1. Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett

2. BACKGROUND  Waiting for Godot qualifies as one of Samuel Beckett's most famous works. Originally written in French in 1948, Beckett personally translated the play into English. The world premiere was held on January 5, 1953, in the Left Bank Theater of Babylon in Paris. The play's reputation spread slowly through word of mouth and it soon became quite famous. Other productions around the world rapidly followed.

3.  Samuel Barclay Beckett was born April 13, 1906 in  Foxrock, south of Dublin  In 1923 – 1927, Beckett studied French and Italian  at Trinity College, Dublin  Under the tutelage of Thomas Rudmose -Brown and Bianca Esposito, Beckett absorbed the history and a love of Romance languages and poetry  He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and after teaching briefly at Campbell College in Belfast, lectured in Paris, where he wasintroduced to renowned Irish author James Joyce who became a close friend and colleague  1929 saw Beckett’s first work published, which was a critical essay about James Joyce’s work  Beckett returned to Trinity College as a lecturer then resigned in 1931  He travelled Europe and wrote a critical study on the French author Marcel Proust  After his father’s death he began psychotherapy, which led him to attend lectures by the Philosopher Carl Jung, who became an influence on his work  Beckett wrote a number of essays and reviews around this time on various poets and in 1935 published his own book of poetry, Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates  On his way home one night in January 1938, Beckett was stabbed by a pimp and nearly killed. He  was rushed to hospital  One of his visitors in hospital was Suzanne Deschevaus-Dumesnil. He began a life-long companionship with her and they married in 1961  Beckett joined the French Resistance in 1940 after the occupation by Germany  In 1942 his unit was betrayed and he and Suzanne fled to the village of Roussillon, where he continued to assist the Resistance and wrote his novel Watt  He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de la Resistance by the French Government  for his efforts in fighting the German occupation  Beckett’s most famous works include Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days and Play  Beckett wrote for radio, film and television. The 1960s saw Beckett become a theatre director  Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. Suzanne described this as a ‘catastrophe,’ as  her husband was an intensely private man  Beckett’s later work has been described as minimalist. Characters are whittled down to essential  elements. E.g. Play has actors place their necks in funeral urns and Not I is a moving mouth on  stage  Suzanne died in July 1989 and Beckett died in December 1989 Background to the playwright

4. Theatre of the Absurd  Waiting for Godot is part of the Theatre of the Absurd.  This implies that it is meant to be irrational.  Absurd theatre does away with the concepts of drama, chronological plot, logical language, themes, and recognizable settings.  Albert Camus wrote that the current state of the world cannot be rationally explained and this new phenomenon alienates ‘man  Man’s search for meaning is an exercise in futility because life is inherently meaningless and truth is only subjective.  This absence of meaning is defined by absurdity.

5. Background and context Socio- political Artistic Economic Theatrical Historical Religious

6. Beckett wrote Waiting for Godot in the late months of 1948, three years after Allied forces had liberated France from German occupation, and some scholars suggest that his war experience might have served as an inspiration for the play. After German military forces had successfully invaded and occupied Northern France in the spring of 1940, a nominally free French government had been established in the South at Vichy and an underground French Resistance movement arose that attempted to frustrate and undermine Germans.

7. Absurdist playwrights commented on the decline of moral character that the rise of fascism, WWII, and the Holocaust illuminated. Albert Camus and Absurdism - The absurdity of the human condition: life is meaningless and happiness is fleeting, but human beings must continually desire to stay alive and be happy. One has to revolt against the emptiness of human existence, even though it is always a losing battle. Similar but distinct with Jean-Paul Satre’s Existentialism From "Theatre of the Absurd" by Martin Esslin

8.  Depression in France- Post WWI period (1919-1930) The general trend was similar to similar to the United States. With rapid growth in the 1920’s, a sharp decline in 1930 to 1932 and a mild decline from 1932-1936. The Economy slowly recovered toward the eve of WWII. The country experienced large destruction of capital, high public debt, and inflation. It is estimated that war damages were 113% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1913, where 60% of those damages were from the destruction of capital, housing capital and land The rise of fascism, the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust inspired the philosophical concept of existentialism by highlighting the insignificance of an individual’s actions. These events illustrated how the purpose of an individual was to be utilized as a pawn in political schemes for the benefit of a high power; World War II saw over 52,100,000 deaths by its conclusion

