Review+of+Samuel+Beckett's+play+'Breath'

===As part of course on Modernist Literature, students of Post Graduate Department of English, Bhavnagar University, studied 'The Absurd Theater'. They were supposed to study Harold Pinter's 'The Birthday Party' and Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'. The students also studies the smallest play ever written by Samuel Beckett. It was 'Breath' - a 30 seconds play without any dialogue. The students were supposed to share their review of the play through email-online-discussion. Here, on this page, all those reviews of the students are put together for reading and re-reviewing the interpretations of the play. === > ===Even there are some videos of thirty two seconds of this play. I have watched two videos. In the first video @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nccZRUpFx7M&NR=1, we can listen the crying of a child, as it suggests that Life itself has become absurd just like garbage. The appearance of darkness and then suddenly the light we see during this video, perhaps, it suggests that whatever our life has become, there is at least one ray of hope. Even in his another play “Waiting for Godot” Samuel Beckett has raised a line of hope through the character of Godot. === > ===There is also another video @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1ZON66BbB0, which symbolizes the same aspects with some addition of the absurdity to life, as we can sense that one person inhales very loudly and that person, whom we don’t see, holds his breath for five seconds and then he exhales very loudly. And it (the video) ends there. Perhaps it suggests that humanity is a pile of disorganized rubbish. And this rubbish (humanity) lying on a stage (life) is useless and idle. === > === After reading and watching “Breath”, a 32nd play, we come to the conclusion that neither Life nor Money is at the center but absurdity or nothingness. === > ===“Avant-garde (a French military metaphor for ‘advance guard’) was a small self conscious group of artist who deliberately undertake “to make it new””. === > ===So if we look at the play “Breath” in this way, we find that it is written to shock the sensibilities of the conscience by breaking up the long established rules of play construction. The brevity of the play can be compared to the transient nature of life. The first cry can be symbolized as the Birth and the last as the Death. In between the sound of inhalation and exhalation symbolize the way we pass our life in worthless stuff. The last world goes to the critic who comments, === > ===“Perhaps Beckett in this play is saying: Beware, have no allusion, life is only a breath between the birth cry and the death cry.” === > ===Though the play is very short in nature, and the movie is compact, the message is deep. Breath is a journey from life to death and again life. It is an unexceptional play because generally we've seen long plays with acts. In the movie we heard breath, then the trash of life is being displayed, a birth-cry, again breath sound with colors and in a few seconds the game is over. === > ===The play has a great deal of messages to convey such as symbols used in the movie: unplugged monitors, detached keyboards, hospital dispensaries and Swastika are pretty meaningfully arranged and displayed in the movie. It shows the futility of life. === > ==="I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.” Samuel Beckett === Divorced to traditional plays, unconventional, novel, exceptionally original, highly symbolic, with no characters, no dialogues and yet communicating THE IDEA OF EXISTENTIALISM, Breath, a Thirty Seconds Play by Beckett is a BREATH STEALING PLAY. In my opinion, it tries to prove that the inhaling and exhaling sound is the only sign that a human being is a living being also. The protagonist here is the SETTING, which is highly similar to that of the WASTELAND wherein modern man is surrounded by LIFELESS THINGS. The human cry in the midst of all these things is, I think, A CRY OF ESCAPISM. It is as if ADAM, after his first fall on the earth is LAMENTING and asking for his REUNION WITH THE ALMIGHTY. Samuel Beckett is an artist of great originality and purity who has always refused to make any compromise at all to his public. Hence he has got all-inclusive fame for his unconventional plays. It is meaningless to look for a logical, universal “message” behind Beckett’s work however he states that in his own innovative style. Man’s identity, his limitations, and his place in the universe are at issue in his plays. He has written plays without actors and acts without words. One of the experimental the play called Breath lasts precisely thirty-five seconds without actors or words. Beckett has presented an experience, not an argument, truth not a statement to which we can respond individually. Maybe Beckett in this play is saying: “LIFE IS ONLY BREATH BETWEEN THE BIRTH-CRY AND THE DEATH-CRY.” > ===Throughout his life human strives for the futile revolt against existence and the painful rebellion against three necessities- the miserable situation of being BORN, the hard necessity of LIVING and the sharp necessity of DYING. From the beginning, in his plays, Beckett has created characters who wrestle with such situation as if they had been at their last gasp and Breath is, literally, that last gasp. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">autonomy of our Being; it sustains our life and formulates our === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">thoughts and actions. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Breath,the frist thing which we get when we born and the same === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">thing is with us when we die. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">this play by Beckett, gives us some clear-cut ideas about the === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">ups and downs of life. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Here,he shows many things including garbeg,useless monitar and === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">key-board which were dis-connected and at the end he show Swastika, === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">which gives some deep meaning of life.. === <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Breathe is one of the shortest play of only 30 or 35 seconds, by Samuel Backett. The play has no dialogues, no characters, no plot construction, not much action but the most important action of breathing. The curtain rises and there is a heap of trash on the stage which holds a dim light for about five seconds and there is a loud sound of inhaling and exhaling, an infant crying only for ten seconds or so and again the dim light on the junk. That’s it all about as a course of action. Backett’s plays are always experimental, innovative and therefore highly complex to understand. