Theatre of the Absurd- A Critical Survey

Martin Esslin in his essay The Theatre of the Absurd uses the quoted phrase for the first time while analyzing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot. He says that “the act of waiting for Godot is shown as essentially absurd”. However, by the words ‘Theatre of Absurd’ we mean the kind of plays, rather strange plays of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter etc.

The Theatre of the Absurd refers to a post-World War II movement in drama that expresses the existentialist philosophy of the absurdity of human existence. This theatrical form emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, largely influenced by the works of existential philosophers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. The playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd, such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Jean Genet, conveyed the idea that life is meaningless, illogical, and irrational, and that human beings live in a world without inherent purpose.

Samuel Beckett

Origins and Context

The Theatre of the Absurd developed in response to the horrors of World War II, the Holocaust, and the rise of totalitarian regimes. The disillusionment with traditional values and belief systems created a sense of alienation and despair, which became central themes in absurdist plays. These dramatists were influenced by the existentialist notion that human existence is chaotic, and that the search for meaning in an indifferent universe is futile.

The idea that man is absurd is by no means new. An awareness of the essential absurdity of much human behaviour has been inherent in the work of many writers. Aristophanes, Swift, Pope, Balzac, Dickens – to cite only a handful – has all shown an acute feeling for men’s comically. So by tradition, these absurd playwrights deal with purposelessness of life harmony with its surroundings. The absurd Drama as a genre is based on the tenets summarized by Albert Camus. In his essay The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Albert Camus argues that life is inherently meaningless, and human efforts to find meaning are as futile as Sisyphus's eternal task of pushing a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down. This concept of the absurd shaped the Theatre of the Absurd, where characters are often trapped in meaningless routines, unable to communicate effectively, or caught in illogical situations.

Plays written by these playwrights flout all the standards by which drama has been judged over the centuries. Structurally, in contrast to a well made play with a beginning, middle and a neatly tied up ending, the plays by the absurdist playwrights often start at an arbitrary point and end just as arbitrarily. The arbitrary structure of the plays reflects the arbitrary and irrational nature of life. To put it differently the playwright of the absurd views life existentially, he expresses the senselessness of the human condition by abandoning rational devices. Most of the plays, thus, express a sense of wonder and incomprehension, and at times despair at the meaninglessness of human existence. Since, they do not believe in a rational and well-meaning universe, they do not see any possibility of resolution of the problems they present, either. 

Characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd

Absurdity and Meaninglessness: The core of absurdist drama is the portrayal of a universe that lacks clear meaning or purpose. The plays often depict a world where human actions seem futile, and the characters struggle to understand their place in it. The absurdity of life is reflected in nonsensical dialogue, illogical plots, and seemingly purposeless actions. 

Cyclical and Repetitive Structures: Absurdist plays frequently employ cyclical or repetitive structures that mirror the futile and repetitive nature of human existence. In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953), for example, two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly for a figure named Godot, who never arrives. The play's lack of a conventional plot reinforces the theme of life’s monotony and uncertainty.

Incoherent Language and Communication: Language in the Theatre of the Absurd is often fragmented, meaningless, or used in bizarre ways, highlighting the inadequacy of communication in expressing human emotions or understanding. Playwrights like Eugène Ionesco, in his play The Bald Soprano (1950), often use nonsensical dialogue to show how communication has broken down in a world that no longer makes sense.

Lack of Clear Plot and Character Development: Unlike traditional plays, absurdist dramas often lack a coherent plot or clear character development. Characters may seem static, trapped in their situations, with no real progression or resolution. This reflects the existential belief that life does not follow a logical, meaningful trajectory.

Dark Humor and Tragicomedy: The absurdity of human existence is often depicted through dark humor or tragicomedy. The characters’ tragic predicaments—caught in absurd or meaningless situations—are treated with ironic detachment, often provoking both laughter and a sense of despair. In Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter (1957), two hitmen wait for instructions in a claustrophobic basement, engaging in absurd conversations while the tension escalates to a point of both comedy and existential dread.

Existential Themes: The central philosophical themes in absurdist plays revolve around existential questions of life, death, identity, freedom, and isolation. The characters often grapple with these issues in a world that offers no answers or solutions. The sense of alienation and the individual’s isolation in a meaningless universe is a recurring theme.

