Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (bilingual)

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Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (bilingual)

by Samuel Beckett, S.E. Gontarski (Introduction)

3.76 · rating details · 27,586 ratings · 1,087 reviews

From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theacirc; tre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment by American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become one of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, "Time catches up with genius. ... Waiting for Godot is...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published March 13th 2006 by Grove/Atlantic, Inc. (first published 1953)

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Sep 30, 2007

Christian Clarke rated it

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Recommends it for: Matthew Pilarski: My Goodreads Hero!!!!

Shelves: 20th-century-drama, irish

I read this book while hang-gliding over the coast of Lichtenstein. It was difficult to grip the jacket of the book, not only because I was airborn, but because the night before I was in Moscow having vodka and gasoline with Luis San Baptista Rodolfo Sr., a ex-foot soldier for the Revolutionary FALN, and my head was POUNDING! I told Luis over a dinner (red cabbage over braised Skeletor Dolls) I had never seen the last episode of Family Ties, and he instantly grew furious, and cried out, "Ma...more

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Nov 24, 2010

Manny rated it

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Shelves: french, linguistics-and-philosophy, well-i-think-its-funny, parody-homage, transcendent-experiences

ACT III

VLADIMIR: They've called us back.

ESTRAGON: For an encore?

VLADIMIR: No, we're supposed to say what it means.

(A pause)

ESTRAGON: What what means?

VLADIMIR: This play! We have to explain it.

ESTRAGON: And then?

VLADIMIR: (discouraged) I don't know. Maybe Godot will arrive. But again, maybe he won't. He's not very reliable. (Another pause) Still, we can try.

(They both think deeply)

...more

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Jul 27, 2008

Michael Kneeland rated it

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As a pretentious senior in high school, I thought I would uber-sheik and take a girl a had a crush on to a play, Waiting for Godot, which I had read in the Comedy, Wit, and Satire English elective that I took the previous year with my favorite high school English teacher, Dr. Stone. How I got the tickets is inconsequential (okay, okay: my dad won them from the radio; my uber-sheik persona just took a big hit), but suffice to say, my crush and I were the youngest members in the crowd. Fortunately...moreAs a pretentious senior in high school, I thought I would uber-sheik and take a girl a had a crush on to a play, Waiting for Godot, which I had read in the Comedy, Wit, and Satire English elective that I took the previous year with my favorite high school English teacher, Dr. Stone. How I got the tickets is inconsequential (okay, okay: my dad won them from the radio; my uber-sheik persona just took a big hit), but suffice to say, my crush and I were the youngest members in the crowd. Fortunately for me, my crush was also somewhat pretentious (though not nearly as much as myself), so the evening was not an entire bust.

About fifteen minutes into the show, my memory finally overpowered my hormones and I remembered what Waiting for Godot actually is: a philosophical piece, more for discussion afterwards than for immediate enjoyment. I silently berated myself; after all, how could I possibly make a move during Wait for Godot? I mean...it was WAITING FOR GODOT, for crying out loud! There is not one female role in the entire play, and the closest thing to a romantic relationship we get is between the two lead male characters, Vladimir and Estragon, who bicker, joke, hug, and so on as though they are a married couple. Oh well, no romance for me that evening, but at the very least, I retained my decidedly cool, uber-sheik persona.

Well, I guess "cool" is a subjective term.

In any event, in the years since my botched date, I have come to sincerely appreciate Godot. The play is almost literally about nothing (ahead of Seinfeld by more than a few decades) as it depicts the two men mentioned earlier just sitting (or standing, or dancing, etc.) around as they wait for a man named Godot (who, incidentally, never arrives). Other characters arrive from time to time, but that's about it for the main action. So how has this been interpreted so many different ways?

