Waiting for Godot
Some Tidbits FYI
Beckett:
◊ In Beckett’s work there is always a
totally uncompromising determination
to always observe the worst about
every man and his nature:
◊ Never fall for the cheap consolations
◊ Never accept any euphemisms
◊ Never have any false hope…
Beckett:
◊ Such determination to face the truth
may find gloomy answers, but it is, in
itself, anything but depressing because
it shows man as being capable of facing
and confronting the truth.
◊ This becomes something that is rather
noble and inspiring.
The Concept:
◊ The characters are real people in an
absurd situation (which in itself
demonstrates the “human condition” or
the way we are by nature, and how we
react).
◊ They are driven by the need “to know”
in the midst of a universe which is
essentially unknowable (this is both
comic and tragic)
The Concept:
◊ They keep up their courage, while
waiting with various diversions (ex//
“Will you not play?”)
Is this not something that we
also do in our own lives?
How?
The Plot:
◊ The plot is not linear the way it is in a
traditional narrative.
-Introduction
-Rising Action
-Climax
-Falling Action
-Conclusion
The Plot:
◊ Instead, the plot is cyclical as the
characters evolve through the
experience of “waiting”, and revolves
from hope to despair, but kept in
motion by the reoccurring motif of, “its
not certain”
Hope
(Action)
(Utopia)
“It’s not certain”
Waiting for Godot:
Plot Cycle
“Nothing to be done”
Despair
(Statis)
(Dystopia)
End of Action
(“What do we
do now?”
“It’s not certain”
The Setting:
◊ The setting should be the antithesis of
the Garden of Eden:
- a desert
- A slanted strata
- Tortured tree, bent to the wind, clinging
to existence
- Beyond the void, and in the void
- The great, dead world of the moon
Beckett’s Beliefs:
◊ Beckett believed that habit and routine were
the “cancer of time”, and decided to drop
everything to travel across Europe.
◊ His dramatic works do not rely on the
traditional elements of drama.
◊ He trades in plot, characterization and a final
solution, which had previously been the
hallmarks of drama, for a series of concrete
stage images.
Beckett’s Beliefs:
◊ Language is useless because he creates a
mythical universe, people by lonely creatures
who struggle vainly to express the
inexpressible.
◊ His characters exist in a terrible dream-like
vacuum, overcome by an overwhelming sense
of bewilderment and grief, grotesquely
attempting some form of communication,
then crawling on endlessly.
Vaudeville:
◊ Partially, the play seems to be a selfreflexive study on theatre.
◊ During the turn of the century in
America, there was a large push in
development and industrialization.
◊ People would go out to see the large
acts of the vaudeville.
Vaudeville:
◊ The vaudeville consisted of comedians,
singers, plate-spinners, ventriloquists,
dancers, musicians, acrobats, animal
trainers, and anyone else who could
keep the interest of the audience.
◊ It is a theatrical genre of variety
entertainment in the U.S.A. and Canada
from the 1880’s to the 1930’s.
◊ It was a bunch of different acts that
were all grouped together on one bill.
Vaudeville:
◊ This was the most popular form of
entertainment in America at that time,
and was home to more than 25,000
performers.
◊ The Vaudeville was an essential part of
every community in America.
◊ Even beyond the entertainment factor,
it was a symbol of the cultural diversity
of that century.
Vaudeville:
◊ It was a fusion of the centuries - old
cultural traditions including the English
Music Hall (the English considered this
their form of vaudeville, except they felt
it was more specialty acts and geared
towards the upper-class) minstrel shows
of antebellum America (considered the
“black” shows of pre-war America) and
Yiddish theatre (Jewish theatre, often
satirical in nature).
Vaudeville:
◊ Though it certainly was not free of prejustice
of the times, vaudeville was the earliest
entertainment form to cross racial and class
boundaries.
◊ This was part of the traveling lifestyle
(vagabonds, Godot).
◊ The acts were a form of assimilation as they
would become active parts of popular culture
through representation of their heritage.
