Samuel Beckett's Waiting for the Godot

 Hello readers...

This is the assignment of sem -2  of paper no.2 that is the 20th century literature : from world war I to the end of the century . I had taken the topic of Human condition and Absurdism in the play.

🔎Waiting for Godot : Human condition and Absurdism

The play starts with the wo men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet near a tree. They converse on various topics and reveal that they are waiting there for a man named Godot. While they wait, two other men enter. Pozzo is on his way to the market to sell his slave, Lucky. He pauses for a while to converse with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky entertains them by dancing and thinking, and Pozzo and Lucky leave.

After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy enters and tells Vladimir that he is a messenger from Godot. He tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming tonight, but that he will surely come tomorrow. Vladimir asks him some questions about Godot and the boy departs. After his departure, Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move as the curtain falls.

The next night, Vladimir and Estragon again meet near the tree to wait for Godot. Lucky and Pozzo enter again, but this time Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. Pozzo does not remember meeting the two men the night before. They leave and Vladimir and Estragon continue to wait.

Shortly after, the boy enters and once again tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming. He insists that he did not speak to Vladimir yesterday. After he leaves, Estragon and Vladimir decide to leave, but again they do not move as the curtain falls, ending the play.

⚫ Human condition :

Estragon is trying to take off his boot when Vladimir enters. The two men greet each other; Vladimir examines his hat while Estragon struggles with his boot. They discuss the versions of the story of the two thieves in the Gospels, and Vladimir wonders why one version of the story is considered more accurate than the others.

Estragon wants to leave, but Vladimir tells him that they cannot because they are waiting for Godot, who they are supposed to meet by the tree. They wonder if they are waiting in the correct spot, or if it is even the correct day.

Estragon falls asleep, but Vladimir wakes him because he feels lonely. Estragon starts to tell Vladimir about the dream he was having, but Vladimir does not want to hear his "private nightmares." Estragon wonders if it would be better for them to part, but Vladimir insists that Estragon would not go far. They argue and Vladimir storms off the stage, but Estragon convinces him to come back and they make up.

They discuss what to do next while they wait, and Estragon suggests hanging themselves from the tree. However, after a discussion of the logistics, they decide to wait and see what Godot says.

Estragon is hungry, and Vladimir gives him a carrot. They discuss whether they are tied to Godot when they hear a terrible cry nearby and huddle together to await what is coming.

⚫ Concept revolving around human psyche : 

The beginning of the play establishes Vladimir and Estragon's relationship. Vladimir clearly realizes that Estragon is dependent on him when he tells Estragon that he would be "nothing more than a little heap of bones" without him. Vladimir also insists that Estragon would not go far if they parted. This dependency extends even to minute, everyday things, as Estragon cannot even take off his boot without help from Vladimir.

The beginning of the play makes Vladimir and Estragon seem interchangeable. For example, one of the characters often repeats a line that the other has previously said. This happens in the very beginning when the two characters switch lines in the dialogue, with each asking the other, "It hurts?" and responding, "Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!" In addition to demonstrating the way that the two characters can be seen as interchangeable, this textual repetition will be found throughout the play as an indicator of the repetitiveness of life in general for Vladimir and Estragon.

Vladimir's discussion of the story of the two thieves brings up the question of textual uncertainty. He points out that the four gospels present entirely different versions of this story, and wonders why one of these versions is accepted as definitive. This question about the reliability of texts might cause the reader of this play to question the reliability of this particular text. Also, the repetition of the story by the four gospels might allude to the repetitiveness of the action of the play.

The repetitiveness of the play is best illustrated by Estragon's repeated requests to leave, which are followed each time by Vladimir telling him that they cannot leave because they are waiting for Godot. The exact repetition of the lines each time this dialogue appears, including the stage directions, reinforces the idea that the same actions occur over and over again and suggests that these actions happen more times than the play presents.

The play is thought to initiate a theatrical tradition called absurd drama. But like any other artistic puzzles, thetheatre of the absurd cannot be reduced to a single bottom line. It cannot be defined in a single word or by a particular theory. In order to understand the rise, characteristics and popularity of the absurd drama we must look back to the events that took place during the first half of the 20th century in the worlds of politics, literature, philosophy and religion. 

The early 20th century witnessed two World Wars .In literature it gave birth to two recognizable literary styles: modernism and post-modernism. In philosophy the rise of existentialism was the most important event and the world also saw the decline of men’s faith in religion. All these happenings paved the way for the theatrical tradition the absurd drama which in fact was a reflection the age. 

