Modern Drama from Shaw to the Theatre of the Absurd I.

-100 year long break in the drama genre

-no significant drama available for stage presentation since 1700s—adressing readers rather than theatres, great
writings, but w/o dramaturgy or visuals it was useless for the stage
-eg.: Wordsworth: Borderers, Shelley: Decency, Prometheus Unbound, Keats: Arthur the Great-these failed on stage
-this led to a separation of theatre as a medium (forum of entertainment) and drama as a separate genre
-classic plays eg. Shakespeare kept alive the theatre
-ballad opera (1730’s)
-renewal of dramamodernist reform
-dramatist responded to the cultural crisis first, and rejected the past with its radical traditions, and looked for a
promising future
-most prominent modernist figures of Philosophy, natural sciences and Physics influenced modernist playwriters:

 Arthur Schopenhauer-The World as Will

 first modern philosophical works, proposing the idea of creative evolution: all men and natural creatures is the
manifestation of an instinctive will to live. The only way to understand this is through art.
 Friedrich Nietzsche: Das –life is the central category of existence and thought. The necessity of excessive
individualism, the ultimate goal of man is self-reform. Superman (a man whole) succeeds God, who is dead.
 Karl Marx: Opus Magnum Capital: Hegelian didact of theoretical project of fulfilling God’s plan->historical
changes happen due to class struggles->ideal classless society, equal share of possession->communism
(Lenin)
 Henry Burckson: Time and free will; Creative Evolution: elan vital: the vital force of all functions and life; he
accepted evolution scientifically, but the duration is missing, evolution process should be seen as elan vital,
that is continuously developing generating new forms, evolution is mechanistic and not creative. The mind’s
function is intuition-theory of time relativity (Marcel Prust- In search of lost time: time is relative and not
linear). Primary source of Irish and British novelists, J. Joyce. V. Woolf—new narration method: stream of
consciousness
 Charles Darwin’s theory- The Origin of the Species: challenging the creation; evolution is a biological
process, in which the fittest survives
 Psychology was a new science in the 1890’s
 Freud: subconscious study, understanding the uncons. activity of the mind, studying the psyche he
distinguished 3 parts of the mind: ID, ego, superego. ID: basic desires (animalike, food sex ect), our wants and
needs-if these are not met one can become anxious. The ego is trying to meet these desires, that is socially
acceptable—getting rid of the tension of ID-viewing realism. The superego looks at judgements of right and
wrong, based more on moral values.
 these reform ideas spread in the 1st generation of modernist writers
 Founding fathers of modernist drama: George B. Shell, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, J. Joyce, Eugene Neil
 But Ibsen’s work was the first literary piece contributing to modernism, most frequently dramatist
 Georg Brandes introduced the term “modern” in “Main occurrence in 19 th century literature”: edited collection
of his uni series from Copenhagen. In the 19th century literary works there is something in spirit, something
unusual which can be called “modern”. He also wrote sg on Ibsen.
 That was published in 1899 in his place he addresses the most pressing topical political social and moral
issues of his time without unlike GB show his greatest admirer disciple and successor offering redemptive
solutions his often cited Maxim phrases his inquisitive modernist attitudes.
 His place can be divided on thematic bases into two groups: 1.those of social and 2. moral criticism. In his
pillars of social he focuses on social injustices revealing the selfishness and corruptness of the rich and the
powerful holding the righteousness of the traditional class division of society to doubt his most popular play A
Doll’s house is an outspoken plea for the rights of women. His first sensational play called Ghosts is a frank
 and open treatment of forbidden taboo topics like venereal diseases, revealing the evils of society and human
nature that “are kept hidden and grow in the dark”.
 His plays of more criticism are storehouses of his reform ideas on which I list here only a few. Today there are
no shoe and changeless principles absolute truths and absolute right or wrong to which we can appeal true.
The new world and all-inclusive verticality is not just different from, but completely discontinuous with the
old one based on the assumption and belief of eternally established unchanging principles.
 England's first significant literary contribution to European modernism was the aesthetic movement and
within it. Its founder and champion in the footsteps of the pre-Raphaelites it was a consciously and coherently
organized movement imported to England from France, which by the 1890s had become a firmly established
cult of beauty decadence and like Pooler that is art for art sake in open pursuit of dissolving Victorian tastes,
views and morality by revealing the fallacy's pretensions hypocrisy's and corruption of the age with the
provocative slogan openly sounded “let's be naughty and bold”. They stirred the pot of lifeless petrified
conventions and declared that the chief end of man is not the person of truth and virtue, but beauty which is
often hostile reformer to->wit fun for fun, beautiful beauty sake without any moral social constraint.
 The aesthetic movement had its forums organs and dedicated representatives which explains its rapid rise in
the 1870-80s is. Leading organs were two periodicals: the Yellow book and Disavowed is fine artistic forums
with small elitist art gallery's drawings, paintings, designs and book list rationes, executed by William Morris
turn to Gabriel Rossetti previously, and it had its dedicated theoreticians to Simons and Walter P., who
supplied the ideology for the movement and elaborated is aesthetic principles.
 The self-appointed leader, most effective promoter and propagandist of the movement was Oscar Wilde, who
created his outfit menace and behavior the image of the static poet, and became the living emblem of the
movement. He was the embodiment of this new provocative for substrate, irritating figure to model. For the
protagonist of the most popular Savoy opened the decade, Gilbert and Sullivan's patients first staged in 1881.
