Absurdity in the Birthday Party

Absurdity in The Birthday Party

Chapter-1

Introduction

            ‘Absurdism’ is a term which refers to something without any purpose. The term ‘Absurd’ was given in the essay The Theatre of the Absurd by Martin Esslin in 1960. This term is used to describe the silly, irrational, nonsense, foolish and aspects of human life. It is a philosophical term which rested on the belief that just like the bewilderment that we witnessed in the play The Birthday Party, our own lives are as meaningless and purposeless. Absurdism can also be explained from another perspective which says it is a philosophy according to which the made efforts made by the to find meaning or logical explanation in the universe is of no use because no such meaning exists, at least in the case of human beings. The word absurd in this context does not mean "logically impossible," but rather "humanly impossible”. Many dramas have been created that are very much based on the philosophy of this theory.

            Harold Pinter is an English playwright who has won Nobel Prize. His works are known to be the most original of its times. He is also renowned for being the most well-known writer of Post-war era of the British theatre. He belongs to the group of the twentieth century playwrights who were known to introduce new and experimental ideas in their literary works. Writers such as Harold Pinter were tryimartin essmartinng to be unconventional in their writings by breaking away from the concepts of morality, sentimentality, religion etc. He, along with other post world war playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, were well aware of the troubles and sufferings caused by social, political and religious issues. All these factors put the existence of the modern man in danger. The helplessness of man and his efforts to escape such brutalities led to the emergence of theories such as ‘existentialism’ and ‘absurdism’.

            Thus, Harold Pinter, through his play, attempts to explore and analyse the sense of absurdity of human life trapped in such an atmosphere where man’s efforts, to escape the darkness and sad reality of the world, have proved to be futile.

            In this paper, we are focussing on one of his very popular plays, The Birthday Party, which was penned in the year 1957. Initially, the play was considered a commercial as well as a critical disaster but later, it went on to become one of Pinter’s best known works. After it was staged for the first few times, the audiences were bewildered as they kept wondering about how the plot made any sense. It created a lot of confusion amongst the people and received a lot of criticism from the audience as well as the critics, which actually led Pinter to think of giving up the stage. Theatre critics such as Irving Wardle, who was also a good friend of Pinter’s, introduced the phrase ‘Comedy of Menace’ after coming across this play. Martin Esslin, who created the term ‘absurdism’ considered this play as anth example of the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. The plays during 1950s and 1960s had elements of absurdity in a large amount. Playwrights like Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter shared the view that post World War man is living in a universe whose meaning cannot be deciphered and that his life is purposeless. His life is full of bewilderment, trouble and obscurity. Absurdity is the meaninglessness and purposelessness that our life possesses. Albert Camus in his Myth of Sisyphus portrayed how monotonous and aimless our life is and the condition of human situation in this world.

            The Birthday Party is a play set in an English boarding house in an unnamed coast, where Petey and Meg stay with one of their boarders Stanley. The story is mainly about Stanley, who was a pianist before coming to the boarding house. He finds himself lost in a nonsensical world that he cannot make sense of. The arrival of two strangers Goldberg and McCann, who have apparently come looking for Stanley, turn his supposed birthday party into a nightmare. They insist despite his protests, that it is his birthday and do not let him leave his home. The Birthday Party eventually leads to a nervous breakdown of Stanley. He is unable to control change or ignore his fate. Through his character we see the futility and purposelessness of life as he withdraws from the world and is indifferent to what is happening around him. Stanley’s loss of speech capabilities shows that life is futile without communication. Pinter through Stanley shows that our efforts to communicate with others is useless as we are no able to express completely. He thus emphasises the importance of silence in comparison to the words used by the characters.

            The Birthday Party contains almost all elements of an ‘absurd’ play, such as the fluidity and ambiguity of time, place, identity and also the disintegration of language.

            The theme of absurdism in this play, implies that logically, there is no progress seen in the plot. The situations and the dialogues at certain places seem to be indecipherable to the audience or the readers. Language does not serve the purpose of communication amongst the characters themselves. Moreover, the actions of the characters also appear irrational to the readers.                

Chapter - 2

2.1 Language as a mode of absurdity in The Birthday Party

            The plays of the 1950s and the 1960s were influenced by the trauma that was experienced by the people after witnessing World War II. It showed that all the values were transient and that the human life was surrounded by precariousness, obscurities and meaninglessness.  The plays of this time showcased the human’s basic situation. As per the Theatre of the Absurd the reality of life keeps going on and on in a circle leading to nothing, but despair.

            Harold Pinter in The Birthday Party tries to unveil the absurdity of human situation. He presents his play in a deceptively realistic way. The play consists of a credible dramatic situation but the plot structure is something that baffles the audience. In the same way, the characters too cause confusion amongst themselves and also the audiences. The play also doesn’t have a progressive or linear action that would allow the readers to decipher what is being tried to convey. However, every action and dialogue in the play has something very significant to carry. The play talks about the search of a human for safety in this world which has nothing but fear, worry, deceiving people and lack of empathy.