"Waiting for Godot" written by Samuel Beckett. Our Professor Dilip BaradSir gave questions in this tasks, click here to follow that task. The answers to those questions are as follows.
1) What connection do you see in the setting (A country road, A tree, Evening) of the play and these paintings?
This painting is David Caspar. There is a theme of longing in his paintings. Which represents ambition. It shows a price to wait for. Longing is the intense desire for something. In this painting two persons look at sunset and sunrise. Which is depicted as a symbol of hope. Which is something we see in the play. The author’s purpose in both painting and play is different. David Casper is attracted to the spirit so his paintings show imagination and nature and his romance. While Beckett's motives are quite contradictory. Which seeks to show the meaninglessness of life through a desolate tree.
2) The tree is the only important ‘thing’ in the setting. What is the importance of trees 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 shown in Waiting for Godot is also a symbol. Which shows agility in man. Waiting for Godot Beckett's write from David Caspar's painting. He wants to show that the tree stands here and there as a hope. Similarly, the two characters in Waiting for Godot are also waiting for Godot here. When two leaves grow on this tree. It is a symbol of hope. That is how two leaves have sprouted on this tree. In the same way there is a hope that Godot might come today.
3) In both Acts, evening falls into night and moon rises. How would you like to interpret this ‘coming of night and moon’ when factually they are waiting for Godot?
We can associate the coming moon scene with hopes in this play. Because day after night and night after day. In the same way, when night is falling and the moon is rising. It points to a gradual Morning. That is, a new hope, the possibility of exhilaration. Perhaps Beckett awakens in us a hope that Godot may come in the evening or even in the moonlight through the moonlight at night. Such a theme arises there. Which might even happen at night to meet with Godot. That hope is awakened.
4) The director feels the setting with some debris. Can you read any meaning in the contours of debris in the setting of the play?
"A country road. A Tree.
Evening." (Act 1)
"Next day. Same Time.
Same place."(Act 2)
We can associate the debris shown in this play with the symbol of war. When a war breaks out there is a lot of destruction behind it. Wherever there is a war, a lot of property is destroyed and a lot of people die. Beckett we see in this play. Which shows us the absurd literature that represents despair and negativity. Where Godot is awaited by Vladimir and Estragon which is meaningless.
5) The play begins with the dialogue “Nothing to be done”. How does the theme of ‘nothingness’ recurs in the play?
ESTRAGON:(giving up again). Nothing to be done
"Nothing to be done". The matter is connected with a lot of context in this play. Because every man lives his own life. From his birth he is moving towards the end of his life. Then he feels like nothing in his life is going to happen. Which depicts the character of Vladimir. Man does a lot of things to live life. There is nothing left in his hands at last to do that. It is then that he speaks a line that represents Vladimir in the play. On the other hand, when a small thing does not happen to us, we say. That nothing will happen to me. Which we know by the character of estrogen. He fails to remove his boot, and says nothing to be done. That is, he associates the act of removing his boot with the whole life of Vladimir. Which shows the relationship between the two that the whole life has no meaning.
6) Do you agree: “The play (Waiting for Godot), we agreed, was a positive play, not negative, not pessimistic. As I saw it, with my blood and skin and eyes, the philosophy is: 'No matter what— atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, anything—life goes on. You can kill yourself, but you can't kill life." (E.G. Marshall who played Vladimir in the original Broadway production 1950s)?
Yes, I agree with the above statement. The play is positive rather than negative. Because this play depicts the reality of life. Every event that happens in human life is meaningless in some way or another. Which shows absurdity that is real and true. Because man does a lot to live life. But in the end, he must die. No matter how happy he is, sadness is bound to come in his life. No one can escape this truth. "Waiting for Godot" for Waiting is a kind of hope. Which are in everyone's life in different ways. Like the characters in this play, we have hopes and aspirations and we want them to succeed. Some of them succeed and some of them fail. But that is the reality of life.
7) How are the props like hat and boots used in the play? What is the symbolic significance of these props?
The hat is a symbol of the mind. The mind is also the kind of hat in which we wear thoughts. So Vladimir is a thoughtful man. While boots indicate the body. And measures the strength of the body. How much labor man has done in his life. We can know it through his boots. Doing labor makes the body strong. It can therefore be used as a symbol of Boots to measure strength and power in the body.
8) Do you think that the obedience of Lucky is extremely irritating and nauseatic? Even when the master Pozzo is blind, he obediently hands the whip in his hand. Do you think that such a capacity for slavishness is unbelievable?
Yes, I agree with the above statement that the obedience of Lucky is extremely irritating and nauseatic. Because being free is everyone's urge and primitive human desire. Sometimes we can get chance to be free from some constructed situation though we can not grab the opportunity because we are habituated with that constructed situation, it can not permit us to think beyond. Lucky knows well that his master has no power to see anything yet he do not go away from him and serving him without the question of real freedom. It is unbelievable as rational thinker but those who living sheeple's kind of life, they can be driven with the flow without questioning.
9) Who according to you is Godot? God? An object of desire? Death? Goal? Success? Or . . .
