

~ Insanity was the cause of the problems in the world.

- Only a world gone mad could cause a World War.

~ Decided to replace logic with calculated madness.

~ Direct confrontation with their audience.

~ No restraint.

~ Illogical work.

~ Noise...made fun of anything that purported to be a solution to the problems.

~ Very Angry and Aggressive form.

 

~ Surrealism :

~ Andre Brenton wrote the Manifesto of Surrealism.

- Like the Dadaists, didn¹t like the current social or political situations.

- Felt that they could give answers and not just craziness.

~ Brenton was a originally a Medical student who had become interested in Freudian Psychology while working with shell-shocked soldiers from WWI.

~ Surrealism and the Unconscious mind.

- Focused upon Freud¹s psychology of the unconscious mind and dreams.

~ Wanted to get back to associating things instinctively and not logically.

- This would lead to new perceptions on the worlds problems.

~ An Example of Surrealism :

- Wedding on the Eiffel Tower by Jean Cocteau.

- Characters appear on stage while huge phonographs say the lines and narrate.

~ Odd things happen.

- Ostriches running around.

- Tigers popping out of cameras and eating people.

> Flying telegrams with wings.

- Has a very illogical, dreamlike quality.

> Explores the Human interaction with machines.

 

~ Existentialism :

~ Unlike Dadaism and Surrealism, is predominantly a philosophical form.

~ Heavily influences the Absurdists in Theatre.

~ Reaction to the horrors of WWII.

~ What does it mean to exist, and why are things so crazy?

~ Individuals are responsible for making them what they are, since their choices and actions make them what they are.

~ People really don¹t exist unless they act only after making a conscious and free choice.

~ The Result :

~ Theatre was to supply a surrogate for life a double which represented a more true representation of reality.

 

~ The Theatre of Cruelty :

~ Artaud

- Actor, director, and cult figure.

- Not Mainstream.

~ Did not involve texts.

- Improvisation.

- Theatre should be like therapy.

- Drama should be savage, like shock treatments.

- Goal was to cleanse the audience of guilt.

 

~ The Spurt of Blood :

~ Early play

~ Human limbs falling from the sky to represent the fall of society.

 

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