An Analysis And Criticism Of The Biblical Archetypes In Waiting For Godot

In the history of literature,myths are widely used by various writers in their own works.However,the various types of images,figures and narrative structures that repeatedly appear in the literary works are the archetypes.The myths which are related to archetypes are mythic archetypes,and critics are devoted to discovering the basic forms,especially the mythic archetypes.This kind of school was called the archetypal critic in the 1950 s and 1960 s,which is very important in the West.Northrop Frye,the most representative scholar of this school,is one of the few Canadian world-renowned critics in the 20 th century.His academic reputation was due to the systematic construction of the archetypal theory of criticism which helps him to reach the peak.The Bible is the most representative of the myths,and also has the most significant impact on Western literature works.The Bible is also the central myth of the theoretical study of Frye.So when someone who analyzes the archetypes of any works,he can't ignore the position of the Bible as the central myth.Samuel Beckett is a famous French writer,who writes fiction,poetry and drama.He gains the highest achievement in his plays.He is an important representative of Theater of the Absurd.He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969.Waiting for Godot is his masterpiece,and the masterpiece of the Theater of the Absurd,as well.The play is considered by critics as a real innovation in the history of the theater and it is the first success of the absurd drama.Waiting for Godot was paid attention to by critics and scholars for its unique style since it was first performed on the stage.There are a large number of analysis and research about the play,but most of them focus on the theme,style or the expressions of the work.There is little analysis about the archetypes in the play.As a good post-war work,the scholars can't ignore the impact of The Bible on this work.Therefore,this study will devote itself to apply Frye's archetypal criticism to analyze the Biblical archetypes in Waiting for Godot.Through such a series of analysis,the study can help learners to get a better understanding of the theme of the play.This thesis consists of introduction,the main body and the conclusion.Its main contents are as follows:The first part is the introduction.It is a brief introduction to the author's life,the background and the play.The research status at home and abroad is summarized in this part.It is pointed out that analyzing the Biblical archetypes in this workare both significant and necessary.As a representative of the absurd drama,Samuel Beckett is undoubtedly the most successful one.His masterpiece Waiting for Godot has aroused much attention since his first performance.And the majority of scholars and critics have also paid attention to the drama.And there are many works at home and abroad analyzing Waiting for Godot.However,most of the works focus on the language features,theme and plot.The Bible holds a unique position in Western literature.However,there are few articles about the biblical impact of play.Therefore,the purpose of this essay is to use Frye's theory to analyze the biblical archetypes and biblical influence on this work so as to explore the profound connotation of the play and its significance to the human beings in modern society.The second part is the main body,which is composed of four chapters.The first part briefly illustrates Frye's theory,the role ofThe Bible in theory and an overview ofThe Bible's influence on this work.As the representative of Archetypal Criticism Theory,Frye's thought was influenced by Frazer and Jung,and on this basis he produced his own theory.The first section of this chapter also introduces main ideas of Frye's Archetypal Criticism Theory.The Bible is the core mythology of Frye's theory.And Beckett's own religious background and many references in the play which have meanings in The Bible indicate that The Bible has its influence on the play.The second part analyzes the impact of The Bible on Waiting for Godot.This section is divided into three sections.The first section analyzes the biblical archetypes that are described in the background of Waiting for Godot.The second section analyzes the biblical archetypes of the characters in Waiting for Godot.This section focuses on analyzing the biblical archetypes of the five main characters in the play.From this section,learners can see that Godot is the God,Vladimir and Estragon are sinners who are waiting for the God's salvation,Pozzo and Lucky are Jesus and God.Through the archetypal analysis of characters,learners can get a deeper understanding of the relationship between characters and the connotation of characters.The second section analyzes the biblical archetypes of the plot of Waiting for Godot.Through the analysis of this section,it can be seen that the waiting in the whole play is the waiting for the salvation of God in The Bible.The third part analyzes the impact of The Bible on Waiting for Godot's style.This section is divided into two sections.The first section analyzes the biblical influence of the language of the play.Readers can see that the words and the sentence structure are very simple and plain.The simple sentences are the main influence of Genesis in the Old Testament.The objective and neutral tone in Waiting for Godot is influenced by the Exodus in the Old Testament and the quotations of the play are from The Bible and quotations are from the Exodus and other books.The second section analyzes the biblical impacts of the structure of Waiting for Godot.Waiting for Godot is written in chronological order,which is exactly the same as that of Exodus.There are also many inserted chapters in the play,Obviously it is also related to Exodus.The fourth part integrates the above analysis to discuss the theme of the play under the influence of The Bible and the significance of the theme for all mankind.This part is divided into three sections.The first section mainly analyzes the relationship between the waiting of Estragon and Vladimir in Waiting for Godot and salvation of God in The Bible.The second section mainly analyzes the relationship between Godot's absence in Waiting for Godot and God's promise in The Bible.The third section is the combination of the first two sections and it concludes that despite the fact that the Second World War has shaken people's faith in God,but the theme of the works that the author wants to pass through Waiting for Godot is the hope in the endlessly waiting.At the same time,it is also the significance of this work for all human kind.The last part is the conclusion.In this part,the whole thesis is concluded and the essence of this article is pointed out.This study analyzes the theme of Waiting for Godot based on Frye's theory,and then the study will analyze the theme of the drama and its significance to all human beings.Through the analysis on these aspects,readers could have a better understanding of the drama's theme.The readers willunderstand the important impact of the Bible on Western society as well as on western literature.