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EXISTENTIALISM IN MARLOW’S “WAITING FOR GODOT” By Nusrat Roll No. 6117 MA English Session 2012-14 Supervised By Ms. Nighat Faheem
National University of Modern Language Islamabad DEC 2013
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ABSTRACT Samuel Beckett’s is well known writer of modern times having strong popularity over writing absurd plays as “Waiting for Godot” is known for the absurd play in the theater of absurdity in modern times. He has written this play in absurd text as Existentialist form of literature or the theme of the “Christian allegory”. The current study is a keen search of the context of the play in attempt to highlight these thoughts presented by the writer in the absurd recognition. This is a strong commentary over the modern times phenomenon of Christian Existentialism and the theater of absurd. , the researcher has glimpsed the context of the play in the perspective of the new hidden realities in the context of the play by putting the analytical view over the text of the play. The focus is given over the absurd thoughts and the existential dilemma. Siren Kierkegaard is known as the pioneer of the Existentialism, he has given a detailed view at existentialist writers in interpretation of their texts and the thoughts by observing the works of “Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus”. Kierkegaard’s writings are famous in the absurd vie than the modern term of the atheistic approach to the art. The researcher has deconstruct the text and the thoughts of the writer under the umbrella of the philosophical theories use in the famous absurd play Waiting for Godot, the play may interpret in manifold vies of writing but the current study ponder about the
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existentialism given in the context of the play. The study focuses on the key characters of the play Vladimir and Estragon and the most psychological character Lucky and his absurd speech. And also the paradoxical statue of the Godot in the title charter in the play.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………......IV DEDICATION…………………………………………………………..….vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………....vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………....viii CHAPTER -1 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………. A biography of the Life of Samuel Beckett.
Absurdity in “Godoth”
CHAPTER-2 Introduction CRITICS VIEWS OF EXISTENTIALISM BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS EXISTENTIALISM AS A PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT MAJOR EXISTENTIALISTS Siren Kierkegaard
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Friedrich Nietzsche Martin Heidegger CHAPTER-3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY DATA COLLECTION OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH RESEARCH QUESTIONS DE-LIMITATION OF STUDY
Ch. 4 -
Theatre of the Absurd AND WAITING FOR GODOT The absurdity and Beckett The “Theory of Absurdity”
The term “absurdism” Ch. 5 - Waiting for Godot, reflecting “cold war anxiety” The absurdity of Beckett AND NOTHINGNESS
Ch. 6 CH.7 -
THE PLOT OF THE PLAY AND “EXISTENTIALISM”
Beckett's Absurd Characters 'Waiting for Godot'
Ch. 7 - Conclusion SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION REFERENCE/BIBLIOGRAPHY
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A biography of the Life of Samuel Beckett He belongs to the famous city of Dublin that is known for the nice writers of the modern times. The key figures of the age are the “Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, J. B. Shaw, S. O'Casey, and J.M. Synge”. The major figure of the said city is Mr., Samuel Beckett; he is the master writer of plays of the modern century and the post modern century too. He is known to be barb in the destined way in the good Friday and he has similarity too the date and the day of the birth to the fructification. The early 19th century brought fame in his writings in the form of the absurd. It has also the similarity to his age and birth and he also reflected in the symbolic form and sense. The strong belief of the Christ crucification and his two fellows is represented by him and one of them who were accompanying him was saved and other was not saved and was cursed and damned. All this sentiments was highlighted in the text of the drama Beckett in his famous drama waiting for Godot. “Vladimir: Ah, yes the two thieves. Do you remember the story? Estragon: No. Vladimir: Shall I tell it to you? Estragon: No. Vladimir: It'll pass the time. (Pause) Two thieves, crucified at the same time as our Saviour. OneEstragon: Our what? Vladimir: Our Savior. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other... (he searches for the contrary of saved)...damned”. (Godot 14)
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His father was ROE Beckett. And his number was second in his family kids. He studied in the local school along with his brother. In Dublin, and further he was admitted in the Trinity college for higher education. Then his age was 17 years. He was a good player of rugby and secured many prizes and titles in his education career. He was also well in other games as cricket and base ball. He completed his graduation from trinity college and was appointed in the lector of Paris. The main building factor in his rating style was his stay in France the impact of its civilization much influenced over his writing. He also visited to Germany in his aunt home for family trip and stayed there for few days. He facieses his essays with the life different styles and attitudes after that visit. He also secured his life romantic role in that visit by involving in his cousin Peggy. Due the traditional norms of his family he could not marry with her due to the immediate cousins. The sad column of her life was the suffering of her in the disease of the tuberculosis in the short span of time she died just after the two years of his visit in the agony of love. We see the reflection of her love in the romantic and well mannered writing of Mr. Beckett. .
James Joyce was the man visiting Germany after 26 years of his visit. Samuel, on recommendation of his Irish school mate, the poet Thomas McGreevy, soon met Joyce. He was immediately impressed by Joyce's literary work, that he wrote
8 an essay on him Dante...Bruno. Vice...Joyce it was actually written in praise of the father of the absurdity. It was a bad luck of the Joyce that due the poor eye sight he was unable to writ e the works in doing so Beckett helped him in his famous works writings.
It was the reason that Beckett was famous as the personal secretary to Joyce. He also wrote essays on "artistic father" in praise to the Joyce. And also the essays on the topic of ‘Proust Proust’. These were in form and the sense Joyce an. It was a keen affiliation to Joyce in art and approach. But he clearly stated the fact that he has different thoughts and approach to Joyce in his writings and imaginations. His point of view and style is not superfluous to Mr. Joyce. He writes;
“The kind of work I do is one in which I am not the master of my own material. The more Joyce knew the more he could. He's tending toward omniscience and omnipotence as an artist. I'm working with impotence, ignorance. ...My little exploration is the whole zone of being that has always been set aside by artists as something unusable - as something by definition incompatible with art” The reign in the context of philosophy was the stay in Paris. He studied in
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Depth of the Arthur Schopenhauer, René Descartes it takes his attention to the occionalism in the literature of the modern times. “Beckett returned to Dublin in 1930, at the age of 24, and was appointed a lector in French at Trinity College. In January
10 after having spent their four terms, Beckett resigned this academic post”. It was not a good stay because he was indulged in the trouble of anxiety. He was much happy in Paris but at his returned he was not happy a remained in the dark room in order to show his strong affiliation to Paris. It was the turning point of Beckett to the Paris on the suggestion of the doctors to stay in Paris for the relax from anxiety in the form of freedom, in order to meet the livelihoods of the Paris he started to write the ballads and the poems and other works to earn the livelihood. He wrote the novel “Dream of Fair to Middling Women”, unfortunately it was not published in his life due to some reasons. He also wrote the supplement in the form of stories as More Pricks Than Kicks. In the reign of Hitler he was in Dublin. It caused mental trouble for him in his reign. The sudden death of his father and his beloved Peggy made his in much trouble as he as much in mental breakdown. It all disturbed him a lot. He led in the troubles in that tough period and consequently he used to write different works in a NEW style in the new age. His famous worlds at that age Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates (1935).after that he used to writer on the title Murphy (1938). It is the autobiographical novel reflecting his own personality and his life. He used the tile and the characters of the novel in real stressed way to the rural life characters. It is about the living area as stadium road where he lived. All other places are shown in the stressed way to the Lots Road and the
The character of Murphy is very like Beckett himself, it is one of the novels where the places and the names of the streets are named exactly. There appears Stadium road
11 where Beckett lived at that time, Lots Road, Cremona Road, and where Beckett as well as Murphy wandered about London, both usually in a very depressed state. Soon after the beginning of the war Beckett returned to Paris to be with his friends. During the war the Gestapo discovered Beckett's activities in connection with the French Resistance movement. As a result, he was forced to find a sanctuary in Roussillon in the apartment of his companion Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil's friend. Here, in the south of France he spent a long period of time during the war years. While hiding from the Nazis, he wrote another novel Watt (1942-1944), in his stay there Mr. Krupp argued about his party was After the war he returned back to Ireland again to be with his mother. Mary Roe Beckett was, at that time, dying from Parkinson's disease and throughout her final illness, Beckett cared of as the following way. Krupp’s Tape: - Bench by the weir from where I could see her window. There I sat, in the biting wind, wishing she were gone. (Pause.) ...I was there when (...) the blind went down, one of those dirty brown roller affairs, throwing a ball for a little white dog as chance would have it. I happened to look up and there it was. All over and done with, at least. I sat on for a few moments with the ball in my hand and the dog yelping and pawing at me. (Pause.) Moments. Her moments, my moments. (Pause.) The dog's moments. (Krupp 219-221) (Krupp 221) The next proceeding years he produced three more novels as - the trilogy Molloy (1951), Malone meurt (1949-1951), and L'innommable (1953), they were also available later on in English and other languages. Which he later translated into English as Molloy, Mallone Dies, and Unnameable. Beckett's
12 novels were of no success among French publishers. Due to Beckett's total resignation; it was Suzanne who took the manuscripts from one publisher to the other, and although she was rejected many times, finally made a contract with Lyndon, who published Beckett's works. Poetry to novel and then to drama inter in the absurd style of writing. It opened the new terminology. It was a turning the style of Beckett in mild of the 20th century. He argued in the followings;”: "I turned to writing plays to relieve myself of the awful depression the prose led me into. Life at that time was too demanding, too terrible, and I thought the theatre would be a diversion." He influenced over the people in the form of the new theater ion n the new sees of drama. He also writes a unique drama in attendant Godot in French, it made him popular in the context of the ne writer and much influential in the writings. He was initially himself re translated his work in English in 1972. Waiting for Godot was written in proceeding to the All That Fall. All That Fall was followed by Krupp’s Last Tape (1958), Endgame (1958), Embers (1959), Happy Days (1961), and Words and Music (1962). He also got the Nobel prize in his writings by the white men. He used to cross the mobility in the last session of his life. He fell ill and was too senile to walk in that way. He died in the year of 1989 at the age of eighty three. His own words for his style and the attitude of the writing is as ; "All this business of a labor to accomplish before I can end the words to
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say; "a truth to recover in order to say it before I can handle an imposed task, once known, long neglected, finally forgotten; to perform, before I can be done, done with speaking, done with listening, I invented it all in a hope that it will console me, help me to go on, allow me to think of myself as someone on the road moving between a beginning and an end, gaining ground, losing ground, getting lost, but somehow in the long run making headway, all lies, I've nothing to do, say nothing in particular, I have to speak whatever that means”.
