Samuel Beckett: Sound and Silence

By pjrichert, march 2013 | 9 Pages (2225 Words) | 115 Views

Samuel Beckett: Sound and Silence Patrick Richert FHSU February 15, 2013 Samuel Beckett was a world renown author of poetry, novels, and theatrical plays. He was born in Ireland and spent much of his adult life in Paris. His works were primarily written in French, and then translated, many times by the author himself, into English. He is known for creating works of dark comedy, and absurdism, and later in his career a minimalist. Due to his late start as an author, he is considered one of the last modernists, along with his good friend and mentor James Joyce. Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, and was upset by the selection, claiming that James Joyce should have won it. For this reason he gave most of the 70,000 dollar prize to charities. His Life Beckett was born to a well off Protestant family in Dublin, Ireland, and matched much of the pursuits that this affluence predicted. He excelled as a pianist, in track, boxing, tennis, and most notably in Cricket. He still stands as the only Nobel Laureate with a listing in Wisdens Cricketers Almanack, considered the oldest running sports publication in the world. Beckett was born on April 13, 1906, a date reported by Beckett himself. Beckett also claims that this is not entirely accurate, as he has recollection of being in his mothers womb. The legal system refutes this even further, with legal documents reporting his birth a month later. As he grew older, Beckett turned more and more towards academia, and enrolled in Trinity College at the age of 17, where he studied French and Italian. During this time he was also exposed to theatre, as well as the silent films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, all of which would have an influence on his future writings. After receiving his Bachelors Degree from Trinity College in 1927, Beckett travelled to France, and was introduced to James Joyce, who was enjoying the success and fame of his books Ulysses, and A... [continues]

Waiting Fo Death - Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

By stephaniemp17, april. 2013 | 6 Pages (1251 Words) | 67 Views

Waiting for Death By: Stephanie Melo Pabn Analysis on Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is a play starred by Vladimir and Estragon, two men who seem to spend their days in a country roadtalking, wandering and blathering while waiting for a person they call Godot. This Godot never appears in the story but they both talk about him -her, it, it is difficult to define- at the same time that they look for things to do while waiting.

During the two days they spend in that place just in the company of a dead tree, they have two encounters with two other men: Pozzo, an aggressive that seems to be the master of the other; the other man is Lucky, a terribly sick and tired man that looks like a mistreated donkey. The last character that appears is a boy who brings messages to Vladimir and Estragon saying that he -because the boy calls him he- is not coming today but tomorrow, for sure. The setting, as I said before, is a country road with just one mound and a dead tree -a willow like they think it is called-, everything leading to a hopeless atmosphere that accompanies their endless waiting. I think reading Beckett is a very difficult as he takes modernism to the highest level. He really expresses stories with plot and characters through his own way of thinking. I liked reading the play in spite of my dislike for reading plays; I do not like to read the setting and the characters actions and movements in such an explicit way. This time I was totally delighted by the characters dialogues. It was interesting to see how many thoughts about their conversations, the objects they use in the story, the setting, and their physical and personal description, actually arose. I read the play two times and watched one staging; since the first time I had many different thoughts and ideas to interpret the characters and situations they are in, these interpretations are the ones I will be telling.

Samuel Beckett Described His Waiting for Godot as a Tragicomedy. to What Extent Is This Is an Accurate Description? Would You Say There Is More Tragedy Than Comedy or a Mixture of Both?
By debbiesadiq, april. 2013 | 8 Pages (1950 Words) | 2 Views

