Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that's what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity. 

                                                                                                                -Albert Camus

For generations and generations, humans have been seeking the answer to unanswerable questions. Humans question, ponder and challenge the entirety of their tangible and intangible world, leading to one overbearing question: What is the purpose of life? Philosophers across the globe from various ancient civilisations proposed this question concurrently, despite having no interaction. Despite the effort that is worth thousands of years, humans have not and shall never discover an underlying cause of the universe. In devoting one’s life to answering this inexplicable question, individuals merely end up in an existential crisis and a life devoid of subjective meaning. Given that the pursuit of a non-existent objective meaning inevitably leads to an existential crisis, humans should subjectively examine their lives with the aim of defining their own values and purposes in order to achieve self-actualisation. 

The world lacks a defined, universal value, consequently invalidating the notion of an objective purpose in life. This idea was explored by French philosopher, Albert Camus, in the 1940s through his theory of absurdism, which contends that “This world in itself is not reasonable… You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” Although philosophers continually attempt to impose order on existence and search for answers to unanswerable questions, Camus contends that life is fundamentally meaningless. He used the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who is doomed by the gods to repeatedly roll a boulder up a mountain until he reaches the summit, acting as a metaphor for the individual's steadfast struggle against the fundamental folly of life. The first step, in Camus' view, is to acknowledge the absurdity of one’s situation. If committing suicide is not possible, the only option for Sisyphus is to rebel by joyfully pushing the boulder up the mountain, rather than succumbing to the frustrating futility of his action. Camus argues that the individual acquires subjective meaning and identity via the joyful acceptance of the struggle against defeat in a world devoid of objective meaning.

T. S. Eliot explores Camus’ ideology of absurdity in his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which highlights the futility of seeking a universal meaning. The persona, Prufrock, is immersed in an utter state of despair, struggling to find any meaning in life as his focus is to find an objective answer to “the overwhelming question.” He confides in the audience his ultimate anxiety resulting from his obsession with finding the true meaning of life, “Do I dare // Disturb the universe?” The enjambment establishes a broken pace, reflecting Prufrock’s fractured, fearful state of mind where he concludes that his autonomous quest for meaning is a guilty action that goes against the universe. This is contrasted by his previous thoughts dwelling on trivial matters such as, “My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin — // (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”).” The hyphen creates a caesura before the parenthetical aside, demonstrating his inner mindscape being disembodied and fragile. On the one hand, Prufrock deems his appearance to others as trivial, which inhibits his quest for the ultimate answer in life. However, his concern for appearance remains salient throughout the poem, constantly intruding upon his thoughts. In claiming to find ultimate meaning in life, Prufrock overlooks the fundamental need of discovering his own values and purposes. This results in his identity being inconsistent and susceptible to external judgement, leaving his overall psyche fragile and depressed. By focusing on an inexistent objective meaning rather than subjectively examining one’s life, an individual depletes their mental focus and enters a state of paralysis.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth offers insight into absurdity from another unique perspective, advocating for subjective examination of life. Macbeth is arguably the polar opposite of Prufrock, in the sense that he does not attempt to examine his life whatsoever and, instead, allows his greed to solely drive him through life, which leads to fatal consequences. At the end of his life, facing defeat, Macbeth describes the absurdity of the universe, “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, // That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” The metaphor of a ‘walking shadow’ highlights the innate meaninglessness of life, as Macbeth’s mindless greed renders an endless desire for more, which is anything but joy as he would never reach satisfaction. The consonance of how life ‘struts and frets upon the stage’ creates a monotonous rhythm that emphasises the cyclical nature of life, in which nature has infinite time to observe the individual as a naive actor upon a stage. This displays that finding one’s own meaning in life is imperative, as overlooking the necessity to control their innate desires and defining their own purposes would position them as mere puppets at the whims of the world’s fundamental meaninglessness. Like Prufrock, Macbeth presents an undesirable approach to living life. However, while Prufrock is too occupied with finding a universal meaning and is constantly preoccupied with humility, Macbeth does not examine his life at all and lets his greed drive him. Therefore, despite the absence of universal meaning in life due to the world being inherently absurd, individuals should strive for a fulfilling life by rejoicing in seeking a definitive goal, similar to Sisyphus who should find pleasure in rolling the boulder up the mountain.

