Define absurd drama. Discuss Waiting for Godot as an absurd play

 

Absurd Drama is a sub-genre of Drama that focuses on the absurdity of human existence. It is very clear from the very word "Absurd" that it means nonsensical, opposed to reason, something silly, foolish, senseless, ridiculous and topsy-turvy. Moreover, a play having loosely constructed plot, unrecognizable characters, metaphysical called an absurd play.

Samuel Beckett is considered to be an important figure among the French Absurdist’s. "Waiting for Godot" is one of the masterpieces of Absurdist literature. Elements of Absurdity for making this play are so engaging and lively.

Characteristics of Absurd Theater:

• No story or plot
• No characterization and motivation
• Neither a proper beginning nor ending
• Unexplained themes
• Imitation of dreams or nightmares instead of nature
• Useless dialogues

 

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

“Waiting for Godot” as an Absurd Play:

“Waiting for Godot” fulfills every requirement of an absurd play. It has no story, no characterization, no beginning nor any end, unexplained themes, imitation of dreams and nightmares and above all it contains useless dialogues.

No story or plot:

“Waiting for Godot” does not tell any story nor does it has a plot. The play starts with waiting and ends with it. Characters do not go anywhere. They stand still in front of audience and do nothing except passing the ball. They talk and pass the time. Actions of characters are not related to plot but to themselves. Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot and audience perceive that perhaps real story of the play will start after Godot’s arrival but Godot does not appear on stage nor is he introduced to the audience. Eventually, play ends with waiting. In this ways, “Waiting for Godot” fulfills first requirement of an absurd play.

Lack of Characterization:

We don’t know past of the characters. They are not introduced to the audience. We know only their names and their miserable situation. Their motifs are unclear. Although it is explicit that they are waiting for Godot yet it is not told to the audience that what purpose Godot will serve if he comes. Hence, lack of characterization proves that “Waiting of Godot” is a play of absurd theater.

No Beginning and End:

It has no beginning nor has any end. It starts with a situation and ends with it. Both the acts start and end in same way. When characters come on stage they reveal their purpose. They say they are waiting but Godot does not come and the act ends with waiting. Second act is also the copy of first act with minor differences. The play goes on and eventually ends with wait. Hence, there is no proper start of the play nor does it has a proper end.

It is a play in which nothing happens twice…. “Nothing happens, nobody comes … nobody goes, it’s awful!”.

Fulfillment of this requirement also proves that “Waiting for Godot” is an absurd play.

Useless Dialogues:

Most of the dialogues of this play serve no purpose. Whole play is based on delivery of dialogues but most of them have no apparent meanings. Every dialogue is full of symbols. Every word refers something in hidden meaning but it lacks the interest of audience because it lacks action.

Dialogues create action in every play. Action loses its importance without worthy dialogues. In case of “Waiting for Godot”, no action has been presented, therefore, dialogues are boring and they are written just to pass the ball. Word “nothing” has been repeated numerously in the play. It actually indicates nothingness in it.

Unexplained Themes:

Unclear themes also make “Waiting for Godot” a play of absurd theater. Audience do not observe any obvious theme in the play. Superiority of a play is always dependent on its themes. “Waiting for Godot” has no obvious theme. If there is any, it is hidden.

Imitation of Nightmares:

This play does not hold the mirror up to nature. It does not portray the manners and mannerisms of the ages. Martin Esslin is true in his definition of theater of absurd. This play “seem[s] often to be reflection of dreams and nightmares”.

At last but not the least, “Waiting for Godot” is entirely unconventional play. Samuel Becket violated all dramatic conventions. Indeed, every ingredient of theater of absurd has been fulfilled by him. Regardless of that this play is successful. He wrote this play to break the rules of traditional dramatists. “Waiting for Godot” completes every factor of theater of absurd, therefore, it can successfully be called the play of absurd.

