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Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Faber & Faber (2006), Edition: Main, 96 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Drama. Fiction. Literature. HTML: From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, "Time catches up with genius ... Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century." The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone�??or something�??named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett's language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member London_StJ
"Nothing happens. Twice," said Beckett scholar Thomas Cousineau. Samuel Beckett called Waiting for Godot "that mess of a play", and referred to it as a minor, "left hand" work. I could very easily call Waiting for Godot my favorite play. In Beckett's work nothing can be taken for granted, and
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nothing is presented without motive. Beckett attempts to break down the distinctions between his characters and the audience, and challenges conventional dramatic presentation with his focus on the Theatre of the Absurd. My favorite theme for analysis and discussion is Beckett's portrayal of identity and the requirements for existence, but the copious themes and motifs at work within the short play make Waiting for Godot a fantastic piece to work with in the classroom. I teach Beckett's famous tragicomedy every semester, and I look forward to the experience time and again. Show Less
LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
As postwar "what the fuck now?" this gets five stars. Six. As anything else it gets one, or zero, or a spider or a rat. So we average it out to three, minus one for the cult, plus a half for the riveting potential of what I'm gonna call the "bugeyed reading" and another half for the comedic frisson
So. Plus another half if somebody ever figures out how to blend the two readings, I thinks, but for now, three stars. Math.
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of, let's say, the "Monty Python"" reading (or maybe "Animaniacs," with Estragon as Wacko). I'm getting pretty sure comedy is the only place for existentialism anyway.So. Plus another half if somebody ever figures out how to blend the two readings, I thinks, but for now, three stars. Math.
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LibraryThing member Karlus
You may well have heard of Theatre of the Absurd and of this play which started it all fifty years ago. You are quite likely aware that the play involves two down-and-out men who occupy center stage throughout, who, during the entire play, cannot make up their mind whether or not to continue
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waiting for the arrival of an unknown third man, Godot. Until you have actually encountered the book and read it, or perhaps have seen the play, I would venture that you are entirely unprepared for the direct assault that this work will present upon your previous literary and theatrical sensibilities. It is a drama with almost no action, written with very sparse dialogue, set in a nearly barren landscape, presenting a very bleak view of an almost sub-human condition. Two episodes, which involve one forlorn man enslaved as a beast of burden by another, will add to your general dismay. Through these episodes, man's inhumanity to man comes to the fore in the limited action which the play presents. Described as an allegory for the human condition, this work will challenge you, the reader, to provide your own interpretation of its message and compare that to your own understanding and outlook on life. Here is an ultra-bleak existential view -- 'absurdist' is the word -- to kick-start your thought process. If you are so inclined. Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
WAITING FOR GODOT: I picked up Waiting for Godot with no knowledge of it other than having heard that it was a play in which not a whole lot happened.
Literary types have concocted political, Freudian, Jungian, existentialist, biblical and homoerotic (and many other) interpretations of the play. I
This play's influence on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is obvious, except that that play held the interest a little better and actually offered some philosophical insight on life.
Waiting for Godot goes into the category of works that people (pretentious literary snobs and pretentious literary posers) say are so deep and meaningful because they don't have the slightest idea of what it means. I'll be a man and say it's not deep and it's not interesting.
NOT RECOMMENDED
Literary types have concocted political, Freudian, Jungian, existentialist, biblical and homoerotic (and many other) interpretations of the play. I
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am not interested in any particular interpretation, for this reason: the play is extremely boring. By the middle of the second act, every last aspect of the play is tiresome. It's billed as "a tragicomedy in two acts." That's great, except it's not funny at all. This play's influence on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is obvious, except that that play held the interest a little better and actually offered some philosophical insight on life.
Waiting for Godot goes into the category of works that people (pretentious literary snobs and pretentious literary posers) say are so deep and meaningful because they don't have the slightest idea of what it means. I'll be a man and say it's not deep and it's not interesting.
NOT RECOMMENDED
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LibraryThing member Bruce_Deming
Story is like doing laundry. Watching the drier go round. Knowing it will happen again next week.
Supposedly means 'Waiting for God." They wait and wait.
Hey maybe i have this confused with No Exit by Sartre. By gum i do. Existentialism is dull.
Supposedly means 'Waiting for God." They wait and wait.
Hey maybe i have this confused with No Exit by Sartre. By gum i do. Existentialism is dull.
