| The Theatre of the Absurd was a new school of drama appeared on the stage of the Western world after World War II. Waiting for Godot, written by the Irish. writer Samuel Beckett, is widely regarded as the representative of the Theatre of the Absurd. Though it is quite different from traditional drama in both content and form, it has great influence on the post-war drama and promotes the renaissance of the modernist literature in the 1950's. The form of Waiting for Godot is grotesque, but the subject matter is based on the complex social background and deep belief crisis of the post-war Western world. It truly mirrors the pessimistic feelings and despairing mood of that time. To Beckett, content is form and form is content. So in this play, by using the absurd means to express the truth of life, it achieves the unity of content and form.On the basis of the Marxist literary theory, the thesis tries to systematically analyze Waiting for Godot from its absurd theme, circular structure and its symbolic means. From these analyses, we can find that Beckett makes use of irrational devices to express the absurdity of human conditions and meaninglessness of life vividly.First, the absurd theme of the play is used to reflect the meaningless of human life. The theme of the play is waiting rather than Godot. Waiting has deep implications. Waiting is pain; waiting represents hope; waiting also means futile struggle. Each level of "waiting" has close link with the social reality. Comparing the play with the reality, we can find the painful waiting not only exists in the play, but also constitutes the basic part of human life. The hope brought by "waiting" is extremely important for the existence and development of human beings. Though it is a hopeless hope, it can alleviate our suffering, by providing the picture of a happy future to us. But this kind of "hopeless" hope can never be realized, so people's struggle for better lives is in vain. The subject matter of absurdity and meaninglessness is based on the complex social background and deep belief crises of the post-war Western world.Secondly, The circular structure is used to imply that there's no exit for human society. Circular structure in the play suggests no matter how the event develops, it would always reach where it starts. There is no development in the characters and no amelioration of the situation the characters live in. In Waiting for Godot, plot, sequence of events, setting, movement and language in each act have much in common. And time, which is composed of past, present and future, also runs in circle in the play. The circle of flow of time also suggests stagnation and hopeless. In the social reality, people find their struggle for eternal peace and happiness is just like an endless circle. In such a hopeless situation, people can find no way out, they can only wait for an unrealized tomorrow.Furthermore, besides the structure, Beckett also employs the symbolic expressive means to mirror the reality. The title figure-Godot, is a symbol of the hopeless future; The desolate and bare setting is the allusion of the spiritual wasteland of mankind; unindiviaualized characters shows that all human beings are living in depression and anguish; devalued language reflects that the rapidly developed material wealth put mankind in analienated and oppressed state. So they cannot communicate with each other and understand each other.To sum up, as a masterpiece of Beckett, Waiting for Godot successfully reflects the truth of social reality of the Western world after the World War II in the absurd dramatic form. The play has remarkable social significance. It strips the illusions about reality, awakens people to the maladies and depression of society, and helps them recover humanity. In this play Beckett experiments with drama, makes use of fresh theatrical devices, thus widening the range of dramatic expression. But taking the existentialist philosophy as its theatrical basis, Waiting for Godot is limited within the existentialist ideology, so it exces... |
PDF Full Text Request