He attended Oxford University where he was instructed by Walter Pater, influential literary and art critic
essayist, fiction writer and chief theoretician of both the pre-Raphaelite and the static movement. After he
graduated in 1877, Wilde moved to London, where he became the victorious champion of the movement
popularizing its principles through his works and his active propagandistic presence (London, Leeds). His 15
year-long glorious career abruptly ended by the lawsuit proved against him by the Marquess of Queensberry,
on charges of homosexuality. Wilde brew the sue, and he got sentenced to two years imprisonment and hard
labor. The scandal led to tremendous revulsion against him England-wide, and his personal disgrace resulting
ended by the time he got released in 1897. After his release he went to France under assumed name and in
three years he died as a ruined and forgotten man. Frank Harris his biography book. Oscar Wilde’s life and
confessions actually conclude the tragic story of his life. “Oscar Wilde's greatest play was his own life-> it
was a tragedy with gripping”
 Greek implications and he was its most audience data and holds as to his works he first published The Volume
of Poetry, which was followed the collection of short stories under the title The Happy Prince and Other Tales
in 1881. his only novel is the picture of Dorian Gray appeared in 1891 along with the volume of his critical
writings called intentions to get the graphical liberations of his artistic aesthetic principles presented in
dialogues the most influential piece of the collection is the one called the Critique as artist, in which he
declares that “the critics should aim is to Chronicle his own impressions and not to give an objective account
or estimate of the work criticized and gold in turn toward ROM under stage in 1892 and rude frive place in
rapid succession full comedies of manners or drawing room comedies and one tragedy they are in
chronological order lady Windermere’s fan 1892 a woman of no importance 1893 salumi the only tragedy in
two editions the French version appeared in 1893 and the English. A year later an ideal husband also appeared
in 1894 and the last pieces greatest hits the importance of being earnest in 1895 order 5 plays the most artistic
in the complex sense of the term as well as the most representative piece of the principles of Wilds aesthetics
is symbolism and decadence is Salome. “I wanted tragedy based on the biblical story of the death of John the
Baptist described in detail in Matthew 14” for her it had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife
her Odious, the former wife of his brother Philip. John had been telling her it it is against God's law for you to
marry her hadn't wanted to kill John but he was afraid of the riots because all the people believed jaune was a
Prophet but at a birthday party for headed parodius his daughter performed the dance that greatly pleased him
so he promised with vow to give her anything she wanted at her mother's urging the girl said I want to head of
John the Baptist on a tray then the King regretted what he had said but because of the Valley had made in
front of his guests he issued the necessary orders so John was beheaded in the prison and his head was brought
on a tray and given to the girl who took it to her mother later Jones disciples came for his body and buried it
then they went and told Jesus what had happened and caught wild in accord with his aesthetic principles
 changed dramatic motivation and made salumi fall in love with the Prophet called you Canaan who as a man
of God rejects the approaches of the girl he considers the hardest daughter herself a harlot in the play it is not
her odious tell me who asks for the profits head to take revenge on him for humiliating rejection when her dad
finds out the truth he sentence is salumi to death so roaming wild sport rail is the representative of the female
ideal of a status is the fun fatal the perfect beauty brings death upon her admirers and then tag inist alike the
play dramatizes the power of sexuality and a suppressed aggression fueled by sexual drives anticipating for
his related findings in his studies of the subconscious from an aesthetic point of view it is a play of Aeschylus
Ian air and atmosphere full of ill omens implied threats and menacing gloom do weighted passion of its main
characters is displayed by intense practidiction rich verbal decorum and pictures figurative descriptions wild
used biblical story to give voice to religious skepticism by staging a few tile dispute made ridiculous of the
representatives of different religious sects those of the Jews capitalize IANS Nazarenes and Pharisees the
insert thesis drama provides the main claypit proper spiritual background voicing the Brazilian views on
issues of religion morality and truth except you can on that is jaune all the loud speakers of the diverse
religious sects fall victim to Wilde’s merciless skating humor the play was first drafted in English in 1893 and
a year later completed in French the first attempts at staging the play were made by Sarah Bernard the now
celebrated French actress of the time.
 they started the rehearsals in the Palace Theatre in London which were banned in the third week Chamberlin’s
under-law forbidding the dramatization of biblical subjects on the English stages the play finally got staged in
the theater lover in Paris in 1896 when wild was already in prison. It was staged again five years later a year
after the death of its author in Berlin. The English public had to wait another four years for his first
performance: in 1905 in London's Bijou Theatre solely conquered all the major European stages by 1914 and
gained worldwide fame through its operatic adaptation by Richard Strauss.
 What's best new most frequently stage than most popular play the importance of being earnest had a
phenomenal reception at his first night in London St. James theater and proved to be the greatest state triumph
of the century in England it was highly praised by the most prestigious critics as well what better nonsense I
think our stage hasn't seen and Woodrow day be walkley William Archer praised it as quote irrepressibly
witty and quote Angel words defined it as quote asset are coming with a flavor rare holiday unquote and
ericas person loaded it as the best farcical comedy in language superion with to any work of that kind a play
that comes under no category and quotes concerning his genre it is a renewed form a fruitful match of the
comedy of manners and the farcical social satire in the spirit of Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Sheridan I still
is plot it is the story of two young men one from the London high society Azure moncrief the other from the
country June Worthing who under the force excuses of having a brother it is Johnson sues and having a
fatalistic friend to support agenos ex pembury regularly escape from home to have some amorous adventures
in the other sphere of society the town for one the country for the other both of them come across some such
an occasion a young girl in each other's household jaunt falls in love with Gwendoline agile with sessilee and
post tried to engage the chosen girl by showing and calling themselves earnest which proves to be the main
force of attraction for the girls most of the action revolves around their simultaneous courting and wooing but
their engagement gets into the broken a couple of times by such pretenses as crossing interests uncertain
origin improper social status full wealth false identity's and the temporary but far from being earnest
resistance of the governor's the happy ending when the two gallons turned out to be brothers Jones origin and
true identity is revealed by the one-time servant of the family who took care of him before he got lost when
they find out that their father's Christian name look forgotten even by his sister went lizard lady Bracknell was
Ernest and that they're brothers the last obstacles removed and the play ends at the threshold of the double
marriage happy ending granted also by the reunion through recognition of miss prism the governors of Jones
household the one time maid servant of the monk Reeves back then lost their child and octo shazel the local
