Trying to Understand Waiting for Godot: An Adornian Analysis of Beckett’s Signature Work

Abstract

Adorno had such an affinity for Beckett that he dedicated his posthumously published work, Aesthetic Theory, to him. In 1961, he wrote a thoughtful—if dizzyingly complex—tribute to Beckett’s play, Endgame, a work that models many aspects of Adorno’s cultural criticism. My aim, accordingly, is to offer an Adornian reading of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot by drawing upon his critiques of music, aesthetics, and the culture industry. My goal is twofold: to offer a refreshing analysis of one of the most significant dramatic achievements of the twentieth century, and, in doing so, to demonstrate Adorno’s relevance to contemporary cultural studies by deploying multiple elements of his oeuvre.

Notes

1. Theordor W. Adorno, “Trying to Understand Endgame,” New German Critique 26 (Spring-Summer 1982): 321, 323.

2. Anonymous, A Discussion Guide for the Play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, (New York: Grove Press, 1977), 9; Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove Press, 1954), 6.

3. Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 59.

4. Ibid., 32, 36.

5. John Fletcher, “The First Director: Roger Blin at Work,” in Casebook on Waiting for Godot, ed. Ruby Cohn (New York: Grove Press, 1967), 21.

6. Ruby Cohn, “Waiting,” in Modern Critical Interpretations: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987), 41.

7. Quoted from Alvin Klein, “Decades Later, the Quest for Meaning Goes On,” New York Times, 2 November 1997.

8. Alan Schneider, “Waiting for Beckett: A Personal Chronicle,” in Casebook on Waiting for Godot, 51–57.

9. Ibid.

10. For a sample of impressive analyses conducted by leading literary and theatre scholars, see Modern Critical Interpretations: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, ed. Harold Bloom.

11. Martin Esslin, “Godot at San Quentin,” in Casebook on Waiting for Godot, 30.

12. Theordor W. Adorno, Negative Dialectics (New York: Continuum, 2007), xiv.

13. Theodor W. Adorno, Hegel: Three Studies (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1993), 22.

14. Ibid., 38.

15. Adorno, Negative Dialectics, 5.

16. Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 42.

17. Ibid., 40,15.

18. Ibid., 26, 27–30.

19. Ibid., 26.

20. Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. J. M. Bernstein (New York: Routledge, 1991), 24, 88.

21. Ibid., 63; Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (Detroit, MI: Black & Red, 1983).

22. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 93, 61.

23. Theodor W. Adorno, Introduction to the Sociology of Music (New York: Continuum, 1988), xii.

24. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 65.

25. Theodor W. Adorno, In Search of Wagner (London: Verso, 2009), 85, 86, 90.

26. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 37.

27. Adorno, Introduction to the Sociology of Music, 14.

28. Ibid., 10–15.

29. Schneider, “Waiting for Beckett: A Personal Chronicle,” 51.

30. Marya Mannes, “Two Tramps,” in the Casebook on Waiting for Godot, 30. For more on the critical reception of the play, see 11–88.

31. Ibid., 24.

32. Frank Rich, “Godot: The Timeless Relationship of Two Interdependent Souls,” New York Times, 7 November 1988.

33. William B. Collins, “‘Godot’ Overshadowed by Martin and Williams,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 November 1988.

34. Adorno, “Trying to Understand Endgame,” 321.

35. Ibid., 327.

36. Adorno, Introduction to the Sociology of Music, 192.

37. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 50,

38. Ibid, 61–62.

39. Ibid., 91–94.

40. Adorno, “Trying to Understand Endgame,” 321.

41. Adorno, Prisms, 34.

42. Though an important figure, the Boy is more or less a dramatic device to support Didi and Gogo’s narrative by serving as Godot’s messenger, and thus bringing each Act to a close.

43. Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 59.

44. Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 61.

45. Adorno, “Trying to Understand Endgame,” 319.