Silence, anticipation, d displeasureous cycles of repeating, intangible mysteries, unanswerable questions; atomic number 18 all techniques utilise by Samuel Beckett in his play ? wait for Godot? to earn a tense world of existentialism into which the reviewer is thrust. ?Waiting for Godot? is a two act play about two vagrants live in extreme poverty in a wasteland landscape. Devoid of social skills and innocent of independence they find solstice in individually(prenominal) other being both am determinationd and excite by one another?s company. Their life story is vacuous with the exception of one diminutive task: Waiting for Godot, a mysterious stranger who, though much anticipated, never appears. The solo people who do arrive ar Pozzo and well-situated a master and his mis inured slave. Beckett wrote this play in reference to the obliviousness between WW1 and WW2. A time of totalitarian armies of German and Russian Solders, the holocaust, dislocation of effect, National socialism and loss of innocence. People were treated as stoogenon fodder and individuals meant nothing, they were simply disenfranchised from their have got futures. In the midst of this was the overshadowing fear of impending nuclear state of war; It?s as though the people were simply ? delay? for death. In response to this rose the Absurdists. They were the melodramatic version of Dadaists and they seek to make fun of the terror and to challenge the hearing. Beckett was an Irishman whence subjugate by the English. This shared oppression gave him a broad audience across Europe. Other Absurdist playwrights arose out of this time such as Ionesco, Camus and Sartre. Absurdists believed that the world was out of harmony with nature, reason and propriety and therefore ? blind drunk? ( curriculum notes), many also adhered to the existentialist philosophy which verbalize that despite ones ability to doubt all existence it is unrealistic to disregard the existence of the thinking conscience. Existentialism seeks to know the core of existence whilst criticizing life for its apparent absurdity.
Beckett develops the make-up of Quality of creative activity by using focus of task and tension of family ( plight). He weaves his characters a poverty stricken environment in which they are awkwardly bound to depravation, each other and hit of all to themselves. He fills each character with contradicting philosophies that force them to tell apart between their pessimistic existentialist ramblings, their false pride and their basal morals inherent to all humanity. Whilst Pozzo plots what to ?gift? his two impudently comrades tarragon and Vladimir (torn by contrasting morals) argue about the word meaning of his charity.
tarragon:Even ten francs would be welcomeVladimir:We are not beggars!estragon:Even fiveVladimir:(to estragon indignantly) That?s enough!(Line 8 scalawag 38)Vehement environmental factors such as sleeping in ditches and being beaten by bullies are endured with acceptance by the characters Didi and Gogo who are consequently stripped of all ability to brook morally.
estragon:In a ditchVladimir:(admiringly). A ditch! Where?Estragon:(without gesture). Over There.
Vladimir:And they didn?t beat you?Estragon:Beat me? certainly they beat me.
Vladimir:The same lot as usual?Estragon:The same? I don?t know.(Line 9 varlet 9)They are unable to satisfy their basic needs of food and shelter and are consequently unable to have a social conscience. This inner struggle translates into tension between Didi and Gogo who are both simultaneously amused and disgusted by each other. This ?quality of existence? or wish there of is declare by all characters as ?luck of the draw?. Pozzo, who is well identified as a character with wealth and status, is equally aware of the ?luck? which he possesses and which is actually soulified in his willpower and servant Lucky.
Pozzo:Remark that I might just as well have been in his shoes and he in mine. If chance had not willed otherwise. To each one his imputable. (Line 16 varlet 31)The characters except this notion of ?luck? and as a entrust do not begrudge Pozzo for his wealth. Becketts choice not to upraise the tension between the class system further demonstrates his belief in pure chance regardless of achievement or talent. Despite this acceptance of their socio-economic position Didi and Gogo continue to odour awkward with there surroundings or their selves.
Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting he gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again.
As before.(Start of scalawag 9)Beckett?s constant use of the symbolic boot that doesn?t run into is a representation of the dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment in their lives. Estragon doesn?t fit the boot nor does he fit into this ?absurd? world in which he is placed. Tension of the task is created by Didi and Gogo?s obligation to maintain a state of unending anticipation whilst a wait the arrival of the elusive Godot. This repetition of anticlimactic waiting is related to the Sartrean existentialism movement which believed that man unlike a utensil which is made for a purpose a person is born without a purpose into a world devoid of meaning ?existence precedes essence?(Jean-Paul Sartre). Despite their wish to leave, Beckett forces the characters to reside dormant in a circumlocutory universe. The tension and frustration felt by the characters builds as events slowly repeat themselves and the characters memories bombard to consider or distinguish between today, yesterday and tomorrow. Everything is an oppressing continuum which they essential not begin to live because once you do it ends (Ionesco). The lack of will power expressed by Didi and Gogo creates a slip of anti-tension which builds and then is shattered usually by the characters absence of dust movements in direct contradiction to their pro active thoughts and desires.
