Absurdity in Beckett, Pinter and Shakespeare Essay Example
Absurdity in Beckett, Pinter and Shakespeare Essay Example

Absurdity in Beckett, Pinter and Shakespeare Essay Example

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  • Published: April 8, 2017
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Life is absurd as a game of chess which is played by a blind man and a sighted man from the point of view of the observer to the patient. In this paper, absurdity is observed and detected in a critical point of view that covers Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Beckett's Endgame and Pinter's "The Birthday Party".

Absurdity in these works is at two levels which are character's absurdity and language's absurdity. Bradbrook (1986) analyzes Shakespeare's works deeply that his analysis of Hamlet in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is excellent that he talks about the absurdity of Hamlet's utterances with his uncle and with his mother.Styan (1981) devotes a complete section for Beckett's and Pinter's plays which can be considered a pure fountain of absurd dramatic works. Styan talks about Hamm and Clov's absurdity in Endgame that he d

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escribes Hamm's life as "Empty". Then, he talks about Stanley as an absurd character in Pinter's "The Birthday Party".

Then, he talks about the absurdity of the speech of Goldberg and McCann whenever they talk to him. Esslin (1976) gives a comprehensive background about the theatre of the absurd from the French theatre of the absurd to the moment of proliferation of this theatre all over the world.Then, he talks about Beckett and the search for the self in Endgame as an example presenting the empty life of the characters, the lack of mission, and the emptiness, the floating state of the characters and the purposelessness of the characters' life. Kenner (1980) adds his own touch in a deep analysis of the emptiness of life in Endgame. He analyzes the emptiness in life in the play by mentioning many lines especiall

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the one which talks about life as a “heap”.

He adds that quotation as a strong and obvious example of the theme of the play which is life’s absurdity.Kott (1965) adds a new definition of absurdity which is absurd nature. Kott says that nature is absurd that he quotes Hamm’s words when he says “nature has forgotten us”. He redefines absurdity by saying that nature neglects people and forces them to be in a circular fixed life. He also talks about Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” saying that Hamlet is an absurd character in a life that is a big game in which characters or people are obliged to follow the rules. All these works demonstrate the body of my paper seeking to illustrate the idea of absurdity and the theatre of the absurd.

Each of which shows a different aspect in a theme which is the theatre of the absurd and its embodiments. General background Esslin (1976) traces the meaning of the word absurd to "out of harmony” in a musical context. Hence its definition:" out of harmony with reason or propriety, is incongruous, unreasonable, and illogical. In common usage “absurd" may simply mean" ridiculous " , but this is not the sense in which Camus uses the word ,and in which it is used when we speak of the Theatre of the Absurd.

In an essay on Kafka, Ionesco(1957) defines his understanding of the term as follows:" Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose… cut off from his religious ,metaphysical ,and transcendental roots , man is lost that all the actions become senseless, absurd ,useless". The end of the Second World War was a sign for the

dominance of Paris in art in the West. French theatre was soon associated with a short-lived eruption of surrealism, which came to be known as “theatre of the absurd". The leaders of this movement were Beckett and Ionesco.Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Endgame became the twin sisters to Ionesco's Exit the King.

Beckett, then, can be considered the father of absurd drama. Esslin (1976) says that this does not mean that the theatre of the absurd is essentially French. It is broadly based on ancient strands of the Western tradition and has its exponents in Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and the United States as well as in France. Moreover, its leading practitioners who live in Paris and write in French are not themselves Frenchmen.

Stylon (1981) adds that theatre of the absurd evolved as the negative side of Sartre's existentialism and expressed the helplessness and futility of the world, which seemed to have no purpose. Beckett's bleak images of life in Waiting for Godot and Endgame conjure up a human existence, in which life is an intolerable imprisonment spent between the compulsion of birth and the worse compulsion of death. Absurdist plays fall within the symbolist tradition and they have no logical plot or characterization in any conventional sense. Their characters lack the motivation found in realistic drama, so it emphasizes their purposelessness.

The absence of plot serves to reinforce the monotony no more than a series of inconsequential cliches, which reduce those who speak them to talking machines. Stylon (1981) adds that because of this singular content, absurdity presents a special set of practical problems to the writer who wishes to make his

way in the theatre. Purposelessness is inconsistent with everything dramatic art has achieved in the past. In addition, extremes of the absurdist vision are too repelling to stage in their own terms. Absurdity in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”:A literary work critic may treat many perspectives such as the absurdity of the work.