priest the plot adapt such conventional dramatic top boy as the story of the foundling to last siblings reunion
the discovery of last names and the recovery of lost identity's topoi that are dramatizes of Oakley sees the
boostrix Shakespeare’s the comedy of errors 12th night under winter's tale the place said he'll be cool but
never earnest or offensive rather forgiving criticism is aimed at the predominant Victorian social manners and
mannerisms the ways of high society socially qualifying forms of retention and hypocrisy snowberry
ignorance idleness vanity gossiping and lack of honesty seriousness and anything earnest in the life of the
aristocracy the most effective weapon of it's a typical attack on these folds and effects is with the language
and reparti the play is an immense storehouse of verbal jokes imitating and ridicule incan factual conventional
fashionable conversation to hollow standard formularies warn of cliches of the upper classes language of
conversation the attitudinal foundation of the world depicted ridiculed and discredited is the lack of
earnestness it is a world where you shouldn't take anything seriously since the moment you do you are lost the
play in many respects exemplifies and reinstates Shakespeare's artistic reads it mirrors onstage a world that is
itself a theater the world of masks grows detentions receipts lies mere illusions to which everybody's insider
actor and spectator of this table machine world of appearances without outside the critics would condemn it so
the game is cheerful providing the audience with unclouded entertainment the other major tremiti stood the
first wave of modernism GB show was in all respects the direct opposite of wild a stalwart antagonist of
aestheticism show the man was a non-smoker a teetotaler a vegetarian and anti-vaccination list entry
receptionist anti sexist original period of the same stock's disputed forefathers the perfect opposite of wild
beauty scented add onism regarding his professional look your patience he was the most versatile figure of his
age thinker artist and public figure a self-appointed teacher and preacher of the nation the missionary and
revolutionary of all pervading social and cultural form a puritan more list and eidetic philosopher a Fabius
socialist politician journalist assays penalty and playwright in the guys over utilitarian artist his served is an
immense collection of articles pamphlets treatises manifestos critics and play supply be lengthy interpretive
prefaces and afterwards prologs and apologues as didactic guides would read and the producers of his place
most of his writings would've products at loud speakers of his personal idiosyncratic system of ideas a quasi-
philosophical aesthetic artistic conglomerate of boundless intellectual eclecticism a labyrinthine mix of the
most similar views ideas and findings except the action to the current modern strains in politics science
theology philosophy and art his intellectual and artistic Atlantis is the great number of ambiguities and
contradictory ideas in his system that thought made him toast controversial public figure of his age
challenging his contemporaries and provoking there often open merciless criticism he was a messianic
Prophet and the pragmatic politician a Prophet preaching the necessity of moral renewal and a Fabian socialist
an Epson I treble and a Victorian pragmatist the priest of the creative imagination and the activists social
reform and each ion individualist the loudspeaker of the religion of the Superman and they voted Republican
to mention only a few of his country views attitudes and commitments his boundless self-esteem made public
in often blatant declarations of his intellectual superiority added further fuel to the fire of his contemporaries
hostility I have collected a few of these serve reflections all in “by profession I am an original thinker
practically I have solved all the urgent problems of our age for art itself I wouldn't waste as much effort as
needed for putting down a sentence and the last one with the single exception of Homer there is no eminent
writer not Even so water Scotts whom I despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind
against his no wonder he provokes such bitingly critical remarks of the leading writers of the age leaving the
deer a fool's abound unintellectual cheese might George Moore the funny man in the boarding house Winston
Churchill the world's most famous intellectual clown than pantaloon in one the charming Columbine know the
capitalist pantomime Saint John Irvine John the Baptist pretending to be Karl Marx Henry James the
unspeakable Irish man William Butler Yeats Fabien Figaro WA Jordan 1/5 carbon copy of void air aging
wells a second end Ibsen these lawyers abstract and called a kind of unique though by Delissa theorical these
critical remarks still show a kind of popularity the fact that his provocative presence his public and literary
activities sterd the pots of the political and cultural life of his country he's aesthetic views concerning art
poetry and drama are no less provocative as a utilitarian IST he declared that you tile is superior to do say that
his utility felta pleasing for beauty is only superfluous embellishment for art of any kind should be before and
above all useful is primary times being instruction the representation of ideas it is the most effective means an
instrument of the moral improvement of both individual and society for art should be the act of ethical reform
the poet of lar Pooler is either a liar or an empty headed daydreamer beauty is a trap that hides truth from us
first comes truth and justice then comes art he said he also declared that caught except for the drama of
intellect no drama as any future and in full accord with the above statements he opened the fuse the title
playwright saying he wrote plays only because this form of expression was the most effective way of
spreading his teachings for the masses in his place as much as in his other works for the mass media he openly
criticized the social and economic conditions the out dated institutions the baseness idleness corrupt innocent
mediocrity of the people and the sight of his age and elaborate the detailed still highly controversial and
heterogeneous political model educational and religious reform program for the redemption of mankind in
between 1884 and 1950 he wrote some 50 plays of which a dozen proved successful in the long run on the
stage of the UK the US under continent these plays in chronological order as follows Mrs. Warren's profession
the man candida the devil's disciple season and Cleopatra man and Superman major Barbara the doctors
dilemma Andrew police and a lion heartbreak house back to Methuselah and see Joan beside pigmalion the
last play of the list same Joan is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of show the playwright his most
frequently staged and film piece it is the work of the mature author who returned from the world of his
scientific obstructions utopian fantasies to the human scene from the future to the past from the world of
pseudoscientific speculation to the reality of human history the primary source of inspiration for show to
dramatize the glorious career and tragic fall of the most celebrated national heroine of France the glorious
champion of the 100-years war was the canonization of Jeanne d’Arc in 1920 in his voluminous preface to the
play called jaune the original and the presumptuous show introduces his heroine throwing light on his motives
behind his choice of the theme caught John Lock a village curve girl from the wax was born about 14-12
burned for heresy witchcraft and sorcery in 1431 rehabilitated after a fashion in 1456 as it needed venerable in
1904 declared blessed in 1908 and finally canonized in 1920 she is the most notable warrior scenes in the
Christian calendar and the queerest fish among the eccentric word is of the Middle Ages they were professed
that most pious Catholic and projector the crusade against the sides she was in fact one of the first Protestant
martyrs she was also one of the first Apple source of nationalism and the first French practitioner of
