Waiting for Godop

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“Waiting for Godot” A play by Samuel Beckett. (5/1/1953) Supplementary text on “Death of a Salesman” The play is classified as a tragic comedy and is seen by critics such as Martin Esslin, in his book Theatre of the Absurd, to be part of the “theatre of the absurd.” To me it seems to parallel/contradict the themes throughout the tradition of the play. The setting is simplistic, consisting only of a tree on the side of a country road. The location is unknown and it seems like the characters have been placed in some kind of distant region that could be anywhere. The simplicity of the scene in which both acts of the play take place seems to symbolize a much more complicated existence located in space and time. The play has two acts, the first which is over a day and the second which is the next day. The 2 main characters in “Waiting for Godot” (Vladimir and Estragon) and their location represent men suffering from Albert Camus’ concept of nostalgia. The setting that Beckett creates for the characters is very desolate, and could be seen as man’s struggle to find a place or life full of meaning and sense. Though the characters are in fact far from this discovery of meaning and sense, they are stuck waiting for nothing. It’s indescribable. It’s like nothing, there’s a tree. That’s all, a Failure to Discover. The focus of the play is the struggle of the characters to fill up the time they wait with meaningful discussions and acts. The waiting is all these two ever do, and they constantly contemplate leaving and even suicide. The contemplation of suicide is important in a number of ways including; the severity of their boredom, and lack of meaning without Godot. Thoughts of leaving always end in hope of Godot’s arrival and fear of what there will be without this waiting. It seems as though the characters are stuck “Waiting for Godot”. The first themes I want
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