Voicu Stefan Cristian

Actorie Anul II Grupa C

Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett

Waiting for Godot‚ is a conventional and remarkable play that is written

by Irish author Samuel Beckett. The play Waiting for Godot is part of theater of
absurd and it is written during modernism. The play consists of conversations
between Vladimir and Estragon, who are waiting for the arrival of the
mysterious Godot, who continually sends word that he will appear but who
never does. They encounter Lucky and Pozzo, they discuss their miseries and
their lots in life, they consider hanging themselves, and yet they wait. Often
perceived as being tramps, Vladimir and Estragon are a pair of human beings
who do not know why they were put on earth, they make
the tenuous assumption that there must be some point to their existence, and
they look to Godot for enlightenment. Because they hold out hope for meaning
and direction, they acquire a kind of nobility that enables them to rise above
their futile existence.
First of all, some information about the author. The language of the play is
intimately connected to Beckett’s own background in language studies and
literary influences. Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland, and took his bachelor’s
degree in French and Italian at Trinity College. After teaching English in Paris
for two years, he returned to Trinity to teach and complete his master’s degree in
French. Next, he traveled in England and on the Continent, and he wrote poems,
short stories, and novels in English. He at last settled permanently in Paris,
except for a brief hiatus during World War II, and began writing in French in the
late 1940’s. Waiting for Godot was originally written in French and then
translated into English by Beckett himself. The play is full of verbal and
linguistic play, it is the work of a master of words and wordplay.
Waiting for Godot is centred around two characters, Vladimr and
Estragon, waiting on a country road for the elusive Godot. While they wait, they
pass the time with a series of repetitive activities. Soon, Pozzo and Lucky
appear. The interaction between the four characters provides a brief distraction
for Vladimir and Estragon before Pozzo and Lucky continue their way. A
messenger then arrives to let them know that Godot will not be coming.
The two acts of the play follow exact the same structure, though the
second act is slightly shorter. It is a play in which famously “nothing happens,
twice ,, Estragon: Nothing to be done / Vladimir: I,m beginning to come round
to that opinion ,, It is classed as a tragicomedy in two acts. It earns this
classification through the intermixing of the tragedy of the characters’ existential
crises with the vaudevillian elements of physical humour and the form of the
‘double act’. The tragedy and the comedy are inextricable, each adding to the
other.
From the very start of the play we become aware of the companionship of
Vladimir and Estragon. As the play opens we witness Estragon sitting alone
upon a rock, trying to remove his boot and repeatedly failing to do so. As
Vladimir enters and replies to Estragon’s spoken thoughts, as if he had been
present all along, we see their friendship for the first time. We are aware that the
two characters have been separated overnight, yet at this early point within the
play we are unaware as to how they know each other and most importantly how
long they have known each other. Now that Vladimir is present Estragon’s shoe
slips off with effortlessness, almost as if to say that he cannot remove it without
the company of Vladimir. The ease in which they are reunited gives us, as an
audience, an insight, and allows us to become aware of the fact that we are not
witnessing two strangers on stage, we are witnessing two friends. This opening
is continued as Vladimir states to Estragon ‘I’m glad to see you back. I thought
you were gone forever. This direct line implies that by Estragon leaving it would
create a sense of sadness for Vladimir, and the word ‘glad’ reinforces any doubts
that the audience have at this point as to whether or not they share a
companionship in one another.
In Waiting for Godot, our sense of linear or progressive time is
continually disrupted. Although the play has a distinct chronological structure
with events occurring sequentially, the representations of time within the
narrative break this continuity. Act Two begins ‘Next day. Same time. Same
place,’ yet the main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, cannot be certain that
this is the case. Their failures of memory begin to call into question the authority
of the playwright’s assertions, and confuse our sense of time and place
Vladimir and Estragon are both characters that are forced to live in a
inimical world bearing no material values just the company of one another to
pass the time, so it is no wonder that they fight and bicker at times and they
often threaten that ‘maybe they are better off apart’. However, when the idea of
suicide faces them they cannot go ahead with it, they make false statements yet
as the day draws to an end they are still by one another’s side. As Vladimir
answers Estragon’s want to hang themselves with ‘I remain in the dark’,
Vladimir stresses his concerns to the options surrounding the outcome of the
situation, what if he goes first? What if Estragon hangs himself and then the
bough breaks as Vladimir is about to do so, then he is left alone and, in some
senses, in the dark. The isolation of being alone for Vladimir would be a more
fatal outcome than Estragon’s, that of death. Beckett’s play becomes a
compassionate metaphor for the human predicament: confronted by a senseless
world, the least we can hope for is the solace of companionship.’ Vladimir and
Estragon are not characters looking for friendship, although at times throughout
the play we see this blossoming and then they have another argument and they
wish to be anywhere but in each other’s company.
Waiting for Godot’ is exploring human relationships and the play seems
to reflect the friendships in society today; Beckett’s play touches everyone. Yet
being together within a static place for ‘fifty years perhaps’ has allowed for the
two characters to create such a friendship, of being there for someone when they
need you most. Vladimir’s character shows this as he places his coat over the
shoulders of a sleeping Estragon, and at the same time they have created a
companionship that has meant that these two characters are really to be thought
of as pieces of one personality, they fit together as one. When they reach the
points in life where they feel ‘I can’t go on like this’ the irony of Beckett’s play
is that they do. ‘And there is something inexpressibly moving about the final
image of their shared immobility as they confront an endless series of futile
tomorrows,’ together, as companions.
Many of the critical responses to Beckett’s works note the importance of
philosophical ideas to their construction. Beckett’s interest in the state of human
existence, as evidenced in Waiting for Godot, renders a basic understanding of
some key philosophical ideas necessary.
What is Waiting for Godot about? There are any number of answers, it is
about nothing, it is about waiting, it is about a life of meaningless repetition until
death, it is about the moments of joy and comedy that break up a life of
otherwise meaningless repetition until death, it is an exploration of Beckett’s
view of religion, it is about the art of theatre itself.
In conclusion the comedy present in Waiting for Godot turns into tragedy
at the instance the audience understands the helplessness of Vladimir and
Estragon. Unhappiness is one of the funniest things we as humans see, but at the
same time, it is despairing. The way Pozzo treats Lucky is hilarious, to both the
reader and audience. Lucky is constantly jerked around by his rope and this
exaggerated action creates humour, but at the same time, we overlook the
cruelty that is so obviously implied. It is tragic how we so readily accepted this
treatment, and as the play continues, laugh at it even more. This signifies a part
of Beckett’s view of human nature, that it is not until it becomes personal do we
start caring about the tragic tones and implications.