Vol. 7, Issue 3, Part F (2021)

Abstract
The Absurd plays emerged in the 1950’s and 60’s as a result of the chaotic socio political and religious conditions of the post war period. Man was disillusioned with the entire system, and exhibited lack of faith in everything and everyone. There was a struggle in him to understand and be understood. He was not able to relate to the chaotic socio political and religious environment. There was a lack of trust and faith, be it in the society, politics or religion. This struggle to come to terms with the new order of things was internal as well as external. This strife has been portrayed through the medium of the characters of the plays of Ionesco and Pinter. The strife is basically psychological, and internal, as it relates to his individuality and strife to not get annihilated by the system. This is because the chaotic conditions of the post war period prevented him from accepting the new norms as they were beyond his perception, and the destruction of the hitherto strong beliefs and system forced him to look inward and question his acceptance of everything. Hence, this struggle was portrayed through the medium of the angry young man of Pinter, and the pessimistic, disillusioned and isolated individuals of Ionesco’s plays. The two prominent themes of the self and identity form the basis of most of the Absurdist playwrights, from Beckett to Pinter (Rahimipoor and Edoyan 2012). The struggle of the self and to know himself with the help of language has also been studied by Djamel and Moukhtaria (2018). Thus, language was also used as a tool to explore the self and its inherent struggle by the two absurd playwrights in their plays. This paper is an attempt to understand the strife of the absurd characters of Ionesco and Pinter from a few of their plays, and elaborate upon the significance of the same, drawing a parallel between the portrayal of the same by the two.