www.ijells.

com January 2015 2278 0742

Absurdism in the works of Samuel Beckett and Camus Albert with

Special Reference to 'The Outsider' and 'Waiting for Godot'
Bhagyalaxmi Das

Introduction

The lexical or literal meaning of the word 'Absurd' implies something unreasonable,
foolish or ridiculous. Albert Camus used this word in a very specific sense in his essay "The
Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). Martin Esslin used the term in a very technical sense to describe
the writings of some playwrights who wrote plays or novels of an unconventional and
experimental type. As described by Camus and Esslin, such works present the themes of
disillusionment and loss of certitude as characteristics of our time. These works flaunt the
senselessness and meaninglessness of modern man's life. They present the themes of
irrationality, despair, exploitation and anguish etc prevalent in the contemporary society.

In philosophy, "the Absurd" refers to the conflict between (a) the human tendency
to seek inherent value and meaning in life and (b) the human inability to find any. In this
context absurd signifies "humanly impossible". The concept of the Absurd signifies
deviation from the common notion of the world and interpretation of objects around. This
meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or "unfairness" of the world. This
contrasts with the notion that "it's not just the humans with a negative mind who are
negatively impacted but that could be true for positive minded people as well";
symbolically speaking, there is no such thing as good or bad; what happens is destiny, and
it may just as well happen to a good or bad person. In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd
arises out of the fundamental disharmony between the individual's search for meaning and
the meaninglessness of the universe.

The notion of the absurd has been prominent in literature throughout history. Many
of the literary works of Soren Kierkegaard, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka, Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Eugene Ionesco, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus contain descriptions of
people who encounter the absurdity of the world.

The aftermath of World War II provided the social environment that stimulated
absurdist views and allowed for their popular development, especially in the devastated
country of France. It discarded the earlier belief that human beings were naturally
balanced and logical creatures living in a totally reasonable and coherent universe. They
were a part of an ordered social structure, and capable of heroism and dignity even in
defeat. Well after 1940s, M. H. Abrams mentions there was a widespread tendency to view
human beings as isolated existents, cast in an alien universe that offers no inherent truth,
value or meaning to human existence. The trauma of living from 1945 under the threat of
nuclear annihilation also seems to have been an important factor in the rise of the
absurdist views.

Absurdism is very closely related to existentialism and nihilism and has its origins
in the 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who chose to confront the crisis
humans faced with the Absurd by developing existentialist philosophy. Existentialism is a
Volume 3 Issue 4 37
www.ijells.com January 2015 2278 0742

modern philosophical movement largely based on the theory that human existence is
unexplainable, that the universe is indifferent and our free choice has a cause and effect to
our consequences and that we ourselves are responsible for it.

The Absurdity of Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913–1960), an Algerian by birth was a noted journalist, editor,

playwright and director, novelist and author of short stories, political essayist and activist.
He grew up amidst extreme poverty and illness, both of which influenced his writings.
Camus wrote Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus) around the same time he wrote
his first novel, L'Étranger (The Stranger), at the beginning of World War II. Albert Camus
was born in Monrovia, Algeria on November 7, 1913. His father, a soldier in World War I,
died fighting for France during the first Battle of Marne in 1914. At an early age Camus was
made painfully aware of the tragic effects of war, a fact reflected in his works. Camus’s
works had a significant and lasting influence on a post-war generation concerned with
political and philosophical issues that dealt with human alienation and the search for
meaning in a troubled world. While he was attending the University of Algiers, Camus
supported himself by working at a number of odd, part-time jobs, including one with the
French Algerian civil service where he processed auto registrations and driver’s licenses.
This dull, routine job made a lasting impression on Camus; later he incorporated elements
of the experience in his characterization of Meursault.

At one point of his early life, Camus worked for the French Resistance in Paris, far
from his native Algeria. The circumstances in which 'The Outsider' was written can help us
understand its tone. The metaphor of exile that Camus uses to describe the human
predicament and the sense that life is a meaningless and futile struggle both make a great
deal of sense coming from a man, far from his home, who was struggling against a
seemingly omnipotent and senselessly brutal regime.

