explain the concept of absurdity in the title of the play "waiting for godot"
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Samuel Beckett's English play Waiting for Godot is actually his own translation of a play he originally wrote in French, under the title "En attendant Godot." The French phrase has the literal meaning of waiting for Godot, but far more than the English conveys the sense "while waiting for Godot," with more emphasis on what happens while waiting than on Godot's eventual arrival (or failure to arrive).
While many critics have noted the sonic relationship between "Godot" and "God" in English, this parallel does not really apply to the original French text, as the French word for God is "Dieu," which does not bear any obvious relationship to "Godot."
What makes the title significant is that drama and dramatic criticism before the advent of modernism emphasized plot and action. Aristotle, for example, defined tragedy as follows:
Again, Tragedy is the imitation of an action; ... every play contains Spectacular elements as well as Character, Plot, Diction, Song, and Thought. ... But most important of all is the structure of the incidents. For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. ... Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all. Again, without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character.
We generally think of waiting as a stage prior to action. In other words, we "wait" for something to happen. In using the word "waiting" in the title of his play, Beckett is suggesting that the play breaks with the tradition of drama-as-action and instead offers us something different, a pure view into the characters in a state of inactivity.
I hope it help you
While many critics have noted the sonic relationship between "Godot" and "God" in English, this parallel does not really apply to the original French text, as the French word for God is "Dieu," which does not bear any obvious relationship to "Godot."
What makes the title significant is that drama and dramatic criticism before the advent of modernism emphasized plot and action. Aristotle, for example, defined tragedy as follows:
Again, Tragedy is the imitation of an action; ... every play contains Spectacular elements as well as Character, Plot, Diction, Song, and Thought. ... But most important of all is the structure of the incidents. For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. ... Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all. Again, without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character.
We generally think of waiting as a stage prior to action. In other words, we "wait" for something to happen. In using the word "waiting" in the title of his play, Beckett is suggesting that the play breaks with the tradition of drama-as-action and instead offers us something different, a pure view into the characters in a state of inactivity.
I hope it help you
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