Language, Conventions, and Stage Directions: Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
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Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Language, Conventions, and Stage Directions: Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot

Name: Elizabeth Coats
Major: English & Theatre
Hometown: McHenry, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Alyson Kiesel
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

Human beings turn language inside out in order to grasp how to use it to effectively communicate with one another. Waiting For Godot shows the reader the imperfectness of our use of language. This paper questions the efficiency of the way language is characteristically used by humans and shows Beckett’s attempt to destabilize our use of language. He reveals how language often fails to achieve the desires humans have for it. Through its destabilization, the play proves that language cannot be used as a basis for truth, and proves that humans have limited authority over it.

To illustrate this I looked to Friedrich Nietzsche and Ferdinand de Saussure for their ideas about the practice of human language and its inaccuracies. I conducted close readings of several passages of the play, first demonstrating how language is typically used by humans, and then showing how Beckett destabilizes this use of language, revealing its flaws. The use of stage directions will be used to demonstrate language’s inability to be a grounding for truth. This challenged authority over language is shown in my application of the play as literature and the play as performance, proving that no matter what medium is used to transmit the language it can never be perfectly within the control of the humans who use it.

Poster file