Existential Despair in Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman

Abstract

Exploring existential despair in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman serves to raise existential questions about human conditions, which include the disappointing and bitter sociopolitical realities of human life. In modern drama, despair is formulated in the philosophy of existentialism; a twentieth century philosophical thought that describes humanity’s contemporary existential conditions. Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus is one of the works that highlights that philosophy and can be considered an existential manifesto. As a modern play, McDonagh’s The Pillowman dramatizes existential despair as one of the sociocultural conditions that characterize life in the modern era. Through dramatic strategies like stage directions, monologues, plot and characterization the playwright exposes the Sisyphean struggle for survival. This paper seeks to explore the existential conditions; especially the existential despair faced by the modern man in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. Thus, this purpose was achieved through an analysis of the existential conditions faced by characters in the play understudy. That analytical study is grounded on the premise that, as a modern play, Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman showcases existential despair through the presentation of hopelessness, which results from the absurd realities of life. The study attempted to showcase that, as a work of modernism, the play understudy follows the vision of life as a quagmire of despair as described as the theorists of existentialism. Existentialism as a literary tool accomplished two goals, to emphasis on the absurd socio-cultural realities within the play, and the absurdity of life.