Compared with the pioneering work of "absurd drama", Ionescu's "Bald Singer", which was snubbed at the premiere, Becket's "Waiting for Godot" is much luckier, and after its premiere in January 1953, it was performed more than 300 times in Paris alone, and then translated into more than 20 languages and staged in many countries, which has endured for a long time.
Since Baudelaire proposed the "Theory of Harmony" and published "The Flower of Evil", the excellent use of symbolism has produced a strong "modernity" in literature. From the symbols of sensibility to the symbols of reason, from pre-symbolism to late symbolism, to futurism, expressionism, surrealism, etc., many modernist literature is refreshing.
At this point, all the creative principles based on realism have been broken, showing a strong irrationalist tendency. In postmodernist literature, including "absurdist drama", it not only completely abandons realism, but also criticizes and deconstructs modernism, thus pushing anti-tradition to the extreme.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > existence and nothingness</h1>
In our imagination, no one would want to pay to see a drama with no beginning and no end, almost no storyline, and no idea what to say.
And "Waiting for Godot" is such a play, the whole drama is based on two tramps "waiting for Godot" as a clue, but before and after the two acts, Godot does not appear from beginning to end, and even who Godot is, even Samuel Beckett himself does not know.
An important feature of modernist literature is that it no longer conveys themes and connotations in terms of content, but in form. Of course, what "Waiting for Godot" wants to convey is left to the viewer to interpret for himself.
In my opinion, Beckett actually tells people a story of "existence and nothingness" in the play. On the country road, two old tramps, Estragon and Vladimir, stayed under a tree all day waiting for a man named Godot to arrive. In this process, they can only find nothing to do, and the play is manifested as a series of absurd behaviors such as boring dialogue, quarrels, reconciliation, hanging, etc.
And who Godot is and why they are waiting for Godot, even they themselves can't tell. But waiting for Godot, it seems, is the only reason and all hope for their existence.
In the end of course nothing happened, neither anyone came nor went, except for the waiting thing itself. Or that they can only exist in a waiting way and will continue to exist, but the purpose of existence is meaningless and empty.
In the first half of the 20th century, the historical trauma brought about by the two major wars made mankind face an unprecedented spiritual crisis. Beckett's absurd theatrical form, in "Waiting for Godot", shows that it is the anxiety and uneasiness that prevail in people's hearts in this context.
Samuel Beckett
A small road, a mound, a tree without leaves, this desolate scene design symbolizes the living environment of people and the desolation of the heart. The boring dialogue and absurd behavior of the characters in the play are also the epitome of the living conditions of human beings.
The value of literature or art, or the core spirit and preciousness, lies in the fact that it not only reflects the times, but also transcends the times! Penetrating history and crossing the long river of time and space, it still has the power to touch people's hearts.
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<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > philosophical implications: absurdity from an existentialist perspective</h1>
The reason why "Waiting for Godot" has struck a wide range of resonance is that humanity has never and will never be able to escape its declared predicament of survival. In addition to artistic contributions to postmodernist literature, especially "absurdist drama", Beckett's works reflect a profound existential philosophical connotation. In The World as Will and Appearance, Schopenhauer not without pessimism points out:
Life is a mass of desires, desires that cannot be satisfied are painful, satisfaction is boring, and life oscillates between pain and boredom.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Nietzsche proposed that "God is dead" and also believed that life is a kind of nothingness, and that human existence has no meaning. This nihilistic view, on the contrary, laid the foundation for existential philosophy.
The value of life, or the meaning of life's existence, is pointed to nothingness. So for a long time, people thought that existentialism was a pessimistic philosophical idea. Even Sartre, who proposed that "existence precedes essence" and carried forward existentialism, said in his book Existence and Nothingness:
The world is absurd, life is painful, life is meaningless.
At the same time, Korsat criticized this misreading in his paper Existentialism is a Humanism. He emphasized in particular that existentialism is not a pessimistic philosophy, and advocated that while acknowledging nothingness, facing nothingness and actively looking for a way out, in the process, realizing the value of a free life. Thus Sartre argues that "existentialism is a humanitarianism".
I think that "Waiting for Godot" can not be interpreted in this way, that is, the seemingly boring, helpless, and anxious and painful waiting behavior of the two people, on the surface, shows a tragedy of survival dilemma, indicating that life is going to an end in blindness; on the other hand, it also reflects the optimistic spirit of human beings who need to find a way out in confusion and confusion.
The two were unsure, or perhaps knowing that Godot would not come, but still waited after the argument. Even at the end of the second act, when they verbally agree to leave, their bodies remain standing still until the end of the play.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Since the world is absurd, and the meaning of life is also the fiction of human beings themselves, then existence itself represents nothingness itself. And does the absurdity of waiting also represent the tragic spirit of human beings looking for hope in hopelessness and knowing that they cannot do it? Sartre said:
Hope is part of human nature.
Therefore, as long as man lives, he must have hope in the spirit, whether the essence of existence is absurd or nihilistic. This hope cannot be equated with the will to survive in Schopenhauer's philosophy.
There is both optimism and tragedy; Godot may or may never come. Beckett's absurdity is a life situation in which hope and disappointment coexist.
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I am reminded of Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus, in which he said that the human condition is like that of Sisyphus punished by God, going back and forth in vain in the midst of hopeless disillusionment. In the face of the absurdity of life, Sisyphus did not succumb to pessimistic nihilism, but faced the absurdity, and fought against it, he successfully dominated his own destiny and became a hero in the absurdity. So Camus thought that Sisyphus was happy. If human beings can also realize the value of freedom in the absurd, then human beings are also happy!
