Theatre Of The Absurd Analysis

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English 1 Kristen Walker Group MM February 25 2016 Thursday 12.20 Shirley Erasmus 1). Given what you have now read about the Theatre of the Absurd, what are some of its defining features? There are many definitions as to what exactly the Theatre of the Absurd is all about, Martin Esslin believed that it shows us how the “world” is an “incomprehensible place” (5). The theatre of absurdity makes one question the ideas and perceptions they thought were solid foundations of their life and what they saw as truths (Esslin 5). The audience is made aware of real life situations as, they often relate their own experiences to the absurdities depicted on stage. The performance on stage evokes the audience to confront the…show more content…
One can see that the short play does correlate with the literary movement as, the characters actions and dialogues are strange. The play presents the Freudian idea of a son and mother having sexual desires for one another through the characters of Edmee and Fergus. This is seen as absurd that a mother could talk so easily about her son’s attraction to her and that he would be willing to sleep with her “Fergus would bed me in a moment”. This highlights human’s hidden desires. There seems to be no definite development in the plot. The characters are all searching for the sun whether it’s the literally sun or figurative sun in their life yet, none of them seem to find it. The sun could be a representation of the truth that the characters are searching for and so even at the end when the sun is out, there is no enlightenment on the characters’ lives. The short play can also be viewed as an absurd play because it challenges ones ideas about what marriage really is as well as homosexuality. Here on is questioning the meaning of life and the ideas that are supposed to be taken as truths. This is shown by the affair that Daniel and Benjamin are having even though they are both married. The marriage between Abigail and Benjamin is loveless, they quarrel and Abigail knows that Benjamin is in fact in love with Daniel and not with her but, she still doesn’t get a divorce. Instead she tries to drown herself in the sea, Daniel…show more content…
One would think that she has Alzheimer’s as she often forgets things and says things one wouldn’t normally say “I hope he’s not dead. I wouldn’t know what room to put him in. We don’t have a dead room”. This is an example of the dark humour that is often present in absurdist type plays. Her behaviour is odd, she screams to the guests and at first is not very hospitable this is portrayed by her interest in sitting on the couch that the couple have occupied “I think I want to sit in in it, get up, and get up”. She also swears at them which is not regarded as the right behaviour one should portray to guests “Well, go sit down on the fucking couch, you morons!” The mention of the reckless baby sitter who killed Joanna’s children is also an example of how we question the meaning of life and why things happen. Mental illness seems present in the play with the character Naomi this could also link to the literary movement as it arose post war time when people were showing signs of mental illness. There is the mention of cross dressing this too would fall under the absurd as it would be ones deep desire to dress up as the opposite sex and would challenges society’s views on gender roles “Sherbet, our son is prancing out here with his wife; you should really see this.(To them.) I find this uncomfortable .This makes me want to vomit”. There is a

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