During a period of maximum rationality, when the serious nature of man was exposed in its crudest form, Samuel Beckett, author of Endgame, addressed topics that went beyond the field of war and tangible problems of his era, and chose instead to focus on more abstract topics, often with an emphasis on existentialist ideals. Beckett, as influential as any writer of his period, played a vital role in the formation of the avant-garde movement known as the Theater of the Absurd, a group of unincorporated playwrights whose work took place primarily from the late 1940s through the 1940s. '60. . Among those also classified as "absurdists" are Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter, men with similar styles and equally comparable philosophies, intellectuals who believed that "man inhabits a universe with which he is not in tune." . Its meaning is indecipherable and its place within it is purposeless. He is bewildered, troubled and darkly threatened" (Esslin.43). This existentialist vision is found throughout Endgame and echoed in Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, in which, similarly to Beckett, the author writes dialogue repetitively, aimlessly and nonsense, demonstrating the ineffectiveness of verbal communication. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned" Get an original essayWhile the members of the Theater of the Absurd may have avoided spoken communication standards of our mainstream society, artists throughout the decades have similarly struggled to convey the message that these visionaries worked so hard to convey. An artist, however, who attempted to express the true feelings of his work, and who has done courageous work, is Nesreen Nabil, who in 1999 painted Waiting, self-described as "Scenography for the Theater of the Absurd, this is for Waiting for Godot, a play by Samuel Beckett" (Esslin.136). Also representative of the time and period discussed so far, performed by a small repertory company, is the playbill of a performance of The Bald Soprano, featuring four pairs of silent, attentive eyes. These four pieces represent a thought process from a bygone era, a time when brilliant writers could separate themselves from the norms of the masses and write as they pleased, without fear of persecution or low box office returns. They wrote what they felt and didn't ask anyone's permission. In exchange for this complete autonomy, they gave us great literary works, which have stood the test of time, and still stand today as shining examples of the best work man has to offer. Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, Ireland, in 1906, to a lower-middle-class Protestant family. Dissatisfied from his earliest memory, Beckett worked his way through the education system, graduating from Trinity College Dublin with a bachelor's degree. Soon after graduation, Beckett, a discontented boy turned discontented man, moved to Paris, where he joined a growing number of expatriate artists in France, eager to explore the rebellious avant-garde. Shortly after his arrival in Paris, a mutual friend introduced the aspiring writer and playwright to a fellow Irishman, James Joyce. Immediately drawn to Joyce's style and intellect, Beckett quickly joined the Irish author's inner circle. After several years of study with James in France, Beckett again moved on and traveled for nearly half a decade throughout Europe, gaining practical knowledge at each stop. In 1937 he returned to Paris and settled in, ready to begin writing. However, the impending start of World War II led Beckett to join the movementanti-war radical in Paris, and remained protesting the fighting even as the Germans invaded France. However, when several members of his group were arrested and prosecuted by the invading Third Reich, Beckett fled the country to an unoccupied territory, where he remained with his girlfriend (and future wife) until the war's conclusion. In 1945, with France restored, Beckett returned to his favorite Paris and embarked on what became one of the most prolific writing careers of the twentieth century. Based on the "Myth of Sisyphus", written in 1942, the French philosopher Albert Camus addresses the theme of absurdity in dramatic theatre, incorporating ideas that define the human situation as meaningless and absurd. While Camus offers the most concrete source from which the notion of absurdity is drawn, the foundation of the Theater of the Absurd may have originally been drawn from the Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, who is the first to use the term "absurd" in its current context. , explaining the incomprehensible and unjustifiable nature of Christianity and, in turn, illustrating the fragmented, illogical and chaotic reality of society. Former Stanford professor and author Martin J. Esslin, expounding the ideas of Camus, Kierkegaard, and Sarte, among others, coined the phrase "Theater of the Absurd," in an attempt to classify a group of expatriate writers who reside and work in the West. Europe and America in the mid-20th century. His book, considered the leading authority on authors of the time in the genre in question, and entitled The Theater of the Absurd, attracted much international attention to that previously misunderstood and largely ignored subsection of drama. The ideas infused into the plays of the period, particularly those of Beckett, also dictate their structure, or lack thereof. Absurdist playwrights, therefore, eliminated most of the logical structures of traditional theatre, opting instead to use more open and free-flowing dialogue. There is little dramatic action as conventionally seen; no matter how frantically the characters behave, their frenzy serves to underline the fact that nothing happens to change their existence. Furthermore, their conversations seem to have no predictable beginning or end; in many works we instead notice circular patterns of beats. Undoubtedly, a crucial role in the development of the Theater of the Absurd was the Second World War, a devastating battle that spanned almost an entire decade and affected every aspect of life, particularly for those living in Europe and participating in even the most minor aspects of the war , offering support or, in the case of many authors of the time, engaging in active protest against military action. Among authors who chose to protest the Second World War, including Beckett and Ionesco, protest served to fan the already smoldering embers of rebellion, further stoking the flames of discontent by illustrating a disturbing lack of values, subsequently exposing the precarious nature of war. human life and its fundamental lack of meaning. For the authors of the time, this armed aggression signaled society's increasingly downward spiral, reconfirming the disillusionment and skepticism we see expressed in their later works. Examining some of the first plays performed soon after the conclusion of the Second World War, one understands that there is a strong suspicion on the part of the playwrights that a devaluation of language is pushing humanity towards an abyss of despair. those early works – and an important piece in the evolution of absurdist drama – is Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, a work written by the Romanian that firmly establishes the Theater of the Absurd as a respectable and esteemed form of theatre.As one of the