WAITING FOR GODOT – SAMUEL BECKETT

VLADIMIR ESTRAGON
(DIDI) (GOGO)

 Hat
 In his own thoughts – doesn’t
answer asked questions
 Mentions suicide from the top of
Eiffel tower – existential
 Urinary problem
 Mentions ‘thieves’
 “It’ll pass the time” – probably
life’s only motive.
 Doesn’t want to stop talking – gets
into the void of meaninglessness –
existential – talks to evade reality –
gets mad when Gogo doesn’t talk.
 Boot
 “Am I?” – Existential
 Always needs help
 Mentions Vladimir’s ‘waiting’ till
the last minute to pee
 “Repented what?” “Our being
born?” – Existential
 Dead sea makes him thirsty
 Sleeps to evade reality – gets mad
when Didi doesn’t let him sleep.

POZZO LUCKY

 Master  Slave
 Dominating  Submissive
 Material possessions 
 Linear time

 WAITING FOR GODOT – SAMUEL BECKETT

FROM THE ANNOTATIONS

Title Page
1. French Title vs English Title (‘Waiting’)
2. Interpretation of ‘Godot’: God, Balzac’s Godeau from Le Faiseur.
3. The title: American play – ‘Waiting for Lefty’, ‘Waiting for Nothing’
4. French didn’t call it a tragicomedy, English did.

Page 1
1. Few details
2. Country vs city
3. Could be anywhere yet nowhere
4. Tree – pastoral and religious
5. Evening – between day and night, period of transition
6. Identity fixation – the sameness – only finite number of events can take place in the
world – therefore it becomes repetitive.

Page 2
1. The element of possible homosexuality: “hand in hand”
2. Suicide
3. Reference to Bible – Christian ethos

Page 3
1. They are hinting towards the wait of the last judgement, the moment of salvation
2. Reference to the ‘thieves’ – one of the central tenets of Christianity – human beings
are essentially sinful – ‘Original Sin’ – ‘forbidden fruit’ – Jesus Christ ‘Saviour’ –
since they need to be saved.
3. The four evangelists’ story – only one speaks of the one thief being saved – Matthew,
Mark, John, Luke – only Luke mentions of the said incident – saving represents hope
but is interfered by doubt.
4. “reasonable percentage” – hope for salvation – salvation in terms of numbers
produces humour.
5. Being born in Christian mythology is sin – “Our being born?”

Page 4
1. The dead sea making Estragon thirsty, it can’t quench thirst – a hint that
Bible(religion) might not be the answer?
2. Holy book turned merely into a picture book.
3. All action including conversation is to merely pass the time.
4. “Our Saviour” “Our what?” – the questioning
Page 5
1. “only version they know” “people are bloody ignorant apes” – believe what is being
fed to them? Don’t question? Religion?
 WAITING FOR GODOT – SAMUEL BECKETT

Page 6
1. “We’re waiting for Godot” “Nothing to be done.” – people operate through habit in a
world devoid of hope.
2. The sound of the willow tree when wind hits resemble the sound of weeping – adds to
the element of pathos.
3. “it must be dead” “no more weeping” – meaning life is a valley of tears while death is
not – existential. It is life what brings the opportunity to be sad.
4. Waiting for Godot – akin to waiting for the second coming of Christ.

Page 7
1. No determination of time and place
2. Sameness of days – everyday feels the same
3. How is one place to be differentiated from the other if the setting is always a country
road.

Page 8
1. Wayfarers – Bible

Page 9
1. Bible: myth – men get an erection when hanged and where the seminal fluid falls,
mandrakes grow.
2. Suicide is also an escape from this existential crisis, an evasion.
3. Camus: to commit suicide was to surrender to the absurdity of our world, to give up
to its power.

Page 10
1. “nothing very definite” “a kind of prayer” – mockery of prayers.

Page 11
1. Silence – anxiety.
2. Estragon means to ask what is the role of human beings in this world?
3. All religions have us on our hands and knees.
4. What rights do we have as human beings?
5. The pose implies hopelessness at the meaninglessness of the world; defeat.

Page 12
1. “Are we tied?” – to any moral moorings, any religion, any supreme being, any duty,
any obligations?
2. As they think that someone is around (fear of the unknown) they get scared – do they
really want to meet Godot or do they just want to wait for him? Parallel to the human
predicament.
3. Biblical reference to the hope of salvation – human is conditioned into waiting for a
messiah – a saviour from outside.

Page 14
1. No use struggling/Nothing to do – have given up on trying, only waiting.
 WAITING FOR GODOT – SAMUEL BECKETT

2. Real fright upon hearing the cry is combined with comedy.

3. Pozzo and Lucky are LITERALLY tied together.
4. In this power equation, master is as much tied to the slave as the capitalist to the
labourer.
5. Hegel’s theory, hugely influential in the early 20th century – master/slave relationship
is necessary – the struggle for domination is what drives history and creates
movement – Pozzo and Lucky are in movement – something defines them and their
consciousness – and therefore they are different from Didi and Gogo.

Page 15
1. None of the two are aware about even the appearance of Godot or even his identity.
2. The need to dominate is what defines Pozzo’s being.
3. Unlike the first two, this one isn’t uncertain.
4. Made in God’s image – Christian belief.
5. Tramps don’t look like human beings to Pozzo.

Page 16 and 17
1. Pozzo is dominating over the others as evident from his posture, the way he eats, what
he eats.
2. He lives in linear time (six hours).