Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University


 

Waiting for Godot

(1956)

 

Samuel Beckett

(April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989)

 

Notes

Waiting for Godot was first written in French as En attendant Godot in 1948. It premiered in 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris.


Estragon: French for the aromatic herb tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), also called dragon's wort, dragon herb, dragon sagewort, green sage, and silky wormwood


Pozzo: in Italian means "a well"


Hope deferred maketh: From Proverbs 13:12 "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."


Gospels: etymologically, "good news," from Old English god "good" + spel "story, message"; the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible which tell the story of Jesus. The books are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

two thieves: all four gospels give an account of two men who were crucified at the same time as Jesus

 

 


 

 

Study Questions

  • Notice the word play in Waiting for Godot. How do simple, inconsequential seeming words or phrases like "nothing to be done," "struggle," "button it," or "appalled" gain additional meaning and depth when accompanied by certain actions or placed in certain contexts?

            

 


 

Review Sheet

Characters

Estragon, Gogo, Adam 

Vladimir, Didi

Pozzo

Lucky
a boy


 

Places 

a country road

tree – 

 

Time 

evening  


 

 

 


Sample Student Responses to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Response 1

 

            


 

 


 

Reference

 

Links
Some Productions
Groups and Activities

 


 

Samuel Beckett
Related News

 


Reference

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. London: Faber and Faber, 1986. Print.


Further Reading

Ackerly, C. J., and S. E. Gontarski. The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett: A Reader's Guide to His Works, Life, and Thought. New York: Grove, 2004. Print.


Bair, Deirdre. Samuel Beckett: A Biography. Rev. ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Print.

[CL 848.914 B396B]


Beckett, Samuel. Collected Shorter Plays. New York: Grove, 1984. Print.

[CL 822.912219 B395C]


Gontarski, S. E., ed. A Companion to Samuel Beckett. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.


Knowlson, James R. Damed to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. Print.


McMillan, Dougald, and James Knowlson, eds. The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove, 1993. Print.

[CL 842.914 B396T]


Pilling, John. The Cambridge Companion to Beckett. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print.





 


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Last updated March 30, 2012