The absurdity in “Hamlet” can be absurdity of Hamlet as the main character in the play, absurd language usage and the emptiness of characters’ lives. The role of Hamlet is absurd in the play in the sense that he keeps his life purposeless. Psychologically speaking, Hamlet suffers from a psychological illness that prevents him to find his way. Throughout all the play, he is a floating man who can not make one good or reasonable conclusion. He restricts his mind in the words of the ghost of his dead father.

This psychological state of Hamlet makes him trace nothing by the means of nothing that he keeps sailing in his ideas in the whole play. Hamlet can not trust any one except himself because he expects that some of them participate in the conspiracy against his father. Kott (1967) considers the absurdity in Hamlet’s character by examining his character as a player in revenge drama. He says that a game of murder is totally absurd especially when the character is involved in game without having any piece of information about the killer except for the apparition of his father.

When Hamlet discovers that his mother marries his uncle, he starts to theorize and throw statements that empty the anger and depression inside him: Fie on’t, ah, fie! 'tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed, things rank

and gross in nature Posses it merely. That it should come (to this)! But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two So excellent a king that was to this Hyperion to a satyr so loving to my mother (I, ii, 135-140) Kott (1965) criticizes Hamlet’s character as being trapped in a revenge game that the situation in which he is trapped is without an exit.Hamlet has to play this game by the use of any means. That’s why he makes up a play to reveal the mask of the murderer of his father. The apparition of his father makes him involved in a revenge play.

The second level of absurdity in “Hamlet” is the language that Hamlet uses in the play, that in the second scene, Hamlet reaches a point to be suspicious about the reality of his uncle, Claudius: A little more than kin and less than kind (I. ii. 64-5) How is it that the clouds still hang on you? (I, ii, 66) Not so, my lord; I am too much i’ the sun (I, ii, 67).In the quotations above, Hamlet uses his language in an absurd way that he uses the pun as a technique in his speech in the word” Kind “.

That word might mean either kind the opposite of rude or kind, which is being sub-natural. In other words, the second meaning might mean that his uncle is not human at all. In addition, Hamlet breaks the principles of cooperative communication that are quality, quantity, manner and relevance. Hamlet, as being confused, chaotic and shocked by his big loss of his father, answers his uncle in saying

something that is irrelevant to the conversation.

He deliberately understands the surface meaning of his uncle’s utterance to show that he does not trust him even at the lowest level. This technique of showing that Hamlet is a maxims’ breaker is deliberately used. The intended meaning that his language reveals the broken, chaotic and depressed nature of the psychological state of feeling inside Hamlet. The difference between surface meaning and deep or intended meaning reveals the kind of depression in which Hamlet lives. Kott (1965) notices the use of soliloquy for the purpose of showing the confusion of Hamlet in the play.

He is triggered by the apparition into a situation totally miserable. He has an absolute answer that his uncle killed his father and his mother conspired with him. This is as Kott states that “absolute is absurd”. The final level of absurdity in this play is the emptiness that causes pointless, useless life. After the death of his father, Hamlet’s life becomes empty and without a purpose that he tries to fill that emptiness without any solutions. He thinks how it is possible to reveal the truth of the words of the apparition of his father that his uncle and his mother conspired against him and killed him.

He thinks of making a mini-play that embodies the night of the murder of his father, but this does not fill the emptiness in his soul because the play does not solve the problem because he can not think of a way to dig more for clues. Then, he goes to his contemplation concluding that when the time comes, he will be sure about that. His uncle sends

him to England, but he discovers that it is an attempt to kill him. All these actions are Hamlet’s search for the self in a world that is absurd.

He cannot fill this emptiness with any thing because the absurdity of his life is that it is without any goal.Absurdity in Beckett’s Endgame Beckett is known to be the father of the theatre of the absurd because he began the trend in writing Waiting for Godot and Endgame, but I am going to deal with Endgame only. In this play, I will talk about the absurdity of characters, of language used and the idea of empty life, without solution. The major characters in Endgame are Hamm and Clov who are the only noticeable actors on the vacant stage. The activity of Hamm and Clov is not “action” in the sense that it develops a story, that it is merely a performance.