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Anna Fierling: A True Mother in "Mother Courage and Her Children"

Introduction:
Bertolt Brecht's play "Mother Courage and Her Children" depicts the hardships faced by Anna Fierling, also known as Mother Courage, during the Thirty Years' War. Anna Fierling is a remarkable character who embodies the spirit of a true mother. Despite her flaws and the choices she makes, her actions consistently display her fierce dedication to protecting and providing for her children. This assignment will explore the various aspects that establish Anna Fierling as a true mother.

Sacrifice and Protection:
Anna Fierling demonstrates her motherly love through her unwavering commitment to protecting her children. She is willing to sacrifice her own safety and well-being to ensure their survival. Throughout the play, Anna endures immense hardships, risks her life, and makes difficult choices to shield her children from harm.

Unconditional Love:
Anna Fierling's love for her children is unconditional, even when they disappoint or betray her. Despite the strained relationships with her three children, Eilif, Swiss Cheese, and Kattrin, she remains fiercely devoted to them. This unwavering love is evident in her constant efforts to reunite with them and provide for their needs, regardless of their actions.

Determination and Resilience:
Anna Fierling exhibits remarkable determination and resilience in the face of adversity. Despite the devastation of war and the loss she experiences, she remains resilient, pushing forward for the sake of her children. Her determination to survive and protect her family serves as a testament to her role as a true mother.

Pragmatism and Resourcefulness:
As a mother, Anna Fierling demonstrates exceptional pragmatism and resourcefulness. She utilizes her wit and street smarts to navigate through the war-torn landscape, often resorting to unconventional means to support her family. Her ability to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances showcases her resourcefulness and highlights her dedication to her children's well-being.

Maternal Instincts:
Anna Fierling's maternal instincts are a driving force throughout the play. She possesses a keen sense of intuition, making decisions that prioritize the safety and survival of her children. Her actions, although not always perfect, are motivated by her desire to protect them from the dangers of the war, thereby reinforcing her role as a true mother.

Teachings and Life Lessons:
Anna Fierling imparts valuable life lessons and teachings to her children. Despite her often harsh and cynical demeanor, she shares her experiences and wisdom with them, intending to prepare them for the harsh realities of life. Through her guidance, she instills resilience, self-reliance, and survival skills in her children, which further solidifies her role as a true mother.

Conclusion:
Anna Fierling, or Mother Courage, exemplifies the qualities of a true mother in Bertolt Brecht's play "Mother Courage and Her Children." Her sacrifices, unconditional love, determination, pragmatism, maternal instincts, and teachings all serve as testament to her unwavering dedication to her children's well-being. Despite the challenging circumstances of war, Anna Fierling's actions consistently revolve around protecting and providing for her children. Through her character, Brecht explores the complexities of motherhood and highlights the resilience and strength of a mother's love.

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Waiting for Godot as an Absurd Play

Samuel Becket's is the pioneer of absurdities. His masterpiece "Waiting for Godot" shows the real absurdity of life. The elements of absurdities are vividly presented here.

It is fairly definable from the word "Absurd" which refers to something that is nonsensical, worthless, meaningless, nothingness, foolish and ridiculous. So, a drama which is going to gift a long train of absurdness (boring) can be called an Absurd drama. It is the play which is constructed loosely as well as ghostly characters. Life is reflected as purposeless, aimless and meaningless.

In the absurd theater irrational experiences of life are presented instead of logical construction and rational ideas.

Waiting for Godot is considered as a absurd not only for its loosely constructed plot, but also for the characters who are just like puppet. The theme of the play is mysterious. The characters, presented here without any purpose of life. They are just passing their time and waiting for someone who is not to be sure to come. They just do things. The dialogues of the play are purely absurd which have no direction to the past or future. We find the characters who are babbling throughout play inadequately.  So, absurdities prevail in everywhere and it has become more acute when we see that time is changeless. But, a change is noticeable that now the tree has sprouted four or five leaves.

"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, its awful"

The beginning, middle and the end of the play cannot be located it as a good play, but absurd.

