My review on the movie - 'Waiting For Godot'

'Waiting For Godot'

                                         - Samuel Backett

  'Waiting' is too much  irritating for anybody. We  all are waiting for our ultimate truth and that  is the Death only. We all are doing  something so that we  can pass the time and reach our final destination which is already decided. But we can't accept it easily.

'Waiting For Godot' is a poignant play about a ceaseless waiting, about repetition, the meaninglessness , the absurdity of waiting .  Samuel Beckett  gives the philosophy of life using absurdity  in this play. Ordinary reader  can't understand the meaning , the real depth of this play only very few are able to understand what Beckett tries to say in this play.

1. Writer Samuel Beckett inspired from the painting ‘Longing’ which is drawn by Casper David Friedrich. In this painting we find the setting ( A country road ,tree and Evening).This painting shows  longings of  our life. As waiting remains through out the play. Both are endless . A country  road describes that Show must go on. Tree is the symbol of hope .And only this waiting and longing is support our life.

2.  Writer Samuel Beckett uses  "Tree" in setting of the play and also as the symbol. In first Tree is a barren tree .  And in second play tree is grown up with four or five leaves. The barren tree  shows the 'Hopelessness' of Valdimir and Estragon.  In Act-1 nothing happens and the same things are repeated in  Act-2. But the minor change is that now Tree has four or five leaves on it  which suggest the 'Hope of Tomorrow'.  Valdimir looks at the tree and notice that and says that...."Yesterday evening all bare and black . Now it has leaves on it."  Symbols represents that the things are constantly changed in life also. All things are going to change through time and all days are not same .It constantly changed into gloomy or happiness . So, Tree represents both  the sides of life - and have hope for tomorrow.  Hope is endless and hope is the only thing through which human being is alive today. Hope never going to die. Hope supports us to avoid the meaninglessness of life .


3.  In the both Acts Evening turns into Night and during this time ' Nothing to be done.' This expression is the central idea of the play.  Both Valdimir and Estragon are waiting throughout  the time but ..........
                                        

                                         
                                         

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

Uncertainty of the lives are somehow afraid of us and the same way both characters are  also suffering from it.  Let's  see some dialogues of the play which is important to explain the importance of moon light in t e play :

Estragon : Wait! I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off alone, each one for                 himself. We weren't made for the same road.
Valdimir : It's not certain.
Estragon : No, nothing is certain.

As we know that  the play has some effect of  Second World  War  and therefore somehow we see the insecurity of the life .sometimes it seems like that time is moving very slow and sometime it is very fast and the same way Day quickly turns into night. In the play Evening turns into night. Light always not gives the  positive attitude in life. Somehow night is connected to Death. And  Valdimir said that ' Will Night never comes?' means they have questions that whether they get salvation or not from the life.

4.  The director feels the setting with some debris with appropriateness.  Through the debris director wants to shows the fragmentations of life and nothingness of life. Final truth is the death only. All things are broken down . Nothing sustain  for on the earth. One has to die , things has to break down . Through the debris Director shows that  it is futile attempt to last forever or being immortal.

5.   Essence  never changes and in the play also the essence of nothingness not changes throughout the whole play. It remains in each actions.  " Nothing to be done " is the expression of the play reveals the absurdity of the life. Vladimir and Estragon both are doing nothing as such which is significant in life.  And Nothingness becomes the theme of the play. ' Nothingness'  is the central idea of the play.  Both are waiting for "Godot" but they don't know  'Who is Godot? When does he come?, Where does he show up?, Why does he have to come?, the most fundamental question:  Why do they have to wait for Godot?'

Above all things are not only related to Estragon and Vladimir but through these characters writers represents humankind who are helpless and nothing have to do without killing time. We just pass our time on earth as we have nothing to do . All things are insignificant in life whether you are intelligent or physical strong . As one is master or slave , as one is blind or dumb , there are no any importance of anyone because all has to pass their time with same fate and such way there is no any differences among them . Nothingness is the centre is everything and  it becomes something in the play.

6. Yes, I agree with  the point which is mentioned by E.G.Marshal that “The play (Waiting for Godot), we agreed, was a positive play, not negative, not pessimistic. As I saw it, with my blood and skin and eyes, the philosophy is: 'No matter what— atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, anything—life goes on. You can kill yourself, but you can't kill life."  -  we have habit of living life. We can't kill ourselves  because we have a habit of living only though it is much painful than the death. Taking breath is also habit of human life. We just kill ourselves . We are not able to kill the time because when we died time is already stop for us and such way, we falsify the idea of  the eternity of the time. Show must go on.  Life has to go on. We can't  kill the life . We kill  ourselves only. Thus, the play Waiting for Godot is the positive play not pessimistic.

7. In play " Waiting For Godot" writer uses different symbols in it. Boot and Hat are as symbols of the play :  Boot represents the lower position and  physical aspects only and  Hat is direct   connected with intellectuality. Hat represents the mental , rational side of the life where as boot is symbol of  physical appearance.  Playing with the hat symbolise the thinking through which suggest that one hat to pear inside. Shoes at first sight seems a futile thing but in play it is important. Through boot Estragon blames to boot but actual problem is his own feet. We all are also doing same things in our life. " Problem of feet blaming the shoes."

