Consuelo Hernández Rubio 20 de Octubre de 2005

Comparative work

“Waiting for Godoy” and “The kitchen”

The novel by Samuel Beckett, Irish author who was born in 1906, “Waiting for Godot”, was first performed in Paris in 1953 and in Britain in 1955.

The novel “The kitchen”, which was written by Arnold Wesker, was published in London in 1956 and had its first performance in 1959.

The world is in a very confusing historical and political moment. It is the fifty ages of the twenty century. During these ages, people around the world feels themselves in the despair. The II World War was finished in 1945 creating illusions in a better and peaceful world, however the Cold War was started.

The two named novels are performed in this situation of instability and incertainty and it is, exactly this same situation of “without meaning” and “what for?” or why?”, what appear showed in them.

“Waiting for Godot” is the most known novel about the absurd theatre in a moment after war and because of that it is full of ambiguities. It is a tragic-comedy that passes in a only emptiness and cold place where there is only a tree and where the two main characters, strange and absurd, Vladimir and Estragon, are talking and connected each other while they are waiting for Godot.

Godot means the illusion that the charactes have and which is faded at the end of the novel when a boy announces Godot won’t come that day. (pag.14: “We are waiting for Godot”; “And if he doesn’t come?-We’ll come the day after tomorrow-Possibly-And so on-The point is-Until he comes”; pag.50: (boy)Mr Godot told me to tell you he won’t come this evening but surely tomorrow”)

Pozo and Lucky appear in scene. They are the image about the violence and the resignation which are characteristic in the moment.

On the other hand, “The kitchen” also passes in an only place. It is an uncomfortable, cold and big kitchen. In this space, the characters, strange and different (they are from several nationalities) are connected each other while they are waiting for a break and then they dream.

Dissapointment and hopeness are present in the two novels (“The kitchen”: pag.47: “It’s every day the same”; pag. 49: “A dream? It’s the time when you forget what you are and you make what you could be. When a man dreams- he grows, big, better”; pag.53: “We wait for a dream”) ( “Waiting for Godot”: pag. 52: “Tomorrow everything will be better”·

The reference to the memory with the disappointment, in the two novels, have an interesting role ( “The kitchen”: pag.47:“People come and people go…What for? In the end who do you know? You make a friend,…when you go from here-pshtt! You forget!”; “Waiting for Godot”: pag.62: “To every man his little cross. Tili he die. And is forgotten”.

I think that the two authors also want to tell the reader that the characters quickly forget the things that make suffer them.

In “The kitchen”, Peter, the main character, is also disappointed when Monique, who has a relationship with him, is uncapable of breaking her marriage to devote herself to him.

Opinion

In my opinion, both plays have a lot of different things and because of that it can be contrasted in several aspects.

However, I think that an important present common aspect is the illusion and the disappointment of the day to day.

I have specially loved “Waiting for Godot” because the absurd situations have made me laugh or feel sadness. For example, when Vladimir and Estragon starts to do their exercises or when Lucky is all the time without put down his bags ( pag. 29: “Why doesn’t he put down his bags?”)

“The kitchen” has been a very difficult reading for me. However I have been surprised in a nice way with the ability of the author to connect, specially well, all of the characters and their actions.