Well, you could say it is the lack of action that speaks to us. Or perhaps it's simply the kooky, wordy dialogue. Or maybe it's the complex, desperate characterization. Or it could also possibly be its minimalist approach to theater. Or, to be sure, it's a combination of all these things. Whatever it is, political, social, cultural, Freudian, Jungian, existentialist, Biblical, and even gay theorists have all written volumes about what Godot means, or if it even means anything at all, or if that even matters one way or the other. I like that about works of literature like this: you can't pin any "meaning" down in one place (as you ostensibly can with, say, The Chronicles of Narnia). Not only does it keep you, the reader (or audience member) thinking long after the work is over, but it ensures the author some amount of immortality. It's like James Joyce once said (and incidentally, Joyce employed Beckett as his personal secretary for a time): “I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it [Ulysses] will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.”

A girl I used to work with tried to convince me that "Godot" is pronounced "God-ott." Despite my rebuttals that Beckett had originally written the play in French--which would mean "Godot" would be pronounced with the French -ot ending as "oh"--she violently proclaimed that it was "God-ott," which she learned from her favorite theater professor, who had supposedly heard this from Beckett himself while they shared a drink in a bar. Whatever. I guess this just goes to prove my point that just about everything in this play is open to interpretation, whether it's the overall meaning, or the simple pronunciation of a word.

But still, it's "God-oh."(less)

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Mar 29, 2008

Sean rated it

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Recommends it for: Those who really love theatre (or work at LottaBurger)

Definitely not for everybody but by God (if he shows up) it's brilliant. But I wouldn't blame anyone for disagreeing with me. Still it's more accessible than you might think -- a student who studied this play with me in one of my university classes had the assignment of memorizing the quite surrealistic Lucky and Potzo monologue. Problem was she was a single mother and between that and her manager's job at the local Lotta-Burger she didn't have much time for home study. Her solution? She gave a ...more

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Jul 13, 2007

Pericles' rated it

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Recommends it for: People who've already read "Endgame"

There's really nothing that I can write about this book that hasn't already been written. So, confident in the knowledge that nobody will ever read this, I'm going to jot down a few thoughts for posterity (my own personal posterity, as I intend never to have children).

The play is shot through with a cultural amnesia, and even the straight man (I would, incidentally, throw my lot in with Vladimir as best candidate for that particular title) seems to be on the knife's edge between amn...moreThere's really nothing that I can write about this book that hasn't already been written. So, confident in the knowledge that nobody will ever read this, I'm going to jot down a few thoughts for posterity (my own personal posterity, as I intend never to have children).

The play is shot through with a cultural amnesia, and even the straight man (I would, incidentally, throw my lot in with Vladimir as best candidate for that particular title) seems to be on the knife's edge between amnesiac and historian.

Besides that, I enjoy that the play seems to be aware of itself. This is something that Beckett does in all kinds of subtle ways. In Watt, for example, he uses neologisms, only to have a character a hundred pages later wonderingly repeat the word, asking "Where have I heard that before?" which mirrors, ingeniously, the attentive reader's response. In Waiting for Godot the reflexivity is subtler, playing on the uncanny. The second act speaks to the first act, and as a result the two begin a dialogue in the reader or viewer's mind. This is accomplished with repetition of lines, along with a kind of theme and variation technique. In this sense, the form and content mirror each other. But what is interesting, I think, is the reflection on the nature of drama (especially when it's repeated on a nightly basis) in the play itself. Consider these two passages:

Pozzo: They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.

And then at the bottom of the following page:

Vladimir: Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? To-morrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of to-day? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? [...] Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens) But habit is a great deadener. [...] I can't go on! (Pause.) What have I said?

On one level, at least, this becomes the musings of a character in a play, aware of his boundaries (e.g. at one point, Estragon finds it impossible to leave the stage), both physical and psychological. So the extension of that, then, is a suggestion--or at least a question--about the nature of culture and our role within--special emphasis on within--said culture.

