Waiting For Godot: Pre-reading Discussion Questions
1. Is there a universal purpose or meaning of life? How do we find out the meaning of life? Is it
even POSSIBLE to find out the meaning of life?
What if life is meaningless? What if there is no point to life? How does this make you feel? (Do
you think this is true?)
2. What is memory? Is it reliable? Its role in perception and identity?
3. What is language and its role in communication? Can we ever really communicate with each
other?
Waiting for Godot—The World of the Play
Definitions
Existentialism is a philosophical movement that views human existence as having a set of
underlying themes and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and
consciousness of existing. Existentialism is also an outlook, or a perspective, on life that pursues the
question of the meaning of life or the meaning of existence. This question is seen as being of
paramount importance, above all other scientific and philosophical pursuits. Although they differ
on many details, existentialists generally suppose that the fact of my existence as a human being
entails both my unqualified freedom to make of myself whatever I will, and the awesome
responsibility of employing that freedom appropriately, without being driven by anxiety toward
escaping into the inauthenticity or self deception of any conventional set of rules for behavior, even
though the entire project may turn out to be absurd.
Theatre of the Absurd – A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by
employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations,
and plots that lack realistic or logical development. Something that is absurd is contrary to reason or
beyond the limits of rational thought; paradoxical, nonsensical or meaningless. According to
Camus, Sartre and other existentialists, absurdity is an inescapable consequence of any sensitive
effort to live in the face of an indifferent reality.
Alienation – The process whereby people become foreign to the world that they live in. The
concept is deeply embedded in all the great religions and social and political theories of the
civilized epoch – namely the idea that some time in the past people lived in harmony, followed by
some kind of rupture that left people feeling like foreigners in the world. However some time in the
future this alienation would be overcome and humanity would again live in harmony with itself and
nature.
Questions
1. Now, in your own words, rewrite the definition of existentialism in 3-5 sentences:
2. What things in your life do you find absurd?
3. Have you ever felt like a foreigner in your own world?
Existentialism
The following extract is from Nausea, one of the most famous works of leading existentialist Jean
Paul Sartre (1905–1980).
Jean Paul Satre
“The Nausea hasn't left me and I don't believe it will leave me for quite a while; but I am no
longer putting up with it, it is no longer an illness or a passing fit: it is me … I had this revelation. It
took my breath away. Never, until these last few days, had I suspected what it meant to 'exist'. I was
like the others, like those who walk along the seashore in their spring clothes. I used to say like
them: 'The sea is green; that white speck up there is a seagull', but I didn't feel that it existed, that
the seagull was an 'existing seagull'; usually existence hides itself. It is there, around us, in us, it is
us, you can't say a couple of words without speaking of it, but finally you can't touch it… We were
a heap of existents inconvenienced, embarrassed by ourselves, we hadn't the slightest reason for
being there, any of us, each existent, embarrassed, vaguely ill at ease, felt superfluous in relation to
the others.
And I – weak, languid, obscene, disgusting, tossing about dismal thoughts – I too was
superfluous. … I dreamed vaguely of killing myself, to destroy at least one of these superfluous
existences. But my death itself would have been superfluous. Superfluous, my corpse, my blood on
these pebbles, between these plants, in the depths of this charming park. And the decomposing flesh
would have been superfluous in the earth which would have received it, and my bones, finally,
cleaned, stripped, neat and clean as teeth, would also have been superfluous; I was superfluous for
all time.”
~from Nausea by Jean-Paul Satre
Why do I exist?
Nausea is one of many texts that tackle the tricky problem of our existence. At some point in
our lives most of us ask, "Why do I exist? What does it all mean? What's the point after all?"
After thinking about it for a few minutes, we realize these are difficult questions, which we
probably can't answer, and so we get on with the very messy, arguably nauseating business of life.
But for some philosophers and writers, this is not good enough. We have to think about existence
and then, after we have thought about it, we have to think about it some more. Like Jean Paul
Sartre, Samuel Beckett was one of these remarkable people.
History of Existentialism
Existentialism is the branch of philosophy that deals with the problem of our existence.
Arguably the first existentialist philosopher was a Dane by the name of Søren Kierkegaard (1813–
1855).
Kierkegaard was a deeply religious man. He could not, however, overlook the fact that parts
of Christianity are illogical and that one's belief in the Bible cannot be based on rational principles.
Believing in God and the Bible was a leap of faith. That was precisely Kierkegaard's point –
because there is no rational basis for God, religion or even our existence, and a religion riddled with
paradoxes was absurd, then faith is of paramount importance.
