“Not everyone has a God but who does not have a Godot?” I once read this sentence in an article in the New Yorker.

As a professor of French, I truly thank Abigail for this great summary of the play and its philosophical underpinnings. I will show this to my students semester and it will save me quite a bit of class time to dedicate to more of a textual analysis. Also, everyone who is making fun of her French needs to get ALLLLL the way off of her back. Sure, there is an accent, but for a person from the anglophone world, her French is exquisite. Part of the reason that it is hard to learn French is that people who speak it are too protective and cruel. Stop it! More in French!

Me: watches old Philosophy Tube vids to put off writing an essay on Waiting for Godot for English class This Video: Exists

I always wondered why Lucky has that name, when he should be the most miserable of the characters, and you really came with a great answer to that one!

Interesting titbit; the name 'Godot' is thought to be a franco-literation of the Irish language term 'go deo' which is pronounced almost exactly the same. This is a conceit on the part of Beckett because 'go deo' means 'FOREVER' *ominous music*

Godot is whatever or who ever it is that you wait for. Ultimately, we wait for the body to wear out so we can die. Until that happens, The only thing you can do is fill up the time with distractions. The play is very popular in Prisons.

Hi Olly I saw Waiting for Godot in 2013 performed by the Sydney Theatre Company with Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh as Vladimir & Estragon. I went into the play not aware of the Absurdist interpretation and came out with what seemed like an entirely different experience than the rest of the audience. The most striking scene for me was Lucky’s speaking scene. While everyone around me was laughing I was more horrified than I’d ever been in a theatre at the shear degradation of the human spirit I was witnessing. I saw a once fulfilled, well spoken individual reduced to a mere puppet, barking on command. I was struck by the similarities between Lucky and the Jewish folktale of the Golem. In the tale a creature is bought to life to serve the will of man until man grows scared of his creation and destroys it. A golems only form of protest is to perform a task ad absurdum when instructions aren’t specified clearly (e.g dig a well a mile deep, turn an entire forest into table legs, etc.) In some versions of the myth the golem is inscribed with the word emet (meaning truth) to bring it to life and has the character aleph removed leaving met (meaning death) to destroy it. I saw clear parallels between this and Lucky’s hat which when placed on his head allows him to “think” for the other characters entertainment and when this scares the characters they wrench the hat off his head mid-sentence “killing” him.

My good friend and I performed a section of waiting for Godot for our final Higher performance and it was amazing! It was the best thing I've ever done, we got full marks, and while reading about the play I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole into all this absurd philosophy. It's really cool to see you talking about all these things and your interpretation is really fascinating, thank you.

I've been doing research for days for a paper on this play and seriously nothing has been more of a help than this video omg thank you so much for this insightful, intelligent discussion.

Huge props on your French, my friend~ As a French speaker, I couldn't be more pleased with your efforts

The way you speak, your pronounciation, the accent everything. Oh My God..!!! You as a speaker is simply awesome. Can't get over your style of speech. Second thing, you literally just made, waiting for godot my favourite from "the least interested category". Thanks a lot.

Very insightful video! I studied Beckett's play this semester in English, but never thought knew about the historical context and how it connects so well with Camus's philosophy. Good job!

Amaaaaaaaazing. Im extremely shocked by your description and I'm sooo impressed, you helped me to love this play a lot more. Thanks.

This is awesome! Thank you so much for posting this video.

Excellent and thought provoking. I never thought of that comparison nor the other conclusions you drew. Great!

I have an exam in like 37 minutes about this is so helpful, thank you so much

Lot of thanks! I've enjoyed your enthusiastic comparison between myth of Sisyphus and waiting for Godot. Love love. It helped a lot for making my notes on it.

I'm Godot, I have arrived.

Thanks for this video. This play came up in one of my literature classes in college, but it wasn't handled by the lecturer as well as it was by you. I never knew that this was something that is connected to concepts that I am deeply interested in and if I hadn't seen your video, waiting for godot would be staying in that "boring and unnecessary information" shelf in my mind. Instead now, I want to go watch it . Thank you.

This is brilliant! Makes me LOVE Godot and the absurd even more. Plus he's lovely to hear and look at.

Thought in a very clear and concise manner. Extremely helpful. Thank you!!!

Extremely helpful. I had never thought incorporating philosophy into the play. But it perfectly makes sense. Thank you so much.

This was really well done and well spoken. Great evidence and reasoning.

Awesome video! As I'm reading "Waiting for Godot" for a play analysis class at my university, I really appreciated this.

I really appreciate this video because for my theatre history class I have to write an absurdist play and this video gave me so many ideas. Great vid!

whenever I need courage to continue your lecture's points keeps me going.

This is a very good exploration of the philosophy of the play. I've watched it a number of times on film, and twice at the theatre (the first with Max Wall), and each time it reveals itself more fully. And I think you have it spot on.

