It goes without saying that it would be foolhardy to teach GODOT
to students who have not been exposed to a relatively wide range
of literature and its genres. Ideally, GODOT should be taught
after the class has read and discussed a tragedy (for example
Shakespeare's OTHELLO or HAMLET) and a comedy (for example Molieres
TARTUFFE or Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST).
By reading GODOT after these two genres, students would have
a common frame of reference since the play is a tragicomedy.
Naturally, having
not been introduced to reader--response criticism, their comments
on GODOT would be made in the analytical mode. They would be
tempted to talk for example of setting, plot, characters, language
and the like. However, as Esslin has aptly explained, the play
violates almost all the conventions of the above. The initial
reaction of students, therefore, should be expected to be one
of bafflement, bewilderment and even frustration. Comments likely
to be made are: "the play is 'weird' or strange";
"the characters [Vladmir and Estragon] are indistinguishable
from each other"; "you cant tell who is speaking";
"the language doesn't make sense." While students
are making these comments and several others in a similar vein,
the teacher should nod in approval and reassure them that they
are on target and that they have, contrary to what they had
thought, made much progress in understanding the play. For the
teacher, these reactions should serve to introduce the play
as being unconventional and subversive (in the sense that it
subverts almost all the norms of appreciating what is traditionally
known as good literature). After making this observation, the
teacher may proceed to discuss in brief (save the characters
who would later be analyzed in more detail) how Beckett violates
the conventions of setting, plot and character development in
realistic literature.
SETTING
A formal discussion of the play may begin with the questions
of where and when the action of the play takes place. In a realistic
text, the author usually gives the time and the real name of
the place. Even when the name of the place is fictitious, the
reader may infer from various signs in the text where and when
the action is taking place. For example, although in George
Orwell's ANIMAL FARM the setting seems to be England (the name
"Manor Farm" is English) and most of the characters
are animals, a competent reader knows too well that the setting
is Russia from the Bolshevik revolution to the Stalin era.
This brief reminder
of the concept of setting in realism will trigger the class
to realize that the setting of GODOT (by a road under a tree)
cannot be geographically and temporally located, nor do the
names of the characters give any clue: Estragon sounds French
and Vladmir Russian. This, students should be told, has made
many critics to conclude that the stage of the play is the world,
or at least could be anywhere in the world.
PLOT
In discussing plot, the teacher should also begin with its definition
in realism, which is an action that has a beginning (situation),
a middle (conflict) and an end (resolution of the conflict).
With this background in mind, students should not find it difficult
to note that there is not much of a plot in GODOT: Vladmir and
Estragon are waiting (hardly an action) for Godot who never
comes. However, the students may still be asked here to search
in the text for explicit statements that say that nothing really
happens, such as: "nothing to be done" (8); "don't
let's do anything" (12); "in the meantime nothing
happens" (26); "nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody
goes, its awful" (27).
