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Beckett’s Godot: Not Just an Enigma
(Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, 2011) Rahman, M.Mahbub
Waiting for Godot was a unique outburst in the literary world that changed the face of twentieth century drama. Samuel Beckett is a peculiar brand of the era. His weird ideas expounded within the framework of a few acts certainly allow him a stature quite distinct from his contemporaries whose works are expressions of their personal experiences, which Albert Camus characterized as ‘absurdity’. One might feel that Beckett has made the feelings of absurdity yet uncertain, more philosophic and therefore distinctly obscure, it is difficult to pin point and pronounce a last word. I consider Beckett’s dramatic art to be expressions of his most intimate visions on the fundamental philosophical question about the place of the human being in the surrounding world. His characters are perceived not as distinct individuals rather as grossly generalized images of all ‘mankind’who have become the slaves of an uncaring and cruel world. So, they need a Godot to give a meaning to their existence. It is true that character flaws are exaggerated and characters appear to be dull and boring yet Beckett’s characters are stereotype and they represent mankind in general. This paper analyses Beckett’s Godot not just an enigma rather it represents human life. It will also focus why there is no escape from Godot to live the human life.
Hope in Hopelessness: Appreciating “Waiting” as an Essential Device in Selected Plays of Beckett and Ahmad
(Shanlax, 2020) Rahman, M. Mahbub
This paper aims to explore and appreciate “waiting” as an essential device in selected plays of Beckett and Ahmad. They defy traditions and conventions of plays by inventing their own innovative and individualistic manner of manipulating structural patterns to shape the Absurd dramas. This paper focuses on the incessant incidence of the “waiting” in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s The Thing, and analyzes how important this waiting matters to the characters. The essential device of ‘waiting for’ and the open possibility of a change is what keeps hope alive. Through the journey of the characters, the playwrights focus on how man can confront and survive against the hostility of surroundings through ‘waiting.’ This is narrative research that follows descriptive-cum analytical method, and the textual references are given as evidence to support the argument of this study. It is found that the reality of the situation in which the absurd character appears is a psychological reality expressed in images that are the outward projection of states of their mind. That is why the Theatre of the Absurd can be considered an image of the human being’s inner world. It presents a truer picture of reality itself, reality as grasped by an individual that helps the characters as well as the audience to comprehend the harsh reality that life is full of qualms through their absurd conditions
Perceiving Reality through Absurdity: a Prime Projection in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s The Thing
(Shanlax, 2020) Rahman, M. Mahbub
This paper offers an in-depth analysis of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s The Thing with the focus on the sense of craving to go on and to endure the existence, the ultimate reality of human life. Between these two extraordinary playwrights of Absurd Theatre, one is from the West, and the other is from the East. So, a meticulous survey on these two selected plays unfolds trajectories of convergence. This research will show that though the two plays are of two opposite continents, they are primarily projecting the same theme of realizing reality through absurdity using the same structural techniques of absurd drama. The researchers find it remarkable that despite an outwardly hopeless fate, both the plays express the human spirit of continuing life through endurance and invite the audience to win the absurdity of life by enduring it. Such is reality, and, in both the plays, this realization of accepting reality comes through absurdity. However, it is narrative research that follows the descriptive-cum analytical method, and the relevant textual references are given as evidence to support the argument of this study.