20th century theatre movements Absurd text: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

20th century theatre movements – Absurd text: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

LEARNING AIMS:

After you have completed this unit, you should be able to:

• analyse the text of Waiting for Godot according to the dramatic principles. • identify the characteristics of Absurd Theatre in the text of Waiting for Godot.

STUDY:

Your Waiting for Godot text, the Waiting for Godot Literature Guide and the notes in this guide are the most important sources of information for you to study to be able to master this part of your Grade 12 curriculum. Read through the entire text and then study the notes. Take note specifically of the following in the Literature Guide:

• The description of Absurd Theatre (p. 2 – 3) • The summary of the play (p. 4 – 8) • The character descriptions (p. 9 – 15) • The structure of the play (p. 16 – 19) • The symbolism and themes (p. 61 – 66) • The questions and answers (p. 67 – 82)

It would also be beneficial to watch the following YouTube video about the play. Access the following link: http://goo.gl/1d6oQ5

The playwright – Samuel Beckett

BACKGROUND

Samuel Beckett was born on 13 April 1906 in Dublin, Ireland. His father worked in construction and his mother was a nurse. He went to school in Dublin and later completed his Bachelor’s degree at Trinity College in 1927. His childhood and teenage years were not a remarkable happy time, as he was plagued by bouts of heavy depression. According to him he ‘had little talent for happiness’.

In 1928 he moved to Paris and became one of James Joyce’s dedicated students. In 1931 he travelled through Britain, France and Germany to become inspired and to meet people. During this time he wrote many poems and stories and did odd jobs to support himself. It was on these travels that he met many interesting people who inspired some of his most famous characters.

During World War II, Beckett stayed in Paris and fought as part of the French Resistance until 1942. After fellow fighters were arrested, he and his partner, Suzanne DechevauxDumesnuil fled to the unoccupied zone until the end of the war.

BOOKS, THEATRE AND SUCCESS

After a few unsuccessful books of poetry as well a few short stories and poems, Beckett finally attained success with Molloy, published in 1951. This book sold reasonably well and was a hit with French critics. From 1948 until 1949 he worked on Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot) which was performed for the first time in 1953. He wrote this, like many of his other work, in French. It was translated to English two years later. In an article and review, which is quoted time and time again when anything is written about this work, the critic, Vivian Mercier, wrote the following: Samuel Beckett (http://goo.gl/7JNiIM)

“Beckett has achieved a theoretical impossibility – a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What’s more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens twice.” – Vivian Mercier

Roger Biline was the director for the first performance of Waiting for Godot in France at the Theatre de Babylone which opened to critical acclaim and was a very popular and controversial success in Paris. It was performed in London for the first time in 1955 with less initial success than in Paris. However, after a few good reviews by two influential critics, audience numbers increased and it later became a massive success. Waiting for Godot was also performed in New York and Germany and has become a play that is performed the world over. The success of Waiting for Godot opened the door to the world of theatre for Samuel Beckett and he went on to write multiple plays. (Wikipedia)

Beckett continued to write in French because he felt that he could be more subjective in French. He realised early on that his work had to be subjective and that it needed to flow from his own thoughts and feelings. His plays were also not written following traditional lines and does not follow a conventional plot, time or references to setting. Instead he focuses on essential elements of the human condition in dark and humoristic ways. His style is described as Absurd Theatre, because his plays focus on human suffering/despair and the will to survive in a hopeless world that offers you no help to understand it. (Biography.com)

Waiting for Godot

This work is generally described as a tragicomedy in two acts. It is in essence a play of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, clowning around, joking and arguing, repeating themselves, as they wait through one day and then another, for the mysterious Godot.

Pozzo (Shuler Hensley), Vladimir (Sir Patrick Stewart), Lucky (Billy Crudup) and Estragon (Sir Ian McKellen) in a production of Waiting for Godot. (http://goo.gl/FIWDQ4)

Characters

Estragon – is also called “Gogo”, and in one odd moment, “Adam”. He is around to play second fiddle to Vladimir. He comes off as inferior to Vladimir. He has a chronically poor memory, struggles ineptly with his boots, has to be told what to do (and perhaps even craves such instruction), and spends most of his time trying to fall asleep, unless he’s sleeping already, in which case our guess is he’s trying desperately not to wake up. Or, to make a long story short, he comes across as a simpleton.

Vladimir – is also called “Didi” or, in one bizarre moment, “Albert”. He seems interchangeable with Estragon. But, in fact, Vladimir and Estragon are two very different characters. Popular belief is that Vladimir is the more intellectual. He’s the alpha male, he has the better memory, and he’s more logical. Vladimir makes a point of saying – repeatedly, we might add – that Estragon depends on him for his life.

