Samuel Beckett as a playwright absurd
Samuel Beckett as a playwright absurd
Samuel Beckett Bracelay (1906-1989) is concerned as one of the leading playwrights of the postmodern era. He brought revolutionary changes in the norms and rules according a drama which has been appreciated for centuries and introduced a new type of drama that Martin Esslin labeled under the title 'Theatre of the absurd. " The theater of the absurd has the anguish of the man who arises because it is surrounded by areas impenetrable darkness. In this chaos, there will never be able to know his true nature and purpose and nobody can provide the ready-made rules of conduct follow. Mark the difference between a good game and an absurd game, Martin Esslin opines:
If a good play must have a cleverly constructed story, they no story or plot to speak of: if a good play is judged by subtlety of characterization and motivation, are often recognizable characters and without presenting the audience with almost mechanical puppets, if a good play must have a fully explained theme, which is perfectly exposed and finally solved, which often have neither beginning nor end, if a good game is to hold the mirror up to nature and portray the manners and manners of the age in finely observed sketches, they often seem to be reflections of dreams and nightmares, "if a good play based on the witty dialogue and sharp, they often consist of incoherent infancy. (21-22)
Canon Beckett's drama is wide and varied. He wrote two plays, mime, six radio plays, films, six television scripts, a play actorless and dramas seventeen with actors talk about the scene. His long series of dramas are jewelry collection in the storage of the literature. On his interest in plays Bair said: "It was like a game for him to put the speech on paper, imagine how the characters should move and talk - all within the confines of the printed page and its spirit. It was a bit like chess: Conspiracy moves, predict changes and interactions intellectualize. (381)
Its first exit to the stadium was a new piece called historical human desires. It is planned to be a play in four acts that have discussed the life of Dr. Johnson. After an unprecedented new game Kid lost his pen his mastery over the documents because of war. Immediately after which he gave Elutheria that was thought to be developed in three acts, but never felt the presence theater. His masterpiece Waiting for Godot gave him a distinct voice as a playwright. It came with two acts that Beckett suggested, an act would have been too little and three would have been too much. The play has been severely criticized, but its depth and originality were recognized. This is a play about two tramps waiting on the road to an unknown country that Godot will reward them for their wait at the rendezvous.
After that, Beckett abandoned scene for many years and were engaged in translating the French version in English. But the reputation of In Waiting for Godot forced to write something new and the result came in the form of radio play called "All That Fall, followed by Endgame. All That Fall he took in the new world of radio, a different medium, but with the day to day characters. Endgame This series claustrophobic, the situation of the terminal and characters of unidentifiable origin. The game began with the thought of two acts, but the interval was deliberately abandoned Beckett thought there was no structural reason for it. It is an ordinary family quarrels Daily and attachments. The disaster of Endgame Beckett led him to write a play mime - Act Without Words "that this a mute figure who struggles to learn the futility of the motion.
Experience in mime and radio play him the inspiration to write last Tape a tape in which Krapp recalls the image of the radio playing and the solitary figure of Krapp resembles the image of mime. It transmits with brio the poignant anguish of decrepit Krapp has lost its middle-aged self. With the exception of Happy Days, which requires the interval for reasons planting techniques Winnie the ground, all his plays Krapp's Last from Tape are represented in a single act with the scene. Other Parts radio like fire, lyrics and music Cascando removed all the fog challenge for Beckett in this environment and moved to the cinema with film (1965) and television play Eh Joe (1966). He seeks an affinity for the small screen and informality the possibility of using the camera.
The invention of the new technique of using theatrical space is assisted by Happy Days (1961), Play (1963), come and go (1966) and Breathe (1969). Merry displays Now how a woman is absorbed by his grave. This piece depicts the courage of the human race, which, in spite of all disasters, welcomes death with joy. Prepared Happy Days platform game, if the reader / viewer can accept a woman buried up neck under the hot sun, they can easily accommodate three counts related urn with a projector. The marriage of Winnie is followed by a love triangle involved that this non-realist vision of hell, where three people died suffer the torments of their misdeeds. They are telling what happened to them there long ago by a swiveling projector. Innovation has scored twice in the repetition of the whole piece they have just done. Coming and Going Breathe and reduce to a very dramatic shot length. Come and Go only ends in three minutes and shows the circularity of time for so short period of time. Breathe this shortness of life, while in thirty seconds. It simply presents an inspiration and expiration on a stage naked.
