Hello Readers!
With reference of an online film screening conduced online on 24th Nov 2020, this blog contains the worksheet and follow up of the play "
Waiting for Godot" discussed in the class. Samuel Beckett was a modern playwright and was associated with the "Theatre of the Absurd". This play is originally written in French with the title
En Attendant Godot.
* What connection do you see in the setting (“A country road. A tree. Evening.”) of the play and these paintings?
Ans: These are the paintings by Casper David Friedrich, titled as "Longing." Samuel Beckett has taken the inspiration for the setting of the play "Waiting for Godot". Two persons in the paintings connects us with two main character of the play Vladimir and Estragon. The barrenness of the tree also suggests absurdity of life, emptiness and nothingness. As the two persons in the painting are waiting for something, Vladimir and Estragon are also waiting for Godot.
* The tree is the only important ‘thing’ in the setting. What is the importance of tree in both acts? Why does Beckett grow a few leaves in Act II on the barren tree - The tree has four or five leaves - ?
Ans: Optimistically looking at the leaves, one can say that leaves are symbol of growth, newness and hope. As such there is no hope, no newness and no tone of growth in the play, still tree as part of nature works in its own way. As natural elements like water, greenery, air, fire. . . have nothing to do with human pain, agony, anxiety, frustration and restlessness. Nature is uncaring and indifferent to human being.
* In both Acts, evening falls into night and moon rises. How would you like to interpret this ‘coming of night and moon’ when actually they are waiting for Godot?
Ans: The fall of night and rise of the moon in the play can be read as if the moon is observing the miserable humans from the heavens. In the play an interesting dialogue comes,
Vladimir: Will night never come ?
Estragon: (Contemplates Moon) "Pale Wariness... of climbing heaven and gazing on the like of us."
The absurdity and paleness is felt from this dialogue.
* The director feels the setting with some debris. Can you read any meaning in the contours of debris in the setting of the play?
Ans : Debris is a useless biproduct of building materials. While demolishing the buildings and houses, lot of debris is found. The director has used the debris very cleverly as the setting of the play is countryside road. In order to increase coarseness and barrenness in the play, debris is used.
* The play begins with the dialogue “Nothing to be done”. How does the theme of ‘nothingness’ recurs in the play?
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* Do you agree: “The play (Waiting for Godot), we agreed, was a positive play, not negative, not pessimistic. As I saw it, with my blood and skin and eyes, the philosophy is: 'No matter what— atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, anything—life goes on. You can kill yourself, but you can't kill life." (E.G. Marshal who played Vladimir in original Broadway production 1950s)?
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* How are the props like hat and boots used in the play? What is the symbolical significance of these props?
Ans : Hat signifies mind. Boots signify body. Estragon wears boots and he is not able to remove the boots at first, just like desires and body urges. Just like boots get vanished and get rusty, Estragon also forgets many things as if his memory is also like his boots. Vladimir wears hat and he thinks a lot. He remembers many things.
* Do you think that the obedience of Lucky is extremely irritating and nauseatic? Even when the master Pozzo is blind, he obediently hands the whip in his hand. Do you think that such a capacity of slavishness is unbelievable?
* Who according to you is Godot? God? An object of desire? Death? Goal? Success? Or . . .
Ans : Godot is an object of desire. Desire is an endless vicious chain that ultimately leads us nowhere. If we observe a toddler playing with toys, we come to know that as soon as it looks at the better toy than it carries, it will leave that toy and will crave, run and cry for the better toy. This desire perhaps comes from the binary comparison that is hardwired in our mind. For grown ups, this desire is perhaps money, material wealth, luxuries, physical fulfilment, emotional acceptance, public recognition and fame, and what not. . . Goals and success are also sprouted from desire. Passion is also nothing but desire. Desire can be compared as fire also, which never gets extinguished.
* “The subject of the play is not Godot but ‘Waiting’” (Esslin, A Search for the Self). Do you agree? How can you justify your answer?
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* Do you think that plays like this can better be ‘read’ than ‘viewed’ as it requires a lot of thinking on the part of readers, while viewing, the torrent of dialogues does not give ample time and space to ‘think’? Or is it that the audio-visuals help in better understanding of the play?
