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BESHY

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penelope M BArretto
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12 views2 pages

BESHY

Uploaded by

penelope M BArretto
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Penelope M.

Barretto & Clouie Shaynne Lomboy


III-6 BLE

A Comparative Analysis on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot & Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
Drama is an art of make-belief. It is where characters are represented by actors , the action described by
gestures and movements, thoughts are implied by the lines or conversations and actions, Spectacle is
represented by the production design and costume and also the audiences response to all of these. Drama
is an imitation of life itself according to Aristotle’s interpretation. In this paper, we will see just how the
two plays , Waiting for Godot and A Doll’s House imitated life. The two plays are written differently.
Waiting for Godot is written as an absurd play where things are made illogical and far from reality , in
some interpretation, I am also considered as an Anti-realist play because of it’s emphasis on things that
are abstract. A doll’s House is written as a realist play, showing what is real and what is true. We will also
discuss the effect of these literary pieces in European literature and its impact on the people.
Through the years, drama has evolved from being just the royal show for kings and queens to the show of
truth and criticism for all classes. In the late 19th century Henrik Ibsen has written various plays that if
not incorporate , present realism. His writing reflects normalcy, the truth, and honesty which later became
the normal code for Drama. (Jacobus 1989). His plays weren’t as appreciated as before, in fact, because
of his way of writing he was hated and made fun of. He was mostly attacked by his cowriters for his
honesty in his plays. His commentary on the role of women reflected in his play A Doll’s House. Early in
his life, he has suffered poverty and abuse from his alcoholic father. His mother , being a good woman for
her time, dedicated herself to her family. Ibsen’s view on women was shaped by what he saw growing up.
When he married at the age of 30 he wanted his wife , Suzannah , to have her own identity in life. He
questioned the role of women in the Victorian society. When A doll’s House was produced in Norway it
caught the attention of curious theatergoers. Scandinavians were conservative and very glued to the given
norms of their society back then and to see this kind of play was very offensive for them. This kind of
writing was very foreign to the Victorian Norwegian Culture. In fact, Ibsen’s play was so hated he was
exiled and brought to Rome , Italy, and Germany. The negative response was no different with the
response in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot . Samuel Beckett has always been an unconventional
writer since then. In the early 20th century Irish literature was split into two literary cultures , one being
the Anglo-Irish literature that was very conservative and the other which was the Avant-garde Catholics.
At an early age, Beckett started to write with the influence of the two cultures. When he went to Paris he
became great friends with James Joyce. Upon entering France, he started to read French philosophers and
this influenced most of his works. The world war began and it started he joined the French resistance ,
this was a turning point in his life and his literary works. He began writing in French, it was his way of
forgetting the English literary history, the necessity of style in the Anglo-Irish Literature. Waiting for
Godot is his first ever published play. Although it was first recognized as a fanciful comedic play it was
later reviewed as a tragicomedy. It was first produced in Paris on January 23, 1953. According to
Beckett’s biographer, the play only became famous after because it upset the audience. The sophisticated
audience demanded the curtains to be closed. At the opening night in Miami, most of the audience left in
the interlude of the play. It was because of the absurdity of the play and it’s twist on its label Tragic-
comedy that most of the audience felt a feeling of uncertainty. It was later produced in London and to
their surprise, the audience response was the same. The audience was completely bewildered. Because of
its abstractness , the audience and other playwrights at that time couldn’t figure out of it’s really a tragic
play or a comedy play. The play neither gives the audience a dramatic irony , which was essential in
tragedy plays nor does it give the characters superiority above the audience which is needed in a comedy
play. Somehow they figured that it played around both categories. It was considered as a tragicomedy
play because it revealed it’s seriousness by comical events and later delivered a serious

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