Humour and Satire in the Plays Endgame by Samuel Beckett, No Exit by J. P. Sartre and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter

Abstract

Authors do not say what they want to say, but hide it behind the lines. They want the readers to find out what they express within the implications. Thanks to this, they use some litearary devices on writing their Works in which they imply their messages. Some of the literary devices are images, symbols, metaphors, allusions and etc. These devices help the authors bring a mysterious significance in their Works. Besides these humour and satire are made by means of these literary devices and the authors give or hint their criticisims by means of them. Humour and satire are used within the similar roles of those literary devices as well. Sometimes humour is concealed behind the satire; sometimes satire behind the humour. In some cases humour becomes the aim while satire is means and vice versa. The study is fundamentally based on the question “How do the authors use humour and satire with the help of the literary devices in their Works?” The plays Endgame (by Samuel Beckett), No Exit (by J. P. Sartre) and The Birthday Party (by Harold Pinter) are discussed and examined within the context of humour and satire. The conclusions reached by consistent deductions are emphasized in the study and comments are made. Finally, in this study, it is aimed to open a new door into various seminal questions and discussions about the propability of the novel useages of humour and satire in the literary texts.