hero, in search of his true, authentic self, and thus he suffers from the anguish of freed
om”
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. Alireza sees that hesitation as a picture of a man who is trapped on his own
freedom. As states by Sartre, men are condemned to this world and they need to decide their own fate, Alireza sees Hamlet as a man who tries to explore their own
life and question of his self-existence. Moreover, Alireza states that: “Hamlet’s “problem” is that he lacks any significant obstacle for action.
In fact he suffers from the anxiety of a fairly vast freedom of choice, or, as Kierkegaard describes it, as the “dizziness of freedom”. This anxiety
“represents freedom self awareness; it is the psychological precondition for the individual’s attempt to become autonomous, a possibility that is
seen as both alluring and disturbing”
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. This work explores existential notion by combining the figuration of the
character and the event in which the character involve. Furthermore, Alireza also describes Hamlet as an existentialist hero because, by the end of the story, Hamlet
does not kill the king because of his father’s ghost, but because of his own desire. He kills the king only when he himself is in a near-death situation. The way he finally
able to get rid of his father’s ghost and do anything by his own will is a notion of existentialism where man’s free will is the highest currency of the life itself
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.
4. Absurdity
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Mahdipur Alireza, “The Existentialist Idea in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Justification for the Renaissance Convention of Play-within-the-
Play”, Research on Foreign Language Journal of Faculty of Letter and Humanities 49.200 Spring, 2008: 136.
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M. Alireza, “The Existentialist Idea in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Justification for the Renaissance Convention of Play-within-the-
Play”, Research on Foreign Language Journal of Faculty of Letter and Humanities, 137
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. M. Alireza, “The Existentialist Idea in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Justification for the Renaissance Convention of Play-within-the-
Play”, Research on Foreign Language Journal of Faculty of Letter and Humanities,145
Lesley Virginia Herring in her thesis also explains the core value of absurd teaching in existentialism. In the analysis of The Stranger, she portrays absurdity as a
philosophical attitude pervading much of modern drama and fiction, which underlines the isolation and alienation that human beings experience, having been thrown into
what absurdist see as a godless universe devoid of any religious, spiritual, or metaphysical meaning. She states that:
Conspicuous in its lack of logic, consistency, coherence, intelligibility, and realism, the literature of the absurd depicts the anguish,
forlornness, and despair inherent in the human condition. Counter to the rationalist assumptions of traditional humanism, absurdism denies
the existence of universal truth or value
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. Camus is well known as a great writer for absurd fiction. He has several books,
which its story portrays existentialism. One of the most famous works that created by Camus is The Stranger. This novel employs a story about human life with a complex
feeling of abandonment, despair and alienated. Camus is not the only absurd novelist world known about. Alongside with Camus, names like Eugene Ionesco and Bruno
Schulz are also well known as an amazing absurd novelist. An absurd novel exposes the despair of life, which someone can be alienated even from himself. An absurd
novel becomes the “usual” target for existential study, which explains the number of
analysis that has been done to Camus’ The Stranger. Lesley Virginia Herring uses The Stranger, as the subject of her thesis and tries
to see the main character, Meursault, as an individual that represent postmodern life.
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Lesley Virginia Herring, “The Existential and Postmodern Individual” Master Program in Texas
AM University, 2005 2
Herring sees Meursault as a postmodern individual and tries to elaborate her acquisition based on two theories: existentialism and postmodern ideology. She states
that: “Meursault, displays characteristics of both the existential and
postmodern individual. These two types of individuals may seem like an anomaly, or even impossible; however, when we see
Meursault, it is seen that an individual may exist as a unification of these two theories”
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. Meursault is the main character on The Stranger. He portrays alienation and
despair that can be experienced by anybody even when they do not know about. Besides his bitter life experience, Meursault is an example of a postmodern man.
Her ring states that “the postmodern being is one of an almost anonymous
existence”
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. He does not maintain or seek out caring relationships and remains independent of truth-seeking perspectives. Like an existential being, the postmodern
individual prefers the temporary over the permanent and seeks immediate gratification”
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. She believes that men are self-conscious being, we all self-conscious being. In this thesis, she tries to state the different between men with a self-
consciousness state and men who do not have it. There are many stories that contain the notion of absurdity. Another exposure
of absurdity can be seen in Forest Gump. Forest Gump was born with so many weaknesses. He has to use leg brace because he cannot walk properly. Gump also
suffers from autism and he has no idea about the world he lives in. He does not
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L.V. Herring, “The Existential and Postmodern Individual”, 2
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L.V. Herring, “The Existential and Postmodern Individual”, 3
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L.V. Herring, “The Existential and Postmodern Individual”, 3
understand love, life, God, and any other things that consider as an important matter by most men. He is pure and no intention at all.
Gump is its rejection of any knowable higher purpose to life. One of the main tenets of existentialism is its insistence that the Universe is absurd
and there is no higher meaning t hat can be found outside of man’s
experience. There are no universal absolutes to guide us or shape us –
only our personal particular experiences of life. There is no Big Picture, only little pictures; no universals, only particulars; no ultimate meaning,
o nly existence. Therefore man’s search for meaning in a higher purpose
will always end in agnostic despair as does Jenny’s and Dan’s
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. During his journey, he becomes a millionaire even when he does not want to.
He becomes anything other men want even when he does not want to be such individual. He is the picture of the absurdity itself. Gump’s existence in the story is
pictured by his action and successfulness which he does not have any intention to do so, he is an absurd individual.
The idea of absurdity that pictured by The Stranger and Forest Gump is a very important element for this thesis. Those studies exhibit the part of the story that can
be seen as the notion of absurdity. Both the study on Camus and Forest Gump shows an example of an absurd individual. The examples can become an important referral
for this thesis in exploring the absurdity of Zobrist’s life. Therefore, works on Camus and Forest Gump is very important to this thesis.
5. Alienation
Alienation is the central issue in Sartre’s philosophy. It has been used as the foreground of literary study since 1943. One of the works that highlight alienation as
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. “Forrest Gump: Existentialism for the Common Man”. Web. December 2015. http:www.colorado.eduAmStudieslewisfilmgumphilo.pdf
the basis for a literary study is the study by Debadrita Chakraborty. She uses alienation as the background to study the works of T.S Eliot and Samuel Beckett. She
states that “This paper critically examines the fractured existence of humanity, of man’s alienation in a hostile universe and the inevitability of death in a world
incapacitated by the devastations of war
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. She considers T.S Eliot and Samuel Beckett as modernists who survive the
horror of World War II. Therefore, their works are able to perfectly depict alienation. She uses view works of both writer and depicts the alienation from each work.
Chakraborty states that: Both Eliot and Beckett provide us with a deep insight of the emptiness
and despondency of a war devastated world, something that has ruined the human will to live. Motifs of alienation, isolation and desolation run
rampant in all of the above analyzed texts portraying the futility of human existence
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. Based on her analysis, she believes that both writers exhibit the notion of
alienation. It pictures through the word selection and the plots that are used in several works from both writers. She, furthermore, argues that both Elliot and Becket are
expert critics of life. They picture their sharp critique in their work. Although they do not expose their critique in direct statements, their ideas toward the world are still
clearly shown in their work.
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Debadrita Chakraborty, “Alienation Isolation and the Loss of Identity: Examining the Works of T.S Eliot and Samuel Beckett”, The Criterion An International Journal in English 4.2 April 2013: 1
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D. Chakraborty, “Alienation Isolation and the Loss of Identity: Examining the Works of T.S Eliot and Samuel Beckett”, The Criterion An International Journal in English, 7