Napoleonic realist in warfare as distinguished from the sporting ransom gamboling chivalry of her time she
was the pioneer of rational dressing for women and like Queen Christina of Sweden two centuries later to say
nothing about the innumerable obscure heroines who were disguised themselves as men to serve as soldiers
and sailors she refused to accept the specific woman's lot and dressed and fold and lived as amended She
contrived to asserting herself in all these ways with such force that she was famous throughout Western
Europe before she was out of her teens indeed she never got out of them it is hardly surprising that she was
judicially burned ostensibly for a number of capital crimes which we no longer punish as such but essentially
for recall unwomanly an insufferable presumption at 18 Jones pretensions were beyond those of the proudest
Pope or the haughty as emperor said claimed to be the ambassador and plenipotentiary of God and to be in
effect a member of the church triumphant while still in the flesh on earth she paid tries her own and seven the
English King to repentance and obedience to her commands she lectured to down and overruled statesman and
prelates she pulled the plans of generals leading their troops to victory on plans of her own she had an
unbounded and quite UN concealed contempt for official opinion judgment and authoritie and for more of his
tactics and strategy actually the stage and manik in whom the most vulnerable hierarchy and the most
illustrious dynasty converged her pretensions and proceedings would have been as trying to the official mind
as the pretensions of Caesar to Cassius I said actual condition was pure upstarts there were only two opinions
about her rumbles that she was miraculous the other that she was unbearable and words binders on scene junis
asset are a genius Chevy in his mid-South it is a well-balanced composition of diverse generic features
reminiscent of history place faces dramas miracle place romances and prejudice it traumatizes the last phase
also the most decisive period of the 100 years war between England and France it is no dominant figure in
focus to play compositionally is divided into 6 scenes and the closing epilogue built on the major events of
Jones career from the start to the execution the first scene is about the start of Jones military career the 2nd
about two introduction to the French court and a gaining the leading neutral position in the French army the
3rd about the liberation of or Liang a major victory that paved proved to be the turning point of the war the
4th about the plot of the French and English military and choose leaders to captured on the 5th about the
crowning of Charles the 7th in rhymes and a 6th about the capture trial and execution of John the epilogue the
only truly modern part of the composition stage is the dream of charts 25 years after Jones execution it is a
retrospective rehabilitation of jaune by the denunciation of her judges glorifying her figure her achievement
and martyrdom the play is a synthesis of shows favorite themes like the nature of the genius the idea of the
Superman here in the guise of a woman the mission of the rebel figures in history nonconformism the
workings of the vital force of evolution and the idealized third sex the champion emblem of a sexuality show
celebrating Jones person the full runner and anachronistic Lee the first champion of nationalism and
Protestant is the two historical and religious movements that radically changed the course of western
civilization in the 16th elite 18th early 19th centuries do the place overloaded with elongated political and
theological disputes reminiscent of its authors earlier thesis dramas it manages to dramatize an ideal a
symbolic figure setting an authentic historical context who in the course of 500 years got sola fide into a
monument by her national cult show avoids over idealizing his heroine and closer to life by displaying her
frailties weaknesses and the inner struggles of a genius who due to her exceptional qualities a spiritual
isolation is left to her own devices and fated to fight alone against the forces of the state and the church that
resist any attempt threatening the stability of the status or the ground they rule and authority the last sentence
of the epilogue uttered by joining the dream of charts illuminates the topicality of Jones story and voices on
1st deepest concern about the future quote oh God that made us this beautiful earth when will it be ready to
receive thy sayings how long oh Lord how long and Woods.

Modern Drama II.: The Theatre of the Absurd (S. Beckett, H Pinter)
 it's major representatives and works with special attention point crowning achievements of the genre Samuel
Beckett's Waiting for Good Dough and Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, wildly popular both and page as to the
critical reception and onstage as standard repair to our pieces in the most prestigious theaters of the world.
 The titling phrase of our lecture, the name of the dramatic movement “The Theatre of the Absurd” was coined
and introduced into the discourse of Theatre history and literary criticism by an English critic Martin Asselin,
in his ground breaking book of the same title published in 1961. The Theatre of the Absurd is an ambitious
collection of studies about the work of a number of playwrights, most of them written in the 1950s and 1960s
before turning to his literary applications.
 We should clarify the dictionary meaning of the word an umbrella term of various meanings, since it throws
interpretive light on his philosophical and critical use. The Latin term absolutus means something out of tune,
discordant, nonsensical, out of place look, and clumsy, hence it refers to a way of physical movement.
Clumsy->a certain mental state or condition, stupid, slow-witted, reminded, and the kind of relation of people
or things discordant, disharmonious, mismatched.
 It is enough to recall the full characters of Packagecode, Astragal, Vladimir Pods were lucky or those of
printers, the caretaker asked on Davison Nick. The way they talk, move, behave, interact and relate to each
other to see how each resident of the term is dramatized by the absurdist playwrights both in plotting and
shaping their characters in modern English.
 It is a term used in diverse fields of culture, like Mathematics, Philosophy and Music. In Maths absurd is that
which cannot be expressed in finite terms of ordinal numbers or quantities->in other words that which is
beyond calculability, hence irrational in Philosophy refers to ideas, statements, concepts or simple thoughts
that are out of harmony with reason, common sense thoughts that are in congress illogical, ridiculous. In
music, observes the sound of voice and “a sequence that is out of harmony, discordant, disharmonious”.
 The term absurd in Ashley's book is derived from an essay by the French philosopher, Albert C., who defined
the human situation as basically meaningless, hence absurd.
 The absurd place by the Russian Artur, other move to Romanian Eugene Ionescu, the French Jean Jean and
the Spanish Fernando Arrabal, the Irish Samuel Beckett, the English Harold Pinter, and the American Add
Vodou be all shared with you, that man is inhabiting a universe with which she's out of key and whose
meaning is indecipherable; thus his place when it is without purpose, man in such a hopeless existential state
feels the wielded, troubled and obscurely threatened gets victimized by all-pervading anxiety.
 The origins of the Theatre of the Absurd are rooted in the Avant Garde experiments in art of the 1920s and
1930s, at the same time it was strongly influenced by the traumatic experience of the horrors of the Second
World War, which showed the total impermanence of any values, shook the validity of any conventions, and
highlighted the precariousness of human life and its fundamental meaninglessness and arbitrariness.
 From 1945 under the threat of nuclear annihilation, in the period of the Cold War also seems to have been an
important factor in the rise of the new theatre.
 The Theatre of the Absurd may also be seen and interpreted as an artistic representation of existentialist
revolt, a provocative reaction to the disappearance of the religious dimension from contemporary life.
