This page intentionally left blank LANDMARKS OF WORLD LITERATURE Beckett WaitingforGodot LANDMARKS OF WORLD LITERATURE SECOND EDITIONS MurasakiShikibu:TheTaleofGenji–RichardBowring Aeschylus:TheOresteia–SimonGoldhill Virgil:TheAeneid–K.W.Gransden,neweditioneditedby S.J.Harrison Homer:TheOdyssey–JasperGriffin Dante:TheDivineComedy–RobinKirkpatrick Milton:ParadiseLost–DavidLoewenstein Camus:TheStranger–PatrickMcCarthy Joyce:Ulysses–VincentSherry Homer:TheIliad–MichaelSilk Chaucer:TheCanterburyTales–WinthropWetherbee Shakespeare:Hamlet–PaulA.Cantor Beckett:WaitingforGodot–LawrenceGraver SAMUEL BECKETT Waiting for Godot LAWRENCE GRAVER ProfessorofEnglish,WilliamsCollege Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521840040 © Cambridge University Press 1989, 2004 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2004 - ---- eBook (Adobe Reader) - --- eBook (Adobe Reader) - ---- hardback - --- hardback - ---- paperback - --- paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. ForSuzanne Contents Preface pageix Chronology x 1 EnattendantGodot/WaitingforGodot:genesis andreception 1 1 Beckettatthebeginning 1 2 Paris1946–8 6 3 GodotinParis,LondonandNewYork 8 2 Approachingtheplay 19 4 Thedramaofunknowingness 19 5 Thecageddynamic 22 6 Ritualsandroutines 32 7 ‘Godet...Godot...Godin...anyhowyou seewhoImean?’ 38 8 PozzoandLucky 44 9 Lucky’s‘think’ 45 10 EntertheBoy 50 11 ActI/ActII–‘nothinghappens,twice’ 54 12 Pozzoredux 62 13 Vladimir’ssoliloquy,theBoyagain,theclose oftheplay 65 3 GodotinFrenchandinEnglish 70 vii viii Contents 4 ThepresenceofGodot:theplayinthecontemporary theatreandelsewhere 79 14 ThegrowingmythofGodot 79 15 Godotandthepopularimagination 85 16 Godotandthecontemporarytheatre 86 Guidetofurtherreading 103