Andrzej Diniejko

INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY

STUDIES

3.4

INTRODUCTIO

N TO DRAMA:

Modern

Drama

Synopsis

•In this module we shall

learn about the features of

modern drama.

Examples of Modern Drama

• Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House [1879]

• August Strindberg, Miss Julie [1888]

• Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard [1903]

• Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, The Shoemakers

(Szewcy) [1931-1934]

• Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot [1949]

• Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano La (Cantatrice

Chauve) [1950]

Features of modern drama

• Indirect action

• Mixing of genres

• Realism & Symbolism

A Doll’s House [1879]

• Nora realises she has been living

like a toy to entertain first her
husband Torvald.

• She decides she must leave if she

is to make something of her life.

• The play ends with Nora

slamming the door as she leaves.

A Doll’s House [1879]

• Realistic, modern prose drama

• Theme: A modern woman’s

journey of self-discovery;

• Nora’s struggle is against the

selfish, patrononising and
oppressive attitudes of her
husband, Torvald, and of the male-
dominated society that he
represents.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie by

August
Strindberg
deals with
class, love/lust
and the battle
of the sexes.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie, a young

aristocratic woman

attempts to escape

an existence

cramped by

hypocritical morality

and enjoy life.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie encourages her father's

valet, Jean, to seduce her. Next she
must live with the consequences of
actions.

• Theme: sexual and social

oppression.

August Strindberg,Miss Julie

(1888)

• Miss Julie, inspired by

the new ideas of

naturalism and

psychology, that swept

Europe in the late 19th

century, helped to

shape modern drama.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• This play deals with the

theme of human freedom in
many different ways.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• Francis Fergusson calls The

Cherry Orchard as "theatre-

poem”, because the play does not

follow any strict notion of drama.

• It does not have a plot, and it

does not present a thesis of any

kind.

• The play addresses the poetic

sensibility.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• The Cherry Orchard

is a play about the
passing of time and
about a society in
transition.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

[1903]

• Mme. Ranevsky, the owner of the

cherry, is deeply attached to the
family estate.

• She is devoted to it because of the

memory of her ancestors and
because of the many tender ties
which bind her to the orchard.

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

Witkacy, The Shoemakers,

1934

• A play about a revolution that

went wrong and about the
condition of contemporary
man.

Witkacy

• Witkiewicz's protagonists are

beset by troubles and

ensnared by their efforts to

feel the strangeness of

existence.

Witkacy

• Oftentimes they produce elaborate

crutches and replacement worlds,

and though in Witkiewicz's

dramatic structures "they do not

conceal" their artificially devised

condition and more often than not

succeed in completely

compromising themselves.

Witkacy

•In essence they seek to

mask their pain, turn
their crutch into a
dressing for their
suffering

Witkacy

• Jan Błoński: ”Witkacy's

protagonists constantly talk
about 'a second ego,' 'an
artificial life,' 'a deformation of
life,' 'inverted feelings,' 'a life
beyond life,' 'another world' and
'an artificial mental structure.‘”

Samuel Beckett

• Beckett's

dramas are
stark,
minimalist,
pessimistic,
and deal about
the human
condition.

Waiting for Godot

• The play presents two old

tramps, Vladimir and Estragon
standing on a country road by a
leafless tree and waiting for a
mysterious Mr. Godot.

• But Godot never comes, or he

may not exist; the audience do
not know.

Waiting for Godot

• There is very little action in

the play.

• It shows a static situation.

Waiting for Godot

• "Nothing happens, nobody comes,

nobody goes, it's awful".

• The subject of the play is waiting,

part of the human condition.

• People are always waiting for

something or someone, and nothing
ever happens. Change is an illusion.

Waiting for Godot

• Estragon, sitting

on a low mound,
is trying to take
off his boot. He
pulls at it with
both hands,
panting.

Waiting For Godot

• Vladimir and

Estragon stand on a
country road by a
leafless tree and
wait for a
mysterious Mr
Godot.

Waiting for Godot

• But Godot never comes, or he

may not exist; the audience
do not know.

Waiting for Godot

• The subject of the

play is waiting,

part of the human

condition. People

are always waiting

for something or

someone, and

nothing ever

happens. Change

is an illusion. The

play emphasises

the absurdity of

the human

condition.

Eugène Ionesco

• Eugène Ionesco (1909 –1994),

was a Romanian/French playwright
and dramatist, one of the foremost
playwrights of the Theatre of the
Absurd.

• Beyond ridiculing the most banal

situations, Ionesco, like Beckett,
depicts the solitude of humans and
the insignificance of one's existence

Ionesco, The Bald Soprano,

1950

• Deconstruction

of language

The Bald Soprano

• The play came out of

Ionesco’s attempts to learn
English from a book.

The Bald Soprano

• He began to read the

English primer as if it
were a traditional
narrative and, by
decontextualising the
narrative in this way,
began to see the
absurd possibilities in
literature.

The Bald Soprano

• The Smiths are a traditional

family from London, who have
invited another family, the
Martins, over for a visit. They
are joined later by the Smiths'
maid, Mary, and the local fire
chief, who is also a friend and
possibly former lover of
Mary's.

The Bald Soprano

• The two families engage in

meaningless conversation, telling

stories and relating nonsensical

poems. As the fire chief turns to

leave, he mentions "the bald

soprano" in passing, which has a

very unsettling effect on the

others. Mrs Smith replies that "she

always wears her hair in the same

style."

Ionesco, The Lesson

• The play takes place in the

office and dining room of a

small French flat.

• The Professor, an elderly man

of about 60, is expecting a

new Pupil (aged 18).

Ionesco, The Lesson

•The third character is the

professor's Maid, a stout, red-

faced woman of about 40 to

50, who is always worrying

about the Professor's "health".

•

Ionesco, The Lesson

• As the lesson progresses, the

Professor grows more and more

the Pupil's ignorance, and the

Pupil becomes more and more

quiet and meek.

• At the climax of the play, the

Pupil is murdered by the

Professor, after a long absurd

”examination”).

Ionesco, The Lesson

•The play ends as a new pupil

is greeted by the Maid.

•Common themes include

language, mathematics,
absurdity of existence.

Sławomir Mrożek

• Mrożek's works are sharply

comical and they belong to the

Theatre of the Absurd.

• They create their effects through

illusion, political and historic

references, distortion, and

parody.

Mrożek, Tango

• Conflict

between
conformism &
formalism.

Mrożek, Na pełnym morzu

• Human

behaviour in
extreme
situations

Bibliography

• Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the

Absurd. Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 1973.

• Evans, Gareth Lloyd. The Language of

Modern Drama. Totowa, NJ:

– Rowman and Littlefield, 1977.
– Wikipedia and other Internet sources.
– Photo credits: Wikipedia