Why should you read "Waiting For Godot"?
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by TED-Ed
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"Waiting for Godot" is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo),
Two men, Estragon and Vladimir, meet by a tree at dusk to wait for someone named “Godot.” So begins a vexing cycle where the two debate when Godot will come, why they’re waiting and whether they’re even at the right tree. The play offers a simple but stirring question- what should the characters do? Iseult Gillespie shares everything you need to know to read the tragicomedy.
Here is an animated case for Samuel Beckett’s Classic Absurdist Play.
Lesson by Iseult Gillespie, directed by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat.
Perhaps THAT is why we should read (and/or watch) Waiting for Godot.
Vladimir:
Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? (Estragon, having struggled with his boots in vain, is dozing off again. Vladimir looks at him.) He'll know nothing. He'll tell me about the blows he received and I'll give him a carrot. (Pause.) Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener. (He looks again at Estragon.) At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on. (Pause.) I can't go on! (Pause.) What have I said?
Gillespie’s lesson, animated by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat, above, includes a supplemental trove of resources and a quiz that educators can customize online.
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