"Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett : blog task

This blog is a part of my classroom activity, here is the activity. 

I am sharing my response below.

1) What connection do you see in the setting (“A country road. A tree, Evening.”) Of the play and these paintings?
                           
Answer:
               We can see that in the play setting is like same as in painting. In painting also we can see trees and two persons are looking for someone. So we can see these many similarities in both.

     2) The tree is the only important ‘thing’ in the setting. What is the importance of tree in both acts? Why does Beckett grow a few leaves in Act II on the barren tree - The tree has four or five leaves - ?

                     
                Leaves on Tree - Waiting for Godot

answers:
        In second act we can see few leaves on the tree. Perhaps through that leaves writer try to saying that this is second part or time passes. So we can think like that.

       3) In both Acts, evening falls into night and moon rises. How would you like to interpret this ‘coming of night and moon’ when actually they are waiting for Godot?


   Night and Moon - Waiting for Godot
answer:
               From that thing we can understand that time passes and they are waiting from morning to evening but yet Godot will never come. As same thing happened in our life also, sun going moon coming, moon going Sun coming ... It goes on. As our life also we are happy or unhappy but life never stopped it goes on.

     4) The director feels the setting with some debris. Can you read any meaning in the contours of debris in the setting of the play?
Answer:
               Yes, in the setting of the play we can see debris lying. Because it is also significant in our life we are doing many things but after all one day we will die. So our life also likes that debris. So purposefully directors try to show those things.

      5) The play begins with the dialogue “Nothing to be done”. How does the theme of ‘nothingness’ recurs in the play?
    Answer- The play begins with the dialogue "Nothing to be done". It is very interesting sentence; if we apply it in our life then also it is right. In our life goes on nothing to be done and yet we are living our life... And nothingness is the main theme of the play, so from the first sentence we can understand it.

            6) Do you agree: “The play (Waiting for Godot), we agreed, was a positive play, not negative, not pessimistic. As I saw it, with my blood and skin and eyes, the philosophy is: 'No matter what— atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, anything—life goes on. You can kill yourself, but you can't kill life." (E.G. Marshal who played Vladimir in original Broadway production 1950s)?
   Answer-      Yes, I agree that this play is positive. We can understand the reality of our life but it not mean that we it is negative play. But we have to take it philosophically, like there are many difficulties will come in our life but there is no need to afraid of that because our life goes on. So don't worry about it and enjoy every moment of life.

  7) How are the props like hat and boots used in the play? What is the symbolical significance of these props?
        Answer-   Hat is a symbol of intelligence while boots is symbol of hardship or importance of body. But the main point is that yet they both are waiting for Godot. As same in our life also we are intelligent or hard worker doesn't matter. Because after all we all are waiting for death.

   8) Do you think that the obedience of Lucky is extremely irritating? Even when the master Pozzo is blind, he obediently hands the whip in his hand. Do you think that such a capacity of slavishness is unbelievable?
                          
                       Pozzo - Lucky: Master-Slave
              answer-.  This type of slavishness is possible, if we take the example of elephant so elephant has capacity to break that row but yet he never do it. Because his mind constructed like that and he never escape from this. As same it also happens in human beings also.

    9) Who according to you is Godot? God? An object of desire? Death? Goal? Success? Or  . . .
      answer-.  According to me it is an idea produced by the writer nothing else. But if we think it is God, or death so it's up to you. If person believes in the idea of God so according to him it is God. But for practical person who not believes in God so according to him it is death. But according to me it is an idea produced by writer.

  10) “The subject of the play is not Godot but ‘Waiting’” (Esslin, A Search for the Self). Do you agree? How can you justify your answer?
    Answer- Yes, the subject of the play is waiting because both the characters are waiting from starting to end. As same in our life also from birth we are waiting until death come. This, we can justify the theme of the play is waiting.

11) Do you think that plays like this can better be ‘read’ than ‘viewed’ as it requires a lot of thinking on the part of readers, while viewing, the torrent of dialogues does not give ample time and space to ‘think’? Or is it that the audio-visuals help in better understanding of the play?
Answer:
        Reading and viewing both has its own plus and minus points. After viewing our ideas become clear but it also binds our imagination. While reading our imagination expanded, but some ideas left unclear in our mind. So both have its own both the sides.

12) Which of the following sequence you liked the most:
o   Vladimir – Estragon killing time in questions and conversations whilewaiting

Vladimir and Estragon: The Hat and the Boot
o   Pozzo – Lucky episode in both acts
o   Converstion of Vladimir with the boy
 
         Answer- The sequence I like is conversation of Pozzo – Lucky episode in both acts.

                     13) Did you feel the effect of existential crisis or meaninglessness of human existence in the irrational and indifference Universe during screening of the movie? Where and when exactly that feeling was felt, if ever it was?
                             Answer: Yes, I felt that meaninglessness of human existence when both the characters are doing worthless things. And in our life also we are doing same things.   

           14)  Vladimir and Estragon talks about ‘hanging’ themselves and commit suicide, but they do not do so. How do you read this idea of suicide In Existentialism?
Answer:
           As we have seen in the play that they both are trying to hanging themselves, but point is that after the death what happened with us. We never known, if there is New birth then it will same thing as usually.

       15) Can we do any political reading of the play if we see European nations represented by the 'names' of the characters (Vladimir - Russia; Estragon - France; Pozzo - Italy and Lucky - England)? What interpretation can be inferred from the play written just after World War II?
Answer:
              Yes, we can look at from that angle then we can read that thing also. Lucky is from England and through that character we can see the situation of England. And compare to Russia, France and Italy the condition of England is not better. So we can also read from that angle.

         16) So far as Pozzo and Lucky [master and slave] are concerned, we have to remember that Beckett was a disciple of Joyce and that Joyce hated England. Beckett meant Pozzo to be England, and Lucky to be Ireland." (Bert Lahr who played Estragon in Broadway production). Does this reading make any sense? Why? How? What?
Answer:
              Yes, it is possible because Beckett can't escape himself for completely. And his thoughts reflect in this play. So, we can't say it is completely right or not. But think about that.

     17) The more the things change, the more it remains similar. There seems to have no change in Act I and Act II of the play. Even the conversation between Vladimir and the Boy sounds almost similar. But there is one major change. In Act I, in reply to Boy’s question, Vladimir says: "BOY: What am I to tell Mr. Godot, Sir?
 VLADIMIR: 
Tell him . . . (he hesitates) . . . tell him you saw us. (Pause.) You did see us, didn't you?
    How does this conversation go in Act II? Is there any change in seeming similar situation and conversation? If so, what is it? What does it signify?
Answer:
Act-1
        Boy:- what am I to tell Mr. Godot sir?
Vladimir:- Tell him...( he hesitates)... tell him you saw us.(Pause.) You did see us, didn't you?
Act-2
  Boy:- What am I to tell Mr.Godot sir?
Vladimir:- Tell him...( he hesitates)...tell him you saw me and that..(he hesitate)...that you saw me.( pause. Vladimir advances, the boy recoils. Vladimir halts, the boy halts. With sudden violence.) You’re sure you saw me, you won't come and tell me tomorrow that you never saw me!
   Answer:   Yes, we can see the difference between first and second dialogue. In first act Vladimir use us (it means he thinking about both of them). While in second act Vladimir use me instead of us. So from those things we analyse that when death will come we have to go alone.