Ashni Sonawala

English Literature HL
Grade 11
Summary of two videos on the play, "Waiting For Godot"

Beckett Video 1: Why should you read "Waiting For Godot"? - Iseult Gillespie

This video perfectly captures the plot of the play, ‘Waiting for Godot’ in a nutshell. It is

simple to understand, and effectively encapsulates the viewer’s attention and gives the

viewer a fair idea of Beckett’s background. The video begins with an introduction of the

two main characters, Estragon and Vladimir who are waiting for someone called Godot.

This wait in anticipation only grows stranger. Beckett’s cryptic dialogue, circular

reasoning, blend of humor with hopelessness is what makes the play one that changed the

face of modern drama. The ideas of absurdism and existentialism are also introduced in

the video. The latter part of the video, talks about Beckett’s background. It explains how

he has a lifelong love for language and spent a great deal of time on prose in theatre.

More importantly, his unique approach to writing using black humor and how it left the

readers fascinated and open to any interpretations was explained.

Ashni Sonawala
English Literature HL
Grade 11
Beckett Video 2: “Waiting for Godot" Explained with Philosophy

This video is particularly interesting because it explains how ‘Waiting for Godot’ can

speak to the audience on many levels through the lens of philosophical thinking. This

play is one of his absurdist masterpieces because of how the play can be connected to the

philosophical idea of ‘absurdisme’. The speaker’s explanation of the concepts of

philosophy is based on the idea of ‘the desire for meaning’ versus ‘the meaningless of

existence’. It is explained how the key way in which one should understand that life is

pointless is ‘acceptance’. To support this view, he uses the story of a Greek myth called

Sisyphus. In the same way that Sisyphus was doomed to roll a boulder up a mountain

every day and then watch it roll back down again every night forever, in the play

‘Waiting for Godot’, the two main characters Vladimir and Estragon are trapped in a

never-ending and repetitive task of waiting for Godot. Both the plays are about what

people do when they are confronted with the absurd. It shows how people feel compelled

to find meaning even where no meaning exists.