⚫ Absurdism : 

The group of the playwrights whose works came to be known as the absurd plays include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionescoe, Jean Genet, Edward Albee and Harold Pinter. These writers flout all the standards by which drama has been judged for many centuries. As playwrights they share some theatrical techniques and philosophic ideas. In their plays there is no particular attention spent developing a recognizable plot, no detailed characterization, and no readily definable theme. This bizarre rejection of any recognizable pattern or development gave birth to the term Literature of the Absurd. Philosophically almost all of them share the existentialist philosophy of absurdity and nothingness.

 

Beckett's Waiting for Godot largely deals with the absurd tradition. The play is without any plot, character, dialogue and setting in the traditional sense.

The setting of the play creates the absurdist mood. A desolate country road, a ditch, and a leafless tree make up the barren, otherworldly landscape whose only occupants are two homeless men who bumble and shuffle in a vaudevillian manner. There is a surplus of symbolism and thematic suggestion in this setting. The landscape is a symbol of a barren and fruitless civilization or life. There is nothing to be done and there appears to be no place better to depart. The tree, usually a symbol of life with its blossoms and fruit or its suggestion of spring, is apparently dead and lifeless. But it is also the place to which they believe this Godot has asked them to come. This could mean Godot wants the men to feel the infertility of their life. At the same time, it could simply mean they have found the wrong tree.

 

The setting of the play reminds us the post-war condition of the world which brought about uncertainties, despair, and new challenges to the all of mankind. A pessimistic outlook laced with sadism and tangible violence, as a rich dividend of the aftermath of wars. It is as if the poignancy and calamities of the wars found sharp reflections in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Next comes the plot. In the traditional sense a plot should concentrate on a single motivated action and is also expected to have a beginning, a middle and a neatly tied-up ending. But it’s almost impossible to provide a conventional plot summary of Waiting for Godot, which has often been described as a play in which nothing happens. It is formless and not constructed on on any structural principles.

 

"Vladimir: Well, shall we go?

Estragon: Yes, let’s go.

They do not move"

In the raditional play is expected to entertain the audience with logically built,witty dialogue.But in this play,like any other absurd play,the dialogue seems to have degenarated into meaningless babble.The dialogues the characters exchange are meaningless banalities.

The absurd plays deal with the themes of existentialism, especially the existentialist theme of absurdity.The absurd playwrights tried to translate the contemporary existentialis philosophy into the drama. The absurd playwrights also tried to portray the distrassful condition of the humans.In Waiting for Godot the human condition is shown as a dismal and distressful state. The derelict man struggles to live or rather exist, in a hostile and uncaring world. A sense of stagnancy and bareness captivates man, and whenever he tries to assert himself, he is curbed. In Beckett's words, human life is the endurance and tolerance to

"the boredom of living"

 

replaced by the suffering of being." These phrases speak volumes of a philosophy born out of the harsh human realities. Vladimir and Estragon are blissfully and painfully oblivious to their own condition. They go about repeating their actions every day unmindful of the monotony and captivity. They also do not activate their mind to question or brood over their own actions and the motives underlying their actions. 

 

So many times in the play, a possibility is suggested then immediately undercut by its unhappy opposite. This technique is used by Beckett to relay his theme that life is uncertain and unpredictable at its best, unfortunate and unending at its worst. To further state this theme, Estragon asserts that 

"There's no lack of void"

 in life. It is actually of little importance where they were the previous day, as everywhere everyday the same empty vacuum envelops them. Absence, emptiness, nothingness, and unresolved mysteries are central features in the play.

Thus the play Waiting for Godot contains almost all the elements of a absurd play. The play depicts the irrationalism of life in a grotesquely comic and non-consequential fashion with the element of

 "metaphysical alienation and tragic anguish." 

It was first written in French and called En attendant Godot. The author himself translated the play into English in 1954. The uniqueness of the play compelled the audiences to flock to the theaters for a spectacularly continuous four hundred performances. At the time, there were two distinct opinions about the play; some called it a hoax and others called it a masterpiece. Nevertheless, Waiting for Godot has claimed its place in literary history as a masterpiece that changed the face of twentieth century drama.

Thank you...

Movie adaptation on "The Great Gatsby"

 Hello readers...

This is the assignment of sem -2  of paper no.1 that is the 20th century literature.I had taken the topic of movie adaptaion.First of all by approaching to the movie adaptation of "The Great Gatsby " ,we should take a look at the original work of F Scott Fitzgerald and take an overview of the story.

