Waiting for Godot

1. Waiting for Godot

2. Samuel Beckett1906-1989 • An Irish playwright • A novelist • A poet

3. Beckett’s background • 1906~Samuel Barclay Beckett ． Born in Dublin, on April 13, 1906. ． Solitude and loneliness. • 1923-1927 French, Italian and English at Trinity College. • 1928-1936 ．InParis, Beckett was introduced to James Joyce. ． Ireland, France, England and Germany.

4. Beckett’s background • 1937 settled down in Paris. • 1947~ Beckett began to write in French. • 1961 married Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil. • 1969 Nobel Prize for literature. • 1989 Becket died in Paris on December 22.

5. Beckett’s dramatic works • Beckett’s dramatic works don’t reply to the traditional elements of drama. For Beckett, language is useless; he creates a mythical universe peopled by lonely creatures who struggle vainly to express the inexpressible. • human nature and human condition.

6. Samuel Beckett’s grave , Montparnasse Cemetery James Joyce

7. Waiting for Godot • 1952 written in French, and published. • 1953 premiered at the Babylone theater in Paris. • 1954 the English translation appeared. Image source: http://www.prancyhorse.com/estuff/booklist/details/388.html

8. Characters • Vladimir -Estragon calls him Didi, -the boy calls him Mr. Albert -responsible and mature • Estragon -Vladimir calls him Gogo -weak and helpless -has a poor memory Image source:http://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpg

9. Pozzo - passes by the spot where Vladimir and Estragon are waiting and then provides a diversion. -blind, and forgets meeting Vladimir and Estragon before (Act ii). • Lucky -Pozzo’s slave -Carries Pozzo’s bags and stool

10. Boy -Appears at the end to tell Vladimir that Godot won’t be coming that night. • Godot -The man that Vladimir and Estragon wait perpetually. -Never appears in the end of the play.

11. Plot Act One： Vladimir and Estragon are near a tree to wait for Godot. Pozzo and Lucky enter. Pozzo talks with Vladimir and Estragon, Lucky, dancing and thinking, makes them happy. After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy tells Vladimir that Godot will not come that evening. Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move as the curtain falls.

12. Act Two： The next day, Vladimir and Estragon again near the tree to wait for Godot. Pozzo and Lucky enter again, but Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. Pozzo does not remember meeting the two men before. After they leave, Vladimir and Estragon continue to wait. And then the boy enters, he tells Vladimir that Godot will not come. He insists that he did not speak to Vladimir yesterday. After he leaves, Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move again, ending the play.

13. Tragicomedy Tragicomedy (or dark comedy or black comedy) refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy refers to a serious play with a happy ending.

14. Existentialism • the philosophical theory which holds that neither moral thinking (governed by the norms of the good and the right) nor scientific thinking (governed by the norm of truth) suffices to understand the human condition, and that a further set of categories, governed by the norm of authenticity, is needed.

15. Symbol • hat: reason? intellect? • boot: body? It may suggest that humans try to earn a living and struggle for their life. • tree nature? hope for their future?

16. ThemeWaiting for something…? Two tramps are waiting for Godot. ↓ They want to find something to prove their existence. ↓ • For example, we're waiting for nicer weather, the end of exams, etc. ↓

17. We’re waiting all the time. ↓ We should create the goal and the value of existence. ↓ Theater of the absurd

18. The Theatre of the Absurd • The term theater of the absurd derives from the philosophical use of the word absurd by such existentialist thinkers as Albert CAMUS and Jean Paul SARTRE. Camus, particularly, argued that humanity had to resign itself to recognizing that a fully satisfying rational explanation of the universe was beyond its reach; in that sense, the world must ultimately be seen as absurd.

19. The Theatre of the Absurd • The playwrights loosely grouped under the label of the absurd endeavor to convey their sense of bewilderment, anxiety, and wonder in the face of an inexplicable universe. They rely heavily on poetic metaphor as a means of projecting outward their innermost states of mind. Hence, the images of the theater of the absurd tend to assume the quality of fantasy, dream, and nightmare; they do not so much portray the outward appearance of reality as the playwright's emotional perception of an inner reality.

20. The Theatre of the Absurd • Thus Beckett's Happy Days (1961) expresses a generalized human anxiety about the approach of death through the concrete image of a woman sunk waist-deep in the ground in the first act and neck-deep in the second; and Ionesco's Rhinoceros (1960; Eng. trans., 1960) demonstrates the playwright's anxiety about the spread of inhuman totalitarian tendencies in society by showing the population of a city turning into savage pachyderms. (source)

21. The Theatre of the Absurd • One of the most important aspects of absurd drama was its distrust of language as a means of communication. Language had become a vehicle of conventionalised, stereotyped, meaningless exchanges. Words failed to express the essence of human experience, not being able to penetrate beyond its surface. The Theatre of the Absurd constituted first and foremost an onslaught on language, showing it as a very unreliable and insufficient tool of communication.

