Page "Theatre of the Absurd" Paragraph 38

The plots of many Absurdist plays feature characters in interdependent pairs, commonly either two males or a male and a female.

Some Beckett scholars call this the " pseudocouple ".

The two characters may be roughly equal or have a begrudging interdependence ( like Vladamir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot or the two main characters in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead ); one character may be clearly dominant and may torture the passive character ( like Pozzo and Lucky in Waiting for Godot or Hamm and Clov in Endgame ); the relationship of the characters may shift dramatically throughout the play ( as in Ionesco's The Lesson or in many of Albee's plays, The Zoo Story for example ).