Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), an Irish novelist, dramatist and poet was born on 13th April 1906 in Dublin. His father William Frank Beckett was in construction work and his mother Maria Jones Roe was a nurse. After his graduation from Trinity College, he went to Paris where he met James Joyce and became a devoted student of him. In 1931 he undertook a long journey to Briton, France and Germany. That journey helped him to find many of his characters in his literary works. In 1937 he settled in France, where he was stabbed by a pimp. In his hospital days he met Suzzane and got her friendship. However, he could marry her only in 1961. Though Beckett had “little talent for happiness” in his childhood and his severe depression that kept him in bed until midday in his youth, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969. Though he was recognized as a novelist and dramatist earlier it was ‘Waiting for Godot’ that won him international fame. However, Beckett always wanted to keep himself away from the madding crowd. That was why he even declined the Nobel Prize to avoid making a speech at the ceremonies. Furthermore, after the death of his wife in July 1989, he confined to a small room and died in December 1989.
Beckett’s works are filled with allusions to other writers like Dante and James Joyce. His plays aren’t written along traditional line with conventional plot, time and place responses. But they focus on the essential elements of human conditions in dark humorous ways. This style of writing has been named as the writing that belong to “Theatre of the Absurd” by Martin Esslin. The concept ‘Absurd’ is associated with Albert Camus. ‘Waiting for Godot’ focuses on human despair and the will to survive in a hopeless world that offers no help in understanding.
‘Waiting for Godot’, a tragicomedy in two acts
is a play about waiting. Two men are waiting for the third who never appears.
If he comes, they believe that they will be saved. Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon
(Gogo) are bowler hatted and shabbily suited tramps that meet each day by a
solitary tree to wait for a man called Godot. ‘Vladimir, an ineffective man of
the world, Estragon a marvelously incompetent’ are like Laurel and Hardy, the
famous Hollywood comical characters. Nothing is known about them except that
they sleep in ditches and that Estragon is beaten at night by violent gang.
When they are waiting for Godot, to pass time, they talk, argue and play games. Even they both decide to hang themselves at the bough of the tree, however at the end they change their decision and decide to wait and see what Godot will say. To them life appears to be on hold until Godot appears. Thus, life is shown as
a succession of attempts to pass the time.
Midway through the first act Pozzo and Lucky
appear on the stage. Lucky is harnessed by a rope around his neck and carries a
large bag, a folding stool, a picnic basket and a great coat. Pozzo comes
behind him, holding the other end of the rope with his loud voice and
dominating manner. But he is not seemed to be a villain. He made Lucky do many
things to entertain Vladimir and Estragon like dancing and ‘Thinking’. That’s
how Lucky performs a very long and unbroken speech. After the departure of
Pozzo and Lucky, a boy appears with a message to Vladimir and Estragon. He says
that Mr. Godot told him to tell them he won’t come that evening but surely the
next day. The boy tells Vladimir that he minds the goat of Godot. Vladimir asks
him whether Mr. Godot beats him. The boy replies that he won’t but says that
Mr. Godot beats his brother who minds the sheep. Thus, violence and humour, the two extremes
of the absurd world is presented in the play.
In the second act, the same things are repeated. They are waiting in the same place, saying and doing similar things that they did the previous day. To pass time Estragon becomes Pozzo and Vladimir becomes Lucky and play for some time. Then Pozzo and Lucky appear. But they have totally been changed this time. Pozzo has become blind and Lucky has become dumb. It is not actually the next day.
Then the boy comes and says that Godot won’t come that evening but surely the next day and asks Vladimir whether he has any message to Godot. Vladimir asks the boy to tell Godot that he saw Vladimir. After the departure of the boy, looking at the tree, Estragon says, 'why don't we hang ourselves?'. Though, they decide to use Estragon's belt, it breaks when they try to test weather it is strong enough. However, they decide to bring a good bit of rope and hang themselves the next day unless Godot comes. Though they say that they should go, they don’t move. Thus, the play tells the audience to get up and leave as there is nothing going to happen. Moreover, the play suggest that life has no meaning and it is full of suffering.
Waiting for Godot is a comedy of absurdity. It is filled with nonsensical lines, wordplay, meaning less dialogues and characters who abruptly shift emotions and forget everything, ranging from their own identities to what happened the previous day. All these contributes to an absurdist humour throughout the play.
Vladimir and Estragon pleasantly talk about suicide. All these have a discomforting effect on the audience, who is helplessly not sure how to react to this absurd mixture of comedy and tragedy, seriousness and playfulness. The absurdity caused by the seeming mismatch between characters, tones and the content of their speech can be seen as a reaction to a world emptied of meaning and significance.
