Comparing Ritual in Beckett, Hemingway, and O'Neill

2139 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of technology on people

Ritual in Beckett, Hemingway, and O'Neill

"Perhaps the public psyche has simply been overloaded and, like an electrical circuit, has blown its fuse and gone cold under the weight of too many impulses" (Miller, lvi).

The modern world is often looked upon as a cold and unfeeling one. And the modern existence is such that it has been called a "Wasteland" by T. S. Eliot. It has also led Camus to parallel it with the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to repeatedly push a boulder up a mountain, after which it would roll down the other side, and he would have to start all over again. It is this ritualistic behavior which has become a significant factor in modern life.

Although ritualism is a common theme in modern literature, its function had been interpreted differently by modern writers. Many, like Beckett and Hemingway, see ritualistic behavior almost as a form of therapy, a healing action used to cope with internal turmoil. Others, chiefly expressionists like O'Neill, look upon ritual with scorn. They see it as the deadening of society, the mechanization of humanity. "Expressionist drama protested strongly against the system of industrialized production that transformed man into an automaton" (Glicksberg 51).

O'Neill's scorn of ritualism, which is typical of the expressionists, is evident in his plays. The expressionists believed that humanity is out of kilter with nature, and man's obsession with materialism and machines is a factor in the deadening of the soul. O'Neill was a man described by Joseph Golden as being

a godless, despondent, pessimistic, antisocial creature who was also prone to such exuberance that he could write to a friend "I'm tickled to death with life! I wouldn't 'go out' and miss the rest of the play for anything!"(31).

O'Neill's lack of belief in religion was a constant struggle for him. He was disturbed not only by the absence of Christianity, but by humanity's inability to find a replacement for it. He described this feeling in a letter to George Jean Nathan when he wrote,

The playwright today must dig at the roots of the sickness of today as he feels it--the death of the Old God and the failure of science and materialism to give any satisfying new one for the surviving primitive religious instinct to find a meaning of and to life in, comfort his fears of death with (qtd in Golden 39).

Show More
Related

  • Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a majority, we do not act; we are complacent. We do not take a stand; we fear failure and humiliation. We do not lead; we follow. Society has increasingly grown passive, tired, and complacent. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s idea of the "appalling silence of the good people" is as poignant today as it was in the 1960s.

    Read More

  • Life In Richard Taylor's The Meaning Of Life

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because Sisyphus betrayed “divine secrets to mortals”, he was sentenced to continuously rolling a stone up a hill and when it came down, he would have to roll it up again for an eternity. “We have the picture of meaningless, pointless toil, of a meaningless existence that is absolutely never redeemed” (Taylor p 20). Sisyphus struggle cannot even be redeemed through death or exhaustion. His sentenced is irreversible and there is no way out of this depressing and dark life. There is absolutely no hope for him, just more of the same. His reality is his nightmare that he can not be awoken

    Read More

  • Leaders of the Baroque Age: Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, and George Frideric Handel

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Baroque Age, many changes took place in the instrumental music area. This type of music became very popular and just as important as vocal music, with many new mechanical and technological developments taking place. The keyboard, strings, winds, and percussion were used to produce instrumental music. Among these instruments, the keyboard was a major one used for solo music and “basso continuo” (a musical notation used to signal chords, non-chords, and intervals in connection to bass notes) parts. The keyboard also was involved in an abundance of instrumental literature during this time. The three types of keyboards that existed were the organ (mainly used with church music and solo accompaniment), the clavichord (produces sound by the striking of a medal wedge against a string when a key is pressed), and the harpsichord (contains two keyboards and a sound that produces “quills” when the strings are plucked due to a key being pressed). G.F. Telemann, J.S. Bach, and G.F. Handel were three men that had a major impact on the development of keyboard music in the Baroque Age. With their superior musician skills, they left behind many pieces of music that we play and listen to today.

    Read More

  • The Late Baroque Style Compared to the Classical Style

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the late Baroque period morphed into the new period known as the classical period, technological advances and new compositional techniques and ideas created new opportunities for the musicians of the period. The changes allowed for new performance techniques, forms, performance venues, and newly available compositional orchestrations to be improved and evolved into something new and improved for the new period.

    Read More

  • Johanne Adolphe Hasse

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...tion through voice selection and harmonic function. Hasse has returned to his celebrated status as we remember him in modern times for his influence and formation of the classic opera form.

    Read More

  • Georg Phillip Telemann: The Culture Of The Baroque Period

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    The music of the Baroque period was focused on having music be a tool of communication to its listeners; conveying an arousal of emotions. Composers of this time thought to use this tool to have this effect or one similar to it to correctly match music from the Roman time period. One composer that goes by the name of Georg Phillip Telemann. He was a German composer born in 1681, he was known as one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era, “At the age of just ten years old he was able to play four different instruments and had written arias, motets and instrumental works”(Norton Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, 756). As well as learning many skills at a young age, his fame grew immensely in Germany becoming a very famous composer and was even assigned four times as much space as the famous J.S. Bach in some contemporary dictionaries. Telemann composed in all varieties of forms and styles, from Italian-style concertos to French-style overture suites and quartets. The Sonata in F minor was one of his pieces that was played at the concert. The piece first given appearance in 1728 in a German musical periodical; though it was originally written for a bassoon and continuo the piece was altered by the performers to be played with a bass trombone and piano. One way that an individual could tell it is a piec...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Meaning of Life by Richard Taylor

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    Taylor is careful to identify exactly which features of Sisyphus predicament account for the lack of meaning. He argues that the facts that Sisyphus task is both difficult and endless are irrelevant to its meaninglessness. What explains the meaninglessness of Sisyphus’s life is that all of his work amounts to nothing. One way that Sisyphus’s life could have meaning, Taylor proposes, is if something was produced of his struggles. For example, if the stone that he rolls were used to create something that would last forever then Sisyphus would have a meaningful life. Another separate way in which meaning might be made present is if Sisyphus had a strong compulsion for rolling the stone up the hill. Taylor points out, though, that even given this last option, Sisyphus’s life has not acquired an objectives meaning of life; there is still nothing gained besides the fact he just ...