Lucky – is Pozzo’s slave. He is abused physically and verbally, made to work to the point of exhaustion, and denied any opportunity to act of his own accord.

Pozzo – God or not? is tyrannical, cruel, focused only on himself, and seems to possess some sort of mystical watch. We’ll get to the watch in a minute. The first thing that happens when Pozzo comes on stage is that Estragon mistakes him for Godot several times. The name mix-up that follows practically begs us to compare Pozzo and Godot.

If Pozzo has divine power, it is certainly limited. His memory is defective, he’s helpless, has to be asked to sit down, cannot get to his feet without assistance, and is dependent on the presence of others for any type of function (“I cannot go long without the society of my likes,” he says). He even credits Lucky with having taught him all he knows. Pozzo may be a god, but if so, he is an imperfect one.

Boy – A messenger who says he represents Godot. He appears briefly in act one and act two to tell Vladimir and Estragon that Godot has postponed his scheduled meeting with them. In act two he says he is not the same boy who delivered the message the first time. However, in his list of characters (dramatis personae) at the beginning of the play, Beckett mentions only one boy.

Godot – Godot is not really a character. Or, at least, we cannot be sure if he is a character or not - but he is in the title.

The place to start is that Godot’s name has a G-O-D in it. Depending on your pronunciation, this is either vaguely or glaringly obvious. (Beckett said we should pronounce it with the emphasis on the first syllable, GOD-oh, but a lot of people say God-OH.)

Beckett stated that the character of Godot was not supposed to represent God. If that were the case, he would have called the character GOD. The word Godot is a French word which means shoe (army boot), which emphasises Beckett’s atheistic view that religion is nonsensical.

Bullies – People who beat Estragon when he is trying to sleep – or so Estragon says. The bullies do not appear on the stage; they could be a figment of Estragon’s imagination.

Characters and acting style

The characters are hobos. Didi and Gogo never mention that they have homes and Gogo sleeps in a ditch next to the road. Beckett himself used to travel around a lot and did not stay in one place for a long time, thus many of his characters are hobos and vagabonds.

The characters are without identity. None of the characters have surnames and there is often confusion about their names. Estragon is called Gogo and even Adam, while Vladimir is called Didi and even Albert. The messenger boy does not have a name. The characters never speak of family or friends or about their past. As a result of the world wars, people felt that they had been isolated from a true living experience by society and circumstances. They felt that they were only a number and no longer human.

The characters are representations of humankind in general because they have no background or identity and cannot be linked to a specific time or place. This makes the characters universal. Existentialists saw the world as meaningless and believed that every person, regardless of who he/she is, found him/herself in the same absurd situation and in the same meaningless world. Theatre of the Absurd also does not attempt to tell a realistic story with realistic characters, but to convey an abstract idea.

The characters perform clown-like movements, for example the constant exchange of hats and running across the stage with the rope. The way in which Estragon tries to commit suicide is comical because it is unrealistic and bound to fail. Characters in Theatre of the Absurd are exaggerated and unrealistic. They perform absurd and meaningless movements in order to portray the absurdity of the world and man’s situation.

All movements are done with heightened concentration and energy. Gogo stares intensely into his shoe and the characters stare intensely into their hats. At the beginning of act two it said that Didi watches Gogo intensely. When the characters stare into the distance, it is an intense stare at nothing (stasis). Characters and movements in Theatre of the Absurd are exaggerated. The heightened energy points to the Existentialist philosophy that each person has to make a real effort to get him/herself out of this absurd situation.

Bursts of energy are followed by a “complete collapse”. For example, after the characters take off their hats and pass them around, they freeze. Theatre of the Absurd developed after World War II and because of the large-scale destruction that took place, the world almost collapsed.

Themes

Waiting: The central theme of the play, already indicated in the title, is waiting. Throughout the entire play Didi and Gogo wait in one spot for Godot to arrive, but he never comes. At the end of the play the audience can deduce that they will stay there and wait. According to Existentialism, people are born in a cocoon. Every human can either sit back and wait for the world and his circumstances to change (which will never happen) or he can make the decision to change his own circumstances and go over into action.

Choices: It is depicted by two men unable to act, move, or think in any significant way while they kill time waiting for a mysterious man, Godot. The characters fail to realise that this very act of waiting is a choice. Instead, they view it as a mandatory part of their daily routine. Even when these men manage to make a conscious decision, they cannot translate that mental choice into a physical act. They often “decide” to leave the stage, only to find that they are unable to move. Such inaction leads to stagnancy and repetition in the seemingly endless cycle of their lives.

