Assignment Paper-107

• Name: Drashti Joshi

• Batch: M.A. Sem.2 (2022-2024) 

• Enrollment N/o.: 4069206420220016

• Roll N/o.: 05

• Subject code & Paper N/o.: 22400  Paper: 107

• Paper Name:- The twentieth century literature:from world war-2 to the End of the century.

• E-mail Address: drashtijoshi582@gmail.com

• Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English M.K.B.U. 

• Date of submission: 31 March 2023

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.:107  The twentieth century literature:from world war-2 to the End of the century In this assignment I am dealing with the topic from the play “Waiting for Godot ''. In this blog I am going to write about The Concept of Hope in Waiting for Godot.

About Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland on April 13, 1906. His father, William, was a prosperous businessman, and his mother, Mary, was the daughter of a gentleman. Beckett was said to have inherited the temperament of his mother, whom Deirdre Bair describes as “intensely moody”. Beckett had just one sibling, a brother named Frank, who was four years his elder. However, his three cousins moved in with his family while he was still young, and Beckett considered them to be his siblings as well. From a young age, Beckett exhibited reckless behaviour. His favourite childhood game involved throwing himself off the top of a pine tree and waiting until the last possible moment of his free-fall to grab onto a branch. 

The years following the war, which Beckett dubbed “the siege in the room,” were his most productive. Within a few short years, he produced a trilogy of novels: Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951) and The Unnamable (1953). Despite such productivity, Beckett still lacked financial stability and had to do translations of others’ works in order to earn money. He soon dove into play writing, claiming to do so “as a relaxation, to get away from the awful prose I was writing at the time”. It took just four months for him to complete Waiting for Godot (1953), the piece which established Beckett as a significant literary figure of the Twentieth Century. Throughout the play, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, find various methods of passing the time while waiting for Godot–a character who never actually appears. 

This has led to much speculation about the identity of Godot; many assume Godot to be an allusion to God. Beckett, however, has said, “If Godot were God, I would have called him that”. Like many of Beckett’s pieces, the play stresses the futility and meaninglessness of our lives and actions.

Beckett died on December 22nd, 1989 at the age of 83, after respiratory complications. His wife, Suzanne had already passed earlier in the year. He was buried in Paris at the Cimetière du Montparnasse. Beckett’s death marks the end of modernist literature, as he is often considered to be the last great modernist of the English language. In regards to his writing, he has said, 

“I couldn’t have done it otherwise. Gone on, I mean. I could not have gone through the awful wretched mess of life without having left a stain upon the silence”.

About Play “Waiting for Godot” 

Waiting for Godot is a play that prompts many questions, and answers none of them. As the title suggests, it is a play about waiting: two men waiting for a third, who never appears. ‘And if he comes?’ one of Beckett’s tramps asks the other near the end of the play. "We'll be saved",  the other replies, although the nature of that salvation, along with so much else, remains undefined: for both characters and audience, Waiting for Godot enforces a wait for its own meaning.

Waiting for Godot is the most well-known play from the Theatre of the Absurd movement. It was written by Samuel Beckett and performed for the first time in Paris on January 5th, 1953. At its premier, the play shocked its audience as it presented a new type of theatre which used very unconventional methods. In fact, it is said to have nearly caused riots across Western Europe. Godot’s debut in the United States took place at San Quentin penitentiary in 1957. 

Unlike European audiences, the prisoners were able to identify with the play, primarily because they understood the concept of waiting. Eventually, Waiting for Godot received the recognition it deserved and took its place as a classic of modern theatre. This anecdote is an excellent preface to reading or seeing Waiting for Godot because it prepares the audience to abandon any preconceptions they may have about theatre in order to better understand the piece.

The Concept of Hope in Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett’s two-act tragicomedy Waiting for Godot depicts the endless wait of two homeless men, for a man named Godot. Their endless cycle of waiting and thus suffering continues and repeats itself until it is stopped by someone who instead of waiting for false hope, chooses to find this hope on their own terms. A key piece of the play that reflects this idea is the song that Vladimir sings in the beginning of the second act. A song about a dog that stole a piece of bread and was thus beaten to death, only to have its death act as a warning to other dogs about the consequences of stealing.However, Beckett’s presentation of Vladimir and Estragon’s characters prevent them two from leaving their stations. 

