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 The Destruction of Hope: A Close Reading of Waiting for Godot from the Perspective of Existentialism

Abstract

Samuel Beckett is a recognized writer in https://www.51lunwen.org/euroliterature/ the 20th century. His work, Waiting for Godot is widely regarded as the masterpiece of the “The Theatre of Absurd”. Born in the early twentieth century, Beckett had witnessed the cruelness of the war and experienced various kinds of inconstancy of human relationships as well as the vicissitudes of life. Consequently, some of his viewpoints coincided with those of existentialists’. As a dominant Philosophy in the 20th century, existentialism is reflected in Waiting for Godot. The outbreak of the world war boosted the spread of the philosophy. Existentialists, such as Sartre and Camus, held that the world was irrational and that human existence was absurd and meaningless. Absurdity, alienation and indifference are major themes of existentialism. This thesis would elaborate on the theory in Waiting for Godot to analyze the four major characters and explore the social condition and the alienation of westerners reflected in the play, at the war time. The purpose of this thesis is to remind readers of an overall picture of the indifferent postwar world and images of alienated and isolated human beings.
Key Words: Waiting for Godot  existentialism  alienation  absurd 

摘 要

萨缪尔•贝克特是20世纪一位伟大的作家。他的著作《等待戈多》普遍被认为是荒诞派戏剧的代表作。生于20世纪初，贝克特见证了战火的无情，经历了各种世态炎凉以及人生百态。因此，他的一些看法和存在主义者的观点不谋而同。《等待戈多》一文就体现了存在主义思想。存在主义是20世纪一个重要的哲学流派。世界战争的爆发更是促进了存在主义哲学的广泛流传。存在主义大师如萨特和加缪等人提出世界缺乏理性，人的存在是荒诞而无意义。荒诞，异化和冷漠是存在主义重要的主题。本文旨在用存在主义理论，深入分析剧中四个人物，着重剖析作品所隐射的二战后的社会状况以及当时西方人的异化。本文意图使读者了解战后世界的冷漠以及人与人之间的异化与疏离感。
关键字：《等待戈多》 存在主义 异化 荒诞

Contents

1 Introduction……..………..………….……………………. ………….....….…...1

2 Samuel Beckett and Waiting for Godot…….……………..…..……………...…..2

2.1 Samuel Beckett…......….……….………..……………............................2

2.2 Waiting for Godot…...……………..………..…………....………...........4

3 Analysis of Existentialism in Waiting for Godot.…...……..……….…..........5

3.1 The Interpretation of Existentialism…….…..….……...…….….……….5

3.2 The Cold World……………………..…………………………..….........6

3.2.1 The Abandonment of God…………………………….……...…...7

3.2.2 The Indifference of Society…………………...………..…..…......8

3.3 Man’s Absurdity and Alienation……..…..…………..……….………..10

3.3.1 Absurdity………………………...……………………...….…....10

3.3.2 Alienation……………………….…………………….……........12

3.4 Samuel Beckett and Existentialism…..…..……….…….….…….…....14

4 Conclusion……...…………..…….……………………......................................15

Works Cited……..…......…..…….……………………………….…….......….….17

 Acknowledgements

1 Introduction 

    Samuel Beckett was an Irish writer, playwright, theatre director, and poet, with plenty of distinguished works. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers in the 20th century. Being one of Samuel Beckett’s renowned works, Waiting for Godot has invited a great many studies and commentaries both at home and abroad. All these scholars and critics provide us with different interpretations of the play from different standpoints, includ本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。