beckett godot

7/27/2019 Beckett Godot

1/30


2/30

An Irish playwright A novelist

A poet

Samuel Beckett

1906-1989

Image source: http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/lettres/projekte/galerie/10.htm


3/30

1906~Samuel Barclay Beckett Born in Dublin, on April 13, 1906. Solitude and loneliness.

1923-1927French, Italian and English atTrinity College.

1928-1936InParis, Beckett was introduced

to James Joyce. Ireland, France, England and Germany.

Becketts background

Image source: http://www.susa-literatura.com/emailuak/beckett/godo03.htm


4/30

1937settled down in Paris.

1947~

Beckett began to write in French. 1961married Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil.

1969

Nobel Prize for literature. 1989

Becket died in Paris on December 22.

Becketts background

Image source:http://www.kennysirishbookshop.ie/categories/nobelprize/


5/30

Becketts dramatic works dontreply to the traditional elements of

drama. For Beckett, language isuseless; he creates a mythicaluniverse peopled by lonelycreatures who struggle vainly toexpress the inexpressible.

human nature and human condition.

Becketts dramatic works


6/30

Samuel Becketts grave, Montparnasse Cemetery

James Joyce


7/30

1952written in French, and

published. 1953

premiered at the Babylonetheater in Paris.

1954the English translationappeared.

Waiting for Godot

Image source: http://www.prancyhorse.com/estuff/booklist/details/388.html


8/30

Characters Vladimir-Estragon calls him Didi,-the boy calls him Mr.

Albert-responsible and mature

Estragon-Vladimir calls him Gogo

-weak and helpless-has a poor memory

Image source:http://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpg
http://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpghttp://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpghttp://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpghttp://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpghttp://www.bobbushnell.com/dtf/gallery1/images/DTF-20_jpg.jpg


9/30

Pozzo- passes by the spot where Vladimir

and Estragon are waiting and thenprovides a diversion.

-blind, and forgets meeting Vladimirand Estragon before (Act ii). Lucky

-Pozzos slave-Carries Pozzos bags and stool


10/30

Boy-Appears at the end to tell Vladimirthat Godot wont be coming thatnight.

Godot-The man that Vladimir and Estragonwait perpetually.

-Never appears in the end of the play.


11/30

PlotAct OneVladimir and Estragon are near a tree to

wait for Godot. Pozzo and Lucky enter.Pozzo talks with Vladimir and Estragon,Lucky, dancing and thinking, makes themhappy. After Pozzo and Lucky leave, aboy tells Vladimir that Godot will not

come that evening. Vladimir andEstragon decide to leave, but they donot move as the curtain falls.


12/30

Act TwoThe next day, Vladimir and Estragon again

near the tree to wait for Godot. Pozzoand Lucky enter again, but Pozzo is blindand Lucky is dumb. Pozzo does notremember meeting the two men before.After they leave, Vladimir and Estragoncontinue to wait. And then the boyenters, he tells Vladimir that Godot willnot come. He insists that he did notspeak to Vladimir yesterday. After heleaves, Vladimir and Estragon decide toleave, but they do not move again,ending the play.


13/30

TragicomedyTragicomedy (or dark comedy or blackcomedy) refers to fictional works that

blend aspects of the genres of tragedyand comedy. In English literature fromShakespeare's time to the nineteenth

century, tragicomedy refers to aserious play with a happy ending.


14/30

Tragedy A tragedy is a drama, movie or sometimes

a real world event with a sad outcome.

Based upon Greek tragedies, it is a formof drama characterized by seriousnessand dignity, usually involving a conflictbetween a character and some higher

power, such as the law, the gods, fate, orsociety.


15/30

Comedy

Comedy is the use of humor in theform of theater, where it simply

referred to a play with a happyending, in contrast to a tragedy. Arecognized characteristic of comedy

is that it is an intensely personalenjoyment.


16/30

Symbol hat: reason? intellect?

boot: body?

It may suggest that humans try to earn aliving and struggle for their life.

tree

nature? hope for their future?

Image source: www.thomastonoperahouse.org& samuel-beckett.net
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thomastonoperahouse.org/uploads/11/images/shows%252006/1309_Waiting-For-Godot-Web.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thomastonoperahouse.org/&h=450&w=375&sz=13&tbnid=SGU7JcFK35lukM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=103&hl=zh-TW&start=31&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwaiting%2Bfor%2Bgodot%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dzh-TW%26lr%3D%26sa%3DNhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://samuel-beckett.net/bootsuccess.jpg&imgrefurl=http://samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part2.html&h=300&w=330&sz=78&tbnid=TjGZF3ShYuTCYM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=114&hl=zh-TW&start=38&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwaiting%2Bfor%2Bgodot%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dzh-TW%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN


17/30

ThemeWaiting for something?

