Happy Days is an absurdist play by the Irish playwright. Here is a brief synopsis and analysis of the existential themes present in the enigmatic work. *
Samuel Beckett's humorously dark and ambiguous play, Happy Days, takes the idea of optimism to an extreme level. In the wake of impending death, the main character Winnie still believes that happy d ays are still ahead for her. * * Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour. * Beckett is …ver más…

The fear of impending death has her appreciating the basic needs of survival, as she is firmly stuck at the bottom of Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs."
Winnie and Willie
Much of the play remains a mystery, especially the more enigmatic second act, which begins with Winnie buried up to her head in sand. Who buried her up to her neck? And why? These questions are entirely open to multiple interpretations. There is also the case of her husband Willie, a strange, bizarre, sluggish practically mute man by her side throughout the play.
At one point, Winnie's extreme optimism leads her so far as to ask Willie if he ever felt the need for gravity to suck him up to the sky. Willie reacts with a groan and merely replies with the phrase "sucked up." Her world is upside down and as she becomes more hyperaware of her grim fate, she fantasizes that her ironic thoughts could possibly be a reality. Willie is dressed in a suit, crawling toward Winnie, as if he is already mourning her death and ready for the funeral procession.
Loneliness is a Theme in Happy Days
The play is primarily a one-woman show. Since Willie barely has any lines, we never get a sense of his personality. He's like a pawn in the background and Winnie relies heavily on his presence, constantly looking for assurance that he is listening to her as she talks incessantly.
}Winnie escapes her loneliness by adhering strictly to her everyday routines and by taking great care of the inanimate objects she uses - a comb,