Beckett, Samuel - Biography and Work

Samuel Beckett

- He was born in Dublin in 1906, from a Protestant middle-class family.
- He graduated at Trinity college in Dublin: was an expert of modern languages--> degree in French and Italian. He was the best student, and because of that he was appointed as lecturer in English at the Sorbonne in Paris. Anyway, after two years got bored with teaching, and left.
- In France became closely associated with Kames Joyce: he probably was influenced by Joyce's work.
- Still in France: wrote a book about Proust= he was one of the most important thinkers of that period, influenced Beckett and Joyce.
- he settled in Paris at the end, although before went on a tour in Europe.
The WWII marked his life: took part to the Resistance. Anyway, when one of his friends was caught by the Gestapo, he and his wife were sent to an unoccupied area--> had to escape.
- After the WWII: lots of sufferance, went back to Ireland and then back again to paris: decided to stay there---> like the other post-modernist writers, he was disillusioned and experienced all the sufferance around, and in particular the lack of meaning and absurdity of life---> there is no way to get meaning and happiness from life and for this it is absurd.
For this reason, he started to write new plays.

''Waiting for Godot''

Waiting for Godot is a very famous play: written at the end of the forties, and performed in a small theatre at the beginning of the fifties in Paris. It was immediately a success.
Considered the father of ‘’The Theatre/ Drama of Absurd’’
Absurdbecause you cannot find any meaning in that: these plays are just non sensical repetitions of the same things---> no plot, no action. You cannot get any sense by watching its performance.
Divided into two acts: one is the double of the other.
Protagonists: two tramps (homeless people) called Vladimir and Estragon, waiting along a country road for Godot.
First of all: they don’t know why they are waiting for him. They stay here passing the time.
Scenery: just a bare tree.

First act: just a small event--> two characters speak: Pozzo (landowner) and Lucky (his servant): the servant is carrying bags (he is attached to bags) and then you understand there is just sand in these heavy bags---> no sense: he is carrying these bags as they kept something precious, but at the end they contain only sand.
At the end of the first act: we understand that Godot won't arrive--> there is a boy bringing the message.
Second act: maybe takes place the following day, and Vladimir and Estragon still wait for Godot. They don’t know how to pass time, they even try to hang themselves, because they don’t know what to do. At the end of the day, they are still waiting and still another boy saying Godot won't arrive--> the play ends at this point.
You can only understand there are two people waiting for Godot, who won't arrive, there is one strange scene with Pozzo and Lucky (united by a sort of rope, slave).
Interpretations: Beckett did not explain anything on purpose (like Joyce--> the way of writing of James Joyce is similar to Finnegans Wake--> great influence)
1. Godot: can be God, that at the end has to give us all the answers to our lives. But he can be Death, too: will stop all our troubles. Or even Charlot, a tramp played by Charlie Chaplin (there are lots of nice and joyful sketches in the play).
2. The protagonists are trapped in the present: no past, no future.
3. Lack of communication: for Beckett there is a sort of gap between feelings and the language we use, supposed to express your emotions--> reminds Shelley ‘’Ode to the west wind’’. To underline this lack of communication he decided to write in France: write in a foreign language to be much more detached, and use just simple sentences= although there are simple sentences the characters cannot understand each other. For example: Estragon says one thing and the other replies with another.
Ionesco (French): belongs to the same movement as Beckett, but with different features:
Beckett preferred to depict people as they were, in their essence: independently from their social class, appearance etc--> they still are human beings, and does not want to make fun of them. Waiting for Godot is a real story, you watch real people and you experience lack of communication as something very common at the end, happened every day.
Ionesco wanted to convey something different: made fun of people belonging to lower classes. Furthermore, his plays are surreal.
In these plays there are some layers of meaning.
1. The first layer is funny, absurd.
2. Then you understand there is something more about life: at the end ask the meaning of life.

Theme of the double

Estragon and Vladimir: one the double of the other, they complete each other. Vladimir is the mind; Estragon is the body=for this reason they cannot communicate (furthermore Estragon is obsessed with his boots). They belong to two different levels.
Lucky and Pozzo: they are united--> Lucky is slavish and represent the mind, while Pozzo is the oppressor and represent the body. We don’t understand why Lucky goes on being the servant of Pozzo, since Pozzo is blind=can escape, but he does not.
Double with the messenger boy: in the second act there is a boy denying his appearance in the first act--> probably they are twins.