[.ca] Waiting for Godot (ISBN 0660179814)

What is there to get from Waiting for Godot:
I thought the play beautifully expressed in laconic dialogue how some individuals deny reality, the human condition, and mortality by distracting themselves with meaningless activies. I don't know if Beckett saw life as meaningless. The mystery of life makes all of us story tellers. It's our responsiblity to find a story, activity, purpose, gift, belief that gives our lives fullness as opposed to emptyness.

The Absurdist Drama:
Along with Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," this play is very likely the best play ever written. Like the one mentioned above, it is not the most dinamic thing you'll ever read/see. Far from it. "Waiting for Godot" is still amazing, mainly thanks to the wonderful dialogue and intriguing characters. It's hard to write about this without getting straight to the point and I don't want to. Read it yourself and than get anti-depressants. If you really do intend to read it, have patience and look below the surface.

Reading this play without fitting it into boxes:
I believe all you need to know is that the characters all wear melon hats and suits... And that the play is written originally in French (Beckett's first play in French, and a smashing success), and surprisingly French despite Beckett's British origin... Hence you are reading a translation, sadly... MetaTheater, dadaism, post-ww1 dissilusionement, all that ain't matter much... Well I say, to appreciate this play you do not need to know beforehand or care beforehand who Godot represents... whether he's "God" or some political figure... Superfluous definition of this play is not the point. Beckett wrote, and I paraphrase this translation: "I can't tell you what the play signifies. I can't tell you more than the words in the play don't already tell you. The characters of the play and I have gone our seperate ways..." etc, etc... That is all. Read it, read it loud, read it again in a few months, whatever.

A Metaphor for Life:
What a fabulous play. I read it over an over again and every time I discover new meaning. Admittedly, the first time I read it, I hated it. The second time I read it, I understood just how profound this play really is. But then again, that is for you to discover. On another point. Unlike what some reviewers have asserted, Godot is not sapposed to represent God. Godot is not sapposed to represent anything in particular. Rather, to each person, he will represent something different. Again, it's for you to find that meaning within yourself.

"Nothing happens, twice":
"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!". That phrase, said by one of the main characters of "Waiting for Godot", somehow sums up the whole plot of this short tragicomedy in two acts. Strange??. You can bet on that!!!. So much that a well-known Irish critic said of it "nothing happens, twice". The play starts with two men, Vladimir and Estragon, sitting on a lonely road. They are both waiting for Godot. They don't know why they are waiting for him, but they think that his arrival will change things for the better. The problem is that he doesn't come, although a kid does so and says Godot will eventually arrive. Pozzo and his servant Lucky, two other characters that pass by while our protagonists are waiting for Godot, add another bizarre touch to an already surreal story, in which nothing seems to happen and discussions between the characters don't make much sense. However, maybe that is exactly the point that Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wanted to make. He was one of the most accomplished exponents of the "Theatre of the Absurd", that wanted to highlight the lack of purpose and meaning in an universe without God. Does Godot, the person that Vladimir and Estragon endlessly wait, symbolize God?. According to an irascible Beckett, when hard-pressed to answer that question, "If I knew who Godot was, I would have said so in the play." So, we don't know. The result is a highly unusual play that poses many questions, but doesn't answer them. Ripe with symbolism, "Waiting for Godot" is a play more or less open to different interpretations. Why more or less open?. Well, because in order to have an interpretation of your own, you have to finish the play, and that is something that not all readers can do. "Waiting for Godot" is neither too long nor too difficult, but it shows a lack of action and purpose in the characters that is likely to annoy many before they reach the final pages, leading them to abandon the book in a hurry. That is specially true if the reader is a student who thinks he is being barbarously tortured by a hateful teacher who told him to write a paper on "Waiting for Godot" :) My advice, for what it is worth, is that you should persist in reading it. If it puts you to sleep, try reading it aloud with some friends, and discuss with them the implications of what happens with the characters. This play might not be thoroughly engaging, but it changed theatre and the possibilities opened before it forever. In a way, it provoked a blood-less revolution, and because of that it deserves at least a bit of our attention. Belen Alcat