Absurdity in “godoth” Samuel Beckett says in his famous quotation; “I have a clear memory of my own fetal existence. It was an existence where no voice, no possible movement could free me from the agony and darkness I was subjected to.” (Samuel Beckett) He is strongly speaking about the internal feelings and thoughts in the form of the all themes and the characters in his drama waiting for Go dot. He is representing the times of his age in the play. The theatre of absurd is the true representation of age. Since the world war two occurred the all people of the affected areas and surrounds were became the atheist and lost their belief in the religion and the inventions of science. The all in venations re hated by the people of the modern times. It was due to the disaster occurred killing the large
14 amount of people and the economic fall was there a key cause in the construction of such absurd thoughts at that time. All the pays written in that age were actually much affected by the thought of the theory of existentialism. They were anti to the existence of men on the earth. And considered the existence as a useless issue. All the themes and the characters were in the prospect of the absurdity. It caused the absurdity and the whole plot and the subject matter was on the base of the existential views. The all theories of the plot characters and the unities of the time and the place were ignored at that time. So all the story and the themes were aimless and nonsense. There is nothingness not like the plays of the other ages. We see in the waiting for Godot that key characters of the play were at the end at the nothingness and yet waiting because of the no plot and the theme of the drama as an existentialist play. All of the problems were as we seed in the begging of the play. Beckett represents the whole characters in the play as mobile and selfless in the origin. The key factor of the absurd plays is the no idea or the conclusion in the drama as Beckett introduced in the drama. All the characters as Vladimir, estragon, are the at tension and the futility. Even in the drama the imagery was of the feet in illogical and absurd.”Characters normally come in pairs, so does Vladimir and Estragon. Even though they think they will be better off alone they never seem to be able to exist without each other. They need each other to prove their own existence. There is also the slave – master relationship which is obvious in the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky. This can be argued as the relationship between the world and man. Man became the slave of an uncaring and cruel world. Where gods and heroes were evident in the preceding time periods, the hero has now become the anti-hero. Character flaws are exaggerated and characters
15 appear to be dull and boring. Estragon is forever battling to get his boots on and very little in their conversations make sense”. The use of the dialogues by the writer are also absurd and the illogical. Lucky is introduced as a humoristic characters having nonsense speech to the other characters. The text has no punition signs to represent the feelings of the key characters. The term of mental trouble as aphasia is fully established in the dialogues of the all characters in the drama. The finding of the dialogues shows of the useless words having no impression over the all of the story of the play and the end remain open ended phrase. The whole trouble and the foolishness are indicated in the play and yet till end same emptiness is there in the characters. The writer represents the men as the useless and foolish to resolve the issues of the life in positive way. The all characters are futile and in wait to rescue them from the troubles and the misfortune. The end is as the beginning of the play, this is the trait of the existentialists that they remain in the motivation of the audios in the form of the psychological reflection of the thoughts at their end. They conclude the all the mean and sense depends upon the attitude and the way we make not the world.
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW INTRODUCTION This current study is based upon the Samuel Beckett’s art of writings and characterization, the setting and the use of language in elite g for Godot. This play
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is full and rich with the prospect of the existentialist concepts such as despair, anxiety and thrown nests on the way to authenticity. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that deals with the man and his existence, it is all due to the few reasons,
First of all, all the rational sciences cannot prove the absolute,
and thus, there was no absolute truth. And also the man lost his all belief in the religion and in the God as well. This all was due to the modern arts and the development of science and the life too. “The modern societies depended on the idea that signifiers always point to signified, and that reality resides in signified. In postmodernism, however, there are only signifiers. The idea of any stable or permanent reality disappears, and with it, the idea of signified that signifiers point to. Therefore, for the existentialist view, there are only surfaces, without depth; only signifiers, with no Signified. This means that language has no function of conveying meaning to provide communication, and man has no trustable reality, which will provide a basis for the existentialist in his search for being. Existentialism places the individual in the centre and questions his existence in the absence of the first signified. The reason why Samuel Beckett’s works are usually discussed in an Existentialist context is that he is one of the ineffable leading playwrights of the Twentieth century drama, and the actor of the radical digression from the Conventional notions of writing, representing and directing a play. Having adopted
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Sartre’s existentialism as the philosophical basis for his approach while creating his masterpieces, Beckett has become the founder of the Absurd Drama in British Literature. When his plays were first performed, people who were accustomed to the traditional theatre were hostile to his drama. However, particularly after World War II, their losses and fears have made them feel close to Beckett’s characters”. In his plays the playwright the concept of the existentialism is introduced by the writer as a whole and it is in the form of different characters as Beckett showed in all of his plays of rhea theatre of absurd. He points out the fact that all independence of the modern man as futile and ire was the way to thaw disbelief in all fields of the life as he showed in the form of the Vladimir and pogo characters in the play waiting for go dot. CRITICS VIEWS OF EXISTENTIALISM Beckett constructs all of his characters that are tramps and other one. These may stem says; “The raw ideas from Descartes to Sartre that Beckett undoubtedly gathered and Cooked” as Andrew K. Kennedy states in the introduction of his book (3). Despite the fact that he expresses in his writings a lot of unconventional Ideas, beliefs and feelings in a new manner, this study does not aim to subordinate
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Beckettian drama to any particular system of thought; finding thejunctures where his writing and the existentialist ideas connect is the real purpose while displaying how his characters are experiencing authenticity in an existentialist query of being. n this chapter, first the terms of existentialist views to be used throughout the study will be defined in respect to the related philosophers”. Subsequently, in Existentialism is represented as the Philosophical Movement .Existentialism is a tool to describe the outlook of the modern society that has suffered a lot in the result of the modern wars 1 and 2. This philosophical attitude deals with the ideas of the different critics as Sartre and Heidegger, they are the famous Existentialist
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS Sartre’s argues the term in different points as the absurd theatre presents the cream of the different attitudes and the feelings of man and the society in the following words as; “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself is built upon this understanding. Such is the first principle of Existentialism,” says Sartre in Existentialism and Humanism (28). “What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges
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up in the world – and defines himself afterwards” (Sartre, 1948:28). This quote claims that existence is a necessity to have essence. Sartre also states “He will note anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself” (1948:28). As Buhrmann points out, for existentialists, “the world is utterly without absolute meaning, and man is left to invent his own personal meaning for his existence” (14). In contrast to the Aristotelian assumption that essence precedes existence and in the world man exists to achieve a purpose, the Sartre existentialism argues that man has no predetermined purpose or meaning. Rather, humans define themselves because their individual lives come into being as a response to the challenges proposed by their existence in the world. As Sartre states, “life has no meaning a priori. Before you come alive, life is nothing” (1957: 49). So in view of different in perpetrations the whole life is reflected in the thereof absurd and it deals almost all the factors of life and its origin and the thoughts and the essence of the attitudes of the people towards life and its existence.
