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[r]
(1)(2) Beckett's theatre is stark, fundamentally
(3) Themes in plays include: mirroring own search for
freedom, revolving around a young man's efforts to cut himself loose from his family and social
obligations, life means waiting, killing time and
clinging to the hope that relief may be just around the corner
trades in plot, characterization, and final solution,
(4) language is useless, for he creates a mythical
universe peopled by lonely creatures who struggle vainly to express the unexpressable
characters exist in a terrible dreamlike vacuum,
overcome by an overwhelming sense of
(5)(6) Waiting for Godot is a twoact stage drama
classified as a tragicomedy. In 1965, critic Martin Eslin coined the term theater of the
absurd to describe Godot and other plays like it.
As a result, these plays also became known
(7)(8)(9)(10) The absurdity of the dialogue is the author’s
way of calling attention to the seeming absurdity of life. For Samuel Beckett, the world wobbles on its axis, and the people
(11)(12) The structure of a typical absurdist drama is like a spaceship orbiting earth or a Ferris Wheel revolving on an axle: The spaceship and the Ferris wheel endlessly repeat their paths. If only the passengers on the spaceship and the Ferris wheel could break free and fly off on their own . . but they cannot. They are tethered to forces beyond their control. The same
is true of Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot. They
(13)(14) 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
(15)Act One :
Vladimir and Estragon are near a tree to wait for Godot. Pozzo and Lucky enter. Pozzo talks with Vladimir and
Estragon, Lucky, dancing and thinking, makes them happy.
After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy tells Vladimir that Godot
will not come that evening.
Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move
(16)(17)Dark comedy or Black comedy refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy.
(18)‘If I knew, I would have said so in the play’ [Beckett]
The uncertainties and irreducible ambiguities
are an essential element of its total impact
In Waiting for Godot, the feeling of uncertainty
it produces, the ebb and flow of this uncertainty – from the hope of discovering the identity of
(19) Beckett’s plays lack plot even more completely
than other works of the Theatre of the Absurd
Instead of linear development, presented is
(20)