Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett

I. Introduction to Samuel BeckettI. Introduction to Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett‘s work offers a bleak ( 阴 郁 的 )outlook on human culture and both formally and philosophically. As a student, assistant, and friend of James Joyce, Beckett is considered by many one of the last modernists; as an inspiration to many later writers, he is sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is also considered one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called "Theatre of the Absurd."

Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for his "writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". Beckett died in Paris of respiratory (of breathe) problems.

Irish novelist and playwright, one of the great names of Absurd Theatre with Eugéne Ionesco, although recent study regards Beckett as postmodernist. His plays are concerned with human suffering and survival, and his characters are struggling with meaninglessness and the world of the Nothing. Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. In his writings for the theater Beckett showed influence of burlesque ( 滑 稽 歌 舞 表 演 ), vaudeville( 杂 耍 ), the music hall, and the silent-film style of such figures as Keaton and Chaplin.

"We all are born mad. Some remain so." (from Waiting for Godot, 1952)

Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin into a prosperous Protestant family. His father, William Beckett Jr., was a surveyor. Beckett‘s mother, Mary Roe, had worked as a nurse before marriage. He was educated at the Portora Royal School —the school Oscar Wilde attended, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he took a B.A. degree in 1927, having specialized in French and Italian. Beckett worked as a teacher in Belfast and lecturer in English at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. During this time he became a friend of James Joyce , taking dictation and copying down parts of what would eventually become Finnegans Wake (1939). （《芬尼根守灵夜》） He also translated a fragment of the book into French under Joyce's supervision. In 1931 Beckett returned to Dublin and received his M.A. in 1931. He taught French at Trinity College until 1932, when he resigned to devote his time entirely to writing. After his father died, Beckett received an annuity that enabled him to settle in London, where he underwent psychoanalysis (1935-36).

II. Beckett’s Writing CareerII. Beckett’s Writing Career

Beckett‘s career as a writer can be roughly divided into three periods: his early works, up until the end of World War II in 1945; his middle period, stretching from 1945 until the early 1960s, during which period he wrote what are probably his most well-known works; and his late period, from the early 1960s until Beckett’s death in 1989, during which his works tended to become shorter and shorter and his style more and more minimalist （极简） .

The most important period of his writing career is the second period. After World War II, Beckett turned definitively to the French language as a vehicle. It was this, experienced in his mother's room in Dublin—in which he realized that his art must be subjective and drawn wholly from his own inner world—that would result in the works for which Beckett is probably best remembered today.

During the 15 years subsequent to the war, Beckett produced four major full-length stage plays: En attendant Godot (written 1948–1949; Waiting for Godot), Fin de partie (1955–1957; Endgame), Krapp's Last Tape (1958), and Happy Days (1960). These plays—which are often considered, rightly or wrongly, to have been instrumental in the so-called "Theatre of the Absurd"—deal in a very blackly humorous way with themes similar to those of the roughly contemporary existentialist thinkers, though Beckett himself cannot be pigeonholed as an existentialist.

The term "Theatre of the Absurd" was coined by Martin Esslin in a book of the same name; Beckett and Godot were centerpieces of the book. Esslin claimed these plays were the fulfillment of Albert Camus's concept of "the absurd"; this is one reason Beckett is often falsely labeled as an existentialist. Though many of the themes are similar, Beckett had little affinity for existentialism as a whole.

Broadly speaking, the plays deal with the subject of despair and the will to survive in spite of that despair, in the face of an uncomprehending and, indeed, incomprehensible world. The words of Nell—one of the two characters in Endgame who are trapped in ashbins, from which they occasionally peek their heads to speak—can best summarize the themes of the plays of Beckett's middle period:Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. ... Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it's always the same thing. Yes, it's like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don't laugh any more.