Time: As mentioned, the very title of the play reveals its central action: waiting. The two main characters are forced to whittle away their days while anticipating the arrival of a man who never comes. Because they have nothing to do in the meantime, time is a dreaded barrier, a test of their ability to endure. Because they repeat the same actions every day, time is cyclical. That every character seems to have a faulty memory further complicates matters. Time loses meaning when the actions of one day have no relevance or certainty on the next.

Passing of time: Didi and Gogo have long philosophical and theological discussions and tell each other stories in order to pass the time. When Gogo says that he does not want to hear the story of the thieves on the cross, Didi tells him that it will pass the time. Beckett said that, when people stay busy, they are not really conscious of the time that passes, especially if they are just sitting and waiting. They might even be surprised at how quickly the time seems to have passed. In the same manner, Didi and Gogo try to pass the time while they are waiting for Godot.

Man’s hope of salvation and the unknown quality of God’s mercy: Didi and Gogo stay in the same place in the hope that Godot will appear. Didi also refers to the story of Christ’s crucifixion and the two thieves, of whom one was saved. Beckett was raised in a very strictly religious home. Later he became an atheist and started to question people’s belief in a higher power and their hope that God would save them from eternal damnation. The theme of “man’s relationship, or lack thereof with God” also regularly appears in absurdist texts.

Religion: Characters who attempt to understand religion logically are left in the dark, and the system is compared to such absurd banalities as switching bowler hats or taking a boot on and off. Religion is also tied to uncertainty, since there is no way of knowing what is objectively true in the realm of faith.

Hopelessness: Both Didi and Gogo often say in the text, “nothing to be done.” That indicates that they do not have much hope anymore and that they feel powerless to change or improve their circumstances. Absurd theatre portrays the world as hostile in the sense that everyone has to take responsibility for him/herself and his/her own life. Man, thus, has no hope that his circumstances will change, unless he does something about it himself.

Suffering: is a constant and fundamental part of human existence. Every character suffers and always suffers, with no seeming respite in sight. The hardship ranges from the physical to the mental, the minor to the extreme. It drives some men to find companionship (so as to weather the storm together), causes others to abuse their companions (to lessen the suffering of the self), and for still others leads to self-isolation (since watching people suffer is a kind of anguish on its own).

Gogo suffers physically because of his feet and Didi because of his bladder problem. Lucky not only suffers physically when Pozzo whips him, but also emotionally because of the way in which Pozzo treats him. He is Pozzo’s slave and has to do everything he is told. He thus feels the frustration of not being free. During World War II people suffered physically because of the war in which they fought. They also suffered emotionally because of the trauma to which they were exposed. People who lost loved ones also suffered. Large-scale destruction that took place in Europe also caused emotional and psychological suffering.

Freedom and confinement: Every character seems to live in a prison of his own making. Each is confined to a state of passivity and stagnancy by his own inability to act. The one character who is literally the slave of another is no more restricted than those who are technically free. In fact, he may be freer because he is at least aware of his imprisonment.

Truth: The play is driven by a lack of truth – in other words, uncertainty. Characters are unable to act in any meaningful way and claim this is so because they are uncertain of the consequences. Without the presence of objective truth, every statement is brought to question, and even common labels (colour, time, names) become arbitrary and subjective.

Philosophical viewpoints and the absurd: The play presents a world in which daily actions are without meaning, language fails to effectively communicate, and the characters, at times, reflect a sense of artifice, even wondering aloud whether perhaps they are on a stage.

Life, consciousness and existence: It is repetitive and stagnant. It lacks meaning and purpose and entails perpetual suffering. The solution (which none of the characters take) would seem to be action and choice despite the ever-presence of uncertainty, and an awareness of one’s surroundings and past actions. As one character says, “Habit is a great deadener” – our actions should stem from conscious choice rather than apathy.

Friendship: Each character is fundamentally isolated from every other. Relationships teeter between a fear of loneliness and an essential inability to connect. This tension is central to the play. The problems that keep characters apart vary from physical disgust to ego to a fear of others’ suffering.

Mortality: None of the characters in Waiting for Godot shy away from the fact that death is inevitable. In fact, death becomes at times a solution for the insanity of daily life. The main characters contemplate suicide as though it were as harmless as a walk to the grocery store, probably because there’s nothing in their life worth sticking around for anyway.

They ultimately do not commit suicide because they claim not to have the means, but also because they are uncertain of the result of their attempt (it may work, it may fail). Because they cannot be sure of what their action will bring, they decide on no action at all.

Language

The language in an absurdist drama often goes nowhere. Characters misunderstand or misinterpret one another, frequently responding to a statement or a question with a non sequitur or a ludicrous comment. Beckett opens Waiting for Godot this way.

