Reading Godot
Lois Gordon
Abstract
Waiting for Godot has been acclaimed as the greatest play of the twentieth century. It is also the most elusive: two lifelong friends sing, dance, laugh, weep, and question their fate on a road that descends from and goes nowhere. Throughout, they repeat their intention “Let's go,” but this is inevitably followed by the direction “(They do not move.).” This is Beckett's poetic construct of the human condition. This book is an introduction to Samuel Beckett's great work for general readers, students, and specialists. It approaches the play scene by scene, exploring the text linguistically, phil ... More
Waiting for Godot has been acclaimed as the greatest play of the twentieth century. It is also the most elusive: two lifelong friends sing, dance, laugh, weep, and question their fate on a road that descends from and goes nowhere. Throughout, they repeat their intention “Let's go,” but this is inevitably followed by the direction “(They do not move.).” This is Beckett's poetic construct of the human condition. This book is an introduction to Samuel Beckett's great work for general readers, students, and specialists. It approaches the play scene by scene, exploring the text linguistically, philosophically, critically, and biographically. The book argues that the play portrays more than the rational mind's search for self and worldly definition. It also dramatizes Beckett's insights into human nature, into the emotional life that frequently invades rationality and liberates, victimizes, or paralyzes the individual. The book shows that Beckett portrays humanity in conflict with mysterious forces both within and outside the self, that he is an artist of the psychic distress born of relativism.
Keywords:
Waiting for Godot,
Samuel Beckett,
human condition,
rational mind,
worldly definition,
relativism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2002 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300092868 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300092868.001.0001 |
