Waiting For Godot

Waiting for Godot

Samuel Barclay Beckett is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. The Irish novelist, playwright, theatre director and poet is considered one of the first last modernists. He also is one of the most famous writers of the Theatre of the Absurd.

In 1940 Samuel Beckett joined the French Resistance after the occupation by Germany but he rarely spoke about this period in later life.

Beckett´s career as writer is divided in three periods. In the first period, between the end of the World War II and 1945, he wrote his first works which are considered to have been influenced by the work of James Joyce, they both were erudite seem to display the author´s learning merely for his own sake. But is in the second period, from 1945 until the early 1960´s, when he wrote his best works and he started using French instead of English, and during these 15 years Samuel Beckett he created his well-known works: Endgame, Krapp´s Last Tape, Happy Days and Beckett´s masterpiece Waiting for Godot. In these four works the characters live in a uncomprehending and incomprehensible world and they try to survive in spite of the despair. During this period he also wrote three novels which are considered as a triology: Molloy(1951), Malone Dies(1951) and The Unnamable(1953).

Finally, in the last period, between 1960 and 1970, Minimalism focused all Beckett´s works and the structure of the characters is reduced to the most essential elements.

As we said before, Samuel Beckett is a very important writer in the Theatre of the Absurd. This literary movement, which takes place between 1940 and 1960, was mainly created by Europeans and Americans playwrights. The works of this kind of theatre expressed that the human existence has no meaning for them, they also choose the satirical and surreal way in order to denounce the moral drift. The Theatre of the Absurd has strong existentialist features and question the society and the man. Through humor and mystification they tried to hide a demanding attitude toward his works and the inconsistency, nonsense and illogic are also very representative features of these common works. Regarding to his characters, they lose their individuality and are respresented as a set and the reader can observe the their evolution although they do not seem to have a apparent function. They also have a big obstacle to express themselves and also to communicate with each other constantly. In the works, the scenery is very important as the objects and the supplies used by the characters because they represent in the imagination the message´s reality. This kind of theatre touches important themes like for example the weakness of the society after the World War II. One of the biggest changes of this thatre is that the action is represented through four differents elements: the sudden transformation of his characters, the progressive intensification of the initial situation, the investment principle of casuality and the rhythmic or emotional emphasis to create an impression of outcome. But the most interesting in the theatre of the absurd is the fact that it does not give the answers that you expected but we have to interpret and analyse the works. Besides Beckett there are very important absurd´s playwright as Harold Pinter, Eugène Ionesco , Alfred Jarry and the spanish Fernando Arrabal.

Turning now to the Beckett´s work Waiting for Godot, it is important to say that at the same time a confrontation was taking place in Europe between the two major economic blocs, socialism and capitalism, this confrontation was known as the Cold War and during this century the european society change his politic system and his way of life and thinking.

Because of this, three major school of thought were born: existentialist, psychoanalysis and marxism. The existentialist represents a feeling of distress and despair to pain and death.

The work is divided in two acts and the plot of Waiting for Godot are two men beggars called Vladimir and Estragon who are wating for a man called Godot but he never arrives. They wait in a boggy place with only a willow and a stone. While waiting, they are talking and discussing and they are interrumpted by Pozzo, a cruel man accompanied by Lucky who is treated like a workhorse. When Pozzo and Lucky leave the place, a boy arrives and tells Vladimir and Estragon that his boss, Godot, it is not coming.

The second act follow the same pattern as the first,but this time, when Pozzo and Lucky arrive at the place, Pozzo has become blind and when Pozzo and Lucky leave, the boy returns and tells Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not come, and the boy says he don´t remember have been with Vladimir and Estragon the previous day.

The identity of the characters Vladimir and Estragon is unknown, they are supossed to be two beggars and we can assume that they have been always together, and they live their lifes in a constant repetition. Vladimir seems to be smarter than his partner and he takes care of him, Vladimir is more interested in waiting for Godot than Estragon. On the other hand, Estragon has a unpredictable temper and he is always threatening to leave, he also has pain on his feet and suffers more than Vladimir with the problems of the world.

In my opinion, Waiting for Godot is a very interesting book because it gives rise to many interpretation, the dialogues of the characters are the most interesting for me because they make you ponder and put two and two together. But what most intrigues me and make me think it is the figure of Godot. I think Vladimir and Estragon are waiting some kind of salvation by Godot. Moreover I am interestedin the character of Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo is a rich man who mistreats the other three, he claims to be a catholic man but that doesn´t make him more human. And finally, Lucky, you coud think a lot of things about him, why does he obey Pozzo? Why does he acts like a workhorse?, but Pozzo says Lucky was a good man before, and now he only can carry Pozzo´s burden. I think it shows the represion between the upper clases and the poor people.

This book makes you feel bad, because it is a tremendously sad book and this is what makes it brilliant.

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