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- Title
Waiting as Tragedy: Beckett and the Question of Choice.
- Authors
Ayuk, Athanasius A.
- Abstract
The high point of Beckett's Waiting for Godot is the waiting itself. This subject while it has attracted huge critical attention, has equally undermined the gravity of the matter in trying to portray the idea of waiting as simply ridiculous and absurd. This paper challenges the notion that the play's action is simply a representation of the absurd and ridiculous. It argues that the play is as serious as any traditional Shakespearean or ancient Greek tragedy can be in that it portrays the condition of man in its basest form, showing that humankind is trapped in their fate, the only solution being in the choice they have to make. The paper locates the source of the protagonists' tragedy in their inability to choose to separate or to choose not to wait. The protagonists are burdened by both the fact of waiting and their inability to make the choice that will liberate them. This in my opinion is no small tragedy, as it shows them as perpetually entrapped in their own destiny, condemned to stand still and suffer the hell of each other's presence. In this regard, I argue, Waiting for Godot is a story of the tragedy of Man's futile attempts to give meaning to life and to define his being.
- Subjects
WAITING (Philosophy); PROTAGONISTS (Persons); GREEK tragedy; DECISION making; WIT &; humor; ABSURD (Philosophy)
- Publication
Labyrinth: An International Refereed Journal of Postmodern Studies, 2013, Vol 4, Issue 3, p6
- ISSN
0976-0814
- Publication type
Article