The possibility of objectivity is precluded as human beings can only access a limited range of knowledge, while any attempt at gathering knowledge of a higher-order meaning beyond this scope incurs detrimental effects. To a certain extent, knowledge seeking is beneficial and the absence of knowledge results in fear and ignorance, creating invisible scars in the human mind as one dreads the anticipated horrifying outcomes from the unknown that undermine one’s purposes. Knowledge alleviates fear as it transforms the unknown into the known, empowering individuals to undertake a subjective examination of their lives. However, humanity is not almighty and there is a limit to the extent of knowledge. If humankind attempts to surpass this threshold of knowledge and seek a non-existent objective meaning, this will inevitably result in an existential crisis due to an innate mechanism that engenders discomfort within the self to prevent individuals from exceeding humanity’s knowledge limits. 

Macbeth suffers from the consequences of attempting to exceed humanity’s available range of knowledge. He desires to know whether he is the “god-chosen” warrior to be king and, in doing so, consults the malevolent beings of witches, leading to his fatal flaw, greed and ambition, resulting in more destructive outcomes as the process of gaining power interferes with others interests. Being tricked by the self-fulfilling prophecy, his convoluted mind drives him insane, becoming antisocial to the extent that he wishes to see the end of the world:

I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun,

And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone.

Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! Come, wrack!

At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

The AABB rhyme scheme establishes repetition, reiterating Macbeth’s angst in discovering his downfall. In failing to acknowledge humanity’s inability to perceive knowledge beyond their cognitive range, Macbeth finds a false sense of comfort in believing the maliciously misleading words of the witches. Macbeth wishes to project his depressed state onto the world and observe the moral order end before it is capable of punishing him. His loss of sanity, resulting from utter confusion in the loss of world order, denotes humanity’s inability to form logical thought processes about matters beyond their comprehension. On the verge of death, he becomes numb and detached from his environment, completely ignoring his immoral and greedy values, “Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! Come, wrack!” His actions serve no inherent meaning to himself. Macbeth’s loss of sanity reflects the detrimental effects of attempting to seek objective answers to life’s questions, as this knowledge lies beyond human limits. By contrast, Macbeth’s companion Banquo displays calmness and logical thinking by refraining from seeking higher-order knowledge that fulfils greed-driven motivations. Banquo warns Macbeth that the witches are “instruments of darkness” and are to “win us [them] to our [their] harm.” By examining the situation and drawing upon information available within the realm of human knowledge, Banquo is able to form logical thoughts in evaluating the intentions of the witches and thereby avoids the tragic downfall that befalls Macbeth. One should not attempt to seek higher-order information that exceeds their capacity of understanding as this will, at best, lead to confusion and, at worst, blind overconfidence. While knowledge possesses the power to eliminate many of humanity’s fears, it is only to the extent that it enables self-examination so that individuals can achieve self-improvement and satisfaction.

Even if individuals are no longer concerned with finding the objective meaning of life, society is filled with constraints that prohibit the formation of subjective understandings of life. The structure of society evident in social norms shape social constraints that encourage people not to examine their lives too deeply but merely accept information as they are told. Fear of negative evaluation provokes constant preoccupation with social norms, which results in self-policing to align with social standards and consequently precludes examining one’s own life. This neglects to surpass the superficial facade of matters, which at best leads to a shallow sense of satisfaction and comfort; however, if individuals fail to break through the surface, then they cannot achieve self-actualisation. 

Prufrock displays his convoluted lifestyle without a meaningful purpose, where he solely adheres to the social expectations of upper-class English society which constrain him to act without autonomous direction. Prufrock feels perpetually constrained by social concerns such as visual appearances, religious beliefs, and behaving in accordance with proper etiquette of the upper class. Prufrock provides a snapshot of his perception of the way he is expected to act in life by external pressures: 

Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,

Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?

But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter…

The juxtaposition between the privileged connotations of “...tea and cakes and ices” and Prufrock’s metaphysical desire to “force the moment to its crisis” demonstrates the difficulty for him to evade social occasions, as external pressures prevent him from examining his life to answer the “overwhelming question.” The visual and auditory imagery of “though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed” demonstrates Prufrock’s mere conformity in which this religious ritual seems like a chore instead of a genuine spiritual need through the anaphora of “wept” and polysyndeton, provoking melancholic connotations associated with expected social behaviours. He further alludes to the Christian religion through the symbol of John the Baptist’s death in “I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter.”  This insinuates Prufrock’s violent and melancholic life outlook, provoking visceral imagery where he would rather surrender his life “upon a platter” to meet society’s expectations than violate them and risk negative evaluation. The parenthetical aside “(grown slightly bald)” displays the psychological salience of his physical appearance to others. In this case, the superficial sense of satisfaction is not seen, and in lieu of this comfort, Prufrock exhibits convolution and laziness. Although it seems Prufrock could get away with the laziness to not ‘force the moment to its crisis’, a miserable life without subjective self-examination is bound to result in the visceral imagery of his head served in a formal, elegant manner to solely please other people by living according to their judgement. If he hides from the pain of subjective examination, his life is convoluted and therefore does not have a unique meaning for himself. While examining one’s life subjectively under social constraints is painful, one must strive to look underneath the facade of their existence to live a fulfilled life. 

