"The Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy. It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as these writers see it. But the challenge behind this message is anything but one of despair. It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Martin Esslin, in Introduction to Absurd Drama (1965)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Absurdism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Absurdism
148 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Absurdism →
Related Quotes
"The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion."
"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
"Truth will triumph. It always does. However, I figure truth is a variable, so we're right back where we started from."
"I quite fixedly believe the Wardens of Earth sometimes unbar strange windows, that face on other worlds than ours. An…"
"Though Melville omitted it, Captain Ahab said, "In one sense, Aleister Crowley is lower than whale shit. In another, …"
"The logical figure of the absurd, which presents as stringent the contradictory opposite of stringency, negates all t…"
"Secrecy as deep as this is past possibility without nonexistence as well."
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
"Given that only the religion of pervasive kenosis can be truly universal, no single historical individual can exhaust…"
"I learned from my father: Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he start…"