Metaphors for the Effect of Watching Beckett’s Plays

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Metaphors for the effect of watching Beckett’s plays Waiting for Godot’s premiere was on 5 January 1953in the Theatre of Babylone. After the first Act, half of the audience went out, outraged by the nonsense. However, the remaining half stayed till the end. Among this reduced audience were probably reviewers. Some of them will later describe the effect of Beckett’s play through metaphors:” Seeing a dog, run over by a car, its back broken, writhing and whimpering in the road. The experience is unbearable, you just want to put the dog out of his misery.” and “Watching a clown trying very seriously, to sweep a circle of sunlight into a dustpan – i.e. a ludicrous but somehow beautiful and touching experience”. This essay will try to find out whether these images capture the essence of Beckett’s drama. The first image describes a dog in agony; the audience witnesses the “unbearable”. Actually, the dog is considered as the first animal ever to have shared men’s life; to have been domesticated. The oldest evidences of cultural links between men and dogs were found in the sites of Hayonim and Ein Mallaha in Israel; they date from 12.000 BCE. Since 11.000BCE, dog and man relationship became word widespread. In the Asian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Roman civilizations, dogs were used for hunting, guard but also for company. The Egyptian even gave some gods the appearance of their favorite quadruped: Seth was visualized with the head of a greyhound whereas Anubis was depicted with a canine head. Despite the use of dogs in wars and for combat, a dog is often described as a loyal companion to kids as well as for adults. It’s no wonder that the image of a dog undergoing its last agony can arouse in the audience an agony of feelings. Indeed, a dog is often viewed as the companion of games, bringing joy to the whole family. It incarnates joy and a living souvenir of happy

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