Another reason which can be noted for its absurdity is the difference from poetic stage. Either dream and emotions or poetic language is absent here. The situation is constant and changeless enigmatic vein prevails throughout the play. No specific rules are followed in the mixture of tragic and comic elements. In the act-I it is very difficult for the characters to detect what action should be taken for their constant life. A bundle of hesitations have riddled their mind. They want to leave each other but do not dare to abandoned that place. Estragon does not want to pay heed what Vladimir is saying. But, Vladimir is saying continuously and Estragon is also cannot forsake his words. They were passing their lives with a transparent deception. Godot is mystery and remain the top quest of the readers. Their waiting is endless which seems to be absurd. The fact which is important that they are not unconscious about the absurdity and the whole world is waiting for things, which are absurd and mystery.

"Waiting for Godot" is the play which is extinction of any female character. Vladimir and Estragon, who are susceptive about their identity, wait for the ultimate extinction in a frustrated way. All the things are presented here as meaningless and purposeless which produce absurdness.

Absurdity gets its full extent when the play has got its finishing touch. Waiting for uncertain possibility continues, human communication remains unsolved, the problem of existence remains meaningless and purposeless. The conversation between the two tramps remain in jargon really humbug and bunkum speech. So, all this things untidily make the play absurd.
 

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What are the differences and similarities between the main plot and the subplot in King Lear?

  One obvious difference between the main plot and the subplot in King Lear is the fact that the main plot concerns two daughters (the third being absent), while the subplot concerns two sons. In both cases it is a question of a father's title and properties being taken over by his offspring. Shakespeare's theme is about old age and the way one generation inevitably and relentlessly replaces the generation that came before it. Shakespeare wanted two sons to balance the two daughters in order to show that his theme was macrocosmic and not microcosmic. In his play Measure for Measure, Shakespeare has Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna who is disguised as a friar, give the imprisoned Claudio some examples of the vanity of human existence, including the following regarding children:

Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner.

In other words, your own children wish you were dead so that they can inherit whatever property you have acquired and will free them of the burden, or possible burden, of taking care of you in your old age. We see plenty of examples of this in our own times because old people take up so much space and seem to enjoy pharmaceutical immortality. It is true enough that Goneril and Regan care nothing about their father King Lear and only want his property, and that Edmund only wants the title and property of his father Gloucester. Edmund expresses his thoughts on this subject in a letter which he attributes to his gullible brother Edgar.

'This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the
best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness
cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the
oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our
father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue forever, and live the beloved of your brother, Hum–conspiracy!—“Sleep till I waked him,—you should enjoy half his revenue,”
(Act 1, Scene 2)

Edmund follows up on the effect of the letter by telling his father:

"I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declined, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue."

Regan expresses a similar idea in an exchange with her father in Act 2, Scene 4, when the two selfish daughters are stripping Lear of his provisio to keep a retinue of a hundred knights. When Lear pathetically protests, "I gave you all," Regan replies, "And in good time you gave it." She was doing him a favor to take it off his hands, since he was getting too old and senile to manage it himself. In fact, he held on to it too long to suit her. Her sister Goneril is in complete agreement. They have no gratitude for the gift of Lear's entire kingdom divided between them. They feel it is their property and that the old man was only obstructing them from enjoying possession by insisting on remaining alive. They would like him to die. 

In both the main plot and the subplot the elderly fathers find themselves cast out into the open country where they are subject to exposure and slow starvation. Gloucester has even been blinded. There is a touching scene in which the two old men, now worse off than beggars, come together by chance in an open field and commiserate on their fate. They have learned the bitter truth that there is little love in this world but that life is an ongoing struggle for existence. Lear tells Gloucester:

If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:
Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:
Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air,
We wawl and cry.     (Act 4, Scene 6)

Cordelia, Edgar, and Kent, of course, are exceptions to the general rule and serve mainly as contrast to the ruthless, selfish Goneril, Regan, and Edmund. It is appropriate that Lear's two vicious daughters both fall in love with the Gloucester's villainous illegitimate son Edmund. "Birds of a feather flock together." Or, as Albany tells Goneril:

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
Filths savor but themselves.     (Act 4, Scene 2)

So there are more similarities than differences between the main plot and the subplot. Both plots are intended to illustrate the same truth: that each generation (to use Keats' terminology in his "Ode to a Nightingale") is trodden down by the hungry generation it created and nourished. It can't be any other way.

