CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT
A THESIS
BY:
RIZKYANA
REG. NO. 040705023
UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA
FACULTY OF LETTERS
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
MEDAN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillah, my greatest attitudes to Allah SWT that blessing me so that
I can accomplish my thesis. My praise to The Prophet Muhammad SAW who
giving all Moslems in the world the spirit to wake up and pursue the dream
through education in order to get the blessing from Allah SWT.
Next, I would like to express my greatest honour and appreciation to my
supervisor Drs. Razali Kasim, M. A. and my co-supervisor Drs. Parlindungan
Purba, M. Hum for their serious attention in giving me the best correction and
greatest input so that my thesis being so much better.
On this special occasion, I also want to express my greatest debt of
appreciation to the Dean of Faculty of Letters of University of North Sumatra,
Drs. Syaifuddin, M.A, Ph.D including the staffs; The Head of English department,
Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum and The Secretary of English Department,
Drs. Yulianus Harefa, MEd TESOL for helping me in my academic affairs.
Then, to my beloved family I want to say that they are my best in life.
Their deepest love and tender care has given me too much so I can face the world
with dignity. To my beloved father Bustanuddin and my beloved mother Siti
Murgana thank you for your loving care and encouragement. To my little sisters
Dina and Mimi and my little brother Zikri, thank you guys for supporting the
eldest sister, I love you so much…
And the last but not least, I want to express my grateful to all my friends
in 04. To Ika whom I profoundly indebted for the correction and input; To Lily,
Novi and Yoan I would like to say thank you very much for the friendship and the
patience dealing with my egoistic during these four years together; To my nicest
friends who do care and share with me Catherine, Zahara, Syaiful, Erlin, Maitri,
Nurul, and the other that I can not mention name by name, thanks…^_^
Rizkyana
ABSTRAK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………i
ABSTRAK………...ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS………..iii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION……….1
1.1. Background of theAnalysis………...1
1.2. Problem of the Analysis………...5
1.3. Objective of the Analysis………..5
1.4. Scope of the Analysis………...5
1.5. Significance of the Analysis………..6
1.6. Method of the Analysis………...6
1.7. Review of Related Literature………...7
CHAPTER 2 AN OVERVIEW OF DRAMA AND THEATRE…………..10
2.1. Drama and Theatre………..10
2.1.1 The Definition………...10
2.1.2 The Development………...11
2.1.2.1 Earliest Drama………12
2.1.2.2 Medieval Drama……….14
2.1.2.3 Eighteenth and Nineteenth c. Drama…..18
2.1.2.4 Modern Drama………21
2.1.3 The Genres……….26
2.1.3.1 Tragedy………...26
2.1.3.2 Comedy………...28
2.1.3.3 Melodrama………..30
2.1.3.4 Farce………...30
2.1.3.5 Other Genres………...31
2.2. Ingredients of Drama………...35
2.3.1. Its Development………..37
2.3.2. Its Main Characteristics………..40
CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS
OF
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S
WAITING FOR GODOT………...41
3.1. Plot………41
3.2. Characters……….43
3.3. Setting………...54
3.4. Dialogue………55
CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION………..69
4.1. Conclusion……….69
4.2. Suggestion………..71
BIBLIOGRAPHY………....iv
APPENDICES BIOGRAPHY, WORKS, SUMMARY AND MATERIAL
FROM INTERNET………...v
APPENDIX 1 Biography and Works of Samuel Beckett………..v
APPENDIX 2 Summary of Waiting for Godot……….ix
ABSTRAK
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Analysis
Literature is identical with the words: the expression of human feeling,
imaginative process, and creativity (Wellek, 1971: 2) Literature is said to express
human feeling because of its powerful meaning which conveys human sense,
thoughts, feeling in order to share ideas and experiences. Literature is made to
express and communicate the feeling of the artist through imagination in
imaginative process which needs creativity. Every artist shares the same process
to make literary works, but they have such different way to express and
communicate their ideas and feeling to the audience. For example, the author
communicates his ideas through words, while the painter may express his feeling
through his painting.
from society and society itself is established by individuals. According to Taylor’s
definition above, literature can be said as the medium to comment about the
conduct of society and also the conduct of individuals in society.
Furthermore, literature has three major generic divisions, i.e. poetry,
narrative fiction and also drama.
Poetry
is a sort of literature which has fewest
lines and it is said to be the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.
Narrative
fiction
is a sort of literature that belongs to prose (novel, short story etc.) and it
refers to a work that telling something imaginatively based on unreal story. And
then the last is drama;
drama
based on
Webster New Ninth Collegiate Dictionary
is a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a
story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and
typically designed for theatrical performance.
One of absurdist playwrights and probably the most controversial one is
Samuel Beckett. Samuel Beckett is said to be the controversial playwright because
of his extraordinary manner in expressing his idea through his drama,
Waiting for
Godot.
Samuel Beckett makes
Waiting for Godot
as the violation of the
conventional drama and as the direction of expressionism and surrealism
experiment in drama and theatre. He became one of the pioneers of absurdist
playwrights beside Eugene Ionesco and Jean Genet.
Martin Esslin in his book
The Theatre of the Absurd
(1961: xviii) states
that “Absurd originally means ‘out of harmony’, in a musical context. Hence its
dictionary definition: “out of harmony with reason or propriety; incongruous,
unreasonable, illogical”. This statement indicates that ‘absurd’ deals with
something which out of harmony, out of context and beyond the limit. Absurd
serves unconventional perspectives which can lead to nowhere and meaningless.
Every single thing in ‘absurd’ is illogical and yet unreasonable, so it will remain
big question mark and many interpretation all the time.
detailed information about the characters: Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, Lucky, and
the boy exemplifies that the characterization do not coalesce into a unified
representation of human behavior and it does mean absurdity. Setting, also serves
absurdity because of its abnormal condition and atmosphere, we can see that
throughout the play that there is no clue or hint that can point out the location of
the whole act except the author just states that two men are waiting on the country
road by a skeletal tree (Act 1, p.9) and that Estragon sits on a low mound (Act 1,
p.9). Last, the dialogue specifically contains absurdity, we can see it throughout
the play that Estragon and Vladimir talk incoherently and in the middle of the play
(act 1, p.p 42-45) Lucky conveys his speech grotesquely and incoherently.
1.2 Problem of the Analysis
Fundamentally, research and scientific inquiry are intended to answer
some question in life in order to improve and enrich our knowledge. Referring to
this statement, my curiosity about drama deals with the Theatre of the Absurd and
Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
leads me to some questions, they are:
1.
How are the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd
described as the
element of absurdity in Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
through the
plot, characterization, setting and also dialogue?
2.
Which characteristics appear as the most significant elements in the
Theatre of the Absurd
found in Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
?
