The Absurdity of the Absurd

The Absurdity of the Absurd

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, absurd is defined as "having no rational or orderly relationship to human life; meaningless." Thus, the Theatre of the Absurd refers to a particular type of drama written primarily by European playwrights during the 1940s-1960s that sought to express the absurdity of human existence in a meaningless universe and present it in a peculiar or fantastic manner. The Theatre of the Absurd rebelled against conventional theatre traditions and presented a confusing, meaningless world where its characters experience bizarre or absurd circumstances. It often combined traditional comedy with dreadful situations to produce a tragicomedy reminiscent of Shakespeare. On the surface, the Theatre of the Absurd seemed to revel in its nonsense but one simply needs to peel through the layers to find the message at its core.

Martin Esslin, a Hungarian-born critic, coined the term "Theatre of the Absurd" and also made it the title of his 1961 book on the subject. Esslin developed the idea from an essay written in 1942 by French philosopher Albert Camus. In his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus defines the human condition as meaningless and absurd. In his book, The Theatre of the Absurd, Esslin states, "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. This is the difference between the approach of the philosopher and that of the poet" (Esslin 25). Playwrights used existential philosophy coupled with drama to create a style of theatre that offered its audience a world that cannot be explained with basic logic, a world in which life is absurd.

There are a few basic characteristics that are common in absurdist plays. Some of these include a rejection of narrative and logic and a lack of coherent communication. The language is disjointed and contains clichés and repetitions. This creates a nightmarish effect on the protagonist as he becomes easily overwhelmed by the irrational nature of his circumstance. It is as if to say that no matter what the characters do, nothing can change their fate. A classic example of this can be found in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The play centers on the fate of two tramps that are seen as odd caricatures and cannot effectively communicate the simplest of ideas with one another. Their language is absurd and quite often indecipherable, and they seem to be unclear about their purpose (Haney 41). The play, following a recurring pattern of the two men waiting for someone named Godot, ends in exactly the same manner it began--nothing has changed. It ultimately makes a bold statement on the absurdity of man's hope.

Another well-known playwright of the absurdist genre is Edward Albee. Albee's work draws attention to the idealism of the American family structure. The Sandbox, written in 1959, attacks the foundation of optimism and reduces the characters to absurd versions of themselves. The protagonist in the play, Grandma, is struggling with her family and coming to terms with death. The "Mommy and Daddy" characters are seen as representative of the American family in its bleakest form through the use of absurd dialogue and banal speeches (Roberts and Zweig 908).

Whereas realistic traditional theatre attempts to present life as we know and see it, the Theatre of the Absurd contends to express the senselessness of the human condition by abandoning rational means and thought, creating a dream-like atmosphere. This has proven to be difficult for the average audience to comprehend. There is no story or plot and, quite often, no beginning or end. The dialogue consists of incoherent