Ans : For many, reading a play is more preferable than to watch it. But, plays are actually performed in the mind of the playwright. Then it gets penned on the paper. So basically its a matter of performance. Theatrical performance makes the written play more lively and meaningful. So far as Waiting for Godot is concerned, it should be read first and then to be watched also. Because, even after reading the simple and straight forward language of this play, one requires visual clarification for what one has read. Then, the torrent of dialogues and rapidness of speech becomes more clear while watching.
Yes, the audio-visual helps in better understanding of the play.
* Which of the following sequence you liked the most:
- Vladimir – Estragon killing time in questions and conversations while waiting
- Pozzo – Lucky episode in both acts
- Conversation of Vladimir with the boy
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* Did you feel the effect of existential crisis or meaninglessness of human existence in the irrational and indifference Universe during screening of the movie? Where and when exactly that feeling was felt, if ever it was?
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* Vladimir and Estragon talks about ‘hanging’ themselves and commit suicide, but they do not do so. How do you read this idea of suicide in Existentialism?
Ans: Suicide is a very bold statement against all the whys of living life. Albert Camus mentions about philosophical suicide in which if one denies to think or question anything one is doing a philosophical suicide. In this play, Vladimir and Estragon can be read as profound existentialists. They are ready to try everything to meet Godot. But at the same time they feel insecure whether they might fail to kill themselves.
* Can we do any political reading of the play if we see European nations represented by the 'names' of the characters (Vladimir - Russia; Estragon - France; Pozzo - Italy and Lucky - England)? What interpretation can be inferred from the play written just after World War II? Which country stands for 'Godot'?
Ans: Germany stands for Godot. As the character of Godot is absent and silent but to consider Godot as God then, Germany best fits in terms of World War II. Adolf Hitler was a German dictator and he occupied many countries including many European countries like Russia France, Italy, England.
(Click Here to view the map. Click Here to know more about World War II). In this way one can politically connect all the characters and countries which are waiting for Germany to liberate them.
* So far as Pozzo and Lucky [master and slave] are concerned, we have to remember that Beckett was a disciple of Joyce and that Joyce hated England. Beckett meant Pozzo to be England, and Lucky to be Ireland." (Bert Lahr who played Estragon in Broadway production). Does this reading make any sense? Why? How? What?
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* The more the things change, the more it remains similar. There seems to have no change in Act I and Act II of the play. Even the conversation between Vladimir and the Boy sounds almost similar. But there is one major change. In Act I, in reply to Boy's question, Vladimir says:
"BOY: What am I to tell Mr. Godot, Sir?
VLADIMIR: Tell him . . . (he hesitates) . . . tell him you saw us. (Pause.) You did see us, didn't you?
How does this conversation go in Act II? Is there any change in seeming similar situation and conversation? If so, what is it? What does it signify?
Ans: The lines are changing with the word from 'us' to 'me'. In the Act II, Vladimir changes the tone of the thought and speaks: 'tell him you saw me'. In the Act II, This conversation happens between Vladimir and Boy, where Estragon is sleeping. If Estragon represents the body and Vladimir mind, then perhaps one can state that, mind is the ultimate master of the body and mind knows that the body is material thing and going to decay with time, but perhaps it is the consciousness that goes somewhere. This way one can see the selfishness in Vladimir's character. Even after being together throughout the play, Vladimir changes his mind and willingly forgets Estragon. A Gujarati quote that comes to mind,
"અંતે તો સગા સૌ સ્વાર્થનાં"
Vladimir's selfishness also seems forgivable because on a larger way if one thinks, all the humans are tied with one another with some kind of need and requirements. If its all about give and take, then such selfishness is also legible, and forgivable as per the human temperaments. Even after the death of any near and dear ones, people forget them and move on with life. So, this is also a considering aspect of human predicament.
Sometimes life gives many crucial choices to make. And humans mostly go for the personal benefits. For better prospects of life, children go for foreign countries and they forger their parents. Even after death of their parents they don't come to native place.
These are the slightly awkward sides of human life and various situations but if one thinks about a larger and most adverse situations, one comes to know that nothingness prevails everywhere. Still its life, that goes on. . .
Thank You!
additional reading:
