Has anyone ever read "Waiting for Godot"?

[ALago1]

I just finished this play, and was pretty impressed, yet confused as to how to analyze its basic themes. I know it was a quintessential existentialist work written shortly after WWII and it dealt with themes of meaninglessness and absurdity, but can't really piece it all together into a cohesive fashion. I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on this Beckett work. Thanks!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. It is a tough one to unpack. Books have been written on minor

points brought out in this play.
Overall, you have the themes right. There is lots of disagreement over details.
To which section do you refer?

[ALago1]

2. Well, for example...

What significance, if any do Pozzo and Lucky serve? Are they merely a distraction from the two main character's meaningless lives, or do they signify something deeper?

[Wonk]

3. Writing a paper on it for school, are you?

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/WaitingForGodot.html

[ALago1]

4. Haha, no actually

I was assigned this book for a class I'm taking this spring. Being the nerd that i am, I read it before classes even started for the semester because the synopsis seemed interesting.

Thanks for the link anyway :)

[nostamj]

5. life is full of random, unexpected interactions (L&P)

while V & E never do make their 'expected' interaction with Godot.

too late for me to try any extended analysis of WFG...

[Fleshdancer]

6. It's been a long time, but I loved it

one could either waste their entire life on the assumption that God will come to you and give you the life you want, or you can live the life you want by actually living it, and not wating. Faith without action is dangerous because what if there is no Godot?

That's how I remember interpreting it. I need to re-read it though, it's been several years.

[soothsayer]

7. yup, that's my interpretation too

Waiting for God(ot).

Prolly also a theme of hope springing eternal.

[ALago1]

12. I didn't look at Godot as necessarily some God figure...

...but rather any person, being, or thing, that gives meaning to one's life. The lesson I got out of the story was that one should be careful how they ascribe meaning to their life, for by putting all their hope into finding "Godot", they waisted most of their time and life, thus making their lives meaningless.

Just my little interpretation.

[HuckleB]

8. You wouldn't be looking for a cheap way to write a paper, would you?

;)

[beawr]

9. We used to say "Waiting for Good Dope"

But we were theatre majors.

[LatinManNH]

10. Beyond existentialism

The play incorporates a lot of comic theater traditons, such as commedia dell'arte and vaudeville. The bowler hats were supposedly a reference to Charlie Chaplin.

[mitchum]

11. That's right...

Beckett directly incorporated those elements into the work originally. I remember when the always overrated Mike Nichols staged it with Robin Williams and Steve Martin, the slavering scribbling class praised Nichols for his "daring and vision"! WTF?!

[tigereye]

13. hmm that casting would have been interesting

Can't quite imagine it.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Read it, saw it on stage, saw it on screen...

and I'm still waiting.

Godot probably isn't God, or if it is, it's not a particularly interesting God. Just an abstraction to give meaning to a meaningless life. An invention. Maybe, a Greek chorus who decides to shut up and let the characters mill around for themselves. The chorus as protagonist, who would guess?

Pozzo and Lucky are closer to gods. They randomly interject themselves into the scene-- coming from and going to nowhere understandable to us. We are ultimately alone with ourselves, but there are influences that we don't fully appreciate. We're not all that bright or significant, after all.

I don't think you can piece it together-- that's kind of the point of a lot of existential works. Besides the existential content, look at all the politics in there. Forgetting yesterday is a political statement, as is the big debate over helping the fallen, and then kicking them.

Blindness-- man there's a lot of stuff in there.

I don't know if Beckett gave us any answers. He gave us a hell of a lot of questions, though.

[gardenista]

16. Yes, the blindness is so interesting, isn't it? nt

.

[gardenista]

15. I think Pozzo represents the capricious use of power

and authority. So, perhaps to some that could be some sort of a God. Gods are powerful, and could be considered capricious.

Pozzo has food, wine, money and a "servant" in Lucky. But not happiness. Mostly just bombast, but bombast with power.

Lucky has powers.... hidden strange powers...

So I like that idea that they could be Gods of a sort. Hmmmmmm.....

[LatinManNH]

17. Ironically, I think it's about hope

At the end of the play, after Godot fails to materialize, and after Vladimir and Estragon attack and abuse each other, they help one another up off the stage and continue in the quest, even though it is pointless. For me, the play is about doing something with someone, finding a human bond, even if nothing comes of it.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Ever see the movie "Bread and Chocolate"?

It's a comedy, and screamingly funny, but the last scene is poignant, and almost the same.

Our hero has been screwed fourteen ways from Sunday all through the film, but in the last scene he picks himself up once again and heads back. The audience cries for him and cheers for him.

Like Chaplin's tramp, which obviously influenced Beckett.

He has a dream and a journey to continue, and this time he might get somewhere.

Without hope there is only death. Even a fruitless quest is better than none at all.