Modernism Character Definition of Terms
The next study is taken from one of the Brodies Notes which W.T. Currie has given contribution in analyzing
Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot”. In this edition of
Brodie’s Notes, Currie makes notes on most of the intrinsic elements starting from the philosophy, meaning, plot, themes, structure, style and of course the characters of
the play. In this r esearch, Currie’s analysis helps the writer in the scope of
understanding more about the characters in the play and their characterizations. Currie mentions that
…Beckett has at least taught us not to look for narrative in our theatre. From this play on, the idea of drama as action and story no longer applied. The
writer had a new dimension to work in. Silence too was rediscovered as a positive quality, and we do not need to look far in Godot to see how Beckett
exploits this in the attitudes of Vladimir and Estragon. In their moments of total silence these two scarecrows on the verge of humanity do rouse in us
feelings of compassion, [
…] 1978: 8. Currie’s writing shows that one of the ways to understand the postmodern
play is not to look for the narratives, pointing at one of Beckett’s works, Waiting for
Godot. This includes understanding the characters of the play. Later in this research, the writer refers to
Currie’s analyses on the intrinsic elements in order to discover more about how the characters are exposed to the audience readers and therefore
determine their modernist traits. Though Currie analyses the play almost entirely most of the intrinsic
elements are discussed, this research does not conduct the same discussion upon the object of study. The writer will only use partial information from Currie’s writing to
understand more about the play and to support the writer’s hypothesis of ‘modern
characters in a postmodern play’ while Currie doesn’t state anything in his research regarding this.