comparison between swamp dweller and waiting for godot

Topic: Comparison between The Swamp Dwellers and Waiting for Godot.

Name: Makwana AnkitaPaper No: 14Roll No: 01

Sem-4Enrolment No: PG13101020

Email id : makwana.ankita1993@gmail.comGuidance : Department of English.

Urban and rural life in Swamp DwellersThe play open and end in this hut.Unity of Time and Action is also Followed Waiting for Godot evening time, counrty raod,

a tree.Unity of Time, Place action is not followed.

Setting

Master and Slave Relationship

Waiting for Godot

Pozzo

Lucky

What is AbsurdCritic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay "Theatre of the Absurd.“

Albert Camus uses the in his 1960 essay "Theatre of the Absurd."

Absurd Theatre believes that humanity’s plight is purposeless in an existence, which is out of harmony the its surroundings.

Beckett and Soyinka also uses the technique of creating very important characters that never appear on stage, like the Serpent and Awuchike.

Theme of absurdityWaiting for Godot The Swamp Dwellers

Godot Awuchike

Never comes on the stage Never appears on the stage

No any information about him. Son of Makuri

Hopelessness The play revolves around Vladimir and Estragon and their

pitiful wait for hope to arrive.

They are waiting without hope for adeliverance from a being in whom they do not really believe.

For Acheson, Waiting forGodot is an invective against Christian hope since the modern man,like Didi and Gogo wait endlessly for Godot who does not come.

Acholonu observes that “…. Soyinka’s themes are echoes of Samuel Beckett. His characters are gripped by the same hopelessness in which Beckett’s characters find themselves”

JohnLeeland Kundert-Gibbs, “hope or expectation springs from a senseof lack, emptiness or insecurity” . He consequently identifiesGodot with the void at the centre of being in his Zen Buddhism andChaos theory. Following his theory therefore, it is neither the ZenBuddhism, nor Godot, nor the Serpent of the Swamps, norMuhammad that imposes its essence on humanity but humanity'syearning to fill a void by imposing a spiritual pattern on itself. 

The similarity in terms ofsetting, characterisation, and themes among all others are quiteevident in the two plays.

 The central issue in both plays is on the question of salvation.

The play end in sadness as the lure of the city and the betrayal of traditional virtues rob the aged Alu and Makuri of their two sons.

There is not physical death of any character but there are several death metaphorical deaths.

The Swamp Dwellers articulates a sense of the disorder of human life.

In the nature of absurdist ideals, Soyinka tries to create a drama that depicts..The struggle of human imagination against religious complacency, moral apathy, and social conformity”.

Theme of Waiting

Waiting for Godot

The Swamp Dwellers

Vladimir and Estragon waiting for godot

Alu and Makuri waiting for Awuchike

Godot never appears in the play

Not appears in the play

• Beckett and Soyinka

Total despair waiting for god.

Their god is not dead They have to

make choice.

The negative attributes of the Kadiye give the impression that although Soyinka is trying to depicts a “ people for whom God is dead” . The Beggar’s continual reference to Allah suggests that God is not dead.

Thank You