Godot is a symbol of desire. The way Vladimir and Estrogen stood waiting for Godot in this play. From that it seems they want to meet him. In the same way, desire is important in human life. Every man has a desire for something. Such as the desire to play and study in childhood, the desire to get a job and get married in youth, the desire to enjoy material comforts, the anxiety of their children in old age and the desire to fulfill their desires. That is, man has desires from birth to death. Which is the symbol of Godot in this play. Just like Godot does not come. And the desire to meet them remains unfulfilled. In the same way, every human being has a desire for something in life, which is never fulfilled.
10) “The subject of the play is not Godot but ‘Waiting’” (Esslin, A Search for the Self). Do you agree? How can you justify your answer?
Yes, I agree with the Esslin's point of view in 'A search for the self' that the subject and Because this whole play has to wait. There is one character who is shown waiting for another character throughout the play. Which leads us to a “wait” theme. Let's say Godot is waiting. Even then it seems that Godot is not important but waiting for him is more important.
11) Do you think that plays like this can better be ‘read’ than ‘viewed’ as it requires a lot of thinking on the part of readers, while viewing, the torrent of dialogues does not give ample time and space to ‘think’? Or is it that the audio-visuals help in better understanding of the play?
While reading is more important than watching a movie. Because the movie is fast moving. So it can be difficult to understand. But when we are reading, understand it and write it down. Thinking about it then moving on. Because wide reading and wide thinking is important to understand any literary thing. I'm not saying the movie isn't important here. But reading is more important than a movie. Because it can show important things rather than reading, tickMark can be done. It makes more sense if the movie is watched after reading. Reading after watching a movie is not appropriate. Anglo on camera is also important for reading while watching a movie. So watching a movie and reading is both important, but reading is more important.
12) Which of the following sequence you liked the most:
VLADIMIR: Two other . . . (he hesitates) . . . men?
BOY: I didn't see anyone, Sir.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: What does he do, Mr. Godot? (Silence.) Do you hear me? #
BOY: Yes Sir.
VLADIMIR: Well?
BOY: He does nothing, Sir.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: How is your brother?
BOY: He's sick, Sir.
VLADIMIR: Perhaps it was he came yesterday.
BOY:I don't know, Sir.
Silence.
I like the sequence of Vladimir and boy dialogue in this play. Because when their dialogue Vladimir asks a question? So Boy answers yes and no. When he doesn't understand the question or he doesn't want to answer. Then I don't know. And there is also silence for not answering questions. Something like this happens in every human life in which we just answer yes and no. And when we don't know anything, I don't know. And often we are in a completely silent mode.
13) Did you feel the effect of existential crisis or meaninglessness of human existence in the irrational and indifference Universe during screening of the movie? Where and when exactly that feeling was felt, if ever it was?
There is effect of existential crisis and meaninglessness , we find when nothing happens by the time. Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot but boy said that he will come tomorrow not today. Ultimately waiting is the meaningless act. It will not be fruitful at all. Life itself is nothing our existence is absurd and our waiting for death. So in play theme of nothingness creates effect of existential crisis.
14) Vladimir and Estragon talks about ‘hanging’ themselves and commit suicide, but they do not do so. How do you read this idea of suicide in Existentialism?
In the existentialism of the play we can read the idea of suicide in such a way that man is accustomed to living life. When he gets sick or has something in his body, he immediately tries to get well. From that it can be said that man loves to live life. Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like aint for me either. But he can't, like the characters in this play. Because man loves to live and he is used to living life. Because of this he cannot shorten his life and commit suicide. The existentialist person thinks that if this happened to me, what would happen? So it was supposed to happen, it doesn't count happiness as pain, it counts as equal. He lives his life accordingly. He never commits suicide.
15) Can we do any political reading of the play if we see European nations represented by the 'names' of the characters (Vladimir - Russia; Estragon - France; Pozzo - Italy and Lucky - England)? What interpretation can be inferred from the play written just after World War II? Which country stands for 'Godot'?
Yes, we can interpret the political reading in which connect character with European nations then Vladimir stands for Russia, Estragon for France, Pozzo represents Italy and Lucky symbolizes England.
16) So far as Pozzo and Lucky [master and slave] are concerned, we have to remember that Beckett was a disciple of Joyce and that Joyce hated England. Beckett meant Pozzo to be England, and Lucky to be Ireland." (Bert Lahr who played Estragon in a Broadway production). Does this reading make any.
Ireland was controlled by England. He had established his authority. England took power in Ireland and we can portray her as અ slaves. In the play it is also seen in the relationship between a Lucky and Pozzo. How Lucky Pozzo enslaved himself. He was drawing it like that. When Ireland gains its independence. But Ireland depends on England. It is not completely independent. It depends on it as part of the economy.
17) How does this conversation go in Act II? Is there any change in seeming similar situations and conversation? If so, what is it? What does it signify?
The two parts in this play are the same. They look the same in their setting, theme and every event that happens in it. Finally there is a change. In that Act-I, Vladimir speaks of "we". But in Act-II it speaks only of "I". That 'I am the only one waiting for Godot'. So from “we” came “I”. That is, selfishness is found in the nature of Vladimir at the end of the play.
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