LibraryThing member gbill
One can understand why the Irish critic Mercier quipped it’s a play in which “nothing happens, twice.” In Waiting for Godot Beckett is certainly not telling a conventional story, and while he includes small bits of humor, he’s really commenting on the human condition, and with a very
Some have equated Godot, who the characters Vladimir and Estragon wait unsuccessfully for throughout the play, to God, and I think there is some truth to that as Beckett references or alludes to religion in several places – but I think more generally, Godot symbolizes any higher meaning, anything that would give this brief, transient life a purpose. That could be God for some and something else for others, but regardless, for these two, that meaning never comes. They end the play having answered no questions or taken any direction, pondering suicide, and are frozen into inaction by waiting for Godot so much so that they simply stand there even after agreeing to go. Oops, was that a spoiler?
The play is full of contradictions, repetitiveness, and questions – and there is little wonder why theatergoers and critics at the time exited thinking, wow, I just saw a whole bunch of nothing. Even the brutality and cruelty to others is presented as matter of fact and subdued. Beckett is making a philosophical statement at a time when, post-WWII, existentialism was on the rise, that feeling of bewilderment at life and the world around us, in part a reaction to man’s inhumanity to man, in part due to continued modernism and the growing disbelief in a grandfatherly higher power in the sky.
I wouldn’t guess this would be a ‘date play’ unless you’re dating an intellectual or a philosophy major, and I suppose one’s enjoyment of the written form is going to vary wildly as well, but I found it timeless, and a great artistic representation of the philosophy.
Quotes:
“quaquaquaqua” :)
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existential view. Life is absurd, meaningless, repetitive, confusing, cruel, and isolated. Some have equated Godot, who the characters Vladimir and Estragon wait unsuccessfully for throughout the play, to God, and I think there is some truth to that as Beckett references or alludes to religion in several places – but I think more generally, Godot symbolizes any higher meaning, anything that would give this brief, transient life a purpose. That could be God for some and something else for others, but regardless, for these two, that meaning never comes. They end the play having answered no questions or taken any direction, pondering suicide, and are frozen into inaction by waiting for Godot so much so that they simply stand there even after agreeing to go. Oops, was that a spoiler?
The play is full of contradictions, repetitiveness, and questions – and there is little wonder why theatergoers and critics at the time exited thinking, wow, I just saw a whole bunch of nothing. Even the brutality and cruelty to others is presented as matter of fact and subdued. Beckett is making a philosophical statement at a time when, post-WWII, existentialism was on the rise, that feeling of bewilderment at life and the world around us, in part a reaction to man’s inhumanity to man, in part due to continued modernism and the growing disbelief in a grandfatherly higher power in the sky.
I wouldn’t guess this would be a ‘date play’ unless you’re dating an intellectual or a philosophy major, and I suppose one’s enjoyment of the written form is going to vary wildly as well, but I found it timeless, and a great artistic representation of the philosophy.
Quotes:
“quaquaquaqua” :)
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LibraryThing member bruneau
As an absurdist philosophical exploration on the meaning of life (or lack of), it entertains in the dark perspective that life itself is a comedy, with or without a punch line, when one spends it waiting for something else than life itself. “Waiting for Godot” is very much an acquired taste.
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Reading the book has to be less satisfying that seeing the play, but this shortcoming is mitigated by the fact that it is generally performed with a minimalist décor. Show Less
LibraryThing member cmbohn
Let me start by saying that I do not like angst-ridden or depressing books. Several of my family members and myself have all dealt with depression, and some of us are still struggling. I do not need to read more about depressed people. Really, I just don't. So why did I put this book on my list? It
The plot is simple. Two men, Estragon and Vladimir, are waiting for a third man named Godot to arrive. That's it. While they wait, they try to pass the time. Godot never arrives.
It sounds like a pointless play, doesn't it? But it adds up to so much more. I am not a theater critic, but I found so much to connect with in this play. This play, to me, is about the human struggle to find meaning in life, and about what happens if you NEVER find that meaning. What then?
This is a line I loved, from Estragon to Vladimir.
"We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?"
I am a person with a great faith in my purpose in life. And yet, I think because of that perhaps, I am also a person who knows what it means to question whether there really is any meaning at all in my own life. I think that a person of faith has greater doubts than a person without. A person of faith knows that God exists, but knows that He is not present for us. A person without faith knows that there is no God, and doesn't expect anything else. So for me, I have struggled over and over with trying to find my own purpose here in this life.
