Samuel beckett

Samuel  BECKETT

Life and  works: Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin. He studied French and Italian. When he received the degree he taught in Belfast. In 1928 he went to Paris and here he met James Joyse with he formed a lasting friendship. In 1930 he returned to Dublin as assistant to the professor of Romance Languages at Trinity College. However he soon left the routine of his academic career and he travelled in France, Germany, Ireland, and London for five years, and eventually he stayed in France. In 1940 when was occupied by the Germans, Beckett joined a Resistance group. After some of his friends were arrested, he fled and found shelter in a farm near Avignon.

He wrote many novels, but the most important is Waiting for Godot 1955). This novel represents the Theatre of the Absurd, which he revolutionised drama, and he had a great influence on later dramatists. He  the Nobel Prize in 1969. He died in 1989.

The plot: Divided in two acts, Beckett's play presents two protagonist: Vladimir, called Didi, and Estragon called Gogo. They wait a mysterious person called Godot.

Estragon and Vladimir are angry because they probably have a appointment with Godot, who appears the only solution for escape from their situation.

Initially, they pass the time speculating on the reasons for their condition and their chances of being saves. They also experiment briefly with the idea of killing themselves.

Than, the conversation becomes disjointed and fragmented. The dialog become absurd and the characters engage a misunderstood jokes and absurd word-play.

The monotony is briefly interrupted by three figures: Pozzo, and his servant, Lucky. Pozzo keeps Lucky with a rope. Than appear, in the scene a boy with a massage saying that Godot will arrive the next day.

In the second act the dialog is absurd like in the first act. Pozzo remembers nothing of their meeting the precedent day. The boy also returns with a new message saying that Godot will arrive the next day, but he, too, claims never to have met Vladimir and Estragon.

At the end Vladimir and Estragon, considerate again the idea of killing themselves.

Characters without a role: The play hasn't real story and also the characters don't know their identity. They haven't a real personality and often lost their memory.

In this play there is a sense of sterility because in the scene there are only men. Besides the characters take on different interpretation: Pozzo represents the master and than the capitalistic world, while Lucky represent the worker world. In the Freudian key Pozzo is the body while Lucky is the intellect.

Beckett uses an elaborate language: in a some cases the language is simple but in other cases the language have a double sense.

The play is comic but also tragic. In fact in some cases the scenes are comic. For example Estragon, while he was speaking, put down himself the trouser.

In other cases the play is tragic because Vladimir and Estragon have the idea of killing themselves. Besides the scenes develops under a three, a weeping willow. The three represent a pessimistic vision.This play is called "tragicomedy".

The figure of Godot: Godot is a character that he never appears. Some critics think that Godot represents God, but Beckett himself rejected this interpretation. In a speech a characters says that God will punish them. In this case Godot forgets God in the old testament. If Godot will arrive the characters are save. An other interpretation is this: in a sense Godot can be paralleled with the idea of the "ending", a next catastrophe. In fact in this period there is the "Cold War