Ionesco, one of the founding fathers of absurd drama also defines the state of absurdity: “absurd is that which
is devoid of purpose cut off from his religious metaphysical and transcendent to roots manage lost all his
actions become senseless absurd useless”
 Marty Leslie provides a similar to more elaborate definition in the opening chapter of his book: The Theatre
of the Absurd can be seen as the reflection of what seems to be an attitude, most genuinely representative of
our own time. To hallmark of this attitude is its sense, that the certitudes and unshakable basic assumptions of
full rages have been swept away, that they have been testing, and found wanting that they have been described
in these cheap and somewhat childish illusions.
 The decline of religious faith was masked until the end of the Second World War by the substitute religious of
faith in progress nationalism, and various totalitarian fallacies.
 All this was shattered by the war and “the above mentioned outdent coming to Noble prize winner French
existentialist philosopher, writer and journalist, do you throw such impact-knocking novels as the stranger, the
plague and the fall in the myth of Sisyphus, a collection of essays about various aspects of the absurdity of the
human condition, also a sourcebook of ideas for the absurdist authors provides a rich collection of interpreting
definitions”. The following quotes throw light not only to the multiparous philosophical notion of absurdity,
but on the place to be discussed, as well let me cite for illuminating passages from the opening essay on the
collection called An Absolute Reasoning: “a world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar
 world, but on your hand in a universe suddenly divested of illusions are lights. Man feels an alien, a stranger,
his exile is without remedy since he’s deprived of the memory of a last home or the hope of the promised
land. This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting is properly the feeling Webb city code
#2: likewise enduring every day, or an UN illustrious, life time carries us, but a moment always comes when
we have to carry it. We live on the future tomorrow, later on when you have made your way you will
understand when you are old enough, such irrelevancies are wonderful. For after all it is a matter of dying,
yesterday comes when a man notices or says he's 30, thus he asserts his youth but symbols.
 Lee situates himself in relation to time he takes his place in it he admits that he stands at a certain point on a
curve that he acknowledges having to travel to its end he belongs to time, and by the horror that sees him he
recognizes his worst enemy, tomorrow. He was longing for tomorrow, whereas everything in him wants to
reject it.
 The revolt of the flesh is the absurd number. 3 men 2 secret the inhuman: a certain moments of lucidity, the
mechanical aspects of their gestures, their meaningless pantomime make silly everything that surrounds: that a
man is talking on the telephone behind the glass partition-you cannot hear him, but you see his
incomprehensible dump show->you wonder why he's alive. This discomfort in the face of man's own
inhumanity, this incalculable tumble before the image of Bobby R, this nosier as a writer of today clause.
 It is also the absurd and find the 4th quote: I said that the word is absurd, but I was too hasty. This world in
itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said, but what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational, and
the while logging for clarity who's called echoes in the human heart” The little representation of the episode
features the human condition is not specific to the authors of the post war era market, labeled as absurdist in
his book, a sense of the absurd and the needs of its artistic representation is as old as art itself. It is there in the
myths of most religions, independence moves, ancient Greece, in manual Otestamental texts of Judaism, and
in the Biblical story of the life-passion-death, and resurrection of Christ--we can find numerous examples of
it, improves the audience, or the best known works of ancient Greek drama, eg. in the works of 13th century
French nonsense poetry.
 Woodley, the book of nonsense in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in
place of the commedia De’l arte, or in the dramatic works of the major Elizabethan Jacobean playwrites, like
Marlow. In his Doctor Faustus, or the Jew of Malta, Shakespeare->Titus Andronicus soaking clear is
 Visual representation is most dominant in the works of 15th 16th century. Dutch and German painters like
Bush or Matthias, to mention only a few representative examples.
 A more intense sense of the absurd is characteristics of modernism. In general into works of the artistic
musical and literary Avant guard serving as antecedents in search for precursors or predecessors, it is enough
to mention the soonest painters like Pablo Picasso, in Madrid and Salvador Dali, in classical music the
compositions of Schoenberg and band members of the second Viennese of Erik Satie.
 The early 20th century French Avant Garde composers are the closest relatives, and represent example that
these vexations composed in 1893, the piano piece vexations are thought to be the longest piece of music
history of performance, lasting 14 or 28, hours depending on how the composer's notes are interpreted; and
yet the piece consists of only three lines of music, and they are variations on the same theme. The instructions
state the two performers should already played the bass subject alone, and then one of the two variations
which form a double counterpoint with the theme that is also being played in the base enormous length comes
about because of studies, that the abbc pattern should be repeated 840 times, and the piece played at a very
slow tempo
 It was first performed in its entirety in New York in 1963 by June Cage, the American composer, music
theorist, artist and philosopher, the leading figure of the post war musical Avant Garde in New York.
Interpretations of this radical work differ considerably: many people see it as southeast biggest, under the
same time most successful piece of Bluff or nonsense of you that seems to be encouraged by the author
instruction given to the pianist, it should sound like the song of the Nightingale with a toothache and bold.
Others interpreted as an attempt to use boredom constructively for artistic purposes, as a game of endless
repetitions with monotone it comes close to silence. This anomatic serial work is recognized today as a
musical milestone in the Avant Garde, as to the literary predecessors the works of Nikolai Gogol Terrazzo,
died of Mad Men pickle Belyakov, the master and Margarita and Franz Kafka the metamorphosis the Castle
the trial must be mentioned along with Afrasiabi, the French playwright whose uberoi, a grotesque dramatic
fast was published and performed in Paris in 1896 and was later champion by the surrealists and the tastes in
the 1920s, who recognized the first absurdist drama in it.
 the Theatre of the absurd was not a coherently organized movement: didn't form a school, didn't share their
artistic and aesthetic principles in any forum, didn't collaborate to set a trend in dramatic literature, yet if we
compare their works, a few new genre specific features that are common character traits of their representative
plays these need to divide into two groups: substantial thematic and formal technical ones
 Beckett in one of his self-reflective remarks of our splatting relevance announced that caught to define man
needs the inexhaustible capacity of negation and caught a statement that refers to the ultimate existential crisis
of man represented by his characters in a dialogue with a literary critic jury duty. He made a similar statement:
art is the expression of the fact that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from
which to express, no power to express, no desire to express together with the obligation to express, and in
accordance with this negative approach if we want to characterize the nature of an absolute play-> we should
take into account what it is not, and see what remains after numerating the lacking components
 the usual endings of literary traditions in terms of themes and language use and dramatic conventions in state
representation->these plays are devoid of any definite reliable ideological basis, guiding religious, moral
philosophical, scientistic, social or aesthetic principles representing the state of intellectual disinterest or
indifference.
