York Notes on "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett
1988
First Published
3.33
Average Rating
72
Number of Pages
A seminal work of twentieth-century drama, Waiting for Godot was Samuel Beckett's first professionally produced play. It opened in Paris in 1953 at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone, and has since become a cornerstone of twentieth-century theater. The story line revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone-or something-named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree on a barren stretch of road, inhabiting a drama spun from their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as a somber summation of mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett's language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existentialism of post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.
Avg Rating
3.33
Number of Ratings
9
5 STARS
22%
4 STARS
11%
3 STARS
56%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
11%
goodreads
Authors
A. Norman Jeffares
Author · 7 books
Alexander Norman Jeffares, AM was an Irish literary scholar. Jeffares was educated at Dublin High School, Trinity College, Dublin and Oriel College, Oxford. He took up his first academic appointment at the University of Groningen in 1947 and then moved to the University of Edinburgh in 1948. At the very early age of 30 he was then appointed to the Jury Chair of English at the University of Adelaide where he stayed for 17 years. He then returned to the Chair of English at the University of Leeds before finally moving to the University of Stirling in 1974. He retired as Emeritus Professor of English in 1985.
