Analysis Of Waiting For Godot And Endgame From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for literature,Samuel Beckett(1906-1989)earned a solid reputation for being one of the most important authors of the 20th century.Beckett wrote many plays,several novels as well as a number of poems and essays in his lifetime.Due to the outstanding achievement in plays,Samuel Beckett is honored as the master of the Theatre of the Absurd.His innovative approach to dramatic character,language and plot is extensive appreciated and criticized by readers.The criticism at the early age is dominated by philosophical studies while the recent criticism is distinguished by more insightful approaches and broader issues in varied contexts.This thesis analyzes the absurdity of Waiting for Godot and Endgame from the perspective of reception aesthetics.Waiting for Godot and Endgame are the first two published plays of Beckett and also commonly considered to be Beckett’s most important plays.However,the spread and reception of these two plays have experienced a tortuous process on account of the diluted character,the disintegrated language and the fractured plot.Compared with the characters with heroic qualities and rounded personalities in traditional plays,the characters with features of anti-hero and anti-personality break up readers’ horizon of expectations,which stimulates readers to fill the blanks and find the absurdity of characters.No longer seen as the tool for expressing meanings and the means for achieving communications,the indeterminate language in his plays leaves blanks in the text,which appeals readers to fill the gaps and explore the uncertainty of language.Negating integral and rational pattern of traditional plays,the circular and irrational plot of his plays breaks down readers’ horizon of expectations and promotes readers to find the absurdity of plot.Through the absurdity of character,language and plot in Waitingfor Godot and Endgame,readers realize the absurdity of the world and human existence:on one hand,the world loses an accepted unifying principle;on the other hand,the existence of human beings has become trite,mechanical,complacent and despicable.Waiting for Godot and Endgame are the expression of people’s impulses and the response to the cultural and social changes.Through analyzing readers’ reception for Waiting for Godot and Endgame,we understand how modern men endeavor to come to terms with the world in which they live.Modern men attempt to face up to the human condition as it really is and try to be freed from illusions that are bound to cause constant disappointment.As a result,modern men can have the ability to face reality without meanings;to accept reality freely without fear and illusions and even to laugh at the reality.