Arghya Jana Literature Guide

1.   'Some men a forward motion love. And I by backward steps would move'     Why does the poet long to travel back? Where does he want to go?                                                    Ans.   The poet is engrossed in material pursuits and he feels that he is in worldly fetters being oblivious of the pristine divine glory of childhood. So unlike other people he wants to move backwards instead of going forward. His heart longs for the innocence of childhood that was invested with the angelic goodness and celestial thought when he seems to be bowed down under the heavy pressure of sinfulness. So he wants to go back to his ‘first love’ i.e. God from whom he has been divorced long ago. He wants to break away from material ties to be united with the Almighty. 2.   'From whence the' enlightened spirit sees That shady city of palm trees'     Where does this line occur? Comment on the allusion.                                                 A

         A lot of controversy has risen since the publication of ‘waiting for Godot’. Critics have not been able to reach any kind of agreement about this play. Even Beckett himself did not offer much help to interpret the play. The chiet concern of this absurd drama is ‘waiting’ and ‘Godot’ which are ever puzzling. Throughout their lives, human beings always wait for something, and Godot simply represents the objective of their waiting — an event, a thing, a person, death. Beckett has thus depicted in this play a situation which has a general human application.          The source of the title of the play has aroused a greater controversy than anything else connected with it. An earlier version of the play was simply called ‘waiting’. Martin Esslin holds the view that the subject of the play is not Godot but waiting. There is a general agreement that Godot is of less importance in the play than waiting, but the source of the word Godot has excited much curiosity. Beckett himse