These are my preliminary thoughts, and aren't designed to withstand serious scrutiny. They're intended to act as a kind of signpost of my initial reactions to the play. (less)

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May 17, 2007

Eric rated it

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Recommends it for: People that hate themselves

Recommended to Eric by: Megan Mandell

Shelves: classic

I was told that this play was brilliant and that Beckett was the best Irish playwright out there.

I disagree wholeheartedly with the first half of that statement: The only thing I found this existential mess to be was irritating. As for the second half of the above statement, I will admit I have never read another Irish playwright, so I cannot say whether Beckett is the greatest or not, but I hope he isn't for the sake of every other Irish playwright and everyone that goes to see I...more

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May 19, 2007

Meghan rated it

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The more I read it, the more I see it performed, the more I love it. Beckett, I hear, was famous for refusing to comment on his work. About Godot, all he would say was, "It means what it says." It's not nihilist. It's not existentialist. It just is. And, when physically performed on stage by good actors, it's pretty funny, too.

That, however, doesn't stop me from drawing a few conclusions. I believe the play's most important accheivement is its multi-layered commentary on th...more

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Mar 29, 2009

Choupette rated it

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Recommends it for: pour le monde pas pour la guerre

Recommended to Choupette by: 106-102 Modern and Contemporary Literature

Shelves: drama, own-or-access, studied, classics, to-be-re-read, 2009

I learned some interesting things about Samuel Beckett today, for example that he exercised ridiculously harsh control over his work which now is continued by his estate. Also that his life overlapped mine by 22 days, and damn, for some reason that was a kick in the guts.
__________________

OH MY FUCKING GOODNESS
__________________

This is hilarious.

Vladimir: I don't understand.
Estragon: Use your intelligence, can't you?
Vladimir uses his in...more

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Jul 17, 2007

Yulia rated it

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Shelves: plays

I think Oprah put it best when she said: "We need to remember that just because we're sad, that doesn't mean we're not also marvelously comical and transcendently courageous."

Who knew?

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Apr 13, 2009

Tatiana rated it

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The first time I read this book, when I was reading it for a friend in college, someone who took the literary courses we engineers didn't have room for, I LOVED it and just laughed at all the humor. It was the freedom in it that struck me. I didn't realize anyone else knew these things. They're things people don't talk about. It struck like a fresh wind that someone recognized about life what seemed to obvious to me. It is a hilarious play. I'd love to see it performed someday.

...more

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Jun 23, 2007

علی rated it

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Shelves: modern-plays, great-ones, absurd-theatre

"We all are born mad. Some remain so." so simple, and truth at the same time.
or:
Didi: We have to come back tomorrow.
Gogo; What for?
Didi: To wait for Godot.
Gogo: Ah! (Silence.) He didn't come?
Didi: No.

در انتظار گودو تا آنجا که به یاد دارم سه بار ترجمه شده، اولی را به گمانم سیروس طاهباز ترجمه کرد، که به همه چیز شبیه بود، جز بکت. دومی را داوود رشیدی ترجمه کرد انگار، که کارگردانی هم کرد و روی صحنه نمایش داد، خودش و پرویز صیاد و پرویز کار...more

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May 11, 2008

Danine rated it

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After reading this I thought about times in my life when I was waiting for Godot too. I wasn't sure if I should be looking for a deep meaning in this play but I did. The two main characters have known each other for a very long time and briefly discuss if they should go their separate ways but alas they do not part and continue to wait for Godot.

All of it reminded me of life and relationships and how some people do not share the same road but stay with each other out of habit despite...more

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Apr 04, 2009

Rebecca rated it

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Is Beckett synonymous with bollocks?
Twas reminiscent of my puppy's conversations with the window dog.

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Aug 26, 2008

DianneB added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: those planning to see the play

Recommended to DianneB by: Oprah website--Five books everyone should read once

I read this because it was on a recommended reading list. I felt like I entered the world of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on first", with supporting roles by the Three Stooges. I can understand even more clearly the adage that there is a fine line between insanity and genius, as I questioned where Beckett fell in there. With all this said, I would still enjoy seeing the play sometime, if I ever had the chance. I can see where the repetition of the actions and the emergence of new s...more

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Apr 04, 2009

Windy rated it

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Shelves: read-in-2009

Somebody please explain this to me. Please.