 They are set in a world where there are no certitudes only shattered beliefs all-pervading doubt and all
undermining occasionally even menacing existential uncertainty a world where discord disharmony is illusion
meant misprision and misunderstanding and the ensuing despair is the normal state of being
 relations and communication a world whose inhabitants is the homework, that is man deprived or devoid of
features that could make his life reason, the characteristic formal technical features of displays are equally
linked as to their aesthetic nature and peculiar dramaturgical strategies.
 the grounding ideas of the place also dictate the structure, that's why most absolute display rights give up the
logical structures of traditional theater. In most of the cases they are plotless, in terms of meaningful action
that leads from an initial situation through dramatic changes to an end--appropriate anymore, or conclusion
that offers a solution to the problems and conflicts raised in the course of the action, which in case of these
places without motivation purpose direction and destination lacking realistic and logical development in short
in placelike Bacchus waiting for good over and game, there is little or no dramatic action as conventionally
understood however frantically the characters performed a clownish business often combined with elements
of black comedy and season with gallows humor serves to the fact that nothing happens to change direct
systems.
 the characters are also formed along the principles of artistic minimalism we do not know much about their
past origins, social background, private or public life, nor their inner world, their affections, passions, dreams
through monologues. Their scratch is shadows, mirror promises of individuals or groups as public figures
moved by forces they cannot control, often reflecting the influence of comic traditions drawn from such
sources as the committee allative would build. A musical comedy combined with such theatre arts as mine,
and clownish service most of the time they can't go sit and talk repeating the obvious until it sounds like
nonsense. The inadequacy's of verbal communication language is tuned to the situation, and the characters as
the instrument of miscommunication full of cliches, repetitions, non sequiturs and puns often display
dislocated and old time, like the place of the action is left undefined. We are in for murder about the time of
the action, that is when by the date it takes place close dictation, since the composite is not linear but cyclical,
moved by the repetitive action and communication linguistic patterns, evoking by the recurring mechanical
actions.
 The sense of hollow ritualism, the wear of the action is as uncertain, unspecified, undefined as the when the
locations are arbitrary wake without an informative geographical association, context. They are mere
playgrounds for the actors to present their meaningless show.
 These are the features that make the generic definition and classification of displays. Difficult or straight,
impossible some of Beck's plays are subtitle labored as tragic comedies, something displays as comedies of
menace, but each such definition is problematic since the plays themselves the cyst conventional
categorization.
 Undoubtedly the greatest representative of the theater of the absurd both by professional and popular
measures concerning the volume of critical works dealing with his place and his life presence of the world
stage is from Europe to America Japan is Samuel Beckett. His immensely rich written between 1930 and 1989
comprises 8 models, 16 shorter prose works, 7 volumes of poetry, several scripts for television, 4 pieces of
nonfiction and 20 dramatic pieces, a colorful collection of plays for the stage and radio.
 As an ardent reformer, he restlessly experimented with diverse forms and means of stage representation:
complete full length plays like Waiting for Godot, or Endgame, radio plays like Grips last tape, mimes like
Act Without Words, one and two television pieces like Ghost Trio and Quad and Mayor, monologues like
Catastrophe, or a piece of monologue.
 He spent most of his life in France, and wrote many of his pieces over then plays like in French from the
beginning of his career had a profound interest in French language and literature.
 He wrote his first major piece of criticism and above on the novelist nursing post, but it doesn't explain his
linguistic preferences. Whenever he was asked why he wrote in Frenc,h he gave evasive answers like quote “it
was a different experience or I just felt like it all because in French it is easier to write without style”.
 the modernist attitude of remaining impersonal or objective as much as it is possible in the process of writing
is one of the hallmarks of his works, which makes it impossible to use his biography as a guide to his works
 he settled nothing about his life, which he says is dull and uninteresting: “the professors know more about it
than I do” he said to one of his biographers.
 in an interview he surprised the reporter with the following confession that must have profoundly puzzled the
advocates of biographical criticism “you might say I had a childhood, my parents did everything they could to
make a child happy, although I had little talent for happiness.”
 No doubt the horrors of the Second World War had affected his views and visions of the words they
displayed, but it is impossible to draw any clear analogy between his works and the events of his life.
 The only exception in this respect is his friendship with the great Irish novelist James Joyce, who he got
acquainted in Paris in 1928., when he as a trendy scholar gained the most prestigious fellowship of superior's
lecture in English literature.
 through his predecessor at his post Thomas McGreevy back at him, an early acquaintance of Joyce, and joined
the group of the novelists, admirers, advocates in these articles, who among other professional activities
collaborated in translating the first chapters of choices or push Magnum Finnegan’s wake then a work in
progress.
 much has been written by the relationship between Joyce and Beckett and about the influence of the former of
the letter Richard Seaver.
 it is Samuel Beckett said “I can't go on our go on horseback” on its own recollections of relationship in an
interview with New York Times writer is where Shankar in the mid-50s, that voices his use of birth choice on
his own works
 “I was never Joyce’s secretary but like all his friends I helped him. He was greatly handicapped because of his
eyes-- I did odd jobs for him, marking passages for him, or reading to him but I never wrote any of his letters.
Joyce was a superb manipulator of material, perhaps the greatest. He was making words to the absolute
maximum work, there isn't a syllable that is superfluous. The kind of work I do is in which I'm not the master
of my own material the more Joyce knew the boy could be standing toward omniscience and omnipotence. As
an artist, I'm working with impotence and ignorance. My little exploration is the whole soul of being, that has
always been set aside by artists as something unusable, as something by definition incompatible with art” and
later he added “Joyce told me what it meant to be a real artist, and hoot some critics see the dramatized replica
representation of packets relationship”
 Beckett had already published dozens of short stories, and 6 novels by 1949, when he wrote his first stage
play Waiting for Godo, the opening piece of a long and fruitful dramatic career.
 it was the first significant achievement of the Theatre of the absurd in English that made his name long
worldwide, and started the glorious career of absurd drama in English literary history.
 undoubtedly it was the greatest hit of the post war era, and acknowledged milestone in the history of modern
drama that raised interest in the works of other absurdities
 to play in French and later translated into English, it was first staged in the Theatre Babylon in Paris in 1952.
the English audience had to wait another three years for the first English performance in the London Arts
Theatre in 1955.
