Nothing Is More Real Than Nothing

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Recommended: Comparative literary analysis on play by samuel beckett

Travis Maynard
Dr. Wilder, Dr. Krusiewicz
Mid 120 (Paper Assignment One)
17 February, 2014
Nothing Is More Real Than Nothing
The literary works of Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka have created environments in which the characters are implanted into ludacris and gloom filled realities. The characters are in absurd situations with no explanation of the events that are happening, or going to happen. The question stands, why did these authors place the characters in these destroyed worlds with no hope of resolution? I argue that the history of the authors and the environments in which they lived has a direct correlation to the charactaracters and the dark writing styles of the authors. To relate the characters and environments of the stories to the authors lives, one must first take a look at the history of the authors as well as characters. Looking at the lives of Beckett and Kafka at the time these stories were being written can help to determine the mindset and styles of both authors and how they relate their own real life problems to their characters fictional settings.
Topic I - The Worlds Of The Authors
Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 into a Jewish family. His father, Hermann, was a business owner, and his mother, Julie, was a homemaker. Tragedy struck early in Franz’s life when his siblings passed away when he was 6. Hermann showed a dictatorial way of life during Franz’s childhood which left him very isolated. At this time in Europe, there was a substantial amount of anti-semitism and bigotry towards jews. Not only did Kafkas family receive intolerance for being jewish, but the family was also a german speaking family in the Czech Republic. Kafka was in a completely isolated world, not only from his family, but a...

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...ies, and plays. His play Waiting for Godot was written in 1948 and was completed in 1949. The show opened in a theatre in Paris in 1953, and has been duplicated many times since. Many of Beckett’s works are in a war land and have dark influences and story lines. Beckett’s writing style is heavily influenced by the effects of war on his own life. In Waiting for Godot, they are in a barren wasteland, waiting hopelessly for something, much like a soldier at war, waiting to strike their enemies. Although not all of his writings are about war.
Throughout Beckett’s life, was very secretive. He didn’t like to leave his estate towards the end of his life and he also got married in secret. He liked isolation and removing himself from reality. This may have been an influence on his writing style as well, leaving his characters alone in a vast and overwhelming world.

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