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University of Aleppo Faculty of Arts and Humanities Department of English MA Literary Studies The Theatre of the Absurd: A Comparative Study of British and American Drama as Portrayed in Selected Plays of Beckett, Pinter, Albee and Shepard By Ahmad Tarek Al Sayed Ali Supervised by Prof. Dr. Iman Lababidi Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Literature 2018 Al Sayed Ali i Declaration I hereby certify that this work, The Theatre of the Absurd: A Comparative Study of British and American Drama as Portrayed in Selected Plays of Beckett, Pinter, Albee and Shepard , has neither been accepted for any degree, nor has it been submitted to any other degrees. Date: / / 2018 Candidate Ahmad Tarek Al Sayed Ali Al Sayed Ali ii Testimony We testify that the described work in this dissertation is the result of a scientific research conducted by the candidate Ahmad Tarek Al Sayed Ali under the supervision of Prof. Iman Lababidi, professor at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Aleppo University. Any other references mentioned in this work are documented in the text of this dissertation. Date: / / 2018 Candidate Ahmad Tarek Al Sayed Ali Al Sayed Ali iii Acknowledgements I thank the Almighty for granting me all help and guidance. I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Iman Lababidi, who helped me conduct this study with her immense philosophical insights and critical comments. I also owe a lot to the Head of the English Department, Dr. Adnan Al-Sayed. I cannot but offer my thanks to the staff of the English Department at Aleppo University. Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues, friends, and family members, who enhanced my thesis with their encouragement, patience, and prayers. Al Sayed Ali iv Abstract This research studies the absurdist themes and features in selected plays of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee and Sam Shepard. One main theme is Alienation and isolation of the modern man. Characters in these plays felt alienated not only from the world around them but also from themselves. On the one hand, man is detached from nature and lives in separate places. On the other hand, he becomes a stranger to himself as he cannot find a whole identity or find answers to his questions. Another theme is the uncertainty of identity; self and the other. Moreover, the obscurity of existence are analyzed closely in both Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Albee's The Zoo Story, The American Dream. Beckett raises various questions in his plays, which are left unanswered. Thus, there is an overall ambiguity in his works. Albee follows Beckett in dramatizing the theme of uncertainty. However, he does not analyze ambiguities in such philosophical or metaphysical depths like Beckett. These ambiguities that pervade the works of both writers stem from the following points: uncertainty of identity, uncertainty of existence and illusion versus reality. This is what makes their characters suffer from being human, having been born, being thrown on the earth. Moreover, the study goes on to examine the techniques and the dramatic effects as they are discussed in absurdist drama in the third chapter. Lightning, for instance, is an essential feature in absurdist plays. Mostly all absurdist plays are set in gloomy atmosphere which in turn affects the language and the whole theme of the play. Al Sayed Ali v Setting, language and style are the major points of discussion in Chapter Four. Style in absurdist drama differs thoroughly from traditional drama. Language in an Absurdist play is often dislocated, full of cliches, puns, repetitions, and non sequiturs. Setting is bare, furnished only with some chairs and scattered items, a tree, a park bench…etc. The aim of this study is to analyze the elements of the Theatre of the Absurd both in British and American Theatre. To trace these characteristics, selected plays of British and American drama are analyzed and compared in the light of the themes and the techniques of the theatre of the absurd. This research will follow a comparative method in order to have a better view of the absurdist visions of these different playwrights. The common themes are analyzed in the same chapters. Absurdist elements, techniques and all the features that helped in creating these absurdist visions are compared and discussed in separate chapters. Finally, the conclusion draws the similarities and differences of the plays being discussed. In this study, eight plays will be analyzed and compared, two plays for each playwright: Beckett's Endgame and Waiting for Godot; Pinter's The Room and Dumb Waiter; Albee's The Zoo Story and The American Dream; and Shepard's Buried Child and Geography of a Horse Dreamer which will be referred to as Endgame, Godot, Room, Dumb, Zoo, American, Buried and Dreamer when they are