Introduction
The 20th century drama underwent major alternations with the advent of such playwrights as Tennessee Williams and Samuel Beckett who marked the beginning of new anti-realistic absurdist theatre. It should be stressed that the anti-realism movement on the stage with its intricate fragmented dialogs, paradoxes, and abandonment of all conventional drama, anti-realistic or absurdist representation principles conveying a distorted reality to access an inner truth challenged the realism movement.
Both Glass Menagerie and Endgame resort to anti-realistic devices, such as play of words, linguistic gaps and silence, reduced mobility of the characters, detaching the audience attention from the objectivism of reality in order to convey the themes of “awareness of absurdity and meaninglessness of human condition and time”, sorrow and depression in Beckett’s play and the themes of the difficulty of acceptation reality, a strong relationship to memory and the past, the impossibility of true escape and abandonment in Glass Menagerie (Saddik 46).
Main text
Samuel Beckett is considered a major figure of the absurdist drama. As far as Endgame by Samuel Beckett is concerned, it is a brilliant example of anti-realistic theatre. Endgame is a one-act play that abounds in symbols and is “rather difficulty and elliptic governed by its own inherent logic” (Saddik 32). The play consists only of four characters: Hamm, Clov, Nagg, and Nell who suffer from different physical handicaps, two of them living in the trashcans.
To create anti-realistic atmosphere Beckett resorts to minimalistic decorations of the scene: bare interior nearly underground room, two small windows, and two trashcans lit by deem grey light though the action is set daytime (Sikorska 70). Since absurdist plays are based on linguistic play, pauses, silence, and the concept of characters’ lack of communication, Endgame comprises all these principles to draw the performance from the realistic perception as far as possible “to show the meaninglessness of ‘truth’” (Saddik 32).
Beckett illustrates his views on the language that is not able to express the truth of life through the dialogue of Clov and Hamm: “I use the words you taught me. If they don’t mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent” (Beckett 44). Moreover, the certain message is often communicated through non-linguistic means. Thus, Nagg and Nell, living in the trashcans, communicate with each other by “rattling the cans” (Saddik 32).
Furthermore, typical of anti-realistic theatre were a limited number of movements of the characters, which is represented by Nagg and Neil enclosed in the trashcans, Hamm inability to stand, and Clov inability to sit, which leads to comic effect when the characters attempt to move. This device has the purpose to move away from the vanity of reality.
One more important feature of the anti-realistic theatre is the absence of plot so the action on the stage is developing through dialogues of the characters. Additionally, to support the anti-realistic atmosphere of the play Becket makes use of refrained repetition and misunderstanding: “Finished. It’s almost finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished. Grain, upon grain, one by one suddenly, there’s a heap, little heap, the impossible heap” (Beckett 1).
Hamm and Clov are terrified of any change in their life and feel the inescapability of the end. Even trying to pray they cannot understand each other: “Let us pray to God./Me sugar-plum!/God first./There is no more sugar plums!” (Beckett 54). The repeated word ‘finished’ is symbolically connected with the title that is taken from the chess vocabulary metaphorically pointing out the main theme of absurdity of life, loneliness, inescapability, and no development of time that presents a cycle leading nowhere.
Consequently, another anti-realistic device that can be traced in Endgame is the absence of linear time; the time in the play is not subjected to normal pattern of time having no definite past, future or present that reinforces the existentialists themes of the play. Possessing absurdist nature, the play is characterized by “the use of unresolved endings and the psychological rejection of the audience” (Sikorska 68). Rejecting conventional realistic devices, Beckett provides no logical ending since time does not follow the traditional pattern, the end in the play may serve as the beginning: Claw’s final lines are “Me to play. Old game lost of old, play and lose and have done with losing… ” is the same as the beginning, which “leaves the audience with unresolved thoughts about the play and wondering what might have happened if there had been closure” (Saddik 37).
Creating the characters with their intrinsic logic of behavior, Beckett does not permit the audience “to sympathize or empathize with the characters on stage” as they represent the absurdist anti-realistic figures that exist according to their own rules (Sikorska 72). All things considered, Beckett managed to produce a profound postmodern play, where characters play and being played, that concerns existentialist themes of “awareness of absurdity and meaninglessness of human condition and time”, sorrow and depression enhanced by the use of anti-realistic devices (Sikorska 73).
