∎ [PDF] Free Happy Days Samuel Beckett 9780571066537 Books

Happy Days Samuel Beckett 9780571066537 Books

Download As PDF : Happy Days Samuel Beckett 9780571066537 Books

Happy Days Samuel Beckett 9780571066537 Books

nabokov's "Lolita" has been called "the only convincing love story of our century."

uh...maybe. (I'm not up to unpacking the many complications of that "love" here.) and, at any rate, i'm convinced that the undying love between beckett's Winnie & Willie in "happy days" is far more powerful and convincing.

what starts as a kind of existential, staging conceit -- the loving couple is half-buried alive throughout the play -- Winnie & Willie's trials and tribulations are hilarious and terrifying and, yes, genuinely touching, even heart-breaking...often at the same time. they cope, they care, they carp and cajole and (verbally) caress their constrained ways through their days -- "happy days," indeed,


Tags : Happy Days [Samuel Beckett] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV>In 'Happy Days, ' Beckett pursues his relentless search for the meaning of existence, probing the tenuous relationships that bind one person to another,Samuel Beckett,Happy Days,Gardners Books,0571066534,Plays

Happy Days Samuel Beckett 9780571066537 Books Reviews

This is the first time I encounter Beckett; I must confess that even though I read Shakespeare and...........the actual reading of a play is not something I look forward to------and yet, we can compare it quite to radio (if we haven't seen it yet) since we can FINALLY use our imagination a lot more than a novel........Or CAN WE?......
Beckett is considered a giant among writers (playwrights only?) of the last century.
Yet he remains deeply misunderstood. A friend went to see this play several years ago, and all he could do was laugh, and insisted that the play was simply a "contraption" that was to make one have a "happy time"..........
Alas, he did not understand.......
Although I have not seen it live, I could assume that indeed he may have been correct, but like KAFKA, one begins to laugh wholeheartedly, then cautiously, then sort of uneasily......A greatly intelligent person can leave the theater in a quite depressed mood........
Why such a "depressed" mood?
It is, as I say in my title, a work of art that verges on NIHILISM----------the doctrine that nothing in and of itself carries any intrinsic value........Indeed, Buddhism offers us those teachings, but nirvana is ahead of us, hopefully-----their version of heaven.......
This work is firmly grounded on the present and the truth that most of us, except the most "enlightened" (?), except the most deeply repressed (?) carry within and see in flashes quite a bit of that "cesspool of the mind" called the unconscious.........
That is what he tackles....

SOME SPOILERS

A lady appears on stage (or anywhere for that matter, since this is deeply metaphorical) buried in soil up to her waist....The "happy days" is Mr. Beckett's cruel joke on our everyday existence.......But it carries no malice.....
Basically it is the most simple, many will say ridiculous of dramas, since "nothing" happens........The lady wakes up in the morning, and even covered in soil up to the waist manages to perform a ritual which could be called her "toilette". She speaks constantly----to a man who all throughout remains mostly an enigma---he is hidden behind a mound and he barely connects with her... Puts up with her, in fact.
But between them, there is a symbiotic relationship that, especially she, it can be seen, would not be able to exist without his presence there.
She catches a few glimpses of him (only a few) and this brings her great delight........
It is a sad, pathetic way of life, but many of us will see a mirror to our lives, as she, unable to move tries hard, very hard, partly refusing to see her "disability" and partly very aware of her condition. She cannot move.......She counts the hours...Noon, the afternoon, the early evening---------somehow, they are existing on no food?...No matter.......Do not bother with literalisms.........He seems to barely exist....somehow he reminded me of a drunk who barely cares or has given up on life. NOT SHE-----she knows that to survive she must continue to be brave, and to carry a routine of "life"----without such a routine, her life will fall apart........Does it sound familiar??? Basically all she does is "KILL" time.......
But the second act it is more ominous. She has been buried to the NECK.
I honestly can't recall much of how this situation of hers changes much (and I only read it a year ago!), but of course mobility is "everything" in life, and again she whiles away the hours recounting stories out loud and letting us know that there was, indeed, at some point in the past, a relationship with the man......
It can be seen as a magnificent example of survival-------to a point..........Because most of us are constantly filling our time--even brilliant people (and I hear the discord), the sobriety that descends over us is tragic. Some of us will head home to put it somewhere in the back--------others are unable to shake it off. I was haunted by the play for several months, if quite less than I was haunted for more than a year with "OTHELLO" (but we cannot submit Mr. Beckett to such an analogy, can we??!)
That constitutes a work of art. If it does not cling to us, if it does not awaken us from the dormant state we tend to live on it is decidedly NOT a master work.....
But to paraphrase Oscar Wilde we may decide to open doors to the darkness that lays deep within, but the price to pay may be very, very high, if indeed inevitably attached to the experiences we have had in life............
Brilliant Becker...........Yet short of a masterpiece............
What I got was the cover of Happy Days and a completely different play on the inside. Sent a note about it and haven't heard anything back. Annoyed.
The play is by beckett. I am without words 1, 2 and more
One endures but may not enjoy but possibly...
I really needed to read this book asap for an audition and I couldn't wait to have it by post because I was in Greece and it could take more that 2 weeks to be here so the kindle was an amazing solution.
This is a book from the category of the theatre of the abstract and it is brilliant.
Very happy and satisfied.
Thank you.
I have been a fan of Ruth White ever since I saw her in Lullaby and Let Them Hear You Whisper from the Broadway Archives. They never recorded her performance as Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. First, Beckett is not for everybody. Some people are going to find him difficult, hard, and even boring. Those people who have never read Beckett or studied him thoroughly are going to have a hard time understanding his brilliance. Beckett is the king of minimalism regarding theater and the absurd. Here is a middle aged woman stuck in mound doing a daily routine. We never do learn why she is in such a predicament because it's a Beckett metaphor for our lives being stuck in a mound. It's a literary device. He was brilliant.
Loved what this was getting at. The futility of the "looking pretty" aspect of life. The immobility that women feel in many ways. Men too. Tragically deals with the passage of time and the aging of a woman and the aging of love with her beau. Also look up that song the music box plays "I love You so - (The Merry Widow Waltz)". Really adds to the feel of the play. Really breaks your heart listening to that and reading it.
nabokov's "Lolita" has been called "the only convincing love story of our century."

uh...maybe. (I'm not up to unpacking the many complications of that "love" here.) and, at any rate, i'm convinced that the undying love between beckett's Winnie & Willie in "happy days" is far more powerful and convincing.

what starts as a kind of existential, staging conceit -- the loving couple is half-buried alive throughout the play -- Winnie & Willie's trials and tribulations are hilarious and terrifying and, yes, genuinely touching, even heart-breaking...often at the same time. they cope, they care, they carp and cajole and (verbally) caress their constrained ways through their days -- "happy days," indeed,