等待与希望-《等待戈多》的主题分析_英语论文

Waiting and Hope——An Analysis of the Theme in Waiting for Godot

摘要

萨缪尔•贝克特的作品《等待戈多》, 表现的是一个“什么也没有发生，谁也没有来，谁也没有去”的悲剧。当今社会，时代飞速发展并伴随着激烈的竞争和来自生活方方面面的压力。越来越多的人在身处逆境，遭受打击，以及面对挑战，甚至是遇到灾难的时候，内心脆弱不堪一击，失去希望，自暴自弃。这是非常消极的态度，应该被人们重视。

本课题主要从文本分析和文献阅读来阐述《等待戈多》所表达的主题。首先，回顾前人对这部戏剧的研究；其次，介绍作者萨缪尔•贝克特、故事发生的社会背景和该戏剧的主要内容；接着，介绍这部作品的主要人物并且揭示他们的象征意义；然后，以文本分析为基础，解读《等待戈多》的主题：等待便是希望，有等待才有希望；最后，激励人们在痛苦的抗争与等待中不放弃美好的希望。研究发现贝克特认为，生命是等待，等待救赎，等待希望或等待对方；相比于等待，所有其他的事情都是没有意义的。

关键词：《等待戈多》；希望；等待

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

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 Vladimir..5

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