经典诵读(戏剧) 孟晓 mengxiao@sdu.edu.cn Waiting for Godot 等待戈多

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Theater of the Absurd is a term used to identify a body of plays written primarily in France from the mid-1940s through the 1950s.

Main characteristics These works usually employ illogical situations, unconventional dialogue, and minimal plots to express the apparent absurdity of human existence. Review: The viewpoints of Existentialism – the world is absurd. – Life is anguish. – “Hell is other people!”

Characteristics of Absurd plays Anti-plays Strongly influenced by Philosophy of Existentialism Also a reflection of various ideas of Postmodernism The condition or state in which human beings exist in a meaningless, irrational universe wherein people's lives have no purpose or meaning.

Theater of the Absurd Theater of the Absurd was also a reflection of the consciousness of postmodernism Which is in general a rejection to the modern idea of rationalism “anti-plays” – they are totally different from traditional plays。 The plays that usually employ illogical situations, unconventional dialogue, and minimal plots to express the apparent absurdity of human existence.

The Theatre of the Absurd 荒诞派戏剧 A group of dramatists in 1940’s Paris believed life is without apparent meaning or purpose; it is, in short, absurd. Paradoxically, the only certainty in life is uncertainty, the absurdists believed. An absurdist drama is a play that depicts life as meaningless, senseless, uncertain. For example, an absurdist’s story generally ends up where it started; nothing has been accomplished and nothing gained. The characters may be uncertain of time and place, and they are virtually the same at the end of the play as they were at the beginning. 

Main features of absurdist play Absence of a real story or plot. No action since all actions are insignificant. Vagueness about time, place and the characters. The value of language is reduced; in fact, what happens on the stage transcends, and often contradicts, the words spoken by the characters. Extensive use of pauses, silences, miming and farcical situations which reflect a sense of anguish. Incoherent babbling makes up the dialogue.

Main themes of absurdist play The sense of man’s alienation(异化，疏远). The cruelty of human life. The absence or the futility of objectives. The meaninglessness of man’s struggle.

Myth of Sisyphus《西西弗斯的神话》 : life is but an effort without significance

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock up to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than this futile and hopeless labor. 神决定对他予以严厉惩罚：把一块巨石推上山顶，石头因自身的重量又从山顶滚落下来，屡推屡落，反复而至于无穷。神认为这种既无用又无望的劳动是最可怕的惩罚。

Sartre’s play: No exit “Hell is other people!”

Samuel Beckett Born in Dublin in 1906 Met James Joyce in Paris in 1907 and became a close friend of him Activity involved in the French Resistance Movement fighting against the Nazi Germany in World War II

Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989) Began to write in his early twenties His writing included poetry, stories, novels, plays, and critical essays His Waiting for Godot came out 1953 Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969. the representative of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Waiting for Godot 《等待戈多》

En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot )

Waiting for Godot A two act play without much of plot The heroes of the play are two tramps, Estragon (Gogo) and Vladimir (Didi), who wait for somebody called Godot every evening When they are waiting, the two men occupy themselves with all kinds of trivial things or empty talks. Pozzo abuses and ill-treats Lucky A boy comes to tell Gogo and Didi, “Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won’t come this evening but surely tomorrow”.

Estragon and Vladimir, or Didi and Gogo Two tramps waiting near a tree on an isolated country road for someone named Godot to arrive

“We must stay waiting for Godot. ” They can’t leave, neither die, but wait

“Godot said he wouldn’t come today!”

Godot never appears A symbol of the dilema of modern human beings: no aim, no reason, no leave but stay, waiting for nothing

Their minds are slaves to Godot in the same way Lucky's body is a slave to Pozzo

第一幕 开始时正值黄昏时分，在一条荒凉的乡间小路旁有一棵光秃秃的树，两个流浪汉爱斯特拉冈和弗拉季米尔正在等待一个名叫戈多的人。他们一边说着语无伦次的废话，一边做着机械无聊的动作。等了多时，戈多没有来，却来了陌生人波卓和他的仆人幸运儿。波卓在他们面前大吃大喝，大发议论，肆意嘲弄和折磨幸运儿，然后用绳子牵着幸运儿要到奴隶市场去卖掉。两个流浪汉又在继续等待，戈多还是没有来，但来了一个小男孩，他告诉他们说：戈多今天晚上不来了，明天晚上准来。此时，夜幕降临，第一幕结束。

第二幕 开始时是次日黄昏，场景与第一幕相同，只是光秃秃的树上多了四五片叶子，两个流浪汉在等着戈多的到来。他们等来的还是波卓和幸运儿，只是波卓变成了瞎子，幸运儿变成了哑巴。主仆两人走了以后，小男孩又来了，他告诉他们说：戈多今天晚上不来了，明天晚上准来。两个流浪汉扯下裤带子又打算上吊自杀，不料裤带子断了，自杀未成，他们呆呆地站着不动，全剧终止。

典型场景 弗拉季米尔和爱斯特拉冈久等戈多不来，异常绝望，打算上吊自杀，这当然是悲剧的场面，但两人因体重不同而发生谁先谁后的争执，这又赋予了强烈的喜剧色彩，正是在这悲喜交融，凄苦的嬉笑中，展现了人生的荒诞。

Waiting for Godot is of multilayer The circumstance of Sartre: the world is bleak, dark, disgusted. The style suggests Joyce—pungent(痛苦尖刻的) satire and fabulous. It is Mr. Beckett‘s acrid（刻薄的） cartoon of the mankind story. Significance: to highlight the lack of purpose and meaning in an universe without God.

