Discuss The Ways In Which Ritual Is A Key Element In Both Content And Form In The Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot And Any One Other Of His Plays.

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Discuss The Ways In Which Ritual Is A Key Element In Both Content And Form In The Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot And Any One Other Of His Plays.

Samuel Beckett’s writing is based on Theatre of the Absurd and his plays focus on the proposition that life is basically both meaningless and incoherent, and that a play which aims to give a true reflection of life must do so by exploring the whole range of absurdity. (Stapleton 1983:59).  For this reason many ritualistic elements are found throughout his plays to convey ideas and themes.  The two plays I have chosen to study are Waiting For Godot and Endgame, and through this essay I will attempt to show how ritual is a key element in both content and form.

Waiting for Godot is a play where it seems nothing happens, twice.  However the main themes are those of life, hope and regeneration on the one hand, and death, despair and destruction on the other hand.  Throughout the play there is a strong focus on Godot, who Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for, and indeed this in itself is a key element of ritual as Godot has certain connotations of God and Jesus, and therefore religion:

“VLADIMIR:  We’ll hang ourselves tomorrow.  (Pause).  Unless Godot comes.

          ESTRAGON:  And if he comes?

          VLADIMIR:  We’ll be saved.”    (Beckett. Pg 94)

This religious element is also seen at the beginning of the play when Vladimir mentions a parable from the Bible about two thieves, ‘Do you remember the Gospels? …. Ah yes, the two thieves.  Do you remember the story?’    (Pg 12)

The content of the play has the human need for ritual as the subject matter.  Vladimir and Estragon perform mini rituals in order to cope with the waiting.  An example of this is at the beginning when the audience sees how Vladimir, ‘(takes off his hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it, shakes it, puts it on again).’    (Pg 10)                                                                                                                              

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He continues to do this repeatedly and then Estragon begins to do the same with his boot.  The action signifies basic human nature.  Beckett, through the behavior of the characters, puts the importance on the mundane, immaterial things in life by making them more exaggerated.  He shows the importance we place on actions that in the whole context of things are not really as important as we think they are.  It is our nature as human beings to ritualistically perform actions that are not really of any significance in our everyday lives.

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