Hamm and Clov wait for the end that would not come as figures carved in time, but they do so with a pathetic animation and it turns to be funny to watch them. Styan (1981) criticizes this play saying that Hamm sits paralyzed, blind and helpless in a chair as he contemplates his legless parents, Nagg and Nell, grotesquely confined in ashcans: only Hamm’s servant Clov is free to move, but he is as much a prisoner as they. Thus, each is ridiculously dependent on the other. Esslin (1976) criticizes Ham as childish that he plays with a three-legged toy dog and he is full of pity.This nature of absurd relationships accompanied with the attitudes of the characters indicates that they do not know what

to live for. Their search is for the essence of their life as individuals, so it is a look for the self and the true ID for one’s character, for example, the enclosed space with the two tiny windows through which Clov observes the outside world; the dustbins that hold the suppressed and despised parents.

Hamm is, as we said, blind and emotional and Clov performs as the senses for him.All these might well represent different aspects of a single personality, repressed memories in the subconscious and the intellectual selves. Hamm’s purposelessness makes Clov move him to the center although he does not distinguish between the center and other areas around. Esslin (1976) states characters’ absurdity in Endgame describing the action of the characters in the play as coming from the unconscious mind, especially when Clov is described as Hamm’s eye.

In another position in the play, Hamm is criticized as being untidy indicating hat all his actions are the representation of the unconscious. In Hamm’s quotation “It’s the end Clov, we come to the end” (Beckett: 50) there is a high sense of individuality that makes Hamm reveal his inside by using his response to any question or argument.There is another dimension to characters’ absurdity which is the existential dimension. It means that death surrounds the theatre that the characters of the play will be hopeless as in Hamm’s conversation with Clov: Hamm: A small boy. Clov: I’ll go and see.

Hamm: If he exists, he’ll die there or he’ll come here. Beckett: 50-1) In these lines, the ghost of death is surrounding the scene that Hamm is almost sure about his destiny which

is to die. This sense of defeat and death indicates the desperation and hopelessness of the character. Kott (1967) defines absurdity as “the absolute absence of nature “. In this frame, we will consider this as a clear cut piece of evidence that proves the existential nature of Hamm considering him the eye of an existentialist that he says in one of his conversations with Clov “Nature has forgotten us” (Beckett:16) Clov is also an existentialist that he has no aim or goal in his life .A piece of evidence that proves his existentiality is when he says: “I look at the wall” (Beckett: 17).

Looking at the wall means that Clov has nothing to do with a living person , but he has to do with a hopeless and purposeless person. Kott adds that the absence of nature which is the absolute creates compulsory situations by forcing characters into a game in which the probability increases. They will be stronger than man, but the character must be defeated. He cannot escape from the situation which is imposed.

The second phase of the absurdity in this play is the language used in the conversation of Hamm and Clov. Language acts as a barrier to communication, which, in turn, isolates the individual even more, thus making speech almost futile. In other words, absurdist drama creates an environment where people are isolated, clown-like characters blundering their way through life because they don't know what else to do. When Hamm asks Clov to move him to the center, he is moving around the place simply because he is blind.

Clov tends to bring the measure, but Hamm says “More

or ess … more or less”(Beckett: 24). At that moment, we can say that the language of Hamm indicates his uncertainty because hesitation leads to the loss of the way of life. Beckett’s language style emphasizes the utmost absurdity that he uses pauses, high tone, dashes and ellipses heavily. He uses them almost in every single page in the play.

An example of this style is in “if he would be alive. [pause]. It was the moment I am waiting for . [pause] I can see him still down to his knees ….

[pause] unless I bring in other characters [pause] “.We notice the heavy use of pauses in only two lines not to mention the rest of the play. Beckett uses figurative language to demonstrate his themes in the play. He uses, for example, the sea and its creature as a symbol for the cruelty of the world out side. This is purely an existential idea that their perception about the world is highly optimistic. In one of Hamm’s conversations he says : “will there be sharks, do you think ? In his lines, Hamm emphasizes the sharks as the external danger, but he uses a strange structure.

He comes with the content then the frame of the meaning or the intended meaning of his utterance. Hamm’s words “ It’s finished , nearly finished , it must be nearly finished [pause] Grain upon grain , one upon one ,and one day, suddenly ,there’s a heap, a little heap , the impossible heap” `(Beckett: 12). Kenner (1980) interprets as being empty of meaning . He says that “when the grains have become a heap ,but the

word “heap “is empty of meaning.