According to Camus's own philosophy, there remains resignation or rebellion. Three

consequences may be drawn, my rebellion, my freedom and my passion. The Outsider, his
first novel is an offering of this philosophy.

Meursault is an unimportant clerk in an Algerian office. He attends his mother's

funeral, sleeps with Marie, a typist and strikes up an acquaintance with a neighbour,
Raymond Sintes. Then the drama takes place. He kills an Arab and is tried and condemned
to death. The take is a very simple one but the totality of the world of absurdity is enclosed
within it.

The Absurdity of Samuel Beckett

Much of Beckett's work-including Godot-is often considered by philosophical and

literary scholars to be part of the movement of the Theatre of the Absurd, a form of theatre
which stemmed from the Absurdist philosophy of Albert Camus.

Volume 3 Issue 4 38
www.ijells.com January 2015 2278 0742

If Existentialism was the philosophical model of a universe that had lost its meaning
and purpose, then the Theatre of the Absurd was one way of facing up to that universe.
Beckett's Waiting for Godot was voted the most significant English language play of the
20th century in a British Royal National Theatre poll of 800 playwrights, actors, directors
and journalists. Several reasons have been cited as the cause behind writing Godot. Samuel
Beckett was an active member of the French Resistance during World War II, and
afterwards twice-decorated for it. In the Fall of 1942 an informer infiltrated Beckett's
group, and many of his friends were caught and killed by the Gestapo. Realizing that their
cover was blown, Beckett and his companion, Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil put on their
coats and left their Paris apartment as if going for a walk. This pretense eventually became
a reality: after two months in various Paris hideouts, they fled on foot to a remote
mountain village in southeast France, walking by night and sleeping by day. There they
waited out the rest of the war. This experience is often offered as a source for the two main
characters in Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the foot-weary, hopeless but ever-expectant,
Vladimir and Estragon.

Another story is that one day while walking through the streets of Paris, Beckett
stopped to ask members of a large crowd what they were doing. They replied, "We are
waiting for Godot," explaining that he was the oldest cyclist in the Tour de France, and had
not yet passed by.

Waiting for Godot has proved the most commercially successful "experimental play"
since Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" produced in 1921, and these are
but two of many attempts by the critics and biographers to explain the concept of
absurdity. Beckett scoffed at them all. Although otherwise reported as a man of charm,
charity and old-world politeness, he did not want to hear what other people thought about
his words or what his life meant to others. He said he wrote Godot to get away from the
awful prose he was writing at that time.

The play revolves around two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir, who idle their time
on a country road waiting for Godot, who never comes. Two strangers, a cruel master and
his slave, cross their path and depart. Then a messenger from Godot arrives and confirms
that he would arrive the next day. In the second act, the waiting continues; the other pair
passes by once more, but the master is now blind and the slave is now dumb. They are
helped by the two tramps. The messenger appears again with the same promise that the
Godot, they are waiting for, will come the next day. Everything remains as it was in the
beginning which is really absurd.

Beckett rejects learning and sees language as part of the failure to know where and
what we are. Thus, Beckett's characters Vladimir and Estragon not only deny that they are
philosophers, they flaunt an ignorance of philosophy while remaining transfixed by
philosophical questions that have troubled us since Socrates: the nature of Self, the world,
and God.

Volume 3 Issue 4 39
www.ijells.com January 2015 2278 0742

Conclusion

As described by Camus and as presented by Beckett, Absurdism represents the

theme of disillusionment and loss of characteristics of certitude of our time. They present
the senselessness and meaninglessness of modern man's life emphasizing on the themes of
irrationality, despair, exploitation and anguish prevalent in contemporary society. Though
the concept evolved in the 20th century, its significance surges in the 21st century as well.
Since both Camus and Beckett are concerned with the purposeless of life, their works
reflect a moral and philosophical climate in which most of our civilization finds itself
today.

