Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America

1423 Words3 Pages

At first glance, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America appear to serve as two individual exercises in the absurd. Varying degrees of the fantastical and bizarre drives the respective stories, and their respective conclusions hardly serve as logical resolutions to the questions that both Beckett and Kushner’s characters pose throughout the individual productions. Rather than viewing this abandonment of reality as the destination of either play, it should be seen as a method used by both Beckett and Kushner to force the audience to reconsider their preconceived notions when understanding the deeper emotional subtext of the plays. By presenting common and relatable situations such as love, loss, and the ways in which humans deal with change and growth, in largely unrecognizable packaging, Kushner and Beckett are able to disarm their audience amidst the chaos of the on stage action. Once the viewer’s inclination to make assumptions is stripped by the fantastical elements of either production, both playwrights provide moments of emotional clarity that the audience is forced to distill, analyze, and ultimately, comprehend on an individual level. From the moment that the curtain rises, Waiting for Godot assumes an unmistakably absurdist identity. On the surface, little about the plot of the play seems to suggest that the actions seen on stage could or would ever happen. At the very least, the process of waiting hardly seems like an ideal focus of an engaging and entertaining production. Yet it is precisely for this reason that Beckett’s tale of two men, whose only discernable goal in life is to wait for a man known simply as Godot, is able to connect with the audience’s emotions so effectivel... ... middle of paper ... ...list style, gives the audience so little to work with plot-wise that the viewer cannot help but search for deeper meaning. Kushner, whose focus on topical social issues laced with elements of fantasy forces the audience to consider the juxtaposition of the reality on stage against the reality in the real world, and subtly invites the viewer to participate emotionally with the on stage action. Rather than allowing the fantastical to distance the audience from the emotional core of both plays, Kushner and Beckett respectively eschew traditional elements of bourgeois realism in order to enhance the audience’s emotional comprehension of both productions. Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot : tragicomedy in 2 acts. New York: Grove Press, 1982. Print. Kushner, Tony. Angels in America. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group Inc., 1995. Print.

Show More
Related

  • The Distance of Empathy in Byron's "Manfred"

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his essay “On the Tragedies of Shakespeare,” Charles Lamb criticizes the theatrical performances of Shakespeare for providing an experience that inherently provides at worst, a misrepresentation or at best, a shallow representation of a particular character’s emotional depth. This is not to say that Lamb is necessarily criticizing bad acting, but rather he argues that the activities of acting and judging of acting raise “non-essentials” to an unjustified importance that is “injurious to the main interest of the play.” In other words, the viewer’s experience of watching a play is an experience inferior to a reader’s experience of reading the play. It is precisely for this reason that dramatic plays, such as Byron’s Manfred, cannot be staged. The experience of reading Manfred, a closet drama about Manfred, a noble tormented by his guilt for a mysterious transgression, provides a more emotionally intense experience than seeing the play acted out. The chamois hunter’s struggle and eventual failure to empathize with Manfred’s emotional turbulence in Act II, Scene I of Manfred can be interpreted as an experience which parallels the inevitable emotional chasm between audience and characters and ultimately hinders the audience’s sense of character empathy.

    Read More

  • The Function of Dual Roles in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the interconnection of people and events, that might ordinarily be viewed as disconnected or unrelated, is implicitly presented in the characters section. Dual roles are implemented by a playwright that has one actor portraying the roles of two or more characters, with or without thematic intentions. The use of “dual roles” in several scenes of this play can be viewed as a demonstration of Kushner’s effort in maintaining the interconnectedness between characters, communities (i.e. queer, heterosexual, AIDS and political communities) and events to which they are relative. This essay will argue that Kushner’s use of dual role’s effectively interconnects characters, events and their communities that may be seen as usually unrelated. Analysis of four specific characters, Antarctica, Oceania, Australia and Europa, in Act Five, Scene Five of “Perestroika”, will demonstrate the connection of each Act Five, Scene Five character, to the actors main character based on the implicit evidence presented in the actors “primary” and “secondary” roles, the scenes dialogue and the character interactions. As one will see, by implementing dual roles, Kushner is able to expand or preserve the concept of a major character while the actor portrays another character, keeping the audience from having to completely renegotiate their knowledge between what they physically see of new characters and actually use the new context to view triumphs and struggles for a major character.

    Read More

  • Beckett's Endgame

    2799 Words  | 6 Pages

    While Beckett’s works are often defined by their existentialist themes, Endgame seems to offer no solution to the despair and melancholia of Hamm, Clov, Nagg, and Nell. The work is replete with overdetermination that confounds the efforts of critics and philosophers to construct a single, unified theme for the play. Beckett resisted any effort to reconcile the problems of his world, offer solutions, or quench any fears overtly. However, this surface level of understanding that aligns Beckett with the pessimism of the Modernist movement is ironically different from the symbolic understanding that Beckett promotes through his characters and the scene. Beckett’s work does not suggest total hopelessness, but rather that the fears of change, self-centeredness, and despair of Hamm and Clov contribute to their miserable existence. He opposes the Modernist attitude of focus on the subjective, internal state, and reveals the soul of the Modernist to be shallow and starving.