Two tramps are waiting for Godot.

For example, we're waiting for nicerweather, the end of exams, etc.


18/30

Were waiting all the time.

Theater of the absurd

We should create the goal and

the value of existence.


19/30

The Theatre of the Absurd

The term theater of the absurd derives from the

philosophical use of the word absurd by such

existentialist thinkers as Albert CAMUS and Jean

Paul SARTRE. Camus, particularly, argued thathumanity had to resign itself to recognizing that a

fully satisfying rational explanation of the universe

was beyond its reach; in that sense, the world

must ultimately be seen as absurd.


20/30

The Theatre of the Absurd The playwrights loosely grouped under the label

of the absurd endeavor to convey their sense ofbewilderment, anxiety, and wonder in the face ofan inexplicable universe. They rely heavily onpoetic metaphor as a means of projecting outwardtheir innermost states of mind. Hence, the imagesof the theater of the absurd tend to assume thequality of fantasy, dream, and nightmare; they donot so much portray the outward appearance ofreality as the playwright's emotional perception ofan inner reality.


21/30

The Theatre of the Absurd Thus Beckett's Happy Days (1961) expresses a

generalized human anxiety about the approach ofdeath through the concrete image of a woman

sunk waist-deep in the ground in the first act andneck-deep in the second; and Ionesco'sRhinoceros (1960; Eng. trans., 1960)demonstrates the playwright's anxiety about thespread of inhuman totalitarian tendencies insociety by showing the population of a city turninginto savage pachyderms. (source)
http://honors.montana.edu/~oelks/TC/Absurd.htmlhttp://honors.montana.edu/~oelks/TC/Absurd.html


22/30

The Theatre of the Absurd One of the most important aspects of absurd

drama was its distrust of language as a means ofcommunication. Language had become a vehicle

of conventionalised, stereotyped, meaninglessexchanges. Words failed to express the essenceof human experience, not being able to penetratebeyond its surface. The Theatre of the Absurdconstituted first and foremost an onslaught onlanguage, showing it as a very unreliable andinsufficient tool of communication.


23/30


24/30


Objects are much more important than language in

absurd theatre: what happens transcends what is

being said about it. It is the hidden, implied meaning

of words that assume primary importance in absurdtheatre, over an above what is being actually said.

The Theatre of the Absurd strove to communicate

an undissolved totality of perception - hence it had

to go beyond language.


25/30

The Theatre of the Absurd Absurd drama subverts logic. It relishes the unexpected and the

logically impossible. In trying to burst the bounds of logic andlanguage the absurd theatre is trying to shatter the enclosingwalls of the human condition itself. Our individual identity is

defined by language, having a name is the source of ourseparateness - the loss of logical language brings us towards aunity with living things. In being illogical, the absurd theatre isanti-rationalist: it negates rationalism because it feels thatrationalist thought, like language, only deals with the superficial

aspects of things. Nonsense, on the other hand, opens up aglimpse of the infinite. It offers intoxicating freedom, brings oneinto contact with the essence of life and is a source ofmarvellous comedy.


26/30


No dramatic conflict in the absurd plays!

Dramatic conflicts, clashes of personalities

and powers belong to a world where a rigid,accepted hierarchy of values forms a

permanent establishment. Such conflicts,

however, lose their meaning in a situation

where the establishment and outward realityhave become meaningless.


27/30

The Theatre of the Absurd However frantically characters perform, this only

underlines the fact that nothing happens to changetheir existence. Absurd dramas are lyrical

statements, very much like music: theycommunicate an atmosphere, an experience ofarchetypal human situations. The Absurd Theatre isa theatre of situation, as against the moreconventional theatre of sequential events. Itpresents a pattern of poetic images. In doing this, ituses visual elements, movement, light. (source)
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htmhttp://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Absurd.htm


28/30


29/30

Works Cited Samuel Beckett. 3 Mar. 2006

.

Samuel Beckett. 3 Mar. 2006. Samuel Beckett. 3 Mar. 2006

. Samuel Beckett. 6 Mar. 2006

.


30/30

Works Cited

Samuel Beckett Resources and Links. 2

Mar. 2006 .

The Theatre of the Absurd. 2 Mar. 2006.

Waiting for Godot. E-text.Act 1

.Act 2 .

beckett godot

Documents