Existentialist Movement Essay, Research Paper

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that developed in continental Europe

during the 1800?s and 1900?s. Most of the members are interested in the

nature of existence or being, by which they usually mean human existence.

Although the philosophers generally considered to be existentialists often

disagree with each other and sometimes even resent being classified together,

they have been grouped together because they share many problems, interests, and

ideas. The most prominent existentialist thinkers of the 1900?s include the

French writers Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sarte, and Gabriel Marcel and German

philosophers Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger. The Russian religious and

political thinker Nicolas Berdyaev and the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber were

also famous existentialists. Existentialism is largely a revolt against

traditional European philosophy which reached its climax during the late

1700?s and early 1800?s. Principles of knowledge that would be objective,

universally true, and certain were produced. Existentialists rejected the

methods and ideals of science as being improper for philosophy. They

investigated what it is like to be an individual human being living in the world

instead of making the traditional attempt to grasp the ultimate nature of the

world and abstract systems of thought. They stress the fact that every

individual is only a limited human being. Each must face important and difficult

decisions with only limited knowledge and time in which to make these decisions.

Human life is seen as a series of decisions that must be made without knowing

what the correct choice is. They must decide what standards to except and which

ones to reject. Individuals must make their own choices without help from

external standards. Humans are free and completely responsible for their

choices. Their freedom and responsibility is thrust upon them and they are

?condemned to be free?. Their responsibility for actions, decisions and

beliefs cause anxiety. They try to escape by ignoring or denying their

responsibility. To have a meaningful life one must become fully aware of the

true character of the situation and bravely accept it. Existentialists believe

that people learn about themselves best by examining the most extreme forms of

human experience. They write about such topics as death and extreme situations.

This concentration upon the most extreme and emotional aspects of experience

contrasts sharply with the main emphasis of contemporary philosophy in England

and the United States. This philosophy focuses upon more common place situation

and upon the nature of language rather than experience. JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

Jean-Paul Sarte was born in Paris in 1905, and died in 1980. In 1964, he was

awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. However he refused to accept the reward.

Sarte was a French existentialist philosopher who expressed his ideas in novels,

plays, and short stories, as well as theoretical works. The mere existence of

things, especially his own existence, fascinated and horrified him. To Sarte

there seemed no reason why anything exists. He stated that only human existence

is conscious of itself and of other things. He argued that non-living objects

simply are what they are and people are whatever they choose to be. People exist

as beings who must choose their own character. He agreed with the

existentialists philosophy that people are completely free. Sarte said,

?People are afraid to recognize this freedom and to accept full responsibility

for their behavior.? Throughout his philosophical and literary works, he

examined and analyzed the varied and subtle forms of self-deception. In

Sarte?s chief philosophical work, Being and Nothingness, he investigated the

nature and forms of existence or being. In his essay, Existentialism and

Humanism, he defined existentialism as the doctrine that, for humankind,

?existence precedes essence?. In the Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sarte

presented his political and sociological theories. THEATER OF THE ABSURD

MOVEMENT The theater of the absurd refers to tendencies in dramatic literature

that emerged in Paris during the late 1940’s?s and early 1950?s. It?s

roots can be found in the allegorical morality plays of the middle ages and the

allegorical religious dramas. The term theater of the absurd derives from the

philosophical use of the word absurd by such existentialists thinkers as Albert

Camus and Jean-Paul Sarte. A fully satisfying rational explanation of the

universe was beyond its reach and the world must be seen as absurd. The images

of the theater of the absurd tend to assume the quality of fantasy, dream, and

nightmare. The theater of the absurd movement heightened people in abstract

situations. It was informative and overall made the audience think. Its purpose

is to provoke thought with laughter. Theater of the absurd does not stay in key

and is sometimes described as crazy. It always has intense moments, does not

look like conventional theater, and has no start, no middle and no end. SAMUEL

BECKETT Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, Ireland in 1906. He attended Trinity

College in Dublin and left for Paris when he was twenty-two. Throughout his life

he wrote in both English and French, but most of his major works were written in

French. Beckett was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1969. He died in

Paris in 1989. Beckett?s works are explored in novels, short stories, poetry,

and scripts for radio, television, and film. He is best known for his work in

the theater. His most famous play Waiting for Godot became one of the most

dramatic works in this century. The strange atmosphere of Godot, in which two

tramps wait on what appears to be a desolate road for a man who never arrives.

This made his audience come back to see other major works. Beckett?s drams are

most closely associated with the Theater of the Absurd. He has a minimalistic

approach, stripping the stage of unnecessary spectacles and characters. His

works cover much of the same ground as World War II French existentialists.

WAITING FOR GODOT Waiting for Godot captures the feeling the world has no

apparent meaning. In this misunderstood masterpiece Beckett asserts numerous

existentialist themes. Beckett believed that existence is determined by chance.

