In an age of greater rationality, when the serious nature of man was exposed in its rawest form, Samuel Beckett, author of Endgame, addressed subjects that fell outside the scope of war and tangible issues of his time, and instead chose to focus on more abstract subjects, often with an emphasis on existentialist ideals. Beckett, as influential as any writer of his era, played a vital role in the formation of the avant-garde movement known as the Theater of the Absurd, an unincorporated group of playwrights whose work mainly took place from the late 1940s to the 1960s. Among those also classified as "absurd" are Arthur Adamov, Eugène 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 disagrees with him.” Its meaning is indecipherable and its place within it is aimless. He is disconcerted, disturbed and obscurely threatened” (Esslin, p. 43). This existentialist vision is found throughout Endgame and is echoed in Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, in which, like Beckett, the author writes dialogue in a repetitive, unnecessary and absurd manner, proving 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 essay Although the constituents of the Theater of the Absurd may have eschewed the standard oral communication of our traditional society, artists over the decades have also struggled to convey the message that these visionaries worked so hard to to pass. However, one artist who tried to express the true feelings of her work and did a valiant job is Nesreen Nabil, who in 1999 painted Waiting, self-proclaimed as "Set Scene for the Theater of the Absurd, this one is for Waiting for Godot, a play by Samuel Beckett" (Esslin.136). Also representative of the era and period discussed thus far, performed by a small repertory company, is a poster of a performance of The Bald Soprano, featuring four pairs of silent, observing eyes. These four plays 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 saw fit, without fear of persecution or poor box office returns. They wrote about what they felt and didn't ask anyone for permission. In return for this complete autonomy, they gave us great works of literature, which have stood the test of time and which, even today, stand 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. Discontented even to his earliest memories, Beckett worked his way through the education system and earned a BA from Trinity College, Dublin. Shortly after graduating, Beckett, a disaffected boy transformed into a 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 arriving in Paris, a mutual friend introduced the aspiring writer and playwright to a fellow Irishman, James Joyce. Immediately attracted to Joyce's style and intellect, Beckett quickly joined the seminal Irish author's inner circle. After several years of study under James in France, Beckett evolved again and traveled for nearly half a decade throughout Europe, acquiringpractical knowledge at every stop. In 1937, he returned to Paris and settled down, ready to begin his writing. However, the imminent start of World War II led Beckett to join the radical anti-war movement in Paris, and he stayed to protest the fighting even as the Germans invaded France. When several members of his group were arrested and prosecuted by the invading Third Reich, Beckett fled the country to unoccupied territory, where he remained with his girlfriend (and future wife) until the end of the war. 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 20th century. Derived from "The Myth of Sisyphus", written in 1942, French philosopher Albert Camus addresses the subject of absurdity in dramatic theater, incorporating ideas that define the human situation as meaningless and absurd. While Camus offers the most concrete source from which the notion of the absurd comes, the foundation of the Theater of the Absurd may have originally been drawn from the Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, who first used 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 on the ideas of Camus, Kierkegaard, and Sarte, among others, coined the phrase "Theater of the Absurd," in an attempt to classify a group of writers expatriates living and working in Western countries. Europe and America in the mid-20th century. His book, considered the premier authority on authors of the period in the genre in question, and entitled The Theater of the Absurd, brought great international attention to this previously misunderstood and largely ignored subsection of drama. The ideas imbued in the plays of the period, particularly those of Beckett, also dictate their structure, or lack thereof. Absurdist playwrights therefore removed most of the logical structures of traditional theater, choosing instead to use more open, free-flowing dialogue. There is little dramatic action as traditionally seen; As frantic as the characters are, their activity serves to emphasize the fact that nothing is happening to change their existence. Furthermore, their conversations seem to have no predictable beginning or end; instead, circular patterns of jokes are discernible in many works. World War II undoubtedly played a crucial role in the development of theater of the absurd, a devastating battle that lasted almost an entire decade and influenced all aspects of life, especially for those living in Europe and involved even in the most minor aspects of the war, whether offering support or, in the case of many authors of the period, engaging in active protests against military action. Among authors who chose to protest World War II, notably Beckett and Ionesco, the protest served to fuel the already smoldering embers of rebellion, further fanning the flames of discontent by illustrating a worrying lack of values, revealing through following the precarious nature of World War II. human life and its fundamental lack of meaning. For authors of the time, this armed assault signaled society's ever downward spiral, once again confirming the disillusionment and skepticism we see expressed in their later works. Looking at some of the first plays published immediately after the end of World War II, weunderstand that the authors strongly suspect that a devaluation of language is pushing humanity towards the abyss of despair. These early works – and an important piece in the evolution of absurdist drama – are Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, a play written by the Romanian that firmly establishes the Theater