When Absurdity Supports Black Humour

When Absurdity Supports Black Humour

Old Age Evoked in a Unreliable Context in Happy Days

Theatre of absurd and black humour are both recurrent in Beckett's works. In Happy Days, these two genres, constructed on the delicate subject of old age are closely combined and indispensable to each other. Different aspects of the effect of old age are evoked in the play: physical aspects changes, worsening of eyesight, and the status of memories. The three of them are suggested with black humour through the couple of Winnie and Willie, respectively around fifty and sixty, who evolve in a disturbing and unjustified context. Winnie tries to attenuate the physical marks of his ageing even though nobody can see her, except the audience and Willie, who does not look at her. Winnie is worsening her eyesight, but what she finally can read seems senseless to the audience. She often refers to the past, conveying his supposed memories, but they never explain her present state. In Happy Days, old age is evoked in an unreliable context, which accentuates the effects of the omnipresent black humour.

Physical degradation due to old age is ironised based on absurd elements of the play. It plays an important role in Happy Days. On the first page of the first act, where the characters are describe, Winnie is depicted with precision: first, the reader knows her age, and that she is "well-preserved", the subject of age and its effects is already introduced. Then, the reader learns about her physical appearance, what she wears and the presence of a futile detail such as her necklace. In contrast, Willie is briefly mentioned: only his location seems important. Throughout the play, Winnie often mentions her beauty, but always in the past: "when I was young" (20). It explains why she tries so flagrantly to preserve what remains of this beauty as much as possible in different ways ; she wears a "low bodice" which reveals her "big bosom" (5), she inspects her teething more than necessary, makes herself up, brushes and combs her hair. And when she can not remember if she already combed her hair, she does it anyway, which reveals the worthlessness of the action. However, all these efforts seems completely worthless, in a world where she is half-buried and where nobody can see her, except an invisible audience, and Willie, who barely looks at her. Beckett does not only make humour around the concept of a mature woman trying to still young, but in addition, the audience cannot rely on the environment in which Winnie absurdly tries to keep up appearances, which makes her behaviour sadly pointless.

Besides, not only the aspect of Winnie is fading, she also is worsening her eyesight, a recurrent effect of ageing which is subject of black humour in the play. This phenomenon is firstly evoked when Winnie tries to read what is written on her toothbrush. She first tries without spectacles, then with them, then polishes them and finally polishes the toothbrush. However, she still has to look closely to read fragments of phrase "genuine pure" and "fully guaranteed", and it is only later, after having done her lips and polished the spectacles and the toothbrush again that she reads "hog's setae" on the handle. She repeats these words as a refrain, first asking Willie what a hog is, but he only answers much later, when Winnie asks again. The importance this situation takes throughout the first act is absurd. Firstly, because the action lasts irrationally long. Then, because when Willie finally reads "hog's setae" on the handle, she finds wonderful to add this information to her knowledge, and when she learns what a hog is, she exclaims: "Oh, this is a happy day!" (27). This futile learning makes her days, and that is sadly pathetic. Finally, this impression is reinforce by the fact that the motifs of the action, the toothbrush, is itself an absurd prop representing routine in a world were nothing changes. It refers the reader to the unjustified position in which Winnie is in and which makes her enjoy such an empty affair. For the reader, it makes the ageing of the protagonist ridiculously absurd.

Memories have a particular status in the process of ageing, for they are what remains of the past. In Happy Days, they play an important role in Winnie's discourse but are ambiguous and quite empty, which makes them senseless. In the constantly lighted world she lives in, days do not exist and only a bell gives a semblance of a rhythm. The most