Waiting for Godot Study Guide

Samuel Beckett grew up in Dublin and attended Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied French, English, and Italian. After graduating, he taught in Paris, where he met fellow modernist Irish writer James Joyce and worked on both critical and creative writings. He moved back to Ireland in 1930, when he took up a job as a lecturer at Trinity College. He soon quit the job, though, in 1931, and traveled around Europe, continuing to write. He moved to Paris in 1937, stayed there when World War II began in 1939, and joined French Resistance forces when the Nazis occupied the country. Meanwhile, he continued to write, including a trilogy of well-known novels (Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable). But it was for his experimental plays that he would become best known, especially Waiting for Godot, which premiered in Paris (in its original French) in 1953. This was followed by more plays, including the equally experimental Endgame. Beckett's literary reputation and acclaim steadily improved in the 1960s, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 (he gave away the prize money.) Beckett died in 1989 and was buried in Paris along with his wife.

The play is set in a strange, unspecified time, and does not take place in the context of any historical events, but many have seen the widespread suffering and disillusionment caused by World War II in the background of the play's pessimistic, nihilistic conception of the world.

While the play generally does not allude to other pieces of literature, Beckett was likely influenced by Bérénice, a 17th-century play by the French playwright Jean Racine (whom Beckett studied), in which Racine stressed the importance of making an interesting play out of little action. Beckett was also probably influenced by Sartre's play No Exit, in which characters are trapped in one location. Waiting for Godot has also been seen as being an influence for Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.