Waiting for Godot

Aims:

In general I can:

Identify the themes of modernism and nihilism in drama.

Understand and discuss the features of the theatre of the absurd.

Describe the concept of tragicomedy.

Specifically I can:

Provide a summary of the play and discuss what it is about.

Explain why a given passage has a comic effect.

Identify and describe the characters.

Provide a personal analysis and cite textual evidence to support it.

Assessment:

Individual assessment:

Short essay: Who is Godot and why can't he ever come on stage?

Essay presentation and discussion with the teacher.

Short questionnaire on themes and symbols of the play.

Group work:

Each group (3-4 students) shall write an alternative ending: "What if

Godot showed up in the end?" They must motivate their

thinking and, if possible, perform the new, alternative

ending in front of the class.

Works must take into account what Godot's words

might be: What was the help he promised?

Will it be a solution or just more nonsense?

Prerequisites:

School/class type: Liceo Linguistico, 5th year class with average B1-B2 level

Location: Classroom, school theatre if available

Tools: Interactive whiteboard / whiteboard and video projector with screen.

Abilities: Sufficient knowledge of principal literary works leading to

this period, especially Shakespeare's Hamlet for literary comparison,

and James Joyce's works for contextualization.

Time: Two 2-hour units, each contiguous, possibly in the

second half of the morning. (Waiting for the lesson?)

Methodology and didactics:

Introduction: warmer and introduction (principal themes of nihilism and modernism) reference to everyday personal experience. - scaffolding.

Central unit: Overview of the play and characters, themes and symbols, samples of the "absurd" in different moments in the play (as video or acted out by students as short, nonsensical conversations) and feedback from students. Reflection on the effect of absurdity and repetition. - metacognitive approach.

If there is sufficient time, the entire play can be viewed in class, otherwise students will be asked to complete the viewing at home. The teacher will assign an essay in which students must provide their own analysis.

Follow-up: Students present their essays, referring to the play to back their thinking. - task-based / inverted classroom.

Group work: What if Godot showed up? - task-based /collaborative learning

WAITING FOR GODOT

THE PLAY:

RELIGION

Vladimir and Estragon discuss about the Bible,

highlighting its contradictions. This leads to the theme of modernism, another philosophical movement which rejected religious belief.

But Didi and Gogo believe that Godot will come.

In the words of Lucky, when he wears his thinking hat:

Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell...

The full monologue, central to the play, is over 700 words long. It sounds a lot like James Joyce's stream of consciousness, but it signifies nothing. Full of sound and fury, Shakespeare would say. There is no central meaning to the play, as there is no central meaning to life. Don't spend your life waiting for someone or something to put meaning into it. It's ok to wait, but don't stop living because of that.

Or: "Why bother? We'll all be dead some day."

Nihilism is a philosophical doctrine which suggests all values have no real base and communication is useless. In the play, Samuel Beckett presents us with two main characters:

Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo). They are waiting,

and while they wait they discuss about waiting, and what

to do while waiting. (wait a little more). Decisions lead to little

or no action and actions lead to no effect, and great philosophical and religious questions lead to no answer.

To top it off, the characters aren't really sure

where, when and even who they are.

For 2 hours.

(you've been waiting for this one, confess...)

THE MEANING OF LIFE

NOTHING TO BE DONE (literally)

Because you know that if you go away, the bus will come. So you wait some more, which leads to the next important themes:

Boredom and Time.

Vladimir and Estragon are bored out of their minds, but they can't stop waiting. They invent strategies to make time pass.

Vladimir in particular is desperately

bored.

Why are you still waiting?

What happens to time when you wait?

What if the bus doesn't come immediately?

What do you do at the bus stop?

BUS STOPS AND TIME TRAVEL

Which leads us to the next theme: the absurd. Dialogues

go nowhere, often unexpectedly, with a comic effect. The

objective of the theatre of the absurd is to destroy the

fundaments of classical drama, including logical dialogue.

Hats are, in fact, also symbols of individuality. All the characters in the play have problems maintaining their identity. Remember "to be or not to be"? They appear to have decided not to be. Is Didi looking for his individuality in his hat?

Haven't a clue, sorry.

Hats are fundamental in this play. They are of paramount importance! Vladimir keeps looking inside his hat. Vladimir and Estragon exchange hats, again and again, and Lucky, a

secondary character, must wear his hat to think and speak.

Why are hats so important?

HATS

• The meaning of life

• More nothing to be done

• Hats!

• Bus stops and time travel

• Nothing to be done

TODAY'S MENU:

"Nothing to be done" is the first sentence in the play, spoken by Estragon, when he can't take off his boot. The sentence is repeated again and again. What does it refer to? The stuck boot? The waiting? The play?

Does it refer to the human condition?

In the first and second half, Didi and Gogo's doing nothing is

interrupted, twice, by two other characters: Pozzo and

Lucky. Pozzo keeps Lucky on a leash, like an animal.

He calls him "pig" and treats him like a slave. Pozzo is

taking Lucky to the market, to sell him. Vladimir is only

slightly disturbed by Lucky's suffering, but Pozzo declares that Lucky is free, and since he does nothing to change his condition, one must conclude he likes to be a slave. Absurdly, when Pozzo accuses Lucky of being an ungrateful slave, Vladimir

stops defending Lucky and defends Pozzo instead. The

degraded human condition is presented as inevitable.

(In case there wasn't enough)

MORE NOTHING TO BE DONE