This is the first basic existentialist theme asserted. The play consists of four

vulgar characters, and in a simple way who twice arrives with a message from

Godot, a naked tree, a mound or two of earth and a sky. Two of the characters

are waiting for Godot who never arrives. Two of them consist of a flamboyant

lord of the earth and a broken slave whimpering and staggering at the end of a

rope. It is almost certain that Godot stands for God and those who are loitering

by the withered tree are for salvation, which never comes. Many critics have

agreed that Godot does not necessarly mean God, merely ?the objective of our

waiting- an event, a thing, a person, a death.? Another basic existentialist

theme on which Beckett reflects is the meaninglessness of time. Because past,

present and future mean nothing, the play follows a cyclic pattern. Vladimir and

Estragon returned to the same place each day to wait for Godot and encounter the

same basic people each day. Godot?s messenger does not recognize Vladimir and

Estragon from day to day. This suggests that the people we meet today are not

the same as they were yesterday and will not be the same tomorrow. Beckett also

examines a theme of self-deceptive attempts to dodge reality by making excuses

for one?s actions. Vladimir and Estragon fool themselves by engaging in petty

discourse that reflects the absurdity of life. They even contemplate suicide

numerous times for numerous reasons, but ultimately persist in the futility of

life. TOM STOPPARD Tom Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia on July 3, 1937, the

son of Eugene Straussler, a doctor employed by Bata, the shoe manufacturers. In

1942, his family moved to Singapore. He and his mother evacuated to India with

his brother before the Japanese invasion. His father was left behind and killed.

He then went to a multi-racial English speaking school in Darjeeling, India. His

mother later married Kenneth Stoppard, who was in the British army in India.

Stoppard was educated in a prep school at Nottingham Shire, and a grammar school

in Yorkshire. He was then employed by Western Daily Press in Bristol, were he

lived. There he was a news reporter, feature writer, theater critic, film critic

and gossip columnist. Eventually he married Jose Ingle. He wrote such works as

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear, a one-act play in verse. He also

wrote Rosecrantz and Guilenstern Are Dead. He won the John Whiting award and

Evening Standard award in 1967. ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

Rosencrantz creates a picture of characters who inhabit a world which is

stranger than they had supposed, which they know it is not as it seems but what

it is . He evokes the ability of all man kind to understand those forces

ultimately in control of their lives and fates. Because Rosencrantz?s and

Guildenstern?s fate is determined by Hamlet and not by random forces. At

outset of the play, Rosencrantz remains oblivious to any oddity and their

coin-tossing, describing the improbable run as 85 heads as merely a new record.

The destiny which awaits Rosencrantz and Guildenstern consists of nothing for

which they are prepared. Instead they are to be ?kept intrigued without ever

being enlightened?. The purpose of the coin-tossing scene is the obvious

conclusion that forces beyond their control are guiding their fate and it is

obvious Guildenstern is more conscious of the two. He also sets up the quest

theme that the play will take on. The ranting and ramblings of Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern are reminiscent of the spiritual pilgrim of the protagonist of

Waiting for Godot. They both spend the entire play searching for a fate and

spiritual rationale that is always alluding them. It can be concluded that the

title characters are searching for a divinity that will make itself evident.

Irony comes to fit in the framework of the play because we know that the pair

are to loose their heads. The humor of this situation is a game of questions

where they ?answer? every question with another question, but really realize

how the game is mirroring their predicament, which is to inhabit a world full of

questions which, for them, have no answers. For every action they partake in

order to answer their calling, they are met with a hundred more questions, and

In this lies the irony of the entire production. T.S. ELIOT T.S. Eliot

(1888-1965) was born in St.Louis, Missouri and graduated from Harvard. He lived

in England for most of his life, returning to the United States periodically to

lecture and teach at Harvard and other universities. Eliot achieved the fullness

of his poetic expression in The Waste Land and other poems on this recording. In

1948 he was awarded a Nobel Prize. Eliot ranks among the most important poets of

the 1900?s. He departed radically from the techniques and subject matter of

pre-World War I poetry. His poetry, along with his critical works, helped to

reshape modern literature. Many of Eliot?s views on literature appeared in The

Criterion, a literary magazine he edited from 1922 to 1939. Eliot served as a

director of a London Publishing house from 1925 until his death. Eliot also

received the Order of Merit for literature during his lifetime. He finally found

happiness in his second marriage which took place eight years before his death

on January 4, 1965. Two important factors in Eliot?s development as a poet

were his introduction to French symbolist poetry and his friendship with fellow

American Ezra Pound. It was in Pound that Eliot found a devoted mentor and a

sensitive critic of the early drafts of his poems. With Pound?s help, The Love

Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was published in Poetry in 1915 and Preludes in Blast

that same year- thus launching Eliot into the midst of literary modernism.

Eliot?s first major poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, revealed his

original and highly developed style. The poem shows the influence of certain

French poets of the 1800?s, but its startling jumps from rhetorical language

to cliche, its indirect literary references, and its simultaneous humor and

pessimism were quite new in English literature. THE WASTE LAND The Waste Land

has become the poem of the twentieth century. The poem offers an epochal insight

into the modern world, the urban blight, of death and destruction, of

meaningless relationships, and of a profound absence of spiritual, social, and

cultural assurances. It is presented with a series of allusions, fragments of

texts and documents, because Eliot wants the reader to experience that sense of

fragmentation for themselves through a kind of collage technique. There are

glimpses of a sense of underlying order and unity expressed throughout this

literary masterpiece. Eliot suggests that the poem draws upon the powerful myth

of the wounded king who must be restored to health before his lands can be

returned to wholeness and fertility once more. Eliot also suggests that, deep

within the cultural unconscious of our modern wasteland, there are underlying

patterns and a sense of continuity. This poem has references to previous empires

and cultures such as Rome, Alexandria, and Vienna. The Waste Land is widely

regarded as loose or impressionistic.