ANDRADA VISSARION

Samuel Beckett and the theatre of the absurd
 

     The movement known as “the theatre of the absurd” was first defined by Martin Esslin in his essay “The theatre of the absurd (Le theatre de l`absurd), appeared in 1961. Esslin supported his term on Camus` “Le mythe de Sysiphe”, regarding life as being meaningless, the universe having no rational explanation, ergo the world is absurd. The absurdity and the lack of any certitude are the themes that create the chaos in the works of many playwrights the French-Romanian Eugene(Eugen) Ionesco (Ionescu), Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett. But it seems that according to Esslin, the predecessor is Alfred Jarry with his “Ubu roi”, the grotesque figure of a semi-human entity that rules the world.
      Among all these creators of “upside down “ worlds, Samuel Beckett is probably the most picturesque. Born in Ireland, he moved to France and wrote his most important play, “Waiting for Godot” in French first,under the name of “En attendant Godot”. Its characters are tragic-comic tramps,waiting under a tree while making jokes for Godot to come. Vladimir and Estragon are tragic since their waiting is never ended and never defined and because they reflect on the meaning of life and on their own condition- that is,they are perfectly aware of their futility and of the absurd of their waiting for somebody who might very well not exist. But they are also comic through the jokes they make to pass the time and more since they seem in an impossibility to communicate with each other or more exactly to understand each other. It is in this tragicomedy that they spend their time, an infinite time, whether Godot came or not being still unknown… by the two characters and by all the tragicomic human beings waiting for happiness, love, justice, and not understanding that Godot is never meant to come. If he did, the whole waiting would not mean anything, the substance itself of the existence would be superficial and predictable. Godot is not supposed to come and maybe it is better if he does not appear at all, for the two characters to fulfill their destiny,which is the endless waiting while they are simply….living. They get involved in absurd situations caused by the lack of communication. And finally, Godot announces them that he will be late. So, Godot is real! And the waiting begins again, again and again, endlessly…
      Beckett`s Godot can be considered as the illustrative play for the theatre of the absurd. Here,the drama is finally the destruction of language as form of carrying meaning. The language is the means by which stereotypes empty of meaning are told. It has no logic and breaks down the authentic communication by the use of clichés,of parodies. It is the role of this theatre to aware the readers` attention to the quantity of useless words we are uttering daily and to conduct to a deeper understanding by breaking and mocking the language.
      What is absurd? To speak and not to be heard, to hear and not to listen, to speak using the words that everyone else is telling ? Or to call them existence? To break the rules, to point to the prejudices, to show that if communication does not happen, then anything else could as well not be possible? To take tragic situations and turn them into comedy, so that the others understand that things are never too tragic or never too comic , but a mixture ? Or, knowing all this, to be able to continue the waiting and to search for meaning? And which is maybe more absurd is to find a logic in everything and follow it even if – as the drama of Vladimir and Estragon proves- Godot may never come…