of the Absurd as a respectable and appreciated form of theater. As one of the fathers of the genre, Ionesco is said to have once said: "It is not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it is humanity", a sentiment which concisely sums up his distaste for popular culture and the brutalization of humanity ( ). In The Bald Soprano, the playwright uses his platform to satirize the monotony and absurdity of everyday life in a bourgeois society petrified in the void of meaning and formalities of the time. It is interesting to note that Ionesco practiced his profession by chance; After leaving his native Romania for Paris to complete his doctoral dissertation, he took it upon himself to learn 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 collection of phrases2E. Ionesco intends, with The Bald Soprano, to dramatize the pedestrian communication of everyday existence as a reflection of the fundamental emptiness of life, a fundamental tenant of the Theater of the Absurd. Additionally, he finds the conformity of society's words to be most humorous, if not more than a little ridiculous most of the time. Ionesco is also adept at tackling the arbitrary idiosyncrasies of language – words used more to mask and conceal reality than to inform and enlighten. Compared to the works of Ionesco, Samuel Beckett's plays at first seem gloomy and depressing, although upon closer analysis it becomes clear that behind each pessimistic comment there is a clever double meaning, carefully concealing the true spirit of the author. On the other hand, the joviality of The Bald Soprano is evident from the start, and the reader is easily drawn into the frivolous world of Mr. and Mrs. Smith as they entertain their friends the Martins. Adding to the lightness of the surreal setting are Mary the Maid and The Fire chief, both of whom add a quirky and absurd air to the whole proceedings. While The Bald Soprano is a silly, free-spirited lark, Endgame is something completely different, a fatalistic view of the world as only Beckett can write. The two main protagonists, Hamm and Clov, go about their daily tasks as if they were a married couple, shooting back and forth, discouraged and depressed. Hamm, slowed by old age and his total blindness, is unable to survive alone and relies on Clov to help him with the most menial tasks. He is a cynical and bitter old man, and he regularly makes his displeasure felt, contributing to the unhappiness of his caretaker, 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. Even if this routine is futile—and it is indeed futile—Beckett argues that humans need such a regimented lifestyle to get through the days, rationalizing to themselves that death is not just around the corner. However, in a purely "absurd" irony, it is these tedious schedules that bring the end closer, day by day. Although both men are visibly unhappy with their respective lives, they move forward, complaining at every step. Beckett's cyclical view of the world and our time here is perfectly expressed in the opening lines of the play, as Clov tells Hamm: "Finished, it's over, almost over, it must be almost over. Grain by grain, one by one. , and one day, suddenly, there is a pile, a small pile, the impossible pile" (2473). Through Clov, Beckett states his own ideals, according to which life is a repetitive stage after the 'other, a banal existence which only ends with its own death Each grain can be considered as an individual day, a singular moment which, over the years, accumulates to form a "heap". of all these minutes, all these days and all these years, after all these experiences have been finalized, when this pile is finally ready to tip over, that's when death arrives and the moments of life are finalized Once again, the despair and fundamental existential nature characteristic of the Theater of the Absurd are reconfirmed, as Clov says: "It can end all 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 absurd theater, as a whole, try to take the spectator out of his comfort zone, to push him to understand a new and authentic reality. In order to achieve this tacit objective, the playwrights implemented an unconventional and innovative form, unheard of before the Second World War. The Theater of the Absurd openly rebelled against conventional theater, fighting against long-established tropes that were no longer valid in post-war society. Instead, the new form of drama was surreal, illogical, devoid of both conflict and plot, the complete opposite of everything society expected of theater. One of the most important aspects of absurdist drama was its distrust of language as a means of communication. Language has long been established as a vehicle in which people can engage in conventional, meaningless exchanges of little importance and even less validity. When Hamm asks, "We don't begin to...to...mean something," Clov's immediate response is to dismiss this as madness, replying, "You mean something?" Do you and I want to say something? Ah, that's a good thing. a" (2483)! Although this is a fair attitude for "absurds", this phrase would have been rare in a conventional drama. Many characters in the Theater of the Absurd were portrayed as introspective, capable of understanding how everything really makes no sense While the playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd flourished for almost thirty years, other art forms were not as prolific in attempting to combine their work with that of the. famous authors, however, which perfectly corresponds to the ideals of these “absurds” is Waiting, by Nesreen Nabil, a work which perfectly corresponds to the thoughts of the Theater of the Absurd. In Waiting, Nabil stages a scenography, and the stage. is totally deserted, except for a few chairs in the center. This illustrates the importance of dialogue in the works of Beckett and his compatriots, as well as reconfirming the lack of action that takes place in many plays, a break. clean with the conventional forms of drama of the first half of the 20th century. The style Nabil chooses to use also perfectly complements the feelings depicted in Endgame, with a dark, moody and colorless canvas, with only a spot of bright light in the middle of the scene; this spotlight represents Hamm and his desire to move through the light, not to mention his predilection to be in the middle of the room at all times. When considering the most important aspect of The Sopranos..