Critical questions
- Who or what is Godot?
- Why are Gogo and Didi waiting?
- What is the relationship between them?
- They agree to go but do not move. What restrains them?
- What is the significance of the tree and its leaves?
- Why does Vladimir propose hanging?
- Vladimir asserts that "All mankind is us, whether we like it or not." What does he mean?
- Do Vladimir and Estragon learn from their suffering?
Questions for discussion
- What are we waiting for?
- Is habit the great deadener of life?
- Is doing nothing safer?
- Is our world as absurd as Beckett's?
"Waiting for Godot was Beckett’s major foray into what would become his career-long routine of composing in French and self-translating into English. In the curious underworld of Beckettian translation studies, it’s a vexed topic. Some critics consider the doubled nature of Beckett’s oeuvre its distinguishing quality. Certainly, Beckett’s eccentric writing practice makes his bilingual corpus unique in the history of literature. But how do you classify self-translated texts? They eschew traditional categories, dwelling in some foggy realm between translation, revision, and authorial re-interpretation."
ReplyDeletefrom: Beckett’s Bilingual Oeuvre: Style, Sin, and the Psychology of Literary Influence by ELIZABETH WINKLER