MR.C's TOK Blog- BD Somani Int School -Mumbai: 2021

http://www.samuel-beckett.net/L2BeckEssay.html

Essay on Waiting for Godot (by Michael Sinclair)

The purpose of human life is an unanswerable question. It seems impossible to find an answer because we don't know where to begin looking or whom to ask. Existence, to us, seems to be something imposed upon us by an unknown force. There is no apparent meaning to it, and yet we suffer as a result of it. The world seems utterly chaotic. We therefore try to impose meaning on it through pattern and fabricated purposes to distract ourselves from the fact that our situation is hopelessly unfathomable. "Waiting for Godot" is a play that captures this feeling and view of the world, and characterizes it with archetypes that symbolize humanity and its behaviour when faced with this knowledge. According to the play, a human being's life is totally dependant on chance, and, by extension, time is meaningless; therefore, a human's life is also meaningless, and the realization of this drives humans to rely on nebulous, outside forces, which may be real or not, for order and direction.

How can TOK help us engage with a non-traditional play such as "Waiting for Godot"?

“Waiting for Godot” By Samuel Beckett.

As in TOK Language plays a key role in understanding both communication and miscommunication. (See Optional Theme - Language and the Knower)

ESTRAGON:

(giving up again). Nothing to be done.

VLADIMIR:

(advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again.

Vladimir and Estragon seem to know each other well, they have a long history together but in Act 1 Scene 1 the play opens in a grim setting.

The set and the tone remind us that Beckett lived in a century dominated by World War 1 and World War 2. (The play was first performed in French in Paris on the

5th January 1953.

The physical appearance of the set, the poverty of the characters

Themes: Dystopia (Post - war)

Abuse of power: Pozzo and Lucky but in Act 2 the roles are reversed

Violence -

VLADIMIR:

And they didn't beat you?

ESTRAGON:

Beat me? Certainly they beat me.

VLADIMIR:

The same lot as usual?

ESTRAGON: