Declare Books Toward Happy Days

Original Title:	Happy Days
ISBN:	0571066534 (ISBN13: 9780571066537)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Winnie, Willie
Literary Awards:	Obie for Best Foreign Play (1962)

Happy Days Paperback | Pages: 48 pages

Describe Based On Books Happy Days

Title	:	Happy Days
Author	:	Samuel Beckett
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 48 pages
Published	:	November 30th 1998 by Faber & Faber (first published 1961)
Categories	:	Plays. Drama. Theatre. Classics. Fiction. European Literature. Irish Literature

Commentary As Books Happy Days

I still remember the first time I ever got to read a play, it was Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, of which I thought was only OK, not because it wasn't any good, but because I so wanted to see it performed, reading any play isn't going to be anywhere near as good as seeing it with one's own eyes up on the stage. I said to myself I will never read another play again so help me God. However, over time, I asked myself the question - realistically, how many plays am I ever going to see? I've seen a few pretty amateurish productions, but the chances are most of the great plays I will simply never get to witness. So then, the next best thing is to read them, that's a no brainer. Sixty-five plays I have later, and along comes Beckett's Happy Days.

I knew he had his roots in creating oddly absurd, existential and avant-garde theatre from reading a couple of his other plays, but nothing prepared me for just how engaging Happy Days would turn out to be. The play tells the story of Winnie – a lonely, desolate, compulsive talker, who is stuck for unknown reasons up to her waist in a mound of earth, whilst her husband, Willie, an almost muted hermit, remains pretty much hidden. Each day begins the same as any any other, triggered by the strident sound of a bell. Winnie then begins her routine in a very meticulous and exact way. Cleaning herself, checking her belongings, speaking aloud to Willie and herself, enduring the baking hot sun. This behaviour is moulded throughout with a sense of tragicomedy, but it's also somewhat mind-bending. Things carry on this way until act number 2, where Winnie is now buried up to her neck.

Beckett's play is largely thought to be about marriage, and the title ‘Happy Days’ is very much an ironic label. Reading the play I found a number of other themes and metaphors that could easily be applied. Considering the main character is physically stuck the whole time, there is actually a great deal of liveliness. Indeed, Beckett’s stage directions are so frequent and so prescriptive, that Winnie’s actions are just as important as her words.

Beckett gets the thumbs up from me. Happy Days!.

Rating Based On Books Happy Days

Ratings: 3.89 From 5236 Users | 169 Reviews

Rate Based On Books Happy Days

Wow, an optimistic Beckett play!Er...well....not too far off from that, I guess. I didn't like this one as much as his others, but I'm not sure I can put a finger on why. Perhaps I read it poorly. I recall I felt similarly about Godot, the first time through.It just didn't strike me in any particular way, and I could see it falling victim to overacting very easily. Not much stuck to me about it. Quite honestly, I should probably dock the star rating a bit, because I went in expecting better and

WINNIE What would you say, Willie, speaking of your hair, them or it? (Pause.) The hair on your head, I mean. (Pause. Turning a little further) The hair on your head, Willie, what would you say speaking of the hair on your head, them or it?Long pause.WILLIE It.WINNIE (turning back front, front). Oh you are going to talk to me today, this is going to be a happy day! (Pause. Joy off.) Another happy day.

4/5stars

I had never read anything by Beckett before. I do not usually dedicate that much time to reading plays, actually. What led me to Happy Days? I was looking for Tennessee Williams and Beckett was the one who showed up. Completely different styles, definitely. Thematically speaking though? Not so sure.A reflection on the human condition, I would call it. Odd, yes, but as honest as it gets. The writing is rather frenetic, and also frenetically paused. Winnie seems to fear silence, for it is sound

She decays into sands of time caught, struck in memories of happy days of past and the hopeless hope of a future that would resemble more to the past than the present; her hopes are of a really old bird who can no longer fly or even if it could fly it won't enjoy as much as it once did - and yet this bird looks up to skies and hopes; hopes like her too down-to-earth husband doesn't. Her surroundings like her body are just ruins of happy days of past, her hope is as depressing as her husband's

Someone once told me, You dont fuck with Beckett. I agree. You dont. You cant. He is irrefutably one of the great geniuses of the Twentieth century. His words have become legend. Waiting for Godot has become the vision of an entire age. Endgame bashes our fears of our eventual ends in our faces. Becketts view of life, so effectively conveyed in his sometimes painfully absurd plays and writings, is one that pulled at the heartstrings of society when they were first published and performed and

A very sobering tale on the meaninglessness of life! I think that it's a very deep play that really requires punctuational respect. That is, if it says "Pause", please pause! Because the emotion is only evoked if the play is read correctly or acted correctly.I like how it really intensifies emotions of our seeming meaningless lives... i.e. when one looks back in a million years, every thing we ever did do (and when we do anything in life, we do it seriously and invest a great deal of care!) will