Of all the English-language modernists, Beckett's work represents the most sustained attack on the realist tradition. He, more than anyone else, opened up the possibility of drama and fiction that dispense with conventional plot and the unities of place and time in order to focus on essential components of the human condition. Writers like Václav Havel, John Banville, Aidan Higgins and Harold Pinter have publicly stated their indebtedness to Beckett's example, but he has had a much wider influence on experimental writing since the 1950s, from the Beat generation to the happenings of the 1960s and beyond.

Significance

Beckett is one of the most widely discussed and highly prized of twentieth century authors, inspiring a critical industry to rival that which has sprung up around James Joyce. He has divided critical opinion. Some early philosophical critics, such as Sartre and Theodor Adorno, praised him, one for his revelation of absurdity, the other for his works' critical refusal of simplicities; others such as Georg Lukacs condemn for 'decadent' lack of realism.

Samuel Beckett depicted on an Irish commemorative coin celebrating the 100th Anniversary of his birth.

Theatre• Eleutheria (1940s; published

1995) • Waiting for Godot (1952) • Act Without Words I (1956) • Act Without Words II (1956) • Endgame (1957) • Krapp's Last Tape (1958) • Rough for Theatre I (late 1950s) • Rough for Theatre II (late 1950s) • Happy Days (1960) • Play (1963) • Come and Go (1965) • Breath (1969) • Not I (1972) • That Time (1975) • Footfalls (1975) • A Piece of Monologue (1980) • Rockaby (1981) • Ohio Impromptu (1981) • Catastrophe (1982) • What Where (1983)

Radio• All That Fall (1956) • From an Abandoned Work (1957) • Embers (1959) • Rough for Radio I (1961) • Rough for Radio II (1961) • Words and Music (1961) • Cascando (1962)

Television• Eh Joe (1965) • Ghost Trio (1975) • ... but the clouds ... (1976) • Quad I + II (1981) • Nacht und Träume (1982) • Beckett on Film (2002) Hosted by

Jeremy Irons, Produced by PBS

Cinema• Film (1965)

[edit] Dramatic works[edit] Dramatic works

Prose• Novels• Dream of Fair to Middling Women

(1932; published 1992) • Murphy (1938) • Watt (1945; published 1953) • Mercier and Camier (1946;

published 1974) • Molloy (1951) • Malone Dies (1951) • The Unnamable (1953) • How It Is (1961)

• Novellas• The Expelled (1946) • The Calmative (1946) • The End (1946) • The Lost Ones (1971) • Company (1980) • Ill Seen Ill Said (1981) • Worstward Ho (1983) •

• Stories• More Pricks Than Kicks (1934) • First Love (1945) • Stories and Texts for Nothing

(1954) • Fizzles (1976) • Stirrings Still (1988)

• Non-fiction• Proust (1931) • Three Dialogues (with Georges

Duthuit and Jacques Putnam) (1949)

• Disjecta (1929 - 1967) PoetryWhoroscope (1930) Echo's Bones and other Precipitates (1935) Collected Poems in English (1961) Collected Poems in English and French (1977) What is the Word (1989)

III. Analysis of Waiting for Godot

III. Analysis of Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot qualifies as one of Samuel Beckett's most famous works. Originally written in French in 1948, Beckett personally translated the play into English. The world premiere was held on January 5, 1953, in the Left Bank Theater of Babylon in Paris. The play's reputation spread slowly through word of mouth and it soon became quite famous. Other productions around the world rapidly followed. The play initially failed in the United States, likely as a result of being misbilled as "the laugh of four continents." A subsequent production in New York City was more carefully advertised and garnered some success.

Beckett often focused on the idea of “the suffering of being.” Most of the play deals with the fact that Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for something to alleviate （使缓和、减轻） their boredom. Godot can be understood as one of the many things in life that people wait for.

The play has often been viewed as fundamentally existentialist in its take on life. The fact that none of the characters retain a clear mental history means that they are constantly struggling to prove their existence.

