Absurdity

[Caramel]

I'm currently doing research on one of the Theater of the Absurd play.
One of my supervisor told me to find the pattern of the absurdity in the play.
My question is, does absurdity has a pattern?
I always thought that there's no pattern in absurdity, it's just is as things just happens itself.
Much appreciated for your responses :smile5:

[JommiL]

Heh, you have mean teacher! That is a very good question, worthy of thinking. I love teachers, who are going to ask something like that.
Hmm. There is pattern, at least from my point of view. It is quite simple, but perhaps you can rip something sense out of this;

Usually absurd play - or novel - will base into some simple basic situation, and main thing is that, that with those small decisions which characters will do, will have crushing, surprising results. Absurd play´s or novels logical thinking is to put people´s personally choosen moral against society´s, and usually society wins. But the main point of absurd drama, it has very distinct, very special system in it. It could be described as a atheistic frustration; If there´s no God, we must - as person - create out meaning of life. But this cannot be completely succeed - we must take a look outside, people around us. Sartre wrote that "Hell - it is another people" It is very often true, but also other people will give lot of more sense into our lives, they make it rich. Summa summarum; Absurd play´s pattern may be after all be just that, that something, someone in this world has clear meaning - we are just part of something MUCH larger. Absurdity is the result, when we try to fight against this law of nature? Donne wrote once that "No man is an island."

This for beginnig, could you make it littlebit more accurate...? :smile5: I have small problems to figure this question completely out.

[littlelit]

I think that while the word 'absurdity' does imply random meaninglessness, most absurd novels/plays do follow a certain pattern. I can not explain my point without using an example: Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot, uses certain dialogues in the same sequence a number of times, almost like a formula. Whenever the characters find they have nothing to do, their conversation goes somewhat like this: "Let's go.""We can't.""Why?""We are waiting for Godot.""Ah!". The repetition of this formula forms a pattern which highlights the absurdity of the characters' situation.
Beckett also makes use of another pattern. So many times in the play, he gives a highly philosophical, aphoristic statement and within seconds undercuts it with a statement which is about as material or physical or mundane (i can't find an apt word here) as it can get.
Camus called Sisyphus the perfect example of an Absurd man. In Sisyphus' story too there is a pattern, even if it is just of his going up a mountain and coming down.
I think to find a pattern in an absurd novel/play, you just need to look for some words or phrases or gestures or postures that repeat themselves many times. After all what better than repeating the same thing over and over again to signify that whatever you do, nothing happens.

[littlelit]

I realized I did not really say anything about your question - Does Absurdity have a pattern?
The way I see it, a thing happening itself implies randomness. Absurdity however is more like a continuing (subjective) state of existence. Thus, a series of random happenings will constitute absurdity. Randomness, or more aptly meaninglessness forms a kind of pattern which we know as the state of Absurdity.