Revolts lead to changes irrespective of good or bad. It is universal and fights against the basic conventions and traditions. Such rebellions manifest explicitly through arts, culture and literature. Samuel Beckett’s play WaitingforGodot (WFG) offers multiple narratives, divergent perspectives and intriguing aspects to the readers. During the course of man’s existence, s/he undergoes pangs of anguish, loss of life, silence and non-communication, etc., which is reflected in the literature of the absurd. Absurdity and non-communication surfaced in the aftermaths of the horrors of the Second World War due to man’s loss of faith in established institutions. Existentialism postulates that the human situation is essentially aimless, absurd and futile. Does the world necessarily appear to be so? How are these issues—purposelessness in life, simulacra, plotless play, context-less et al. tackled in WFG? What impact do these existentialist philosophies have in man’s everyday life especially in the contemporary scenario or are they decontextualized? Is the play totally nihilistic? Are there deeper layers of meanings beneath the senseless, farcical prattle? What role does silence and non-communication play in today’s postmodern world? These are the questions that this research paper seeks to find out. As a qualitative study, this article uses a normative approach—literary analysis, in seeking to find a solution.
References
[1]
Beckett, S. (1955). Molloy: A Novel. Grove Press.
[2]
Beckett, S. (1970). Watt: A Novel. Grove Press.
[3]
Beckett, S. (2006). Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. Faber & Faber.
[4]
Bennett, M. Y. (2011). Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd: Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, and Pinter. MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118829
[5]
Brustein, R. (1991). The Theatre of Revolt: Studies in Modern Drama from Ibsen to Genet. Ivan R. Dee.
[6]
Camus, A. (1979). The Myth of Sisyphus (J. O’Brien Trans.). Penguin Classics.
[7]
Camus, A. (1988). The Stranger. Vintage International.
[8]
EduBirdie (2022a). Theme of Existence in Waiting for Godot and The Goat. https://edubirdie.com/examples/theme-of-existence-in-waiting-for-godot-and-the-goat/
[9]
EduBirdie (2022b). Waiting for Godot and Absurdist Theatre. https://edubirdie.com/examples/waiting-for-godot-and-absurdist-theatre/
[10]
EduBirdie (2024). Waiting for Godot: The Theme of the Sense of Needing to Continue. https://edubirdie.com/examples/waiting-for-godot-the-theme-of-the-sense-of-needing-to-continue/
[11]
Esslin, M. (1961). The Theatre of the Absurd. Doubleday & Company, Inc.
[12]
Foley, J. (2014). Albert Camus: From the Absurd to the Revolt. Routledge.
[13]
Ionesco, E. (1957). Dans Les Armes de la Ville. Cahiers de la Campagnie Madeline Renaud-Jean-Lous Barrault.
[14]
Kafka, F. (2024). The Trail. Penguin Classic.
[15]
Keats, J. (2011). Ode on a Grecian Urn. Gleeditions. https://www.gleeditions.com/odeonagrecianurn/students/pages.asp?lid=306&pg=5
[16]
Sartre, J. P. (1956). Being and Nothingness (H. E. Barnes Trans.). Philosophical Library.
[17]
Shaw, G. B. (2002). Pygmalion. York Press.
[18]
Yeats, W. B. (1917). A Deep-Sworn Vow. The Lotus Magazine, 9, 119. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20543970