8. Yes, at first sight , it is seems that the obedience of Lucky is extremely irritating and nauseatic. Writer ascribes the slavery of Lucky to his Master. Just see his entry in the play.  The treatments of Lucky directly connected to animal - Horse.   When Lucky enters into the play, it heard like Horse is coming.  How  one can to be the slave of others? When Pozzo is blind , Lucky is not able to walk himself without command of his master. Though he has chance to run way from such slavery , he happily accept his slavery and totally dependent on his master.

9. We interpret the thing as we like it. One or another way all things are appropriate for these...God, An Object Of Desire, Goal, and Death. According to me , For human beings it is not easy to accept the death - The final truth of the life. Many  people are waiting for God - someday he will come and do something for them. For them Godot is God.  Godot is as An Object of Desire and Goal are constantly changed because desire is endless and once we get one thing , we want new. The same way, once we achieve a goal , our goal is changed for another goal means.. Things are changed and with this our Godot is also changed. So,  with philosophical aspect Godot is the death but man can't accept the reality because he has habit of living life. So, from there our Godot is changed one to another .

10. Yes, I  agree   with the point  that The subject of the play is not Godot but ‘Waiting’”  which is mentioned by Esslin in his essay - A Search for the Self.  'Waiting' is the centre of the play not Godot . because throughout the play Both characters  Estrogone and Valdimir are doing ' Waiting ' only .For whom? they don't know. Why they are doing waiting ? they don't know. Why he has to come ? they don't know. And the final question is Why they have to wait for  him ? they don't know.Everyone is waiting for that somehow, someday. Why does every time we wait for somebody or something we mostly fail..?   Both charterers - Estragon and Valdimir fall in the trap of waiting as we all are also.

               " A  Waiting that has no solution except keeping on Waiting."

Thus, Waiting is more important part of the play than the Godot? In the play, we feel the agony of the waiting. One or another way , we all are doing the same things in life. We all are waiting for someone, something, in  our life. Waiting is too much irritating for us. Thus, 'Waiting' is the centre of the play not Godot.

11. Both has its own advantages and disadvantages also.  Reading the play is different thing and to watch the movie of that play has different experience.  While we are  reading  the play , we get enough time to think what writer actually want to say. Reader may read between the line and find the depth of the meaning, In movie screening its not possible to all time.  In movie torrent of language or dialogue are constantly going on and then after long silence. Though the words are more powerful than visualisation .sometime , the play like..'Waiting For Godot  is better to watch rather than reading.  Through watching movie we feel the agony of waiting through the characters. We feel their pain and suffering and connect with them with visualization or audio.  As play is for performance , actors have ability  to catch their audiences.

12. I like the sequence  Vladimir – Estragon killing time in questions and conversations while waiting. Estragon and Vladimir are  representative of human kind. After taking the birth , what we are doing? Just kill the time until the death. We have nothing to do as they have nothing. They pass their time  with  doing insignificant  things as we all are doing with our lives also. Estragon says that "Nothing to be done."  They both reflects the shadow of our lives that we have nothing to do though we behave like that we are doing something significant than the others.

13. Yes, I feel the effect of existential crisis or meaninglessness of human existence in the irrational and indifference Universe during screening of the movie. Existentialists deals with such subjects like...Death, the meaning of the human existence, the place of God in human existence , the meaning of value , interpersonal relationship, the place of self - reflective conscious knowledge of one's self in existing. They are waiting for 'Godot' and in between they just killing their time. For passing the time they both play with Hat or Boot. Though both things stand for different symbols both Estragon and Vladimir are same place , and same fate also. Means.. there is no difference whether one is intellectual or not. What makes difference in between them 'Nothing'. At the end, there are tried and decide to committee suicide but they can't because our instinct of life is more powerful than the reason of the death.  Vladimir says that " Shall we go? Let's go. but they don't go and readers have question " Where to go?"

14.  Vladimir and Estragon talks about ‘hanging’ themselves and commit suicide, but they do not do so because we have habit of living life. Our instinct of life is always more powerful than the reason of death. We have a habit of living before we acquire a habit of thinking and reason always goes to thinking. Thus, such instinct is over power over the thinking capacity. Thus, they can't do suicide because they have hope for tomorrow just like ' Act Of Eluding' .

Existentialism is not gloomy term it is an attitude to prove that man is maker of his own fate.Existentialism is positive term  to look life with different perspective. Its all about consciousness. It  don't driven by sensibility or emotionality or melodrama kind things. It is connected with lived experience.

16. With the help of historical background, we can read this play with colonial and post colonial aspect. As we know that Irish  people are suffering from slavery of  English. Lucky himself can't free from this idea. Master - Slave relationship fully described here. After the blindness of his master ( Pozzo) Lucky can't be free because he doesn't want. So, Ireland always be slave of England and we read this with colonial perspective.  Master - Pozzo don't like to give the answers to others. With Furiousness Pozzo says that...." Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! Whhen! One day , is that not enough for you , one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day , the same second , is that not enough for you? " None of My Business" . Thus , we read  also the 'White Man's Burden' in this play.

Thank You.