Allusion
Allusion is a figure of speech that refers to a well-known story, event, person, object or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance in order to make a comparison in the readers’ mind. It is brief and either explicit or indirect. The allusions of Joyce, Pound and Eliot are highly specialized so the readers sometimes need the help of scholarly annotations .
(e.g.) He was a real Romeo with the ladies
Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel
Ambiguity
(e.g.) I read the book (whether present or past is not certain)
The bark was painful (whether the bark of a tree or dog is not certain)
Foreigners are hunting dogs.
Black comedy
Black comedy or Black humour or Gallows humour
is a comic style that deals with the subjects that are normally considered
serious or painful to discuss. The comedians often use it as a tool for
exploring vulgar issues, thus providing discomfort and serious thought as well
as amusement in their audience. Death, violence, discrimination, disease and
sexuality are the popular themes for this type. The critics have associated
black comedy even with the ancient Greek poet Aristophanes. It was Breton who coined the Black
humour. He considered Jonathan swift as
its originator in English literature where he used comedy to mock the victim by
trivializing the sufferings of them. Oscar Wilde who was in his death bed in a
cheap boarding house once said, “Either that wall paper goes or I do.” It is
actually a remember worthy example for Gallows humour.
Characters in ‘Waiting for Godot’
Vladimir, who is one of the two main characters of the play seems to be more responsible and mature. His hat represents mind so, he represents the conscious mind, the rational side of humanity. In French his name has connotations with the word ‘Speak’. He is addressed as ‘Didi’ by Estragon and as Mr. Albert by the boy. Estragon, the second of the two main characters seems to be weak, helpless and always looking for Vladimir’s protection. He is practical and physical. He is with good vocabulary. His name in French means, tarragon, an herb used to make pickles and vinegar. He represents the unconscious mind. He is earthly as his boots symbolized with earth, body and roots.
Pozzo and Lucky are another pair in this play. Pozzo’s whip symbolizes power. He symbolizes the sadist. He has the cunning nature to get people with brains on a leash. In Italian Pozzo means ‘Well’. Pozzo treats his slave rather horribly. However, he becomes blind in the second act and does not remember his meeting of Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky is the next character represented as slave to Pozzo. The leash on his neck symbolizes bondage and Lucky is a symbol of man as a machine. His name is ironic. Lucky, the masochist, (get pleasure on getting hurt) carries Pozzo’s coat, bags and stool. In the first Act, he entertains Vladimir and Estragon by ‘dancing’ and ‘Thinking aloud’. However, in the second Act he is found dumb.
The next important character is the boy who acts as
a messenger to Godot. he is the only contact between the tramps and Godot.
There he symbolizes a priest figure. He appears, at the end of each act to
inform Vladimir that Godot is going to come on the next day. Then Godot is the
man for whom Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for. But Godot never appears.
Though the name contains the idea of God even Becket was not sure of it when he
was asked about it. The play has several archetypal forms and situations. The
road is the archetype of journey and travel whereas the tree is the archetype
of life and promise. In this play the active one like Pozzo and Lucky pass through
whereas the passive ones like Vladimir and Estragon get a message and decide to
go on waiting. Thus, the main characters
in ‘Waiting for Godot’ yearn vaguely for existence, yet they insist on looking
outside themselves for salvation.
The world
of Absurd
in ‘Waiting
for Godot’
‘Waiting for Godot’ is an unusual and remarkable play written by Irish Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett in 1952. The miserable condition of life in the present, the constant effort to make it fruitful and the failure to succeed in this is portrayed in ‘Waiting for Godot’. The entire plot centers on two protagonists and their waiting for the mysterious character named Godot. Why is he an important figure for the protagonists? Why doesn’t he appear and why they are waiting? All these questions are unknown and uncertain. The men’s future, the travelers, the messenger, theme and back ground history are all not revealed. Thus, the play opens without any details for the audience and it continues with a lack of information even without reaching at a climax, the play ends at the same place where it started.
The tree is the only object that exists in the middle of emptiness. The tree, which is an absurd element also struggles to survive with the tramps. The tree may symbolize many possibilities such as death, survival, change and life. The tree which has no leaves could be a representation of lifelessness and death, though it tries to survive in , harsh circumstances.
Similarly, the tramps are not happy about the
present condition of their lives. But they are not capable of changing their
present circumstances for better ones instead of wasting time for Godot. Though
they would like to die, they are unable to kill themselves. Because the will to
live is stronger than the will to die in them. They hope that perhaps Godot
will bring the happiness and prosperity in their lives. The ‘tomorrow’ which
never arrives in reality keeps the tramps alive with the hope of meeting Godot.
A few leaves show the reincarnation of life on the second day in act two. Even
if it is so, the plot is captured in the sentence of Estragon, who says,
“Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” Thus, ‘Waiting for
Godot’ focuses on human despair and the will to survive in a hopeless world
that offers no help in understanding.
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