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1、1Samuel BeckettWaiting for Godot2Samuel Beckett(1906-1989) Samuel Beckett was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet, writing in English and French. He was born near Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1906 into a Protestant, middle class home. His father was a quantity surveyor and his mother worked as a nu

2、rse. He attended the Portora Royal boarding school in Northern Ireland, then entered Trinity College, to study French and Italian from 1923 to 1927. In 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay. The essay defends Joyces work and method, chiefly from allegations of wanton obscurity and

3、 dimness.3Becketts work offers a bleak outlook on human culture and he became increasingly a minimalist in his later career.As a student, assistant, and friend of James Joyce, Beckett is considered one of the last modernists; as an inspiration to many later writers, he is sometimes considered one of

4、 the first postmodernists. 4He is also considered one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called Theatre of the Absurd. As such, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for his writing, whichin n

5、ew forms for the novel and dramain the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation. 5Samuel Beckett depicted on an Irish commemorative coin celebrating the 100th Anniversary of his birth.6On 10 December 2009, the newest bridge across the River Liffey in Dublin was opened and named the Samuel Be

6、ckett Bridge in his honour.7WorksBecketts most famous contributions to modern theater include Waiting for Godot (1952), Endgame, (1957), and Happy Days (1961). These dark comedies revolve around individuals who are trapped in predictable yet disturbing situations. Solitude, paralysis, and absurdity

7、were some of Becketts greatest obsessions, and his novels in French address these themes with a combination of grotesque humor and hauntingly lyrical prose.Writing careerhis early works, up until the end of World War II in 1945his middle period, stretching from 1945 until the early 1960s, during whi

8、ch he wrote what are probably his best-known workshis late period, from the early 1960s until Becketts death in 1989, during which his works tended to become shorter8TheatreEleutheria (1940s; published 1995) Waiting for Godot (1952) Act Without Words I (1956) Act Without Words II (1956) Endgame (195

9、7) Krapps Last Tape (1958) Rough for Theatre I (late 1950s) Rough for Theatre II (late 1950s) Happy Days (1960) Play (1963) Come and Go (1965) Breath (1969) Not I (1972) That Time (1975) Footfalls (1975) A Piece of Monologue (1980) Rockaby (1981) Ohio Impromptu (1981) Catastrophe (1982) What Where (

10、1983) RadioAll That Fall (1956) From an Abandoned Work (1957) Embers (1959) Rough for Radio I (1961) Rough for Radio II (1961) Words and Music (1961) Cascando (1962) TelevisionEh Joe (1965) Ghost Trio (1975) . but the clouds . (1976) Quad I + II (1981) Nacht und Trume (1982) Beckett on Film (2002) H

11、osted by Jeremy Irons, Produced by PBS CinemaFilm (1965) Dramatic works9ProseNovelsDream of Fair to Middling Women (1932; published 1992) Murphy (1938) Watt (1945; published 1953) Mercier and Camier (1946; published 1974) Molloy (1951) Malone Dies (1951) The Unnamable (1953) How It Is (1961) Novella

12、sThe Expelled (1946) The Calmative (1946) The End (1946) The Lost Ones (1971) Company (1980) Ill Seen Ill Said (1981) Worstward Ho (1983) StoriesMore Pricks Than Kicks (1934) First Love (1945) Stories and Texts for Nothing (1954) Fizzles (1976) Stirrings Still (1988) Non-fictionProust (1931) Three D

13、ialogues (with Georges Duthuit and Jacques Putnam) (1949) Disjecta (1929 - 1967) PoetryWhoroscope (1930) Echos Bones and other Precipitates (1935) Collected Poems in English (1961) Collected Poems in English and French (1977) What is the Word (1989) 10Waiting for Godota tragicomedy in two acts1st En

14、glish edition translated by the author1952 written in French, and published.1953 premiered at the Babylone theater in Paris. The plays reputation spread slowly through word of mouth and it soon became quite famous. Other productions around the world rapidly followed. The play initially failed in the

15、 United States, likely as a result of being misbilled as the laugh of four continents. A subsequent production in New York City was more carefully advertised and gained some success.1954 the English translation appeared.11The play has often been viewed as fundamentally existentialist in its take on

16、life. The fact that none of the characters retain a clear mental history means that they are constantly struggling to prove their existence. Waiting for Godot is part of the Theater of the Absurd. This implies that it is meant to be irrational. Absurd theater does away with the concepts of drama, ch

17、ronological plot, logical language, themes, and recognizable settings. There is also a split between the intellect and the body within the work. Thus Vladimir represents the intellect and Estragon the body, both of whom cannot exist without the other. 12Character listEstragon(Gogo)Estragon is one of