The two cannot leave as if the fact that they had gone only emphasises the meaninglessness to their lives. This can be seen in the lines “im going” said by estragon, despite this he does not move and thus it can be seen that the initial action is delayed by the hope that remains in the idea of Godot’s arrival. Yet this hope is what causes the two’s suffering to begin with. In the Play In the play, it can be seen that this suffering integrates itself into and becomes a part of Vladimir 's and Estragon 's daily life. This is visible as Estragon suffers from constant aching feet and his inability to sleep at night without constantly being abused by outsiders. Vladimir is also seen to suffer as he is unable to urinate and is constantly left alone to his thoughts to think about the plight of man. 

In the second act of the play, Vladimir and Estragon are seen in the same place where the first act had ended, even though they act as though they had left. In this act, we see that Estragon can’t remember having been in that place before when dismissing Vladimir’s suggestion of having been in that place before (Beckett). Estragon thinks that it’s one of Vladimir’s nightmares and this portrays many other situations that Beckett tries to show that the situation in the play is an unfortunate reality. It is evident that Vladimir is the most optimistic of the two while Estragon sees problems without solutions.

‘Nothing to be done’ is a blatant admission of the existential impasse, the struggle with the boots being equated to the inconsequential assertiveness of human life. Vladimir’s observation“ haven’t yet tried everything” and Estragon’s “me too '' convey implications of another unexplored layer of meaning and consequently related activity. The short penetrating questions and monosyllabic utterances which are duly contradicted later are an important part of Beckett’s language exercise. The last sentence of Vladimir’s dialogue “So there you are again” opens multiple interpretations to be explored during the course of the play. The very opening had suggested that drama is taking birth through language. The language of the first statement sets the tone of absolute negation literally and metaphorically. It is language which imparts this information to the readers without resorting to any action. Drama Emerges through its language which forms blocks. The first block consists of seven pronouncement out of which three are articulated by Estragon and the rest by Vladimir .In this block Estragon has only twelve words while Vladimir with sixty eight words, Estragon’s statements are: 

Nothing to be done

Am I 

Me too 

Not now, not now

Through such an interchange of ineffective non-correspondence Beckett tries to generate rhythm in the very beginning. Readers are startled and confused by such an opening as it does not adhere to the accepted perception of a regular launch of a play or drama. However the created impression conforms to Beckett’s own technique of playwriting. The play starts as a true depiction of man to man experience of crude reality producing palpable drama by projecting a baffled sense of helplessness.

Both Vladimir and Estragon wonder whether they are really tied to the idea of Godot who may bring salvation, happiness, and an end to the endless waiting which leads to a change in their present circumstances. This shows how a mere repetition of a single word “tied” creates ripples of action on stage and startles the reader. The echo shows movement of thought and its variation. Thus without creating added physical action on stage language manages to communicate the trouble and distraught state of mind of the characters. 

The soul of the play lies in this speech because the waiting is the destiny and purpose of Vladimir and Estragon lives. This wait is termed as Godot. The reader finds their actions and activities incomprehensible as they are involved in irrational arguments and clumsy acts but these activities and verbal exchanges give some meaning to their existence. They are more capable of waiting for Godot for a lifetime than ending their lives. The speech begins with reference to existence “Giving the existence... of a personal God''. This address is in contrast to the nonsensical absurd half statements and observations made by the tramps. The modulation of tone plays an important role in the transportation of thought and content in the diatribe of Lucky. The speech has multiple layers of meaning at the thematic level. The pitch and speed with which the words are uttered also correspond to meaning. As the entire monologue is in a single sentence therefore units are formed on the basis of tone modulation. Tone modulation takes its course with reference to Lucky’s emphasis. The tonality of every unit communicates the purpose with a representative value. The purpose of tone study is to exchange the lingual and gestural expression as the timbre of speech is replete with drama. Logic and sense are exploited creatively to extract meaning from this incoherent utterance. The pitch on which the speech starts is slow but emphatic. The readers and audience need to remember that the speech is a thinking process as he is directed by Pozzo to think.

