Ennui
It's Just being Bored...Right?
Well, yes, but also no. The word Ennui is French in origin and has the definition of "Boredom". The concept of Ennui is much, much trickier to describe.
Imagine for a moment it's the year 1792. You're a French citizen who has been fighting for their rights and liberties against the tyrannical Noble caste. Your brothers and sisters in revolution are scared, yet optimistic about the future and the promises many important figures are making about the future of France. Promises that will soon go unfulfilled.
This is where the concept of Ennui begins; Steeped in the hope of a generation and brought to life by the cruelty of those who want power.
It's an all encompassing sense of weariness and the pessimistic belief that everything you do is ultimately pointless.
Despite what many think, anyone can feel Ennui
Just look at the protagonists of our play. They're caught in the limbo between adult-hood and still technically being a child. Living with nothing to do besides letting the monotony of life grind away at them until they're apathetic and weary.
Until of course, a new face comes to town and gives them the change they desperately needed.
It would soon shift from a generalized feeling to one usually associated with the arts
Slowly but surely, the feelings of weariness were divorced from the sentiment of a failed revolution and brought on to discuss the human condition beyond just the failures of any one country.
It was now associated with the Western sentiment of living in an unrecognizable world due to the quick rise of Industrialization and the early Capitalist way of life.
This version of Ennui was gatekeeped though. It was the philosophers, the educated artists, and the privileged who held these beliefs and opinions. Where as the poor, working class were seen as too stupid to understand the failures of Western Society.