Existentialism is based on the nothingness and it is the necessary aspect of the human consciousness and it is the is a sort of no-thing-nests surrounded by the denseness of being.
It developed by the man consicious behavior and the
determinism, it is also deals with the existing of man under tough condition. That
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is why, “Man is condemned to be free” and “…without any support or help whatever, is condemned at every instant to invent man” (1948:34). Ellis states AS “Anguish as the manifestation of freedom...” (15). That is because the recognition of nothingness, according to existentialists, is considered as something liberating since man realizes that he is free to choose what he will make of himself due to the fact that he has no ready-made essence. As it is known, Existentialism is “the doctrine … confronts man with a possibility of choice” (25) as Sartre states in Existentialism and Humanism. That is to say, “This freedom, which brings anguish, springs from our recognition of Nothingness” (Hinchliffe 25), and this naturally brings anguish owing to the great responsibility it requires. Anguish leads a person to confront his own nothingness” (Dreyfus 205). Sartre argues the state of the existentialism as the “Consciousness in one stroke opens up a world of possibilities, yet at the very Moment poses their annihilation: this says Sartre, is our anguished lot” (McCulloch 46). “Subjectivity over objectivity is another basic theme of existentialism always adjoined in the Beckettian drama. The basic point is that one makes himself what he is through his free choices, rather than by being what he is. Sartre explains what Subjectivity means according to existentialists and states, “Man is nothing else but
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What he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism. It is also what is called subjectivity” (1957: 15). There is nothing objective about what a human being is. So, everything starts from the inside, from the side of the man or subject. As Sartre points out in Existentialism is Humanism, “subjectivity must be the starting point”. “In any case ... existentialism, in our sense of the world, is a doctrine that does render human life possible; a doctrine, also, which affirms that every truth and every action imply both an environment and a human subjectivity” (Sartre, 1948:24). What is the kind at the very heart the auto and centre term of existentialism, is the absolute in the character of the free commitment as a whole , by whichever man realizes the nature of
himself in realizing a type of absurd
humanity –
a
commitment that is developed in always understandable, to no matter to describe whom in no matter is the what epoch – and it’s in the form bearing upon the relativity of the sound and patent cultural pattern which may cause and result from such the complete absolute commitment. One must think and deal to and observe equally the relativity of the modern Cartesians and the absolute and unique character of the Cartesian commitment. In other words, by eating, by sleeping and also all kind of the or by behaving in any fashion whatsoever is oat. There is not a difference between the free being and also – being as self-committal, as existence choosing its essence – and absolute being (1948:47).
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EXISTENTIALISM AS A PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Existentialism is a philosophical movement it is anti to the idea of the existence of man is not easy way and possible on the earth and the world wars has ruined the whole issues and keep the people at the thought that they must think in the sense of the clues of the that about how humanity must should live in a and focuses upon individual existence, freedom and choice as the result of the movement to allow the people to do as they want. It was not classical in nature and appearances and as in reaction to the middle age.
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“The philosophers of that age like Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Hume, Locke, Voltaire, Bacon and Rousseau, regarded reason not only as man’s highest Faculty which is capable of solving all problems and providing him with complete Knowledge in the end, but it was also seen as completely positive, with which the Quality of being flawless is meant. In other words, reason was considered to be Absolute, which explains why those philosophers, who were proud of being Reasonable and rational, overstated their case”. . The first and the foremost theme was the one is that “reason as the ultimate part of life reality, it is underused and is not determined by anything else”; and the other sense as “… the powers of reason are unlimited” (Roubiczek I). The attributes as the sense of reason and the human experience explores and shows that the reason is not just a separate part of human nature but attitudes in it and it is completely limited. Therefore, term meets to the irrational to find and Consider that all of reason is fully absolute. This was true claim making agree for an absolute sense and the reason, in turn, generated three reactions in thoughts and it ultimately produced the term “Existentialism”.
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What it gave the way to the attitudes that are irrational in the Age of Reason not these as was that neither in the subject of physics nor in the subject of biology and not even in modern psychology. MAJOR EXISTENTIALISTS The major Existentialists in the modern times after the world wars were “Siren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus” . They are classified as the following; The Pure philosophers are that looked in to the real state of the absurdity of the modern man like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger. The second group is of the literary figures of existentialist philosophy and they followed the literary thoughts in representation of the existentialism like Sartre and Camus. Of the five influential figures “Sartre is the clearest and most systematic. Consequently, detailed illustrations of existentialist themes are more often drawn from the works of Sartre” (Olson VIII). Consequently, this thesis will base its arguments on Sartre, by whom Beckett was most influenced while referring to other philosophers too. Siren Kierkegaard He is famous at beginning of the nineteenth century, Kierkegaard got popularity he defend his real faith and his real belief in unique ethical self, and he was in
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the reality of moral values and the law grasping attitude in the claiming of the reality and the truth. “Kierkegaard, the personal experience turns out to be real. For example, what an Individual knows is not regarded as of the external world, but it is accepted as the Inner knowledge of his or her own experience. He attacks certain conceptions of Christianity, which were taken for granted. To illustrate, he argues that the socalled”
Friedrich Nietzsche “The one of the eminent characteristics of Nietzsche is his opposition to the existing philosophical attitudes and the systems, and an is not easily noticeable dissatisfaction to as a whole with the traditional philosophy and he was in the thought of the as he considered it to be superficial and the all of the remote from life, which Kierkegaard and links to him in clearly with existentialist philosophers like Heidegger and Sartre. He is known to replace the God of Christianity, with the ‘will to power’ which, according to him, is the soul of the world and is scattered among individual men. Each man is a centre of the ‘will to power’, and his existence can be represented as the will to govern the whole universe. The human will know no obstacle; there are no limits for him. However, while existence emerges as a philosophical problem in the struggle to think of the paradoxical
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presence of God for Kierkegaard, for Nietzsche it emerges from and in the reflections of his frequent statement ‘God is dead; we have killed God; God has died’. This is apparently not an atheistic utterance. Rather, it refers to the loss of faith”.
Martin Heidegger S Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, is famous aspect and individual do Existentialist movement Martin Heidegger views as; “Who particularly tries to justify the absoluteness of Existentialism, the exclusion of essence and objectivity, the attempt to make the subjective method all-inclusive by trying to break down the barriers between the objective and the subjective in different ways from Nietzsche? Furthermore, after seeing waiting for Goodson the stage many critics have thought that he is the philosopher whom Samuel Beckett might have read. His lifelong project was to answer the question of being. In Being and Time, in order to understand Being, Heidegger argued that man must first understand the human kind of being: Dassin that is “Being-there”, the kind of being who questions his Being. Despite these, Heidegger himself denies that he is an Existentialist because he is mainly interested in the nature of being, that is
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fundamental ontology. Heidegger is mainly interested in describing existence and he, then, attempts to make people question even the simplest things and deeds that have been already taken for granted, as Beckett does in his plays. He points out that men are what men can become. Therefore, to him, becoming is a process towards the future, which \subordinates the past and the present. He also coined many new words, “which he himself considers ashes main merit” (Roubiczek 130).
Chapter-3 LITERATURE REVIEW 1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter is all about the methodology used in the research and the all data analysis and the research statement and also the significance of the current research as a whole. The current study is about the “existentialism in Beckett’s waiting for Godot” by deconstruction of the text
28 and analytical view of the modern term of existentialism and the absurdity of the theatre after World War 1 and 2. Also grass route knowledge about goals of research, text and discourse in feminist prospect.
3.6 OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH The objectives of research are to peep in to the text of the play waiting for go dot in the analytical perspective to highlight the intended themes and the plot of the play. It is the further query in investigation there term existentialism and the theatre of absurd under the textual support of the Beckett’s famous play ‘Waiting for Godot’
3.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research follows a descriptive approach, and all the analysis is based upon the existentialism and the absurdity by putting different critics views and the theories . all the findings are based on the detailed view of the text and the characters and the language used byu Beckett in the famous play ‘aiting for Godot”. The play has been written in the context of the
29 existentialism after the world wars and the effects of these wars over the humanity are discussed in the deep sense to find the reasons of the restlessness of modern man.
