Samuel Becket is a famous writer who introduced the concept of absurdity, nothingness, nihilism and meaninglessness of life in the art of drama. He corresponded to the absurdity in the day today life of the common people. He believed that life is circle, from where it starts, it ends at the same point. There is no concept of religion, no moral values, no concept of time and space in this life. Absurdity is a word that can be explained by reasoning however the fault is a familiar world that in the universe that is suddenly deprived of illusion, end of light, man feels as stranger. He is in an irradiate exile because he is deprived of memories of lost homeland as much a he lacks the hope of Promised Land to come. This diversity between man and his life, actor and his sating truly constitutes the feeling of Absurdity. It is very clear from the very word "Absurd" that it means nonsensical, opposed to reason, something silly, foolish, senseless, ridiculous and disorderly. Actually the 'Absurd Theatre' believes that humanity's plight is purposeless in an existence, which is out of harmony with its surroundings. "Waiting for Godot" is an absurd play for not only its plot is loose but its characters are also just mechanical puppets with their incoherent discussion. And above than all, its theme is unexplained. It is an absurd play for it is devoid of characterization and motivation along with the no result. Though characters are present but are not recognizable for whatever they do and whatever they present is purposeless. So far as its dialogue technique is concerned, it is purely absurd as there is no witty repartee and pointed dialogue. What a reader or spectator hears is simply the incoherent babbling which does not have any clear and meaningful ideas. So far as the action and theme is concerned, it kisses the level of Absurd Theatre. After the study of this play we come to know that nothing special happens in the play and we do not observe any significant change in setting. Though a change occurs but it is only that the tree has sprouted out four or five leaves. "Nothing happens, nobody comes ... nobody goes, it's awful!" The beginning, middle and end of the play do not rise up to the level of a good play, so absurd. Though its theme is logical and rational yet it lies in umbrage.
"The task of epic theatre, Brecht believes, is not so much to develop actions as to represent conditions. But to ërepresentí does not here signify ëreproduceí in the sensed used by theoreticians of Naturalism. Rather, the first point at issue is to uncover those conditions. (One could just as well say: to make them strange
“Absurdism” (coined by Albert Camus) is a philosophy based upon the concept that the life and the world are meaningless, irrational, without sense or reason. And any effort we make to try to find meaning in them will ultimately fail.
Humans spend their lives searching and creating meaning to their lives, Beckett, however, takes a stand against this way of living in his novel ‘Waiting for Godot’. He questions this ideal of wasting our lives by searching for a reason for our existence when there is no one to find. In his play, he showcases this ideology through a simplistic and absence of setting and repetitive dialogue. Beckett’s ability to use these key features is imperative to his ability to convey his message of human entrapment and existence. The play opens with very general stage directions “a country road, a tree, evening”.
The play defies easy definition and various critics have labeled it variously as absurdist, existentialist, comical, burlesque, metaphorical or grim. The playwright on the other hand maintained that all through the creation of his work he strove to bring in the comic element and any tragedy that seems part of the play, may have crept in inadvertently and whenever it has been staged as a serious play, audience reaction to it has been cold.
From the moment that the curtain rises, Waiting for Godot assumes an unmistakably absurdist identity. On the surface, little about the plot of the play seems to suggest that the actions seen on stage could or would ever happen. At the very least, the process of waiting hardly seems like an ideal focus of an engaging and entertaining production. Yet it is precisely for this reason that Beckett’s tale of two men, whose only discernable goal in life is to wait for a man known simply as Godot, is able to connect with the audience’s emotions so effectivel...
Life is made up of different routines and schedules that are followed by the ordinary human being daily. In ‘Waiting for Godot’, Samuel Beckett uses time and repetition consistently throughout the play to demonstrate how these routines and habits are key elements in the course of life itself. The three main devices Beckett uses are the illogical pass of time, the lack of a past or a future and the absurdity of repetition in both dialogue and actions within the main characters and their surroundings.
Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has been said by many people to be a long book about nothing. The two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, spend all their time sitting by a tree waiting for someone named Godot, whose identity is never revealed to the audience. It may sound pretty dull at first but by looking closely at the book, it becomes apparent that there is more than originally meets the eye. Waiting for Godot was written to be a critical allegory of religious faith, relaying that it is a natural necessity for people to have faith, but faiths such as Catholicism are misleading and corrupt.
