Memet Baydur'un yalnızlığın oyuncakları ve Samuel Beckett'in Endgame eserlerinde insanlık durumunun prizmatik yansıması ile gerçeklik ve varoluşun usdışılığı

The Theatre of the Absurd is a genre that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. Having experienced two world wars, the Holocaust, millions of death, and genocides, people started questioning the existence and meaning of the humankind in the universe. Many thought systems, ideals, and philosophies, such as humanism and rationalism were shattered and new philosophies, such as Existentialism replaced them. In this period, Existentialist thinkers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were the most prominent figures, whose works influenced many different areas. Many art forms were deeply affected by all these changes and new philosophies. In literature, theatre was the genre that was influenced most. Absurdist playwrights, such as Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, and Arthur Adamov treated such notions as the place of man in the universe, the indifference of the universe towards humankind, bitter human condition, alienation, lack of communication, and inertia in their plays. However, in order to reflect reality and human condition they chose to use ‗prism' instead of ‗mirror' since, according to them, condition of the humankind cannot be explained through reason and rationality and all we can get is a broken, fragmented, and distorted reality. Hence, it is impossible to reflect the humankind and the reality through mirroring them and on a one-to-one basis. Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Memet Baydur's Yalnızlığın Oyuncakları both are based on the situation of old people who are entrapped in a room, which serves as a shelter for them, their inability to take any action that will ‗save' them, and their indifference to each other. This thesis aims to explore the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd, Existentialist philosophy that affected the Absurd theatre deeply, and the socio-political and cultural context of the period in which the Theatre of the absurd generated along with exploring the bitter human condition, agony of existence, and distorted and fragmented reflection of reality that underpins and sets the basis of Endgame and Yalnızlığın Oyuncakları.