This would indicate the emptiness of Hamm’s life . The constant tension in Endgame is whether Clov will leave Hamm or not.He threatens to and does sometimes, but he is never able to make a clean break. Likewise, Hamm continually tells Clov to leave him alone but pulls him back before an exit is possible.

Both wonder out loud why they stay with each other, but both men give reasons in long monologues for why they put up with each other: their empty lives are filled only with unyielding pain, and none of life's typical consolations helps them—there is no cure for being on earth, as Hamm often says. One of the unspoken themes in the play is that having someone else around, even an irritant, helps assuage that pain.However, Hamm and Clov's unwillingness to face this pain alone somehow makes the pain greater, and their complementary, dominant-submissive pairing (a staple of Beckett's plays) highlights their numbing dependency. Beckett has compared Hamm and Clov's tense co-dependency to his own relationship with his wife in the 1950s; both wanted to leave the other, but were afraid to. Nagg and Nell had a happier marriage in part because Nell, at least, was willing to accept that they could not rely on each other (she calls their futile kissing routine a "farce") and must exist in their separate ashbins.

http://www. sparknotes. com/drama/endgame/themes. html).This can be clarified be referring to the psychological dimension in the play that the play is the reflection of Beckett’s private life. Beckett is hiding behind a character who is Hamm making an analogous situation between him and Hamm.

Esslin (1976) concludes that Hamm’s empty life is filled with the continuant plays made up by him with Clov, but this is not the only way of filling this emptiness that Hamm uses giving orders as a technique for doing so.Refusing to leave the place and announcing the death of light means hopelessness and emptiness. The most important way of filling the emptiness is by taking the painkiller, which is a symbol for escaping from reality. All actions performed reflect the hopelessness of the kind of life that Hamm lived in. In the end, nothing represents the end because Endgame's opening lines repeat the word "finished," and the rest of the play hammers away at the idea that beginnings and endings are intertwined, that existence is cyclical.

Whether it is the story about the tailor, which juxtaposes its conceit of creation with never-ending delays, Hamm and Clov's killing the flea from which humanity may be reborn, or the numerous references to Christ, whose death gave birth to a new religion, death-related endings in the play are one and the same with beginnings. While Hamm and Clov are in the "endgame" of their ancient lives, with death lurking around the corner, they are also stuck in a perpetual loop that never allows final closure—Hamm claims he wants to be "finished," but admits that he "hesitates" to do so.Just as death cannot arrive to seal off life, neither can Hamm or Clov escape to close the book on one existence and open another—note Clov's frequent failed attempts to leave the room (and his final return after vowing to leave) and Hamm's insistence on returning to the center of

the room. Nell's death may be an aberration in a play where death seems impossible, but since she is the one character who recognizes the absurdity of the situation, perhaps she is rewarded by dying. (http://www. scribd.

com/doc/endgame/analysis) Several of Beckett's dramatic designs elucidate this notion of a circular existence.As mentioned above, Hamm has a compulsive need to return to the exact center of the room after Clov takes him on chair-rides. His oblique comments about the environment—beyond the hollow wall in their hole is the "other hell"—suggest an allusion to Dante's Inferno, another work that uses images of circularity. And just as Dante's infernal images emphasize the eternal misery of its inhabitants, Beckett's characters are stuck in eternally static routines. They go through the "farce" of routine actions, as they call it, because there is nothing else to do while they wait for death.

Even the environment around them is static; everything outside is "zero," as Clov reports, and the light, too, is forever gray, stranded between light and dark. Beckett also makes use of repetitions to underscore the cyclical stasis in Endgame. The play systematically repeats minute movements, from how many knocks Hamm makes on the wall and how many Nagg makes on Nell's ashbin to how many steps Clov takes. The repetitions prohibit the discernment of meaning, since there is never a final product to scrutinize.At the start of the play, Clov questions when individual grains become a "heap.

" In his view, the heap is "impossible"; any single grain is not a heap, and a "heap" is just an accumulation of single grains. When Hamm later considers how individual moments make up

a life, the analogy should hold—it is an "impossible" life, consisting not of a life but of discrete moments, until death terminates it. At one point, Hamm excitedly believes he is "beginning" to make some meaning out of the environment, but he will keep beginning to make sense of it and never finalize the meanings.

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