‫ أﻣﺎ اﻟﺒﺎﻗﻲ ﻓﻜﻠﮭﺎ ﻣﺜﻠﻤﺎ طﻠﺐ اﻟﺪﻛﺘﻮر؛ ﻟﻀﻤﺎن اﻟﺪرﺟﺔ اﻟﻜﺎﻣﻠﺔ‬،‫📌 ﺣﺬﻓﺖ ﻓﻘﻂ اﻷﺷﯿﺎء اﻟﻤﻜﺮرة وﻏﯿﺮ اﻟﻤﮭﻤﺔ‬

Characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd:

Plays categorized in this movement represent human existence as nonsensical and chaotic.
Absurdist works rarely follow clear plot, and what action occurs serves only to heighten the sense that
characters are victims of unknown.
Dialogue is often redundant, setting and passage of time within the play unclear,
and characters express frustration with deep, philosophical questions, such as the meaning of life and death
and the existence of God.

The term theatre of the absurd: was first coined by scholar Martin Esslin in his 1961 text
Absurdist playwrights are few in number: Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Jean.

Absurd in the context of absurdism can mean: without purpose, illogical, out of harmony, useless,
devoid of reason, meaningless, hopeless, chaotic, lacking order, uncertain.

Absurdism is the notion of existentialism the atrocities of World War II are considered influential events to
the movement, highlighting the precariousness of human existence Sartre denied the existence of a God,
seeing humans with no choice but to create their own standards and moral code in life.

Dialogue language was devalued as a communication tool often:

illogical, sometimes telegraphic, clipped long pauses, clichéd, repetitive and rhythmical

Modern drama: is literature that focuses on regular people and everyday problems. It is essentially a drama
of ideas rather than action. The stage is used by dramatists to express certain ideas which they want to spread
in society.

Modern Drama Characteristics: ‫ﺟﺪًا ﻣﮭﻤﺔ‬

1) Play of ideas:Modern Drama is essentially a drama of ideas rather than action. The stage is used by
dramatists to give expression to certain ideas which they want to spread in society
2) Poitic plays:T.S. Eliot was the main dramatist who gave importance to poetic plays and was the realistic
prose drama of the modern drama. Stephen

3) History and biographic plays: Another trend in the Modern English drama is in the direction of using
history and biography for dramatic technique.
4) Irish movement: A new trend in the Modern English Drama was introduced by the Irish dramatists who
brought about the Celtic Revival in the literature
5) Comedy of manners: There is a revival of the Comedy of Manners in modern dramatic literature.
6) Romanticism: The earlier dramatists of the 20th century were Realists at the core, but the passage of
time brought in, a new trend in Modern Drama.
7) Realism 8) Imprissionism, 9) Expressionism.

The main themes:

1 - Humor and the Absurd:
Waiting for Godot is a prime example of what has come to be known as the theater of the absurd. The play is
filled with nonsensical lines, wordplay, meaningless dialogue, and characters who suddenly shift emotions
and forget everything, ranging from their own identities to what happened yesterday.
All of this contributes an absurdist humor throughout the play. However, this humor is
often uncomfortably mixed together with tragic content to make a darker kind of comedy.
Estragon refers to "billions of others," who have been killed, and describes being beaten by an anonymous
"they." Lucky is treated horribly (badly) and physically abused.
Vladimir and Estragon talk indifferently and pleasantly about suicide. All this has
a discomforting effect on the audience, who is not sure how to react to this mixture of comedy and tragedy,
seriousness and playfulness.
In act one, Vladimir says, "one daren't even laugh any more," and his comment could apply well to the
audience of Beckett's play, who don't know whether to laugh or to cringe.
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The absurdity that caused by the seeming mismatch between characters' tones and the content of their speech
can be seen as a reaction to a world emptied of meaning and significance. If the world is meaningless, it
makes no sense to see it as comic or tragic, good or bad.
Beckett thus presents an eerie play that can only be called the absurd.

2- Waiting, Boredom, and Nihilism:

As Beckett's title indicates, the central act of the play is waiting, and one of the most salient aspects of the
play is that "nothing really to be done". Vladimir and Estragon spend the entire play waiting for Godot,
who never comes. Both Vladimir and Estragon repeat throughout the play that there is "nothing to be done"
and "nothing to do." Estragon repeatedly wants to leave, but Vladimir insists that they should stay, in case
Godot actually comes. As a result of this endless waiting, both Vladimir and Estragon
are "bored to death,". They struggle to find ways to pass the time, so they are conversing back and forth
about nothing at all, including talking about how they don't know what to talk about but simply to pass the
time while waiting.
The boredom of the characters on-stage mirrors the boredom of the audience. Just like Estragon and
Vladimir, the audience waits during the play for some major event or climax that never occurs. Audience
members might at times feel uncomfortable and want to leave like Estragon, but are bound to stay, in case
Godot should actually arrive later in the play.
All of this waiting for nothing, talking about nothing, and doing nothing highlights an atmosphere of
nihilism in the play.

nihilism is a denial of any significance or meaning in the world. Deriving from the Latin word for
"nothing" (nihil), it is a worldview centered around negation,
claiming that there is no truth. This seems to describe the world of the play, largely emptied out of
meaning, emotion, and substance. One could say that Waiting for Godot is, at its core, about nothing.

