The Influence of the World Wars on literature with a Focus on Absurdism: A Study of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

Abstract

This thesis examines carefully Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in the realm of emergence of the absurdism in the aftermath of world wars. It enlightens the way this play aptly reflects war trauma and the absurdism via the lens of Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus. It works to unfold the analytical, contextual, and philosophical domains of the text. The war trauma is portrayed through the physical, emotional, and psychological crack down of characters, coupled with a sense of extreme terror and exhaustion. Similarly, the post-war absurdist strains also permeate throughout the play in the form of longing for some truth amidst the debris of previously constructed reality. Through close reading and interpretation, this thesis aims to provide a better understanding of Beckett’s work and the absurdity it imbibes in it.

Keywords: Absurdism, World War, War Trauma, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Theater of Absurd.