Estragon:Well Shall we go?Vladimir:Yes lets go.
They do not move(Line 3 foliate 54)Estragon:Saved from what?Vladimir:HellEstragon:I?m goingHe does not move(Line 17 Page 12)Through this use of opposing philosophies, pride, poverty stricken characters and environment as well as frustrating repetition and skillful use of anticlimactic movement Beckett ensures that the play creates meaningful tension of dilemma and task to highlight the quality of existence described by Sartrean Existentialism.
The relationships between Didi and Gogo and Lucky and Pozzo create tension of acquaintance, conflict and religious rite in such away as to develop the theme of antisocial dependency which is a cruel irony so popular in Absurdism. Beckett establishes these tensions by using suffocating dependency, disappointed anger and belittling repetition. Pozzo?s dependency on Lucky is lots linked to the imagery of a force out often physically sensed by Lucky.
Pozzo:The Net. He thinks he?s entangled in a net(Line 13 Page 40)Later on in the play Beckett places all of the characters in an imaginary net rolling uncontrollably on the dirt account of the stage. The liberty of the proximity between the characters creates a smothering tense intimacy despised and found revolting by Estragon.
Estragon:(recoiling). Who FartedVladimir:PozzoPozzo: here(predicate)! Here! Pity!Estragon:It?s revolting!(Line 27 Page 81)The symbolically dirt floor of the landscape and enhances the anger at their circumstance felt by the characters.
Estragon:(suddenly furious). descry! What is there to recognize? All my lousy life I?ve crawled about in the mud! And you talk to me about conniption! (looking wildly about him). Look at this muckheap!
I?ve never stirred from it!(Line 17 Page 61)The floor can also be related to the existentialist belief that ?The forceps of digest lead directly to the shovel of death.? (Class notes) Being that the only aim lower than dirt is to be underground or dead, the floor therefore metaphorically represents the waiting room of eternal death. The repetition of events causes conflict between the characters who are aggravated by the plainly endless loop of time and the overwhelming feeling of lower rank forced on them by the knowledge that they are ordain to repeat lives already lived by generations before them.
Vladimir:Time has stopped.(Line 18 Page 36)Beckett demonstrates this by having Vladimir take on characteristics of Lucky and Pozzo in Act 2by wearing Luckys hat and referring to Estragon as ? snap up?. The ritualistic formalities and perpetual greetings between Estragon and Vladimir create an awkwardness that prevents them from truly understanding or supporting each other. Dependency without complete trust, smothering closeness and frustration are expressed by Becketts use of blocking and dialogue help as effective dramatic conventions to heighten the tension of relationship and existential irony.
Beckett uses the reviewer?s curiosity to highlight the most(prenominal) important question of existentialism: Why? Beckett establishes this tension of enigma through the use of symbolism and silences in the text and binding ground stories of the characters lives. ?Waiting for Godot? uses supposed ?symbolism? to ensure that the reader is always tensely trying to decipher meanings and awaiting a disclosure that never arrives. Beckett is essentially forcing the reader to think like and feel the frustration of an existentialist. ?They ask who is Godot?? and are tantalized by Beckett?s drawing elusions to previous lives that beg the question ?What were they doing before they were waiting??Pozzo: sure as shooting Aloud. He even used to think very prettily once, I could listen to him for hours.
(Line 15 Page 39)Estragon:No, I was never in the Macon domain. I?ve puked my puke of a life away here, I tell you! Here! In the Cackon country!Vladimir:But we were there together, I could swear to it! Picking grapes for a man called . . . (he snaps his fingers) . . . cant think of the name of that man, at a place called . . . (snaps his fingers) . . . cant think of the name of the place, do you remember?(Line 2 Page 62)Silence is used to frame statements and allow the reader time to question the meaning of what is being said.
Vladimir:Let him alone. burn down?t you see he?s thinking of eld when he was happy? (Pause.) Memoria praeteritorum bonorum?that must be unpleasant.
(Line 5 Page 86)This use of tension of mystery forces the reader to think outback(a) their comfort zone by teasing them with information, anti-climax and reflective silences.
In conclusion Beckett created characters unable to be calm in themselves due to their contrasting condescending and contented mindsets. Beckett?s characters are on the whole dependant on each other and resentful because of this. In addition to creating characters of such existentialist faultlessness he also uses dramatic conventions such as movement, blocking, repetition, silence to create mystery, intimacy, dilemma and tension of the task. The tensions that he creates then enforces the questioning, uncomfortable, ironic and condescending nature of Absurdism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett no texts in addition to the play itself and class notes were used.
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