By analysing Camus's idea of the absurd, we can possibly be inspired by it to

appreciate life. At the end, the realization of death’s inevitability constitutes Meursault’s
triumph over society. It is an absurd man who makes the absurdity of his existence
meaningful by creating his own meaning. By dealing with Camus’s Absurdism, one is being
guided in how the absurd can help to possess a more profound vision and understanding of
one’s very own existence and a realistic function in our new world.

On the contrary, Beckett's play exhibits a lack of plot, character and sequential flow.
Waiting for Godot could best be described as enigmatic and pessimistic. Beckett's
protagonist’s can be identified with Sisyphus, the protagonist in Camus's Myth of Sisyphus
(1942). A man waiting for the fulfillment of his fate, which seems to be eternal through his
suffering and expectation. In his novel, Myth of Sisyphus, Camus outlines the legend of
Sisyphus who defied the gods and put Death in chains so that no human needed to die.
When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he
concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. Finally captured, the Gods
decided on his punishment for all eternity. He would have to push a rock up a mountain;
upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving Sisyphus to start over.
Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death, and is
condemned to a meaningless task. Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil
as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. The
workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less
absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.

Each minute of waiting brings death a step closer to Vladimir and Estragon, while
making the arrival of Godot less probable. The growing of leaves indicates a change of
seasons or the delusion of the possibility of redemption. Pozzo and Lucky, the other two
characters are also transformed by time. In the end, the audience is left in a deep
remorseful state. The sequence of events and the dialogues in each act are different but
their variation merely serves to emphasize the essential similarity: life which deals with
nothing. This perplexity of the situation also provides a sense of absurdity.

Meursault lacks the sense of symbolic acts that traditionally bind men together.
Throughout the novel, Meursault shows no human feelings and emotions. He does'nt cry
over his mother's death, sleeps with Marie but the thought of marrying her never occurs to
him, he doesn’t react to the way his neighbour, Salamano heartlessly beats up his dog, etc.

Volume 3 Issue 4 40
www.ijells.com January 2015 2278 0742

Meursault does not see his mother’s death as part of a larger structure of human existence
so he can easily date, visit a theatre, and go to bed with someone the day after his mother’s
funeral. Meursault is Camus’s example of someone who does not need a rational world
view to function. He does not show the need to love or to be loved.

On the contrary, the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon share a symbiotic
relationship. They have no history and no roots. They are strangers to each other yet
remain together because of their complementary personalities, arguing that each fulfils the
qualities that the other lacks, rendering them dependent on each other. Their association
has many shades to it: they quarrel like couples, behave like bosom friends or like siblings.
Together they make a meaningful pair. Contrary to Vladimir, Estragon is more feminine
and weaker of the two. It is he, who is beaten by mysterious strangers every night. He gives
the impression of a tantrum throwing, overburdened, hard pressed housewife. He lives
totally in the present, full of complaints against the forgetful husband-like Vladimir.
Vladimir is protective about him. He puts Estragon to sleep with a lullaby and covers him
with a coat. Together, they enact on-stage a platonic love relationship. The two tramps
express a wide range of emotions but joy and happiness eludes them perpetually. The two
oscillate between despair and failure. They present life, relationships and institutions at
their ironical best. They enact on-stage, the apparent inanities of modern life - mechanical,
boring, repetitive, colourless and dull. Life without any purpose becomes absurd. Vladimir
and Estragon alternate between expectations and let downs, hallucinations and bitter
realizations, that form the pattern of their waiting and this perhaps is true to every modern
man.