3.8 RESEARCH QUESTION
1. Existentialism represented by Beckett in his famous play “Waiting for Godot” 2. What is the impact of absurd theatre over the psychology of modern man in view of Samuel Beckett? 3. How Beckett develops the effects of the World War 1 and 2 in the dialogues of his famous play ‘Eating for? 4. The portrayal of “nothing to be done” in different characters reflecting the conflicts between mind and the body in ‘Waiting for Godot’ but Samuel Beckett?
3.9 DATA COLLECTION
The primary source of data collection includes the text books of Beckett famous play “Witting for Godot”, and the secondary data has been collected by “articles, monographs, doctoral thesis, autobiographies containing information and acceptable references from tertiary
30 books. However internet as an informational tool, helpful data by search engines, web portal is used at maximum level to made the research more effective and incredible”.
3.10 DATA ANALYSIS
The study is analyzed by putting the deconstruction of the text of the play and the analytical approach to the existentialism developed by Beckett in his famous play “Waiting for Go dot” The credibility and quality is confirmed by putting the method of deconstruction as model for finding out the theatre of absurd and the influences of the word wars in creation of the nothingness in the modern men.
CHAPTER 4
Theatre of the Absurd AND WAITING FOR GODOT The term is grammatically a noun in origin and it obis further explained in the following sense;
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“Drama using the abandonment of conventional dramatic form to portray the futility of human struggle in a senseless world. Major exponents include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Harold Pinter”.
Theater of the Absurd and the term absurdist, is presented by the famous critic Martin Echlin. He describe explained by mean of the term in the different writings in his times. Echlin argues the term an illustrative of a philosophy by Albert Camus, the all of the plays attached with the movement are the basic one in the theme of existentialism. He argues the different plots and their character as absurd in nature. In his 1961 essay, Echlin classified four playwrights as leaders of the movement: Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Arthur Adamou and Jean Genet. Later, Echlin also included British playwright Harold Pinter to this group, and classified some of the works of Tom Stoppard, Edward Albee and Jean Tardieu as also belonging to Absurdist Theater as well. The absurd character s is totally change in position and the origin in the context of the ideas then past. Here no pet plot or the setting of the play is considered in all sense and the diction and dialogues are developed in this sense as the whole representation of the modern times.
The absurdity and Beckett; Beckett’s dramas are originated in a unique art and the glimpse of the modern times and the appearances of different characters in novel and new way. He is in state of the view of the man and his dealing to the surroundings the man is the theme of the all of his plays. The current
32 study is also base on the absurdity and the humanism in the light of the existentialism of the modern times. He has a sound dramatic work in the theme of the existentialism in the drama “Waiting for Godot”.
His all characters are based on the sisyphusean nature. It is all about the troubles and the sufferings of man and the age. He wants to create the hope in his characters indirectly to the modern time men. He describes the whole world as alienated and the full of suffering. His characters are in the form of remote characters.
He also looks into the human isolation in the absurd age. The main sense in the confliction between the characters sands the ideas in the drama. The hand from which he is isolated by the walls of his self”. The absurdity is the key factors in the form of the existentialism in the whole characters. He discusses the man’s troubles and the conflicts in the theatre of absurd. The men are waiting for death and have nothing to do in building of his fate and luck by constant struggle.
The drama is real representation of the absurdity and existentialism. The main agenda is the waiting for nothing and that has no end. Beckett's characters' are real representation of the absurdity
and
has
no
end.
It
is
also
tragic
in
nature.
Beckett's absurd man is actually interacting constantly with the fate and the agony of the troubles of life. Suffering may get end with efforts and hope.
The “Theory of Absurdity”
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The absurdity is the sense of nothingness and reason less life. It is a foolish thing and do not have the logical and seriousness in origin. It is ales a state of conflicts and the "Absurd” origin of the existentialism is "this encyclopedia article is absurd." It is Latin in origin and stands for absurdum meaning "tune”, it is also not rational in the mean and view. It may refer towards the deafness and the foolishness and the idiotic behavior. It can be consider as the jock and the noses behavior of men in daily life. It is notorious in the fame and the popularity. The all kind of the irrational behaves and attitude is under the said term. As Beckett introduced in his famous play. He focuses upon nonsense ridiculousness that is linked with the keen laughter, and ridicule and foolishness in its form and usage.
The term “Absurdism” If we look in the logical and philosophical sense we see the term means as the contradiction and the conflict between the human sufferings and the lack of capabilities .the term does not as in textual mean and it refers to the human "logically impossible”, it is indeed the conflictive impossibilities of men and his attitude. The man may not independently in the form of the separate sense but it May cause self absurd behavior Absurdism, therefore, is a philosophical school of thought arguing the all sufferings and the efforts of men in negative and senile appearance to lose all the issues and the status of life in the existence of man. Absurdity is a unique term used by Beckett in all of his plays and especially in waiting for Godot. It fully argues the theatre of absurd. If we look into the history of absurdity we see the three fold troubles in this connection. “What Absurdity is, in what fate life moments it appears, and what consequences for a human view of life it holds with itself”. We find that what is the purpose of man existence in this universe and his character in the world of modern age. The fact
34 is that always religion is at the superior and the top state and e always finds the solutions and aid by
religion
to
face
the
troubles
of
our
life.
The theme of the origin and the object of the creation of the world are sought by the religion. Religion provides sound views of the life and the theme of creation of men. We all believe in the existence of God and he is the beneficial and kind to men in his sufferings and agony. In 1883 Friedrich Nietzsche introduced the concept that "God is dead" . It was appeared in that early modern age due to the attachment of men to the temptations and the worldly desires. . From that time of Zarathustra the old everyday certainties of life started to lose their certainty. The term is also based upon the two world arts that caused great disaster in the killing of the human beings as a whole. It brought men and world to the sense of the destruction and the missing of life and loose of hope in the existence of men over the land of world. It generated the sense of absurdity in sense arid theatre. Martin Echlin argues the term in following view; : "Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose. ...Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, and useless". Albert Camus a great writer of France states in the sense that the whole absurdity of men is by dint of the modern men wars and much killing of life and the rest, deals with the absurd fate forces in the world. Camus also expresses his views in the following reasons of the origin of absurdity. Goes into the problem what the absurdity is and how it arises. Human feelings are too much full of “denseness" and these are also the kind of “the strangeness of the world". The outcome of these feelings is based on the restlessness and the feelings of absurdity in the lacking ability of hope and the less value and status to the religion in the worldly
35 life. Absurdity is not a temporary but actually a permanent conflict, it is against the concept of struggle. It is conflictive in nature to human psychology. Camus argues about the absurdity as; To commit suicide means to agree with absurdity, it means to give in, because the sense of life is looked for in another world. We find the same tendency in the all characters created in the play by Beckett, no character in the play is sure to do suicide or the effort to the fittest of life. The men are not free from the absurdity. It is less in sense and the logic to lead life. It is reasonless, aimless mad no hope is there in it. It does not have thought of the tomorrow or the near future but of the day that passing.
Waiting for Go dot the key character the go dot remain silent and abstract till end and the other are in wait for that character that did not arrived and remain a question mark till end. So this title of the drama represents different interpretation as an existentialist play.
The play is originally written text in early 20th century. Critics says that Beckett translate the text in his own work in the said text as, En attendant Go dot, and is subtitled (in English only), "a tragicomedy in two acts".
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Chapter 5 Waiting For Go dot, reflecting “cold war anxiety” .