Samuel Beckett described his Waiting for Godot as a tragicomedy. To what extent is this is an accurate description? Would you say there is more tragedy than comedy or a mixture of both? Through the use of many linguistic, structural and comic features, Samuel Becketts Waiting For Godot successfully places a wayfaring line between the two genres of tragedy and comedy. With the opening showing the two main characters Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo) in a barren setting with useless props such as Gogos boot and Didis hat and a leafless tree, there is an instant confusion created with a question as to whether this is truly a comedy at all. Estragons statement Nothing to be done starts the production off very cleverly as it is a true concept through the play; there is actually nothing being done by any character. It all seems to be useless rambling in the wilderness. There is no control in Didi and Gogos lives due to the obsession with waiting for Godot. Because of this they never bring themselves to leave. This leads the audience to ask the question. Is this really a tragicomedy or just a Tragedy? Seeing these men are obviously wasting their lives. Undoubtedly, Godot has comical elements with classic comedic actions such as trousers falling down and the struggle to take off a boot. With events like these in the play it is seen as direct, classic, light-hearted humour but with a deeper understanding we see this light-hearted humour with dark tragedy. The two however placed together do unarguably play essential roles in completing the play. Tragedy is evident in the play but undeniably there comedy, Comedy that maybe even encourages the tragedy? What about hanging ourselves? Hmm. Itd give us an erection! here there is definite sexual comedy; the idea of getting an erection would have been uncomfortable yet comical at the

time and even now. However, although there is humour in the topic, there are too tragic concepts with the results of the hanging... [continues]

The Avant-Garde Characteristics of Samuel Beckett's Play

By baisse123, april. 2013 | 6 Pages (1423 Words) | 108 Views

A Discussion of the Avant-Garde Characteristics of Samuel Beckett's Play The term 'avant-garde' means literally in French the 'fore guard,' the part of the military that goes before the main force. (Calinescu, 1987) In this 'going before,' the avant-garde of a military force not only exposes itself to greater risks from enemy positions (which may or may not be known), but it also can avail itself of greater strategic and tactical opportunities if it finds the enemy unprepared. As a term of art to describe what Calinescu calls "a self-consciously advanced position in politics, literature and art, religion, etc.," (p. 97) the avant-garde is both analogous to its military sense and contrary while the avant-garde of literature and art may resemble in some ways a forward position in a military maneuver, it also has associated with it something of the breakdown of all manners of characterization whatsoever, seeking to obliterate all positions by effacing or blurring the lines that define them. Samuel Beckett's Play is an excellent example of both the military and the anarchic senses of the term 'avant-garde' as it applies to literature, particularly theatrical drama. A work of utmost minimalism, the play follows the interconnected monologues of three characters in urns, two women and one man, who describe, from their own perspective, the unfaithfulness that pervaded their lives and that they must now live out for all eternity after death. Beckett's play is avant-garde in its use of stage direction and blocking, its characterization of the players as autonomic and lacking in the bourgeois ideal of freedom, and its style ofstream of consciousness narration and monologue rather than interactive dialogue between characters. Of course, the ultimate intention of avant-garde works like Play is to elude such genre classifications. This perhaps demonstrates that the avant-garde has already left Beckett's play behind and is moving on to new ground. Nevertheless, it would... [continues] Themes in Samuel Beckett s Waiting for Godot . Samuel Beckett s Waiting for Godot is a typical example of what is referred to in literary terms as Absurd Theatre, a phrase referring to 20th century works that depict the absurdity of modern human creation, often with implicit reference to humanitys loss or lack of religious, philosophical or cultural roots. Such works depict the individual as essentially isolated and alone, even when surrounded by other people and things. Many modern comic dramatists however are concerned to present credible characters. Recognizing the social order is an illusion and believing that the world is absurd, they can as in the theatre of the absurd present bizarre characters in bizarre situations. In works of Beckett for example comic laughter is replaced by a grimmer sort of humor including farce and sick jokes. Samuel Beckett has written in genres including fiction, poetry and criticism and is considered the

pioneer of the absurdist tradition. Some of the themes that occur and reoccur in Becketts works are, the search of self, the absurdity of man in the world, the dedication to artistic failure, the erosive force of time, the bankruptcy of the western culturaltradition, the encroachment of nothingness on being, the treacherous slippage of language, the wavering eye of hovering object etc. Waiting for Godot, considered universally a masterpiece and a contemporary classic was written in 1948, the period of high modernism. Translated into over a dozen languages, it has been performed in theatres, both small and large, by amateurs and professionals, on radio and on television. The plot of Becketts play is simple to relate. Two tramps are waiting by a sickly looking tree for the arrival of a certain Godot. While waiting they indulge in a plethora of activities, they fight, make up, eat a carrot and gnaw on some bones. Two other characters appear, a master and a slave, who perform a... [continues]

In Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett produces a truly cryptic work. On first analyzing the play, one is not sure of what, if anything, happens or of the title character's significance. In attempting to unravel the themes of the play, interpreters have extracted a wide variety symbolism from the Godot's name. Some, taking an obvious hint, have proposed that Godot represents God and that the play is centered on religious symbolism. Others have taken the name as deriving from the French word for a boot, godillot. Still, others have suggested a connection between Godot and Godeau, a character who never appears in Honore de Balzac's Mercadet; Ou, le faiseur. Through all these efforts, there is still no definitive answer as to whom or what Godot represents, and the writer has denied that Godot represents a specific thing, despite a certain ambiguity in the name. Upon study, however, one realizes that this ambiguity in meaning is the exact meaning of Godot. Though he seems to create greater symbolism and significance in the name Godot, Beckett actually rejects the notion of truth in language through the insignificance of the title character's name. By creating a false impression of religious symbolism in the name Godot Beckett leads the interpreter to a dead end. For one to make an association between God and the title character's name is completely logical. In fact, in producing the completely obvious allusion, Beckett beckons the interpreter to follow a path of religious symbolism. Throughout the play, references to Christianity are so often mentioned that one can scarcely identify a religious undercurrent; the presence of religion is not really below the surface. In the opening moments of the play, Vladimir asks "Hope deferred make something sick, who said that?" (8A). The real quotation, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," comes from Proverbs 13:12 of the Bible. Shortly after, Vladimir asks if Estragon has ever read the Bible and continues on a discussion of... [continues] Communicating without words Communication is the process that never stops, even if the person thinks he/she does not communicate. People interact not just with words, but they also use nonverbal messages that can be sent unconsciously. These nonverbal messages are inseparatable part of body language. Body language, that includes many parts, is a significant way of communicating that works for us or sometimes however against us since nonverbal communication tells what is actually meant by what is said. Body language reveals who we are and shows our relationship with other people. Thus, the knowledge of body language and how it performs is an important thing to know to be able to control it and make it work for yourself. Encoding nonverbal messages is useful for every person in everyday life situations in order to understand what the person actually means but does not want to say. So people even not related with business should get interested in this topic too. In other

words, the ability to understand and control body language and nonverbal communication is totally necessary for every single personbut especially for those who are the public speakers and those who lead in organizations. Surprisingly, the topic of body language has been well and broadly developed not just in psychological but also in business journals as they write a lot about the use of body language in order to be a good leaderand speaker. Therefore, one of the point in this research essay is body language and nonverbal communication used by business people, leaders or speakers; to show examples how should they use it, what mistakes and failures they do regarding their behavior. As a result, it is a good material to learn from others mistakes, not from the own ones. While the most significant parts of body language are facial expression, gestures, and posture, these parts play the major role in sending nonverbal messages. There are also others, such as paralinguistics,...[continues]

