Introduction


Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was, in a word, “absurd.” Despite his lengthy and complex career, Beckett will always be closely associated with the absurdist movement, which took a darkly comic look at humankind’s search for the meaning of life. For Beckett, this search was entirely futile...but quite funny. In Beckett’s Happy Days, for example, a woman is slowly engulfed by a mound of dirt yet retains her sunny disposition. And in his most famous work, Waiting for Godot, two vagabonds horse around by the side of a deserted road waiting for the titular character to show up...who never does. Scholars have debated for decades whether Beckett’s outlook was entirely pessimistic or if it did have—deep down—an odd, distorted kind of optimism. The futility of ever reaching a satisfactory answer surely would have pleased Beckett.

Essential Facts

  1. Despite his reputation in the world of drama, Beckett wrote novels, short stories, and poetry for nearly two decades before turning his attention to plays.
  2. Nearly all of the English-language premieres of Beckett’s plays were directed by Alan Schneider. The two maintained a close working collaboration until Schneider’s death in 1984.
  3. Although an Irishman, Beckett was of French descent. Many of his most famous works, including Waiting for Godot, were originally written in French and later translated into English.
  4. In the early 1980s, Beckett attempted to shut down a production of Endgame directed by the well-respected Joanne Akalaitis. Beckett’s primary reason was that Akalaitis disregarded his stage directions and changed the setting of the play to a subway station.
  5. The American premiere of Waiting for Godot featured Bert Lahr, best known for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
 

Recommended Resources

  1. Endgame Study Guide (eNotes)
  2. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism
  3. Samuel Beckett - Drama Criticism
  4. Waiting for Godot Lesson Plans
  5. Waiting for Godot Study Guide (eNotes)

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. All That Fall - Literary Characters
  2. All That Fall - Literary Places
  3. Company - Literary Characters
  4. Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  5. Critical Survey of Poetry
  6. Critical Survey of Short Fiction
  7. Cyclopedia of World Authors
  8. Dante and the Lobster - Masterplots II: Short Story Series
  9. Dante and the Lobster Study Guide
  10. Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century
  11. Embers - Literary Characters
  12. Endgame - Literary Characters
  13. Endgame - Literary Places
  14. Endgame Study Guide (eNotes)
  15. Happy Days - Literary Characters
  16. How It Is - Character Profiles
  17. Ill Seen Ill Said - Literary Characters
  18. Krapp's Last Tape - Literary Characters
  19. Krapp's Last Tape - Literary Places
  20. Krapp's Last Tape Study Guide
  21. Malone Dies - Literary Places
  22. Molloy - Literary Places
  23. Molloy/Malone Dies/The Unnamable - Literary Characters
  24. Murphy - Literary Characters
  25. Oxford Companion to Shakespeare Article on Samuel Beckett
  26. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism
  27. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 1)
  28. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 2)
  29. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 3)
  30. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 4)
  31. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 6)
  32. Samuel Beckett - Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol. 9)
  33. Samuel Beckett - Drama Criticism
  34. Samuel Beckett Criticism
  35. Samuel Beckett Criticism
  36. Short Story Criticism
  37. The Oxford Companion to English Literature - Samuel Beckett
  38. The Oxford Companion to English Literature - Waiting for Godot
  39. The Oxford Dictionary of Plays - Waiting for Godot
  40. The Unnamable - Literary Places
  41. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
  42. Waiting for Godot - Book Review
  43. Waiting for Godot - Literary Characters
  44. Waiting for Godot - Literary Places
  45. Waiting for Godot Lesson Plans
  46. Waiting for Godot Study Guide (eNotes)
  47. Watt - Literary Characters
  48. Words and Music - Literary Characters