THE EXERCISE OF POWER IN tONESCO'S THE IESSON AND PINTER'S APPLICANT

Although Absurd plays tend to have general characteristics fn common, as Martin Esslin has so well pointed out in his introduction to The Theatre of the Absurd1, nevertheless two plays have called my attention for the fact that they not only share some of these general characteristics but go even a step further in having technically and thematically striking similarities. These two plays are lonesco's The Lesson*, published originally 'm French in 1954, and Pinter's Applicant', a sketch published in 1961.-