The plays that Martin Esslin famously classified as belonging to
the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ are characterised by the presence of
nihilism and the influence of pessimism of existential philosophy.
The plays of such Absurd playwrights as Beckett, Pinter and
Ionesco have been criticised for portraying a world of nihilism and
dominated by the angst of existentialism. The major mode of
criticism is dominated by the sense of hopelessness and despair of
the post Second World War. It has been argued that the plays
comprising the absurd theatre are characterised by their depiction
of the sense of senselessness and the inadequacy of rationality.
While acknowledging the presence of nihilism and the influence of
existential philosophy in the plays of the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’,
this paper claims that the nihilism in these plays is essentially
Nietzschean and hence not pessimistic. This paper will argue that
the plays of the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ is essentially based on
Nietzsche’s concept of ‘Amor fati’ and that they project an
alternative modernity in its response to the pessimistic tone of the
existential philosophy.