'Waiting for Godot' Explained with Philosophy | Philosophy Tube

Samuel Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece “Waiting for Godot” is one of the most famous pieces of 20th Century Theatre – but what are the philosophical questions it raises? How does the story of its creation tie in with Albert Camus, and the Nazi invasion of France?

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[jamilahmad]

“Not everyone has a God but who does not have a Godot?” I once read this sentence in an article in the New Yorker.

[professorskye]

As a professor of French, I truly thank Abigail for this great summary of the play and its philosophical underpinnings. I will show this to my students semester and it will save me quite a bit of class time to dedicate to more of a textual analysis. 

Also, everyone who is making fun of her French needs to get the way off of her back. Sure, there is an accent, but for a person from the anglophone world, her French is exquisite. Part of the reason that it is hard to learn French is that people who speak it are too protective and cruel. Stop it! More in French!

[zoeygreenwald]

Me: watches old Philosophy Tube vids to put off writing an essay on Waiting for Godot for English class
This Video: Exists

[victorvvc]

I always wondered why Lucky has that name, when he should be the most miserable of the characters, and you really came with a great answer to that one!

[dazpatreg]

Interesting titbit; the name 'Godot' is thought to be a franco-literation of the Irish language term 'go deo' which is pronounced almost exactly the same. This is a conceit on the part of Beckett because 'go deo' means 'FOREVER' *ominous music*

[sugarbear]

Godot is whatever or who ever it is that you wait for. Ultimately, we wait for the body to wear out so we can die. Until that happens, The only thing you can do is fill up the time with distractions. The play is very popular in Prisons.

[kylieblair]

I've been doing research for days for a paper on this play and seriously nothing has been more of a help than this video omg thank you so much for this insightful, intelligent discussion.

[jaybretherton]

My good friend and I performed a section of waiting for Godot for our final Higher performance and it was amazing! It was the best thing I've ever done, we got full marks, and while reading about the play I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole into all this absurd philosophy. It's really cool to see you talking about all these things and your interpretation is really fascinating, thank you.

[astrathefawn]

Huge props on your French, my friend~ As a French speaker, I couldn't be more pleased with your efforts <3

[meghashreedas]

The way you speak, your pronounciation, the accent everything. Oh My God..!!! You as a speaker is simply awesome. Can't get over your style of speech.
Second thing, you literally just made, waiting for godot my favourite from "the least interested category".
Thanks a lot.

[dyslexicbibliophile]

Hi Olly
I saw Waiting for Godot in 2013 performed by the Sydney Theatre Company with Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh as Vladimir & Estragon.
I went into the play not aware of the Absurdist interpretation and came out with what seemed like an entirely different experience than the rest of the audience. The most striking scene for me was Lucky’s speaking scene. While everyone around me was laughing I was more horrified than I’d ever been in a theatre at the shear degradation of the human spirit I was witnessing. I saw a once fulfilled, well spoken individual reduced to a mere puppet, barking on command.
I was struck by the similarities between Lucky and the Jewish folktale of the Golem. In the tale a creature is bought to life to serve the will of man until man grows scared of his creation and destroys it. A golems only form of protest is to perform a task ad absurdum when instructions aren’t specified clearly (e.g dig a well a mile deep, turn an entire forest into table legs, etc.)
In some versions of the myth the golem is inscribed with the word emet (meaning truth) to bring it to life and has the character aleph removed leaving met (meaning death) to destroy it. I saw clear parallels between this and Lucky’s hat which when placed on his head allows him to “think” for the other characters entertainment and when this scares the characters they wrench the hat off his head mid-sentence “killing” him.

[jessecanada]

Very insightful video! I studied Beckett's play this semester in English, but never thought knew about the historical context and how it connects so well with Camus's philosophy. Good job!

[dadavismo]

I have an exam in like 37 minutes about this is so helpful, thank you so much

[mattsheppard]

The whole time I studied this in high school, I was worried I wasn’t “getting it”. Glad to see that my crazed ramblings were based in actual philosophy. If only I found this video before my final exam.

[BardovBacchus]

I learned about Nihilism way back in HS, c 1986... I have more or less embraced it since... In the intervening years, I have often said... There is no meaning, no purpose, no grand plan... Nothing matters... In 1000 years no one will remember you or anything you did or stood for... But... You're here now... Might as well make the best of it... Is this acceptance..?

[theotherpen]

Albert Camus #7 response is the same thing buddha said millenia ago

[darkaliebaba]

If anyone is in the acceptance state it is Vladimir. In act II he bit by bit starts realising that he is stuck in this repeating loop. And he doesnt go away, he doesn't try to follow the boy or anything. He just... keeps going... I guess.

[TaylorjAdams]

Was totally not interested at all in waiting for Godot. Is now near the top of my to watch list. Thank you muchly.

[sponge]

So this video is rather old at this point but AUGH I had forgotten about Camus since I read him in college, and I had to pause the video about halfway through and go on a rant to myself alone in my apartment.

I personally found Camus insufferable because he fails (in my view) to describe how accepting the absurd is actually a different way of life than those six methods you listed, which in practice means he completely fails to escape denial/distraction/creation/politics/etc, let alone explaining how anyone else could. Because, okay, you accept the absurd, but now what do you do with your life? Aren't you basically going to continue to choose a mixture of those six options regardless? I never really understood what acceptance of the absurd looks like in practice and how it's different from another way of life. Like, in the context of your interpretation of Waiting for Godot, should Vladimir and Estragon becomes slaves to Pozzo? Would that be the best way for them to embrace the absurd? Because they are clearly not leading fulfilling lives as it is, and if the play has any idea that resonates most clearly with an audience that seems to be the main one - that its characters are miserable due to their own inability to create or find meaning.

I studied theater and work in theater, and the most interesting insight I know of about Waiting for Godot was this: After a semester of reading a whole variety of plays, we were tasked with writing our own in small groups. One group visited the student center and simply transcribed the interactions they heard. The question was, what style of "realist" playwright would the conversation they recorded most resemble? Surprisingly, it wasn't any realist playwright, but rather Beckett's absurdism, that the transcribed dialogue most resembled.

It seems to me like this school of thought comes to the conclusion that deciding to be happy despite a miserable life is the only solution, but is unable to provide any actual means of which to find that source of happiness through willpower. Strikes me kind of like a depressed person saying "there's no meaning to anything so I must choose to be happy" and attempting to force themselves to cheer up. But speaking as someone who struggles with depression, well, that simply doesn't work. You cannot just choose to be happy when you're not, or we wouldn't have a problem in the first place.

[karlekdahl]

Thank for a most wonderful lecture! Im an director from Sweden. Worked with Becketts plays for long time. Never came across any anyone who could nail it like you. Most helpful.