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Post Modernism in Samuel Beckett'S: Waiting For Godot

The document discusses Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot and analyzes it through a postmodern lens. It argues that the play, written in the mid-20th century, bridges modernism and postmodernism. Specifically, it notes that the characters Vladimir and Estragon represent the meaningless of everyday life and emphasize the nothingness of existence. Additionally, it states that through these characters and the lack of resolution in waiting for Godot, the play illustrates postmodern themes of lack of absolute truth and meaninglessness.

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402 views3 pages

Post Modernism in Samuel Beckett'S: Waiting For Godot

The document discusses Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot and analyzes it through a postmodern lens. It argues that the play, written in the mid-20th century, bridges modernism and postmodernism. Specifically, it notes that the characters Vladimir and Estragon represent the meaningless of everyday life and emphasize the nothingness of existence. Additionally, it states that through these characters and the lack of resolution in waiting for Godot, the play illustrates postmodern themes of lack of absolute truth and meaninglessness.

Uploaded by

Nuzaima Noor Puffin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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POST MODERNISM IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S

WAITING FOR GODOT

DR. JAYAWANT AMBADAS MHETRE,


HOD and Associate Professor,
SBS College, Karad. (MS) INDIA

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a masterpiece in English literature with


postmodernistic point of view. It is considered to be the last modernist or the first
postmodernist literature. The characters Vladimir and Estragon represents the miserable
condition of life in the present. The play gives deep insight into the human conditions, and
reflects a mirror to the audience which makes them ask, is this me and my life circumstances.

INTRODUCTION

The early 20th century witnessed two World Wars and in literature, it gives birth two
recognizable literary styles : modernism and postmodernism. All the happenings paved the
way for the theatrical tradition the absurd drama. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1948)
is a leading play in the Theatre of Absurd, a theatrical outcome of postmodernism which was
inspired by existential philosophy and its view that at the root of our being there is
nothinglessness. It represents the psychological barrenness of modern people that arouse
after two world wars. As a postmodernist work, the play has its own literary features such as
fragmentation, truth and its denial etc.

Beckett’s works occupy a particular point in literary history, spanning across the temporal
division of modernism and postmodernism. Beckett, as a result, has plagued literary scholars
who attempt to categories his works either distinctly modern or postmodern.

Post modernism was originally a reaction or response to modernism in late 20th century. It is
considered to be a break from the 19th century realism. In it, the story is told from an
objective point of view. The postmodernist theory deals with the turn of external reality into
an inner state of consciousness. So, the writer’s use of postmodernism in his characters
means that these characters use unconsciously show and manifest their inner consciousness
through the things that they do. It is used to describe a wide gamut of aesthetic, cultural,
historical, literary, and philosophical goings-on. Influenced by Western European
disillusionment, postmodernism refers to a cultural, intellectual or artistic state lacking a
DR. JAYAWANT AMBADAS MHETRE 1P a g e
clear central hierarchy or organizing principle. Actually, postmodernism is a dramatic
deviation of man’s thought line. It dismisses the existence of an absolute reality. It believes
in the premise ‘irrational is real , real is irrational’. There is no pre-determined rules, well-
established and long term principles of the literary works of postmodernism. There is no
unity of time, place and action in literary work in it. The ending of it can be interpreted in
many different ways. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot shares some postmodernist features.

The play depicts the concept of postmodernism through its major characters, Estragon and
Vladimir. These main characters in the play primarily depicts the concept of having “hope”
in a situation which does not seem to give hope. The play is basically about two men,
Estragon and Vladimir, waiting for Godot. Throughout their waiting time, the only thing
they do is to make the time pass by doing things that would practically entertain them.

The title of the play associated with the act of waiting itself. Technically, the play depicts the
idea of waiting for someone who is not coming. Through the entire play, Godot does not
arrive. He is never present or never introduced on the stage. He represents the thing or
person whom most of us want to meet. Waiting entails hope and patience. This work
represents the reality that happens most people in real world.

So, from beginning to end, the play explores a static situation. In the play , there is no
absolute truth. All things are relative here. Postmodernism asserts that truth is not mirrored
in human understanding of it. It is rather constructed as the mind tries to understand its own
personal reality. The universe may be ordered by a God with pity for his creations or the
universe might be controlled by chance or a cruel fate. The world may sometimes seem
peaceful or it may be conditioned by sudden changes.

The characters in Waiting for Godot depicts the meaninglessness of everyday life activities.
They are carefree, but hopeful and patient. These characteristics primarily show the real
characteristics of people in reality. The play illustrates that the everyday life activities of
people is meant to show and emphasize a perspective that tells that there is no future meaning
that can put meaning to any action done in the present. The writer, Beckett, aims to
emphasize the meaningless, pointlessness and nothinglessness of life. The play suggests that
people should make what is present worthwhile.

The present play appears to be about nothing at all. The play is actually not just a play about
nothinglessness at it projects. Thus we can say that the play is an interesting play for a study
from postmodernist view. The character setting, language, and the style of the play go with
the later 20th century literary movement called postmodernism.

DR. JAYAWANT AMBADAS MHETRE 2P a g e


Beckett, Samuel, (1956) Waiting for Godot, London, Faber
Esslin, Martin (2009) The Theatre of Absurd , New York, Penguin Books.
Hooti, Noorbaksh (2011) Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: A Postmodernist Study,
English Language and literature Studies , Vol. 1, No.1
Azam, Azmi (2014) Samuel Beckett;s Waiting for Godot:The Post Modern Perspective,
International Journal of English and Education, Vol.3, Issue 2

DR. JAYAWANT AMBADAS MHETRE 3P a g e

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