Name : Ravi Bhaliya Roll No : 24 Paper : The Modernist Literature M.A : Sem -3 Enrollment No : 14101004 Year : 2015-16 Submitted To : Smt S.B Gardi Department of English Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University Influence of ‘Theatre of Absurd’ on play ‘The Birthday Party’
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Influence of ‘Theatre of Absurd’ on play ‘The Birthday Party’
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Name : Ravi BhaliyaRoll No : 24Paper : The Modernist LiteratureM.A : Sem -3Enrollment No : 14101004Year : 2015-16Submitted To : Smt S.B Gardi
Department of English Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University
Influence of ‘Theatre of Absurd’ on play ‘The Birthday Party’
INDEX
• INTRODUCTION• What is Theatre of Absurd ?• According to Martin Esslin • Important plays and play writers of this type’s
• Absurdity in The Birthday Party •
Theater of the Absurd, term used to identify a body of plays written primarily in France from the mid-1940s through the 1950s.
The term "absurd" was originally used by Albert Camus in his 1942 essay “Myth of Sisyphus,” wherein he described the human condition as “meaningless and absurd.”
INTRODUCTION
Albert Camus “Myth of Sisyphus”
No Beginning
No Middle
No End
The Absurd Theatre What is Theatre of Absurd ?
It means the expression in art of the meaninglessness of human existence.
Difficult to Justify – what is going on
Continue…
World is without meaning & life is without purpose.
Associated with Existentialism.
• The Balcony
• The Birthday Party
• The Bold Soprano
• Waiting For Godot
Smauel Beckett
EugeneLonesco
Jean Genet
Harold Pinter
Important plays and play writers of this type’s
These works usually employ illogical situations, unconventional dialogue, and minimal plots to express the apparent absurdity of human existence.
Broad comedy
Menacing and tragic
effect
Hopelessness and
Fragmentationin characters
Ambiguity and
Mystery
Shifting Identities
Absurdity in The Birthday
Party
He is the artist who had rebelled against the mode of life which society tries to impose upon its members, but the pressures of society make the artist conform to the prevailing social manners and mores.
Society could not tolerate the free-thinking individualistic artist because it saw him as a threat to its own stability. Society symbolized by Goldberg and McCann has destroyed the artist’s individuality.
Mainly it is found in the characters of Meg, Stanley and Lulu. “Meg: Stan! I'm coming up to fetch you if you don't come down! I'm coming up! I'm going to count three! One!
Two! Three! I'm coming to get you! (She exits and goes upstairs. In a moment, shouts from STANLEY, wild
laughter from MEG)”
“Meg: What are the cornflakes like, stanley? Stanley: Horrible.”
Broad Comedy
Frightening effect we find very much as it is “Comedy of Menace” also.
In movie background sounds play vital role for it.
In movie we have many dialogues and scenes such as Blindmen’s Buff scene( Menace) and Interrogation scene (tragic element).
Very much use of screaming and shouting in the play.
Menacing and tragic effect
Life under the Constant Shadow of Fear and Menace
In almost every character we find a kind of disappointment and complain from life.
Meg keeps on running meaningless conversations like “how is cornflakes ?” or “didn’t you enjoy your breakfast ?”etc. It is perhaps to fill the emptiness within her.
And Petey’s indifferent silence.
Lulu’s frustration comes out when the dialogue between her and Goldberg occurs.