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Jan 22, 2012

Artemisia rated it

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Shelves: doni

C'è un silenzio assordante in questo libro. Un'inquietudine, un disagio, un pozzo di dialoghi non detti che raramente ho trovato in altre opere o situazioni da me vissute. Aspettando Godot è uno di qui libri che si capisce poco, pochissimo e che però, ognuno di noi, sente suo. E' in queste situazioni di sordità, cecità, mutismo dell'anima e del corpo, attesa, ossessione, paura della perdita che ci ritroviamo. Le nostre scarpe sono quelle che non ci andranno mai bene, quelle che cambieranno il gi...more

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Feb 22, 2009

Jared rated it

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Shelves: classics, plays

The idea of this play is intriguing. The play concerns two characters who are, as the title suggests, "Waiting for Godot." They're not entirely sure why they're waiting for him, because they're not sure whether his coming will be great or terrible. Symbolic interpretation of the play can lead to some interesting insights into human nature, and possibly some perspective into man's relationship with God.

Having said all that, the play is boring. Really, really boring. The...more

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Dec 26, 2008

Nick Black rated it

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Shelves: read-multiple-times

I'm not sure I know of a finer, more incisive, more extraordinary play, but then again I am very poorly educated regarding such things. Shrug! This quartet makes me laugh out loud every time I read it. Pozzo has some of the best lines committed to drama, and the work set up an absolutely hilarious reference in RAW's Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy. Heh, I might go reread it right now.

OH NO, IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!
What time?
NOW IS THE TIME ON GOODREADS WHEN WE EXCERPT AT LENGTH! ...more

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Dec 13, 2008

Akemi rated it

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Shelves: school

Hilarious and awful at the same time. I enjoyed my first taste of Beckett this past summer at a marathon event involving Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, so I was excited to read this (as was my prof). If you want a literary version of existentialism/absurdism, screw The Stranger- this is a billion times more intriguing, entertaining and provocative, not to mention better written. I particularly like the idea of the Vladimir/Estragon pairing- exploring why they don't leave each other, despite cont...more

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Nov 20, 2011

Tony rated it

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Shelves: drama

WAITING FOR GODOT. (1956). Samuel Beckett. ****.
I first read this play in 1958, while taking a seminar course titled, “The Theater of the Absurd.” In my opinion, the “absurd” adjective fitted this play accurately. Since then, I have seen a staged production, watched the American Film Theater production, and read it once again. The play has become iconic, led by those ‘intellectuals’ who pretended they understood it – and not only understood it, but enjoyed it, too. To me, it always...more

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Sep 23, 2011

James rated it

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It's really a simplistic book- simplistic in the way that there really isn't much of a discernible plot. it's a really bizarre book. Hmm... how do you review this book?

Well it's definitely captivating. It's existential. It's written kind of a screen-play form.
Two men, I forget there names, are waiting for "Godot" by a tree. That is all the reader knows. They are obsessed with this Godot and they themselves don't even know why they are waiting for Godot. There's har...more

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Sep 18, 2011

Erik rated it

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Shelves: plays, wtf, theyre-always-after-me-lucky-charms

... uhm. What?

So this play was insane and it definitely put me in a mind that thinks in the method that the characters speak -- random and (seemingly) unintelligible, but with some sort of underlying system of truth. And, yeah. Words.

The point of this play? Fuck if I know. The two main characters exist and are in perpetual anticipation of the arrival of some unknown Godot, who has a white beard. In their agitated state of suspense, they are constantly seeking distraction. I t...more... uhm. What?

So this play was insane and it definitely put me in a mind that thinks in the method that the characters speak -- random and (seemingly) unintelligible, but with some sort of underlying system of truth. And, yeah. Words.