His plays later, seem to be the study of the sense of theater - about the coordination between the character and background, light and sound, words and silence. His next play was not me (1972) shows that coordination in which the light beam and the buzz become part of speech. This ten-minute monologue with a spot - on the lips of women against a dark scene recalls the image of Play. Mouth is telling the story of a woman who is in a deadlock to be punished for a foul unknown. It is a difficult game for an actress who has articulate quickly enough to be barely comprehensible. That Time made its existence in 1976, and has a face lit by three monologues recorded before by the same actor. Footfalls this story slow voice of a woman and her daughter. Television plays Ghost Trio .... But the clouds .... and Quad are added to the store's dramatic canon.
In his last period plays became the occasion that were written for a reason or a specific event. In 1982, the disaster has supported the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel and a piece of monologue has a chance to play with David Warrilow was impressed Beckett. His next play Ohio Impromptu stage two identical characters with a book. One of them leads the game and the other remains silent listener. Even in his last days, his plays have been inventive and unpredictable. Traume Nacht and retransmits a dream and his dramatic career has been engraved with what and where (1984).
His pieces seemed to be esoteric and start a wave of articles and letters were written after the first performance Waiting for Godot. Critics have tried hard to interpret his plays, but none of the interpretations, whether Christian or mythological or respond to all the facts. Beckett remained silent and did not confirm a specific explanation. Leonard C. Pronko recognized her talent and comments:
Only the most insensitive filth could not feel intensely the essential meaning of Beckett's work. And if he is awake, He will understand the basic dramatic situation, and issues. Beyond what can be "headaches" for the analyst overzealous. (36-37)
He has not interpret the images and now the audience / reader how he interprets the network of its parts. Eliopulos supports this view when he says "the impact of the Beckett plays lies not in what they say to the world, but in what they do to each viewer. Beckett has prepared an "experience" and personal responses to every experience must be amended. (33) Originally written in French most of his plays are translated into English by Beckett himself. He also attended by directors of his plays under the stage size. The combination of the writer and director has made his written text alive. It describes Each physical action if this is not implicit in the discourse and recurrent pauses and silences to mark the rhythm of speech. This contact allows him to be more economical use of both languages and landscapes. It removed everything that is of no use for the image that wanted picture. Beckett's theater display most features Martin Esslin set for a piece of absurd theater.
"Conspiracy" a chain of events that are well organized for aesthetic and artistic effects in particular, is not the events developing that could lead to a final play Beckett. He released the constraint such as two to three hours performance and effectively presented more tense, tight structure and polyphonic dramatic. In the theater of the absurd, the action does not move from one point to another in other conventions instead it builds the dramatic concrete patterns and complex poetic images that the play reflects. The viewer must wait for completion progressive model, because only after that can display the entire image. The completion of the image led him to explore, to ask questions and seek what exactly does the piece.
Waiting for Godot, until the second coming of the horse, the audience / reader is not sure he is visiting a game that never ends. This kind of drama creates a higher level of dramatic tension and offers more relief when satisfied. It is irrational to claim that the construction irrational poetic image of absurd theater, it is easier than to build a golf rational because there is a huge difference between a non-valid and artistic sense simply absurd. There is always the presence of reality itself while creating a realistic terrain. While in the absurd drama, the author must have the ability to invent images and situations that do not equivalent in nature. It must establish a new universe with its own logic and rules must be understandable to the public. simple combination of irrational images without any logic will only produce banality is not a work of art. The author must realize that only fragments of incoherent of reality are not sufficient, but the ability to transpose into any valid imagination is equally essential.
Beckett was well aware all these facts and builds his pieces with great attention. In the plot there is a traditional beginning, middle and end, but Beckett is such a lack development. There is no sequence of events or the resolution of certain problems, but a static situation in which nothing happens. All material plays in the canon of Beckett have a circular structure. Waiting for Godot, the frequent closure followed by a new openness rejected the idea final end of the room. The second act seems to be identical to the first act only with slight variations. The second act shows no solution of problems vagrants and the play ends suggesting infinite series. The end of the second act may be the beginning of the third, fourth and fifth leading to act and so on ad infinitum. Endgame deals with the same situation when Clov tries to close the action by taking the traditional form of theater 'song'-final he was arrested by Hamm with the command: "Do not sing and play moves on and ends with the same situation in which it begins, giving the idea that he can start again with the same routine. Repeating twice the game clearly states its circularity. plays Beckett presented the miseries of life, human struggle for existence and provided that these problems persist, how can there be a late Beckett play. mind at the end of the reading audience / reader always anxious to know if it is a proper end or more that will happen.