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by William Shakespeare Summary

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays,  sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs and whether the works attributed to him were written by others

PLOT SUMMARY 

Theseus, duke of Athens, after conquering the warrior Amazons in battle, is in turn conquered by the charms of their queen, Hippolyta, and they are now planning to marry. To speed the time until their wedding night, he orders amusements to be staged. In a spirit of loyalty, Bottom the weaver and other tradesmen decide to prepare a play for the duke and his bride.

The preparations are interrupted by Egeus, an Athenian, who brings his daughter, Hermia, and her two suitors before Theseus, entreating him to command Hermia to wed Demetrius. Hermia pleads to be allowed to marry the other suitor, the one she loves-Lysander. The duke orders her to obey her father under penalty of death or confinement in a convent. Hermia and Lysander bewail the harsh decree and secretly agree to meet in a wood nearby and flee to another country. They tell their plans to Helena, a jilted sweetheart of Demetrius, and she, to win back his love, goes straightway to inform him of the plan.

Meanwhile, in the forest, the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania are at odds. In spite, Oberon bids Puck procure a love-juice to pour upon Titania's eyelids when she is asleep, in order that she may love the first thing her waking eyes behold. Just then, Oberon sees Demetrius, who has sought out the trysting-place of Lysander and Hermia only to meet Helena, much to his distaste. The lady's distress at her lover's coldness softens the heart of Oberon, who bids Puck touch Demetrius's eyes also with the love-juice, for Helena's sake.

Meanwhile, Lysander and Hermia arrive, and Puck in error anoints Lysander's instead of Demetrius's eyes, so that Lysander, happening to awake just as the neglected Helena wanders by, falls in love with her-and abandons Hermia.

The same enchanted spot in the forest happens to be the place selected by Bottom and company for the final rehearsal of their play. The roguish Puck passes that way while they are rehearsing, and mischievously and magically crowns Bottom with an ass's head, whereupon the other players disperse terror-stricken. Then he brings Bottom to Titania; and, when she awakens, she gazes first upon the human-turned-to-an-ass and falls in love.

Meantime, the four lovers are greatly bewildered. Oberon finds that Puck has anointed the eyes of Lysander instead of those of Demetrius, so Oberon anoints Demetrius's eyes with another potion which breaks the spell. When Demetrius awakes, he sees his neglected Helena being wooed by Lysander. His own love for her returns, and he is ready to fight Lysander. Helena deems them both to he mocking her, and Hermia is dazed by the turn of affairs. The fairies interpose and prevent conflict by causing the four to wander about in the dark until they are tired and fall asleep. Puck repairs the blunder by anointing Lysander's eyes, in order to dispel the illusion caused by the love-juice. Thus, when they awake, all will be in order: Lysander will love Hermia, and Demetrius will love Helena.

Titania woos Bottom until Oberon, whose anger has abated, removes the spell from her eyes. Bottom is restored to his natural form, and he rejoins his comrades in Athens. Theseus, on an early morning hunting trip in the forest, discovers the four lovers. Explanations, follow; the duke relents and bestows Helena upon Demetrius and Hermia upon Lysander.

A wedding-feast for three couples instead of one only is spread in Duke Theseus's place. Bottom's players come to this feast to present the “comic” tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, which is performed in wondrous and hilarious fashion. After the company retires for the night, the fairies dance through the corridors on a mission of blessing and goodwill for the three wedded pairs.

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