“VLADIMIR: We'll be saved”
Beckett wrote the drama at the theme of uncertainty created by the cold war it was a psychological state of the troubles occurred by the world wars and the such ambiguity is reflected in the story and the characters
37 of the play in the absurd manner. Anxiety remains throughout the play. Paradigms are in the form of religious and the scientific trouble as a whole. The reformation to the new characters and the plot is a result on the cold wars and same is developed by Beckett in the play. As a result theories and the foundations are totally reconstructed in the text of the play to introduce the all conflicts happened in the cold war creating the mental trouble in the form of aphasia. This all is by dint of the destruction by the war. “Waiting for Go dot questions and confronts its contextual paradigms, incorporating both existentialism and nihilism”. Disliking and liking in the form of the dialogues and the plot of three dramas. There is clear existentialist view created by Beckett in the drama. He represents the contradiction of mind and thought by confronting the characters and the dialogues of the play and the audio thoughts. Even the existence of the God and his arrival is conflicting to the religious norms and theories. The history of performance of the play argues that at first people did not liked the play and remained walked out by abusing the idea of absurdity at that time once the play was in performance session. Philosophical questions about existence are raised, discussed, and then juxtaposed with a sight gag, vaudeville humor, or the mundane, such as the fussing over the boots and bowler hats. The humor in the play is also under term of nihilistic. . Beckett personally argued as ; "If I could have expressed the subject of my work in philosophical terms, I wouldn't have had any reason to write it." We see in the middle of 20th century the drama is as al in nature. He play is philosophic in origin. The existentialistic approach was at high peak in the middle of the 20th century. The conflict of the existence and the disbelief in religion was the substance of the modern age as inculcated by Beckett. Past atrocities in the form of holocaust, atomic attacks in Hero shim Japan bring the change in people's thinking, religion considered as the questioned and existentialism got popularity in the context of the already happened
38 incidents. The people were thinking about the kind of god to save them from the disaster of the war. This trouble and the destruction led the people to the disappointment and de morale in all the issues of life. Uncertainty the culture AND all kind of physical and the mental deprivation was there in the all fields of life. Beckett gains all of the said issues in his through both the post apocalyptic plays setting of internal and external facts and the play and the issues explored by means of the construction of characters in the play. The drama is developed in circular and non linear, talent as the traditional theatre or as the repetitive sense in text and dialogues and the use of language...it is nat the true of life of 20th century. The whole agenda of the play captured by Beckett is absurd and based on the existentialism. “The ambiguous dialogue and meaningless plot metaphorically portrays the repeated mistakes made by human kind. The coming and going of Pizza, Lucky and the boy are repeated for the second act, reinforcing the circular structure of the play. The way the main characters move, perpetually separating and moving back together, is choreographed so they move in the same circular cycle of the play. This also represents both the characters and the human race's course in life moving apart and together, making the same mistakes, repeating history, going nowhere, just like Beckett's characters Vladimir and Estragon”. Beckett creates the different doubts and uneven situations in the play at different occasions. The beginning of the play is traditional in setting and appearance. The writer do not give the idea are the introduction of the all characters. The audios are not sure about the existence and the appearance of the people in the start. The starting scene is basically a way to the all of the course in drama. The setting is almost same in first episode. The dramatic characters are not about the introducing of the all of the happenings in the play. Even viewers are not sure in the story happenings. All is due to the absurdity and psychological violence in the drama. The start of the plays is also absurd in the dialogue as the words are said ,The audience
39 "nothing to be done", This is all the sense of the entrapment created by Bucket. The all system of the world Is depended upon men and unfortunately all the events of the world are not in the command and control of men. Beckett's captures the agony and the helplessness of man in the all issues of knife in his play through different characters. The key concept is of the waiting for the imaginary character in order to save the destination and the life that is actually godot. Beckett argues the religion. Controversially, he is depicting the idea of the dependency of high level that is the Godot in the drama. The religious rebellion is there in the proceeding context that the aiding is useless and go dot ill not come to rescue the humanity over the earth. . "Nothing to be done" is the psychological lost defeat of the key character in the drama as Estragon. All of the audience consider him as a painful and troubles character in the play. It is the strong interpretation of the Lenin's publication “What is to be Done?”, and all of the humanity cannot be saved and new views are not appropriate to make the human conditions as rescued in the absurd theatre. This is the all an existentialist idea represented by Beckett in the play. Vladimir is at the concept of acceptance that the nothing is the sense of the modern times. States, by displaying irony as we see in the, Vladimir Lenin, coming to terms with the failure of his ideas put forward in What is to be Done? The whole agenda can be interpreted by the answer of Vladimir “I'm beginning to come around to that opinion. All my life I've been trying to put it from me, saying, Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything And I resumed the struggle". Beckett introduced all of his characters in the descriptive and the verbal voice to express his agenda of existentialism. All the subject matter of the play is about the society and the effects of the two world wars and their influences. He consider the modern times as uncertain age. All the proceeding dialogues and the characters are basically based on the theme of the existence. The Vladimir argument is “so here you are again", that is replied by Estragon "Am I?' is all absurd and uncertain in the feelings and the thoughts. The start of the play is almost psychological and depicts the view of the
40 existentialism. By the sentence “nothing to be done" and "Am I?" the writer is arguing his feelings and the thoughts of the modern men. He is building the sense of feeling of his audios that the time is changing the all of the ideas and the attitudes in the theater of absurd. His main characters are absurd in appearance and the thoughts and the feelings in the play. He is building the sense of the love and friendship by mean of the term of the philanthropy and the help of the friends in modern times is in trouble. The dependency is there that both characters cannot live without each other in the life as he stated abbot Estragon that “nothing more than a little heap of bones at the present minute". All of the play we find the all characters are in need of the other character as we see in the modern times after wars the men is in need of the help and rescue by the other human being. The theme of love is philosophically developed by the writer in the play as the eternal and the mundane dependency over each other. The two type love and the similarity is reflected by the writer in the form of the main characters as the Estragon and Vladimir on the other hand the minor characters as Pozzo and Lucky, all is the immorality and selfishness of man and the world . The constant juxtaposing aspects are making the play much interesting agent for the audios. The other aspects of the play also refer to the concept of the existentialism and the uncertainty aroused by world war. All the dialoguers and the characters portrayed by Beckett are in the state of confusion and uncertainty. He is representing the true life and the issues of life and the age. The context of the play is ambiguous. The play is actually a keen reflection of the attitudes of life and the dealings as a whole. The speech of Vladimir is the real representation is picture of age and life of the absurd theatre. It is as we see Lucky’s tirade, an advocacy of the absurdity in the reflection of drama. Both Vladimir and Estragon are fighting for nothing in acquiring the facility of the highness by doing nothing and the effort is portrayed as the struggle for the fittest. He is in thought of the life and its behavior in the form of circulation of life attitudes. They do not have any particular mean of the waiting for the godot. The view of life and death is constantly focused in the play by mean of the
41 characters in the play. , "Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old". The key agenda of the play is all about the death and the existence. It is dealt under the perspective of the disasters made by world wars and the nihilistic despair. The speech of the Vladimir is evocative in power due to the confessional purely unaffected, Vladimir's statement “I can't go on” is actually deserted and the based upon the emissary. Are desolating, almost a plea, and seemingly God answers him, by sending his emissary?
Genus states as;; “By challenging religious and philosophical paradigms through the dialogue of his characters, Beckett questions the humanity and beliefs typical of his context. As "nothing happens, twice", the audience is being presented with the idea of "nothing to be done". Mistakes and major events are repeated by the characters representing all of humanity. Life and time, World War grief, Cold war uncertainty and the pointlessness of religion, is being mirrored by Waiting for Godot through Beckett's use of the repetitive structure of absurd theatre. The philosophical, questioning dialogue of Beckett's characters captures the challenging of prevailing paradigms and the personal ramifications of the political and philosophical shifts in thinking of the era”.
The absurdity of Beckets AND NOTHINGNESS
42
Beckett is one of the famous writers known as the absurd theatre pioneer and his plays are full with the theme of existentialism. The current selected play is one of the most popular plays of his times and in the context of the absurdity. My research is focused on the most prominent play “waiting for godot”. This is the central play to understand the absurdity and the existentialism. This is historically known in the sense of the existentialism indeed. This movement was started in the middle of the 20th century and later on it got popularity in the all realms of the world as an existentialist movement to rescue the men from the grip of the troubles of the word wars and their influences. The dramatists like (Edward Albee, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, Vaclav Havel... are the key figures in the absurd theatre. The book of essays “The Myth of Sisyphus” is the main source in the inspiration and attitude building in the context of the absurd theatre. the work of Beckett is based upon the personal feelings and the emotions of the writer in the play of waiting for godot. The theme of absurdity is based upon the literary movement started in the year of 1950. This has strong link between the artists and philosophers, his all works are best examples of the existentialism and the absurdity. Endgame, Happy Days, Krupp’s Last Tape, and Waiting for Godot, the major plays written by Beckett. And current study is based upon the waiting for godot. Beckett introduces the four major aspects in his [lay for the awareness of the reader in a unique sense. These are the; Unforeseeable Sudden Fatal life feeling The same context is represented by the writers of his age and afterwards. He introduces the aspects in a nice colorful combination and the sense and the thought. He also describes ten absurdities in a symbolic
43 manner and diction too. The whole characters are imaginary nine natures. He discusses the emotions of life and the behaviors of people of his age. The audios are not only the viewers but also the keen observer in the nature and attitudes. His all characters are also stereotyped in nature and appearance. His approach is multidimensional and trend setter. He is the true writer of the modern absurd dramatic art. His all the characters are philosophical and logical in understanding for the readers and the audios. He argues the problems of men in the existence on the earth. His use of the language is also philosophical in nature. The research peeps into the traits of the personality of Beckett. The whole concept of absurdity is also described in the research under the umbrella of the term existentialism the human attitudes and the fate is also matter of discussion in the play. The all characters are also absurd in nature too. The time is the key motif in the play. And the other concept is the motif of the waiting that remains throughout the play. “The lives of Beckett's characters seem to be unbearable and the end, death, very slow in coming. Here I am interested in the characters' tragic lasting between life and death, which are not mutually exclusive; Beckett's characters live in a state which is a combination of these two and the only thing they long and hope for is the final arrival of "real death" which never approaches quickly”.