In parts traditional, there is a tendency that the viewer identifies with the 'actor' which is the scene on the stage. The theater of the absurd this successfully, these characters, whose purpose and action can not be imitated. The public can not identify with the characters that appear be mere puppets. To communicate and share mysterious nature of the real state of man, the playwright introduces character less human by him because he can not freely express their opinions without engaging in the chains of logic. Beckett's characters are barely recognizable. Albert Cook said, "Beckett's people are negligible and identification with a category of people under the age of humanity in general." (Quoted in Eliopulos 116) His characters do not preach moral and philosophical views. They are not directly derived from the realistic world, but are highly stylized one. They live hopelessly in the immediate present, without specific plans for the future and for whom the past is a source of happiness but it is not feasible again.
From his first published play Waiting for Godot at the last event where the image of man is shown in a downward manner. Beckett, from the beginning presented the illusion of nature in the form of character, and then dissolved belief public confidence in the authenticity of the image of man. Waiting for Godot, the validity of the presence of Vladimir and Estragon is in doubt, when the second messenger boy refuses to recognize. In Endgame, confusion to distinguish when Hamm himself performs and when he plays a role to reduce the feeling of his presence as an image of man. In Krapp's Last Tape, it eliminates the presence of a second person and the replacement of a tape recorder. This is a breakthrough piece in which one character is doubled, then tripled by the invention mechanics of the tape recorder. Happy Days Picturize a middle-aged woman gradually consumed by a mound of earth. Until I do, the presence remains in the form of the mouth that does not speak the word "I" and is presented in the third person. The proof of the person who belongs to the text oralized by mouth is not given. The game is staged with three sides and the series tied urn Drop the image of the human race is happening in parts of Beckett. Guicharnaud opine on the characters of Beckett:
The characters of Beckett Theatre are constantly caught between their own clumsiness and resistance of objects, including their own bodies. Shoes that are too small, too small hats, car doors too low, too high windows, the conditions of the prostate, bleeding, itching ... Beckett's universe of perpetual irritation. (116)
Not only that, almost all his characters suffer from physical deterioration. Tarragon has boots and Vladimir shins hurt has paining. Hamm is blind and can not move. Clov can move, but can not sit. Nagg and Nell are legless and kept in Ashbina. Winnie is absorbed by the earth and all three characters in the play are in cages in the polls. Another distinctive feature of his characters is that they mirror many alphabets characterization in their names mixed.
TARRAGON POZZO HAMM Nagg WINNIE
VLADIMIR CLOV LUCKY WILLIE NELL
This style is held in three of its main parts as the characters related to each other the name of any number of the alphabetical structure. But their behavior is contrasted with Vladimir appears to be tolerant and intellectual type, Tarragon is quick tempered and intuitive way. Pozzo, the master of the whip, ordering Lucky - a passive follower bearing the former luggage. Like Pozzo, Beckett has triggered talented scholar Hamm Clov cons which parrots. Nagg is a loving husband and Nell is a smart lady who cherishes memories. Winnie is full of life and can not remain silent. On the other hand, Willie is introverted and speaks only a few words during the entire room. In his plays later It generally removed the names of characters and is used as an alphabet in Play - M, W1 and W2 or I have mentioned that part of the body as in Not me - Mouth. Thus, Beckett experimented with concrete image of the actor on the stage of man. His characters do their entrances and exits on the stage of life, verbalization tales full of sound and fury.
absurd drama deals with dark and violent "object" again failure to identify with the characters that led to the comedy. Thus, it transcends the category of both - the tragedy and comedy, and is a combination of laughter with horror. It has no social facts, habits, political attitudes or examples of events historical, but a disintegrated universe, empty of meaning that has no unifying principle - an absurd universe. Beckett began writing in a world where there is no unity, clarity, hope, rationality and man feels himself a stranger to everyone. These experiments led him to ask questions about the authenticity of his existence. His main concern is the failure of man, his identity, its limits and the value of its existence. He himself admitted, "I work with impotence, ignorance. My little exploration is that the entire area of being that has always been reserved by artists as something unusual - like something by definition incompatible with art. "(Quoted in Eliopulos 31) His works present images of entropy in which the world and the people in it are slowly but inexorably down running. He is respectful of preoccupation with death and dying. death as an event is presented as a human desire, but ultimately impossible while the death as a process is shown in our reality only certainty.
Beckett realized he could do an expressive use of existing cash "music" through the genre of drama. Mihalovici Beckett described as "an outstanding musician ... He has an amazing musical intuition ... I often use in my composition. "(Quoted in Mercier 145) There is always a touch of music in his plays Waiting for Godot since. But the real stars were shining with his radio plays, which reminded him of the possibilities of music. Pending Godot includes songs about Vladimir and the free verse movement of the floor of Lucky monologue. At the beginning and the end of the play All That Fall the music of "Schubert's death and the maiden is played on an old gramophone. In Happy Days Winnie plays Waltz Duet "I love you so" from "The Merry Widow".
