Name :- Pritiba B. Gohil

Roll No :- 21

Course No. 14 :- The African Literature

Presentation Topic :-Comparison between The Swamp Dwellers and Waiting for

Godot in a manners of Absurdity at the Center

Enrolment No :- PG 14101016 M.A. English Semester - 4Batch Year :- 2014 - 2016 Submitted To :- Department of EnglishMaharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

What is Absurd ? Theatre of the Absurd, dramatic

works of certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s and early ’60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus’s assessment, in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), that the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of purpose.

Martin Esslin's views in his classical book, The Theatre of the Absurd.

What is Absurdity Absurdity means the quality

or state of being ridiculous or wildly unreasonable.

Absurd is a musical word.

Some examples of Absurd plays

“The Swamp Dwellers” as a Absurd Play Compare to Waiting

For Godot.

By By

By By

How They Represents Absurdity :-

Soyinka on his part succeeds through the incorporation of the African idiom, myth and ritual from which perspective he explores the absurdity of the human condition against the background of African belief systems.

Beckett employs the modernist avant-garde theatrical techniques and Christian concepts to project the absurdity of human existence.

Differences and Similarities between The Swamp Dwellers

and Waiting for Godot

Differences :-

The Differences in terms of

1.Regions,2.Cultures 3.And techniques between

Waiting for Godot and The Swamp Dwellers.

Similarities :-

The similarity in terms of

1.Setting,2.Characterization,3.and Themes

Setting :-The Swamp

Dwellers Urban and rural life in

Swamp Dwellers. The play open and end in

Hut. Unity of Time and Action is

also Followed.

Waiting for Godot

A country road. A tree. Evening Time.

Unity of Time, Place action is not followed.

How this Idea of Absurdity is Conveyed in both the Plays

The absurdity of the villagers' life is enacted through a surfeit of technical elements which, in their totality, communicate and animate the feelings of loss, desolation and barrenness.

Example :- In form of dialogues.

As in Becket's Waiting where the intensity of the action and the singularity of effect is conveyed through a condensation of action and characters.

Example :- Character like Vladimir

and Estragon. And their pointless

actions they are doing.

“Nothingness” is at the center as a main Theme in both the plays.

Absurdity reflects trough Dialogues The Swamp Dwellers a

similar atmosphere of foreboding and expectation is conveyed through Alu's question,

"Can you see him?"

To be replied by Makuri's disappointing answer,

"See who?" (81).

As in Waiting where a general atmosphere of futile waiting for the unknown, as well as the unidentified, is accompanied with a desolate hope indicated by Estragon's first utterance

ESTRAGON:(giving up again).

“Nothing to be done.”

Theme of Endless Waiting or Theme of Absurdity

“Waiting is Endless Process”.

As in Beckett's Waiting where the main subject is not Godot, which might represent a thing, a person, god, an event, death…etc, but the action of waiting itself is the main subject of this play.In Waiting for Godot both characters are waiting for Mr.Godot but He never comes on the stage or no any information about him is given to us. Characters are doing action of ‘Waiting’. Means doing nothing.Which is the most evident experience of time, and which is enacted through the form of the play itself.In The Swamp Dwellers they are waiting for Awuchike but He never appears on the stage. And he is Son of Alu and Makuri only this much information is provided to us.

Hopelessness Hope And Despair

The play revolves around Vladimir and Estragon and their pitiful wait for hope to arrive. They are waiting without hope for a deliverance from a being in whom they do not really believe. For Acheson, Waiting for Godot is an invective against Christian hope since the modern man, like Didi and Gogo wait endlessly for Godot who does not come.In form of Messenger BoyAcholonu observes that “…. Soyinka’s themes are echoes of Samuel Beckett. His characters are gripped by the same hopelessness in which Beckett’s characters find themselves”.In form of Igwezu

Absurdity at The End of this both plays

In the nature of absurdist ideals, Soyinka tries to create a drama that portrays the struggle of human imagination against religious complacency, moral apathy, and social conformity.

This play ends in sadness as the lure of the city and the betrayal of traditional virtues rob the aged Alu and Makuri of their two sons.

There is not physical death of any character but there are several deaths can be known as metaphorical deaths.

The Swamp Dwellers articulates a sense of the disorder of human life.

Waiting For Godot ends with the action of waiting it self. We don’t know what will happen after this.

“No Happy Endings”