Waiting for Godot was at first introduced and performed in the reign of the modern times in Paris. At first there was great criticism on the writer and the text and characters of the play by different attitudes. The current study is an attempt to create the sense of absurdity and the understanding of the writer behave and the works as a whole. “I see Beckett's dramatic work as art which has its own status independent of all of the additional interpretation, as a kind of art which affects mostly the emotions perception rather than the reason”
44
CHAPTER 6 THE PLOT OF THE PLAY AND “EXISTENTIALISM” The whole plot of the play is based upon the term existentialism. The key character was the two tramps that were also in waiting and were much senile in the weight of the godot. They also fought for nothing and the all matter was absurd and their wish for suicide and the restless sleep and their eating OF THE CARRIOTS and licking the boon is a kind of the nothingness presented by the Beckett. The concept of the slavery is also highlighted in the play by the writer. We see the grotesque scene in the centre of the play as the climax. The story was much fascinated once a boy is coming with a news the
“Godot will not come today”
45
He says that the godot will come next day. The whole story of the play is surrounding about the title of the play. The role of two tramps is absurd in nature by Beckett. The godot did not come and they remain in waiting. The tree is also symbolic to the human sufferings and pains dry and fruitless.
The two tramps of Beckett are represented in a unique costume and dressing as the wearing of the antis hats and the much tight shoes that are small in number. It remains as the Chaplin and the American burlesque comedy team. Pozzo and Lucky are also the characters build by the writer as the master and the slave. The whole discussion of the drama is historic and traditional in appearance and language. It also talks about the clowns of the circus. The long speech of Lucky is useless and of nothing in purpose in the play the play is too much far from the concept of the pastiche. The play has a unique attitude and beauty. The Beckett’s characters are in hope for the godot and signified to the modern theory of existentialism. The key concept in the play is the histrionic sense, the attitudes and places performed in classical tradition of French plays. The play is focused over the three unities of the theater. It is also adhered to their dramaturgy. The unity of place appears in different style of the muddy plateau with one tree. This place is any place. The title of the godoth is not introduced in the drama as the main feature of the story... The unity of time presented by the writer is another sense of the appearance in the play. The whole play is consisted up [on the two days time that is not as the traditional concepts were presented in the play.
“Tame 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 action, in the same way, describes a circle. Each day is the return to the beginning. Nothing is completed because nothing can be completed.
46
The despair in the play, which is never defined as such but which pervades all the lack of action and gives the play its metaphysical color, is the fact that the two tramps cannot not wait for Godot, and the corollary fact that he cannot come”.
The rigorous placement of all the unities by the writer is based upon the characters and the substance of the play that are related to the human life. Vladimir argues his friend: Aloes? On y va? ("Well? Shall we go?") And Estragon answers: Allons-y ("Yes, let's go."). The response of the Vladimir is unmoved at the situation. The writer argues the whole absurdity of mankind in the play. The attitude of the master to three slaves is also of inhuman nature. Lucky is held on a leash by Pozzo. The suitcase is much heavy but he does not care for it once he was dropping on the ground. The again a humoristic state represented by the writer is that he was in position to deliver the speech once he was wearing the hat otherwise he was not able to utter any sentence.
The third unity is the unity of place, the corner of the forest is not a real site for the trams in the play that is striking in nature. No Exit. Beckett’s created unnamed plateau is also akin of absurdity. It resembles with vaudeville stage. The two tramps are at the vague position in making their dialogues in the stage without caring the time and the public.
Different ingenious theories are also in advanced introduced in the independent interpretations of all the diction and the characters created by Beckett’s in the play. There is also the Religious and the mythical interpretations present in the play. . Estragon (Gogol) and Vladimir (Did) are the philosophical and the conscious in the nature... Gogo is less is represented by the writer as confident and at one end. Vladimir the other character is more hopeful, and much emotional in attitude. The medieval attitude ann. the
47 debate is debate presented by different writers is the conflict between the between the body and the soul, and it is also a conflict among the intellectual and the no rational of modern man. All of the dialogues and the speeches are about the religion and its commands. Pozzo is presented as the notorious character in the play. He may be attributed as the Go dot. The maximum realization of the Go dot is as the God but it is also confusion in the plot of the play.
Beckett represents the attitude of the absurdity in the form of the term of the existentialism in the play. His characters are symbolic in nature. These are nit aim and the meaningless. The imagination of the writer is Christian soul and the religion in the main plot. The tree and the cross are the symbols of the intellectual view of the religion. The trams are introduced as the fallen men on the earth facing the troubles and misfortunes in the all life. The philanthropic attitude against the theme of marriage is also inculcated in the plot of the play. . The play consists upon the series of actions and all that deals with the aborted state and that makes the despairing and the maximum uniformity in the whole duration of play.
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CHAPTER 7 Beckett's Absurd Characters 'Waiting for Godot'
It has been argued by different critics that that Waiting for Godot is an existentialist play, and it is proved by the writer in all acts of the play it is the strong commentary over the sufferings of human beings. The play, Waiting For Go dot, is all about the emotions and the feelings of men after the great disaster of the world wars. Estragon and Vladimir are the key characters and they are waiting for Go dot, and the absurd thought is the fact that they sod not have any acutance with the go dot. Estragon is at the feeling that he may have affiliation and recognition with go dot. "Personally I wouldn't know him if I ever saw him." (p.23).
49 Estragon also remarks, "… we hardly know him." (p.23), This is the developed thought of the dramatic symbolism that is illustrated in the form of the identity of Mr. Go dot in an irrelevant way and, all the time the little information is ever given in the text of the play. The key aspect of the play is the waiting state of all the characters. The critics have found the conclusion of the thought of the go dot and the identity of the mysterious character created by Beckett. Beckett represents the state of the introduced character in the form of the rhetorical question. He has given the stress in the all dialogues of the play at the rethought of the go dot. “Estragon: … Let's go. Vladimir: We can't. Estragon: Why not? Vladimir: We're waiting for Go dot." (p.14).
The term of existentialism is consists upon the thought and the theme of the individual's freedom in worldly choice, ant it is also believed in the sense that the all humans are controlled by a pre-existing omnipotent and their whole fate is depended upon that thought and the religion.. Estragon and Vladimir are independent in their liking me the wait for the go dot. Vladimir says, "He didn't say for sure he'd come" (p.14), But decides to "wait till we know exactly how we stand" (p.18).
Albert Camus an existentialist playwright states that this is the wrong influence of the border and the waiting that is actually an extreme agent in changing our daily routine and even our habits. Estragon and Vladimir dint of the wait in the play. Camus argues ion the plague that;
50 “Boredom or inactivity causes the individual to think. This is also similar to the idea of meditation, an almost motionless activity, allowing the individual to think with clarity. Camus, and other existential writers, suggested that attempting to answer these rhetorical questions could drive someone to the point of insanity. The tramps continually attempt to prove that they exist, in order to keep their sanity: “We always find something, eh Did, to give us the impression that we exist?" (p.69).