POZZO: Stop! [LUCKY stops.] Back! [LUCKY moves back.] Stop! [LUCKY stops.] Turn! [LUCKY turns towards the auditorium.] Think! 

They see the emptiness of their existence and feel stripped of all hope. Their only consolation is in trying to converse calmly and to go on waiting. But hope is never far away.

Vladmir: Let me think…it’s coming…go on waiting…now that we’re happy…let e see…ah! The tree!

Estragon: The tree?

Vladmir: Do you not remember?

Estragon: I’m tired.

Vladimir: Look at it. (They look at the tree)

Estragon: I see nothing.

Vladmir: But yesterday evening it was all black and bare. And now it’s covered with leaves.

Estragon: Leaves?

Vladmir: In a single night.

Estragon: It must be the Spring.

They spoke of hope and yet were unaware. They looked upon hope and couldn’t see.

It reminded me of the ‘great thaw’ in C. S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. Winter had surrendered its hold and a fervent Spring burst forth. It was a sign of hope, rebirth, new growth, and abundant evidence of life.

We need a hope that will keep us strong and sustain us when life appears incomprehensible and meaningless.

As James Aughey reminds us,

Hope is the last lingering light of the human heart. It shines when every other is put out. Extinguish it, and the gloom of affliction becomes the  blackness of darkness – cheerless and impenetrable.

This uncertainty about time, and about what is new experience versus repetition, feeds into the air of futility that hangs about the play. The first thing we see is a man trying, and failing, to take off his boot, and the last is the two tramps agreeing ‘Let’s go’, but then remaining still. Looking at the tree Estragon says, ‘Pity we haven’t got a bit of rope’, but Vladimir suggests they wouldn’t even be able to kill themselves successfully. Yet there are some patches of light in the play beyond the gallows humour, and the bitterly funny absurdity of the tramps’ situation. That same tree Estragon wants to hang himself from, bare in Act 1, has a few leaves in Act 2. The precise meaning of that is uncertain; perhaps it is a different tree altogether, but it is a small sign of life in an otherwise barren landscape. And on a human level, in the midst of the bickering and despair that Vladimir and Estragon trade in, there is occasional tenderness, as when Estragon is hurt and Vladimir tells him, ‘I’ll carry you. If necessary’. It would be too much to say that these moments of respite enable an optimistic reading of the play, but they prevent it from being completely without hope. As is so often the case throughout Beckett’s work, any conclusion beyond that must be interpretation and speculation.

Conclusion:

So it’s clear that Beckett’s characters, despite their worries and problems, want to enjoy material happiness. They are not ready to lose their hope in life and want to live life fully. They know that their life is full of misery, but they find some kind of happiness in this miserable world. They are courageous enough to face the realities of the world and seem to hope that their life is worth living. In Beckett’s eye all men are like two tramps. They are the champions of the view that life must have a meaning even in a meaningless situation. They are incapable of losing hope. They hope that life itself is a value of Judgement and that living means choice. So they exist and find ways to survive. Waiting for Godot deals with such a kind of life. The play is about mankind’s attempts to fiddle its way through life. 

Essentially, Vladimir and Estragon cannot control neither themselves nor the outside forces that act upon them. This fact is tragic because one wonders why he/she should continue living in a world which renders him/her as completely and utterly powerless. This question is at the heart of absurdist theory and inspires the absurd notion that man’s existence is without purpose. When one cannot control anything, it seems as if nothing one says or does can have any effect on the world. Essentially, the world becomes an isolated entity and our presence in it meaningless. (See the Theatre of the Absurd page for a more in-depth discussion of these theories.) Vladimir and Estragon’s attempts to continue living despite this truth are the doorways for humour within Waiting for Godot. They give movement to the heavy, hard-hitting themes of the play. Thus, Vladimir and Estragon’s powerless existence is simultaneously tragic and comedic.

Thank you so much for reading this blog and Assignment…

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