1. Samuel Beckett’s plays are often seen as belonging to a movement labelled ‘the theatre of the absurd’. What do you know about this movement? Which aspects characterize it?2. In the English translation, this play’s subtitle is “a tragicomedy in two acts”.
Is this a tragedy? Is this a comedy? Which tragic, comedic or tragicomedic elements does it contain?3. Critics have pointed to the influence, on Beckett’s theatre, of the vaudeville, the music hall, silent film and slapstick comedy. Where do we see these influences in the play?4. Pay attention to the plot and to characters. In which ways does Beckett break with our common and traditional assumptions about how plots and characters in plays work?5.
Analyze setting and time.6. What kind of language do we find in this play? Pay close attention to characters’ communication with each other, and try to describe it.7. Try to detect any religious references and allusions.
It is justified to make a religious interpretation of the play?8. “The more Joyce knew the more he could. He’s tending towards omniscience and omnipotence as an artist. I’m working with impotence, ignorance.
” These are Beckett’s own words. Do you think they shed any light on Waiting for Godot?9. “I’m not interested in any system. I can’t see any trace of any system anywhere”. These are Beckett’s own words again. Can they help us to understand Waiting for Godot?10.
One character in Beckett’s play, Endgame, asserts that “Nothing is funnier than happiness”. Try to relate this idea to Didi’s and Gogo’s fate in Waiting for Godot.11. Choose one or two sentences that, in your opinion, capture the ‘spirit’ of this play, that have shocked or surprised you, or simply that you like!