The blurb on the front reads, "One of the most noble and moving plays of our generation, a threnody of hope deceived and deferred but never extinguished." The two characters wait for something to happen. In the meantime, they fuss with their clothes, they have a little something to eat, they meet other people and try to interact, but above all, they do nothing, because there is nothing to be done. And yet, they keep coming, every day, to wait.
Not everyone will appreciate this play. I tried to explain it to my daughter and she just didn't see the point in it at all. I'm not sure why it appeals to me. I think it is the fact that at the end of the play, Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting. I know that waiting.
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wasn't like I didn't know what it was like. No, it was because I saw part of it, the first act, on TV and I was mesmerized. I couldn't get it out of my mind. But I never got around to reading it until this year.The plot is simple. Two men, Estragon and Vladimir, are waiting for a third man named Godot to arrive. That's it. While they wait, they try to pass the time. Godot never arrives.
It sounds like a pointless play, doesn't it? But it adds up to so much more. I am not a theater critic, but I found so much to connect with in this play. This play, to me, is about the human struggle to find meaning in life, and about what happens if you NEVER find that meaning. What then?
This is a line I loved, from Estragon to Vladimir.
"We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?"
I am a person with a great faith in my purpose in life. And yet, I think because of that perhaps, I am also a person who knows what it means to question whether there really is any meaning at all in my own life. I think that a person of faith has greater doubts than a person without. A person of faith knows that God exists, but knows that He is not present for us. A person without faith knows that there is no God, and doesn't expect anything else. So for me, I have struggled over and over with trying to find my own purpose here in this life.
The blurb on the front reads, "One of the most noble and moving plays of our generation, a threnody of hope deceived and deferred but never extinguished." The two characters wait for something to happen. In the meantime, they fuss with their clothes, they have a little something to eat, they meet other people and try to interact, but above all, they do nothing, because there is nothing to be done. And yet, they keep coming, every day, to wait.
Not everyone will appreciate this play. I tried to explain it to my daughter and she just didn't see the point in it at all. I'm not sure why it appeals to me. I think it is the fact that at the end of the play, Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting. I know that waiting.
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LibraryThing member mstrust
Hobos Vladimir and Estragon wait and wait, discuss suicide, religion and violence, meet the cruel Pozzo and his robotic slave Lucky, try on shoes and hats and eat vegetables.
While reading this I wondered why this play, first performed in 1952, hadn't been the catalyst to the new wave of British
The characters are so well-defined that I could hear them speaking, and now I need to see it live. But done by professional actors, as I could see bad actors making a mess of this.
While reading this I wondered why this play, first performed in 1952, hadn't been the catalyst to the new wave of British
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theater rather than Osborne's Look Back In Anger, which came four years later. Waiting For Godot was certainly a radical play for it's time, with surrealists bits of disjointed conversation, references to random violence, slavery and Vladimir's urinary problems. Then, at the back I saw the answer. This play had it's first run in Paris, in French, where Irishman Beckett had lived much of his life.The characters are so well-defined that I could hear them speaking, and now I need to see it live. But done by professional actors, as I could see bad actors making a mess of this.
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LibraryThing member ToniFGMAMTC
pretty entertaining way of saying nothing and everything all in one
LibraryThing member AlCracka
What a relief!
I had been under the impression that Waiting for Godot was a religious allegory, where Estragon and Vladimir represented the two thieves crucified with Jesus, or society in general; Lucky represented Jesus; Pozzo represented organized religion; and the whole thing was some tortured,
"It's never the same pus from one second to the next."
But then I read it, and it's not that at all. It turns out it's just about kinky gay BDSM relationships: Pozzo and Lucky kindle latent longings in Vladimir and Estragon that they try and fail to act on. You can pretty much just watch the Gimp scene from Pulp Fiction; it's exactly the same story. Whew! This is way sexier than I'd been led to believe.
"Perhaps he could dance first and think afterwards, if it isn't too much to ask of him."
This isn't really my scene, but I appreciate the exploration of it. To each his own!
"We are all born mad. Some remain so."
Recommended soundtrack: "One More Try," George Michael.
I had been under the impression that Waiting for Godot was a religious allegory, where Estragon and Vladimir represented the two thieves crucified with Jesus, or society in general; Lucky represented Jesus; Pozzo represented organized religion; and the whole thing was some tortured,
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surreal / comedic commentary on the pointlessness / necessity of faith. Gar, I thought, if I wanted earnest religious allegory I could just read Life of Pi again, borrrrrrring."It's never the same pus from one second to the next."