Thinkers like Sartre and Albert Camus (1913–1960) wrestled with this question of our
absurdity. What do we mean when we say that life is absurd? Essentially it means we can find no
reason or purpose for our existence. Simply, we are here, we suffer, and finally we die, without
having any idea what purpose it serves. Camus argues that humanity has to resign itself to the fact
that a satisfying rational explanation of the universe is completely beyond its reach and therefore the
world must be absurd.
Something rather than nothing
If you find this all a bit depressing, you can at least take comfort in the following question,
posed by arguably the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century, Martin Heidegger (1889–
1976): "Why is there something, rather than nothing?"
The more you think about it, the more you realize that is a surprisingly optimistic question.
We cannot escape the fact that we are here, that we do exist, and that, even though there could have
been nothing, there is something.
Theatre of the absurd
Theater of the Absurd came about as a reaction to World War II. It took the basis of
existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which
presented a world which can not be logically explained, life is in one word, ABSURD!
Needless to say, this genre of theatre took quite some time to catch on because it used
techniques that seemed to be illogical to the theatre world. The plots often deviated from the more
traditional episodic structure, and seem to move in a circle, ending the same way it began. The
scenery was often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse, the dialogue never seemed to make
any sense.
The playwrights loosely grouped under the label of 'absurd' convey in their works a sense of
bewilderment, anxiety, and wonder in the face of an inexplicable or absurd universe.
Absurdist plays have an unreal and dreamlike quality, and the fantasies and nightmares of these
plays often portray the inner emotional conflicts of the characters rather than actual events in the
world. These plays are less concerned with sociology than they are with metaphysics. By this we
mean that the central problem of these plays is being or existing.
So what does it mean to exist? What is being? These are enormously complicated questions
that have dominated European philosophy for nearly a hundred years. People like Heidegger have
written some of the most obscure and difficult-to-understand philosophy about these very questions.
We cannot attempt to look at the multiplicity of answers that have been given but just being
aware that these sorts of questions underpin Waiting for Godot is a good start to understanding the
play.
History of Absurdism
So when did this all begin? People like Beckett and Sartre were certainly not the first to
recognize the absurd. Many writers from the Ancient Greeks to Shakespeare have pondered on the
absurd nature of our existence, and their influence can certainly be seen on the likes of Beckett.
What differentiates absurdist writers is that the question of existence is the central theme of the
play. It is in the work of people like Antonin Artaud that we see the emergence of what we
commonly call 'theatre of the absurd' today.
Artaud defined the two major purposes of his work as:
 bringing humanity face to face with the apprehension of his own dark nature
 drawing our attention to the implacable, cruel forces that threaten us all the time.
Sartre would reject the notion that humanity necessarily has a dark nature, as he was one of the
greatest champions of free will. However, he and other writers of the absurd would have had a great
deal of sympathy for the notion that humans are a victim of cruel and implacable forces. That we
are at the mercy of forces that are beyond our control and understanding could be another definition
of 'absurd'.
Though many writers have the central theme of the absurd in common, each writer's works are
colored by their particular view of humanity and the world. The themes that these works usually
deal with are:
 a sense of humanity's alienation
 the cruelty of existence
 the futility of conventional objectives
 the futility of struggle
 a strong vein of fantasy.
The Playwright: Samuel Beckett
SAMUEL BECKETT:
"What do I know about man's destiny? I could tell you more about radishes."
-Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett is probably the most well known of the absurdist playwrights
because of his work Waiting for Godot. Beckett's plays seem to focus on the
themes of the uselessness of human action, and the failure of the human race to
communicate. He was born on April 13,1906, which was both Friday the 13th and Good Friday.
He had quite a normal upbringing in an upper-middle-class Irish family, and excelled in both school
and the sport of cricket. He attended the University of Dublin Ireland where he received his M.A.
in modern languages, he then taught for a short time, explored parts of Europe and eventually
settled in Paris. It was in Paris that he met writer James Joyce. It was this literary exposure that
encouraged Beckett to seek publication. It is interesting to note that many of the conversations
between Beckett and Joyce were conducted in silence. In the 1930's and 40's Beckett published
many works in the form of essays, short stories, poetry, and novels, but very few people noticed his
work. In fact he only sold ninety-five copies of the French translation of his novel Murphy, in four
years. His postwar era fame only came about in the 1950's when he published three novels and his
famous play, Waiting for Godot. Waiting for Godot is probably the most famous absurd play to
date. The characters of the play are absurd caricatures who of course have problems
communicating with one another, and the language they use is often times ludicrous. And,
following the cyclical pattern, the play seems to end in the same state it began in, with nothing
really changed.
Name:______________________________
Topic
Existentialism
Theatre of the
Absurd
Key People (and
what they
thought)
Historical
influences
Date:_____________________
Key ideas, themes,
characteristics, and questions