Language The most obvious feature is that of words repeating : For example: VLADIMIR: Consult his family. ESTRAGON: His friends. VLADIMIR: His agents. ESTRAGON: His correspondents. VLADIMIR: His books. ESTRAGON: His bank account. (P18) Their conversation is just as the tool of passing time. In order to get rid of solitude, they catch every chance to talk to each other. They constantly add words to defer their conversation.

meaningless dialogue For example:(P12) VLADIMIR: Did you ever read the Bible? ESTRAGON: The Bible . . . (He reflects.) I must have taken a look at it. VLADIMIR: Do you remember the Gospels? ESTRAGON: I remember the maps of the Holy Land. Colored they were. Very pretty. The Dead Sea was pale blue. The very look of it made me thirsty. That's where we'll go, I used to say, that's where we'll go for our honeymoon. We'll swim. We'll be happy. VLADIMIR: You should have been a poet. Gogo did not reply didi’s question. He just thought about other things, which leads the communication cannot continue.

illogical plot In act Ⅱ:(P57) It was a story about the dog. It was a story with a circular structure just like the play itself (act Ⅰand act Ⅱ ). The action of characters in the play did not promote the development of the plot. The time and the place in the play were stagnating. 与其表现的荒诞内容相适应，传统的戏剧表现手法在他们的作品里被肢解、扭曲，甚至变形；传统的戏剧评论方法和准则在他们的作品面前也失去了效用。

颠三倒四，支离破碎，简单乏味的戏剧语言充斥了整部戏剧，贝克特无非是想借此来强调生活的单调、沉闷、毫无意义和人极度空虚的内心世界。这种非理性的语言形式让观众直接体味到了世界和人生的荒诞性。 语言和交流在荒诞派戏剧中已经演化为一种消磨时间、忍受生活的文字游戏。虽然剧中爱斯特拉贡和弗拉第米尔在交流，在说话，但却能深深地感受到文字下面的冷漠、虚假

由于对话失去了其思想感情交流的作用，对话完全降格到了为谈话而谈话的地步，缺少了实质性的内容，缺少了连贯性，这又反过来促进了停顿和沉默的频繁出现。 正因为对话没有实质内容，谈话方式也显得随意。 人物说话也不管自己在问什么，对方在回答什么，他们常常是答非所问，只是自顾自地喋喋不休。整个的话既谈不上句式，亦无语法规则，只是一堆词汇散乱的拼贴，毫无意义可言。

经典戏剧与荒诞派戏剧的区别 一、人物形象的非典型性及符号化 二、荒诞派戏剧大多采用支离破碎，颠三倒四的戏剧语言。 三、荒诞派戏剧一般没有具体的情节，没有符合客观现实的人物形象，整个舞台无非是突出世界的荒诞性的一种象征。 四、为表现人生的荒诞不经，他们任意破坏、支解、割裂传统的戏剧结构，把戏剧的所有传统要素如动作、语言、人物，一一去掉。 五、荒诞派剧作的主题，是面对人的生存条件的荒诞不经所引起的抽象的恐惧不安之感。他们在表达这个主题时，故意不用合乎逻辑的结构和明智的理性去阐明人的生存处境的不合理性、荒诞性,而是直接用形象表现对理性的怀疑和否定。他们要表现的是“原子时代的失去理性的宇宙”。 六、由于剧作的反传统，也迫使观众在欣赏时改变习惯

The influence of Existentialism Jean-Paul Sartre（1905-1980）

Existentialism man can only know himself, but he has to face a world that he is unable to understand. A world which is intelligible is absurd, and in this world, man is in everlasting fear, worry and pain “The world is absurd, and life is painful” Beckett believed that human existence is very brief and unimportant, and there is no hope to humanity in an alien and decaying world.

Post-modern Literature The term Post-modern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post-World War II literature which relies heavily on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, collage(拼贴画), and pastiche(混杂) etc. the post-modern novel is often a parody(拙劣的模仿) of the quest for meaning in a chaotic world.

Postmodernism rejects boundaries between high and low forms of art, emphasizing parody, bricolage, irony and playfulness. In the literary works of postmodern, we can see the failure of language, schizophrenia, and humanity's inability to overcome its condition. Absurdness is the core issue for most of them. The post-modern literature is anti- rationalism.

Post-modern Literature Existential literature Theatre of Absurd New Novel the Beat Generation （垮掉的一代） 二战后在右翼保守势力压抑下苦闷、彷徨，以及吸毒、酗酒、群居、穿有奇装异服等消极方式对抗传统社会的青年亚文化群 Black Humor （黑色幽默） “黑色幽默”一词来自一本同名短篇小说集，是60年代美国小说创作中最有代表性的流派之一 Magic Realism 源于拉美的文学流派“魔幻现实主义，如《百年孤独》或博尔赫斯的小说。

Absurdism Absurdism, and its more specific companion term theatre of the absurd, refers to the works of a group of Western European and American dramatists writing and producing plays in the 1950s and early 1960s. The term “theatre of the Absurd” was coined by critic Martin Esslin, who identified common features of a new style of drama that seemed to ignore theatrical conversations and thwart audience expectations.

问题： 荒诞派戏剧和传统戏剧的不同之处表现在哪些方面？ 《等待戈多》中，戈多是谁？两个流浪汉为什么要等待戈多？