The point of this play? Fuck if I know. The two main characters exist and are in perpetual anticipation of the arrival of some unknown Godot, who has a white beard. In their agitated state of suspense, they are constantly seeking distraction. I think this sense of waiting could parallel the purpose of their existence? The meaning of their lives. The exist only so that they can look for distractions -- passing the time until some absolution presents itself. Look:

'We'll hang ourselves tomorrow. Unless Godot comes.'
'And if he comes?'
'We'll be saved' (84)."

Each day of their lives is pointless, unmemorable. Somewhere towards the beginning, Estragon said, in regards to his memory, something along the lines of "forgetting events as soon as they pass unless he remembered it forever." Most of his life is full of meaningless habit (a "great deadener," Vladmir says) and is forgotten immediately, as if it had never even happened. Our day-to-day, that is, the majority of our life, is pointless. Usually I can find some positive spin to put on this kind of nihilism, but Beckett seems to make that impossible...

So how about another quote or two? Let's start on page 80:

Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, oe day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more. On!

And one more on page 81:

Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? He'll know nothing. He'll tell me about the blows he received and I'll give him a carrot. Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hold, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener. At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on. [Pause.] I can't go on! [Pause.] What have I said?

Crazy shit, right? I feel like my feelings during this play was just an unending stream of "wtf?"s. How wonderful. All hail absurdism. (less)

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Aug 03, 2011

James Korsmo rated it

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Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a tragicomedy about human existence. In the play, two tramps wait by a tree for a Mister Godot. While there, they go through a series of comedic episodes involving boots that are too tight, carrots, and other unimportant objects. While they are waiting, another pair of characters, Lucky and Pozzo, come along. Lucky is essentially a human animal, walking on all fours, whom Pozzo has on a leash and makes carry all of his things. Pozzo is an almost unfeeling ta...moreSamuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a tragicomedy about human existence. In the play, two tramps wait by a tree for a Mister Godot. While there, they go through a series of comedic episodes involving boots that are too tight, carrots, and other unimportant objects. While they are waiting, another pair of characters, Lucky and Pozzo, come along. Lucky is essentially a human animal, walking on all fours, whom Pozzo has on a leash and makes carry all of his things. Pozzo is an almost unfeeling taskmaster who takes pride and pleasure in torturing and abusing his slave. The two tramps don't quite know what to make of this pair, as they come along and provide some "entertainment," as Pozzo makes lucky dance, and then "think" for them. The scenes bring an unmistakeable sense of nonsense and futility. The day ends as Lucky and Pozzo head off, and no Mister Godot appears.

Day two starts rather like the first, with the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting under the same tree. They're not sure they were there the day before, but Vladimir at least has a sense that yesterday was much the same. The only change he notices is a few leaves on the tree. As they wait, the repeat many of the same comedic routines as they day before. Then Lucky and Pozzo happen by again. Though this time Pozzo claims to be blind. Again, no one is quite sure if they've met before, though Vladimir is rather certain that they had come by the day before. After more confused exchanges, Posso and Lucky finally head off stage again. And the two tramps are left to contemplate their future. They know they are waiting for Godot, but aren't quite sure why. Then a boy arrives to inform them that Mr. Godot would not be coming, but would surely come tomorrow. Despairing of the news, the two contemplate hanging them selves from the tree, but realize they don't have any rope that would work. So the play closes with them resolving to return to the tree tomorrow, and to bring along some good rope.

Beckett's play is really a fascinating and poignant statement of the seeming futitilly of life. The characters are set in an almost featureless world, and they are seemingly with out purpose, waiting, but they're not sure quite what they are waiting for. Pozzo and Lucky demonstrate exploitation and victimization, a sad state of affairs. And Vladimir and Estragon don't come across much better, lost and senseless, aimlessly making their way through life. Their conclusion is that life is really just the moment between birth and death, and paint a picture of a woman squatting over a grave to give birth. It is a picture of hopelessness and purposeless ness.