1.3 Objective of the Analysis
In line with the problem above, this thesis tries to find out the answers of
those questions, they are:
1.
To find out how the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd
described through the plot, theme, characterization, and setting and also
dialogue as the element of absurdity in Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for
Godot.
2.
To uncover which characteristics appear as the most significant
elements in the Theatre of the Absurd found in Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot.
1.4 Scope of the Analysis
Since this play is the absurd one so the analysis may involve and focus on
the literary elements that implicitly show the characteristics of the Theatre of the
Absurd. However, not all elements may analyze in this thesis; I limit the analysis
on the elements such as the theme which is reflected in its plot, characterization,
and setting. This thesis will also analyze the form of this play in case of its
dialogue.
1.5 Significance of the Analysis
The significances of this analysis, they are as follow:
1.
Helps people who are interested in learning drama to understand the ideas,
perspectives and characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd as a trend and
phenomenon in 1950s – 1960s.
2.
Enriches the study of literature generally, and the study of drama and
theatre specifically in term of new genre of drama in 1950s – 1960s.
1.6 Method of the Analysis
The procedures of this research are: First, I read Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
carefully and then I select and quote some text and dialogue
which related with the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd as the data;
Second, I analyze the text supported by secondary sources (book, journal, material
from internet), and; Third, I interpret the text that I have analyzed.
The primary source of my analysis is the play itself. I use Samuel
Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
which published in 1954 while the secondary source
is the books that contain the statement about the Theatre of the Absurd and its
relationship with Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
. The theory and statement
that encourage me to choose the title
‘Characteristics of the
Theatre of the
Absurd
in Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot’
comes from the book by Martin
Esslin entitled
The Theatre of the Absurd
in 1961. This book influences me
profoundly in case of doing my analysis because it gives me framework of
research to carry on my analysis deals with the new genre of drama in
1950s-1960s, the Theatre of the Absurd.
1.7 Review of Related Literature
In writing this thesis, I need to concern and traces back the preceding
research about absurdity in drama and theatre that substantially relates to the topic
I dealt with, the
Theatre of the Absurd and Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot.
A century before Albert Camus’ notion about absurdity, Danish
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote extensively on the absurdity of the world. In
his journal in 1849, Kierkegaard (in Dru, Alexander. 1938.
The journals of Soren
Kierkegaard.
Oxford University Press as quoted by wikipedia.com) states:
reflection, tell me: you can just as well do the one thing as the other,
that is to say where my reason and reflection say: you cannot act and
yet here is where I have to act… The Absurd, or to act by virtue of
the absurd, is to act upon faith… I must act, but reflection has closed
the road so I take one of the possibilities and say: This is what I do
otherwise because I am brought to a standstill by my powers of
reflection.”
From that quotation above, we can see that the terminology of the absurd
is not the new term eventhough its relation and application with drama and theatre
are significantly introduced by the works of Beckett, Adamov, Ionesco, Pinter and
Genet; and Camus through his essay seemingly has provoked these playwrights.
Albert Camus’ essay
The Myth of Sisyphus
in 1942 became the first
philosophy which articulates the present of terminology the
Theatre of the Absurd.
In this essay Camus tries to diagnose human condition and then he concludes that
human condition is basically meaningless.
Camus (in Esslin, 1961: xix) states that:
“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 of light, man feels a stranger. His is an irremediable
exile, because he is deprived of memories 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.”(Taken from Camus, 1942:18)
In the quotation above, Camus concludes that humanity have to resign
itself in recognizing that a fully satisfying rational explanation of the universe is
beyond its reach; in that sense, the world must ultimately be seen as absurd, in
other words Camus emphasizes on man’s absurd hope and on the absurd
insignificance of man.
“Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose…cut off from his
religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his
actions become senseless, absurd, and useless.”
As well as those statements from Camus and Ionesco, Esslin tries to
categorize the dramatist who has same perception and ideas deal with human
condition that tends to be meaningless as ‘absurdist’. Through his book entitled
The Theatre of the Absurd
(1961) he states that he finds same basic principal,
perception, and ideas of most dramatists in the post-World War II in viewing the
world and indeed they express it in their works. He states that:
“… sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of human
condition is, broadly speaking, the theme of the plays of Beckett,
Adamov, Ionesco, Genet and other writers ... A similar sense of
senselessness of life, of the inevitable devaluations of ideals, purity,
and purpose, is also the theme of much the work of dramatists like
Giraudoux, Anouilh, Salacrou, Satre and Camus itself.” (Esslin, 1961:
xix)
Thus, referring to those statements above, I would like to support the
statements and findings by Martin Esslin. I will analyze Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting
for Godot
in order to prove that this play has same characteristics with other
absurdist’s works at that time based on Esslin category.
CHAPTER 2
AN OVERVIEW OF DRAMA AND THEATRE
2.1 Drama and Theatre
2.1.1 The Definition
Drama is a composite art (Sinha, 1977:53), as one of the genres of
literature; while Theatre is a dramatic art and performances that dependent upon
the stage. Drama and theatre essentially is the same thing but theatre is more
identical to the performance. As explained by Esslin in his book
the Theatre of the
Absurd
:
Theatre is always more than mere language. Language alone can be
read, but true theatre can become manifest only in performance
(1961:230-231)
Drama etymologically comes from Greek words ‘dran’ and ‘draonai’
which mean ‘to do’ and ‘to act’. Drama as defined by
The Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Literary Terms
(2004) is “
the general term for performance in
which actors impersonate the actions and speech of fictional or historical
characters (or non-human entities) for the entertainment of an audience, either on
a stage or by means of a broadcast, or a particular example of the art, i.e. play
.
As that definition of dictionary, a well-known definition proposed by a
seventeenth century playwright and critic, John Dryden as follows:
A play ought to be, a just and lively image of human nature,
reproducing the passions and humours, and the changes of fortune to
which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind. (Dryden
in Tennyson,
An Introduction to Drama
, 1967:1)
theatron
refers to only the audience’s part of the theatre, where the seats are, the
actual “instrument for viewing,” that is the place which spectators watch the
drama. Theatre as defined by
The
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
(2003) is
“a
building, structure, or space in which dramatic performance take place.”
The
broadest sense of the theatre, as proposes by
The Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia
, that theatre can be defined as including everything connected with
dramatic art – the play itself, the stage with its scenery and lighting, make-up,
costumes, acting and actors.
Drama and theatre as the definitions above, ‘to do’ and ‘to see’ are
complementary define the area of the study of the drama in its largest sense, the
sense that includes both the play and the performances (Tennyson, 1967:1)
2.1.2 The Development
Drama and theatre are older than religion. They begin with the first man
who thinks that by imitating animals around the camp fire he can increase the
game and insure the good hunting. Drama and theatre grow and become more
elaborate as man moves beyond imitative magic (Macgowan and Melnitz,
The
Living Stage
, 1955:2).