Wow man, that's a good video .. keep it up with the philosophy man, one love

I really enjoy your discussions; thank your for presenting.

This guy just explained what I was looking for!!! I've a test on this play after two days & this helped me a loooottttt!! Thank you❤🌻

I thoroughly enjoyed your breakdown and background. Well done.

If anyone is in the acceptance state it is Vladimir. In act II he bit by bit starts realising that he is stuck in this repeating loop. And he doesnt go away, he doesn't try to follow the boy or anything. He just... keeps going... I guess.

The whole time I studied this in high school, I was worried I wasn’t “getting it”. Glad to see that my crazed ramblings were based in actual philosophy. If only I found this video before my final exam.

Thank you so much for making this!

Very interesting analysis, You've really enlighted me on this play!

Thank for a most wonderful lecture! Im an director from Sweden. Worked with Becketts plays for long time. Never came across any anyone who could nail it like you. Most helpful.

Thank you!! Loved it!! Need it for my gr12 Drama students and you are ticking all the boxes!

Spot on, I think large elements of what you describe is exactly what Beckett was attempting to portray. Also you have a knack for explanation that exceeds many more famous critics.

I enjoyed your enthusiasm.

Well, you convinced me to buy and read this book/play. I like your channel and think that you are doing a great job!

Wow!that was an excellent analysis. Thanks a lot. Great job

Excellent!!! Superb!!! None else has ever explained or can explain so easily, correctly, lucidly The Theatre of the ABSURD and the Philosophy concerned......................look forward to hearing more analytical discussions from you...........

I have never had someone explain waiting to godot un such a manner. Its lovely😊 thank you

Amazing video, thanks for sharing such worthy information! 😊

You're so god at explaining it with so much fun man! Congrats for your enthusiasm and good luck with you drama career! ;) Greetings from Spain.

Amazing explanation, so much food for thought! Thank you😊

Albert Camus #7 response is the same thing buddha said millenia ago

Excellent analysis. I really enjoyed your presentation

Thank you very much, I'm going to use this video on Monday morning with my class in high school. Je sais déjà qu'ils vont adorer!

This has literally helped me so much for multiple English assessments and my exams thankyou so much !

incredible video! I've got a presentation on this next week and the video helped immensely :)

Fantastic analysis and explanation! Thank you!

So this video is rather old at this point but AUGH I had forgotten about Camus since I read him in college, and I had to pause the video about halfway through and go on a rant to myself alone in my apartment. I personally found Camus insufferable because he fails (in my view) to describe how accepting the absurd is actually a different way of life than those six methods you listed, which in practice means he completely fails to escape denial/distraction/creation/politics/etc, let alone explaining how anyone else could. Because, okay, you accept the absurd, but now what do you do with your life? Aren't you basically going to continue to choose a mixture of those six options regardless? I never really understood what acceptance of the absurd looks like in practice and how it's different from another way of life. Like, in the context of your interpretation of Waiting for Godot, should Vladimir and Estragon becomes slaves to Pozzo? Would that be the best way for them to embrace the absurd? Because they are clearly not leading fulfilling lives as it is, and if the play has any idea that resonates most clearly with an audience that seems to be the main one - that its characters are miserable due to their own inability to create or find meaning. I studied theater and work in theater, and the most interesting insight I know of about Waiting for Godot was this: After a semester of reading a whole variety of plays, we were tasked with writing our own in small groups. One group visited the student center and simply transcribed the interactions they heard. The question was, what style of "realist" playwright would the conversation they recorded most resemble? Surprisingly, it wasn't any realist playwright, but rather Beckett's absurdism, that the transcribed dialogue most resembled. It seems to me like this school of thought comes to the conclusion that deciding to be happy despite a miserable life is the only solution, but is unable to provide any actual means of which to find that source of happiness through willpower. Strikes me kind of like a depressed person saying "there's no meaning to anything so I must choose to be happy" and attempting to force themselves to cheer up. But speaking as someone who struggles with depression, well, that simply doesn't work. You cannot just choose to be happy when you're not, or we wouldn't have a problem in the first place.

The production at Spoleto 2017 is absolutely first-class. I have served as a house manager for 34 years for the festival, and this production is in my top three plays during that time.

I've always considered Waiting for Godot to be an early work of ASMR. I'm personally very relaxed every time I watch it.

I like how your education to be an actor has influenced your videos so much. It is nice to see you trying new things and getting more creative with your online lectures. The french talking part was, for me personally, a bit too much, but that is just me. However, I must say I do miss the oldfashioned introduction to a philosophical idea, like you used to make them. Those videos were a major reason for choosing philosophy for my current education.

Thank you for that explanation. Very insightful. Appreciate it!

thank you! amazing angle of looking at the work!