The play seems to leave a bit of room for hope, that this Mister Godot (God?) would come and put the pieces together for them. But we are far from certain, when the curtain falls, whether Godot will arrive or whether they will hang themselves, or whether the next days will continue like the last.

Beckett has captured well the tragic and comedic elements of modern life, with the searching after purpose, the waiting without a clear sense of what for, the futility of seeing life as merely a flash in the pan before death.(less)

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Jul 30, 2011

Garrett rated it

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A stark and sometimes funny play, this was my second time through Godot, and I am unsure what exactly Beckett was trying to accomplish. What I find so daunting about this text is its utter disregard for what everyone else in the world would think about it. Beckett paid some attention to this concept when he said that he wanted his audience to take whatever they wanted from his plays. So that raises a question - genius, or prankster that took the world for a ride? I think it is interesting be...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Kristin added it · review of another edition

The classic tagline of Beckett’s most famous play--"nothing happens...TWICE!"-- is funny because it's true, and it's the punch line of the joke that makes the play work. After finishing Act 1, I didn’t like it. I wasn’t invested in the story or the characters. I can't explain why or how Beckett changed my opinion but after the 2nd act, I loved it, and I still have no coherent idea why.
I recommend keeping in mind that the play is NOT a strange, tragic view of the human condition--it'...more

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Jul 22, 2011

David Sarkies rated it

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Shelves: modernist

One struggles trying to make sense of this two act play in which absolutely nothing happens. Well, okay, stuff does happen, such as the two main characters Estrogon and Vladamir talking about nothing in particular, and Pozzo and Lucky coming in and leaving, and a little boy entering to tell the heroes (if that is what you wish to call them) that Godot is not coming today, but is coming tomorrow. However, in general, as a friend suggested, this play is a lot like Seinfeld, absolutely nothing hap...more One struggles trying to make sense of this two act play in which absolutely nothing happens. Well, okay, stuff does happen, such as the two main characters Estrogon and Vladamir talking about nothing in particular, and Pozzo and Lucky coming in and leaving, and a little boy entering to tell the heroes (if that is what you wish to call them) that Godot is not coming today, but is coming tomorrow. However, in general, as a friend suggested, this play is a lot like Seinfeld, absolutely nothing happens.
I am trying to decide whether I gave this play an 8 because it actually is a really good play, or whether I am so baffled by the play that I simply gave it an 8 just because. I'm am going to say it is a good play, but unlike, say, 2001 a Space Odyssey, opinion on this play is harshly divided. Another friend got given free tickets to see it, and she went with a friend. Halfway through the play he thought that it was finished, so he got up and left. She didn't tell him that it was actually the interlude until they were halfway home. Now that is messing with somebody's mind.
But now about the play. It is based around two men, Estragon and Vladamir, who a standing by a willow tree waiting for Godot. However he never comes, but they seem compelled to wait for him. One must remember that Beckett wrote the play as a unity. Everything you need to know about the play occurs within the play and everything is outlined in the conversation. Vladamir and Estragon are generally protrayed as bums, but there is nothing in the play, with the exception of Estragon's pants being too big for him, and it being held up with a cord. Still, I don't think Beckett intended on them being bums. When asked about Pozzo, he simply indicated that it was Pozzo. I was a bit baffled by Lucky, though it is clear that Lucky is a man, however he seems to behave like a dog, to the extent that he is attached to Pozzo with a cord and leads him. Pozzo enters act one with sight but act two as blind, and the boy does not seem to be the same boy in both acts.
This play is theatre of the absurd, and it is definitely absurd. It looks at the meaninglessness of life, and remembering that beyond the stage there is nothing, it is interesting that when the characters try to look back into the past there is no memory of anything. In fact they don't even remember the events of the previous act. It is as if the only reality is the now, and everything else is clouded with mist. This is clear at the end when Godot once again does not turn up, and they try to kill themselves (and fail because they are too heavy and do not have a long enough rope). There is no hope into the future, and there is no guarantee that Godot will actually come (and Beckett emphatically states that Godot is not God, and if he wanted him to be God, he would have written him as such).
Sometimes I wonder if Beckett is laughing at us. I say this because he writes a play with no plot, no point, and no purpose (much like life) and we spend a lot of time and energy attempting to get to the bottom of this play when there actually isn't anything to find in it (much like life). Me, I am baffled by Pozzo and Lucky. There seems to be no reason why they enter and leave the play, but then I guess that is the play. I would really like to see it on stage one day though.(less)