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird explores how social constraints hinder an individual’s capacity to fully examine their life due to the fear of discomfort caused by potential persecution. Similar to Prufrock, Atticus fears negative evaluation if he were to violate dominant social norms; however, Atticus’ experiences centre around trepidation as to whether he will become marginalised or alienated from his community if he defends those victimised by systemic racism and does not adhere to common beliefs about racial superiority. This is evident in Atticus’ choice of euphemism when referring to Mr. Cunningham’s racist behaviours to avoid social stigmatisation by defending him as, “basically a good man… he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.” While the euphemism illustrates how the social context transforms a definitively immoral issue invisible to the individuals in their social milieu, this use of euphemism creates a paradox in which both Atticus and Cunningham are confined within their societal values.  To avoid social persecution and immense discomfort, Atticus has only partially examined his own life by identifying racism from a general perspective to fulfil his values as a lawyer. However, he has not done so to a great extent due to lacking insight into the fact that he is supporting racism by using euphemistic language. Despite the undoubtedly painful process of subjectively examining life, individuals should persevere with this pain to live a truly fulfilling life by defining their ultimate purposes.

The uniqueness of human nature makes one’s subjective examination of life beneficial in achieving self-fulfilment, as the individual is able to find personal, nuanced satisfaction within the bounds of their existence. Our knowledge as humans is based upon a collection of unique interpretations. The Chinese idiom, “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes,” encapsulates the varied nature of idea formation and how nothing can be objectively defined. What is blue? The label ‘blue’ is attributed to the colour based on a collection of similar perceptions, yet the interpretations of this colour vary greatly. For example, blue may connote happiness or trauma, depending on how it has been shaped by the person’s experience. Subsequently, individuals, achieve happiness by examining themselves subjectively rather than pursuing an ‘almighty truth’ that contradicts the fundamental basis of human nature. 

In the British teen TV show, Heartstopper, the protagonist, Nick, develops romantic feelings for the openly gay character, Charlie. However, Nick is presented as a stereotypical ‘rugby boy’, where being homosexual is considered abnormal. It is only due to Nick embracing his uniqueness as an individual and allowing himself to examine his own true identity that he is able to live a meaningful life that provides him purpose and fulfilment, filled with love, support and friendship. This is demonstrated by the vulnerable facial expression and look of overwhelming longing in the close-up shot of Nick’s face as he leans into his first kiss with Charlie – exploring his sexuality and, thus, examining his life. The romantic, non-diegetic music in conjunction with the visual imagery of the flower animations, reveals the overwhelming relief and positive impact that this moment has had on Nick; he was only able to find his true self and live a meaningful existence by examining and rejecting social norms projected onto him and instead accepting his idiosyncrasies and sense of self as a human being. The warm, red lighting when they kiss is directly juxtaposed with the cold, blue lighting when Nick returns to his rugby peers. This reflects the restriction experienced by Nick when conforming to social expectations and, thus, the unhappiness and futility of living an unexamined existence where he is unable to express his true self. By subjectively examining his life, his desires and the people around him, Nick was able to define his own meaningful and unique existence, emphasising the importance of living an examined life. 

Ecclesiastes 2:17 portrays how “All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind”. Man is afforded merely a fraction of the cycle of endless time in the universe to aimlessly ponder and hesitate over metaphysical issues like finding objective meaning. Individuals shouldn’t perpetually chase after the wind like Prufrock, ignore the wind splashing on their faces like Macbeth, nor vacillate between the two to avoid discomfort like Atticus. They should rather embrace their uniqueness to define their own values like Nick. Instead of erratically chasing the wind, individuals should relinquish their desire to find objective meaning and embrace the absurdity of the world; one must delve into the realm of lucidity to rejoice and find their own meaning in an inherently meaningless universe.