 According to subtitle, it is a tragic comedy but his authorial definition proved misleading, since the bold
doesn't conform to the dramaturgical and compositional views of any traditional dramatic genre.
 it may be defined either that journaliste probably or as the composition of a postmodern morality play, and an
interlude, or as a tragic farce.
 the general uncertainty is due to the group test combination of the theological and biological interests, since
the play simultaneously treats the gravest theological issues, like the crucifixion of Christthe meaning of his
 sacrifice, the last judgment, the second coming prospects of Salvation and damnation with the bases body
functions and biological concerns of the characters (hunger diseases, pains, physical suffering and insomnia)
 in many respects it is an anti-play: the stage manifestation of the of the back at Ian principle of negation since
none of its composition elements conform the established dramaturgical rules of stage representation and the
deep-rooted expectations for a traditionally proper well-made play.
 these deconstructive tendencies are present and active in all of its components, the opening sentence of the
dialogue alley anticipates the action of the whole plot, or rather is absence.
 as a literary critic Vivian Mercier famously remarks in a study: “Waiting for Godo has achieved a theoretical
impossibility, a play in which nothing happens that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more since
the second that is subtly different reprise of the first. He's written a play in which nothing happens twice.
 it's plot divided into 2 parts is a successive set of repetitive movements of physical and mental interactions
representing by the cyclicality, rather state than robotic process, only put two and lucky change but since their
transformation happens off stage. we can see only the result of the changes upon their return in the second act
 does romantic action as the title promises is waiting itself a state of inactivity, will oppose action facility here
synonymous with passion that suffering in the physical sense of the wordsee Aastronaut’s swollen feet,
Vladimir's problem with his bladder, blindness and Lucky's dumbness and passion in the theological sense
form the references to Christ’s sufferings and crucifixion.
 they are waiting for time to pass in the hope that sooner or later something happens that may bring some
change in their life, and as the allegorical representatives of mankind they are also waiting for redemption by
the 2nd coming of the Messiah.
 the characters by the names assault identifiers also remind us of the medieval morality plays. The generic
identity of his protagonists Vladimir is Russian, astronauts French, Italian, Lucky’s English, and international
cost without any recognizable national character flooding. Ponzu and Lucky are master and servant, they
make the diachronic part representing what is left of conventional, social relations based on the hierarchical
relation of superiority and inferiority of the top dog-underdog. The second one is different from the first, the
Messenger of Kodo, the titling of stage character of the play whose sole task is to deliver his Masters vague
repetitive messages.
 the identity of Kodo, a mysterious softish character is obscure. nothing is known about him, except for his
promises to come. he may be a wealthy landowner or employer was promised on job for the two homeless
bodies, may be here to local representative of a God --their world go back as refused the identification of God,
 obeyed God saying “if I had meant God, I would have said so in the play” and called for this interpretation if
we read this name as a combination of the English word God and a friend diminutive suffix OT-thus it means
little God additive, little Mindy serve the little thing
 God who is supposed to be omnipotent is as soon as anything else in the play, thus this integration is in full
accord with the all-pervading absurdity of the packets back at world
 the setting according to the author instructions is a country road, a tree in the middle of a utopian dystopian
noble end is no less absurd. It is a place with no visible character, that is good like roads everywhere only for
passing from 8 to be not for an allocated stay needed for dramatic action, unless it's just waiting the selection
of the play, a temporal define prolonged state of inactivity the time of the action is equally unspecified
inclusiv vertiv--said somewhere in between the past, recalled by fragmentary memories and the future
anticipated by vain hopes and empty promises
 it is as indefinite as any other composing element of the play, yet it is the main concern of older 4 characters
and it's existentialist ignition is the most dominant philosophical issue, treated in accord with related views of
the existentialist thinkers first and foremost coming and Heidegger time or rather than characters constant
awareness of and preoccupation with it is the ultimate source of the all-pervading anxiety that determines the
existential state for longer genre specific dramaturgical strategies
 I would highlight reductionism minimalism the frequent use of repetitive structures contrast of binary
oppositions communication gaps poses silences the group does mechanical routines of circus performances
and the paraphernalia of burls of the silent era back
 it was fond of and often adapted to his place strategies that beside the frequent punts quibbles and all kinds of
wordplays and non sequiturs are the primary sources of humor into play bison a new heal the French dramatist
famously defined in 1953 review of its super food Transformers as the music horse sketch of Pascal's Pensée’s
as played by the threatening clouds
 as to the critical appreciation of Beckett, Richard Seaver writes in the preface of his packet reader published in
1976 hold since the first full length study of packets works written by Nicholas gassner in 1957 there has been
 during the intervening decades a flood of criticism probably not only the real meaning but the sources
influences the symbols their style the method ad infinitum and to Beckett no doubt at nauseam if the present
rate of exit Jesus continues and there is no sign of its abating it has been calculated that by the end of the
century buckets would have been the subject of move scholarly probes than that of any other right released of
the English language with the exception of Shakespeare, and even will may soon have to move over and quote
it is a flattering prophecy which is refuted by Beckett himself who wrote the following in one of his letters to
Alan Snyder an American theater director who directed the 1956 American premiere of several packets
Waiting for Godot
 “I feel the only line is pretty fused to be involved in exegesis of any kind and to insist on the extreme
simplicity of dramatic situation and issue my work is a matter of fundamental sounds no joke indeed made as
fully as possible and I accept responsibility for nothing else if people have headaches among the overtones, let
them and provide their own aspirin”
 the same prophecy may have been made about the critical reception of the second prominent member of the
British theater of the absurd, the admirer follower and successful packet: Harold Pinter, who's ever growing
popularity in the last 50 years today approach is that of both on page and stage.
 for the critical investigation of his works it is inevitable to take certain facts of his biography to consideration.
