Abstract

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a tragedy where “nothing happened, nobody came or went”. The developing society today is full of the fierce competition and pressure from all aspects of life. More and more people are facing the challenge, even a disaster and they tend to lose hope in desperation. This is a very negative attitude, which should not be ignored. This study is aimed to illustrate the theme of the work by means of text reading and literature review. First of all, the author introduces previous research on this work; secondly, the author introduces the writer Samuel Beckett, the social background of the story and the main content of the drama; thirdly, the author introduces the main characters in this work and reveals their symbolic significance; and then the author analyzes the theme of Waiting for Godot: waiting is hope; finally, people are inspired not to give up wonderful hope in the painful struggle and the long time waiting. The research finds that in Beckett’s mind, life is waiting, waiting for salvation, for hope, or for others; compared with waiting, nothing else is meaningful. 

Key words：Waiting for Godot； hope； waiting

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction.1

2 Literature Review1

2.1 Relevant Research at Home.1

2.2 Relevant Research Abroad.2

3 The Author and the Social Background and Main Content of Waiting for Godot3

3.1 Social Background 3

3.2 The Impact of the Second World War on People’s Lives and Psychology 4

3.3 The Main Content of Waiting for Godot.4

4 The Main Characters and Their Symbolic Significance in Waiting for Godot .5

4.1 Estragon and Vladimir5

4.2 Lucky and Pozzo 7

5 The Theme in Waiting for Godot8

5.1 The Theme of Waiting.8

5.2 The Theme of Hope.10

6 The Meaning of the Theme in Waiting for Godot to People in Trouble10

7 Conclusion.12

References13