9. France invaded…French flee… The border did not protect them as anticipated and air raids destroyed cities. French citizens were forced to flee from large cities, especially Paris during the war. The countryside proved to be a useful and protective area for citizens. Thousands of children were evacuated from the city, similar to what we saw in Britain during WWI. However, there was dissension between the residents of host areas and refugees

13. Genre  The play is referred to as Tragi-comedy in two acts. The comic and the tragic have to earn each other, they are intertwined at all times, never mutually exclusive.

14. Style  The play is a tragi-comedy. It is unexpectedly funny and occasionally bleak. It is also highly theatrical. Beckett didn’t want the play to be naturalistic, therefore there are several performance styles thrown into the production  The seemingly endless waiting that Estragon and Vladimir undertake for the mysterious Godot has made Beckett's play one of the classic examples of what is called Theatre of the Absurd. The term refers both to its content—a bleak vision of the human condition—and to the style that expresses that vision. The idea that human life lacks meaning and purpose, that humans live in an indifferent or hostile universe, is frequently associated with Existentialist writers like the French philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.  Waiting for Godot – only has a present. Eg. When Vladimir desperately tries to recall the Macon Country he can only describe it as being “red”. This allusion to a past is not grounded in a realistic sense.

15. Artistic  Vladimir and Estragon do not have a fictional past: the play is written in such a way as to function in an endless present  The standard cause and effect model of storytelling is absent from Waiting for Godot. It has events, such as they are, but they have no obvious cause  The waiting and the repetition of waiting is what the play is about. It makes a statement about the human condition: it offers a distilled statement about human experience, and encloses it in a small, still, visual frame.  Some critics say it’s not so much about waiting as it is about what they do while they wait.

16. Principles of Drama Plot, characters, dialogue, themes

17. Plot Two tramps named Vladimir and Estragon meet on a country road with a bare tree and a mound at the background. They wait incessantly for someone called Godot who does not turn up to meet them. At the end of both the acts they are informed by a boy messenger that Godot won't come that day but surely tomorrow. They agree to go but do not go anywhere. In both the acts, a master (Pozzo) and a slave (Lucky) pass by as the tramps are waiting. Thus in both the acts nothing really happens and there is nothing to be done. Everything is static in the play and the play rather depicts a static human condition. lack of plot

19. Setting The setting is the same, and the time is the same in both acts. Each act begins early in the morning, just as the tramps are awakening, and both acts close with the moon having risen. The action takes place in exactly the same landscape — a lonely, isolated road with one single tree. (In the second act, there are some leaves on the tree, but from the viewpoint of the audience, the setting is exactly the same.) We are never told where this road is located; all we know is that the action of the play unfolds on this lonely road. Thus, from Act I to Act II, we have a repetition in the second act of the same things that we saw and heard in the first act. The setting of the play is bleak, not specific to a geographic location, date or time. Beckett captured a sense of complete isolation and powerlessness in respect to the individual’s role in the world at large

20. Structure "But what does it all mean?" is the most frequent statement heard after one has seen or finished reading a play from the Theater of the Absurd movement. Beckett's plays were among the earliest and, therefore, created a great deal of confusion among the early critics. No definite conclusion or resolution can ever be offered to Waiting for Godot because the play is essentially circular and repetitive in nature. The structure of each act is exactly alike. A traditional play, in contrast, has an introduction of' the characters and the exposition; then, there is a statement of the problem of the play in relationship to its settings and characters. (In Waiting for Godot, we never know where the play takes place, except that it is set on "a country road.") Furthermore, in a traditional play, the characters are developed, the play then rises to a climax, and there is a conclusion. This type of development is called a linear development. In the plays of the Theater of the Absurd, the structure is often exactly the opposite. We have, instead, a circular structure, and most aspects of this drama support this circular structure in one way or another