But then I read it, and it's not that at all. It turns out it's just about kinky gay BDSM relationships: Pozzo and Lucky kindle latent longings in Vladimir and Estragon that they try and fail to act on. You can pretty much just watch the Gimp scene from Pulp Fiction; it's exactly the same story. Whew! This is way sexier than I'd been led to believe.
"Perhaps he could dance first and think afterwards, if it isn't too much to ask of him."
This isn't really my scene, but I appreciate the exploration of it. To each his own!
"We are all born mad. Some remain so."
Recommended soundtrack: "One More Try," George Michael.
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LibraryThing member stilton
It just needs to be read. Not read as a Freudian riddle, or read as a gloss on Marxism, or read as a work of existentialism, but read as a book - or, yes, as a play. Then forget about it, if you like, or read it again, or put it on the shelf and take it from there (or not), but don't worry about
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it. There is nothing to it. It just is. At least as much as a table is. Show Less
LibraryThing member Athenable
Makes you think, but also makes you wish it was a much shorter play.
LibraryThing member heidip
My thoughts: I know this is supposed to be "magical and beautiful" but the story is hard to get through. Not much happens...there is no real plot except two men standing around waiting on someone to show up. Biblical allusions run throughout the play, but in a negative way. The stage only contains
While no real action happens, the play abounds with philosophical meaning and interpretations. Some have placed this in the Theater of the Absurd. The author uses a slapstick type of gallows humor. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This is not my favorite play. It's depressing, hopeless. Read it if you want to study the ideas of existentialism or the Theater of the Absurd. But, otherwise....
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a tree, alluding to the cross. There are comments about the two thieves on the cross and the impossibility of redemption. Godot never shows up....at least we don't think so. There is a little bit of a Groundhog Day theme in the second act. While no real action happens, the play abounds with philosophical meaning and interpretations. Some have placed this in the Theater of the Absurd. The author uses a slapstick type of gallows humor. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This is not my favorite play. It's depressing, hopeless. Read it if you want to study the ideas of existentialism or the Theater of the Absurd. But, otherwise....
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LibraryThing member TakeItOrLeaveIt
waiting and waiting and waiting...
LibraryThing member Unreachableshelf
As thought provoking as this quintessential example of Theater of the Absurd is, every time I read it I find that it drags in the second act. It pulls me back in over the last few pages, however. It is possible that it would feel less as if it could just as effectively worked as a one-act if I saw
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it on stage, but then again it's also possible it would bother me more. Almost certainly, watching it would take longer than reading it, after all. Show Less
LibraryThing member SheWoreRedShoes
2006 marked Samuel Beckett’s 100th anniversary. What a grand occasion to read, or re-read, some of the playwright’s work, if not take in a performance or two. My suggestion would be to read Beckett’s incomparable, Waiting for Godot—a 1954 play that still garners interesting press when it
A February 2006 Guardian article by Michael Billington trumpets, “Beckett estate fails to stop women waiting for Godot,” and “court overturns attempt to exclude female actors.” Apparently an Italian production of Waiting for Godot was set to cast two female actors in the lead roles when the Beckett estate intervened to stop the production. After hearing the case, a judge decided for the gender-cross casting: the show would go on. Beckett purists might be disappointed in the ruling, but many others are not, for as Billington put it, “[the play] is part of the universal language of theatre and has been played everywhere from America’s San Quentin jail to Sarajevo after the bombing. If a group of Italian women now want to play it, it seems absurd to stop them.”
When I first read Waiting for Godot, I did not have the impression that I would need to see a production of the play in order to fully appreciate Beckett’s work. The writing is clear, concise, and direct—both the spoken parts and the stage directions. I should say that if you are one to skip over the reading of stage directions, then perhaps this play is not for you. For the stage directions and the dialogue are so tightly woven together that I cannot imagine absorbing the play without reading the stage directions, which go quite beyond exit left. Beckett was notorious for insisting on translating his own work, on directing his own productions, on minutely controlling every stage movement of the actors: this insistence on controlling his expression, on controlling what he wanted to communicate to readers and playgoers, is perhaps why Waiting for Godot is such a memorable reading experience. The reader can clearly see the plight of Gogo and Didi, two apparently homeless men, waiting endlessly for someone named Godot.