3- Time:
Perhaps the most important thing about time in the play is that it is uncertain. All of the characters (and even
the audience, as well) are unsure of exactly when the play is happening. The time of the play is unclear.
Vladimir is rather sure that act two is one day after act one, but all the other characters disagree. Moreover,
everyone except for Vladimir seems to have forgotten the events of act one by the time of act two .
In act two, Vladimir and Estragon even disagree over what time of day it is.
Amid all this uncertainty, That is, the same events occur again and again, while
characters also repeat themselves. As Pozzo and Estragon forget their immediate
past, they end up repeating much of act one in act two. The boy claims to be a
different boy from that of act one, and Pozzo does not remember Vladimir or
Estragon, but given all of the forgetfulness in the play, Vladimir's questions remain
unanswered. With this strangely repetitive temporal structure, the characters are trapped within an infinite
present time. "Time has stopped," says Vladimir in act one. Indeed, the ending of the play seems somewhat
arbitrary.

Important Quotes of Act 1:

1."We can't ... We're waiting for Godot."
— Vladimir, Act 1 (Estragon and Vladimir).
Vladimir's reply to Estragon, who wants to get up and leave with his friend, is repeated many times
throughout the play. It perfectly highlights their situation: they cannot leave because of hope that this Godot
will appear and "save" them. But he never comes, trapping them in endless waiting.

2."What exactly did we ask [Godot] for? ... A kind of prayer."

— Estragon, Act 1 (Estragon and Vladimir)
Vladimir and Estragon don't really remember what they asked Godot; it may not have even been a defined
request, which calls into question the value of any answer they could get in return. None of that, however, is
going to stop them from waiting forever for the answer. The description of their request as a prayer seems to
indicate they are seeking a larger meaning to existence. That an answer never comes strongly indicates that
no such meaning exists.
3."We got rid of them."
— Vladimir, Act 1 (Estragon and Vladimir)
When Estragon asks whether he and Vladimir have lost their rights, Vladimir gives an uncharacteristic reply:
Vladimir often blames Godot's restrictions on why they can't leave, such as claiming he will punish them
for dropping him. Here, however, he seems to recognize, at least for a
minute, that they are the only ones restricting what they can and cannot
do.

4. "The tears of the world are a constant quantity."

— Pozzo, Act 1 (Lucky and Pozzo Arrive)
Observing that Estragon begins to weep as Lucky stops, Pozzo pronounces this pompous conclusion. He
even goes on to say that laughter is the same way. This statement sounds profound but is actually ridiculous
—there is no restriction on the number of people in the world who can cry or laugh at the same time—
pointing out the meaninglessness of philosophical "truths."

5. "Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!"

— Estragon, Act 1 (Lucky Thinks)
Estragon breaks out this extremely accurate summary of their circumstances, and indeed the whole play, as
they wait for Lucky to begin thinking. It's a bit absurd that he chooses a time when someone has actually
come and something is about to happen to complain about nothing happening and nobody coming, but it
doesn't diminish the larger truth of his statement.
6. "They all change. Only we can't."
— Estragon, Act 1 (A Boy with a Message)
After Lucky and Pozzo leave, Vladimir comments that they have changed since the last time he saw them.
Indeed, when they return in Act 2, they have changed significantly again. Estragon, however, correctly
observes that he and Vladimir remain essentially the same throughout the play, and presumably beyond.
Estragon suggests they are incapable of change, which doesn't bode well for their chances of eventually
giving up waiting for Godot.

Characters:

Estragon: One of the two main characters of the play, along with Vladimir, Estragon is rather helpless on his
own. In the beginning of the play, he struggles just to take off his boots, for example. Unlike Vladimir, he has
no grasp of time, and is confused as to whether it is evening or morning in act two. Along similar lines, he
has a poor grasp of people's identities. He doesn't recognize Lucky and Pozzo in act two, and at one point
thinks Pozzo's name is Abel. He cannot even remember his own past, and tells Pozzo his name is Adam.
Estragon repeatedly wants to leave, but each time Vladimir reminds him that they must stay and wait for
Godot. While he often forms the dull-minded counterpoint to the more cerebral Vladimir, Estragon is still
able to match Vladimir's verbal wit and once claims that he used to be a poet.