21. Character: Vladimir  According to Beckett – the major character in the play  More hopeful (and optimistic than Estragon)  Represents the intellectual side of the duo  He attempts to engage Estragon in philosophical and religious debate  Carries tramp food but never eats it  Has other miscellaneous junk in his pockets  Has to wee a lot and his genitals hurt when he laughs, which is why he doesn’t want to laugh during the play. This is likely because of a swollen prostate and while an enlarged prostate is not mentioned in the play, Beckett has been quoted as saying that he does not agree with women playing the characters because they don’t have prostates  Has a social conscience – cares about fellow man – is upset with treatment of Lucky etc, and seems to get even more upset when Estragon bonds with Pozzo  End of Act II, his despair at the realisation that Godot is again not coming is very moving. It’s a real journey into blackness, Vladimir can’t bear it, it’s the same boy again.

22. Character: Estragon  Opens play trying to get boot off. Boot reference seems to indicate a lower status  Shaggier/gruffer in appearance than Vladimir  Impulsive, simplistic  Concerned with eating and sleeping  Loves carrots  Earthy  Misanthropic  Is beaten a lot (at night) and also by Lucky  Lack of restraint/inhibitions  Claims to have been a poet. Still has strong language skills (quotes the poet Shelley and calls Vladimir a critic)  Pants are too big for him, so when he takes belt off at end of play, his pants fall down

23. Character: Pozzo  Mad and sad  Need to work on blindness in Act II  Smokes a pipe  Highly theatrical  Very dependant on time  There are a numerous references to the art form of theatre. He demands an audience and often gives an over-the-top, melodramatic performance during his time on stage  Pozzo is obsessed with time (checking his pocket watch, getting anxious after losing it, and going mad when he is blind and can’t tell the time)  Given the theatricality of Pozzo, he is often associated with vaudeville from a costuming perspective, as it works in with the heightened theatrical style of his performance It is unclear and should remain unclear whether Pozzo is a brutal land-owner (which is how he appears for the first few pages of his stage time), or a mad/crazy journeyman living in the same absurd world as Vladimir and Estragon, which is the reading which would become more apparent by the time he makes his exit in Act II  Pozzo and the notion of time are important aspects for the play. Pozzo and Lucky disintegrate between Act I and Act II much more dramatically than V&E

24. Character: Lucky  The moment he takes off his hat to reveal his hair should be a shattering moment  The audience should find Lucky’s speech very disturbing (foams at the mouth towards end of his speech)  Possibly the speech indicates that Lucky was once educated and intelligent but now his ‘computer has gone wrong’. This breakdown in his mind can possibly be attributed to his exploitation from Pozzo

25. Dialogue Conversation occurs but the arrangement of words do not bridge the gulf that exists between them. The silences seem to punctuate conversations that represent the void, emptiness and loneliness between people. Lucky's breakdown of speech and final collapse into silence could portray Beckett's ultimate response to the chaos, randomness and meaninglessness of the universe: silence. The Deterioration of Intelligence: From Pozzo's pedantic speech in act one to his eventual blindness in act two, there is a literal and symbolic deterioration of intelligence. A better example of this is Lucky's monologue.

26. Themes  Bondage  Friendship  Failure of language  Uncertainty  Time  Cyclic downward spiral  Despair  Hope  Search for meaning  Dependency  Monotony

27. Bondage & Friendship  Bondage : There is a continued theme of bondage between: Estragon and Vladimir, them and Godot, them and the setting, and Pozzo and Lucky  Friendship : One lighthearted aspect of this play is the strong bond between Estragon and Vladimir. their love for each other keeps them at the tree day after day just as much as Godot does.

28. Failure of Language Beckett is simultaneously torn between the inability to express and his need to express. Estragon and Vladimir talk to each other and share ideas, but it is clear that both characters are self-absorbed and incapable of truly comprehending each other. Estragon and Vladimir regularly interrupt one another with their own thoughts, showing their individual self- absorption. Estragon admits, "I can't have been listening." (p.18), and Vladimir says, "I don't understand." (p.17), displaying the failures of language as a means of communication.