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goes to the stage. A February 2006 Guardian article by Michael Billington trumpets, “Beckett estate fails to stop women waiting for Godot,” and “court overturns attempt to exclude female actors.” Apparently an Italian production of Waiting for Godot was set to cast two female actors in the lead roles when the Beckett estate intervened to stop the production. After hearing the case, a judge decided for the gender-cross casting: the show would go on. Beckett purists might be disappointed in the ruling, but many others are not, for as Billington put it, “[the play] is part of the universal language of theatre and has been played everywhere from America’s San Quentin jail to Sarajevo after the bombing. If a group of Italian women now want to play it, it seems absurd to stop them.”
When I first read Waiting for Godot, I did not have the impression that I would need to see a production of the play in order to fully appreciate Beckett’s work. The writing is clear, concise, and direct—both the spoken parts and the stage directions. I should say that if you are one to skip over the reading of stage directions, then perhaps this play is not for you. For the stage directions and the dialogue are so tightly woven together that I cannot imagine absorbing the play without reading the stage directions, which go quite beyond exit left. Beckett was notorious for insisting on translating his own work, on directing his own productions, on minutely controlling every stage movement of the actors: this insistence on controlling his expression, on controlling what he wanted to communicate to readers and playgoers, is perhaps why Waiting for Godot is such a memorable reading experience. The reader can clearly see the plight of Gogo and Didi, two apparently homeless men, waiting endlessly for someone named Godot.
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LibraryThing member heinous-eli
Existentialism and its literary tradition, Absurdism, are deeply interconnected, and there is no place better to start one's study of both than with this play. Its influence and influences can be seen everywhere.
LibraryThing member jediphil683
I know Beckett, and I like Beckett, but this is still my favorite. Funny and depressing, deep and shallow, angry and passive, Godot has it all, and does it all better than most things.
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
I suppose I'll see this one of these days, and that might make a difference, but for me, there simply wasn't much here. I got bored, and waited throughout for more, but found nothing. I'm told (and believe) that that's the point, but I don't see much value in the reading or the lesson by the end.
LibraryThing member DarkWater
Existentialism served raw! After reading The Stranger by Camus, I did not think that existentialism could be more plainly defined in prose, but Godot has left me debating (and yes, also waiting). Beckett, it seems, is also magically able to actualize ennui as a comedy -- as he puts it, a
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tragicomedy. But moreover, the piece does well to capture a subtlety of the existential mood: man's inextinguishable, incorrigible hope. Show Less
LibraryThing member krisiti
Weird. Existential? Perhaps. The bit where Vladimir wants to help Pozzo: "at this moment in time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not" seems very like what I remember from Sartre. They were waiting for God, I suppose, with his white beard. I think they were in limbo: "there are many
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compartments", nothing makes sense, waiting for god to come and release them... If an explanation is required. Maybe that's the wrong approach, to try to explain it in terms of situations that would make some sort of sense. Perhaps they just exist, existentially speaking. Show Less
LibraryThing member chadmarsh
A truly provocative play. Despite Beckett's claim not to possess any understanding of what Godot meant (which may, in fact, have been a deliberately ironic way of pointing toward the play's existential menaing) it begs interpretation.
LibraryThing member 391
"Waiting for Godot" is such a thorough exploration of human relationships. Didi and Gogo have such an intriguing partnership; part sibling, part parent/child, part lover, part friend, part everything else that can be imagined. Their relationship creates so many beautifully tragic moments as they
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question and refuse to question themselves, their identities, their space and their condition. It's more than existential drama - it's a window that looks back at you. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookworm12
Maybe it's because I've heard about this play for so many years. Maybe it's because I was expecting another Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Maybe I just didn't get it. Either way, Godot just didn't resonate with me. The dialogue is quick and the characters are dull. It didn't have the same
I understand that people say the undercurrent of their conversations is ripe with philosophical questions and ideas, but they weren't for me. They didn't make me think, they made me want the men to go do something productive so they wouldn't consider suicide out of boredom. The writing was good, I will give it that, but it just wasn't for me.
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electric feel that some of my favorite plays do. That feeling that just draws you in and makes you want to participate in their conversation. I never really clicked with these two friends who spent their time waiting for a man who never came. I understand that people say the undercurrent of their conversations is ripe with philosophical questions and ideas, but they weren't for me. They didn't make me think, they made me want the men to go do something productive so they wouldn't consider suicide out of boredom. The writing was good, I will give it that, but it just wasn't for me.
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Subjects
Awards
Nobel Prize in Literature (1969)
ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (Drama — 1999)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1953
Physical description
96 p.; 4.96 inches
ISBN
0571229115 / 9780571229116