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Oct 30, 2010

Slávek Rydval rated it

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Shelves: irish-authors, playbooks, read-2010, books-i-love

Je hodně těžké hodnotit něco, čemu vlastně chybí druhá část a hlavně co hodnotily tisíce ostatních. Přečíst si text divadelní hry není to samé, jako ji vidět. Jen z textu těžko můžete odvozovat (ať už dobře, špatně nebo prostě nějak) chování herců na jevišti. Ovšem jak známo, co režisér, to jiné pojetí.

Mě při čtení hodně rušila čeština. Ne, že by to bylo přeloženo špatně, to si netroufám hodnotit, ale melodičnost angličtiny mi připadne v tomto směru mnohem hezčí. Možná to svým způsobem...more

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Jun 16, 2010

Emma rated it

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I read and studied this absurdest play for my Drama class this semester. I wasn't a huge fan of presentational theatre at first, but after swapping teachers and having a closer understanding of the play really helped.

I absolutely loved this play! Samuel Beckett was a very complex human-being and this was greatly expressed through out this orginally French written play. It explores the themes of the exsistance of living, time and waiting.

I recommend watching these videos...moreI read and studied this absurdest play for my Drama class this semester. I wasn't a huge fan of presentational theatre at first, but after swapping teachers and having a closer understanding of the play really helped.

I absolutely loved this play! Samuel Beckett was a very complex human-being and this was greatly expressed through out this orginally French written play. It explores the themes of the exsistance of living, time and waiting.

I recommend watching these videos on youtube. It will help you understand the play, I know it helped me a lot. The actors do a brilliant job as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoC9Kx5Qv...

There are various links, just look for them :)
On this link I've provided one of the comments is spot on;

"I read the play back in college and, to be honest, at the time I barely understood it at all. If someone had said to me "It's absurdist" I would have replied, "Sure. That's just what it is."
I simply didn't have enough life under my belt to appreciate it. Now, many years later, it's full of meaning and reads like the book of life. There's nothing absurd about it at all. If anything it's a tragedy. A little humor mixed in to dull the pain, but basically it's a study in existential pain."

I agree with this 100%
When Waiting For Godot was first performed in a theatre the reactions of the audience members was insane. They disagreed with the plot completely and were very confused. When the same production was performed to a group of Prisoners, the whole room was quiet in awe. They completely understood. This is further explained by Professor Mount, from a podcast easily buyable from iTunes.

At first many people believed that the character Godot is God. Samuel Beckett them came out and quoted; "If I wanted Godot to be God, I would have called him God, not Godot."
However I think Godot could be a representation of God. Beckett wanted people to make their own understandings of his plays and not to ask questions and get answers. There are so many biblical references and quotes through this text that constantly brought me to believe Godot is in fact, God.
The place in which the two main characters are waiting for Godot, I believe could be strongly influences by Dante's Inferno. In between Heaven and Hell. There are many subtle quotes to support this idea as well.

Overall, I strongly recommend Waiting For Godot. Make sure you do a lot of reading up on it and research before hand though! :)(less)

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May 24, 2010

Madeline rated it

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Recommends it for: existentialist fans

Recommended to Madeline by: (required reading)

Shelves: 2010

What I learned from this is (and "Catastrophe", and "Breath", etc.) is that I am NOT a fan of existentialism.