    Read More

  • Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

    2439 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...s limiting the text in some ways, though still creating a complex set of images and allusions in order to convey meaning. Woolf’s novel exists as its own entity, while Beckett’s play exists outside of the text. The reader is engaged in different ways in both works: Woolf requires a reader to understand her message through symbolism; Beckett requires nothing from his audience except what has become an intuitive reaction: place meaning into text.

    Read More

  • The Frontier of Existence in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ionesco’s Rhinoceros

    2044 Words  | 5 Pages

    This essay will explore the frontier of existence in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ionesco’s Rhinoceros

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Samuel Beckett's "Play",

    2004 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jacobsen, Josephine and Mueller, William R., The Testament of Samuel Beckett, Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 1966

    Read More

  • Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot: A Critical Allegory of Religious Faith

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has been said by many people to be a long book about nothing. The two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, spend all their time sitting by a tree waiting for someone named Godot, whose identity is never revealed to the audience. It may sound pretty dull at first but by looking closely at the book, it becomes apparent that there is more than originally meets the eye. Waiting for Godot was written to be a critical allegory of religious faith, relaying that it is a natural necessity for people to have faith, but faiths such as Catholicism are misleading and corrupt.

    Read More

  • Christianity in Waiting for Godot

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot: tragicomedy in 2 acts. New York: Grove Press, 1982. Print.

    Read More

  • Lack of Closure in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

    2449 Words  | 5 Pages

    Beckett, Samuel. Waiting For Godot. 3rd ed. N.p.: CPI Group, 2006. Print. Vol. 1 of Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works. 4 vols

    Read More

  • Overview of Three Interpretations of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

    3212 Words  | 7 Pages

    Samuel Beckett wrote Waiting for Godot between October 1948 and January 1949. Since its premiere in January of 1953, it has befuddled and confounded critics and audiences alike. Some find it to be a meandering piece of drivel; others believe it to be genius. Much of the strain between the two sides stems from one simple question. What does this play mean? Even within camps where Waiting for Godot is heralded, the lack of clarity and consensus brings about a tension and discussion that has lasted over sixty years.

    Read More

  • Futility in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beckett, Samuel. Waiting For Godot. 3rd ed. N.p.: CPI Group, 2006. Print. Vol. 1 of Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works. 4 vols

    Read More

  • Sartre’s Existentialism in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

    1566 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kern, Edith. “Drama Stripped for Inaction: Beckett’s Godot.” Yale French Studies. Vol. 14. Yale University Press, 1954. 41-47. JSTOR. 22 Mar. 2004. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0044-0078%281954>.

    Read More

  • The Portrayal Of The Theatre Of The Absurd

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout literature, much has been assumed and gathered about the state of man and his purpose in life. Different poets, novelists, and playwrights have employed the powerful tools of language to broadcast their respective statement to the literate world. Many authors stand out for their overly romanticized or horribly pessimistic notations on life, but only Samuel Beckett stands out for his portrayal of absence. As Democritus, a Greek philosopher, noted, "nothing is more real than nothing," a quote which became one of Beckett's favorites and an inspiration for his masterful plays (Hughes 1). Beckett's works have astounded many through their utter divergence from the typical basis of a play. His blatant discount for the traditional concepts of character development, setting, time, and sequence of events distinguish Beckett's plays from a myriad of themed dramas. Because of such breaks from the standard, the message of Beckett's plays rings clearly. In his ground breaking play Waiting for Godot, Beckett describes two men, Estragon and Vladimir, who come to a rock and a tree beside a road and wait for an unknown "Godot" in vain day after day, idly making frivolous conversation and casually meeting another pair of characters, Pozzo and Lucky, who pass by daily. His follow up play, Endgame, creates a similar scenario with a blind, chair-bound man, Hamm, and his servantile friend, Clov, stuck in a room characterized only by two high windows and two ashbins housing Hamm's parents, Nagg and Nell. Such unusual plays portray the American Theatre of the Absurd perfectly. In both Waiting for Godot and Endgame, Samuel Beckett expertly incorporates nonconformist setting and dual chara...

    Read More

  • The Futility of Human Existence in Waiting for Godot

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Nothing to be done” is a repetitive theme of the play, Waiting for Godot. In fact, nothingness and futility of character’s lives is shown in the form of the play. The fou...

    Read More

  • Waiting For Godot Analysis

    1289 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot, has no definite meaning or interpretation, the play acts as a statement of hopelessness regarding human existence. Debate surrounds the play because, due to its simplicity, almost any interpretation is valid. The main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, are aging men who must wait for a person, being, or object named Godot, but this entity never appears to grace the men with this presence. Both characters essentially demonstrate how one must go through life when hope is nonexistent as they pointlessly attempt to entertain themselves with glum conversation in front of a solitary tree. The Theater of the Absurd, a prevalent movement associated with Waiting for Godot, serves as the basis for the message of hopelessness in his main characters. Samuel Beckett's iconic Waiting for Godot and his perception of the characteristics and influence of the Theater of the Absurd illustrate the pointlessness and hopelessness regarding existence. In the play, boredom is mistaken for hopelessness because the men have nothing to do, as they attempt to occupy themselves as, for some reason, they need to wait for Godot. No hope is present throughout the two-act play with little for Estragon and Vladimir to occupy their time while they, as the title indicates, wait for Godot.

    Read More

More about Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America

Open Document