A very entertaining lively And truthful explanation, with the parallel comparison Camus, of Godot...totally agree, an artistical manner of expression plus the bonds we make with other fellow humans gives meaningfulness in this whole absurdity that we are nonetheless "lucky" to Live....living Life well seasoned with humour, taking ones work but not ourselves seriously is what can make us most happy...That's indeed what Beckett but also Prévert or Quéneau for example showed us too.....thanks again fellow resilient philosophizing artist

Damn good job mate!! recommended your channel to my mates in Fiji Islands!!

Thank you, great mini-lecture.

dude, im doing a comparative text study in extension english, you have no idea how bloody helpful this vid was

Thanks for sharing that, I found it really helpful after having watched the play.

Thank you so much I really needed this .

I really loved this video. In our last year of secondary school, we read the play by having some classmates 'perform' it without ever having read it themselves, just reading the script out loud and attempting some form of acting. It made it both hilarious and maybe even more absurd, and I still think of the particular classmates that played a particular character when reading it.

I'm going to start reading this book soon. I think this will help me a lot in understanding and hopefully appreciating the book. Also: subbed!

I've gotta an exam tomorrow and u seriously helped me a lot dude. Amazing perspective! 👍

this was great! I didn’t learn anything new, but that's okay, the theatre of the absurd had a strong influence on me. what would be amazing would be if you could do more videos like this. I like genet and ionesco a lot too. thank you for this video

This video really helped me! Thanks mate!

What a great video, thanks for sharing the knowledge

Thanks for this! Very insightful. Helped me with my English notes :D

amazing . thank you very much for this wonderful , clear and concise explanation .

This is very well explained, thank you.

I'd like to thank you for helping me understand this play. I watched your video just before watching the play (probably a mistake if I wanted to form my own opinions, but at least I wasn't hopelessly confused) and I don't think I would have understood anything without.

you just made my day by this explanation

Really fine analysis, thank you!

Was totally not interested at all in waiting for Godot. Is now near the top of my to watch list. Thank you muchly.

Absolutely brilliant explanation. Bravo!

thank you! this video was immensely helpful :)

Thank you, Olly, this is very good. I will show it. Put Camus in the title, and thank you, again, for the compelling summary of that masterwork.

I agree its such an amazing play! I am studying it at the moment and I loved your video!! Thank you

I did not expect to see the 7 stages of grief here, they took me by surprise xD

when you were speaking in French I was reading the french text and translating it in my head into english LOL. I did a paper on this play, because I read it, then I started studying philosophy, came back to the play to do the paper and realised there were all these philosophy jokes in it and there are also religious jokes too. I didn't get introduced to philosophy of the absurd sadly, so I didn't see the connection. Camus is definately someone I should read up on. Really clear summing up of the play. Thanks

Nice video man, thanks for that

Thank you, you just gave me something to think about. I wish now someday I can watch Waiting for Godot.

Best video explain of waiting for Godot, thanks man !

Great explanation.. Only watching the play, (and never having read it) in my late 40's... I was wondering what all the fuss was about.... so I thought ... hey, give it a go. I'd kind of gotten the gist to an extent that meant I was thinking about what was going on and how things were interacting and loved it, and I'd have to say that your appraisal clarified some points I was, to say the least, a little fuzzy or undecided on... there are as I understand many interpretations of the work, but.... I'd say I would be happy to count this as a pretty damn good one..... plus you qualified your credibility as an actor, by mentioning in the patreon plea "for rent and food' or words to those effects :) Well done and thank you for helping a rapidly ageing old fart (I'm usually a life-sized Victor Meldrew!!) to become more excited and enthusiastic about such work.

Amazing explanations. Thank you!

thank you very much

This helped me understand Godot a bit better, thanks! I've read Camus separately but I didn't make the connection between the two.

Absolutely beautiful explanation thank you!

Amazing! this was very helpful ! merci beaucoup

WOW YOUR VIDEO JUST CHANGED MY WHOLE LIFE. THANK YOU!!!

Had to watch this for a class, love it

Thanks! You really helped with my homework!

It has been very useful. Thank you very much❤️

Great video, compliments!

Insightful analysis of the play. Crystalline exposition of the philosophy. Positioning Lucky as icon of Absurdism with firm foundation. A must for every Professor of Literature. Simply delightful.

This is a Wonderful Video! Thank you for taking the time to make it! I have two questions for you though: 1) IF history had played out differently, would Camus' choice of response to the absurd have changed? 2) What role does choice have in responses to the absurd? You say that Lucky, in "Waiting for Godot" is an ideal candidate for Camus' version of Acceptance by willingly continuing to live on in spite of absurdity. But in being a slave, what choice does he have?

I did a research about this play that was amazing work for me