Waiting for Godot - Thinking Activity

 Hello Readers!

Today i am going to write about with the Reference of screening scheduled at our English Department on 24th November. The film screening was about WAITING FOR GODOT .

Click Here to read the Recourse blog. Samuel Beckett was a modern playwright and was associated with the "Theatre of the Absurd". This play is originally written in French with the title En Attendant Godot.  

• What connection do you see in the setting (“A country road. A tree. Evening.”) of the play and these paintings?

These are the paintings by Casper David Friedrich, titled as "Longing." The title of this painting is 'longing', here longing means deep desire for something. Waiting is connected with longing. Two persons in the paintings connects us with two main character of the play Vladimir and Estragon. In the painting we can the sunrise and sunset . And we can also say that the waiting difference in play is here we can see and we can say it to see the standing position. As the two persons in the painting are waiting for something, Vladimir and Estragon are also waiting for Godot.

• The tree is the only important ‘thing’ in the setting. What is the importance of tree in both acts? Why does Beckett grow a few leaves in Act II on the barren tree - The tree has four or five leaves - ?

The tree is reflection of absurdity and it's apt for the background that's why tree is more important in this setting. Many time tree symbolically presented in the play when Vladimir and Estragon try to be hebetate like tree. So, leaves stand for hope and despair. In first scene tree was destroyed so we can interpret and connect it with world war-2 because this play written just after war and in second act this tree have leaves so it stand for hope.

• In both Acts, evening falls into night and moon rises. How would you like to interpret this ‘coming of night and moon’ when actually they are waiting for Godot? 

In both the act we find that when night comes its reflection of there life how are absurd  they are waiting for something is not come so finally the night is reflection of there lost or something that they want to achieve but then not achieve or then not get success,
And when the moon rise it's reflect that there is one hope that The Dark night will be end with this beautiful moon and there life darkness is also and just like night will end and morning comes so the moon is reflection of hope in Dark night.

• The director feels the setting with some debris. Can you read any meaning in the contours of debris in the setting of the play?

The director used debris in the setting. So, it can be the influence of the World war-2 in the material world. Therefore, we can say that the meaninglessness of material world that keep on destroying, nothing is permanent in the life.

• The play begins with the dialogue “Nothing to be done”. How does the theme of ‘nothingness’ recurs in the play?