GUILDENSTERN: All your life you live so close to the truth that it becomes a permanent stain in the corner of your eye, and when something outlines it it's like falling into an ambush from a grotesque. ~ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, Tom Stoppard, (Page 39) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Asides by Paul Valery is a poem about the loss of faith, desire, knowledge, communication, and the ability to understand the world and one's place in it. The narrator displays an uncanny acceptance of his uncertain fate as he freefalls into places unknown. Thematically, Asides bears a striking resemblance to the Theater of the Absurd, a theater movement that emerged primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. The uselessness of contemporary life, death, the breakdown of language and the inability of the protagonists to understand their place in the universe are the main themes of the absurd drama. Perhaps Paul Valery's poetry was a prelude to the Absurd movement. The idea of ​​man perceiving life as an incomprehensible game and being struck by the realization of his inability to forge a meaningful existence is the dominant theme in both the Asides and Absurdist dramas. In Asides, the narrator conveys a sense of sad desperation. He has abandoned faith in himself, the universe, and God. The narrator is suspended in a state of uncertainty, highlighted by incessant questions. The third stanza emphasizes the narrator's desolation: "What must you do? Learn. Learn, master and foresee, Everything, of course, in vain......... Who are you? Nothing, nothing at all." (pg. 1487) The narrator expresses his frustration with the futility of life by saying that knowledge and mastery will ultimately do him no good. Even if he acquired the tools, he still wouldn't be able to use them. The narrator is trapped by his own limitations. The following exchange between the two protagonists in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the most famous work of the absurd, demonstrates a similar abandonment of hope. "VLADIMIR: I get used to the filth as I go along. ESTRAGON: (after long reflection). Is it the opposite? VLADIMIR: A question of temperament. ESTRAGON: Of character. VLADIMIR: You can't do anything about it. ESTRAGON: No VLADIMIR One it is what it is. ESTRAGON There is no point in struggling. The essential does not change (p. 17) In an excerpt from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard, a later work of the absurd partially inspired by Waiting for Godot, one of the central characters. laments their squalid existence and the uncertainty of the universe "GUILDENSTERN (broken): We have traveled too far and our momentum has taken over; we move lazily towards eternity, without possibility of respite or hope of explanation." (p.121) It should be noted that another prevalent theme in the drama of the absurd is the distrust of language as an effective means of communication. The seemingly useless exchanges and the puns commonly found in absurdist works are not at all arbitrary. The meaning is buried in the language and it is up to the reader to unearth the writer's intended message. Valery takes a similar approach in Asides sense, a linguistic puzzle. Valery dispenses questions and answers, all confusing and ambiguous. The answers are in the text but the reader must look for them. Another theme shared by the Absurdist drama and Asides is the relentless presence of mortality and the idea of ​​death. as an escape route. Towards the end of Waiting for Godot, Estragon and Vladimir are overcome by despair and contemplate suicide in a surprisingly casual manner. "VLADIMIR: Tomorrow we will hang ourselves. (Break). Unless Godot comes.. 66)