Imitation is the root of what we called “theatre” nowadays in its broadest
sense of the study of the drama itself.
Aristotle proposes in
Poetics
that the
genesis of the theatre deals with “imitation”. In two sentences in
Poetics
, he laid
the basic understanding of the beginnings of theatre:
2.1.2.1 Earliest Drama
In the western world, as cited in
The
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
(2003), dramatic tradition has its origins in ancient Greece. According to
Aristotle, Greek Drama, or more explicitly, Greek Tragedy, originated in the
dithyramb. Dithyramb was a choral hymn to the god Dionysus and involved
exchanges between a lead singer and the chorus. It is thought that the dithyramb
was sung at the Dionysia, an annual festival honoring Dionysus.
Tradition began at the Dionysia of 543 B.C., during the reign of
Pisistratus. The lead singer of the dithyramb from Attica named Thespis added
to the chorus an actor with whom he carried on the dialogue, thus he initiating the
possibility of dramatic action. Eventually, Aeschylus introduced a second actor to
the drama and then
Sophocles
introduced the third format in which Euripides
continued and followed.
Generally, the earlier Greek tragedies place more emphasis on the chorus
than the later ones. In the majestic plays of Aeschylus, the chorus serves to
underscore the personalities and situations of the characters and to provide ethical
comment on the action. Much of Aeschylus’ most beautiful poetry is contained in
the choruses of his plays. The increase in the number of actors resulted in less
concern with communal problems and beliefs and more with dramatic conflict
between individuals.
representations of transcendent power. Utilizing three actors, Sophocles
developed dramatic action beyond anything Aeschylus had achieved with only
two and also introduced more natural speech. However, he did not lose a sense of
the god-like in man and man’s affairs, as Euripides often did. Thus, it is
Sophocles who best represents the classical balance between the human and
divine, the realistic and the symbolic.
Greek Comedy is divided into Old Comedy (5
thcentury B.C.), Middle
Comedy (c.404-c.321 B.C.), and New Comedy (c.320-c.264 B.C). The sole
literary remains of Old Comedy are the plays of Aristophanes, characterized by
obscenity, political satire, fantasy, and strong moral overtones. While there are no
extant examples of Middle Comedy, it is conjectured that the satire, obscenity,
and fantasy of the earlier plays were much mitigated during this transitional
period. Most extant examples of New Comedy are from the works of Menander.
Menander’s comedies are realistic and elegantly written, often revolving around a
love-interest.
The development of drama and theatre in Roman Empire were never
achieved what had reached by the Greek. The earliest Roman dramatic attempts
were simply translations from the Greek. Gnaeus Naevieus (c.270-c.199 B.C.)
and his successors imitated Greek in Tragedies that never transcended the level of
violent melodrama. Even the nine tragedies of the philosopher and statesman
Seneca are gloomy and lurid, emphasizing the sensational aspects of Greek Myth.
Eventhough Roman tragedy produced little of appreciation; a better
judgment may be passed on the comedies of Plautus and Terence. Plautus
incorporated native Roman elements into the plots and themes by Greek
playwright, Menander in which he producing plays characterized by farce,
intrigue, romance and sentiment.
The Roman preference for spectacle and the Christian suppression of
drama led to a virtual cessation of dramatic production during the decline of the
Roman Empire. Pantomimes accompanied by a chorus developed out of tragedy,
and comic mimes were popular until 4
thcentury A.D. This mime tradition, carried
on by traveling performers that provided the theatrical continuity between the
ancient world and the medieval.
2.1.2.2 The Medieval Drama
The medieval drama taking time when the Christian church did much to
suppress the performance of play but paradoxically it is in the church where the
medieval drama began. The first record of this beginning is the trope in the Easter
service known as the Quem quaeritis. Tropes, originally musical elaborations of
the church service, gradually evolved into drama; eventually the Latin lines telling
of the Resurrection were spoken rather than sung, by priests who represented the
angels and the two Mary’s at the tomb of Jesus. Thus, simple interpolations
developed into grandiose cycles of mystery plays, depicting biblical episodes
from the Creation to Judgment Day. The most famous of this play is the
Second
Shepherds’ Play
.
The miracle play reached its glory in France and mystery play in England. Both
types gradually became secularized, passing into the hands of grade guilds or
professional actors. The
Second Shepherds’ Play
, for all its religious seriousness,
is most noteworthy for its elements of realism and farce, while the miracle plays
in France often emphasized comedy and adventure.
The morality play, a third type of religious drama, appeared early in the
15
thcentury. Morality plays were religious allegories. Another type of drama
popular in medieval times was the interlude. Interlude can be generally defined as
a dramatic work with characteristics of the morality play that is primarily intended
for entertainment.
The Renaissance in the 15
thand 16
thcentury had influenced almost all the
European countries. In this time most of European countries had established
traditions of religious drama and farce and contended with the impact of the newly
discovered Greek and Roman plays.
either comedy or tragedy. Notable Italian practitioners of this genre were
Giovanni Battista Guarini (1537-1612) and Torquato Tasso.
The true direction of the Italian stage was toward the spectacular and the
musical. A popular Italian Renaissance form was the intermezzo, which
presented music and lively entertainment between the acts of classical imitations.
The native taste for music and theatricality led to the emergence of the opera in
the 16
thcentury and the triumph of this form on the Italian stage in the 17
thcentury. Similarly, the commedia dell’arte, emphasizing comedy and
improvisation and featuring character types familiar to a contemporary audience,
was more popular than academic imitations of classical comedy.
In France, the imitation on Roman models and Italian imitations has made
the French drama initially suffered from the same rigidity as the Italian. Estienne
Jodelle’s Senecan tragedy
Cleopatre Captive
(1553) marks the beginning of
classical imitation in France. However, in the late of 16
thcentury, there was a
romantic reaction to classical dullness, led by Alexander Hardy. This romantic
trend was stopped in the 17
thcentury by Cardinal Richelieu, who insisted that
drama must return to classic forms.
Drama and theatre in Spain and England during the Renaissance were
more successful than in Italy and France because the two former nations were able
to transform classical models with infusions of native characteristics. In Spain, the
two leading Renaissance playwrights were Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón
de la Barca. Earlier, Lope de Rueda had set the tone for future Spanish drama
plot, character, and romantic action. His well-known work such as
La Vida es
sueño
. Pedro Calderón de la Barca was a more controlled and philosophical writer
than Lope de Vega. In England, it was showed from the beginning that the
English drama would not be bound by classical rules. The elements of farce,
morality, and a disregard for the unities of time, place, and action inform the early
comedies
Gammer Gurton's Needle
and
Ralph Roister Doister
(c.1553) and the
Senecan tragedy
Gorboduc
(1562).
