Waiting for Godot - realism and absurdity.

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Waiting for Godot: Realism

Waiting for Godot is a play written by Samuel Becket in 1949 in the Theater of the Absurd genre, which is often called a reaction to the realism movement in the theater. Rather than try to conform as closely as possible to a concept of real life, absurdists sought to provide an obviously unreal experience. In an absurdist play, time and settings are generally ambiguous, if they are even defined at all. Characters are not meant to mimic real people, but instead are often metaphorical or representative models.

The play, Waiting for Godot can be compared to these features in the absurd theatre in various ways. The space in which the scene is set on the play is undefined except for a tree and some rocks, and its time seems to be unimportant since none of the characters seem to have a clear idea of what the past, the present and future are. There is no memories or any evidence of their existence as the time progresses. As well as the characters not being well defined but rather representing a general model of all humans. However, the play shows us serious, deeper social problems, which convey a sense of realism to the audience. Waiting for Godot provides no answers to the riddle of human existence. It merely asks the hard questions. The realism of the play is shown through certain parts of the dialogue not through the visual things on stage.

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It is a play in which fact and elaborate, illusion and reality are mingled together. In Waiting for Godot man’s sufferings, whether physical or metaphysical, are shown in such a way that we feel them as our own suffering. The play is a mirror of our age because it shows the inner hollowness, helplessness and meaninglessness of modern man’s life. Comparisons can be made between Vladimir and Estragon situation to our daily lives, what are we waiting for during our lives, is working, going to school and playing games are just a distraction to pass the time while we are ...

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