Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett is a representative of Irish critical realist literature, representing "Waiting for Godot". Like Ionescu, he was a leading figure in absurdist theater, and he claimed to be the founder and founder of absurdist theater. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. "Waiting for Godot" is his most representative work.
"Waiting for Godot"
"Waiting for Godot" caused a huge response in the theater world, which can be said to usher in a new era of modern drama in the twentieth century. The play has now been translated into more than twenty languages.
The story is actually very simple, that is, it is about two tramps, one named Gogo and the other called Didi, two people do not know what identity background, nor do they know their past experiences, only know that they are now two homeless people who have nothing, at the bottom of society.
The two tramps were waiting for a man named Godot on a dusk evening, on a desolate country lane left with only a low mound and a willow tree. Why wait for Godot, who is said to give them hope and let them decide if they still need to survive.
The waiting days were long and boring, so Gogo and Didi chatted, saying whatever they wanted anyway, and the content of what was said was illogical and completely incoherent.
Just as the two were chatting happily, a man named Bodro arrived, with his servant, Lucky One. The lucky ones are tied to a rope by Bozzo, and Bodro can insult and beat the lucky ones at will. What does this mean for the coming of the Master and Servant? It didn't make sense at all, but it came and went anyway, and there was a series of nonsensical conversations along the way.
The master and servant withdrew, at which point the messenger told Gogo and Didi, "Monsieur Godot will not come today, but he will certainly come tomorrow." ”
Gogo and Didi are starting to get tangled up again, do they have to wait? With a tangled up to the next day. The next day was still the same as yesterday.
At the same time, in the same place, Gogo and Didi had been waiting, and Bodro and Lucky were still passing by, but at this time, the master and servant were blind and deaf, respectively. After the master and servant left, it was still the child who reported the same news from yesterday. Gogo and Didi, the two tramps, decided to leave and come back tomorrow, but they didn't move.
At the end of the story, this is the story. In short, the plot of the whole play is absurd, there is no dramatic conflict, no character image, only clueless dialogue and absurd interludes. But this is the absurdity, and it is through this absurd form and content that Samuel Beckett fulfills his critique of reality—an absurd, alienated world, a deformed, sick society.
An absurd, alienated world
Gogo and Didi, two homeless people at the bottom of society, who live in an alienated, absurd industrial society, who are dressed in rags and dirty, who are so humble and lowly, who have lived in society all their lives, and who are still very empty in the end, and they do not know why they are alive.
They want to live, they can't even chew on their bones, they want to die, their trouser belts are crisp and short, they are broken as soon as they pull, they can't live, they can't die; they don't dare to stop evil, they don't dare to uphold justice, they don't dare to laugh; they don't know the real situation of the world, and they are afraid of others telling the truth; they are afraid of the night, and they have no interest in tomorrow; they are eager to communicate, but often they talk to themselves, and they can't really communicate; they also hug, and after hugging, they feel a deeper diaphragm. Despite the desperate desire to commit suicide, nagging and wanting to die, but no one "hangs", they want to end this painful life, but they always subconsciously avoid the end, it seems that there is still something that prevents them from moving towards the final liberation. The reason they can't die is precisely because there is still a glimmer of hope of redemption in their hearts, and they are endlessly waiting for Godot's arrival.
As for who Godot is? Why wait for Godot? None of them know. Knowing that they will not come, they will wait bitterly, live in waiting, and die in waiting.
After the Industrial Revolution, mankind entered the industrial civilization. Since the 19th century, large-scale industrialization, urbanization, and modernization have begun around the world. Industrialization and the progress of science and technology have made materials unprecedentedly prosperous, and human beings have been able to enjoy more materials and enter developed industrial societies; urbanization has made more and more people concentrated in cities and lived in cities.
However, the expansion of materials has led to the upside-down situation of human material servitude, industrialization and modernization have caused the alienation of people, money and commercialization have drowned out normal human nature, the high degree of organization of social institutions and the rapid expansion of large cities have aggravated people's sense of loneliness and alienation, and the whole society has shown a deformed and pathological alienation picture.
People need each other and exclude each other, and no one can get rid of the other, but they can't communicate. In modern society, in the face of the rapid development of social reality, in the face of such a modern society that is increasingly alienated from the economy, to society, and even to people's daily lives, no one can get rid of their living environment and survive.
However, in the modern bustling society, everyone cannot get rid of a sense of loneliness. People need each other, and no one can do without anyone, but they all maintain their own independent, closed spiritual world and cannot communicate with each other. The relationship between people has increasingly become a relationship of mutual use and mutual deception and mutual dumping.
Reason and science have brought political turmoil, economic depression and brutal wars to the Western world, moral decay, crisis of faith, and the collapse of traditional value systems. The catastrophe of society, the loss of personality and the destruction of individuality have made society a world unfit for human habitation. Since everything has lost its meaning, all that remains is waiting, and waiting symbolizes a meaningless life.
Meaningless life
Samuel Beckett, like Ionescu, used absurd drama to critique the world based on sartre and Camus's existential philosophy.
Existentialist philosophy holds that "the world is absurd, ugly, and irrational, and life is painful and meaningless." Everyone has his thoughts, his will, and his "subjectivity." Everyone is just a part, a part that can be replaced at any time, and society does not necessarily need him. Man's existence is not unique, irreplaceable, and unrepeatable.
Therefore, in such a society where "subjectivity" is abundant and not the only one, people have nothing but to fight with each other for their own survival and for their own interests. Honesty, humility, morality, conscience, tolerance, etc., are all excuses for fooling others and means of turning against each other. For the sake of personal gain, people often unite one side and attack the other. In intricate social relations, attacking the enemy often hurts friends, and the rescue of good people often benefits bad people.
It's a world without domination, without reason, without laws to follow, and everyone is in a lonely and cold environment. Again and again, everything that human beings have painstakingly managed has been destroyed by their own hands. How can such a world not be a ridiculous world? How can such a life not make people feel miserable? Since all human efforts are in vain, what is the meaning of life?