Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot Short Study Guide

This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully designed to help students understand, and enjoy, great works of literature. They are perfect for coursework, revision and exam preparation. Connell Guides are also great reads themselves scholarly, yet approachable and entertaining.

What happens in Waiting for Godot? Did Beckett intend the play to fail? How funny is the play? Who is Godot? These are just some of the questions explored in the Connell Short to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

ISBN-paperback: 978-1-907776-78-6

Contents

Beginnings

What happens in Waiting for Godot?

Did Beckett intend the play to fail?

How funny is Waiting for Godot?

Humans or animals?

Who is Godot?

Why are Beckett’s stage directions so precise?

What is Beckett telling us about life?

Why is repetition so important in the play?

Does Beckett mock the idea of human solidarity?

Five facts about Beckett and Waiting for Godot

What should we make of the “climax”?

Does Waiting for Godot belong to the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’?

Further Reading