Vladimir: Perhaps the real protagonist of the play, Vladimir often seems to be more rational than his more
nonsensical companion, Estragon. Unlike the other characters in the play, he has a sense of linear time and
realizes that the events of act two essentially repeat those of act one. He is also able to remember people's
identities, unlike Estragon and Pozzo, who forget each other in act two. He seems to be the only one who is
really outraged at Pozzo's horrible treatment of Lucky in act one, but he doesn't actually do anything to help
him. Vladimir often tries to explain what is going on in the world-where they are, when they are and to show
evidence to support his theories. But such rational or "scientific" efforts never yield any solid insight, and by
the end of the play Vladimir seems less sure than he did at the beginning. Vladimir relies upon Estragon's
company as much as Estragon relies upon Vladimir: whenever Estragon leaves the stage for a brief moment,
Vladimir panics out of his intense fear of loneliness and abandonment

Godot: While Godot never appears on stage or has any lines, he is such a significant absence in the play that
he may be rightly recognized as one of the play's characters. What little we can gather about Mr. Godot
comes from the dialogue of Estragon, Vladimir, and the boy he sends to deliver his
message. The boy says that he watches over Godot's goats, and describes Godot as a relatively kind master.
Whoever Godot is, Vladimir and Estragon are convinced that he alone will save them, so they wait endlessly
for his arrival, which never comes. Because of his name's resemblance to God, Godot is often read as
Beckett's pessimistic version of God, an absent savior who never comes to the aid of those suffering on earth.

Pozzo: runs into Vladimir and Estragon while journeying along the road in both acts. He abuses Lucky and
treats him as a slave, pulling him around with a rope tied around his neck and having him carry all his things.
While he exercises some relative power and authority over Lucky and acts superior to the other characters,
he is nonetheless far from powerful himself. He panics when he loses things like his watch and is doomed to
repeat his wandering every day, just as Vladimir and Estragon repeat their waiting for Godot. He is
particularly helpless in act two, when he is inexplicably struck blind and is unable to get up after falling to
the ground

Lucky: is Pozzo's slave, whom Pozzo treats horribly and continually insults, addressing him only as "pig."
He is mostly silent in the play, but gives a lengthy, mostly nonsensical monologue in act one, when Pozzo
asks him to think out loud. While all the characters on-stage suffer in different ways throughout the play,
Lucky is the play's most obvious figure of physical suffering and exploitation as he is whipped, beaten, and
kicked by other characters

Boy: The unnamed boy who brings a message from Godot in both acts. Both times, he tells Vladimir and
Estragon that Godot is not coming, but will come the next day. It is unclear whether the same boy comes in
both acts, or whether these are two different characters. In act two, the boy claims to be different from the
boy of act one, but then again Pozzo claims in act two that he did not meet Vladimir and Estragon in act one.
The boy describes working under Godot as if on a farm or plantation, where he watches over Godot's
animals. When the boy asks Vladimir if he would like to send a message to Godot, Vladimir asks him to tell
Godot simply that he saw Vladimir

The main symbols:

1) Hats:
Vladimir, Estragon, Lucky, and Pozzo all wear hats and at times seem oddly preoccupied with them. Lucky,
for instance, needs his hat to think, and stops his long monologue once his hat is knocked off. In act two
Estragon and Vladimir exchange their hats and Lucky's hat back and forth, trying different ones on. Given
the importance of these hats to their individual owners, this scene can be seen as representing the fluidity and
instability of individual identities in the play. With all of this ambiguity and instability regarding people's
identities, the scene of the hat exchange represents an exchange of identities, as Vladimir and Estragon wear
different combinations of hats. Vladimir ends up wearing Lucky's hat-notably, the one he needed to "think"
seemingly taking on a new identity, as he then asks Estragon to "play" at being Lucky and Pozzo. Indeed, it's
uncertain whether Vladimir and Estragon (or other characters) are actually being themselves throughout the
play, or if they even have stable selves they can be.

2) Names:
Many of the names in Beckett's play can be seen has having hidden meanings. The most important example
is Godot, whose name evokes similarity to God for many readers. Along this reading, Godot symbolizes the
salvation that religion promises, but which never comes (just as Godot never actually comes to Vladimir and
Estragon). But the similarity between "Godot" and "God" could also be a game Beckett is playing with his
audience and readers, a kind of red herring that actually imparts no important information. This would be in
line with other character names: Estragon means "tarragon" in French, for example, while Pozzo is Italian for
a water well, but these meanings hold little to no significance for those characters. And Lucky's name is
anything but fitting, as he is the character who unluckily suffers the most onstage. In the end, Beckett's
character names suggest the possibility of meaning but fail to deliver on this promise, just as Godot promises
to save Vladimir and Estragon but never shows up. As further examples of the nihilist worldview that
pervades Waiting for Godot, the play's character names may be significant precisely for being insignificant,
meaningful in that they mean nothing.