preview

William Shakespeare 's The Absurd Theatre

Better Essays

In regard to time and place in the absurd theatre, it is noted that these two elements have their peculiarities that go with the absurd actions. Just as time and place are fundamental elements of man’s existence, they are also fundamental elements in literature. The time and place of man’s living may contribute not only to his personality, but also to his values, attitudes, and even his problems. In literature, time and place can also influence characters’ development and actions. So narrative writing needs time and place to give the story context. The details of time and place reflect the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings and move the story plot forward. Time may be static in some stories and dynamic in others. Place is often used to refer to the social milieu in which the events of a work of art occur. In brief, the two elements of time and place are extremely important to any narrative. They can have immense effects on the plot and the characters. Furthermore, they can establish the atmosphere, or mood, of a story. Spatial and temporal relations are interconnected. Time and place in absurd theatre are almost different from traditional drama because they are usually ambiguous and not fixed. Both are not used in their logical and traditional form. Eugene Ionesco seems to summarise these relations in the absurd theatre: The universe seems to me infinitely strange and foreign. At such a moment I gaze upon it with a mixture of anguish and euphoria; separate from the

Get Access