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Beckett and absurd drama<-chapter 8<-contents<-position

Ⅳ. Beckett and absurd drama
Life

    Samuel Beckett was born on April 13,1906, which was both Friday the 13th and Good Friday. He had quite a normal upbringing in an upper-middle-class Irish family, and excelled in both school and the sport of cricket. He attended the University of Dublin Ireland where he received his M.A. in modern languages, he then taught for a short time, explored parts of Europe and eventually settled in Paris. It was in Paris that he met writer James Joyce and developed a friendship. It was this literary exposure that encouraged Beckett to seek publication. It is interesting to note that many of the conversations between Beckett and Joyce were conducted in silence. He was also influenced by French and German philosophers and accepted the idea that the sole kingdom of freedom is one’s own brain so human being should give up manipulation upon exterior world and do his utmost to curb his own thinking. Undoubtedly the set of theory exerted profound influence upon his future production in literature. In the 1930's and 40's Beckett published many works in the form of essays, short stories, poetry, and novels, but very few people noticed his work. In fact he only sold ninety-five copies of the French translation of his novel Murphy, in four years. His postwar era fame only came about in the 1950's when he published three novels and his famous play, Waiting for Godot. After Waiting for Godot, he wrote Endgame (1957), Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), Happy Days (1961), Not I (1972) and Catastrophe (1982). Though he considered his novels superior to his plays, he was actually known through his absurd drama.

Major plays
     “The Absurdism is the root of which is a term used originally to describe a violation of the rules of logic, has acquired a diverse and wide connotations in modern theology, philosophy, and the arts, in which it expresses the failure of traditional values to fulfil man's spiritual and emotional needs”, as American encyclopaedia explains.
     Theater of the Absurd came about as a reaction to World War II. It took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre that presented a world that cannot be interpreted logically. Life is in one word, ABSURD! Needless to say, this genre of theatre took quite some time to catch on because it used techniques that seemed to be illogical to the theatre world. The plots often deviated from the more traditional episodic structure, and seem to move in a circle, ending the same way it began. The scenery was often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse, the dialogue never seemed to make any sense.
     Samuel Beckett is probably the most celebrated of the absurdist playwrights because of his work Waiting for Godot. Beckett's plays seem to focus on the themes of the uselessness of human action, and the failure of the human race to communicate. Waiting for Godot is probably the most famous absurd play to date. The characters of the play, are absurd caricatures who of course have problems communicating with one another, and the language they use is often times ludicrous. And, following the cyclical pattern, the play seems to end in the same state it began in, with nothing really changed. All these show a simple and lifeless state implying lost sign of civilization. In the play, the two vagrants, Vladimir and Estragon, are put in an almost motionless scene. They are waiting for a secret figure, Godot, beside the road, under a leafless tree at dusk. They don’t know who is Godot and when he comes. They have nothing to do so chat aimless with occasional taking off hat or shoes. Some similar tedious dialogues and plots occur in repetition, which are to emphasize one thing, that is what a monotonous and boring life it is.
                                        “ESTRAGON:
                                         So long as one knows.
                                         VLADIMIR:
                                              One can bide one's time.
                                         ESTRAGON:
                                         One knows what to expect.
                                         VLADIMIR:
                                         No further need to worry.
                                         ESTRAGON:
                                         Simply wait.
                                         VLADIMIR:
                                             We're used to it.
                 He picks up his hat, peers inside it, shakes it, puts it on.”

     In fact, the hero Godot never occurs on the stage. So waiting for Godot symbolizes waiting solely. Waiting is an indispensable component in everyday life. What are the two vagrants, or we, waiting for? Godot represents a person, an incident, an object, or even death. People realize the obvious time’s elapse in the process of waiting. In the play, Godot’s coming tomorrow is the only expectation and spiritual support for further aimless and fruitless waiting. Vagrants struggle in the expectation because coming of Godot means they will not be homeless and need not roam around any more for Godot is their ultimate home to return to. The play is simple but impressive and shows that though there is little sign for human to continue their existence in such a “waste” world, there still exists hope and some unnamable encouraging power.
     Beckett's plays are like multidimensional theatrical pictures connecting literary art with visual ones giving us, through the form of play, evidence about the author's personal experience. Beckett's dramatic art is an expression of his most intimate visions on the fundamental philosophical question about the place of the human being in the surrounding world. Beckett won Nobel Prize in 1969 for his inspiration for those in predicament.