Closure is a very important aspect of a narrative. Closure or the lack of it accomplishes the goal of a creating a text which readers would want to continue reading to find out the ending, it helps to lead the reader on. The term “closure” according to Abbott is “best understood as something we look for in narrative, as desire that authors understand and often expend art to satisfy or frustrate” (Abbott, 57).In the play Waiting for Godot, the lack of closure is very evident throughout it. This play significantly follows the hermeneutic code, the level of questions or answers. This code has allowed for the author to grasp the attention of the readers, due to the reason people like to find and understand closures, but also allowing the author to not give a closure. Moreover, the type of play, which is an absurdist, is an important part of the reason behind this play lacking a closure. The definition of absurdist is: “A writer, performer, etc., whose work presents an audience or readership with absurdities, typically in portraying the futility of human struggle in a senseless and inexplicable world; esp. a writer or proponent of absurdist drama” (OED). The absurdist genre allows for the play to not directly answer the questions, but to leave it open so that the reader can interpret the actions to their liking, just as they would interpret situations in real life, where no events are written in stone. The dialogues and the whole picture of the play allows for easy examination as to how the above claims work out. Using the hermeneutic code, and the absurdist genre, along with a lack of closure, the author has written Waiting For Godot a play written to make the audience think.
A major discrepancy between the novel and the play is that Vladimir and Estragon believe and want salvation from God, while Meursault outwardly rejects it. Not much goes on in Waiting for Godot, the play is focused on two men waiting for Godot, a man they neither know, seen, or ever met. The play is mostly dialogue between Estragon and Vladimir, who are almost unaware of their own existence. Their wait for Godot can be seen as waiting for salvation from God. As they wait for Godot Vladimir explains to Estragon, “ What are we doing here, tha...
The setting is the next day at the same time. Estragon's boots and Lucky's hat are still on the stage. Vladimir enters and starts to sing until Estragon shows up barefoot. Estragon is upset that Vladimir was singing and happy even though he was not there. Both admit that they feel better when alone but convince themselves they are happy when together. They are still waiting for Godot.
Waiting for Godot is Not an Absurdist Play. Samuel Beckett's stage plays are gray, both in color and in subject matter. Likewise, the answer to the question of whether or not Beckett's work is Absurdist also belongs to that realm of gray in which Beckett often works. The Absurdist label becomes problematic when applied to Beckett because his dramatic works tend to overflow the boundaries which scholars attempt to assign. When discussing Beckett, the critic inevitably becomes entangled in contradiction.
At the centre of the existential angst, dominating the great movements of life, there lays an essential absurdity. England in the aftermath of the two wars inherited this absurdity that upheld the human predicament in a world where “nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm.” Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus diagnoses humanity’s plight as purposeless in an existence out of harmony with its surroundings. This irrationality and pointlessness of experience is transferred to the stage where by all semblance of logical construction and all intellectually viable argument is abundant. In the same strain, developed the Angry Plays of the Theatre of the Absurd. Beckett, Adamor and Pinter with the difference of attempting
In Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon spent the entire play waiting for a man named Godot. Upon hearing that Godot will not come, they agree on going somewhere, yet they simply stay still and do not move. The abrupt ending to the anticipation that is built up in the story of James and Irene justifiably would draw critics to call it a point-less story. Waiting for Godot may also be perceived to be a pointless story with no meaning; however, unlike the story of James and Irene, the ending of Waiting for Godot successfully delivered a message. Samuel Beckett brilliantly crafted the ending of his play to illustrate the human life as being meaningless and absurd.
The setting of Waiting for Godot is ‘A country road. A tree. Evening.’ This introduction is in itself just a glimpse of the massive absurdity to which the reader will be subjected throughout the whole play. This absurdity is inflicted in each and every aspect of the play. The reader can easily be baffled by the equally weird antics of the characters. This eccentricity is reflected in the themes, characterization, the plot structure and style of writing of the play. The reader cannot escape this eccentricity and might even be repulsed by the repetition and monotony that this play offers, but on deeper understanding, one can be poignantly touched by the actual meaning of this play. The play is very open-ended and has been interpreted in numerous ways by different people. On the contrary, All My Sons is a very straightforward play, with a specified characterization, which also touches upon the humanistic issues of social responsibility and moral conscience. The story is very definite and so are the characters. It is a play in which the past, present and future are linked very closely and one which questions humanity’s ethics, honesty and conscience. The play makes us question ourselves about the choices we make, as often our choices not only affect us, but also others, and the guilt factor which induces when these choices affect others adversely.
Although Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot, has no definite meaning or interpretation, the play acts as a statement of hopelessness regarding human existence. Debate surrounds the play because, due to its simplicity, almost any interpretation is valid. The main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, are aging men who must wait for a person, being, or object named Godot, but this entity never appears to grace the men with this presence. Both characters essentially demonstrate how one must go through life when hope is nonexistent as they pointlessly attempt to entertain themselves with glum conversation in front of a solitary tree. The Theater of the Absurd, a prevalent movement associated with Waiting for Godot, serves as the basis for the message of hopelessness in his main characters. Samuel Beckett's iconic Waiting for Godot and his perception of the characteristics and influence of the Theater of the Absurd illustrate the pointlessness and hopelessness regarding existence. In the play, boredom is mistaken for hopelessness because the men have nothing to do, as they attempt to occupy themselves as, for some reason, they need to wait for Godot. No hope is present throughout the two-act play with little for Estragon and Vladimir to occupy their time while they, as the title indicates, wait for Godot.