29. Uncertainty The tramps here are not sure whether they have come to the right place or even the right day. This is the basic human condition where all the days appear same and its hard to distinguish between any of the same. The wretched condition of Vladimir and Estragon regarding confusion of day is a testimony to this. The uncertainty is present throughout the play. Even the chance of man being saved by Christ depends on chance and there is an element of chance in human destiny. Pozzo says of Lucky" I might easily have been in his shoes and he in mine.“ Cyclical: The repetitive actions do not change from Act I to Act II, further defining the constant circle that Vladimir and Estragon's life has.

30. Time The characters soon lose any knowledge of how long they have been waiting; consequently reducing the value of life. The unity of time is two days, but it might be any sequence of days in anyone's life. Time is equivalent to what is announced in the title: the act of waiting. Time is really immobility, although a few minor changes do take place during the play: the tree grows leaves and one of the characters, Pozzo, becomes blind. The act of waiting is never over, and yet it mysteriously starts up again each day. The pattern of time appears to be circular or cyclic, as opposed to linear. Linear time seems to have broken down, as events do not develop with inevitable climaxes historically. The boy returns with the same message, Godot never comes and tomorrow never seems to arrive. Vladimir mentions that "time has stopped" (p.36).

31. Cyclic downward spiral  Pozzo loses his possessions and goes blind  Lucky goes dumb in Act II  Estragon more beaten in Act II  Pozzo’s whip loses its crack  Estragon was a poet  Carrot in Act I is replaced by a black radish in Act II  Estragon eats in Act I and doesn’t in Act II  Vladimir and Estragon struggle more with conversation in Act II  Estragon is more sulky in Act II  Vladimir spirals into darker philosophy in Act II  Vladimir is more agreeable to suicide in Act II

32. Despair  Despair at the end of both acts, Estragon and Vladimir’s words express the sentiment that by ceasing to wait for Godot, they will be better off. However, their actions contradict this notion: VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go? ESTRAGON: Yes, let’s go. They do not move.  Despair presents itself with the arrival of Lucky being yanked by the neck by Pozzo. Vladimir and Estragon both speak against how Pozzo treats Lucky: VLADIMIR: (stutteringly resolute). To treat a man … (gesture towards Lucky) … like that … I think that... no … a human being … no … it’s a scandal! ESTRAGON: (not to be outdone). A disgrace!  Later in the play, when the roles of Lucky and Pozzo are reversed, Pozzo, being blind and calling out for help, it represents despair. Pozzo repeatedly calls out for help before Estragon and Vladimir realize why he needs their assistance and how they can assist him. Before doing so they simply ignore him: POZZO: Help! ESTRAGON: Let’s go. VLADIMIR: We can’t. ESTAGON: Why not? VLADIMIR: We are waiting for Godot. ESTRAGON: Ah, (Despairingly.) What’ll we do, what’ll we do! POZZO: Help! VLADIMIR: What about helping him

33. Other themes: hope, search for meaning, dependency, monotony  Hope Vladimir and Estragon are lowly bums. Their only material possessions—besides their tattered clothes—are a turnip and a carrot. Nevertheless, they have not given up on life; they do not descend into depression, pessimism, and cynicism. Even though they frequently exchange insults, they enjoy each other’s company and help each other. Above all, though, they wait. They wait for Godot. They do not know who he is or where he comes from. But they wait just the same, apparently because he represents hope.  Search for Meaning Vladimir and Estragon are homeless rovers attempting to find an answer to a question all human beings face: What is the meaning of life? Godot may have the answer for them. So they wait. After Godot fails to appear on the first day, they return to the tree the next day to continue waiting. He does not come. Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave the area. However, the stage direction at the end of the play says, "They do not move." Apparently, they plan to continue their search for meaning by continuing to wait for Godot.  Dependency Vladimir and Estragon depend on each other to survive. Although they exchange insults from time to time, it is clear that they value each other's company. One could imagine Pozzo without Lucky—until the second act, when the audience learns he has gone blind. Unable to find his way, Pozzo is totally dependent on Lucky. Lucky, of course, is tied to Pozzo—by a rope and by fear of being abandoned.  Monotony Life is tedious and repetitive for Vladimir and Estragon. In the first act of the play, they meet at a tree to wait for Godot. In the second act, they meet at the same tree to wait for Godot. Irish critic Vivian Mercer once wrote in a review of the play, "Nothing happens, twice."