22. The Theatre of the Absurd • Absurd drama uses conventionalised speech, clichés, slogans and technical jargon, which is distorts, parodies and breaks down. By ridiculing conventionalised and stereotyped speech patterns, the Theatre of the Absurd tries to make people aware of the possibility of going beyond everyday speech conventions and communicating more authentically. Conventionalised speech acts as a barrier between ourselves and what the world is really about: in order to come into direct contact with natural reality, it is necessary to discredit and discard the false crutches of conventionalised language.

23. The Theatre of the Absurd • Objects are much more important than language in absurd theatre: what happens transcends what is being said about it. It is the hidden, implied meaning of words that assume primary importance in absurd theatre, over an above what is being actually said. The Theatre of the Absurd strove to communicate an undissolved totality of perception - hence it had to go beyond language.

24. The Theatre of the Absurd • Absurd drama subverts logic. It relishes the unexpected and the logically impossible. …In trying to burst the bounds of logic and language the absurd theatre is trying to shatter the enclosing walls of the human condition itself. Our individual identity is defined by language, having a name is the source of our separateness - the loss of logical language brings us towards a unity with living things. In being illogical, the absurd theatre is anti-rationalist: it negates rationalism because it feels that rationalist thought, like language, only deals with the superficial aspects of things. Nonsense, on the other hand, opens up a glimpse of the infinite. It offers intoxicating freedom, brings one into contact with the essence of life and is a source of marvellous comedy.

25. The Theatre of the Absurd • No dramatic conflict in the absurd plays! Dramatic conflicts, clashes of personalities and powers belong to a world where a rigid, accepted hierarchy of values forms a permanent establishment. Such conflicts, however, lose their meaning in a situation where the establishment and outward reality have become meaningless.

26. The Theatre of the Absurd • However frantically characters perform, this only underlines the fact that nothing happens to change their existence. Absurd dramas are lyrical statements, very much like music: they communicate an atmosphere, an experience of archetypal human situations. The Absurd Theatre is a theatre of situation, as against the more conventional theatre of sequential events. It presents a pattern of poetic images. In doing this, it uses visual elements, movement, light. (source)

27. Discussion Questions • Discuss the relationship between Gogo & Didi and Pozzo & Lucky. • How is the play's title "Waiting for Godot" related to its theme? • Point out religious allusions and linguistic references in the play. • How is Waiting for Godot an absurdist play?

28. Works Cited • Samuel Beckett. 3 Mar. 2006 <http://brainstorm-services.com/weu-2005/godot-note-05.html>. • Samuel Beckett. 3 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett>. • Samuel Beckett. 3 Mar. 2006 <http:www.sparknotes.com/lit/godot/index.html>. • Samuel Beckett. 6 Mar. 2006 <http://www.fli.com.cn/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=433>.

29. Works Cited • Samuel Beckett Resources and Links. 2 Mar. 2006 <http://samuel-beckett.net/>. • The Theatre of the Absurd. 2 Mar. 2006<http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm>. • Waiting for Godot. E-text. Act 1 <http://samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html>. Act 2 <http://samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part2.html>.

30. I.i. Page 2 • Here are three important issues: the nature of the story itself; the historical fact that biblical versions Duccio di Buoninsegna crucifixion differ; and the dramatic fact that Vladimir chooses to tell this particular story at this particular time.

31. (Luke 23:39-43; King James Version) • And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, if you be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

32. Matthew 27:44 • "The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same [mockery] in his teeth". Although Vladimir is technically correct that "of the other three [evangelists] two don’t mention any thieves at all", Mark 15:32 refers to others not called thieves but executed at the same time: "And they that were crucified with him reviled him".

33. Line-by-line examination [shows] the pattern of affirmation and negation, the juxtaposition of opposites, that constitutes part of the comedy of this sequence and that ultimately determines the overall tenor of the play. The assertion "One of the thieves was saved" (a thoughtful reference to a serious story) is followed by what could be either a flippant or a serious judgement: " It’s a reasonable percentage " .

34. Thursday • Thursday traditionally is the day of the institution of the Holy Communion and of the prayer vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the sacrament of the Holy Communion Christ is recalled into the midst of the faithful. Thus, if one assumes the day of waiting for Godot is Thursday rather than Saturday, hope is inherent in the amanuensis of Christ in the sacrament. On Thursday also the disciples fell asleep in the garden while their Lord was praying. Likewise, right after this conversation, Estragon falls asleep.