The Great Gatsby is a classic American novel written by F Scott Fitzgerald. It is a novel best described as a Satire on the American ideals of the 1920s. The novel has been set up in the time of early 20th century in the American society where people least cared about each other. The societal devices of greed, betrayal, poverty, desire and satisfaction are collectively depicted by the three strata of the American society of the 1920s.

The Great Gatsby is written in first-person limited perspective from Nick'spoint of view. This means that Nick uses the word “I” and describes events as he experienced them. He does not know what other characters are thinking unless they tell him.The American Dream is one of the major themes in The Great Gatsby. The life of Jay Gatsby himself is an embodiment of the American Dream, as he's a poor farm boy who changes his name and reinvents himself to become wealthy and successful, at least financially.

The ambience created by the story is set up in America of the post-war economic evolution. The story is in the form of a narration. The narrator is Nick Carraway, who has returned from his long stay in the East. He is a born, rich character who inherited wealth from his ancestors.

Jay Gatsby is Nick’s neighbour. Nick watches the lavish parities Jay Gatsby hosts every evening but attends one of the party after Jay invited him. The lavish parties at Mr Gatsby’s place depict how carefree the American lives were in the time that led them to attend strange parties with strange people. The fact that Mr Gatsby hosts parties every evening tells us the tale of an American Dream.

Mr Gatsby has an unforgettable past that decays his will to live irrespective of his wealth and luxuries. This character building by the author tells us how materialism can never dominate desire.

The other important characters of the story are Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan. They are related to Nick Carraway and very mysteriously acquainted with Mr Gatsby. It is with the help of these characters that the author brings the vivid picture of the American society in the 1920s.

Many readers have critically acclaimed the Great Gatsby but absorbingly praised by more of them. It is called as the best American novel that showcases America in its raw and naked form. This is why the title of an American dream is synonymously is used as a theme for the story.

The reason for it being called an American dream is that it shows the perfect picture of the society of America where wealth was every soul only dreams and materialistic possesions attracted elite attention. The story is very simple if you might incept but highly impactful with the reason of true possessions of life.

The Great Gatsby has been adapted into cinema many times because of its extraordinary interpretation. The most recent adaptation was in 2013, with Baz Luhrmann and Leonardo Decaprio as the directors and screenplay writers. Leonardo was also the lead in the movie as the character of Jay Gatsby.

With a higher value of literary significance, The Great Gatsby is widely read by generations of book lovers. It is also taught in higher studies to grasp the literary significance it holds. It is a book one must read to have realizations of the real values of life.

The book has an impactful ending where the readers can witness how the past curbs the future and how the future is nothing but a result of past aspirations.

F Scott Fitzgerald, through his most popular literary piece- The Great Gatsby, gives a vivid peek into the interrelations among the born rich, earned rich and the poor people of the society. The great American dream of the said time makes the readers question if materialism is power?

🎥The movie adaptations🎬

There are particularly four movie adaptaions on the original novel which are as follows :

1.) The Great Gatsby(1949)

The first big adaptation of The Great Gatsby came in 1949, just as the book was becoming more popular . So this movie, made by Paramount Pictures.

This film isn't as accurate to the book's plot as later adaptations it focuses more on Gatsby's criminal enterprises, makes Jordan more significant, and ends with Nick and Jordan married. This film is also harder to find since it's older and not readily available on streaming services like Netflix. 

Basically, this film is worth finding if you want an excellent visualization of Gatsby himself but aren't as worried about the surrounding production or other characters and you like old movies and film noir. But for most students, one of the later adaptations will likely be a better choice.

 

2.) The Great Gatsby(1974)

The 1974 version of The Great Gatsby (sometimes referred to as the "Robert Redford Great Gatsby") was Hollywood's second attempt at adapting the novel, and by all accounts everyone involved was working a lot harder to do the book justice. It has cast big name actors like Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. 

However, some critics noted the expensive scenery somewhat takes away from some of the authenticity of the book for example, in the scene where Daisy and Gatsby reunite, the weather is sunny instead of rainy.

Despite these blips, Coppola's screenplay is much more loyal to the book's plot than the 1949 version. However, the movie fails to channel the energy and passion of the novel, and so can fall flat or even become dull.

Redford received mixed reviews for his performance. He crafts two characters the suave Jay Gatsby and the hardscrabble Jay Gatz which some reviewers like and others find a bit heavy handed. 

