About the author Samuel Beckett was one of the most

famous absurdist of his time. An absurdist is a person who believes

that human life is purposeless and they exist in a purposeless chaotic world.

He was a noble Literature prize winner in 1969.

Beckett introduced a new kind of play in the

In the form of Waiting for Godot.

He depicted the Human life sufferings in a different way.His play has no plot, he didn’t believe in language and hence there is no setting except a tree.Samuel this type of play got a great success.

Lucky

“Lucky”

Lucky’s character

Lucky was the slave of pozzo. He was carrying burdens of his master with him

and was supposed to do whatever his master wants.

He had long hairs and a white bear. He was more like an animal rather then human.

In fact, he didn’t speak but only one time. Some critics says that his name is given to him

because he was a lucky person. He had no worries except he had to do things at his master’s will.

In Act I Lucky even dances for the three people at his master’s order.The intellect and wisdom of Lucky was considered to be hidden in his hate.

In Samuel Backett’s Waiting for Godot, perhaps no character is as enigmatic and perplexing as that of Lucky.

Lucky’s speech introduction It has been documented that when

Becket rehearsed his own production of this play, he began with Lucky 'speech,

It is a lengthy and ambiguous speech, unable to understand easily but having a deep meaning in it.

It is considered to be the thought of Samuel backet.

Language Of the speech

The speech is incoherent , out of understanding, having half and incomplete sentences.

It has certain words which have no literal meaning.

Repetition of different phrases and words occur.

Beside these there are spaces in the speech which can signify his silence.

It lacks structure and literal meaning much as the entire play does.Use of French words is also there.It has an abrupt start and ambiguous ending.Concluding the language of the speech is not clear and easy to understand.

Significance of Lucky’s speech

1. Existence of God…. As the speech begins, its focus is

immediately clear. "Given the existence… of a personal God…" Lucky paints a portrait of a Christian God, one who is wise, kind, and "personal."He goes on to polarize this image of God that even if there is a God he is unable to affect us and even if he can, his care and love are subject to “Some Exceptions”

These exceptions become sufferers who are "plunged in torment [and] fire… This fire is supposedly so strong that it will "blast hell to heaven… " The implications of these lines further explains the conflicting effects of a God. Those who are exceptions from his care experience life on earth as hell, and this sensation is so strong that it overrides any hope or belief in a paradise beyond their earthly sufferings. (here the description of hell and paradise also signifies that somehow religion is a theme of the play also)

Lucky's cynical feelings are clear.God is absent and if not then "divine apathia" or apathy, a lack of interest, "divine aphasia" the inability to understand or express speech, and "divine athambia" that he is unfeeling, unseeing, and inattentive.He also takes the names of Puncher and wattman. They were scholars. The works in which the existence of God is uttered is the Bible, which he labels as "the public works of Puncher and Wattman." Alan Astro, in his book Understanding Samuel Beckett (1990),

points out that these people who assert the existence of God are not authorities. The word Wattman come from French word means (streetcar driver) and Puncher means (streetcar ticket seller).In this light, it would seem that Lucky claims that the existence of God was proposed by two minor individuals who are not of that much worth.

2.Insignificance of man’s existence

Lucky also discusses the theory of Bishop Berkeley (1684-1753), a philosopher , who had denied the existence of matter, arguing that it existed only from the perception by others. This notion is widely held by the characters in the play, as in the instances of Pozzo saying: "Is everybody looking at me? Will you look at me, pig!" and Vladimir demanding of the boy

"Tell [Godot] you saw me and that that you saw me. You're sure you saw me, you won't come and tell me to-morrow that you never saw me!Clearly, the characters feel the need to be perceived by anyone. As Estragon points out, "We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?“

Bishop Berkeley

3.Deterioration of Man

This representation of man is not ignored in the portrayal of the characters throughout the play. The characters are seen in the process of deterioration.

Vladimir claim that the garlic he stinks of is for his kidneys suggests other internal problems.

Estragon complains of a weak lung and is often bothered by one of his feet.Pozzo loses his possessions continuously and eventually goes blind, and Lucky deters into a dumb mute.All the characters, and thus all humanity, is in trouble.it is noted that Lucky's neck is covered with scratches, caused by the rope held by Pozzo, and similarly, Estragon injures one of his legs due to a kick from Lucky in the first Act. Indeed, these physical pains comprise man's suffering on the Earth and define the Hell they live in.

4.Waste and Pine

Throughout the course of the speech Lucky makes a commentary of the nature of God and the degeneration of our species.

Lucky establishes that man is on the decline. His use of the phrase “Wastes and Pines” suggest not only physical weakness but a mental one as well. This is cleared by specific examples, ”in spite of the practice of sports…penicilline and succedanea…” He lists off over a dozen sports

each of which could also be thought as a way of getting health and releasing the stress as Vladimir and Estragon attempt to busy themselves with different discussions but at end it also become useless and insignificance. As Vladimir says:"This is becoming really insignificant,“ after a trivial discussion about turnips and radishes

On the other hand different type of medicines are discovered as penicillin and succedanea…” which are a type of antibiotics. But these things can not prevent a man from deterioration. In fact the man is in a process of shrinking – in spite of physical exercise and technical progress.

5.Destruction of Earth

The ending to Lucky's speech intermingles the images of "great cold," "great dark" and then stones and skulls, "in spite of the tennis." This seems to be a prophecy of how the Earth will turn out, describing broken structures and lifeless bodily remains..

Here lucky make a comparison by using the names “Steinweg and Peterman” stein is a German word used for stone and Peter is derived from Greek Petros meaning stone.

It is an indicator of the matter that the word stone is used seven times in his speech.Beside this here is description of Connemara an island where stones are found in abundance.Lucky is indicating to the coming times that the world is getting its worst position and the time is near when there will be only skulls and stones except human beings.

Connemara

6.Link with Existentialism Jean-Paul Sartre proposed the theory of

Existentialism. In this he gave his ideas about human existence that human beings are free in the world. No one is there who has a control upon them.

He says: “Man is condemned to be free; because , once thrown into the world , he is responsible for everything he does”

The denying of existence of God also refer to this theory.

7.Use of different words

Qua: Lucky has repeatedly used this word

at different places as quaquaqua. It is basically a Latin word which means “in the capacity or character of” but Lucky here use it in an absurd way.

For example he uses it with the description of God as “God quaquaquaqua with white beard”

For reasons unknown:The use of this phrase almost eight times is the significance that nothing is known, nothing has any reason to exist.Academy of Anthropometry:It comes from Latin words Anthropos and Metron. Antropos means “man” and Metron means “to measure”. This is an academy studying human body, human weight, origin of human species etc. he says that academy has also left the study incomplete.

6.Unfinished

This is the last word of Lucky’s speech and it refers to the unfinished speech and thought as well as the not yet complete shrinking process of mankind.

It also refers to the point that no matter how much assumptions about God are made but the secret is still unrevealed.

Prepared by HIFSA , AMBREEN And HAJRA.