Summary Of ' The Room And Waiting For Godot '

A comedic work of literature is often just one that was meant as pure enjoyment for the reader. Other times, comedy is meant to shed light on a serious situation or instance the public refuses or is uncomfortable talking about in a non-comedic setting. However, the greatest type of comedy is one that makes the reader think, one that provokes “thoughtful laughter” from them. “The Importance of Being Earnest”, a satirical play written during Victorian Era Britain by Oscar Wilde, is such a piece literature. By poking fun at the time period in which his characters live in during one particular scene, as well as illustrating the unsubdued hilarity of a character during that scene, Wilde is able to elicit thoughtful laughter from his audience, ultimately showing them that life is far too serious and needs to be taken more lightly.

Realism provides only amoral observation, while absurdism rejects even the possibility of debate. (Frances Babbage, Augusto Boal). The cynicism of this remark reflects the aberrant attitude towards absurdism, yet there is truth to it. Theatre of the absurd is an esoteric avant-garde style of theatre based on the principles of existentialism that looks at the world without any assumption of purpose. Existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, after the Second World War. The idea that man starts with nothing and ends with nothing is a common theme amongst most absurd plays. Despite this strange philosophy, Theatre of the

The very essence of Contemporary Theatre is that is such a diverse realm of performance art. Many different playwrights have contributed to this post World War Two theatre that instead of keeping to just one narrow genre it was able to branch out to cover all aspects and views of an ever transitional modern society. Theatrical pieces from this time period have ranged from Existentialism, pioneered by Jean Paul Sartre, to the Theatre of the Absurd, which was precedented by Samuel Beckett, and all along the way a myriad of performance genres sprung up to support this new post-war society. Most plays of the contemporary theatre tended to focus up on one single aspect of theatre, though a group of men formed a performance troupe that would

The purpose of human life is an unanswerable question. It seems impossible to find an answer because we don 't know where to begin looking or whom to ask. Existence, to us, seems to be something imposed upon us by an unknown force. There is no apparent meaning to it, and yet we suffer as a result of it. The world seems utterly chaotic. We therefore try to impose meaning on it through pattern and fabricated purposes to distract ourselves from the fact that our situation is hopelessly unfathomable. "Waiting for Godot" is a play that captures this feeling and view of the world, and characterizes it with archetypes that symbolize humanity and its behaviour when faced with this knowledge. According to the play, a human being 's life is totally dependant on chance, and, by extension, time is meaningless; therefore, a human 's life is also meaningless, and the realization of this drives humans to rely on nebulous, outside forces, which may be real or not, for order and direction.

Beckett’s play represents the angst and the uncertainty of the Post world war II. “Estragon: And if he comes? Vladimir: we will be saved” (II 35). Beckett builds the forms of the play to be suitable for these dark conditions of humanity in this period. He reflects the uncertainty of the cold war era through the philosophical questions and the ambiguous dialogue between the characters. He reflects the social anxiety in the context of the play. Beckett discusses many philosophical and religious ideas. He explored the conflict in the foundation of the society in this period (Newton 148).

Eugene Ionesco is also a very famous writer of absurd theater. He focused on isolation and exhaustion of man’s life and also gave his ironical views on spiritless situation of man in his life. His work expressed alienation of modern man and failure of communication and also loss of meaning. His plays like bold Soprano, The lesson, Rhinoceros they also depict man’s lack of communication with himself and with others in the society. Bold Soprano, the chairs are fully in non sequiturs, dialogues and the language of characters are without thinking. His plays also show the tragedy of modern man in this world and his loss of meaningful words is very much there and all his plays are lack of rational language and the language of his plays is always

from the same problem as “Hamlet “and “Macbeth” where tropes are not transferred as well and

Naturally then, the tragedy of Hamlet with Hamlet left out has become the symbol of extreme absurdity; while the character itself has probably exerted a great fascination, and certainly has been the subject of more discussion, than any other in the whole literature of the world. (94)

For example, in The Visit, there is an emphasis on justice, but it is very extreme. Claire desires to attain justice “for the wrong that was done to [her] in Güllen [by] Mr Ill” by having him killed (32). I thought this was a very radical method of achieving justice, but I better understood it after this presentation because it relates to taking justice to logical extremes and also to theater of the absurd. Also, I noticed that Dürrenmatt’s description of Güllen was very accurate in regard to the town being poverty stricken. This relates to his belief that the hardships of life should be accurately represented and should not be pacified. I also noticed various characteristics of theatre of the absurd, including existentialism, which is a philosophical principle that stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's action. This is seen in The Visit, as the citizens of Güllen have complete freedom to choose to accept Claire’s offer and kill

When presented with the words “theatre of the absurd” many are confused and intrigued. They may ask, what is theatre of the absurd? According to Edwin Wilson, and Alvin Goldfarb, Theatre of the Absurd consists of twentieth century plays that convey a sense of absurdity and the pointlessness of human existence (95). One example of absurdism is The Arsonists by Max Frisch. I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of The Arsonists at the University of Tennessee’s Fine Arts Center in the Dorothy Hackett Ward Theatre. The following response will discuss in which ways The Arsonists is an absurdist play and notable moments that I experienced during the play.

And in his ledger, he has made various notes about the subject matter of tapes,

Twelfth Night is a dramatic comedy which revolves around the classic Shakespearean traits of comedy, which are difficult to categorise but generally identifiable in that they often contain dazzling word play, irony, and a greater emphasis on situations than characters. While in many ways the play is a celebration of social upheaval through its characters, the play is very much characteristic to typical conventions seen in Shakespeare’s comedies when it’s identifying features are considered.

The tragic plays Macbeth and Hamlet offer segments of comedy that shift the play's perspective, if only for the briefest moments. For example, Hamlet’s wit and the porter scene in Macbeth offer moments of comedy to alleviate the drama's intensity. Other influences on the absurdist playwrights include the work of Sigmund Freud, and the Surrealist movement of the 1920s and 1930s, which introduced the avant-garde to mainstream

The meaninglessness of the endgame endorses the absurdist viewpoint, that life cannot be explained rationally. Beckett brings to us another ‘tragic-comedy ’ with this play, perhaps best explained by Nell when she says "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness".

Beckett is the founder of exploring the meaning of theatrical absurdity. Beckett’s effortless writings over the years, created a unique dramatic persona in his plays that won him the Noble Peace prize. After receiving one of the highest awards known to humanity, he kept a low profile. This period alludes to the satisfaction of reaching his peak. Yet, in his later work, the Endgame makes a direct correlation with the satisfaction of making your peak a plateau. He creates a philosophical predicament in the Endgame of trying to discover the true reasoning for existence, when he could not find one reason why life exists. Throughout the play, he uses repetitive word usage, symbolism, emptiness seen in the characters to convey this message.