Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and drama criticism

319 Pages·2017·16.69 MB·English

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Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship
Spring 1996
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Sheila O'Brien McGuckin
University of New Hampshire, Durham
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation
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McGuckin, Sheila O'Brien, "The Theater of the Absurd in Europe and America: Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee
and drama criticism" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations. 1895.
https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1895
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THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD IN EUROPE AND AMERICA:
SARTRE, BECKETT, PINTER, ALBEE AND DRAMA CRITICISM
BY
SHEILA O'BRIEN MCGUCKIN
BA, Nazareth College of Rochester, 1971
MA, State University of New York at Geneseo, 1974
DISSERTATION
Submitted to the University of New Hampshire
in Partial fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
History
May, 1996
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UMI Number: 9627162
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This dissertation has been examined and approved.
Jtdc*.
Dissertation Director, Robert M. Mennel
Professor of History
C -■ cJLx
Charles E. Clark, Professor of History
J. William Harris, Jr., Associate Professor of History
Janet L. Polasky, Professor of History
________________________
David M. Richman, Associate Professor of Theater
Date
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DEDICATION
To John
iii
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express ray appreciation to all those who assisted me in the
preparation of this work, including the Department of History of the University of New
Hampshire for an award from the GTJNST-WILCOX FUND to support research, and to
the Graduate School of the University of New Hampshire for the Dissertation Fellowship
that assisted me in its completion. I also wish to thank my fellow graduate students in the
Department of History for their interest in the topic and their many helpful comments.
I am grateful to the members of my dissertation committee, Professor Charles E.
Clark, Professor Janet L. Polasky, Professor J. William Harris, Jr., of the History
Department and Professor David M. Richman, of the Theater Department, who read the
final draft and offered careful scrutiny, perceptive comments and valuable suggestions.
Most especially, I want to express my profound gratitude to Professor Robert M. Mennel,
my dissertation director and mentor, for his confidence, his guidance, his unfailing
enthusiasm for the project and his steady encouragement "to go on."
I have been blessed with family and friends, all of whom have taken time from their
busy lives to express their interest in the work, to share information and suggestions, and
to offer warm and timely words of support. This work would have been impossible
without the help of my friend Pat Couture, and the assistance in innumerable ways of my
siblings, especially my sister and brother-in-law, Kate and Kevin Collins. I am especially
grateful to my parents, Doratha and the late Neil O'Brien, who first taught me to dream
and who have always been my special source of strength and inspiration in pursuing each
dream.
Finally, words fail to adequately convey the depth of my gratitude to my five
children, Aisling, Roisin, Jarlath, Neisha and Annetta for their unending patience, good
humor, enthusiasm, wisdom and comfort and to my husband, John, whose love has
sustained me.
iv
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION............................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... iv
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................. vi
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION: THE MESSAGE OF THE ABSURD........................... 1
I. THE ROOTS OF THE ABSURD.............................................. 10
II. EXISTENTIALISM AND THE STAGE................................... 59
III. BEYOND SPEECH: SAMUEL BECKETT..................... 99
IV. A VERY POTENT QUESTION: HAROLD PINTER 148
V. WORDS ON A MIRROR: EDWARD ALBEE......................... 197
VI. ABSURDISM AND DRAMA CRITICISM............................... 255
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................... 293
v
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ABSTRACT
THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD IN EUROPE AND AMERICA:
SARTRE, BECKETT, PINTER, ALBEE AND DRAMA CRITICISM
by
Sheila O'Brien McGuckin
University of New Hampshire, May, 1996
This study examines the significance of the post World War II Theater of the
Absurd which explored new concepts of ontology and semiology and provided a vehicle
for the dissemination of existentialist ideas. As a link between modernist and
postmodernist drama, it also served as a catalyst for changes in drama criticism that
anticipated some of the controversies of deconstructionism.
The first part of this work places the Theater of the Absurd in historical context by
tracing elements of absurdity from the theater of ancient Greece into the twentieth
century. Modern absurdism emerged in the 1930's as part of the reaction to Realism.
Combining aspects of Symbolism and Surrealism, the absurd was illustrated in the
dramatic productions of Dada and the theories of Antonin Artaud. The connection
between this theatrical experimentalism and existential philosophy influenced the French
theater of the 1940's. Samuel Beckett's groundbreaking drama Waitingf or Godot (1952)
provided a prototype of absurd theater. Two chapters focus upon selected early plays of
Harold Pinter—The Room (1960), The Birthday Party (1959) and The Caretaker (1960)
and Edward Albee, The Zoo Story (1960), The American Dream (1961) and Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf? (1962). These plays demonstrate the characteristics of the Theater of
the Absurd—the devaluation of traditional forms of communication; a stage poetry that
uses concrete images to display emotions and relationships; a unique blend of silence and
dialogue as well as manifest physicaiity and psychological suggestiveness. The plays of
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