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">In Breath he shows the life of modern people as rotting between rubbish. Not only the things but ideas, acts, morality, philosophy, spirituality everything is but a heap of trash. He also shows the brevity of life, when no one has got time to enjoy the life to its full extent. It is satire on absurdity of human existence. A critic has observed that, “What Beckett is saying in this 30-second time frame is this: humanity is a breathing heap of disorganized rubbish. Humanity has potential. All of the rubbish on the stage at one time had great potential. But the rubbish (humanity) neglected to use its potential. And now it’s rubbish laying on a stage, idle and useless. It is absurd.” <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">After watching and reading a play Breath, written by Samuel Beckett, I found out that someone has taken birth at a sterile place where everything is rubbish and unusual. Words like ‘faint light’, ‘faint brief cry’, ‘miscellaneous’, ‘rubbish’, ‘silence’, ‘expiration’, ‘scattered’, ‘switching off; and 'synchronized light’ and at last ‘breath’ then ‘maximum light’ to intensify the cry of the child, have not positive connotations. The continuous cry of the child symbolizes the cry of the human being of the modern period. Flash of the light is repeated that means the child has to tolerate the vicissitude of life by light and darkness as binary oppositions. The breath that is heard may be of its mother who may come to this dirty place and give it a birth. ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> In breathing and crying, first one is more prominent. When breathing is stopped, crying begins. If crying stops, breathing starts. There can be symbolically three characters in the drama. First, a child, second, a mother and third, an amalgam of various things like rubbish and dim and strong light. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">In this play there are some worst electrical parts shown in the movie video. According to me, a one part of electrical device KEYBOARD symbolically telling us that, how we can write anything on screen same as life depend upon us that how we are also writing in our page of life, and we make it our life in a good and bed way. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">CPU is also one of the parts of electrical devices. CPU is catching all the data from key board and makes it in result same as we can capture our life of data and data is turn into action than we found our result. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">MONITOR, we can go from one direction to another direction same as our hands and legs are directly attach to mind. And we can go in good or bad direction. === > ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">This all kind of symbols tells us that how we can make our life. Life has a full of believable and unbelievable things to come, if we want to make our life than we have to turn all the bad things into good. === ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The word Breath is closely connected to us and with Author also.Breathis given by God and it has been taken by God when our death day come.After showing the clip on the play of Becket’s ‘Breath’.I showed many things which was set up on the table like paper,moniter,keyboard,glucose bottle,ashtray and cigarette.Through this Becket gives the picture of our life that now a days in the era of technology,people lives very bed life.Everybody dependes on the technology,they never used their mind.This thing was presented by the moniter and key-board which was not connected.In this era,people have so many bad habit like smoking.Whenever we say anything about their bad habit that it is very harmful for their life.They answeredus that no…..it is very energetic,it is good,I never live without it.So for them all those things are like the God.This wasvery symbolically picturised through the ‘SWASTIK’ which was made by cigarette. ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Patel Payal: Before reading “Breath” as a thirty second play, no one would believe that it is only in seconds rather than minutes. No characters, no dialogues except a pile of garbage. This is very compact and meaningful 32nd play I have ever read in my life. ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Bhagirath Khuman:"Samuel Beckett was an avant- garde playwright. To quote M. H Abrams, ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Parth Bhatt: Birth, Life and Death all are incomplete without Breath. We born and we first breathe. In every walk of Life, breath is our constant companion. We can’t avoid breath even if we want to. At last, we leave breath or breath leaves us! ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Maulik Bhatt: ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Trivedi Pooja: ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Deepika Kuvadiya: Since the day of birth to the day of death, our breathing marks the ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Reema Kunvarani: ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Mahesh Dholiya: ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Namrata Vyas: How oxygen is important for us, same as breath is more important for the animal and human animal. when the birth of world have organized first thing is come that is “ water” and “ breath” of living creature and than how human culture come out day by day and than human mind is developing from that time. People are making all small and big things for their life. Some people use things carefully and somewhere throw all things. They don’t take care of such important things. In life there are so many things that come and go, we come across from Happiness and unhappiness moments. ===
 * 1) ===<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Darshangi Andharia: ===

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> Through the video clip of ‘BREATH’ I think that we are the puppet of the ‘GOD’.

 * 1) ===Nargis Saiyad: Both the videos of ’ Breath ’ were very nice videos. In both the videos, the crying of a baby was heard from the rubbish. In one video, there was a ‘swastik’ made of cigarattes which was symbolic.===
 * 2) ===Jindagi Rathod : "It is a very good video. I can feel the crying of baby from rubbish and computer, keyboards also saw that in rubbish."===