Modernism In Waiting For Godot

Theatre is a complex art that attempts to weave stories of varying degrees of intricacies with the hope that feelings will be elicited from the audience. Samuel Beckett’s most famous work in the theatre world, however, is Waiting for Godot, the play in which, according to well-known Irish critic Vivian Mercier, “nothing happens, twice.” Beckett pioneered many different levels of groundbreaking and avant-garde theatre and had a large influence on the section of the modern idea of presentational theatre as opposed to the representational. His career seemingly marks the end of modernism in theatre and the creation of what is known as the “Theatre of the Absurd.”

In waiting for Godot, Beckett indicates the misery and the suffering of the human condition. Vladimir and Estragon exemplify this suffering through their actions and complaining. The term ‘waiting’ illustrates the nature of the play, taking part in all the actions of the play (Bennett

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changes in the dynamics of society caused intellectuals to question the traditions of everyday life. From religious views to the arts of literature, traditional values and forms were rejected, thus defining a line between the two time periods, which can be considered as the start of the Modern era. Also known as Modernism, the modern era used literature as an outlet for expressing the thoughts and feelings of the time. Modern texts use city life, industrialization and globalization, and ironic and satirical themes to showcase their bleak outlook on life post both world wars. The nature of these events are aspects of society

Although ‘Waiting for Godot' is seen to be very depressing and contains many elements which may mark it as a tragedy, the four characters create a great deal of humour in their mannerisms and their behaviour. Beckett created the concept of ‘The Theatre of the Absurd', a play on human emotions and character which may give off feelings of despair, yet also of humour simultaneously. Most of the time, the audience tends to laugh at the helplessness created by Vladimir and Estragon in the play, and the play can be seen to be very funny at times, a prime example being when every character present has fallen to the floor and is supposedly unable to get up. Beckett uses humour for a number of different purposes in the play, which will be outlined

The term “contemporary literature” applies to anything written after World War II. Like all historical eras, the era of contemporary literature has formed, and continues to form, the literature that is present today. The contemporary literary era defines a time period but also describes a particular style and quality of writing. Much of the literature written in this era is diverse, ironic and reveals political, social and personal views.

Literature: the enlightenment, romanticism, realism, modernism, and postmodernism…. Where does one begin? To some, those words can be as scary as the word computer is to others. This essay is designed to help you become a great literary interpreter. Getting the motivation is three fourths of the battle to getting into the heads of the artists. To begin, an outline of some of the literary movements has been provided.

When it comes to modernism the traditional begins to be left in the past. This range spaning from 1900 to 1950 sparked a new generation of writers, poets and even artists to move away from the traditional aspects of Life at the time. This famous time frame accurately labeled the Roaring Twenties, was a time when all people were moving away from the norm that had filled every day life since the end of World War 1. It's no wonder that writers themselves also moved away from what had always been, to make something new. No longer did writers Focus so much on domestic life. During this portion in the long history of writing styles, authors moved to catch the perspectives of those that surround the Globe in such a way that those they knew could understand.

To be modern in literature is to reject traditional acceptance and give prominence to individual sensibility. As the world expanded from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century, internal expansion grew as people were exposed to new thinking within humanity. With the spark of fresh intuition, the practices of nations shifted into the new models of the Early Modern period. By way of a new era, homelands began to differ in social and economic advancement; though the differences rebirthed a foundation for human kind, connections remained resilient as a result of commonality through cultural perceptions. Granted that the outlooks on life arose social awareness, the acceptance of individuality increased in significance. With the intentions

The vogue for Beckett started with the success of Waiting for Godot which was produced in Paris in 1953. It was his first play apart from one, Eleutheria, written in 1947 which was never published or performed. In 1946, Samuel Beckett wrote Mercier et Camier which according to Ronald Hayman in his critic essay entitled Contempory playrights Samuel Beckett 'show how the dialogue of the male couple anticipates the exchanges between Vladimir and Estragon ' in Waiting for Godot.

Starting from the Renaissance era, where man struggled with the power of God, the Romantic era, when self-expression flourished, and the twentieth century, which saw the onset of modernism, Western literature has saw a significant evolution. Three works, Paradise Lost, an epic poem that shows the struggle for man to grasp the concept of God, Leaves of Grass, a set of poems that celebrate the author’s sense of life through self-expression, and Metamorphosis, which illustrates the life of a man who let modern life demean him, illustrate through different styles how they reflect their times. Their authors, John Milton, Walt Whitman and Franz Kafka, were able to show how in these different stories through the content, their choice of language and style of writing, how they helped evolved Western Literature.

Beckett purposefully strips the setting of all elements of reality—namely time and definition. In Waiting for Godot, his stage directions simply state, "A country road. A tree. (1)" Such simplicity initially seems to muddy the clarity of the work, causing confusion as to the location and specifics of the characters' plight and conditions. However, as Daryl McDaniel constitutes, bareness of the set only serves to create a "complex fictional and highly theatrical world (McDaniel 1)." As the play goes on, this vague scenario also serves to make the work universal, due to the commonality of such elements in nature. Similarly, although Endgame's plot plays out in a more confined and defined space, a room with two high windows and two ashbins, the surroundings are bleak and undefined. Collectively, Beckett's use of setting defies reality. Jean-Jaques Mayoux elaborates on this point to clarify, "a realistic setting would spoil everything (Mayoux 42)." Beckett's intentional bleaching of the set allows for the perfect portrayal of the world as incomprehensible. The distortion of time serves to enhance the incomprehensibility of Beckett's works. Not only does Beckett fail to specify a time period, the element of time passage becomes unfathomable, implying the same about the world in which we live. Waiting for Godot opens with the

Who is Godot and what does he represent? These are two of the questions that Samuel Beckett allows both his characters and the audience to ponder. Many experiences in this stage production expand and narrow how these questions are viewed. The process of waiting reassures the characters in Beckett's play that they do indeed exist. One of the roles that Beckett has assigned to Godot is to be a savior of sorts. Godot helps to give the two tramps in Waiting for Godot a sense of purpose. Godot is an omnipresent character that helps to give meaning and function to the lives of two homeless men.

During the eighteenth century, a style of writing called romanticism that challenged societal norms began to emerge. It worked against the Age of Enlightenment and encouraged emotional, visual, and knowledge as the reservoir for influence. From this time six important authors surfaced: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Byron, and John Keats. Included in this list should be Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Wollstonecraft. The eighteenth century produce material that shattered the fundamental’s of society.

Samuel Beckett uses some techniques to portray the idea of modern life being absurd in “Waiting For Godot”, these techniques include symbolism and metaphor, also he uses a special form that is anti-play that is a feature of Theatre of the absurd in the drama. “Waiting For Godot” is a classical theatre of the absurd.

Theatre of the absurd is one of the prominent schools of drama which flourished during the twentieth century. Absurd plays usually convey the believe that human existence is pointless and life is irrational, meaningless, and futile. Therefore, they illustrate humanity’s correspondence to the absurdity of the world especially after the two destructive world wars. Although people struggle to give life meaning, their inability to find any led them to experience anxiety and confusion. As a result, people started to doubt religion, question the existence of God, and suffer from weak faith. Samuel Buckett’s play Waiting for Godot deals with several themes that highlights the absurdity of human conditions.