34. Symbols Boots and Hats Estragon – being the more practical, grounded of the tramps – looks to his boots while Vladimir –being the more philosophical one – looks to his hat.

35. Symbols Leaf The 'leaf motif' is an existentialist theory inferring that life repeats itself with a slight change. Estragon highlights the 'leaf motif' theory, saying that a similar person with smaller feet will fill his boots: "Another will come, just as … as … as me, but with smaller feet" (p.52). The endless eternal return theory is vividly portrayed at the beginning of the second act. Tree Is the tree intended to be a symbol of the cross on which Christ was crucified? Keep in mind that Vladimir and Estragon discuss the thieves crucified with Christ. The tree is bare when Vladimir and Estragon meet near it on the first day. However, on the second day, author Becket says in his stage directions, it has "four or five leaves." Do the leaves symbolise hope? New life? Rope, empty landscape, carrot

36. Influences  Music-hall and Circus Influence The bowler hats, physical comedy, “cross-talk” speech patterns, and comedic misunderstandings all have roots in the music-hall and circus

37. Quotes  Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett. The play depicts the meaninglessness of life-- with its repetitive plot, where nothing much happens.  "Let's go. Yes, let's go. (They do not move).“  “Nothing to be done.“  “The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all. It is true the population has increased.“  “I don't seem to be able... (long hesitation) to depart.“  “Such is life.“  “Our Saviour. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other (he searches for the contrary of saved) damned.“  “Saved from what?“  “We are all born mad. Some remain so.“  “Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! (Pause. Vehemently.) Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!“  “But that is not the question. Why are we here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come.“  “Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of to-day?“  “We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste... In an instant all will vanish and we'll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness!"

38. Theatrical and dramatic techniques and conventions  Dramatic conventions are the specific actions or techniques the actor, writer or director has employed to create a desired dramatic effect/style.  Theatrical conventions may include split focus, flashback/flashforward, narration, soliloquy and spoken thought.

39. Technical conventions:  Staging:  Setting: The play has no determinable timeframe or location. 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.  Costume: both men wore "bowlers."

40. The text as an ideal example of Absurdist / Epic /Post-Modern Theatre  Waiting for Godot continues to be relevant in the Post- Modern age. Martin Esslin, a theater critic wrote at the time of the production of Waiting for Godot:  “Today when death and old age are increasingly concealed behind euphemisms and comforting baby talk and life is threatened with being smothered in the mass consumption of hypnotic mechanized vulgarity, the need to confront man with the reality of his situation is greater than ever. For the dignity of man lies in his ability to face reality in all its senselessness: to accept it freely, without fear, without illusions- and to laugh at it”

41. Audience reception and critical response: original audience and present  Allows for more of the metaphysical questioning to seep into the audiences’ mind when watching the performance, rather than making literal connections about time and place etc.

42. SET Here's a set which appeared in a 1970 production at the Landestheater in Salzburg in Austria

43. Comment on the set

44. Related quotes  “Death as a final ending, as a final silence, is absent from the play. The characters must go on waiting for what will never come, declining into old age and the senility which will make of them helpless, dependent but decrepit children again.”  ”Beckett presents humanity as aimlessly questioning or endlessly waiting – but having the courage to continue living even though it is far from being sure what (or whom) it is searching or waiting for, and far from being convinced that there is anything, anyway.”

45. Watch a snippet prezi presentation  http://prezi.com/q2eqipmaqivv/waiting- for-godot/ http://prezi.com/q2eqipmaqivv/waiting- for-godot/

46. What will you do if you are waiting for Godot?