The representation of existential anguish in absurd drama as reflected in Beckett's play: Waiting for Godot

This thesis intends to analyse the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett in terms of Existentialism within the genre of the Theatre of Absurd by investigating through the setting, context and use of language. It is argued in this thesis that as Samuel Beckett is concerned about human beings' problems of existence in the world in his plays, most of the time, he portrays the representation of human condition which makes his plays to be interpreted in the light of Existentialism. In the thesis, Existentialism as a philosophical movement has been introduced with its prominent names and examples, also the Theatre of the Absurd is explained in detail with its basic qualities to shed a light on how the characters' dialogues, monologues construct their existential anguish through the play while arguing that there are many existentialistic qualities in the play such as characters' searching for meaning and realizing the meaninglessness of the world and nothingness in the process of their waiting for Godot. Additionally, the link between Existentialism and The Theatre of Absurd is illustrated with a view of the play to prove that Waiting for Godot carries the traces of both Existentialism and The Theatre of the Absurd while the characters suffer from the existential anguish. More specifically, this study tries to reveal the fact that Vladimir and Estragon, the main characters in the play Waiting for Godot suffer from existential anguish and basically explores how the existential anguish is reflected through the analysis of the characters' language by means of dialogues, choice of words, repetitions and silences.