fathers of the genre, Ionesco once said: "It is not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it is humanity", a sentiment that succinctly sums up his disgust for popular culture and the humiliation of mankind ( ) . In The Bald Soprano, the playwright uses his platform to satirize the monotony and absurdity of the daily life of a bourgeois society petrified in the senseless formality of the age. Interestingly, Ionesco began his profession by accident; after moving from his native Romania to Paris to complete his doctoral thesis, he committed himself to learning English, using a translation guide as one of his main teaching tools. It is here that Ionesco first discovers the emptiness and clichés of everyday conversation, many of which appear in his phrasebook2E Ionesco intends The Bald Soprano to dramatize the pedestrian communication of everyday existence as a reflection of the fundamental emptiness of life, a fundamental tenant of Theater of the Absurd. Furthermore, he finds the conformity of society's words to be the most humorous, not to mention a little ridiculous most of the time. Ionesco is also skilled at capturing the arbitrary peculiarities of language: words used more to mask and hide reality than to inform and illuminate. When compared with the works of Ionesco, Samuel Beckett's works at first appear dark and depressing, although upon closer analysis, it is clear that behind every pessimistic comment lies a clever double meaning, which carefully hides the true spirit of the author. On the other hand, the joviality of The Bald Soprano is evident from the beginning, and the reader is easily drawn into the frivolous world of Mr. And Mrs. Smith as they entertain their Martin friends. Adding to the levity of the surreal setting are Mary the Maid and The Fire chief, both of whom add an unusual and nonsensical air to the whole proceedings. While The Bald Soprano is a silly, free-spirited lark, Endgame is something entirely different, a fatalistic vision of the world as only Beckett can write it. The two main protagonists, Hamm and Clov, go about their daily duties as if they were a married couple, shooting back and forth, despondent and depressed. Hamm, slowed by old age and his complete blindness, is unable to survive on his own and relies on Clov to assist him in even the most menial tasks. He is a cynical and bitter old man and regularly makes his displeasure felt, contributing to the unhappiness of his guardian, as well as his parents, Nagg and Nell. The routine that essentially forms the basis of the entire play is very representative of Beckett's work, not to mention the works of many members of the Theater of the Absurd. Regardless of how futile such routine is – and it is futile indeed – Beckett's thesis is that humans need such a regimented way of life to get through the days, rationalizing to themselves that death is not just around the corner . However, in a purely "absurd" irony, these boring programs are what brings the end closer, day after day. Although both men are clearly dissatisfied with their respective lives, they carry on, complaining every step of the way. Beckett's cyclical view of the world and the time spent here is perfectly expressed in the first lines of the play, as Clov says to Hamm: "Finished, it is finished, almost finished, it must be almost finished. Grain by grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, a pile appears, a little pile, the impossible pile” (2473). Through Clov, Beckett affirms his ideals, that life is one repetitive step after another, a mundane existence that Yes it ends only with its own death. Each grain can be considered a day in itself, a singular momentof time which, over the years, accumulates to form a "pile". At the end of all those minutes and days and years, after all those experiences have concluded, when that pile is finally ready to collapse, that's when death comes, and the moments of life are finalized. Once again, the desperation and basic existential nature characteristic of the Theater of the Absurd are reconfirmed, as Clov says: "It could end. All my life the same questions, the same answers" (2474). This quote is just another testament to the author's feelings about the lack of meaning that life has to offer, and once again demonstrates the circular nature of human life. The authors of the theater of the absurd, as a whole, attempt to take the spectator out of his comfort zone, to surprise him and push him to understand a new, genuine reality. To achieve this unstated goal, the playwrights implement an unconventional and innovative form never seen before the Second World War. The Theater of the Absurd openly rebelled against conventional theater, fighting established clichés that were no longer valid in post-war society. Instead, the new form of dramatic art was surreal, illogical, devoid of both conflict and plot, the exact opposite of everything society expected from theater. One of the most important aspects of absurdist drama was the distrust of language as a means of communication. Language had long established itself as a vehicle through which people could engage in conventional, meaningless, unimportant, and even less valid exchanges. When Hamm asks, "Aren't we beginning to... to... mean something," Clov's immediate response is to dismiss it as madness, replying, "Does it mean something? Do you and I, do we mean something? Ah, it's a good idea." one" (2483)! While this is normal for "absurdists", this line would have been rare in conventional drama. Many characters featured in Theater of the Absurd have been described as introspective, capable of grasping how insignificant everything truly is. While playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd flourished for almost thirty years, other art forms were not as prolific when they tried to associate their work with that of famous authors. A piece, however, that fits perfectly with the ideals of these ". absurdists" is Waiting, by Nesreen Nabil, a work that adapts perfectly to the thought of the Theater of the Absurd. In Waiting, Nabil is representing a scenography, and the stage is completely bare, with the exception of a certain number of chairs at the centre. This illustrates the importance of dialogue in the works of Beckett and his compatriots, as well as reconfirming the lack of action that occurs in many plays, a marked departure from the conventional forms of drama of the first half of the 20th century. The style Nabil chooses to use fits perfectly with the feelings depicted in Endgame, with a dark, brooding and colorless canvas, with only a single point of bright light at the center of the stage; this spotlight represents Hamm and his desire to move towards the light, not to mention his predilection to always be in the center of the room. When considering the most important aspect of The Bald Soprano, the first thing that immediately comes to mind are the four main characters and their interaction with each other. That said, there is no better way to understand someone's character faster than by looking into their eyes; after all, "the eyes are the windows to the soul." With this in mind, the attached poster, of a small theater company, impeccably idealizes the importance of the characters themselves in Ionesco's work, with their personalities and complexities exposed for all to see, through the..