Twilight in delhi Essay Example for Free

Twilight in delhi EssayThe endpoint Absurd is essenti onlyyimpregnated with various clemente conditionsand situations arousing mistakenity and is necessarily present in the come in world war generation. Life has become bitter sweet or life in death and death in life? to the coming generation. This hu existence predicament pullulate its spears during 1920s, developed during 1940s and perpetuated in the later world. This very notion wasenchanted, transported and sometimes devastated by the intellectualsof this world such as T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Existentialists, Expressionists, Surrealists, and Absurdists of the 20th century. And de mark for Godot is central sun round whom all the absurdist notionsmove. Ittranscendentstime and hasthe cosmicsignificance even after 60 years ofits publication. Itinsinuates modernismand perpetuates postmodernismthatis postcode but too much with us late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our lives before it. Really in the midsty of then terminologicalmayhem, Absurd is best identified withWaiting for Godot with its sense of nothingness in life. Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary journal (LLILJ) 29 Key words Absurd, Existentialism, Surrealism, and Post modernism.ThetermAbsurd is essentiallyimpregnated withvarioushumanconditions and situations arousingabsurdityand is necessarily present inthe postworld wargeneration. Lifehas become bitter sweet orlifein death and deathinlife? to the coming generation. This human predicament sprouted itsspears during 1920s, developed during 1940s and perpetuated inthe laterworld. This verynotionwasenchanted, transported and sometimes devastated bythe intellectualsof this world. Ontheone hand T. S. Eliotbeautifully mirrored theinnerabsurdityofthemodernworld in his magnum-opus The waste land (1921), and Samuel Beckett in his master piece Waiting for Godot (1955), on the other.Superficially Abusrd mode ridiculous, but literally it means Sense having nonsense? or having everyth ing hath nothing?. That is considered absurd is actually anti- traditional andavant-garde,henceis ridiculed. But originally itssignificancelies in itscrude reality. WhenEliotrepents for spiritual infertility in themodernworld, which isfulloffuryand mire, Absurd dramatists were preparing a suitable platform to expose the absurdity of modern man? s life. Absurd dramatistsevenopted the absurd formto expose theabsurdityinits mosteffectiveway.Thisincludesthewriters ofbothdramaand prose fictionand themostsignificantofthemare French Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco, Irish Samuel Beckett, English Harold Pinter, American Edward Albee and others. Both mood and dramaturgyofabsurditywere anticipated intheir works. Theywere also supported byfewothermovementslike expressionism, and surrealism, alongwith fewotherforcefulworks ofFranz Kafka (TheTrial, Metamorphosis).Thiscurrent movementemerged inFrance after the world was second, asa rebellionagainstessential doctrines and values oftraditional cultur e and traditionalliterature, whichhad the belief that-What a piece of work is a man? How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty In form and moving how expressand admirable In apprehensionhowlike a God The beauty ofthe worldThe paragon of animals?. (Hamlet 47) Theorizing the Absurd Waiting for Godot SixtyYears After 30 But afterthe 1940s existentialist philosophy byJean- Paul Sartre Ablert Camus opined human being as an isolated existant, cast into an alien universe, having a fruitless search for direct and meaning and proceedingtowardsnothingness. They believe that- Its an odd world Full of allthings absurd Most ofit obscure Unseen and unheard. (Brainy Quotes)Thisvery absurdityhas been beautifully penned byAlbert Camus in his TheMythof Sisyphus? (1942) as Ina universe thatis suddenly deprived ofillusions and oflight, manfeels stranger. Hisis anirremediable exile This diovrce between man and hislife, the actor and his setting sincerely yours constitutes the feeling of absurdity. (13) and as EugeneIonesco added fire to the fuel by statingthat- Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost, all his actions become senseless, abusrd and useless. (A Glossary of the Literary wrong 1) Thisvery notionseemssimilartothefollowing lines byS.T. Coleridge,ofhisfamousballad Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Water-water every where Not a drop to drink. (Coleridge 14) SamuelBeckett(1906-89), the mostcelebrated author ofthisvein, isanIrishauthor, writing inFrenchand thentranslating hisownworks into English. His beginning lies inthe breakdown of traditional values. His prominent and dominent theme, hence is man? s alienation and search forselfwhich is the prevailing mode of modernman? slife. His works showthe dusk ofmodernismand dawnofpost-modernismand so washonored withNobelPrize for Literature Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary Journal (LLILJ)31 in1969. As we bid sayonarato onestar, we welcome the other ata transitionalpoint, in the s ame way the publication of Waiting for Godot in 1955, was the appreciated transitional presence on the stage, which bid adieu to themodernism and welcomed post-modernism. ThetermPostmodernism designates too muchwith us late and soon,getting and spending, we laywaste ourlives before it.?Thefounder of this termis Charles Jencks, buthas beenbeautifully defined by Dick Hebdige in Hiding in the accrue as The collective chagrin and ghoulish projections of a post- War generation of babyboomers expecting disillusioned middle age, the predicament? of reflexivity the collapse of cultural hierarchies, the dread engendered by the threat of nuclear self-destruction a sense (developing onwho youread)of placelessness? or theabandonmentofplacelessness(criticalregionalism).Waiting for Godot beautifully designates all these paraphernalia of postmodernism through a vague and nebulous word as well as term of terminological mayhem absurd?. The play has proliferated at anexceptionalrate overthe lastsi xtyyears becauseitdealswiththenotionof man? s existence in this futile world.The playWaiting for Godot portrays an image of man? s existence, which evenafter60 yearsofitspublications seems sort of real. Todaymanhas gained sensible advancement but inner triviality or