William Shakespeare's great work was
foreshadowed by early essays in the historical chronicle play, by elements of
romance found in the works of John Lyly, by revenge plays such as Thomas
Kyd's
Spanish Tragedy
(c.1586) and by Christopher Marlowe's development of
blank verse and his deepening of the tragic perception.
Shakespeare stands as the supreme dramatist of the Renaissance period,
equally adept at writing tragedies, comedies, or chronicle plays. His great
achievements include the perfection of a verse form and language that capture the
spirit of ordinary speech and yet stand above it to give a special dignity to his
characters and situations; an unrivaled subtlety of characterization; and a
marvelous ability to unify plot, character, imagery, and verse movement.
During the reign of James I the English drama began to decline until the
closing of the theaters by the Puritans in 1642. This period is marked by
sensationalism and rhetoric in tragedy, as in the works of John Webster and
Thomas Middleton, spectacle in the form of the masque, and a gradual turn to
comedies of Ben Jonson, in which he satirized contemporary life by means of his
own invention, the comedy of humours.
Drama in the second half of the 17
thcentury was distinguished by the
achievements of the French neoclassicists and the Restoration playwrights in
England. Jean Racine brought clarity of perception and simplicity of language to
his love tragedies, which emphasize women characters and psychological
motivation.
Molière produced brilliant social comedies that are neoclassical in
their ridicule of any sort of excess. In England, Restoration tragedy degenerated
into bombastic heroic dramas by such authors as John Dryden and
Thomas
Otway. Often written in rhymed heroic couplets, these plays are replete with
sensational incidents and epic personages. But Restoration comedy, particularly
the brilliant comedies of manners by George Etherege and William Congreve,
achieved a perfection of style and cynical upper-class wit that is still appreciated.
The works of William Wycherley, while similar in type, are more savage and
deeply cynical. George Farquhar was a later and gentler master of Restoration
comedy.
2.1.2.3 Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Drama
The playwrights such as Sir Richard Steele and
Colley Cibber from
England and Marivaux from France contributed to the development of the
genteel, sentimental comedy while the political satire in the plays of Henry
Fielding and in John Gay's
Beggar's Opera
(1728) seemed to offer a more
interesting potential than the sentiment of Cibber. The Italian Carlo Goldoni,
who wrote realistic comedies with fairly sophisticated characterizations, also
tended toward middle-class moralizing. His contemporary, Count Carlo Gozzi,
was more ironic and remained faithful to the spirit of the commedia dell'arte.
Related to the appearance of German Romanticism in the late of 18
thcentury, two playwrights stood apart from the trend toward sentimental bourgeois
realism.
Voltaire tried to revive classical models and introduced exotic Eastern
settings, although his tragedies tend to be more philosophical than dramatic.
Similarly, the Italian Count Vittorio Alfieri sought to restore the spirit of the
ancients to his drama, but the attempt was vitiated by his chauvinism.
The
Sturm und Drang in Germany represented a romantic reaction
against French neoclassicism and was supported by an upsurge of German interest
in Shakespeare, who was viewed at the time as the greatest of the romantics.
Gotthold Lessing, Friedrich von Schiller, and Goethe were the principal figures
of this movement, but the plays produced by the three are frequently marred by
sentimentality and replete with philosophical ideas.
closet drama.
Burlesque and
mediocre melodrama reigned supreme on the
English stage.
The concern for generating excitement led to a more careful consideration
of plot construction, reflected in the smoothly contrived climaxes of the
“well-made” plays of
Eugène Scribe and
Victorien Sardou of France and Arthur
Wing Pinero of England. The work of Émile Augier and Alexandre Dumas fills
combined the drama of ideas with the “well-made” play. Maybe, realism had its
most profound expression in the works of the great 19
thcentury Russian
dramatists such as Nikolai Gogol,
A. N. Ostrovsky,
Ivan Turgenev,
Leo
Tolstoy,
Anton Chekhov, and Maxim Gorky. These Russian dramatists
emphasized character and satire rather than plot in their works.
Related to realism is naturalism. The elements of naturalism can be found
in the works of Georg Büchner's through his powerful tragedy
Danton's Death
(1835), and in the romantic tragedies of Heinrich von Kleist.
Friedrich Hebbel
wrote grimly naturalistic drama in the middle of the 19
thcentury, but the
naturalistic movement is most commonly identified with the theory of Émile
Zola, which had a profound effect on 20
thcentury playwrights.
Henrik Ibsen of Norway brought to a climax the realistic movement of
While the antirealistic developments took place on the Continent, two
playwrights were making unique contributions to English theater.
Oscar Wilde
produced comedies of manners that compare favorably with the works of
Congreve, and George Bernard Shaw brought the play of ideas to fruition with
penetrating intelligence and singular wit.
2.1.2.4 Modern Drama
As cited in
The
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
(2003), Western drama
in the 20
thcentury (especially after World War I) became more internationally
unified and less the product of separate national literary traditions. Throughout the
century realism, naturalism, and symbolism (and various combinations of these)
continued to inform important plays. Among the many 20
thcentury playwrights
who have written what can be broadly termed naturalist dramas are Gerhart
Hauptmann (German), John Galsworthy (English), John Millington Synge and
Sean O'Casey (Irish), and Eugene O'Neill, Clifford Odets, and Lillian Hellman
(American).
An important movement in early 20
thcentury drama was expressionism.
Expressionist playwrights tried to convey the dehumanizing aspects of 20
thcentury technological society through such devices as minimal scenery,
telegraphic dialogue, talking machines, and characters portrayed as types rather
than individuals. Notable playwrights who wrote expressionist dramas such as
Ernst Toller and
Georg Kaiser (German),
Karel
Čapek
(Czech), and Elmer
Rice and
Eugene O'Neill (American). The 20
thH. Auden,
T. S. Eliot,
Christopher Fry, and Maxwell Anderson produced
effective results, verse drama was no longer an important form in English.
Based on
The
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
(2003), three vital
figures of 20
thcentury drama are the American Eugene O'Neill, the German
Bertolt Brecht, and the Italian Luigi Pirandello. O'Neill's body of plays in many
forms—naturalistic, expressionist, symbolic, psychological—advocated the
coming-of-age of American drama. Brecht wrote dramas of ideas, usually
promulgating socialist or Marxist theory. Pirandello, too, it was paramount to fix
an awareness of his plays as theater, indeed, the major philosophical concern of
his dramas is the difficulty of differentiating between illusion and reality.
