Abstract
Language is an important element of literature, especially of drama. Compared with the traditional playwrights, Samuel Beckett, the founder of the school of the theatre of the absurd, opens up a new prospect for dramatic language.
Waiting for Godot is Beckett’s masterpiece whose language pattern has a strong poetic quality. When dealing with the dialogue, Beckett uses rhyme and alliteration which are common to be seen in poetry. The brief, parallel and symmetric sentence structure in the play endows the play with several features of poetry. What’s more important, lyricism of the language has taken the place of its logicality. Therefore, the characters in the play are enable to express their feeling more timely and freely.
As an absurd play, Waiting for Godot prevails with illogicality and absurdity which perfectly conveys the impossibility of people’s communication. The repetition of the same words, phrases and paragraphs make the language long-winded and meaningless; the excessive use of “pause” and “silence” make the language irrelevant and broken. Thanks to the wordy and meaningless language, Beckett can portrays realistically man’s mental condition— disorder and emptiness.
As a result, the contrast between the beauty of its language form and the absurdity of its language content brings about a sharp sarcasm, implying that in an irrational society, man has lost his essence as a man and language is no longer a communication tool.
Key Words: Godot; Beckett; poetic quality; absurdity
摘 要
文學的第1要素是語言。對於視覺和聽覺密切結合的戲劇藝術而言， 語言更是最主要、最直接的表現手段。與傳統的戲劇作家相比，愛爾蘭劇作家、荒誕派戲劇藝術的主要奠基人貝克特為戲劇語言開闢了1方新的天地。特別是在其代表作《等待戈多》中，貝克特對語言的獨創性運用使該作品別具魅力。
在語言形式上，《等待戈多》具有明顯的詩歌化傾向。貝克特在處理劇中對白時，採用了尾韻、頭韻、以及半諧音等詩歌中常見的修辭手法以增強語言的詩歌化傾向而獲得1種音樂感。另外《等待戈多》對白中，句子結構簡短對稱，聲音的對仗和意義的排偶使對白頗具幾分詩的`形式。 更為重要的是，貝克特經常讓劇中的人物以詩化的語言抒情，以語言的抒情性代替語言的邏輯性。同時，在其抒情性的語言中，構築出形象而生動的意象，蘊含著無限的詩意。
在語言內容上，《等待戈多》的對白消除了相應的邏輯性，從而也就消解了人與人相互交流的可能性。而經常重複的相同或相近的詞、句或段落，使人物語言羅嗦不堪，直喻出作品的主題。劇中停頓、沉默的頻繁使用使劇作節奏拖沓，人物語言支離破碎，然而人物吞吞吐吐，猶豫遲疑的語言正淋漓盡致的表現了他們混亂的思想狀態和空洞的思想內涵。
這樣，語言形式上的美感與語言內容上的荒誕，形成了強烈的反諷意味， 暗寓了在1個非理性化的社會裡，人失去作為人的本質，語言也失去了其原有效用，人類社會外在形式上的進步、發展與社會實質上的墮落形成了強烈的對比。
關鍵詞：戈多；貝克特；詩化；荒誕
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