István Örkény (1912-1979), one of the most famous modern Hungarian dramatists, authored many literary works, including several novels, novellas, and short-short stories that enjoy international readership. Among these works is his play The Toth Family(1967), the first work he produced that made him a well-known writer not only in Hungary but also the world over. Although critics often focus on the grotesque when analyzing The Toth Family, the novella also exhibits many of the characteristics of Western absurd drama. In fact, it is generally accepted that The Toth Family is the first absurd drama in Hungarian literature. While this paper examines elements of the absurd in The Toth Family, these elements are not always common to those found in the Western absurd drama as defined by Martin Esslin in his book, The Theater of the Absurd(1961). As many researchers point out, the absurd drama of Eastern Europe differs from its Western counterpart. This paper examines the unique nature of Hungarian absurd drama.
This analysis will focus on two elements found in Örkény’s The Toth Family: the use of ritual and the use of word play. First, the cardboard packing boxes that the Toth family must cut every night function as a kind of rite. This kind of ritualized action is an element of Western absurd drama and can be easily compared to the use of ritual in Jean Genet’s Les Bonnes(1947). However, the boxes connect closely to both the plot and to the development of theme: The cutting machine that the family must use pushes the plot forward even as it symbolizes the importance of taking action to free oneself from the absurdities of life.
Örkény also uses word play and the inclusion of meaningless words in the text, much like the Western playwrights Beckett and Ionesco. In The Toth Family, however, this usage connects with something distinctly Hungarian. To demonstrate this connection, this paper will analyze the use of word play and meaningless words using the Jungian theory of psychology.