Sam Waterston is great as Nick Carraway. He captures a lot of Nick's naïveté and optimism, but isn't given as much to do as more recent versions of the character. Mia Farrow's portrayal of Daisy has become our culture's image of this character.

All in all, this is a mostly faithful adaptation of the book with beautiful sets, costumes, and some good performances. Especially compared to the more raucous 2013 version, this is probably the closest movie we have to a page-to-screen adaptation of Gatsby. This version is available on Netflix streaming.

 

3.) The Great Gatsby(2000)

This movie is decently accurate, but because of its shorter run time, there are some cuts to the plot. It also has a few odd additions, like Daisy coming up with the name "Gatsby" instead of Gatsby himself.

I would consider watching this if you want a film mostly accurate to the book that also moves along more quickly, since it has a shorter run time. It's also a good choice if you want to see some great characterizations of Nick and Daisy.

Teachers, this might be a good choice if you want to show a version of the film in class but don't have two and a half hours to spend on the 1974 or 2013 versions.

 

4.) The Great Gatsby(2013)

This one is likely the Gatsbymovie you are most familiar with. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, this Gatsby has the eye-popping visuals, dancing scenes, high energy and In other words, this 2013 adaptation has all of the energy and enthusiasm the previous two adaptations were lacking.

However, there are some pretty big plot diversions here. For example, the movie uses a completely different frame Nick is a bitter, institutionalized alcoholic looking back at the summer he spent with Gatsby, rather than just a disenchanted former bond salesman like in the novel. Also, Tom Buchanan is much more overtly villainous, since we see him bluntly telling George that Gatsby was the killer and the man sleeping with Myrtle.A lot of the imagery is also quite over the top. 

Still, despite the plot diversions and sometimes heavy-handed imagery, many praised Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan's turns as Gatsby and Daisy, respectively. Jordan, played by Elizabeth Debicki, is also fantastic arguably the best on film so far. Instead of fading into the background of scenes.

The 2013 movie is good to watch if you want an extra high-powered version of the Jazz Age extravagance and are curious about a more artistic adaptation of the novel.

 

🔎Comparing the Great Gatsby Movies to the Novel💡

The novel The Great Gatsby is to compare the book with one of the movie adaptations.since you get to write about both the book and a movie version of Gatsby. I had constructed this comparing form of the movies and the original novel.Inshort i had made an overall  point by comparing both  to make it manageable.I had zoom in on a particular aspect, like comparing Daisy Buchanan in the book to Daisy in the movie, or look at just a few of the symbols. 

Thank you...

 

Auden's poem

Hello readers...

This blog is in response of the thinking activity given to us on the Auden's poem which is a part if our academic writing and it is given below...

1.) Which lines of september 1,1939' you liked the most?why?

I  the most important message of this poem which is based on September 1, 1939 the day on which   Nazi Germany invaded Poland, causing the outbreak of the Second World War.

The poem deliberately echoes the stanza form of W. B. Yeats's "Easter, 1916", another poem about an important historical event; like Yeats' poem, Auden's moves from a description of historical failures and frustrations to a possible transformation in the present or future.

Until the two final stanzas, the poem briefly describes the social and personal pathology that has brought about the outbreak of war: first the historical development of Germany "from Lutheruntil now", next the internal conflicts in every individual person that correspond to the external conflicts of the war. Much of the language and content of the poem echoes that of C.G. Jung's Psychology and Religion (1938).

The final two stanzas shift radically in tone and content, turning to the truth that the poet can tell, "We must love one another or die," and to the presence in the world of "the Just" who exchange messages of hope. The poem ends with the hope that the poet, like "the Just", can "show an affirming flame" in the midst of the disaster.

2.) What is so special about "In memory of W . B Yeats" ?

In Memory of W. B. Yeats' by W. H. Auden (1907-73) was written in 1939, following the death of the Irish poetW. B. Yeats in January of that year.As well as being an elegy for the dead poet, 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats' is also a meditation on the role and place of poetry in the modern world.Auden taps into themes of life after death, the power of poetry, and the human condition. The powerful and wide-ranging themes are discussed within the context ofYeats' life and death.Auden uses an exacting tone and direct language to depict the events around Yeat's death.

3.) Is there any contemporary relevance of" Epitaph on a Tyrant" ?

I had  red 'Epitaph on a Tyrant' here, before proceeding to our short analysis of this powerful poem that remains all too relevant today. It is the pandemic which is tyrant now a days.people are suffering from it and now we are having 3 new diseases and we can say symptoms and that are black fungus,white and white fungus too.