From this point of view, Beckett's Waiting for Godot is not necessarily a further extension of the pioneering ideas of Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and so on.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > waiting, the eternal theme of life</h1>
Since Godot did not appear in the end, the only prominent theme in the whole play is actually the word "waiting". Waiting for no results is another kind of helplessness for people's lives.
Waiting for Godot reveals the collective destiny of all humanity. Life may be a virtual journey, but it must be believed that hope and redemption are waiting.
Waiting is the eternal theme of life; waiting is also an attitude towards life. Even if we knew, there might be nothing behind it, but we had no choice!
Therefore, when facing waiting, different people will have different attitudes, some are negative, confused, and confused; there are also positive, optimistic, detached and open-minded.
Waiting is often accompanied by anxiety, confusion, irritability and restlessness, and even crazy behaviors and psychological states. The absurd performance of the two in the play is a symbol of this helpless situation of human beings.
In the West, Friday is Good Friday, the worst day in the world. Three days later, however, it was Easter, and people rejoiced again.
In times of suffering, people waited in anxiety, hoping for the coming of the Savior. From all human beings to every individual, man's whole life is consumed in waiting, and disappears in waiting.
Wait for the weather to turn better, wait for the sadness to pass, wait for the lover to come home...
The meaning of waiting is that everything is unknown, and the unknown contains all possibilities!
Whether you are a voluntarist, an existentialist, or a materialist, as long as you are not a fatalist, then for you, the wonder of life lies in this unknown. And the unknown will be one of the reasons to keep you alive.
The only force that can dissolve the unknown is time, waiting. In this process, man becomes a slave to time on the one hand, and on the other hand has to give some meaning and value to the existence of nothingness itself.
Pessimistically, waiting for the unknown, like a carrot hanging in front of a donkey's eyes, is also an absurdity. But as the existentialist ideas revealed in the works of Sartre, Camus, or Beckett, human beings need to have the courage to face the absurdity like Sisyphus, the don Quixote idealists, and even the spirit of AQ is not useless in the face of absurdity.
Whether the end of the unknown is disappointment or hope, many times you have no choice but to wait. In Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, at the end of the book, Scarlett speaks to herself in the face of life's predicament, the original English text is:
After all, tomorrow is another day.
This sentence translates literally as:
After all, tomorrow is another day.
And this translation can actually have two very different meanings, one is positive, meaning "tomorrow is a new day", indicating hope; the other is negative, meaning "tomorrow's things tomorrow will be said tomorrow", one is to get by.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Who is Godot? </h1>
"Waiting for Godot" was staged in a prison in the United States and unexpectedly resonated with prisoners. The prison is filled with dark, hopeless and suffocating air. The absurdity of the two tramps who spend their time hollowing out their minds while waiting is like their lives.
Waiting for Godot, for prisoners, is waiting for hope, and Godot means more positives. And for most ordinary people, who is Godot? But it is difficult to specify a given. So, when asked after the show, "Who is Godot" or "what does Godot represent?", Beckett always refused to identify Godot or allude to him, saying, "If I had known, I would have said it in the play." ”
Some have speculated that Godot evolved from the English word "God". Represents God, God or Savior. From this point of view, Godot of course implies hope, is a positive factor, a better future than today.
However, the so-called Godot may not exist, he will not come at all! And Godot in the play did not appear until the end of the curtain, suggesting that it is just a fantasy created by humans themselves. For example, Nietzsche shouted "God is dead," "Reevaluation of everything," and passionately called for the arrival of "Superman."
It has also been suggested that Godot actually symbolizes death. God, the Savior, or the "superman," they may not come; death alone will come sooner or later. Existentialist philosophy holds that existence itself is a process of death. Because death is a constant state, from the moment of birth. So, I don't think death represents all negativity. Kafka once said:
Life is meaningful because it stops.
I have to admit that in reality, the only thing that can really redeem mankind is death except God. It's cruel, but it's the truth. Psychological research has shown that everyone thinks of death in their lifetime, and has had suicidal thoughts. If there is no death, there is no existence! Death is the only thing that makes humans aware of existence. And the incredible thing about life is that death can come at any time, but we never know when it will come.
Vladimir and Estragon, also thinking of death in the hopeless wait, also put into action:
Estragon: Let's hang ourselves right away.
Vladimir: On the branches? (They walked toward the tree) I couldn't believe it.
Estragon: It's always okay for us to try.
But death is a difficult choice against the will to live. According to Schopenhauer's philosophy, man's life is determined by the will to live, and one of the ways to deny the will to live is death, and the denial itself is very difficult.
William shakespeare
So long before Schopenhauer, Shakespeare used Hamlet to interrogate and reveal this contradiction and confusion facing mankind:
Survival or destruction is a question worth considering; to silently endure the tyrannical poisonous arrows of fate, or to stand up against the endless sufferings of the world and sweep them away through struggle. Which of these two acts is more noble?
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If Godot really represents death, then he is someone who waits to see and does not want to see. Nor unless he dies, Godot will never come, and life will only have a long wait.
Because many times, we think that he is coming, and slowly we will find that what is coming is not the "Godot" expected in the waiting. It is like godot's messenger in the play, informing again and again: "Godot is not coming tonight, tomorrow is coming." ”
Godot's symbolism at this time is only one of the countless short-term goals of life. To put it bluntly, one desire after another, the source of suffering in Schopenhauer's philosophy. That is, desires that are not satisfied are painful (Godot does not come), and satisfaction is boring (Godot comes). Life is like a pendulum, oscillating between pain and boredom.
The real "Godot" is always at the end, and if human nature is not satisfied, he will never come!