World War II and its attendant horrors produced a widespread sense of the
utter meaninglessness of human existence. This sense is brilliantly expressed in
the body of plays that have come to be known collectively as the Theater of the
Absurd. By abandoning traditional devices of the drama, including logical plot
development, meaningful dialogue, and intelligible characters, absurdist
playwrights sought to convey modern humanity's feelings of bewilderment,
alienation, and despair. In their plays human beings often portrayed as dupes,
clowns who, although not without dignity, are at the mercy of forces that are
inscrutable. Perhaps, the most famous plays of the theater of the absurd are
Eugene Ionesco's
Bald Soprano
(1950) and Samuel Beckett's
Waiting for Godot
(1953). The playwrights whose works can be roughly classed as belonging to the
theater of the absurd are Jean Genet (French),
Max Frisch and
Friedrich
Dürrenmatt (Swiss),
Fernando Arrabal (Spanish), and the early plays of
Edward Albee (American). The pessimism and despair of the 20
thfound expression in the existentialist dramas of Jean-Paul Sartre, in the realistic
and symbolic dramas of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Jean Anouilh,
and in the surrealist plays of Jean Cocteau.
Similar to the Theatre of the Absurd, there was the Theatre of Cruelty.
This theatre derived from the ideas of Antonin Artaud. After the violence of
World War II and the subsequent threat of the atomic bomb, his approach seemed
particularly appropriate to many playwrights. Elements of the theater of cruelty
can be found in the brilliantly abusive language of John Osborne's
Look Back in
Anger
(1956) and Edward Albee's
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(1962), in the
ritualistic aspects of some of Genet's plays, in the masked utterances and
enigmatic silences of Harold Pinter's “comedies of menace,” and in the orgiastic
abandon of Julian Beck's
Paradise Now!
(1968).
Realism in a number of guises—psychological, social, and political—
continued to be a force in such British works as David Storey's
Home
(1971), Sir
Alan Ayckbourn's
Norman Conquests
trilogy (1974), and David Hare's
Amy's
View
(1998); in such Irish dramas as Brian Friel's
Dancing at Lughnasa
(1990)
and Martin McDonagh's
1990s Leenane trilogy
; and in such American plays as
Jason Miller's
That Championship Season
(1972),
Lanford Wilson's
Talley's
Folly
(1979), and John Guare's
Six Degrees of Separation
(1990).
The late decades of the 20
thcentury were also a time of considerable
experiment and iconoclasm in drama and theatre. Experimental dramas of the
1960s and 1970s by such groups as Beck's Living Theater and
Jerzy
Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre were followed by a mixing and merging
techniques, performance art, and other kinds of avant-garde theater. Some of the
era's more innovative efforts included productions by theater groups such as New
York's La MaMa (1961–) and Mabou Mines (1970–) and Chicago's
Steppenwolf Theatre Co. (1976–); the Canadian writer-director
Robert
Lepage's intricate, sometimes multilingual works, e.g.
Tectonic Plates
(1988); the
inventive one-man shows of such monologuists as Eric Bogosian,
Spalding
Gray, and John Leguizamo; the transgressive drag dramas of Charles Ludlam's
Ridiculous Theater, e.g.,
The Mystery of Irma Vep
(1984); and the operatic
multimedia extravaganzas of Robert Wilson, e.g.
White Raven
(1999).
Thematically, the social upheavals of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s—
particularly the civil rights, women's movements, gay liberation, and the AIDS
crisis—provided impetus for new plays that explored the lives of minorities and
women. Beginning with Lorraine Hansberry's
A Raisin in the Sun
(1959), drama
by and about African Americans emerged as a significant theatrical trend. In the
1960s plays such as James Baldwin's
Blues for Mr. Charley
(1964),
Amiri
Baraka's searing
Dutchman
(1964), and Charles Gordone's
No Place to Be
Somebody
(1967) explored black American life; writers such as Ed Bullins (e.g.,
The Taking of Miss Janie,
1975),
Ntozake Shange (e.g.,
For Colored Girls Who
Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,
1976) and Charles Fuller
(e.g.,
A Soldier's Play,
1981) carried these themes into later decades. One of the
most distinctive and prolific of the century's African-American playwrights is
August Wilson, debuted on Broadway in 1984 with
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
In 1970s also, the feminist and other women-centered themes dramatized
by contemporary female playwrights. Significant figures of these themes such as
England's
Caryl Churchill (e.g.,
Top Girls,
1982), the Cuban-American
experimentalist
Maria Irene Forńes (e.g.,
Fefu and Her Friends,
1977) and
American realists including Beth Henley (e.g.,
Crimes of the Heart,
1978),
Marsha Norman (e.g.,
Night Mother,
1982), and Wendy Wasserstein (e.g.,
The
Heidi Chronicles,
1988). Skilled monologuists also provided provocative
female-themed one-woman shows such as Eve Ensler's
The Vagina Monologues
(1996)
and various solo theatrical performances by Lily Tomlin,
Karen Finley,
Anna
Deveare Smith, and Sarah Jones.
considered the century's most brilliant and innovative theatrical treatment of the
contemporary gay world.
2.1.3 The Genres
Drama as well as theatre is traditionally divided into genres or types to
categorize them based on its main characteristics that may differentiate one genre
to another. The major genres of the drama as cited by G.B Tennyson in his book
An Introduction to Drama
(1967:59) are: Tragedy, Comedy, Melodrama, and
Farce.
2.1.3.1 Tragedy
The oldest genre of the drama as explained in many books of literature is
tragedy. Tragedy is that a play that ends with the death of main character (Peck
and Coyle,
Literary Terms and Criticism
, 1984:96); and also refers to a form of a
drama that presents a man of a certain nobility who is attempting to achieve his
highest aspirations but who, confronted by forces stronger than his greatest
capacities, fails in his struggle (Goldstone,
Context of the Drama
, 1968:96)
The word “
tragedy
” comes from Greek word “
tragos
” which is translated
to “goat”. The original meaning of tragedy may come from the mystery plays of
the cult of Dionysus, which centered on the God being killed and his body ripped
to pieces, and with a goat or other animal as a proxy for the bloodshed.
There are three types of tragedy, they are as follow:
1.
Greek Classical Tragedy
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Greek classical tragedy reflects the
belief that all men are fated to suffer; that the greatest man suffer greatly;
that suffering is exacted by the gods from men whose faults, errors or
ignorance require retributive justice; and that the depiction of man’s errors
and manifestation of divine justice in drama ameliorate the state of man
(Goldstone, 1968:10)
2.
