The Notion of Absurdity in Albert Camus and William Shakespeare's Hamlet as a Precursor of the Theater of the Absurd

Abstract

William Shakespeare is considered as part of a modern tradition trying to mirror the human condition and anxiety in all their absurdity. This research examines Shakespeare's masterpiece Hamlet, as a precursor of Absurd theater. In Hamlet, Shakespeare represents the conflict between the absurdity of human existence and the painful perception of it in a meaningless world, which is stripped of all reasonal thoughts and explanations. To examine Hamlet in the context of the theatre of the Absurd, it will be discussed in relation to Albert Camus's notion of the absurd with regard to their common concerns for the themes of the theatre of the Absurd such as uncertainty, death, madness and communication failure. I suggest seeing his madness as feigned madness, which can be traced from the notion of absurdity in Albert Camus. This research proposes his madness arises from the disintegration of previously accepted metaphysical and theological frameworks which had endowed existence with meaning and enables him to search for meaning in the absence of such logic. I assert that Hamlet's action in the play is in motion towards death, and that is why he acknowledge that human existence which is absurd finally ends with death. Shakespeare exposed the futility of human labour when Hamlet made it clear that man in the precarious nature of human existence recognizes that all the experiences of his life are meaningless. This research will ultimately argue that Shakespeare's Hamlet offers us an opportunity to speculate the meaning of life and absurdity in human condition. © 2021 ELLAK