cited. Al Sayed Ali vi Table of Contents Declaration i Testimony ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Introduction 1 Chapter One: Alienation and Isolation in Harold Pinter's The Room, The Dumb Waiter 15 and Sam Shepard's Buried Child, Geography of a Horse Dreamer Chapter Two: Ambiguity of Identity and Obscurity of Existence in Samuel Beckett's 31 Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Edward Albee's The American Dream, The Zoo Story Chapter Three: Technique and Dramatic Effects in the Plays in Question 50 Chapter Four: Critical and Artistic Evaluation of the Plays in Question 64 Conclusion 95 Works Cited 99 Works Consulted 103 Al Sayed Ali 1 Introduction The Theater of the Absurd refers to a literary movement in drama popular throughout European countries from the 1940s to approximately 1989. Absurdist playwrights adhered to the theories of French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus, in particular his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, published in 1942. In this essay, Camus introduced his Philosophy of the Absurd, in which he argues that man's quest for meaning and truth is a futile endeavor. He compares man's struggle to understand the world and the meaning of life to Sisyphus, a famous figure in Greek Mythology condemned to an existence of rolling a heavy stone up a mountain only to watch it roll to the bottom. The Theater of the Absurd arose as a movement from the doubts and fears surrounding World War II and what many people saw as the degeneration of traditional moral and political values. It flourished in France, Germany, and England, as well as in Scandinavian countries. Several of the founding works of the movement include Jean Genet's The Maids (1947), Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano (1950), Arthur Adamov's Ping- Pong (1955), and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953). Beckett's death in 1989 is said to mark the close of the movement's popularity The absurdist plays categorized in this movement typically represent human existence as nonsensical and often chaotic. They rarely follow a clear plot, and what action occurs serves only to heighten the sense that characters (and human beings in general) are mere victims of unknown, arbitrary forces beyond their control. The Dialogue is often redundant, Al Sayed Ali 2 setting and passage of time within the play are unclear, and the characters express frustration with deep, philosophical questions, such as the meaning of life and death and the existence of God. The Theatre of the Absurd was an outstanding success in Europe, but it ventured slowly towards the United States. Following the postwar of World War II, Europeans felt a sense of disillusionment and were unable to find any purpose in life. This sense of abandonment made a significant impact upon the writers of France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain. Not only were they looking for a way to express themselves but they wanted also to rebel against the total idea of man’s existence and life itself. Dramatists found their outlet through play writing and they developed the Theatre of the Absurd (Esslin 267). The United States was not feeling a loss of meaning or purpose, but it was experiencing the American dream of good life which did not reflect absurdist views. Yet there was a time that United States patriotism, self-confidence and optimism dropped to a severe low. Specifically, the assassination of President Kennedy, the rise of racial tension in the United States and the Vietnam War caused Americans to look at the world differently as well as themselves (Esslin 267). It was at this time that the Theatre of the Absurd began to make itself known in America as avant-garde theatre. Al Sayed Ali 3 American avant-garde playwrights derived from the European dramatists of the Absurd. Their plays were written in an absurdist view point and they expressed the feeling of those dramatized in the Theatre of the Absurd. Edward Albee (12 March 1928 – 16 September 2016) is perhaps the most representational of the avant-garde and absurd styles of theatre. His works actually attack the foundation of America’s spirit and optimism. Using wit and sensibility, Albee writes about human outcast as in The Zoo Story, and scorns national pride and patriotism as it appears in The American Dream. Albee and other playwrights represent avant-garde theatre which was influenced by the European dramatists of the Theatre of the Absurd. The Theatre of the Absurd is an expression of emptiness and searching which flourished in Europe and influenced avant-garde styles in American. Themes reflect man confronting a universe deprived of its purpose in a world lost of explanation. These themes are expressed in the Theatre of the Absurd and they carry over into American avant-garde theatre.

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