Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Theatre of the Absurd: Ionesco and Beckett. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at the way in which the Theatre of the Absurd does away with traditional dramatic conventions in order to explore the instability and irrationality of the human condition. Examples from the works of Ionesco and Beckett are included. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLabsurd.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
step" with the universe which they inhabit, and that they can find neither meaning nor purpose in it. He points out that an important influence was World War II, which
undermined social conventions and emphasised the impermanence and fragility of human life. At the same time, the Absurdist dramatists wished to restore a "lost sense of cosmic wonder and primeval
anguish" (Culik, 2000, PG) by jarring the audience out of their complacency: Absurdist plays were unconventional and innovative in form and content, pushing back the boundaries of human experience and
rationality. An important feature was the way in which Absurdist plays treated language: words were seen as unreliable and stereotyped, dealing in meaningless clich?s. In
Ionescos The Chairs, we see this particularly at the end of the play. During the main part of the text, as Craby (1998) points out, there is rational enough analysis
of language: the Old Man says "Its so hard to put things into words... yet everything must be spoken" and refers to his attempts as "inevitable-sounding words". The Old Woman
feels that once he gets started, " itll sound inevitable enough - like living and dying". (Ionesco, cited by Craby, 1998, PG). At the end, however, when the Narrator comes
on and allows the couple to finally kill themselves, crying "Long live the emperor!" he is unable to pass on their final, desperately important message to the audience: he is
dumb. In The Bald Prima Donna, also, the use of language gives rise to chaos rather than clarification. Mr Smith says that Bobby has "regular
features" but is "too big and stout" and in the same breath goes on to say that "her features are not regular but she is a little too small and
...