GODOT ESSAY DRAFT

Background note on ‘Waiting for Godot’.

Essay on Waiting for Godot (by Michael Sinclair)

The purpose of human life is an unanswerable question. It seems impossible to find an answer because we don't know where to begin looking or whom to ask. Existence, to us, seems to be something imposed upon us by an unknown force. There is no apparent meaning to it, and yet we suffer as a result of it. The world seems utterly chaotic. We therefore try to impose meaning on it through pattern and fabricated purposes to distract ourselves from the fact that our situation is hopelessly unfathomable. "Waiting for Godot" is a play that captures this feeling and view of the world, and characterizes it with archetypes that symbolize humanity and its behaviour when faced with this knowledge. According to the play, a human being's life is totally dependant on chance, and, by extension, time is meaningless; therefore, a human's life is also meaningless, and the realization of this drives humans to rely on nebulous, outside forces, which may be real or not, for order and direction.

QUESTION FOR GRADE X1 STUDENTS – ESSAY – finish as homework and email me by Sunday evening. 1000-1500 words. (Towards Quarter Grade.) SL - 750-1000 WORDS

“Though it seems as if nothing important happens in the play, actions by actors play an important role in "Waiting for Godot".
The stage directions constitute nearly half of the text. This suggests that actions, expressions and emotions of the actors are as important as the dialogue in the text.”
Examine the stage directions of the opening scene or any scene of the play. How does this approach to the text help us understand the difference between reading a play alone and staging a play as a performance on stage for an audience? How significant are actions ‘struggling with his boot’, ‘exchanging hats’,’looking inside the hat’ in communicating Beckett’s vision.
(You may refer to other scenes in the play for comparison if you wish. You are recommended to watch the film of 'Godot' on my blog at the weekend while you read the play, This will help you see the stage directions in practice.)