The absurdity of the dialogue is the playwright’s way of calling attention to the seeming absurdity of life. For Samuel Beckett, the world wobbles on its axis, and the people who inhabit it do not always think logically or talk sensibly.

The dialogue is senseless and meaningless. The characters do not listen to each other and talk past each other. For example, when one asks a question, the other repeats the question without answering: “Does it hurt?” “Hurt? He wants to know if it hurts.” Gogo also asks Didi what they had done the previous day and Didi repeats the question. According to Existentialism, language is inadequate to convey meaning, because every person assigns his/her own meaning to what has been said. Darwin said that language was no longer adequate to indicate the difference between humans and animals because language is not an effective means of communication.

The dialogue is repetitive and supports the cyclic structure. Didi and Gogo constantly repeat each other’s words and questions that also indicates that they do not listen to each other. According to Existentialism, people will continue to repeat their actions and act like other people until they make the decision to change their own lives. After World War II people felt like they are existing meaninglessly and that every day consisted of the same old routines. They felt like machines that had to work to rebuild the world again.

The text was originally written in French. One can see this in the title, because “Godot” is a French word. Beckett’s mother tongue was English but he felt that he needed the discipline of an additional language; otherwise it might seem as if the text was written effortlessly and did not take a lot of thinking and effort. He believed that Theatre of the Absurd, because it portrays man’s struggle to survive, should not seem effortless.

The dialogue is regularly interrupted by silences, but the characters speak again when the silences become unbearable. It is regularly indicated in the text that the characters keep quiet and that there are long silences after they have spoken. This speech that is interspersed with silences creates a rhythm in the text and is characteristic of Beckett’s work. It has the effect that the dialogue seems almost poetic.

The long silences isolate words. Short sentences or single words are often preceded and followed by silences. For example, when Didi and Gogo decide to part ways, they hug and then there is a long silence before they speak again. According to Existentialism, every person is born in isolation and is only responsible for himself. He has to determine his own fate and destination. The isolated words are also symbolic of man’s isolation in the world.

Language cannot define the meaninglessness. Estragon says in the first line of the play, “Nothing to be done.” They never define what it is that they cannot do anything about and the audience have to draw their own conclusions. Einstein said that everything is relative. Humans, therefore, assign their own meanings to what has been said and language is incapable to communicate effectively.

We see several examples of incomplete sentences and incorrect grammar. The characters also use clichés, but use them incorrectly. For example, “Hope deferreth make the something sick.” This indicates the characters’ disorganised state of mind, the incapability of language to be used to communicate effectively and the chaotic state of the world – as the Existentialists and absurdists saw it.

The characters also make use of stichomythia, which is a further indication that they are not listening to each other.

Setting

All the action takes place next to a tree on a road, beginning on the evening of one day and ending on the evening of the next. It could be anywhere, in any country of the world. No visible horizon exists and no markers of civilization are present. The setting is constant. The only change occurs between act one and two, when the barren tree of act one gives birth to a few leaves in act two.

The historical setting is unspecified. The time frame is most likely two days, one of which is possibly a Saturday. The only visible reference to the passage of time occurs at the end of act two when the sun sets and the moon rises. There are verbal references to the passing of time, such as when the characters make mention of yesterday and the previous evening.

Structure

The structure of the play is cyclic. The characters repeat their actions, for example Gogo who keeps taking off his boot and looking into the boot. The play does not have a beginning, middle and end and there is no escape for the characters. The action does not move towards a specific objective. After World War II people felt that their lives were senseless and meaningless because of the mass destruction and loss of lives. They felt that they could not make any more progress in life.

There is no climax in the play - it is a cycle of anti-climaxes. Didi and Gogo repeatedly say that they should leave, but they never do. The aim of absurd theatre is not to spur the audience to create order out of the chaos – it is merely to represent the chaos in the world on stage. There is thus no highlight or aim for the characters.

There is no focus or aim in the play. The play does not tell a story. The characters do not work towards a specific goal. They merely sit and wait for Godot to arrive.

There is no logical development. Actions and dialogue do not follow each other and they do not give rise to more dialogue or action. Characters perform illogical and unexpected actions, for example the scene where they pass the hats around. People saw the world wars as illogical, especially the large-scale loss of lives. They therefore felt that life was illogical and that they were not making any progress. According to Existentialism and absurdism the world is an illogical place and each person has to create his/her own meaning.

All actions are equally meaningless. Gogo keeps looking into his boot, even after he has seen that there is nothing inside. Characters also constantly look in their hats even though they have seen that there is nothing in them. According to Existentialism every person’s actions are meaningless because everyone has to give meaning to his own actions. Man is also the sum total of his actions.