Lecture Drama II - Modern drama: Lecture 18 - Dr Irum Zulfiqar - Trường Đại học Công nghiệp Thực phẩm Tp. Hồ Chí Minh

from the tree is likely a reference to the crucifixion, but it also parodies the religious significance. If J esus died for the sins of others, Vladimir and Estragon are dying for…noth[r]

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DRAMA II

MODERN DRAMA

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SYNOPSIS

1 Waiting for Godot Symbolism, Imagery &

Allegory

2 Setting

3 Waiting for Godot Genre, TONE, STYLE &

Title

4 Waiting for Godot as Booker’s Seven Basic

Plots Analysis: Tragedy Plot

5 Social Acceptance of Waiting for Godot

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WAITING FOR GODOT

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Duality

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

 Waiting for Godot is chock-full of pairs There’s Vladimir and

Estragon, the two thieves, the Boy and his brother, Pozzo and

Lucky, Cain and Abel, and of course the two acts of the play itself

 With these pairs comes the repeated notion of arbitrary, 50/50

chances One thief is saved and other damned, but for no clear reason

 If Vladimir and Estragon try to hang themselves, the bough may or

may not break One man may die, one man may live Godot may or may not come to save them

 In the Bible, Cain’s sacrifice was rejected and Abel’s accepted for

no discernible reason It’s minor, but check out Estragon’s line in Act I: "My left lung is very weak […]

 But my right lung is sound as a bell!" More pairs, more arbitrary

damnation

 Even the tone of Waiting for Godot is filled with duality: two person

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The Tree

 The tree is the only distinct piece of the setting, so we’re

pretty sure it matters

 (Also, if you check out the painting that inspired Beckett,

you’ll see that a big tree features prominently.) Right off the bat you’ve got the biblical stuff; J esus was crucified on a

cross, but that cross is sometimes referred to as a "tree," as in, "J esus was nailed to the tree."

 That Vladimir and Estragon contemplate hanging themselves

from the tree is likely a reference to the crucifixion, but it also parodies the religious significance If J esus died for the sins of others, Vladimir and Estragon are dying for…nothing

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The Tree

 But you can also think of the two men not as J esus, but rather as

the two thieves crucified along with J esus

 This fits quite nicely with gospel’s tale as Vladimir tells it; one thief is

saved and the other damned, so Didi and Gogo are looking at a fifty-fifty chance (Duality! Again.)

 The uncertainty that stems from inconsistency between the four

gospels is fitting, too, since Vladimir can’t be certain if Godot is coming to save either one of them (Uncertainty! Again.)

(Repetition! Again.)

There’s more Vladimir reports that he was told to wait for Godot by the tree

 This should be reassuring – it means the men are in the right place

Right? Wrong

 As Estragon points out, they’re not sure if this is the right tree And,

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The Tree

 Now what we find to be completely baffling is the tree’s random sprouting of leaves in between Act I and Act II

 This is regeneration – it is hopeful, it is growth, it is life! And that doesn’t sound anything like

Waiting for Godot, especially when you look at

how everything else degenerates from Act I to Act II (we’re thinking in particular of Pozzo’s going

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The Tree

 So what gives? Take a look at Vladimir’s line early in Act I, when he says, "Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?" As we’ve

mentioned, Vladimir is referring to the biblical proverb that goes a little something like this:

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)

See that? Tree of life So the tree’s random

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The Tree

 Of course, as far as we can tell, no desires have been fulfilled At all This could mean that the

proverb is completely without truth and reason, which fits with Godot’s general stance on religion

 Then again, the tree’s sprouting leaves could be

an ironic symbol pointing out that, far from fulfilled desires, hopes have been deferred yet another

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Nightfall and the Ris ing Moon

 While Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot, they also wait for

nightfall For some reason (again, arbitrary and uncertain), they don’t have to wait for him once the night has fallen

 The classic interpretation is that night = dark = death The falling of

night is as much a reprieve from daily suffering as death is from the suffering of a lifetime

There’s also the issue of the moon, as its appearance in the sky is the real signal that night has come and the men can stop waiting for Godot

 Estragon, in one of his "wicked smart" moments, comments the

moon is "pale for weariness […] of climbing heaven and gazing on the likes of us." Though the man remembers nothing of yesterday, he does in this moment seem to comprehend the endless repetition of his life

 And if the moon is weary just from watching, imagine what that says

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Vladimir's Song that Never Ends

 Repetition, banality, and a comically macabre

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The Carrot

 Carrots and turnips are in one sense just a gag

reel for Vladimir and Estragon’s comic bits But we were interested in their disagreement over the

vegetable: "Funny," Estragon comments as he munches, "the more you eat, the worse it gets."  Vladimir quickly disagrees, adding that, for him,

it’s "just the opposite." On the one hand, this

could be a completely meaningless conversation – the point is simply that Vladimir is in

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The Carrot

 On the other hand, the carrot could be about the

meaning of life Exclamation point! OK, so the carrot probably isn’t about the meaning of life

 But it could be a hint as to the differences between the

way Vladimir and Estragon live their lives Vladimir’s subsequent comment, an addendum to his carrot

claim, is that he "get[s] used to the muck as [he goes] along." He resigns himself to banality

 Estragon, on the other hand, wearies as time passes

– much like the weary moon he observes in Act II When Pozzo later dishes about smoking, he claims

that a second pipe is "never so sweet [as the first] But it’s sweet just the same."

 This is a third and distinct answer to the carrot

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Lucky's Dance

 When Lucky is commanded to dance in Act I,

Pozzo reveals that he calls his dance "The Net," adding, "He thinks he’s entangled in a net."

 You would think a guy tied up on a rope leash

would feel confined enough Of course, the

image of Lucky writhing in an imaginary net is a lasting image for the play as a whole, and especially for the plight of Vladimir and

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The Hats , The Boots , The Vaporizer

 There seems to be no shortage of inane props in

Waiting for Godot, and these three have one thing in common: they are all absurd objects on which the men have developed irrational dependences Lucky cannot think without his bowler

 Pozzo needs his vaporizer to speak Estragon

seems condemned to forever take his boots on and off, as does Vladimir with his hat

 This is another great combination of the tragic and the comic; the situation is hilarious for its

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Smell

 Estragon is repeatedly repelled by smells in

Waiting for Godot Vladimir stinks of garlic, Lucky smells like who knows what, and Pozzo reeks of a fart in Act II

 It seems every time Estragon tries to get close to a person, he is repelled by their odor

 It looks to us like smells represent one of the

barriers to interpersonal relationships Estragon isn’t just repelled by odors – he’s repelled by the visceral humanity of those around him

 There’s something gritty and base about the odor

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SETTING

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