The real triumph of music over words can be observed in words and musicians. Music is presented as a small orchestra that can be heard tuning up as the game starts. When Croak is tired of the words "pseudo - analysis Scholastic He calls the music sweet tunes appropriate supplies on the 'Audible groans and protests "of words. In Cascando, the music plays the role of third person. "For Cascando ... it was not a question of a musical commentary on the text but to create, by musical means of a character, so to speak, which occurs sometimes alone, sometimes with the narrator, but not just accompaniment to him. "(Ibid., 146) In short, music has become synonymous with emotions for Beckett. He has softened the atmosphere tiring and boring parts. Hamm could be verified Clov to sing that lead to Winnie the final, but closed with a song "Happy Days.
Show or staging was very interested in the craft of the stage. While there used to be decorated stage in plays Traditional Beckett had omitted all the unnecessary proposal stage. Stadium is not designed as a garden or a palace, but the sterility occupies the scene of Beckett. The light is assigned a role served as controls and forces them to talk about the characters. From Classical to Elizabethan theater, plays have been organized in architectural spaces. With the help of language, a playwright can develop imaginative and literal meaning scene. The arrangements are set for inputs, outputs and an iconic image that could be targeted as a palace or public space. The public perceives the perception of the characters in the image creates scenic and his designs. Beckett had eliminated the picturesque details and limited action in a specific context which may lead to an affirmation of the possibility of knowledge. In pieces like Footfalls where voice quality, posture, emotional drama and intensity may differ from production to production, each stage must be set with the original design lightning, costume design and even the field of traffic are blocked through the card in the text. Beckett creates parameters Non-specific characters that separate from any social boundations. It is picturising the generalized condition of human infertility space stage. It can not specify the restrictive environment geographically or historically, but do not forget to specify the limits to the idea that his character can not cross, because apart from her is death.
In good literary theater piece, "language" is a predominant factor. Language is the main source reflect the thoughts and actions of characters. There is a break in the communication language characters in the theater of the absurd. Its main objective is that the language must be the authentic content rather than hide it. This can be done only when man leave the ossified cliches and further steps towards living language. absurd drama introduces new dimensions of the scene using the language of a scene unlike the action, by reducing it to a non-verbal meaning, expressing the thoughts in poetic logic of the association and images instead of discursive language. A space is provided by the theater the playwright is filled with visual images and sound. Beckett fully supported this assessment and the ability to visually express the silence on the scene.
Beckett plays are language center that accepts its own degradation. dramatic speech in the theater of Beckett has the basic level of action. It is not subordinate to gestures, movements and adjustment. For the first time in silence Beckett and abstraction are not presented as alternative but as part of the main floor, the contents of drama, and elements of dramatic language. Beckett is aware of the relationship between the subject (Theme) and the method of [deleted] Language). He considers this as the container of the first, highlighting the absurdity of the dissociation comic two non-interaction. Language for Beckett is not a self sufficient to express concepts and themes in the plays, he needs the support of paralinguistic and non-linguistic features. The ability to speak, even if the whole body is reduced to the head sticking out of garbage is the main dimension of Beckett's plays.
The language of his plays is making efforts to break the logical sequence and association to the fluidity of consciousness. Beckett consciousness that communication is not possible lies in the belief that the absolute sense is absent from the world. The language in the form of communication becomes deprived in the absence absolute external criteria. Beckett takes special care of the syntax and vocabulary. Her new words and syntax are ambiguous cons-balanced by simple sentences and day the vocabulary of everyday life. If certain parts of his plays are unintelligible speech as Lucky in Waiting for Godot, the other parts can be easily digested than the verbal ping-pong of Vladimir and Estragon.
To summarize, Beckett celebrated presence is felt not only on stage French but throughout the international literary community. He became one of the absurd playwrights first to win international renown. In 1969 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, one of the few times this century that almost everyone agreed that he deserved recipient. It continued to write until his death in 1989 and to the decline of his life, he felt every word must be an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.
Works Cited
Bair, Deidre. A Biography: Samuel Beckett. London: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978.
Eliopulos, James. Samuel Beckett's dramatic language. Paris: The Hague, 1975.
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1961.
Guicharnaud, Jacques. Modern French Theatre. New York: Yale University Press, 1961.
Mercier Vivian. Beckett / Beckett. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Pronko, Leonard C. Avant Garde: Experimental Theater in France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.
About the Author