Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, he wrote in both French and English.
Movie
Waiting for Godot (/ˈɡɒdoʊ/ GOD-oh) is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives.
The movie "Waiting for Godot" is directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. In this 2001 movie, Barry McGovern and Johnny Murphy played Vladimir and Estragon, where as Lucky and Pozzo were performed by Alan Standford and Stephan Brennan, respectively.
Thinking Activity
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?
Falling of night will finish the waiting for the day. In movie we have seen that the boy is coming and telling Vladmir Godot will come tomorrowso new day brings new hope .Evening falls into night and moon rises means that Godot- God might come another day. New day might finish their waitingfor Godot (this also shows that they are having fear of God so they are waiting). So they are waiting for coming of night and moon.
The director feels the setting with some debris. Can you read any meaning in contours of debris in the setting of the play?
The director used debris in the setting. So, it can be the influence of the WW in the material world. Therefore, we can say that the meaninglessness of material world that keep on destroying, (human life,emotions,happiness)nothing is permanent in the life.
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 Broadwayproduction 1950s)?
Yes I agree with the statements that ''You can kill yourself, but you can't kill life."We can see by positive side . We can see even after the death or suicide life doesn't stops it goes on and on . Our existence is also accidental choiceless but then to live with positive vibes. We can't kill life it goes on.
Transcendentalists talks about Individual’s relation with Nature. What is Nature for you? Share your views.
Nature gives peace. Nature makes mood good and gives positive vibration. In forest the sound of birds , water passing through stream makes happy. Nature helps us to better recover from stress. Nature gives freshness, purity etc.
Transcendentalism is an American Philosophy that influenced American Literature at length. Can you find any Indian/Regional literature or Philosophy came up with such similar thought?
Native American religions are the spiritual practices of the Native Americans in the United States. Ceremonial ways can vary widely and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual nations, tribes and bands. It's important to remember that Native Americans do not have one single religion. Instead, there are many different belief systems among peoples. Many of the religions have certain similarities, like a creator. Place and nature are important, as well as sacred, or holy, spaces. Traditional Native American literature includes ancient hieroglyphic and pictographic writings and an extensive set of folktales, myths, and oral histories.
Native Indian Literary works which are written in native languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Oriya by Indians is called as Native literature.
American values are individualism, privacy, equality, liberty, self-government, and time. For example, “They have been trained since very early age in their lives to consider themselves separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies”
Indian beliefs have been associated with compassion and respect for nature and its creations since ages. The religious beliefs of Jain, Vedic and Buddhist traditions in India established the principles of ecological harmony centuries ago.
American culture is not only defined by its fast-paced lifestyle, fashion, and "to-go" coffee cups. It is also the culture of many diversity, different religions, races, and ethnicities. It is a culture that nourishes competition and political correctness, and also tries to enforce the freedom of speech.
Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent.
W.H Auden was born in York, England, on February 21, 1907. W. H Auden was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form, and content. In 1928, his collection Poems was privately printed, but it wasn't until 1930, when another collection titled Poems was published, that Auden was established as the leading voice of a new generation.
W. H. Auden served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1954 to 1973.Some of his best known poems are about love, such as "Funeral Blues"; on political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles"; on cultural and psychological themes, such as The Age of Anxiety; and on religious themes such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae". He died in Vienna on September 29, 1973.
1.Auden's poems seems to be written in our times of 2022 . Justify in context of pandemic and Russia -Ukraine war.
September 1, 1939, poem by W.H. Auden, published in the collection Another Time (1940). The poem conveys the poet's emotional response to the outbreak of World War II. The title of the work refers to the date of the German invasion of Poland, which precipitated the war.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine parallels Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in ways that aren’t small. A dictator’s claim to Lebensraum started with Sudetenland and Austria and then went cancerously to Poland. From there, we know what happened. So this how we can relate this poem in today’s scenario.
The first part of the poem addresses the last days of Yeats’ life and what it was like right after he died. Auden speaks on the loss and how it impacted and didn’t impact, the world. The second section of ‘In Memory of W.B. "Yeats’ is directed, through a second person speaker, to Yeats himself. While the third is an elegy meant to sum up that which was spoken about previously but also make new statements about what poetry can do for humankind, especially in the face of WWII.
Epitaph on a Tyrant', like many of Auden's poems of the 1930s, was inspired by the appalling events of that decade, but it also neatly summarize the qualities and behavior of all tyrants, from Herod(In medieval mystery plays Herod was portrayed as a blustering tyrant, and the name was therefore given to someone one who had played the part, or who had an overbearing temper) to Henry VIII to Hitler.
We can say that this Auden poem to be written in our times of 2022 . By the following ways
For example In today’s we can see the ruler of North Korea. They have toughest rules Foreign movies, songs not allowed, Disloyalty to the leader can mean the death penalty ,Only government-approved haircuts etc.
we can even justify through Russia and Ukraine war that one ruler declare and things starts taking place.
