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These same dialogues are repeated by these two characters time and again. As we see that the two characters Vladimir and Estragon constantly wait for the arrival of Godot as he is someone who would help them to come out of their difficulities. Godot is a hegemonic masulinity in the play though it is a fact that Godot remains abscent throughout the play but still we can say that he is a powerful male being. Connell's gender order theory, hegemonic masculinity is defined as practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society. So, here we find "masculinity" of this play divided into two traits which are "hegemonic masculinity" and "submissive or immature masculinity."įirst of all, I would like to discuss "hegemonic masculinity" in this play while analysing different characters such as Godot and Pozzo in the play, who possess hegemonic masculinity. Because, we can say that all his characters in "Waiting for Godot" are masculine but we cannot say that all the male characters are powerful. So, in this context we can say that there is an obvious theme of masculinity in Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." But when we try to analyse Beckett's male characters from the percpective of aforementioned word "strongness" then we find confusion. Because, I want to explore masculinity in the sense of "power" as well as "strongness" in "Waiting for Godot."Īll the characters of Beckett's play are male and they are having the quality of being masculine. According to OED, masculinity is defined as "having the quality of being masculine" and OED defines "masculine" as "having the qualities or appearance considered to be typical of men." In the same book, the word "strong" is used for masculine and according to my point of view this word "strong" is suitable here for masculinity. Order custom essay Masculinity in waiting for Godot Critical Essayīefore starting an analysis of this topic, masculinity requires definition. But there are different kinds of masculinity such as hegemonic masculinity, submissive masculinity, immature masculinity and beside all this lost of masculinity is also cut and clear in Beckett's Waiting for Godot. So, we can say that masculinity is a dominant theme of this play. We also find male characters who are submissive. Because, we find that people are waiting for Godot to help them and the depiction of Godot's physical appearance by boy also gives us the hint of Godot's hegemonic masculinity. Beckett has politically highlighted masculinity in his play while making the women absent and through other different traits.Īlthough, there are many male characters but the proper hegemonic masculinity is clearly presented by only one male character, Godot. It is quite clear that male characters are constantly dominant in the plot structure of the play without any female character. The main objective of this paper is to identify the experiences of male characters through which they try to keep their masculinity alive in Beckett's play.
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This paper aims to explore the theme of masculinity in Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
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