In-class essay beginning of next week: I will give you a choice of questions about Waiting for Godot and you will write an essay in response. You will have the whole class period. You must bring your copy of the play. You will need to support your essay with specific references and direct quotations.

When writing about drama: Write about the TEXT, not a film version. Try to span the whole work, unless the question asks you to focus on a particular section. Pay attention not only to dialogue but to stage directions, props, costume notes, etc. Assume that language choices are just as conscious and careful as in poetry. Use specific details for support.

Reminder about citing quotations—use MLA format: Estragon says the tree “Looks to me more like a bush” (8). Pozzo asks “Who is Godot?” (20).

When quoting multiple lines of dialogue from a play, use this format: The two tramps repeatedly consider, and reject, the idea of leaving: ESTRAGON: Let’s go. VLADIMIR: We can’t. ESTRAGON: Why not? VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot. (8)

When writing by hand, please underline play titles (do not put them in quotation marks): Waiting for Godot (If you were using a word processor you would italicize instead of underlining.)

When writing about Beckett: Resist the impulse to treat the play as allegory. That is, don’t oversimplify its symbolism. Godot isn’t God, or death, or the ice-cream truck, although he may be suggestive of any or all of these things. Embrace ambiguity. E.g., the tree is suggestive of life (new leaves!) and death (crucifixion, suicide). Maybe there aren’t clear answers in the post-WWII world. Don’t ignore the humor!

Topics Relate “the absurd” to one or more characters How and for what purposes or effects does Beckett use different types of humor? Discuss the function or significance of stage directions, props, sets, and/or costume elements in the play.

Topics Continued Choose a section from Waiting for Godot that seem to create a particularly strong effect (whether lyrical, comical, tragic, philosophical, or something else), and describe how Beckett’s writing technique, including aspects like questions, statements, sentence structure, pacing, repetition, diction, syntax, etc. make this passage achieve this effect.

Topics Continued Choose a theme—such as time, memory, or religion—and discuss how Beckett develops this theme through the use of specific style choices over the course of the whole play.

Preparation You may use any notes you have on Post-Its in your copy of the play. You may use handouts I have given you (and notes that are on those handouts or refer directly to them). You may use one notecard of other notes (written front & back). You may not write the essay ahead of time. Please avoid internet scrounging. (If you do use other sources, you must cite them.)