Vaudeville:
◊ Other famous vaudevillians include:
-Burt Williams
-Buster Keaton
-Charlie Chaplin (sometimes considered to
be related to our play’s namesake…
Chaplin’s French nickname was
“Chadot”)
Vaudeville:
◊ What are some of today’s modern
depictions?
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ Coined by the Hungarian-born critic, Martin
Esslin who wrote a book in 1962.
◊ It essentially defines the state of the human
condition as basically “meaningless”.
◊ In 1942, French philosopher, Albert Carnus
wrote an essay called The Myth of Sisyphus
and argued that humanity had to resign itself
to recognizing that a fully satisfying, rational
explanation of the universe was beyond r
each, which means that the world must be
ultimately absurd.
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ Esslin regarded the tern “Theatre of the
Absurd” as a device to describe a group
f playwrights that could loosely be
grouped because of their sense of
bewilderment, anxiety, and wonder in
the face of an inexplicable universe.
◊ Beckett fell under this “loose group”
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ They were not always comfortable with the
term and sometimes chose alternative titles,
such as “Anti-theatre” or “New Theatre”.
◊ Just like what Frye teaches us (although this
type of theatre is typically traced back to the
1930’s) its roots actually trace back much
further.
◊ Absurd elements can be observed as far back
as the rise of Greek drama, in the old comedy
and buffoonery plays of Aristophanes in
particular.
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ WWII was the catalyst that finally brought
Absurdist theatre to life.
◊ The global nature of this conflict and the
resulting trauma of living under the treat of
nuclear annihilation put into stark perspective
the precariousness of human life.
◊ People no longer needed to be abstract
thinkers in order to reflect upon absurdity - it
was now part of the average person’s daily
existence.
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ Samuel Beckett is regarded as one of the
most famous and one of the most
controversial absurdist playwrights because of
Waiting for Godot.
◊ Traditional theatre attempts to create a
photographic representation of life as we see
it.
◊ Absurdist theatre attempts to create a rituallike, mythological, archetypal, allegorical
version, closely related to the world of
dreams.
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ The focal point of these dreams is often
man’s fundamental bewilderment and
confusion stemming from the fact that he/she
has no answers to basic existential questions:
-why are we alive?
-why do we have to die?
-Why is there injustice and suffering?
◊ In a way, this type of theatre can be seen as
a way to reestablish human’s communion
with the Universe.
◊ Dr. Jan Culik writes:
Theatre of the Absurd:
“Absurd Theatre can be seen as an attempt to
restore the importance of myth and ritual into
our age, by making man aware of the
ultimate realities of human condition, by reinstilling in him again the lost sense of cosmic
wonder and primeval anguish. The absurd
theatre hopes to achieve this by shocking
man out of an existence that has become
trite, mechanical and complacent. It is felt by
the theatre that there is a mystical experience
in confronting the limits of the human
condition.”
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ One of the most important aspects of
the absurd drama is the distrust of
language as a vehicle of
communication. It seems to say that
language has become a means for
conventionalized, stereotyped,
meaningless exchanges. Dr. Culik
explains:
“Words failed to express the essence of human
experience, not being able to penetrate
beyond its surface. The Theatre of the Absurd
constituted first and foremost an onslaught
on language, showing it has a very unreliable
and insufficient tool of communication.
Absurd drama uses conventionalized speech,
cliché’s, slogans, and technical jargon, which
it distorts, parodies, and breaks down. By
ridiculing conventionalized and stereotyped
speech patterns, The Theatre of the Absurd
tries to make people aware of the possibility
of going beyond the every day speech
conventions and communicating more
authentically.”
Theatre of the Absurd:
◊ Absurd drama subverts logic.
◊ It relishes the unexpected and the logically
impossible.
◊ According to Sigmund Freud, there is a
feeling of freedom we can enjoy when we are
able to abandon the straightjacket of logic.
As Dr. Culik points out, “Rationalist thought,
like language, only deals with the superficial
aspects of things. Nonsense, on the other
hand, opens up a glimpse of the infinite.”