fragility is still lurking upon his self. The play is a modern allegory of post-war man in a godless, dimensionless and nonmeaningful world. recently Syrian Army attacked on Damascus suburb with chemical weapons, after the Nato? s attack on Yugoslavia and the suffrage in Iraque. Here the lines of W. B. Yeats seems quite applicable, when he says that Turning and turning inthewidening gyre, The falcon can not hear the falconer?Things fall apartthe center cannot hold, Mere anarchyis loosed upon theworld, The blood dimmed flow is loosed and everywhere, The ceremony ofinnocence is drowned. (The Second Coming) Theorizing the Absurd Waiting for Godot SixtyYears After 32 Waiting for Godot formulates a definition of man that transcends the time. The plays that follow it are also pre-occupied with the feeling normal of our times. All that Fall (1959), a radio play, describes man? s frustration and absurdity.Kropp? s Last Tape (1958) is concerned with the perfect realization of Beckett?s psyche of human isolation. Embers (1959) is a monologue of an old man who is haunted by the memory of the past and feels used, confused, and abused. Happy Days (1961) stages the irrationality of human existence without purpose and order. Beckett? s world bears a close resemblance to Camus? s world depicted in The Myth of Sisyphus. Universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, stranger.His exile is without remedysince he isdeprived of the memoryofa losthomeor the hopeofapromised land. Camus? s book appeared in 1942, i. e. , during the World War II.The development of the feeling ofthe absurd passesthroughfour stages (1) First one recognizes the meaninglessness oflifewhichis shocking. Second is l ive inconflict between intention(innervoice) andreality. Thethirdistheassumptionofheroic dimensions through living the conflictand makingithis God. The fourthand finalstage consists inthe conscious affirmationthatnothing happens in lifein reality. The sense ofanguish at the absurdityoflife is the theme oftheplays notonlyofSamuelBeckett, but ofAdamov, Ionesco and Genetalso. Asimilarsense ofthemeaninglessness oflifeisalso thetheme ofdramatists, like Sartreand Camus. Butthereis a difference.Thetheatreofthe Absurd abandonsrational devices whereasSartre and Camus expressthenewcontentinthe old convention. MartinEsslin comments on the plays of Beckett is apt, apposite, and appropriate Beckett? s plays lack bandage even more completely than otherworks of the Theatre of the Absurd. Instead of alinear development, they present their author? s intuition of the human coordination by a method thatis essentially polyphonic, they confront their audience with an organized structure of Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary Journal (LLILJ).33 statements and images that interpenetrate each other and thatmust be apprehended in their totality, or else like the different themes in a symphony, whichgain meaning by their simultaneous interaction. (The Theatre of the Absurd 44-45) Waiting for Godot is now recognized as a coeval classic. It was written in 1948, since thenithas beentranslated into manylanguages and performed all over the world. Themost remarkable thingabouttheplayisitsunconventional design. Theplayis apparently haphazard. Butactually it isan extraordinarily powerfulplayin which form and meaning are skilfully blended.The coreofa good playis actionorhappenings, here the verypurpose oftheplayis to say that nothing happens -nothing really happens in human life. Waiting of Godot is thus a paradox. Itisa drama of inaction. Asmanisusually ignorantabout hisrealpurpose in life and he lives inhope ofsome revelationinfuture. We justhangaround waitinglike thetramps or rushmadl y aboutlike Pozzo in search of some purpose. We pass judgment to get a purpose and orderinthat world whichsteadfastly refusesto evidence either. Waiting for Godot is having four characters, who are not four distinct personalities.They are rather generalized images of allmankind(109) whichinLucky? s phrase, isseento waste andpine wasteand pine (73). Theyrepresent aview ofmanas a helpless victim of his life. Non-specific settings are a common feature of Beckett? s drama. The stage -space intheplayisabsolutelybare. Itisindescribable. Itis likenothing. Thereis nothing. There is a tree says Vladimir (117). Strange happenings (sudden rise of the moon, sprouting of leaves), strange characters and their irrational behaviour suggest abstract quality of this setting. The text describes itas void ornothing.Thewhole plot, whichis actuallyabsentmoves round thewaitingofthat personwhose identity, is evennotsure. Vladimirand EstragonwaitforGodot, whose arrivalissupposed butalways suspended as mode rnmanwhatever wishes to do or achieve, scattersinsilence. Now, united we Theorizing the Absurd Waiting for Godot SixtyYears After 34 do notstand butfallinthisfutile world. Eventhoughtlessnesshasbecome the source oftrouble. Thefollowing discussionmade by Vladimir and Estragon beautifully designates it We are in no danger of thinking any more Thinking is not theworst. What is terrible is to have thought.(1954 62-63) Eventually the grace of Beckett? s Waiting for Godot pruned the modern man? s body and soul alike. Even after sixty years of its publication, we designate its significance and relevance both thematically and stylistically. Really whena manpassesthroughexcess deprivationand hopelessness, whether he commits suicide or tries to take revenge but absurdity even does not allows either. Works Cited Abrams, M. H. AGlossaryofLiteraryTerms. IndiaThomsonBusinessInternationalIndiaPvt. Ltd. 2006. Print. Beckett, Samuel. WaitingforGodot. NewYork Grave Press. 1954. Print. Camus, Albert.T he Myth of Sisyphus. Harmondsworth PenguinBooks. 1975. Print. Coleridge, S. T. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. India Anmol Publication. 2009. Print. Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. New YorkDoubleday. 1961. Print. Hebdige, Dick. Hiding inthe Light On Images and Things. London Routledge. 1988. Print. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. India Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. 2001. Print. Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary Journal (LLILJ) 35 Bio-note- Vijay Kumar Rai, Research Scholar,Dept. of English, DDU Gorakhpur University e-mail-Vijaykumar. emailprotected com.