Beckett's Absurd Characters Beckett did not view and express the problem of Absurdity in any form of philosophical theory (he never wrote any philosophical essays, as Camus or Sartre did), his expression is exclusively the artistic language of theatre. In this chapter, I analyse the life situation of Beckett's characters finding and pointing at the parallels between the philosophical background of the Absurdity and Beckett's artistic view. As I have already mentioned in the biography chapter, Beckett read various philosophical treatises; he was mostly interested in Descartes, Schopenhauer, and Geulincx. These thinkers are the main sourceswhich influenced and formed Beckett's view of the world as well as his literary writings. Beckett's major and the only theme appearing and recurring in all his works, is exclusively the theme of man. Beckett is interested in man as an individual, in his subjective attitude to the world, in confrontation of individual subject with the objective reality. According to Descartes, human being is composed of two different substances: body (res extensa) and mind (res cogitas).21 The body is a part of a mechanical nature, a material substance independent from spirit; and the mind, a pure thinking substance. This distinction of the two qualitative different substances is called subject-object "Cartesian dualism", 22 and it gave rise to number of philosophical problems, the essence of which is Their mutual connection. Beckett's characters are such subjective thinking substances surrounded by mechanical material nature; and as the subject-object connection was the most problematic part of Descartes' concept, it is one of the major motifs Beckett deals with. He uses dramatic symbols, to express the barriers and the walls between the worlds "in" and "out" as to demonstrate their incompatibility. His characters are physically isolated from what is happening "outside" and the space they are imprisoned in, is their inner subjective world.... [continues]

Existentialism of Samuel Beckett

By msm1179, november 2009 | 6 Pages (1338 Words) | 1955 Views

Matthew Morrison Professor Vasquez English 1102 5 December 2008 Existentialism of Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett was a very astound Existentialist. Becketts work was essentially existentialist and consciously or unconsciously, his works were infused with the idea that things have no inherent meaning and that our fallacy is to perceive meaning in everything. Existential philosophy became prevalent in the twentieth century as a symbol of the destruction of culture and tradition following World War II, asserting the hopelessness of humanity and focusing on life in a more honest but pessimistic manner than other socialistic philosophies. The philosophy recognizes the fact that humankind is capable of great evil and has limitless possibilities. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts. It emphasizes the difference between human existence and that of inanimate objects. Existentialism was a term adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism was identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. Heidegger's 1927 Being and Time, an inquiry into the being that we ourselves are (which he termed Dasein, a German word for existence), introduced most of the motifs that would characterize later existentialist thinking(Edward). One existentialist view is absolute individuality and absolute freedom. The Existentialist conceptions of freedom and value come from their view of an individual. Since we are all ultimately alone, isolated islands of subjectivity in an objective world, we have absolute freedom over our internal nature, and the source of our value can only be internal. I feel Beckett expressed this view in the expelled when the main character got thrown out of his apartment. He had no one he... [continues] Waiting For Godot By Samuel Beckett Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. Its awful. How far do you agree? Initially written in French in 1948 as En Attendant Godot , Samuel Becketts play was first staged in 1952, in Paris. It represents one of the most important movements of the twentieth century and is an example of the so-called Theatre of the Absurd, which had subsequently inspired numerous plays that were based on the idea of an illogical universe. The plot of the play is fairly simple and is, in fact, purely a development of its title. Its description is rather ambiguous, for while one may think that no action whatsoever takes place throughout the play, another might suppose otherwise. Principally, the story includes two tramps waiting at first hopefully, but in time with decreasing optimism for an indefinite, anonymous figure called Godot. Estragon and Vladimir (the tramps) entertain themselves with a seemingly improvised, somewhat meaningless and never-ending dialogue. Each Act represents a day, hence two days are spent wallowing about, waiting. The process of expectation is sometimes interrupted by intruders, such as Pozzo and Lucky two highly grotesque and metaphorical personas, and an indistinct figure, a Boy, who announces to the tramps in person that Godot will not be arriving until the next day. Hopefully and at the same time despairingly, the tramps resume their vigil by the tree, waiting for Godot, as the

curtain veils the stage. The setting of the play is even plainer: an unknown muddy plateau with a tree, which could represent any space of land on Earth, just like the characters (with their unfortunately chosen names) could embody any soul of the human society. This is effectively the place where Godot is not. Beckett avoids any precision or characterization of the setting, stating only: A country road. A tree. Evening. This intentional lack of detail focuses the audiences attention on the characters. The play... [continues]