Key Playwrights and Their Works

1. Samuel Beckett:

   • Waiting for Godot (1953): Beckett’s most famous play, it epitomizes the absurdist themes of waiting, purposelessness, and the breakdown of communication.The man of Sisyphus, for ever rolling a stone up a hill, for ever aware that it will never reach the top is a perfect metaphor for the play Waiting For Godot too. Thus in Waiting for Godot everything can be looked up as a metaphor for the human situation at its most ‘absurd’. Godot could be taken for anything or nothing: Estragon and Vladimir, two vagabonds, complain that nothing happens nobody comes, nobody goes, and it’s awful. The Waiting For Godot composed by Beckett is a landmark in the realm of modern English drama. The drama has an ironic overtone compounded with a tragically slant. It virtually reflects the pointlessness, the meaninglessness, boredom, ennui and frustration of modern existence. The theme of the drama is all about a perpetual waiting of the two tramps Vladimir and Estragon. They wait for the arrival of ‘Godot’. But their expectation never finds fruition. In fact, this endless expectation is dashed against the rock of nothingness.
     
     Symbolically, ‘Godot’ is represented as an unknown entity, perhaps as the highest goal which we can never reach during our life time. In fact, the modern man always aspires after a Utopia, after an El Dorado, after a never- never- world that always leads enchantment to the view. The two tramps wait for time indefinite and for a thing unknown, unfamiliar and unseen yet ever attractive and alluring as if holding the key to highest happiness. Symbolically, The Waiting For Godot may be compared to a modern Bengali novel Kothai Pabo Tare by Somoresh Bose. In fact, as a typical absurd drama, Waiting For Godot, fosters the ironic technique and philosophical outlooks typical of modernism and existentialism. 
   • Endgame (1957): A bleak portrayal of human suffering and existential despair, where characters are trapped in a post-apocalyptic world with no hope of escape.  It also deals with the theme of loneliness and essential absurdity of life in a style of grim humour. 
   • Happy Days : His Happy Days surprisingly has a heroine Winnie who is throughout the play largely buried in a mound of earth, first up to her waist, then up to her neck.

2. Eugène Ionesco:

   • The Bald Soprano (1950): A parody of bourgeois conversations and social conventions, showing how language has lost its meaning.
   • Rhinoceros (1959): A critique of conformity and totalitarianism, where people in a small town gradually transform into rhinoceroses.

3. Harold Pinter:

   • The Birthday Party (1957): A psychological drama where menace and absurdity are blended, and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur.
   • The Dumb Waiter (1957): An exploration of power dynamics and the absurdity of waiting for orders that may never come.

4. Jean Genet:

• The Maids (1947): A play about two maids who engage in ritualistic role-playing, blurring the lines between reality and illusion.
• The Balcony (1957): A surreal exploration of power, authority, and identity, set in a brothel during a revolution.
5. Edward Albee: 

• Edward Albee, the American exponent of the Absurd drama has written a famous play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The complexity of values and conditions of man is expressed in his The Zoo. 

Critical Reception

The Theatre of the Absurd was initially met with confusion and resistance. Many audiences and critics found the plays difficult to understand, given their unconventional structures and obscure meanings. However, over time, these works gained critical acclaim for their innovative use of form and for addressing the existential dilemmas of modern life. Critics like Martin Esslin, who coined the term “Theatre of the Absurd” in his 1961 book, recognized the movement as a profound reflection of the human condition in a world marked by alienation, despair, and the collapse of traditional values.

Legacy and Influence

The Theatre of the Absurd has had a lasting impact on modern drama and continues to influence contemporary playwrights and directors. Its radical departure from conventional storytelling opened up new possibilities for the stage, where narrative coherence and realism were no longer essential. Absurdist techniques have been adopted in experimental theatre, absurd comedy, and even film, influencing works like Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) and absurdist elements in the films of the Coen Brothers.

Conclusion

 The absurd plays are modern dark comedy or black comedy. They are constant simultaneity of tragedy and comedy. David Gross Vogel speaks of ‘Part tragedy, part comedy' as these are comic display of human life in the labyrinth of society. The Theatre of the Absurd also represents a profound exploration of human existence in an indifferent and chaotic world. By breaking away from traditional theatrical conventions, playwrights like Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, and Genet challenged audiences to confront the absurdity of life, the limitations of communication, and the isolation of the individual. This movement remains a vital part of 20th-century theatre, offering insight into the existential questions that continue to resonate with audiences today. But one must ask whether the writer of the absurd play does believe in the total meaningless of life and human existence. If the author were totally convinced of the meaninglessness of life, why would he go on living? Also, wouldn’t it be pointless to go on writing about the act of living? The mere fact of writing is an expression of meaning by imposing some kind of an order or value on experience. As Eric Bentley remarks, “Artistic activity is itself a transcendence of despair, and for unusually despairing artists that is no doubt chiefly what art is: a therapy, a faith”.Therefore, paradoxical as it may seem the very act of writing about despair or the mess of life, it is an attempt by the absurd writer to impose an order on ‘disorder’.         

            Ardhendu De