As far as existentialist literature goes, this book is excellent. As a book (or play), I couldn't put it down...but it was much like the time I was watching a movie in JetBlue, some stupid suspense drama, only because I have the kind of compulsiveness that compels me to walk a certain amount of steps in a cement block (if that makes sense, sorry if it doesn't...more

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Sep 27, 2009

notgettingenough rated it

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Shelves: modern-lit, drama

When I was little my parents took us to see every kind of theatre. My favourite, apart from Shakespeare, was Theatre of the Absurd. You could always tell that's where you were going as you had to bring a cushion to sit on....it was always put on in theatres that couldn't afford seats.

I can't resist telling the story of my niece when she auditioned for RADA a few years ago. When asked what she'd acted in, she was already stuck. Dredging up the name of a play she vaguely recalled readi...more

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About Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture, and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalist. As a student, assistant, and friend of James Joyce, Beckett is considered by many one of the last modernists; as an inspiration to many later writers, he is sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists....moreSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture, and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalist. As a student, assistant, and friend of James Joyce, Beckett is considered by many one of the last modernists; as an inspiration to many later writers, he is sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is also considered one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called "Theatre of the Absurd".
Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for his "writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". Beckett was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. He died in Paris of respiratory problems.
The Beckett family (originally Becquet) were rumoured to be of Huguenot stock and to have moved to Ireland from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, though this theory has been criticised as unlikely. The Becketts were members of the Church of Ireland. The family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, was a large house and garden complete with tennis court built in 1903 by Samuel's father William. The house and garden, together with the surrounding countryside where he often went walking with his father, the nearby Leopardstown Racecourse, the Foxrock railway station and Harcourt Street station at the city terminus of the line, all feature in his prose and plays. Beckett's father was a quantity surveyor and his mother a nurse. At the age of five, Beckett attended a local playschool, where he started to learn music, and then moved to Earlsford House School in the city centre near Harcourt Street. In 1919, Beckett went to Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh—the school Oscar Wilde attended. A natural athlete, Beckett excelled at cricket as a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler. Later, he was to play for Dublin University and played two first-class games against Northamptonshire. As a result, he became the only Nobel laureate to have an entry in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, the "bible" of cricket.
Beckett studied French, Italian, and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927. While at Trinity, one of his tutors was the eminent Berkeley scholar and Berkelian Dr. A. A. Luce. Beckett graduated with a B.A., and—after teaching briefly at Campbell College in Belfast—took up the post of lecteur d'anglais in the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. While there, he was introduced to renowned Irish author James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy, a poet and close confidant of Beckett who also worked there. This meeting was soon to have a profound effect on the young man, and Beckett assisted Joyce in various ways, most particularly by helping him research the book that would eventually become Finnegans Wake.
In 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay entitled Dante...Bruno. Vico..Joyce. The essay defends Joyce's work and method, chiefly from allegations of wanton obscurity and dimness, and was Beckett's contribution to Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress, a book of essays on Joyce which also included contributions by Eugene Jolas, Robert McAlmon, and William Carlos Williams, among others. Beckett's close relationship with Joyce and his family, however, cooled when he rejected the advances of Joyce's daughter Lucia. It was also during this period that Beckett's first short story, "Assumption", was published in Jolas' periodical transition. The next year he won a small literary prize with his hastily composed poem "Whoroscope", which draws from a biography of René Descartes that Beckett happened to be reading when he was encouraged to submit.
In 1930, Beckett returned to Trinity College as a lecturer. He soon became disillusioned with his chosen academic vocation, however. He expressed his aversion by playing(less)

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Trivia About Waiting for Godot

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Quotes from Waiting for Godot

“The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.” — 204 people liked it

“Je suis comme ça. Ou j'oublie tout de suite ou je n'oublie jamais."

Samuel BECKETT, En attendant Godot

I'm like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget. ” — 47 people liked it

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