Samuel Beckett 1906 1989 Performer Heritage Marina Spiazzi

Samuel Beckett 1. Life • 1906: born in Dublin. • 1923 -1927: attended Trinity College studying modern languages (French and Italian). • 1937: settled permanently in Paris. Here he started his literary career as a short-story writer and novelist. • 1952: he wrote the play Waiting for Godot, his most renowned work. • 1969: he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. • 1989: died in December. Performer Heritage

Samuel Beckett 2. Main works 1952 1958 Waiting for Godot, the most influential play of the time. Endgame, about the dissolution of the relationship between the physical and the intellectual sides of man at the very moment of death. Krapp’s Last Tape, a monologue. Performer Heritage 1960 Happy Days, where characters are reduced to motionless individuals. 1969 Breath, which shows how human life has become mere sounds, if not silence.

Samuel Beckett 3. Waiting for Godot • No setting but a desolate country road and a bare tree. • Time: no development in time, only a repetitive meaningless present. • Plot: two tramps are waiting for a mysterious Godot who never turns up. Performer Heritage

Samuel Beckett 3. Waiting for Godot • Structure: circular structure it ends almost exactly as it begins. The two acts are symmetrically built the stage is divided into two halves by a tree, the human races into two, Vladimir and Estragon. • Characters: no characters in the traditional sense. The two protagonists, Vladimir and Estragon, are two human beings concerned with questions about the nature of the self, the world and God. Performer Heritage

Samuel Beckett 3. Waiting for Godot: characters • The two protagonists, Vladimir and Estragon are complementary. • Lucky and Pozzo are physically linked by a rope and by a relationship of master and servant. • Vladimir and Lucky represent the intellect. Performer Heritage Waiting for Godot, London, Peter Hall Co.

Samuel Beckett 3. Waiting for Godot: characters • Estragon and Pozzo stand for the body. • The two couples are mutually dependent. • The character are two tramps waiting for Godot Biblical allusions in this name. Waiting for Godot, London, Peter Hall Co. Performer Heritage

Samuel Beckett 3. Waiting for Godot: themes • Dreariness and meaningless of human life. • A static world where nothing happens. • Absence of any traditional time there is no past, present and future, just a repetitive present. • Man’s increased knowledge has only made him aware of the uselessness of his learning. Performer Heritage

Samuel Beckett 3. Waiting for Godot: style • Disintegration of language absurd exchanges, broken and fragmented dialogues. • Use of para-verbal language: mime, silences, pauses and gaps. • A grotesque humour. • The tone is tragic and desperate. Performer Heritage Waiting for Godot, London, Peter Hall Co.