Waiting for Godot Group at eNotes

The theme of oppression and cruelty in Waiting for Godot has all sorts...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:10:59 PST

The theme of oppression and cruelty in Waiting for Godot has all sorts of metaphoric dimensions--Existentialist, theological, comic and even socio-political. As Hamm summed it up at the beginning of Endgame, we all think ourselves to be the greatest of sufferers and it is this self-assumption of a tragic status that turns it all into comic. Human existence, as the absurdist critic of the play would say, is full of oppression and cruelty and...

To read Beckett's Godot as God and Kafka's Dog as God, I think, is an...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:57:11 PST

To read Beckett's Godot as God and Kafka's Dog as God, I think, is an exercise in symbolist heresy. Most of the 20th century literture, especially the literature of its second half, militates against the symbolic and redefines the symbol as surface, as a literal object-state, a movement which sees its culmination in the postmodernist idea of the symbol as simulation. One must remember the addenda in Beckett's Watt--"No symbols where none...

The idea of wating for someone or something to provide answers or...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:33:03 PST

The idea of wating for someone or something to provide answers or meaning is a vibrant element in Beckett's work. For his own part, Beckett himself vehemently denied that Godot represents God. Yet, the notion of waiting or not taking action in the hopes of something else to arrive and alleviate the pain of choice is present in the work. If we see Godot as a "God"- like character, or if we see him as symbolic of another force of totality...

Godot's character is often thought to refer to God, how and why does it...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:36:19 PST

Godot's character is often thought to refer to God, how and why does it cause a change in the play's title and subject to Waiting for Godot?

The Lesson is a play that has been categorized as being a part of the...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:27:28 PST

The Lesson is a play that has been categorized as being a part of the 'theatre of the absurd', projecting a world where meaning has become both dead and deadly by means of infinite proliferation. The play is definitely tandem with this kind of a general straitjacketing, but specifically speaking, it is a play about teaching, the process of pedagogy, the student-teacher relationship and its innate power structure and a radical subversion of...

Thematically speaking, Godot has it all---from the ordinary to the...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:10:03 PST

Thematically speaking, Godot has it all---from the ordinary to the sublime, from the suffering of putting on a misfit boot to the suffering caused by a divine absence. From a religious point of view, the play is about a quest for the transcendental order, frustrated by a radical lack of its presence, whereby the salvation-damnation (the TWO THIEVES section--allusion to Augustine) and sin-redemption binaries become very important. The idea of...

It is one of those lines that are repeated throughout the play. Beckett...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:35:27 PST

It is one of those lines that are repeated throughout the play. Beckett builds his drama on a subtly repetitive structure of intra-textual referentiality. 'Nothing to be done', is not only the opening line of the play as spoken by Vladimir but it recurs through the play and is repeated by Estragon later. It is used to strengthen the bond between Didi and Gogo, the 'pseudocouple' on the level of speech-event and indicates their unitary...

Instead of the symbolist way of approaching 'Godot' as a word-play on...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:19:22 PST

Instead of the symbolist way of approaching 'Godot' as a word-play on 'God' and thus reducing the play to a haplessly restricted philosophico-religious reading, I think, Beckett's body of work allows us to see Godot as a pure-signifier, for which there is no signified. It is a Derridean post-structuralist notion of the absent centre that informs Godot, who is absence incarnate. Beckett alludes to an excluded centre in the form of Godot, the...

Though it might not have been the intent of the question, this precise...

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 12:42:36 PST

Though it might not have been the intent of the question, this precise issue marks the purpose of not only the play but of all existence. The character of Godot marks the driving force of the Vladimir and Estragon because it is for whom they are waiting. Essentially, the purpose of both characters, the reason why they are there, is to eagerly await the arrival or mere presence of Godot. Beckett denies that Godot is "God." Of the many...

Who is Godot in the play 'Waiting for Godot'?

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 11:35:54 PST

Who is Godot in the play 'Waiting for Godot'?

The reactions to Pozzo can be seen in a "before" and "after" manner. ...

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:48:26 PST

The reactions to Pozzo can be seen in a "before" and "after" manner. In the first Act, Pozzo is the master in his own sense of the Master/ Slave Dialectic with Lucky. He is the one asserting control, the agent of action, the one who claims to be free. He is the one who chains Lucky, and who seeks to impress Vladimir and Estragon with his own sense of control, wealth, fashion, intellect and demeanor. Their reaction to him in the first...

Show how Vladimir and Estragon react to Pozzo in Waiting for Godot.

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:30:54 PST

Show how Vladimir and Estragon react to Pozzo in Waiting for Godot.

Part of the reason Waiting for Godot has a contemporary appeal is...

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:17:57 PST

Part of the reason Waiting for Godot has a contemporary appeal is because there is much within the play that speaks to the modern condition. The tramps both have plenty of factual knowledge and information, and can articulate their views quite clearly, yet there is still a hollowness that enables their paralysis, their condition of waiting, to take hold of them. This has modern reflections as the preponderance and capabilities of information...

Why does Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot appeal to us even today?

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:20:38 PST

thanks

Part of what makes the absurdist theatre so thought provoking and so...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:05:18 PST

Part of what makes the absurdist theatre so thought provoking and so powerful is that is arises from a world of disorder and of chaos, and seeks to bring light to this. The absurdist authors write in the wake of 20th century notions of "progress" and "civilization." After seeing wars in which millions were killed and human cruelty at an unprecedented level, there is little, if any, moral or ethical order present. The absurdist writers...

The "cosmic state" of which Beckett speaks in Waiting For Godot is the...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:49:50 PST

The "cosmic state" of which Beckett speaks in Waiting For Godot is the paralysis caused by waiting. In the play, the tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, represent the modern human being. They represent this through their speech, their language, their expressions, their emotions, their wants, their loves, their habits, their foibles, and their identities. However, Beckett seems to be making the point that their paralysis is what ends up...

In Waiting for Godot, Beckett is speaking of a "cosmic state" a world...

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:45:15 PST

In Waiting for Godot, Beckett is speaking of a "cosmic state" a world condition in which all humanity is involved." Discuss.

This question has been previously asked and answered. Please see the...

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:50:52 PST

This question has been previously asked and answered. Please see the links below, and thank you for using eNotes.

What do you understand by the Theatre of the Absurd? Does "Waiting for...

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:18:18 PST

What do you understand by the Theatre of the Absurd? Does "Waiting for Godot" fit in the title?

Vladimir and Estragon, the “tramps” are the central images of...

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:30:56 PST

Vladimir and Estragon, the “tramps” are the central images of waiting in Beckett’s work. Their existence in the play is predicated on waiting, meaning we only get to know them because of their waiting. This is their existence, defined by waiting. It is here where we understand that the characters live their lives in front of us, but only in the mode of waiting. We see them do everything, and yet, nothing for they are only...