COMPARISON OF THREE PLAYS AND THREE AUTHORS: WAITING FOR GODOT (SAMUEL BECKETT), LOOK BACK IN ANGER (JOHN OSBORNE) AND THE KITCHEN (ARNOLD WESKER).

These plays were written between 1950-1960, a period when the Second World War had finished. In this time, people seemed worried, sad, question the war, the world, the life… about themselves. For that, these plays are very social, a social theatre. We need to emphasize that the person who initiates this type of theatre is John Osborne, an English author, using the play Look Back in Anger for it. This artistic movement was followed by a lot of authors, like Arnold Wesker. These were called “THE ANGRY YOUNG MEN”, because their plays talk about worries, dreams, and about people angry of life, the world. All authors that followed it wanted to represent society and people’s trouble; and they wanted to change the reality, the routine, and the minds of people, change their entire world; do it better.

We are going to talk about three plays. Two of these were written by two authors that followed this movement. They are Osborne and Wesker. We are going to talk bout the environment, and the characters in there. And I am going to transmit my personal opinion of what the author want to express in these plays.

First of them is John Osborne, stressing his play Look Back in Anger. This play takes place in a flat, in Jimmy’s flat, where cliff and Alison lives, too. This is the environment of this play. What about characters. Jimmy is the main character, who is angry, sad, tired about his life, and he needs the violence to feel bigger, happier. For that, he insults his wife, he critics all. He is a nonconformist person. Osborne represent people’s troubles, and people who have not dreams, people who hate the routine in their lives, and hate the society where they are living. Alison is Jimmy’s wife. She wants to be the perfect wife. And with this character, Osborne represents that women do not have to do all that her husbands say, because they have liberty. Other character is Cliff, the best friend of Jimmy, who is the ideal boy for Alison. He understands Alison. He is her confident. We see it when she says nothing about her pregnant to Jimmy but says it to Cliff (page 28-29; since Alison says “I’m pregnant…” to the end of the page. Page 30; Alison says: “You think I should tell him about the baby?”). And the unique character that says that he wants is Alison’s father, who is the most realist and open-minded (represents a part of the author). Osborne represent people’s troubles, and people who have no dreams, people who hate the routine in their lives, and hate the society where they are living .

In my opinion, Osborne hates the world where he lived, and he wanted to change it, and this idea appears in the play by the characters. We see in this play that the author reflect this movement, and we see that characters are not happy with their lives and their world, like his author.

The second play is The Kitchen, by Arnold Wesker. The environment of this play is a kitchen of Tivoli’s restaurant. All the actions occur in this place. It is like world, where life passes.

The characters that appear in it are not happy, are sad, and they have not time for them, because they are working all day. They detest their lives. The characters in it dream a lot, because in dreams they are happy, and dreams are the life that they want to be. The main character is Peter, a German cook, who is much stressed. He hates his life, he hates his work, and he loves a woman who is married. He represents the real society, where a lot of people have these troubles, and they cannot tolerate these. In this way, the author expresses his opinion and critics his society, his world. But Peter is not the only character that has these troubles. For example, we find Hans, who is Peter’s friend, who wants to get money (page 49,, when Peter says: “Hey Paul, Raymondo, Dimitri; stop[…]” to when Hans says: “Money!Geld Peter, Geld![…]”) ; the tramp, who wants to get food; and the boss, Mr Marango, who thinks that his cooks are well-paid, and happy about their work, but that is not true (at the end, at page 68, when Mr Marango says: “Why does everybody sabotage me, Frank?”). He represents other part of the society, that has enough but want to have more. All of them have dreams, but they do not fight to get them, to change the world.

In my opinion, it reflects the society, the types of people that are in it, some circumstances in life. Wesker fights in the best way he knows: writing. We find in him a social author, too.

And the last one is Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. It takes place in a field.

In this play we see different kind of character, which represent types of people. We find Vladimir and Estragon, who are waiting for Godot (nothing). They stay all the play waiting for him, and he does not appear. For that, I think that Godot is nothing. People in life are waiting for nothing, because they hate their lives. They show us life, how the time passes and how they are scorned life, waiting for nothing. They are desperdicand time, they haven’t got time notion. Estragon sometimes gets tired to wait, but Vladimir wants to be there, where Godot says to stay. Furthermore, we see Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo is old, and Lucky is his slave. Pozzo orders him all the things he wants to. He represents people who think that he is the best, and using it, the author critics this posture of life (page 40, when Pozzo says: “Do you hear, hog?[…]” and “Dance, misery!” to Lucky). Lucky never refuses. He represents other people who accept the wrong rules, the wrong orders to wrong people.

In my point of view, this play is the most difficult to understand. I think that it represents life, too. It shows society and how people live in it. Beckett uses these characters to show us this, and they represent this type of people that scorn their life, that have no dreams, no objectives in life, that someday die. Beckett complains about society, about people who are in world, about the situation of the society. He is other social writer.

To sum up, we have seen three social authors, that use different environments (a kitchen, a flat and a field), and different characters to represent the troubles of the society, to critic world and to intend to change it. These environments represent real life, and these characters represent real people, someone that are wrong and other that are correct. These authors defend people liberty, and they want to change the situation of life. For me, it is a very important role, which should be defended by all of us. They made a very important task, but today these things pass, and I think that we ought to do more to finish with it. The world is confused, is wrong in a lot of things, and we should try to change it.