beckett.pptx

7/23/2019 beckett.pptx

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WAITING FOR

GODOTSamuel BeckettSipra Mukherjee

Course 202 401

West Bengal State University


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Esslinfelt Becketts plays were the

articulation of Camus concept of theAbsurd

This led to the belief in Becketts

(and Camus) existentialism

Though it appears too simplistic to

straitjacket Beckett/Camus intoExistentialism only.


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References in Becketts play to the

times include allusions to the

religious,

philosophical,

classical,

historical (e.g. colonisation),

psychoanalytical and

biographical (especially wartime )


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who may tell the tale

of the old man?weigh absence in a scale?

mete want with a span?the sum assess

of the world's woes?

nothingness

in words enclose?

FromWatt (1953)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt


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The play "exploits several

archetypal forms andsituations, all of which lendthemselves to both comedyandpathos.

Tragicomedy appears to be the

only way to portray thecondition of humanity


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"Nothing is funnier than

unhappiness ... it's the most

comical thing in the world

Nell, Endgame

Absurdist dramatists reveal a debt

to Shakespeare (StoppardsRosencrantz and Guildenstern are

Dead, Ionescos Macbett)


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Brooks Atkinson in

The New York Times

review aptly calls

Becketts play an

acridcartoon of the

story of mankind.


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Structural conveniences include: ritualistic aspects,

elements from broad comedy,similar to vaudeville ,

Commedia dellarte,

early film comedians andmusic hall artists

elements from horrific or tragic images,

characters caught in hopeless situations forced todo repetitive or meaningless actions;

dialogue full of clichs, wordplay, and nonsense;

plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive.


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as an experimental form of theatre

Absurdists used techniques from

the 19th-century nonsense poets,

such as Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear andothers;

Bertolt Brecht's alienation techniques

in his "Epic theatre" and the

"dream plays" of August Strindberg

S l B k tt i i i H


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Samuel Beckett is sui generis...Hehas given a voice to the decrepitand maimed and inarticulate, men

and women at the end of theirtether, past pose or pretense, pastclaim of meaningful existence. Heseems to say that only there and

then, as metabolism lowers, amidGods paucity, not his plenty, canthe core of the human condition beapproached... Yet his musicalcadences, his wrought and precisesentences, cannot help but stave offthe void... Like salamanders wesurvive in his fire. -Richard Ellman


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The bowler hats and other broadly comicaspects of their personas have reminded

modern audiences of Laurel and Hardy, who

occasionally played tramps in their films."The hat-passing game in Waiting For

Godot and Lucky's inability to think without

his hat on are two obvious Beckettderivations from Laurel and Hardy - a

substitution of form for essence, covering for

reality."


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LAUREL AND HARDY- with their

bowler hats


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Vivian Mercier described the play as

having "... achieved a theoreticalimpossibilitya 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." (Irish

Times, 18 February 1956).


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GODOT ???

In Irish Gaelic, "go deo" means both"forever", and "a very long time(Beckett mentions the name of a

French cyclist, Christian nameuncertain, surname Godeau,)

Beckett said the word Godot

suggested itself to him by the slangword for boot in French,godillot, godasse because feet play

such a prominent role in the play.


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acknowledgment of deeper meanings

of GODOT

"It would be fatuous of me to pretend that Iam not aware of the meanings attached tothe word 'Godot', and the opinion of manythat it means 'God'. But you must rememberI wrote the play in French, and if I did havethat meaning in my mind, it was somewherein my unconscious and I was not overtly awareof it." This is an interesting remark, especially

considering that "Beckett has often stressedthe strong unconscious impulses that partlycontrol his writing; he has even spoken ofbeing 'in a trance' when he writes.


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setting of play

The minimal description calls to mind "the

idea of the lieu vague, a location which shoulnot be particularised".

feelGodot needs a very closed box." (when

a circus-ring was suggested)

contemplated at one point having a "faint

shadow of bars on stage floor" but, in the enddecided against this level of what he called

"explicitation"


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Accusations of obscurity/difficulty

minimalism inlanguage, settings,

experimental use oflanguage, questioningthe very power/role of

language, Aggravated by thephilosophy which his

works articulated


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Obscurity a contentious feature of

avant garde art and academia


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waiting for godot

nothing happens,

nobody comes,

nobody goes


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concept of time cyclical in play


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Harold Pinter

Frequently

commented on theirrelevancy of

everyday speech.


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inspiration forwaiting for godot

'This was the source

of Waiting for Godot, you

know. Beckett to Ruby Cohn

about the paintings by

Friedrich that inspired him.


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Two men contemplating the moon

by Caspar David Friedrich


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Moonwatchers, by CasparDavid Friedrich

d ti f l


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productions of playOne particularly significant staging was inside the

Lttringhausen Prison near Wuppertal in Germany.

In October 1954 Beckett received a letter from an

inmate of the prison :

"You will be surprised to be receiving a letter about

your play Waiting for Godot, from a prison where somany thieves, forgers, toughs, homos, crazy

men and killers spend this bitch of a life waiting ...

and waiting ... and waiting. Waiting for what?

Godot? Perhaps."

An inmate had obtained a copy of the French first

edition, translated it into German and obtained

permission to stage the play.


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2009 set


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From 'Worstword Ho' by

Samuel Beckett


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an anecdoteeckett walking with a friend across asoccer field on a sunny afternoon,heading for a pub:Beckett: "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?The friend: "Yes, it makes one glad tobe alive.Beckett: "Aw now, I wouldn't go thatfar.."


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnixqo-ENc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnixqo-ENchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnixqo-ENchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnixqo-ENchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnixqo-ENc

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