Elizabethan Tragedy
Elizabethan tragedy refers to the tragedies of Marlowe, Webster,
and Shakespeare, incorporate the principal characteristics of Greek
tragedy. Nevertheless, since the plays of these dramatists are the product
of a vastly different culture, as well as of a different stage tradition, they
are striking differences. The chorus has all but disappeared; the unities of
time, place, and action are disregarded; the classical restraints requiring
the off-stage enactment of violence and passions are dismissed.(Goldstone,
1968:10) Still, according to Goldstone, the most important thing of
Elizabethan tragedy is that this sub-genre expresses the Christian idea that
suffering is conducive redemption, that out of disorder caused by the
existence of some evil force, order can be restored after the protagonist has
properly expiated either his own crimes associated with his mortal state,
and that the death of the protagonist brings him to a state either of grace or
of damnation.
3.
Modern Tragedy
hero in modern tragedy has been diminished in stature by the fact that he
no longer transgresses against divine law as in Greek tragedy, nor does he
defy outrageous fortune and his corporeal enemies as in Elizabethan
tragedy. Instead, the protagonist of modern tragedy, denizen of an infinite
universe, achieves meaning in protest against his insignificance, bravely
insisting that his existence has a meaning at least for himself. (Goldstone,
1968:10-11)
2.1.3.2 Comedy
Comedy is a genre of drama that provoking laughter, encouraging
us to maintain a sense of a proportion, a sense of fairness. Comedy
consists of laughing at people caught in a difficult situations which we
know will usually be resolved. Traditional comedy ends with marriage or a
dance, the disorder that threatened the social concord having been
overcome (Peck and Coyle, 1984:80)
Comedy comes from the Greek word “
komos
” which means
celebration, revel, or merry making. Comedy has a Greek origin in which
it signifies a festive musical and dancing procession and the ode sung on
such an occasion. Comedy also has a ritual origin, not one associated with
the death of a god (like tragedy) but conjoined with the marriage of a
youthful god of a vegetation of life cult.
1.
Romantic Comedy
Romantic comedy is a comedy usually deals with how seriously
young people take love and how foolishly love makes them behave. Such
characteristics can be found in Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
(1595), and in
The Merchant of Venice
(1596)
2.
Satiric Comedy
Satiric comedy might appear to be more constructive than the other
forms of comedy in that it claims to laugh mankind out of folly through
caricature. This type can be seen in the works of Ben Jonson such as in
Volpone
(1606) and in
Every Man in His Humour
(1598).
3.
Comedy of manners
Comedy of manners is set in polite society, the comedy arising
from the gap between the characters’ attempts to preserve the standards of
polite behaviour and their actual behaviour. This type can see in the works
of Oscar Wilde’s
The Importance of Being Earnest
(1895), in Chekhov’s
The Cherry Orchard
(1903) and in Shakespeare’s
Much Ado about
Nothing
and
Twelfth Night
.
4.
Comedy of Ideas
2.1.3.3 Melodrama
Melodrama is a dramatic play which presents an unambiguous
confrontation between good and evil. This is a sentimental drama with musical
underscoring and the plot concerns the suffering of the good at the hands of the
villains but ends happily with good triumphant. This type featuring stock
characters such as the noble hero, the long-suffering heroine, and the cold-blooded
villain. According to Peck and Coyle (1984:87) melodrama is
“a sensational,
romantic play full of impossible events where the good are always rewarded and
the wicked always punished”
. The practitioners of this type such playwrights as
Eugene O’neill through his most plays, Lilian Helman, Clifford Odets, Maxwell
Anderson, and also Tennessee Williams. Explicitly, melodrama can be seen in
Webster’s
The Duchess of Malfi
and in Kyd’s
The Spanish Tragedy
.
2.1.3.4 Farce
Farce is the oldest form of comedy and it is a light entertainment that relies
largely on visual humor, situation and relatively uncomplicated characters.
(Tennyson, 1967:74) Farce has few, intellectual pretensions; it aims to entertain to
provoke laughter; its humour is the result primarily of physical activity and visual
effects and it relies less on language and wit than do so-called higher forms of
comedy.(Wilson,
The Theatre Experience
, 1987:324)
The elements of farce can be seen in some of Shakespeare’s comedies
such as
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(1595) and
The Merry Wives of Windsor
. In
Sheridan and Goldsmith’s works also we can see the appearance of farce but only
as detached episodes. (Sinha, 1977:127)
2.1.3.5 Other Genres
There are miscellaneous genres of drama and theatre which can’t be
categorized as the member of the four major genres above, but actually they are
the improvement of the major genres, they are as follow:
1.
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a genre of drama which generally defined as a
drama that has a bitter or sweet quality, containing elements of tragedy and
also comedy. Tragicomedy has tragic themes and noble characters, yet
which ended happily. It is usually combines serious and comic elements.
As quoted by Sinha, the best definition of tragicomedy may come
from Fletcher as the first English dramatist who cultivates the species of
drama. Fletcher (in Sinha, 1977:125-126) states:
“A tragicomedy is not so-called in respect of mirth and killing, but it
respect it wants death which is enough to make it no tragedy, yet
brings some near it which is enough to make it no comedy which must
representation of familiar people, with suck kind of trouble as no life
be questioned, so that a God is as lawful in this as in tragedy and mean
people as in a comedy.”
Tragicomedy can be seen in Shakespeare’s
The Tempest
,
Measure
for Measure
, and
The Merchant of Venice
.
2.
The Masque
predominate over plot and character. As defined by Saintsbury (in Sinha,
1977:128)
“is a dramatic entertainment in which plot, character and even,
to a great extent dialogue, are subordinated on the one hand to
spectacular illustration , and on the other to musical accompaniment.”
The masque has reached its glory in Jacobean period. The dramatic
writers such as Beaumont, Middleton and Chapman wrote masques.
Johnson’s
Masque of Blacknesse
and Milton’s
Comus
also masques and
both were successful at that time.
3.
Commedia dell’arte
Commedia dell’arte is a form of comic theatre which originated in
Italy in the sixteenth century in which the dialogue was improvised around
a loose scenario calling for a set of stock characters, each with a distinctive
costume and traditional name. Best known characters of this type such as
Zannis and Lazzis. (Wilson, 1987:322)
4.
Morality Play
Morality play is one of the two basic types of medieval drama.
Morality play is allegorical play in which both plot and character are used
to illustrate an abstract moral lesson. The examples of this play are
Everyman
and
The Castle of Perseverance
. (Peck and Coyle, 1984:86)
5.
Miracle Play
6.
Heroic Drama
Heroic drama is a form of serious drama that written in verse or
elevated prose, featuring noble or heroic characters caught in extreme
situations or undertaking unusual adventures (Wilson, 1987: 324).
Generally, heroic drama is a term which is applied to the tragedies
of Restoration period (seventeenth century). The feature of this form can
be found such as in John Dryden’s
All for love
and Thomas Otway’s
Venice Preserved
.
7.