    Read More

  • How Is Richard Taylor And Camus's View On The Meaning Of Life Is Meaningless?

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    Several philosophers have made differing viewpoints regarding the outlook of life. Richard Taylor and Albert Camus are notably known for presenting their thoughts on whether life is meaningless or not through the use of the Greek myth of Sisyphus. The two philosopher’s underlying statement on the meaning of life is understood through the myth. The myth discusses the eternal punishment of Sisyphus who was condemned by the Gods to take a large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, forcing him to repeat this task endlessly. Each conceive the myth in their own way and ultimately end with a conclusion that differs from each other. Taylor’s ideals and his take on the meaning of life contrast with what Camus presents in his argument. While Taylor suggests that there is a subjective meaning to life, Camus states that life is ultimately meaningless.

    Read More

  • The Human Condition

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    Does life ever seem pointless and discouraging? In Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus,” Camus describes the correlation between Sisyphus’s fate and the human condition. In the selection, everyday is the same for Sisyphus. Sisyphus is condemned to rolling a rock up a mountain for eternity. Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus” forces one to contemplate Sisyphus’s fate, how it relates to the human condition, and how it makes the writer feel about her part in life.

    Read More

  • Modernist Literature in Krapp´s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    piece a modernist one. The play’s dialogue, technology, and the fragmentation of the piece, are

    Read More

  • The Experience of Death Depicted in the Plays Everyman and The Sandbox

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    Death, to the surrounding people, can often be seen as a horrible and depressing time in one’s life, while the same result may occur in the person going through the time period. One must remember, though, that no matter how the person has lived throughout their life, everyone must die eventually, for it is the circle of life. The playwright, Everyman, notes of the importance of having devotion and loyalty in Jesus Christ, for that is the only way to Heaven. Also, the play and The Sandbox greatly illustrate how a person near death is feeling and his emotions, while also describing the sympathy of others around him and their experiences.

    Read More

  • Cultural Analysis On Death And The Afterlife

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. For it is the society that has great impact on the individual’s beliefs. Hence, it is also possible for other cultures to influence the people of a different culture on such comprehensions. The primary and traditional way men and women have made dying a less depressing and disturbing idea is though religion. Various religions offer the comforting conception of death as a begining for another life or perhaps a continuation for the former.

    Read More

  • Perception of Death in the Play “Everyman"

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the play “everyman” death is depicted as something that is terribly feared as no one seemed ready for it, death is perceived as something that takes one away from the pleasures of this world.

    Read More

  • The Baroque Era of Music

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Baroque period of music lasted from approximately 1600 – 1750 AD. It falls into the Common Practice period and was the most predominant style of writing after the Renaissance period and before the Classical period (the Classical period uses many elements from the Baroque period). The word Baroque means highly decorated and essentially gives us an insight into what the music of the time was like. Many pieces in the Baroque style have three or four different parts which work together to produce a melodic melody which modulates to relative keys. The Baroque period developed from the Renaissance period. These two periods shared the same idea of counterpoint, yet Baroque music differed from that of the Renaissance period by having stronger rhythms and longer melodies. The era was the beginning of a number of dance suites which all have different characteristics. For example the Minuet in simple triple time does not have an anacrusis and is graceful whilst the gigue is in compound duple time, has a short anacrusis and is often very contrapuntal (where the melody is shared between two o...

    Read More

  • A New Form of Music: The Baroque Period

    1174 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Baroque period was “one of the most brilliant periods in history, standing squarely at the crossroads between medieval and modern times, this was an age of real achievement, strong hope, and vigorous actuality” (McKinney 270). The term Baroque comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning a pearl of irregular shape (Smith 31). Beginning in Italy, the Baroque period was known for its “grandiose concepts” and “magnificent effects”. The grandiose concepts were basically concepts that were grand and over the top. The magnificent effects were just fancy effects. Even while writing the music of that time, the composers would always make the notes fancy and curly. An era of emotional art and music, this period was divided into two time frames: the Early Baroque and the Late Baroque. The Early Baroque lasted from 1650 to 1700 (Britten 84). During this period, choruses and opera were widely popular. Dances were also choreographed to include grace into the songs when performed. Lasting from 1700 to 1750, the Late Baroque added a style of singing known as bel canto (Britten 85). In bel canto, the beauty of the sound overtook the importance of the dramatic dances. Summarizing these two periods, dramatic dancing became popular to go along with the music during the Early Baroque music and singing became popular to be performed along with the music during the Late Baroque. The Baroque period was also a time of numerous achievements. Driven by the influences of the Renaissance period, man began to realize what phenomenal things one could achieve. But what changes in music occurred at this time and what other achievements were made? The Baroque period was a phenomenal period still talked about today.

    Read More

More about Comparing Ritual in Beckett, Hemingway, and O'Neill

Open Document