2. In order to create duality in interpretation of the poem(1 September ,1939),Auden uses codified language to conceal underlying theme of the lack of acceptance of homosexuality in society. Do you agree with the observation?
What is Queer Studies ?
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, intersex people and cultures.
There is even a TV series based on Queer Studies. Queer Eye is an American reality television series, initially released on February 7, 2018, on Netflix. It is a reboot of the Bravo eponymous series, featuring a new "Fab Five": Antoni Porowski, food and wine expert; Tan France, fashion expert; Karamo Brown, culture expert; Bobby Berk, design expert; and Jonathan Van Ness, grooming expert. The award-winning show is known for its strong representation amongst the LGBT community and communities that include people of color.
What Nijinsky Wrote About Diaghilev?
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have, Not universal love
But to be loved alone.”
W.H Auden
In this stanza, Auden compares the rants of "windiest" militants and famous politicians to the deepest desires of the common people. What they have in common is that the desire for love is not a wish for everyone to love everyone else, but for oneself to be loved by everyone.
Nijinsky (1890-1950) was a famous Russian ballet dancer, considered by many to be one of the greatest dancers of all time. At the height of his career, in 1909, he became romantically involved with Russian businessman and philanthropist Serge Diaghilev, whose financial support helped make the Ballets one of the most important and successful companies of its time. In 1919, Nijinsky suffered a nervous breakdown, and spent the rest of his life in a series of mental institutions. According to Sam Diener in an annotated commentary of "September 1, 1939" in Educators for Social Responsibility, Nijinsky wrote in his diary that "Some politicians are hypocrites like Diaghilev, who does not want universal love, but to be loved alone." Auden uses some of these same words, and certainly the same sentiment, in this stanza of the poem.
The phrase "bred in the bone," in line 62, is a shortened version of the proverb "What's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh," which means that habits that are rooted deep within the essence of human beings will always show themselves in human behavior.
In poem Auden has described about Nijinsky and Diaghilev from this we can say that Auden uses codified language to conceal underlying theme of the lack of acceptance of homosexuality in society.
Eugene O’Neill, in full Eugene Gladstone O’Neill, (born October 16, 1888, New York, New York, U.S.—died November 27, 1953, Boston, Massachusetts), foremost American dramatist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. His masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey into Night (produced posthumously 1956), is at the apex of a long string of great plays, including Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928), Ah! Wilderness (1933), and The Iceman Cometh (1946).
Brief information of Play
Long Day's Journey into Night is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939–41, first published posthumously in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his magnum opus and one of the finest American plays of the 20th century.
Characters list
James Tyrone
Mary Tyrone
Jamie Tyrone
Edmund Tyrone
Cathleen
Theme of Addiction in long days into night Journey
Morphine and Alcohol
The plot of Long Day's Journey into Night focuses on a dysfunctional family trying to come to grips with its ambivalent emotions in the face of serious familial problems, including drug addiction, moral degradation, deep-rooted fear and guilt, and life-threatening illness.
Mary's morphine addiction is balanced by the men's alcoholism. Although the morphine is perhaps a more destructive drug, alcohol does its fair share of damage to the Tyrone men. It is Tyrone's great vice, and it has contributed to Mary's unhappiness. Drunkenness has been Jamie's response to life, and it is part of why he has failed so miserably. And Edmund's alcohol use has probably contributed to ruining his health.
By 1912, responsible physicians had stopped the indiscriminate use of morphine as a pain killer and treatment for depression. New laws required pharmacists to dispense it only by authorized prescription, ending its unrestricted use. However, for many Americans like Mary Tyrone, the damage had already been done. Morphine and laudanum, another opium derivative, had left thousands addicted, and many faced the social stigma and disgrace that drug addiction finally involved.
The excessive use of alcohol was more widely tolerated, at least in men. The saloon was an established American institution by the end of the nineteenth century. It served as a working man’s social club where males could imbibe, discuss the day’s events, and wager on cards and billiards. Some of the saloons were also haunts for prostitutes, while others were outright bordellos; most, like their English pub counterparts, did not admit ladies.
Many saloon patrons, like Jamie Tyrone, were problem drinkers and gamblers, prone to violence, sexual promiscuity, or insolvency. Their excesses fueled the temperance reform movement, led and supported by a growing legion of women who wanted to protect families from “demon rum” and improve the nation’s moral character and health. The movement would finally win a legal victory in 1919 with the passage and ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment. But the victory proved hollow. The ban on alcohol gave rise to illegal bootlegging, bathtub gin, and the infamous speakeasy, a Jazz Age substitute for the old saloon. Unlike the saloon, the speakeasies were patronized by men and the new generation of liberated “flappers,” setting the model for the bars and nightclubs that went into legal operation when prohibition ended.