his origin is quite obscure, we do not have any reliable facts about his dissent his ancestors which some say
may explain the obscurity of his character's past origin, social background what we do know is that he was
born into Logan class, as the son of a Jewish tailor. he grew up in London’s East End in a working class
area this environment left his marks on his works, both considering the setting the social media. the
characters and their language, the characteristic sociolect they use in his place he is widely considered to have
been the most professional playwright of the period.
 he started his acting career at his age of 16 and touring company in 1946. for a short period he studied acting
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but in 1948 he left after two terms to join a repertory company as a
professional actor
 Pinter told island and England and it various acting companies appearing on the name David Baron in
provincial repertory theaters until 1959, by the time he started writing place he had enough professional
experience and practice both as an actor and stage manager to be in full control of the art and craft of dramatic
composition
 like his predecessor, he was a conscious dramatic fully aware why was doing well composing his place the
following self-reflective remarks may be taken as fragments from and never fully written professional
biography that reveals some features of his arse poetic the excerpt is taken from a conversation with Richard
find later published in the 20th century February 1961
 “I didn't start writing plays until 1957 I went into a room one day and saw a couple of people in. it this is that
with me for some time afterwards, and I felt that the only way I could get expression and get it off my mind
was dramatically. I started off with this picture of the two people and let them carry on from there. it wasn't a
deliberate switch from one kind of writing to another, it was quite a natural movement: I started with people
who come into a particular situation. I certainly don't write from any kind of abstract idea, and I wouldn't
know a symbol if I saw one. I don't see that there is anything very strange about the caretaker for instance and
I can't quite understand why so many people regarding the way they do it seems to me a very straightforward
and simple play the germ of my place I'll be as accurate as I can about that I went into a room and so one
person standing up one person sitting down and a few weeks later I wrote the room I went into another room
and so two people sitting down and a few years later I wrote the birthday party I looked through a door into a
third room and so two people standing up and I wrote the Caretaker. I'm convinced that what happens in my
place could happen anywhere, at any time, in any place ordered events may seem unfamiliar at first glance if
you press me for a definition I'd say that what goes on in my place is realistic but what I'm doing is not
realism I'm not committed as a writer in the usual sense of the term either religiously or politically and I'm not
conscious of any particular social function I write because I want to write. I don't see any blackheads on
myself and I don't carry any banners ultimately. I distrust definitive labels and hold these self-reflective
remarks.
 some of the striking differences between the works of Beckett and Pinter: both labeled as absolutists, the kept
the prose writer came to the stage from above that is from the lofty Heights of fiction driven by little
inspiration
 Pinter’s art, his writing career as a professional actor thus back its approach to the stage at least the beginning
of his dramatic career is deductive. Pinter is always inductive if packet is a symbolist, he is a realist if buckets
word is of overly universal reference.
 Pinter focuses on the particular the local a difference most obvious in their choice of locations settings in
terms of spatial definition or the lack of it back it avoids timing both in the setting of the action and in
dramatizing timeless states by repetitive recovering actions
 Pinter prefers precise timing representing a linear process the equivalent of the conventional plot of a play
Becky Scotty Tessa everyman like painters markedly English both in their language cliches of communication
interests occupations mannerism mannerisms and gestures
 Beckett’s characters are static stuck in a state of being painters are dynamic driven step-by-step to an
inevitable fate like dramatic turn in their life leading to a conclusion packets characters ago
 Pinter’s rather fear in the spectators as if they had divided the elements of Aristotle’s catharsis between
themselves painters of comprises 31 place ribbon for the stage and the silver screen is pattern best known
most frequently stage plays out the Birthday Party from 1958, The Caretaker from 1960, The Lover from
1963, The Homecoming from 1955, Old Times from 1971, Betrayal from 1978, and One Folder from 1984.
Beside the stage plays he wrote 27 screenplays for films, 14 short prose pieces short pieces short stories one
novel and eight volumes of poetry
 in the following short concluding section I'll enlist a few other specific Pinteresque features that may be taken
into consideration for the critical analysis of his place with special regard to the Caretaker to play in your
reading list
 Esther genre: most critics use the term comedy of manners and act definition of the Caretaker as well who's
been corrected.
 Davis lives under the constant pressure of being threatened by the hostile forces of the outside world the
location of the action in most cases a restricted space and existential confinement like a room functioning both
as a home, a place of hiding or escape, granting temporary safety and isolation from the menacing outside
word
 full characters for Davis Ashton’s room is a haven that he's reluctant to leave all through the play, and from
where due to his trespasses must be expelled.
 the time of the action is a short critical period in the characters life, leading to a climatic turn
 Davis’s story starts with a nice change in his life when he's received with full accommodation by Aston his
room and it abruptly ends with the climatic turn when he is expelled from it by the two brothers
 the source of the dramatic conflict is often the permanent threat of repressed violence, occasionally servicing
inaction repressed violence and a permanent threat of its servicing generates and keep some tension in the
cattle as well
 Davis with his jacknife in his pocket is constantly on the alert to defend himself, should the occasion arise
 in most cases the primary source of dramatic tension is the lack of label information about the characters past
identity, motivation and purpose is generating the state of all pervading existential uncertainty
 Davis’s identity is obscure, even his name is questionable, and for some reasons never clarified
 he is reluctant to go to Sidcup and fetch the papers; he says he left there some years before-that would prove
his identity of the dramaturgical strategies of strange representation
 minimalist is the most prominent both regarding space time number of characters background information and
communication both the scenery and the props are endowed with dramatic agency that is have representative
function adjusted to the themes, situations, characters and personal relations
 the best examples in the Caretaker: other tools ask them constantly and obstinately fumbles with the purpose
of fixing something to prove but he is able to keep his environment his life under control
 another example is a statue of the Buddha that is broken into pieces in a critical moment of the action pink's
language. his characters’ verbal communication is realistic, colloquial, prosaic, devoid of critic diction based
on repetitive patterns, frequently broken by pauses or silences indicated in the text, signifying item
miscommunication the evasion of communication or its incompetence in transmitting meaning humor in those
cases derives from miscommunication misprision misunderstanding mismatched characters they're opposite
add occupations clownish routines verbal and actual automatisms bunters place as much alive and popular
worldwide as packets and their work has left its mark on the place of their successe,s Irish English and
American alike who keep the spirit of the theater of the absurd alive