18、 the two protagonists. He is a bum and sleeps in a ditch where he is beaten each night. He has no memory beyond what is immediately said to him, and relies on Vladimir to remember for him. Estragon is impatient and constantly wants to leave Vladimir, but is restrained from leaving by the fact that h

19、e needs Vladimir. It is Estragons idea for the bums to pass their time by hanging themselves. Estragon has been compared to a body without an intellect, which therefore needs Vladimir to provide the intellect.13Vladimir(Didi)Vladimir is one of the two protagonists. He is a bum like Estragon, but ret

20、ains a memory of most events. However, he is often unsure whether his memory is playing tricks on him. Vladimir is friends with Estragon because Estragon provides him with the chance to remember past events. Vladimir is the one who makes Estragon wait with him for Mr. Godots imminent arrival through

21、out the play. Vladimir has been compared to the intellect which provides for the body, represented by Estragon.14Didi and Gogo are a pair which complement each other. A pair who need each other, yet stifle each other s growth. They are miserable much of the time together, yet neither seems big enoug

22、h to part from the other. They are possibly parts of a divided self. Gogo as the unconscious mind, Didi as the conscious mind. They can not separate once and for all. 15PozzoPozzo is the master who rules over Lucky. He stops and talks to the two bums in order to have some company. In the second act

23、Pozzo is blind and requires their help. He, like Estragon, cannot remember people he has met. His transformation between the acts may represent the passage of time. 16LuckyLucky is the slave of Pozzo,the symbol of man-as- a-machine. He is tied to Pozzo via a rope around his neck and he carries Pozzo

24、s bags. Lucky is only allowed to speak twice during the entire play, but his long monologue is filled with incomplete ideas. He is silenced only by the other characters who fight with him to take of his hat. Lucky appears as a mute in the second act.17Pozzo and Lucky are a pair which complement each

25、 other. Pozzo symbolizes the sadist; Lucky the masochist. Perhaps all slaves must become masochistic or else die in rebellion. Materialistic man rejects and suppresses his spiritual and cultural side. Pozzo needs Lucky, and even so, he is dying and withering. 18BoyThe boy is a servant of Mr. Godot.

26、He plays an identical role in both acts by coming to inform Vladimir and Estragon the Mr. Godot will not be able to make it that night, but will surely come the next day. The boy never remembers having met Vladimir and Estragon before. He has a brother who is mentioned but who never appears.19The Ci

27、rcular StructureIn a traditional play, the plots usually go on in a linear development. an introduction of the characters and the expositiona statement of the problem of the playAnd the relationship to its settings and characters the dramatists world view Climax; conclusion20 In the plays of the The

28、ater of the Absurd, the structure is often exactly the opposite. In Waiting for Godot, 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 exa

29、ctly the same landscape a lonely, isolated road with one single tree. 21We 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, there is no difference in either the setting or in the time and, thus, instead of

30、a progression of time within an identifiable setting, we have a repetition in the second act of the same things that we saw and heard in the first act.22More important than the repetition of setting and time, however, is the repetition of the actions. Vladimir and Estragon AloneArrival of Pozzo and

31、LuckyVladimir and Estragon AloneArrival of Boy MessengerVladimir and Estragon Alone At the beginning of both acts, the first discussion concerns a beating that Estragon received just prior to their meeting. At the beginning of both acts, Estragon keeps asking Vladimir if they can leave, only to rece

32、ive the response that they are waiting for Godot. In the endings of both acts, Vladimir and Estragon discuss the possibility of hanging themselves, and in both endings they decide to bring some good strong rope with them the next day so that they can indeed hang themselves. 23The repetition of the f

33、inal two lines from the previous act at the plays conclusion shows the continued importance of repetition and parallelism in Waiting for Godot. However, the characters have switched lines from the previous act, suggesting that ultimately, despite their differences, Vladimir and Estragon are really i

34、nterchangeable after all.24With the arrival of Pozzo and Lucky in each act, we notice that even though their physical appearance has theoretically changed, outwardly they seem the same; they are still tied together on an endless journey to an unknown place to rendezvous with a nameless person.Likewi

35、se, the Boy Messenger, while theoretically different, brings the exact same message: Mr. Godot will not come today, but he will surely come tomorrow.Finally, and most important, there are the larger concepts: first, the suffering of the tramps; second, their attempts, however futile, to pass time; t

36、hird, their attempts to part, and, ultimately, their incessant waiting for Godot all these make the two acts clearly repetitive, circular in structure, and the fact that these repetitions are so obvious in the play is Becketts manner of breaking away from the traditional play and of asserting the uniqueness of his own circular structure.25Becketts dramatic works dont reply to the traditional elements of drama. For Beckett, language is useless; he creates a mythical universe peopled by lonely creatures who struggle vainly to express the inexpressible. Becketts attitude towards lan