Despite the differences, both the writers seem to be influenced by Elizabethan

drama. Death, time, God, mortality, redemption and mortality are some of the major
themes upon which the edifice of the Elizabethan theatre was built. These concepts recur
in 'Waiting for Godot'. It also reflects the ideas of the Jacobean dark tragedy. One is
reminded of John Webster's themes of revenge, the play of light and dark and the morbid
atmosphere. Meursault refuses to lie under any circumstance. Lying helps to simplify life,
just as Goneril and Regan had done to satisfy King Lear in Shakespeare's "King Lear'. Like
Shakespeare's protagonist Cordelia, Meursault too doesn’t want to simplify life. He refuses
to express his true feelings and immediately the society feels threatened just like Lear. He
vents his anger on Cordelia and banishes her from his kingdom the way society condemns
Meursault for not conforming to its rules and treats him as an outsider. Traces of the
influence of Elizabethan drama on Camus's works are seen here. Moreover most of the
plays of the Elizabethan era were based on the man versus fate theme. Man plays a central
role in the scheme of life. Camus and Beckett's characters seem to fit into similar roles.
They are condemned by fate, yet do not despair and hope for salvation. Despite the
similarities, Absurd drama does not have the hierarchy of Elizabethan drama. Since absurd
drama enacted on stage, a destabilized society and an incoherent world peopled with
bizarre characters, the idea of hierarchy became useless.

Although the absurdity and meaninglessness of life constitute the major themes of
Camus and Beckett, yet their conclusions of the issue are different. What differentiates
their Absurdism is the manner in which awareness of the absurd emerges in their

Volume 3 Issue 4 41
www.ijells.com January 2015 2278 0742

protagonists. While Camus's protagonists happily come to terms with the absurd they
confront along with their awareness of the absurdity of the world, Beckett’s characters are
hopeless and helpless. While Beckett leaves his audience in the dark well of the absurd,
Camus shows a path to his readers to move forward and not stay in the dark.

Moreover several factors including environment and other circumstances through

childhood has led the writers to perceive Absurdism in two different ways. All through his
growing years, loneliness was Beckett's constant companion. He once remarked, "I had
little talent for happiness (Bair 14)." As a young man, he underwent frequent bouts of
depression often staying in bed until late in the afternoon and avoided long conversations.
As a young poet he apparently rejected the advances of James Joyce's daughter and then
commented that he did not have feelings that were human. This sense of depression finds
expression in most of his writing, especially in Waiting for Godot which ends with a
pessimistic note.

Despite growing up in abject poverty, Camus was never ashamed of it. He

acknowledged the fact and never considered it a hindrance. This positivism is reflected in
his works. Camus showed a desire to establish a meaningful life in a meaningless world of
war and futile conquest. Camus gave the world a deep message that even in the face of the
absurd we can still choose to love each other. His autobiographical and biographical works
reveal his deep love for nature, he was in love with the sun, the sea, the beaches, etc, a fact
he portrays through the character of Meursault.

In the same light follows Waiting for Godot. It highlights that life is the name of a
constant struggle with illusions of meeting the final destination. Godot here can be taken
as a symbol of that destination which is never achieved in this mortal life. Vladimir and
Estragon are the representatives of humanity and its assumptions.

There seems to be a curious gender-absolute in much of Beckett's works. Beckett

was not open to most interpretative approaches to his work. He famously objected when,
in the 1980s, several acting companies by women began to stage the play. Beckett disliked
women characters in his works. The absence of women in 'Waiting for Godot' has been
popularly related to the play's cynicism in cancelling out a possibility of redemption
through the re productive cycle of life.

Thus the conclusion can be drawn that both Camus and Beckett were concerned
with the purposeless of life. They hoped for the betterment of mankind. Their works reflect
a moral and philosophical climate in which most of our civilization finds itself today.

References
 Abbot, H. Porter, The Fiction of Samuel Beckett: Form and Effect, (Methuen,
Berkeley,1990)
 Bair, D., Samuel Beckett: A Biography, (London: Vintage, 1990)
 Baker E. Richard, The Dynamics of the Absurd in the Existentialist Novel, (Peter
Lang, 1993)
 Beckett Samuel, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts, (Grove Press, 2011)

Volume 3 Issue 4 42
www.ijells.com January 2015 2278 0742

 Camus Albert, The Stranger, (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012)

 Hutchings William, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: A Reference Guide, (Praeger,
2005)
 M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms/Seventh Edition, (Wadsworth, 1997)

Volume 3 Issue 4 43