Friday, April 13, 2012
Absurdism is too Absurd
Absurdism is a difficult concept for me to grasp. From the gap between the acts, to the characters and their relations, I find it challenging to follow. Are the acts in The Skin of Our Teeth connected? It is hard to determine the connection between the acts. It is confusing because in Act Two, Mr. Antrobus knows who Sabina is, yet his family does not seem to acknowledge her in the way one would expect them to being that she was their maid. I wonder if Act Two shows Mr. Antrobus and Sabina’s relationship prior to her becoming their maid because in Act One, Mrs. Antrobus refers to Sabina and her husband’s affair, which seems to take place in Act Two. That may be an absurd thought since it may not be chronologically correct; however, it is something to ponder upon. I feel as though each act is a separate story because they do not refer to the past disasters. There is no correlation. Perhaps this is just the concept of absurdism. It is difficult for me to grasp this idea. Maybe I am a realist since I cannot make sense of this story. I feel there needs to be a connection and for the story line to be realistic.
I cannot comprehend the fact that they are thousands of years old because I try to relate that to normal time frames. Take the children’s ages for example. In my mind, I was trying to determine if they were about 12 or 15 years old, but then in the third act, Gladys has a child, which made it impossible for her to be in her preteen years as I presumed.
The final concept I found to be absurd in my mind was the play-within-a-play idea. When watching the play, I felt as though the characters were not acting when they “broke the fourth wall” and spoke to the audience. Then when I one reads the play, he or she finds it to be part of the script. I found this absurd—it is almost as though the characters themselves are acting. As enjoyable as this play is to watch, I find it too “absurd” to comprehend on my own.
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I understand what you are saying Rachel. I believe that it may be difficult for us to accept a play like The Skin of Our Teeth as realistic or sensible because our minds have been trained to make logic out of every situation. As students we are constantly analyzing and dissecting. We are told to examine character's motives, themes, symbolism, etc. I think Absurdism is a concept that challenges our mental capacity and understanding outside of these quintessential teachings. The Skin of Our Teeth was not meant to be fully comprehended or fit into the ideal standards similar to the plays students are accustomed to. I think it was meant to be left up to personal interpretation and also for a good debate. I think it is interesting to hear that someone thought Sabina was Antrobus' mistress while I assumed something completely different. Readers can't really do that when there is one solidified answer. I enjoyed The Skin of Our Teeth because it allowed for the audience to use their imagination to draw its own conclusion.
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