Epic Drama / Theatre
Epic drama or theatre is a form of drama which attempts to tackle
the larger problems of modern history. This form is aimed at the intellect,
seeking to present evidence regarding social question in such a way that
they may be objectively considered and an intelligent conclusion reached.
The chief advocator of this form is Bertolt Brecht and the example of this
form can be seen in his work
Mother Courage
(1941).
8.
Musical Theatre
Musical theatre is a term to point out a broad category which
includes opera, operetta, musical comedy and other musical plays. This
form told the story through the performance of singing (with instrumental
music), spoken dialogue, and often dance.
9.
Pantomime
Roman entertainment in which a narrative was sung by a chorus while the
story was acted out by the dancers.
10.
Black Comedy
Black comedy is a form of comedy that tests the boundaries of
good taste and moral acceptability by juxtaposing morbid or ghastly
elements with comical ones.
11.
Poor Theatre
Poor theatre is a term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his
ideal of the theatre stripped to its barest essentials. The lavish sets, lights
and costumes generally associated with this theatre. Jerzy was insisted that
if theatre is to become rich spiritually and aesthetically, it must first be
“poor” in everything that can distract from the actors relationship with the
audience (Wilson, 1987: 327).
12.
Theatre of Fact
Theatre of fact is a term encompasses a number of different types
of documentary drama which have developed in the twentieth century.
Theatre of Fact using realistic approach usually deals with social
problems. The example of this form such as
The Deputy
and
The
Investigation
(Wilson, 1987:328)
13.
Theatre of Cruelty
Theatre of the Absurd is a term coined by Martin Esslin through in
1961,
The Theatre of the Absurd
. This term is intended to categorize the
number of plays by Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Albee, and etc which
generally contain the absurdity.
2.2 Ingredients of the Drama
According to G.B Tennyson in his book
An Introduction to Drama
(1967:9), the way of approaching the drama is to examine the component parts of
the play. As quoted by Tennyson, Aristotle cites six elements as essential to a
play: plot, thought, character, diction, music, and spectacle. Plot generally is a
narrative of motivated involved some conflicts which are finally resolved. (Kasim,
2005: 28) Thought may refer to the ideas of the story or the theme. Characters
refer to the actors who act the play. Characterization is the author’s way of
describing his characters in a literary work; or it is the author’s means of
differentiating one character to another. (Kasim, 2005:34) while diction in this
context may refer to the dialogues or the script of the drama itself. Then, as
claimed Tennyson, nowadays music is no longer considered as indispensable
elements in a play. But in a broad sense, music can stand for rhythm and harmony,
the features we still seek in the drama. The other ingredients are equally necessary
both diction and spectacle. By diction, we would understand language in general
and by spectacle, we would understand drama as the area of staging, scenery,
costumes, properties and sound effects.
the play.” The variety that joins to make a unity is the most distinctive feature of a
play. The various elements of a play within the same time make that play as a
literary, a performing, a visual, an auditory, and a temporal art because many of
the indispensable elements do not exist on paper but only in a production of the
play.
According to Tennyson, when we think of the term drama as meaning the
whole area of theatrical art, seemingly, we have overemphasized the importance
of the play as a document. Perhaps, this not the intention, however, for drama in
its broadest sense is not only the play, but also the performance of it in a theatre.
Thus, while action and imitation has been directed primarily toward clarifying the
nature of the play and the playwright, the drama includes also the playhouse and
the player. The action of the playwright’s script has imitated, meaningfully by
actors performing in a theatre. An adequately historical approach to the drama
would pay as much attention to the changes in acting technique and in the
structure of the playhouses as it does to shifts in taste and styles of writing. As
often as not, changes in the acting technique and in the structure of the playhouses
are substantially conditioned by the variations in acting technique and in
architecture. Then, Tennyson states that it is possible to develop an understanding
of the drama from the study of plays themselves, however, the students or the
reader should not lose sight of the intimate connection that always exists between
the play and the playhouse or between the playwright and the performers, since all
these comprise the nature of the drama.
central element of action in mind, however, it can be seen that the other
ingredients—the play, the playwright, the theatre, and the actors—all come
necessity. They are the means of realizing the action being imitated. Since, the
drama requires so many different kinds of services for its realization; it is a
cooperative art form and a great amalgam art form. Only opera vies with the
drama for first place as the art that uses the greatest variety of materials to reach
its goal.
Variety of ingredients is both the strength and the weakness of drama. It is
a weakness because of the difficulty, given so many hands, of producing a play
and it is strength because of the scope of the potentially rewarding aspects of the
drama. Thus, there are literally scores of things that may please us in a play;
among others: the pleasure from groupings and placements of persons on the stage
and the pleasure in the arrangement of color and pattern on the stage.
Tennyson, at last, emphasizes that the student or the reader must learn to
thread his way skillfully among the many dimensions of a play in order to discuss
it fairly so that the reader would not be bothered by the variety. He also insists on
the primacy of action in the drama so that the reader will try to apprehend the
totality of the play from its idea to its performance.
2.3 Theatre of the Absurd
2.3.1 Its Development
was a tendency of absurdity conveyed in the most works of Samuel Beckett,
Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, etc.
Genuinely, the term of the Theatre of the Absurd has its roots from
Absurdism which has a close relationship with Existentialism
and Nihilism.
These three isms have characteristics in common deal with the meaning of life,
but absurdism more tend to emphasize that the efforts of humanity to find the
meaning in the universe is ultimately fail because of no such meaning exists deals
with relation to humanity.(Wikipedia, free encyclopedia, 2008)
The Theatre of the Absurd is commonly associated with existentialism and
indeed Existentialism was an influential philosophy in Paris during the rise of the
Theatre of the Absurd. However, the works in which Esslin categorizes as the
works belong to the Theatre of the Absurd can not simply said as existentialist
dramas because either absurdist drama or existentialist drama has its own styles in
expressing the idea about absurdity. These own styles as Esslin claimed, just like
the difference between theory and experience.
The Theatre of the Absurd has renounced arguing about the absurdity
of the human condition; it merely presents it in being—that is, in terms
of concrete stage images of the absurdity of existence. This is the
difference between the approach of the philosopher and that of the
poet; the difference, to take an example from another sphere, between
the idea of God in the works of Thomas Aquinas or Spinoza and the
intuition of God in those of St John of the Cross or Meister Eckhart—
the difference between theory and experience (Esslin, 1961: xx)
Camus considers that absurdity as a confrontation, an opposition, a conflict, or a
‘divorce’ between two ideals. Camus defines the human condition as absurd, as
the confrontation between man’s desire for significance, meaning, clarity, and the
silent, cold universe.
Camus (in Esslin, 1961: xix) states that:
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 of light, man feels a stranger. His is an irremediable exile, because
he is deprived of memories 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.