Waiting is the main figure in the play reflecting the monotonous and trouble in the play. The writer is introducing the play as an absurd play And the repetition of the dialogues is the state of the border in the viewers and the readers in the diction of the play. Vladimir and Estragon interactions and the dialogues is the are rhetorical and useless and aimless. The different words in the play as ”who is Godot? Where are Gogo and Didi? Who beats Gogo?” All these questions are unanswered questions Vis a vies if is there a God? And the other question “Where do we come from? Who is responsible for our suffering?” The existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger argues ; The tramps in the drama are the true picture of the age in the form of the human feelings and the sufferings in the play as an absurd action. The dress nosed by the writer is symbolic in nature. It represents the miseries of mankind. Jean Paul Sartre made universe dement rational life and the it has the dull passion. Estragon and Vladimir in the play have efforts to wait for the Go dot and he never arrives. They have the tension and they say constantly as “All my life I've tried to put it from me… And I resumed the struggle." (p.9).
51 "Estragon: (anxious). And we? … Where do we come in?" (p.19).
Estragon' starting question remained unanswered by Vladimir. Actually these are the entire nonsense one that made him sad and troublous. The all were based upon the concept of despair and gloomy attitude. They were in same in thoughts and thinks for the suicide in the play; they wanted to hand themselves with the tree, this all as the state of trouble and the anxiety. Kierkegaard t ion the hanks the anxiety philosophical view of 'Dread' or 'Angst'; “Estragon: Well, shall we go? Vladimir: Yes, let's go.
They do not move" (p.54).
Beckett and in philosopher thinking. Is representing the men In the sensitive way degrade thermion sensitive onion nature. He considered the all pains and the bad luck is the protecting agents as the habit. Proust says
"Habit is a compromise affected between the individual and his environment, or between the individual and his own organic eccentricities, the guarantee of a dull inviolability, the lightening-conductor of his existence. Habit is the ballast that chains the dog to his vomit. Breathing is habit. Life is habit."
Estragon and Vladimir are the dull characters in the play that want to constantly 'pass the time' throughout the play the hopelessness is theme problem and he wants to study deeply in thee play deeply. Vladimir expresses this idea at the end of the play, 'Habit is a great deadener', suggesting that habit is like an
52 analgesic - numbing the individual. The play is mostly ritual, with Estragon and Vladimir filling the emptiness and silence. "It'll pass the time,” (p.12), explains Vladimir, offering to tell the story of the Crucifixion. Passing the time is their mutual “Vladimir: That passed the time. Estragon: It would have passed in any case. Vladimir: Yes, but not so rapidly." (p.48).
“Estragon also joins in the game - "That's the idea, let's make a little conversation." (p.48). The rituals by which Estragon and Vladimir combat silence and emptiness are elaborate, original and display Beckett's skill as a writer. In the play Beckett echoes patterns of question, answer and repetition which is his alternative to all the flaccid chat and triviality of the conventionally 'well-structured play'. Since his subject is habit and boredom, he has dispensed with plot; since his characters are without much history. Even the scenery is minimal - consisting of a tree and the road. Beckett deliberately employs the repetition of themes, speech and action to highlight the futility and habit of life. Gogol and Dido frequently repeat phrases, such as, "Nothing to be done". Their actions consist of ritually inspecting their hats. Nothingness is what the two tramps are essentially fighting against and reason why they talk. Beckett suggests that activity and inactivity oppose one another: thought arising from inactivity and activity terminating thought. In the second Act they admit that habit suppresses their thoughts and keeps their minimal sanity”: “Estragon: … we are incapable of keeping silent. Vladimir: You're right we're inexhaustible. Estragon: It's so we won't think." (p.62).
53 Estragon and Vare the Vladimir symbolized characters of the human condition and are in prolonged period of waiting. The society and their lives are in quest of four goals, the hope is the desire of the h attaining a higherigh attachment. . Beckett argues that the time is inexorable journey. Vladimir says it is the mocked situation in the play. , "One is what one is. … The essential doesn't change.", (p.21
Beckett argues the key illusion of the expresses 'cancer', and points out the progress of the 2o0th century as the killing object to the humanity and the progress. Estragon and Vladimir are same as begin to the end in the play. Nothing is to be done by them in the play. Beckett says in his most well known essay as the wrote in his 'poisonous' condition of the modern century that has brought the men to the disaster point. The progress is a killing factor in the form of the atomic explosions that created the sense of the absurdity in all the characters of the play. "Nothing is certain when you're about." (p.14). the issue of the memory of all characters is also inculcated in the play by the writer. “Vladimir: What was it you wanted to know? Estragon: I've forgotten. (Chews.) That's what annoys me." (p.20).
Time causes is the presented as the energy builder and the destroyer. The hanging effort is a mockery in the play at the sufferings and the weakness of men. The nightmares are symbols of the fear that is faced by men and is a painful aspect in the absurd society; the beauty is that Beckett is using ordinary language, characters and the plot in the play as compare to men in the world. Beckett's bitterness in the form of s time is illustrated as the Pozzo's bleak speech: "(Suddenly furious). Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! … one day I went blind … one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for
54 you? (Calmer.) They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then its night once more." (p.89).
The play is supplement of the time, it and the cycles of the time is reflected in the existentialist society. The pattern of the time is indicated in the two days period in the play. It is also linear in nature and developed by the writer in linear position. Estragon and Vladimir are inquest of the unobtainable desires and these are not fulfilled in the play start to end “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, and it’s awful!" (p.41).
Estragon and Vladimir remain fail to give the reason of their attempt of the suicide in the play. Estragon says, "Like to finish it?" (p.21). Estragon says ‘leaf motif’ theory, saying that a similar person with smaller feet will fill his boot”“ Another will come, just as … as … as me, but with smaller feet “(p.52 eternal waiting theory is developed in the play as the half play is completed and the second act starts: " Then all the dogs came running And dug the dog a tombHe stops, broods, resumes: Then all the dogs came running And dug the dog a tomb" (p.58).
The play is totally unnatural. The all ideas and the characters are abstract because it was the natural attitude in the Beckett’s times. . Estragon and Vladimir are s fragmented in the time aspect by the writer and these are representing the culture and the traditions of their times.
55 “I remember the maps with of the Holy Land. Colored they were." (p.12).
The tramps’ also have limited knowledge and they are embedded it the taste of the culture. Beckett argues that the uncertain situation IS AROUSE IN THE PLAY BY world arts impacts over the society. The characters of the play are not in sure that the future is expected. "… what do we do now that we're happy … go on waiting … waiting … let me think … it's coming … go on waiting" (p.65).
Proust states as “An individual wakes a literally new person with their past memories intact to help them govern their actions in the present. Beckett raises questions about the past or memory governing the individual's identity. The characters identities are uncertain, as the past and their memories are uncertain. Vladimir tries to come to terms with his existence and the human condition: "It's too much for one man. … On the other hand what's the point of losing heart now" (p.10).
Bishop Berkeley proposed the philosophical hypothesis that being perceived was being or existing. Vladimir desperately asks the boy, "You did see us, didn't you?" (p.52), and Estragon later questions, "Do you think God sees me?" (p.76), because they are uncertain about their own senses, reality and existence. Beckett poses the theory that reality is based on the human perception. Schopenhauer devised the vision, akin to Buddhism, that the desiring self does not exist in any 'real' sense, except through the painful consequences of willful self-assertion.
Estragon asks, "We've lost our rights?” while Vladimir replies, "We got rid of them." (p.19). Perhaps they are pondering the idea that they have no choice in their future and think their fate is preordained, although
56 this would contradict the existentialist notion of free will. The tramps cannot perceive the future and therefore would be unable to know if their future is preordained. Equally, the tramps could have 'no rights' because they are devoted to the task of waiting. Heidegger said that instead of trying to comprehend one's existence each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction.
Beckett portrays the condition of the man in the painful stratus and says the it is the sin of men that born on the earth. Estragon and Vladimir refer to the basic tendencies of life. Vladimir ponders about repenting being born. Estragon's references to Christ represent his sympathy towards suffering as well as symbolizing human suffering: “Vladimir: What's Christ got to do with it? … Estragon: All my life I've compared myself to him. … And they crucified quick!" (p.52).
Laurel and Hardy argues in the context that; “Vladimir: Pull on your trousers. Estragon: What? Vladimir: Pull on your trousers. Estragon: You want me to pull off my trousers? Vladimir: Pull ON your trousers. Estragon: (realizing his trousers are down) True. (He pulls up his trousers.)"
Laurel and Hardy travelled together and felt the feelings of the exasperation that do not seem to age and none the wiser. Laurel is one of the easy and the most anxious while Hardy tended to solicit a philosophic
57 calm. For example, in Way Out West (1937) (A readers Guide to Samuel Beckett - Hugh Kenner): “Hardy: Get on the mule. Laurel: What? Hardy: Get on the mule."
