Essay Questions

Beckett had a particular purpose in mind when he wrote. What was this?

Unlike many playwrights and authors, who write predominantly to entertain and enthrall, Beckett wrote to espouse and develop his own philosophical ideology and musings. This is one of the reasons for the main themes of each of his plays, and also his novels, being repeated in each of his works. He was obsessed with the passing of time, and the fact that it is an equalizer in that whatever anyone does, time will still pass whilst they are doing it. In Waiting for Godot, Estragon points out that it will also pass on its own whether or not they are doing anything with their time. This is in response to the question of what he did to pass the time that day; he wants to make it clear that he has no role whatsoever in the passing of time.

Another of Beckett's preoccupations was the use of language, or more accurately, the flagrant mis-use and abuse of language; he bemoans the fact that people use words as a way of avoiding thought, emotion and meaning, and instead fill a void or a silence with them. Words without meaning are just noises and this is why there are many characters across the body of his work that have words but make no sense whatsoever.

After the war, Beckett wrote four full-length plays that were considered to be the foundation of the Theater of the Absurd movement. What is this, and what is the concept behind it?

The Theater of the Absurd refers to existentialist plays written in the fifteen year period after the end of World War II. The plays are based around an absurdist fiction, which focuses on the experiences of characters in a situation where there is no evident plot or purpose, and where the characters themselves cannot seem to find a reason for life. The plays also contain satire and very dark humor, because they are essentially questioning the meaning and the value of life itself.

Each of these plays is circular, in that their starting point and their end point are the same; the ensuing play has merely taken the characters and the audience in a circle. The plays deal with the topic of despair and the will to survive in a world that is seen by a character to have little or no point to it at all. Beckett believed that unhappiness was the root of all comedy and that unhappy characters were essentially darkly funny, but as they are studied over a longer period of time, they become less funny, until the audience is not smiling at all.