(Taken from Camus, 1942:18)
Actually, a century before Camus’ notion about absurdity has emerged,
Danish philosopher and existentialist, Soren Kierkegaard has talked about
absurdity in his own journal in 1849. In this journal, he wrote:
What is the Absurd? It is, as may quite easily be seen, that I, a
rational being, must act in a case where my reason, my powers on
reflection, tell me: you can just as well do the one thing as the other,
that is to say where my reason and reflection say: you cannot act and
yet here is where I have to act… The Absurd, or to act by virtue of the
absurd, is to act upon faith… I must act, but reflection has closed the
road so I take one of the possibilities and say: This is what I do
otherwise because I am brought to a standstill by my powers of
reflection. (In Dru, Alexander. 1938.
The journals of Soren
Kierkegaard.
Oxford University Press as quoted by wikipedia.com)
xvii). According to him, since the idea and expression of these playwrights is
relatively new and esoteric, it needs the new standards and criteria because it is
impossible to judge this kind of esoteric avant-garde based on conventional
standards and criteria.
Inevitably, plays written in this new convention will, when judged by
the standards and criteria of another, be regarded as impertinent and
outrageous impostures…But the plays we are concerned with here
pursue ends quite different from those of conventional play and
therefore use quite different methods. They can be judged only by the
standards of the Theatre of the Absurd… (Esslin, 1961: xvii-xviii)
2.3.2 Its Main Characteristics
As Esslin made this new term, or in a largest sense, a new genre in drama
and theatre, he recognizes some basic characteristics which generally exist in
absurdist dramas; these characteristics encompassing plotless, have no
recognizable characters, the theme never fully explained or resolved, reflects
dreams and nightmares and serves incoherent and incomprehension dialogue.
If a good play must have a cleverly constructed story, these have no
story or plot to speak; if a good play is judged by subtlety of
characterization and motivation, these are often without recognizable
characters and present the audience with almost mechanical puppets; if
a good play has to have a fully explained theme, which is neatly
exposed and finally solved, these often have neither beginning nor an
ends.; if good play is to hold the mirror up to nature and portray the
manners and mannerisms of the age in finely observed sketches, these
seem often to be the reflections of dreams and nightmares; if a good
play relies on witty repartee and pointed dialogue, these often consist
of incoherent babblings.(Esslin, 1961:xviii)
CHAPTER 3
ANALYSIS OF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THEATRE OF THE
ABSURD IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT
3.1 Plot
Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
serves arbitrarily movements of the
plot, the arrangement of events are not well-made and fully-constructed as in the
normal play. It is quite clear that the plot is plotless because there is no
identifiable beginning, middle and end. In addition, Act I is seemingly identical to
Act II.
As the play unfolds, the playwright directly serves plotless characteristics
of the Theatre of the Absurd dealing with the action of two major characters:
Vladimir and Estragon. The two characters appear suddenly from nowhere. They
have no backgrounds such as family background, where coming from, and there is
no place to stay. In short, they appear as they are.
Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again.
As before. Enter Vladimir.
ESTRAGON: (giving up again). Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR: (advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again.
ESTRAGON: Am I?
VLADIMIR: I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever.
ESTRAGON: Me too.
VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you.
ESTRAGON: (irritably). Not now, not now. (Act I: 9)
up, exhausted, and tries again. Estragon’s action is stopped until he says “Nothing
to be done”. The sentence “Nothing to be done” quite shows that the events will
not go far from that statement and there will be no significant events after that. As
Vladimir enters the stage, he says ‘there you are again.’ This sentence shows that
this is not the first time that Vladimir and Estragon meet. Furthermore, Vladimir
says ‘I’m glad to see you back’ and ‘together again at last’, these two sentences
strengthening the assumption that they had met before. That dialogue above is
really absurd and does not allow us just to recognize the beginning of the play. In
a normal play, the beginning of the play is marks by the introduction of the
characters and setting place. Instead of introduces either the characters or the
setting, this play tries to break the conventional rules about drama and evokes the
reader/ spectators to think about the character’s background by themselves.
As well as in the beginning of the play, the ending also serves absurdity.
When we suggest at least the conclusion or resolution at the end of this play, all
we see are futile gestures and absurd acts.
ESTRAGON: Well, shall we go?
VLADIMIR: Yes, let's go. They do not move.
Curtain. (Act I: 54 and Act II: 94)
This dialogue is repeated in the end of every act and it does show that the
plot is about cycling and does not change at all from the first time until the last
time. To strengthen the plotless characteristics, the appearance of Estragon gives
an absurd the condition of ‘nothing happens, nobody comes and nobody goes.’
Seemingly, the lack of events in this play is provoked by the absence of
the man named Godot. Godot prevents the two major characters conducting some
action but waiting for him.
ESTRAGON: Charming spot. (He turns, advances to front, halts facing auditorium.) Inspiring prospects. (He turns to Vladimir.) Let's go.
VLADIMIR: We can't.
ESTRAGON: Why not?
VLADIMIR: We're waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You're sure it was here? (Act
I: 14)
This dialogue is repeated 7 times throughout the play and it really
exemplifies the plotless characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd.
3.2 Characters
Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
casts four characters and one
symbolical character. Each is not followed by specific explanation of the personal
background, social status or what condition that happen to them in the play, that is
why the characters of this play are said as unrecognizable. As what Esslin said
about the characters in absurd play:
Like ancient Greek tragedy and the medieval mystery plays and
baroque allegories, the Theatre of the Absurd is intent on making its
audience aware of man’s precarious and mysterious position in the
universe. (Esslin, 1961: 293)
The two major characters of this play are Vladimir and Estragon, while
other characters who appear in the play including Pozzo, Lucky, and the Boy.
3.2.1 Vladimir and Estragon
appearance. As the lack information of these two guys, I assume that they are the
tramps or such vagrants which have no such occupation, education background as
well as social status.
However, the text indicates some information about physical appearance
of Vladimir and Estragon. For example, the fact that Vladimir is heavier than
Estragon.
ESTRAGON: Let's hang ourselves immediately!
VLADIMIR: From a bough? (They go towards the tree.) I wouldn't trust
it.
ESTRAGON: We can always try.
VLADIMIR: Go ahead.
ESTRAGON: After you.
VLADIMIR: No no, you first.
ESTRAGON: Why me?
VLADIMIR: You're lighter than I am.
ESTRAGON: Just so!
VLADIMIR: I don't understand.
ESTRAGON: Use your intelligence, can't you? Vladimir uses his intelligence.
VLADIMIR: (finally). I remain in the dark.
ESTRAGON: This is how it is. (He reflects.) The bough . . . the bough . . . (Angrily.) Use