Waiting for Godot is part of the Theater of the Absurd. This implies that it is meant to be irrational. Absurd theater does away with the concepts of drama, chronological plot, logical language, themes, and recognizable settings. There is also a split between the intellect and the body within the work. Thus Vladimir represents the intellect and Estragon the body, both of whom cannot exist without the other.

Character List Character List EstragonEstragon is one of the two protagonists. He is a bum and sleeps in a ditch where he is beaten each night. He has no memory beyond what is immediately said to him, and relies on Vladimir to remember for him. Estragon is impatient and constantly wants to leave Vladimir, but is restrained from leaving by the fact that he needs Vladimir. It is Estragon's idea for the bums to pass their time by hanging themselves. Estragon has been compared to a body without an intellect, which therefore needs Vladimir to provide the intellect.

VladimirVladimir is one of the two protagonists. He is a bum like Estragon, but retains a memory of most events. However, he is often unsure whether his memory is playing tricks on him. Vladimir is friends with Estragon because Estragon provides him with the chance to remember past events. Vladimir is the one who makes Estragon wait with him for Mr. Godot's imminent arrival throughout the play. Vladimir has been compared to the intellect which provides for the body, represented by Estragon.

Lucky

Lucky is the slave of Pozzo. He is tied to Pozzo via a rope around his neck and he carries Pozzo's bags. Lucky is only allowed to speak twice during the entire play, but his long monologue is filled with incomplete ideas. He is silenced only by the other characters who fight with him to take of his hat. Lucky appears as a mute in the second act.

Pozzo

Pozzo is the master who rules over Lucky. He stops and talks to the two bums in order to have some company. In the second act Pozzo is blind and requires their help. He, like Estragon, cannot remember people he has met. His transformation between the acts may represent the passage of time.

Pozzo

Pozzo is the master who rules over Lucky. He stops and talks to the two bums in order to have some company. In the second act Pozzo is blind and requires their help. He, like Estragon, cannot remember people he has met. His transformation between the acts may represent the passage of time.

a boyThe boy is a servant of Mr. Godot. He plays an identical role in both acts by coming to inform Vladimir and Estragon the Mr. Godot will not be able to make it that night, but will surely come the next day. The boy never remembers having met Vladimir and Estragon before. He has a brother who is mentioned but who never appears.

Waiting for Godot Waiting for Godot

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萨缪尔 ·贝克特 生于一九○六年，原籍爱尔兰，是一位用法语英语两种文字写作的剧作家、诗人、小说家。主要剧作为《等待戈多》（ 1952 ）、《最后的一局》（ 1957 ）、《哑剧Ⅰ 》 （ 1957）、《克拉普最后的录音》（ 1959 ），《哑剧Ⅱ》（ 1959 ）、《灰烬》（ 1959 ）、《哦，美好的日子！》（ 1961 ）等。此外，还写过小说，如《摩罗》和《马洛尼死了》等等。《等待戈多》使他一举成名。在这部戏里，两个流浪汉等着，自始至终在台上等待永远不会来，永远被等待的戈多。戏的结尾近似还原到戏的开始。《哦，美好的日子！》描写老妇温妮从半身入土到只剩下头部还没有被埋入土中的过程，从她喋喋不休的台词中表明她要把走向死亡的最后时刻变成美好的日子。

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《等待戈多》是戏剧史上真正的革新，也是第一部演出成功的荒诞派戏剧。呈现在我们面前的是一个非理性的世界。剧本通过两个流浪汉永无休止而又毫无希望的等待，揭示了世界的荒诞与人生的痛苦，表现了现代人希望改变自己的生活处境但又难以实现的绝望心理。

贝克特的作品从一个侧面反映了战后西方社会的精神危机，表明人类对未来、对前途失去任何信念，是资本主义制度必然走向死亡的曲折反映。他的剧作已被译成近三十种语言，在世界不少国家的舞台上广为上演。

戈多会来吗？剧中人物用台词回答我们：“ Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful？”