Thank you...

W.B Yeats poem

This blog is in response of sunday reading activity which our mentor prof. Dilip Barad sir has given to us to attempt the thinking activity for evaluating the poems.

🔎The second coming as a "pandemic poem"

The Second Coming" is a poem written by Irish poet W. B. Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920, and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to allegorically describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe.It is considered a major work of modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.

In context of pandemic :

The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War and the beginning of the Irish War of Independence that followed the Easter Rising, at a time before the British Government decided to send in the Black and Tans to Ireland. Yeats used the phrase "the second birth" instead of "the Second Coming" in his first drafts.

The poem is  connected to the 1918–1919 flu pandemic: In the weeks preceding Yeats's writing of the poem, his pregnant wife Georgie Hyde-Lees caught the virus and was very close to death. The highest death rates of the pandemic were among pregnant women in some areas, they had up to a 70 percent death rate. While his wife was convalescing, he wrote "The Second Coming".

The losses of the First World War were still overwhelming when millions more began to die in the waves of a flu pandemic, which infected Yeats's wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees, while she was pregnant. She and their child would survive.

Yeats's poem was published in November 1920. And over the century since, perhaps no poem has been more invoked for vexing times, to convey, in Yeats's own incomparable words, that:

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst  Are full of passionate intensity."

I would scarcely call "The Second Coming" a holiday poem. But it makes you feel that that a page of history is about to flip: one epoch is about to give birth to another. And what kind of times will be wrought from a world where, "the worst are full of passionate intensity?" 

🔎On being asked foe a war poem :

‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’ is a poem by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), written in 1915 and published the following year. It’s one of Yeats’s shortest well-known poems, comprising just six lines, and sets out why Yeats chooses not to write a ‘war poem’ for publication. Before we analyse ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’, here’s a reminder of the text of the poem.

On Being Asked for a War PoemI think it better that in times like these

A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter’s night.

In summary, ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’ is a poem about refusing to write a war poem when asked to produce one. This odd act of refusal-as-assent – writing a poem, but a poem which takes a stand against writing a certain kind of poem – has the air of irony about it, and Yeats probably intended his poem to be taken as a brief ‘thanks, but no thanks’.

On Being Asked for a War Poem’ could be productively analysed alongside ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’, for this reason. Yeats objected to the war, and could not imagine using poetry to wave the flag for the right ‘side’ (and his Irish blood would have boiled at the idea of writing a patriotic poem in support of the British troops in the war!). His line ‘We have no gift to set a statesman right’ is a forerunner to Auden’s famous line that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’, and the similarity is no coincidence: Auden makes that well-known statement in his elegy for W. B. Yeats, written in 1939.

Thank you...

Breath : Interpretation

Hello readers...

This blog is a part of my academic writing ,recently we watched

 " Breathe " the shortest play by Samuel Beckett, to understand the concept of abusrd theater. Absurd means nothing and his play 'Breath' it has nothingness because it is just about thirty seconds, so interpret it is very difficult. 


           

💡The play has many concepts like  :

➡Nothingness,

➡Meaninglessness,

➡Absurdity, and

➡Existentialism

  In the starting we hear the sound of Breath is connected with life and death. While watching this video  we also feel venom kind of feelings. We find in the video that it start with dusk and than moves on  down and ends with dusk so as per my point of view writer wants to say that our life start with dusk and also end with dusk and it also shows cycle of human life. 

In the video we find many symbols like 

⚫Toys - Shows our childhood 
⚫Books - It shows student life 
⚫Money - shows struggle, status, royalty
⚫Bottle of medicine - shows illness, old age .

This all symbols reflects difderent stages of human life . As per my point of view here  samuel Beckett connect his play with the holy cycle of human life .

https://youtu.be/xlnG1i-wQR https://youtu.be/xlnG1i-wQ

This present video shows the system of education that how it is corrupt and only the parents have to bare its burden.Corruption in primary and secondary education affects policy making and planning, school management and procurement, and teacher conduct. Corruption contributes to poor education outcomes. Diversion of school funds robs schools of resources, while nepotism and favouritism can put unqualified teachers in classrooms. The another aspect of this video is about the grades which we git in our academic studies we give more preference to grade rather than individual knowledge and development of personality.Great leaders like ,

• APJ Abdul Kalam.
• Chanakya.
• Dayanand Saraswati.
• Rabindra Nath Tagore.
• Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Thank you.....