Blasé Pascal considered the human life as paradoxes: “The human self is itself a paradox and contradiction. Estragon and Vladimir are full of contradictions, as their emotions often change erratically from violence to sympathy, from the philosophical to the banal. Pizza’s cruelty towards Lucky emphasizes the contradictions in human nature. They share a master-slave relationship in which Pozzo can be the worst of all tyrants, shouting authoritarian instructions at Lucky, such as, "Up pig!" (p.23), and yet can be equally filled with self-pity”? " I can't bear it … any longer … the way he goes on … you've no idea … it's terrible" (p.34).
Beckett creating the sense of balance and the illustration is given in the form of the characters and the emotions of the dialogues in rhea real dramatic developed in the existentialist thoughts, Estragon is introduced as the body while the other character Vladimir as the mind in the all dialogues of the play. Represents a man of the body and Vladimir represents a man of the mind. Pascal is also representing the same tendency in confliction of the mind and the body as the different classes and the people in the society. “Vladimir: (gloomily). It's too much for one man. (Pause. Cheerfully.) On the other hand what's the good
58 of losing heart now, that's what I say? We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties." (p.10).
Estragon: Ah stop blathering and help me off with this bloody thing." (p.10).
To summarize the play Waiting For Go dot is the whole a bleak view of the society and it is as the simplistic presumption, Estragon and Vladimir have epitomize the whole society by their deeds. The mankind is related to the religion and the dam while Estragon and Vladimir remain in suffering in the play and have the pleasant but cruel appearance to show the attitude of the society in their dealings. Estragon and Vladimir are meeting and calling each other in the name of the Dido. "Forgive me … Come, Dido. … Give me your hand. … Embrace me!" (p.17). Even the beauty and happiness is portrayed, as Gogo finds Lucky amusing, "He's a scream. … (Laughs noisily.)" (p.35). Bibliography:
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Quotes Waiting for Go dot is a play by Samuel Beckett. The play depicts the meaninglessness of life--with its repetitive plot, where nothing much happens. Here are a few quotes from Waiting for Go dot.
"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."
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"Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the gravedigger puts on the forceps."
"I don't seem to be able... (long hesitation) to depart."
"Such is life."
"Our Savior. 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!"
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"But that is not the question. Why are we here that are 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 Go dot to come."
"To-morrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of to-day?"
"Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener."
"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!"
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5. CONCLUSION
Beckett is one of the famous writers known as the absurd theatre pioneer and his plays are full with the theme of existentialism. The current selected play is one of the most popular plays of his times and in the context of the absurdity. My research is focused on the most prominent play “waiting for go dot”. This is the central play to understand the absurdity and the existentialism. This is historically known in the sense of the existentialism indeed. This movement was started in the middle of the 20th century and later on it got popularity in the all realms of the world as an existentialist movement to rescue the men from the grip of the troubles of the word wars and their influences. The dramatists like (Edward Albee, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, Vaclav Havel... are the key figures in the absurd theatre. The book of essays “The Myth of Sisyphus” is the main source in the inspiration and attitude building in the context of the absurd theatre. The work of Beckett is based upon the personal feelings and the emotions of the writer in the play of waiting for go dot. The theme of absurdity is based upon the literary movement started in the year of 1950. This has strong link between the artists and philosophers, his all works are best examples of the existentialism and the absurdity.
63 Endgame, Happy Days, Krupp’s Last Tape, and Waiting for Godot, the major plays written by Beckett. And current study is based upon the waiting for godot. Beckett introduces the four major aspects in his [lay for the awareness of the reader in a unique sense
. These are the; Unforeseeable Sudden Fatal Life feeling The same context is represented by the writers of his age and afterwards. He introduces the aspects in a nice colorful combination and the sense and the thought. He also describes ten absurdities in a symbolic manner and diction too. The whole characters are imaginary nine natures. He discusses the emotions of life and the behaviors of people of his age. The audios are not only the viewers but also the keen observer in the nature and attitudes. His all characters are also stereotyped in nature and appearance. His approach is multidimensional and trend setter. He is the true writer of the modern absurd dramatic art. His all the characters are philosophical and logical in understanding for the readers and the audios. He argues the problems of men in the existence on the earth. His use of the language is also philosophical in nature. The research peeps into the traits of the personality of Beckett. The whole concept of absurdity is also described in the research under the umbrella of the term existentialism the human attitudes and the fate is also matter of discussion in the play. The all characters are also absurd in nature too.
64 The time is the key motif in the play. And the other concept is the motif of the waiting that remains throughout the play. “The lives of Beckett's characters seem to be unbearable and the end, death, very slow in coming. Here I am interested in the characters' tragic lasting between life and death, which are not mutually exclusive; Beckett's characters live in a state which is a combination of these two and the only thing they long and hope for is the final arrival of "real death" which never approaches quickly”.
Waiting for Go dot was at first introduced and performed in the reign of the modern times in Paris. At first there was great criticism on the writer and the text and characters of the play by different attitudes. The current study is an attempt to create the sense of absurdity and the understanding of the writer behave and the works as a whole. “I see Beckett's dramatic work as art which has its own status independent of all of the additional interpretation, as a kind of art which affects mostly the emotions perception rather than the reason”
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BIBLIOGRAPHY / REFERENCES Beckett, Samuel. Endgame. New York: Grove Press, Inc, 1978. Beckett, Samuel. Happy Days. London: Grove Press Inc, 1970. Secondary Sources Adorno, Theodor W. ‘Trying to Understand Endgame’. Beckett and Philosophy. Richard Lane, ed. New York: Palgrave, 2002. 39-49. Andonian, Culotta ed. The Critical Response to Samuel Beckett. London: Greenwood Press, 1998. Birkett, Jennifer and Kate Ince. Samuel Beckett. London and New York: Longman, 2000. Blackham, H. J. Six Existentialist Thinkers. London: Routledge & Keagen Paul Ltd, 1952. Bohlmann, Otto. Conrad’s Existentialism. Basignstoke: Macmillan, 1991. Buning, Marius. Beckett versus Beckett. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. Butler, Lance St. John. Samuel Beckett and the Meaning of Being. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984.
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Butler, Lance St. John. Ed. Critical Essays on Samuel Beckett. Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1993. Chambers, Colin. Playwrights’ Progress: Patterns of Postwar British Drama. Oxford: Amber Lane Press, 1987. Clurman, Harold. ‘Late Theatrical Works: Theatre (Review of Happy Days)’ Cathleen Culotta Andonian, ed. London: Greenwood Press, 1998, 233235. Cohn, Ruby. Back to Beckett. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1973. Critchley, Simon. Ed. A Companion to Continental Philosophy,Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 109 Dobree, Bonamy. ‘The London Theater, 1957: The Melting Pot’. Sewanee Review, 66, no.1 (Winter): 146-60. Dreyfus, Hubert L. Heidegger Reexamined. New York: Routledge, 2002. The Dublin Magazine. ‘Reflections on Samuel Beckett’s New Work for the French Theatre’. April-June: 18-22, 1957. Ellis, Robert R. The Tragic Pursuit of Being: Unamuno and Sartre. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1988. Fletcher, John and John Spurling. Son of Oedipus: Beckett: A Study of His Plays. London: MacMillan, 1972. Fowlie, Wallace. Dionysus in Paris. New York: Meridian Books, 1960.
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Gaensbauer, Deborah B. ‘The French Theater of the Absurd’ The French Rewiev, Vol. 66, No.5 (Apr., 1993), 821-822. Gilman, Richard. ‘The Stage: Beckett’s Happy Days’. The Critical Response to Samuel Beckett. Cathleen Culotta Andonian, ed. London: Greenwood Press, 1998, 235-237. Golomb, Jacob. In Search of Authenticity: from Kierkegaard to Camus. London & New York: Routledge, 1995. Heidegger, Martin. Basic Writings: from ‘Being and Time’ (1927) to ‘The Task of Thinking’ (1964)/Martin Heidegger, ed. David Farrell Krell. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. Heidegger, Martin. Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning). Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly, eds. Indiana polis: Indiana University Press, 1999. Hinchliffe, Arnold P. The Absurd. London: Methuen, 1985. Iser, Wolfgang. ‘Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic Language’, Critical Essays on Samuel Beckett. Lance Butler, ed. Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1993. Iser, Wolfgang. ‘The Art of Failure: The Stifled Laugh in Beckett’s Theater’ in Jennifer Birkett and Kate Ince, eds. Samuel Beckett. London and New York: Longman, 2000.