The representative of the anti-realistic American drama was Tennessee Williams though Williams’ plays embraced the conventions of social realism combined with anti-realistic devices contrary to Becket’s play which were subjected to the principles of absurdist drama. Williams makes use of anti-realistic devices to reinforce the themes of the difficulty of acceptation reality, a strong relationship to memory and the past, the impossibility of true escape and abandonment. Glass Menagerie, a memory play, is one of the most profound and influential plays by the American playwright that tells the story of disabled Laura, her brother, and their mother who tries to establish relationships between Laura and the gentleman caller.
The play is regarded to be partially based on the real life of the playwright whose younger sister Rose suffered from incurable psychic disease and after unsuccessful operation remained disabled for the rest of her life (Williams 14). Thus, despite the fact Glass Menagerie is “essentially realistic in structure but makes use of anti-realistic devices” that were intended to represent “intangible truths” of the play (Saddik 58).
As far as the setting of the play is concerned, it is not conventional but changing rapidly, indicates the rapid change in society triggered by industrial development of the post-war period and human’s inability to adopt and survive during this transformation. However, it should be noted that the place and time are definite and understood, contrary to Endgame. Obviously, Williams’ resort to anti-realistic devices presented a challenge and the reaction to the society and his own life experience. Similar to Endgame, Glass Menagerie is highly symbolic: the symbolism may be traced in the title of the play that stands for the fragile and innocent nature of Laura. (Saddik 59).
Another feature of anti-realistic drama that is inherent in the play was emphasized by the author who attempted to reduce on stage to only essential or significant and make use of tableaus (Williams). This anti-realistic technique is traced in the final scene of the play, where, “Madonna-like”, Amanda comforting Laura (Zuber-Skerritt 120).
In addition, following the anti-realistic patterns, Williams rejects long speeches emphasizing pauses, linguistic gaps, silences, elliptical and incomplete sentences to achieve his prior goal to show a truth which is “beyond the surface and beyond linguistic signification” (Williams 13). The innovation that Williams implemented in his play in order to present the truth through illusion is the use of a screen “on which were projected magic-lantern slides bearing images or titles” to draw the audience’s attention from drama to prevent them to get absorbed in the realistic perception and assessment of the characters though this device was omitted in the play production (Williams 13). In addition, the screen is used to emphasize certain themes of the play during the performance.
Another technique that characterizes Glass Menagerie as the anti-realistic play is that Tom, Laura’s brother, functions as a narrator, a device that doesn’t correspond to conventional realistic drama. In fact, at the beginning of the play Tom states that the play is not realistic, but “sentimental” pointing out that it concerns itself with emotions rather than with objective realism (Zuber-Skerritt 119).
The play, consequently, is presented through Tom’s subjective monologues interfering with the scenes on the stage. In connection with conventional mise-en-scenes, dialogues, and action, Tom is presented as the opposite character to reality since thought the scenes seem to be realistic the presence of narrator reminds the audience that it is only memory. Moreover, Williams makes use of extra-diegetic sounds to reinforce the themes of the play and is also the production of Tom’s memory.
Conclusion
All things considered, it should be stressed that “the withholding of comfort and sustenance in Glass Menagerie is strongly reminiscent of Beckett’s Endgame since both playwrights depict a world of frustration, degeneration, decay, and lack, coupled with the cruelty of self-preservation” (Williams 16). Though interweaved with realistic techniques Glass Menagerie resembles the anti-realistic Endgame since both plays resort to similar anti-realistic devices as the detachment from the reality by creating non-linear time or non-fixed space, the linguistic play and rejection of conventional long dialogues and excessive movement on stage, logically inconsistent events and so on.
Works Cited
Beckett, Samuel. Endgame, a Play in One Act: Followed by Act without Words, a Mime for One Player. New York: Grove Press, 1958.
Saddik, Annette J. Contemporary American Drama. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Sikorska, Liliana. “The Language of Entropy: A Pragma-Dramatic Analysis of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia XXVIII (1994): 65-83. Web.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1999.
Zuber-Skerritt, Ortrun. Page to Stage: Theatre as Translation. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1984.