ENGLISH THEATRE OF 19TH
AND 20TH CENTURIES GROUP A
SURNAME: Giarratana
NAME: Melania
SAMUEL
BECKETT
WAITING FOR GODOT
A Tragicomedy in
Two Acts
Faber and Faber
Limited, 1956, London, UK
This play is one of the most emblematic examples of the Theatre of the
Absurd; in fact, to try to analyse it according to pre-constituted diagrams
could be useless.
There are two main characters: Vladimir
and Estragon. They are in a country road, where there is just a tree; nobody
knows anything about their lives except that they always stay there waiting for
Godot.
Throughout the play, the men discuss continuously but each of them does
not listen to the words of the other: they talk individually. Vladimir looses
himself pondering over theological and existential issues, while Estragon
focuses more on his boots or on superficial issues and does not answer to Vladimir’s
questions. Vladimir seems more responsible than Estragon and always tells him
what to do, as he was his father. Estragon often says that he is going to move
but never does it.
They could represent the metaphor of our everyday life, monotone and
repetitive; every day human beings suffer for the lack of communication and of
the capacity of a deep introspection. They do not know who is Godot and
probably they do not care about it because they do not either know why they are
waiting for him. They seem not to have a future because they do not trust in
their perceptions and do not pay attention to what happens around them. They
neither know what time it is and what year they are living in; they live in a
“permanent present”. All the issues they talk about seem those chats
we do when we have just to pass the time waiting for something.
They often repeat the words: “nothing to be done” as they
knew that they are near to their end and Godot could be God.
Vladimir thinks while he is talking so most of the time his speech is
incomprehensible, he talks at the same rhythm of the brain operation and to
understand what are his thoughts is impossible. He enjoys using non-common
words such as “appalled”.
The rhythm of the conversation is fast and this is due to the use of
short sentences.
Beckett wanted to doubt the thing in which everybody believes through
this play; he wanted the audience to think about the superficiality of our
lives. This is evident when Estragon says, “people are bloody
apes”; this could be Beckett’s opinion about people.
Vladimir and Estragon last in that situation throughout the play until a boy
arrives and tell them that Godot will go there the day after. They decide to go
away but they do not move.
In this play Irony is used to
express the disagreement on something so, since this play is a tragicomedy, it
is a general disagreement of Beckett on contemporary society, where a real
artist have not chances of a good future and the rich people is the most
superficial.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Samuel Beckett “Waiting for
Godot”
Auto-evaluation: Notable
Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
© Melania Giarratana
megia@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia
Press