SECTION ONE

“ Waiting for Godot “

A Brief Biography of Samuel Beckett

Beckett is a famous writer who introduced the concept of absurdity, nothingness,
nihilism and meaninglessness of life in the art of drama. He corresponded to the
absurdity in the day today life of the common people. He believed that life is a circle,
from where it starts, it ends at the same point. There is no concept of religion, no
moral values, no concept of time and space in this life.

● Absurdity is a word that can be explained by reasoning, however the fault is a

familiar world that in the universe that is suddenly deprived of illusion, end of
light, man feels as stranger.
● He is in an irradiate exile because he is deprived of memories of lost homeland
as much as he lacks the hope of the Promised Land to come.
● This diversity between man and his life, actor and his sating truly constitutes
the feeling of Absurdity.

"Waiting for Godot" is an absurd play for many reasons :

1. Its plot is loose.
2. Its characters are also just mechanical puppets with their incoherent discussion.
3. Its theme is unexplained.
4. It is devoid of characterization and motivation along with the no result.
5. Characters are present but are not recognizable for whatever they do and
whatever they present is purposeless.
6. Its dialogue technique is concerned, it is purely absurd as there is no witty
repartee and pointed dialogue.
7. The action and theme is concerned, it reflects much about Absurd Theatre.

● The play was an exploration of a new form of drama which was categorized as
the ‘theatre of the absurd‘ by Martin Esslin.
● In his The Theatre of the Absurd he explains the distinction between
conventional plays and modern dramas by selected playwrights.
● He insists that The Theatre of the Absurd can be seen as the reflection of what
seems to be the attitude most genuinely representative of our own time.

In “ The Search for the Self “, Esslin discusses intriguing absurdist elements in various
plays, including Beckett‘s Waiting for Godot.
Nothing special happens in the play and we do not observe any significant change in
setting.
Though a change occurs but it is only that the tree has sprouted out four or five
leaves.
" Nothing happens, nobody comes ... nobody goes, it's awful! "

The beginning, middle and end of the play do not rise up to the level of a good play,
so absurd. Though its theme is logical and rational yet it lies in umbrage.

● "Waiting for Godot" can also be regarded as an absurd play because it is

different from "poetic theatre".
● Neither it makes a considerable use of dream and fantasy nor does it employ
conscious poetic language.
● The situation almost remains unchanged and an enigmatic vein runs
throughout the play. The mixture of comedy and near tragedy proves baffling.

Godot remains a mystery and curiosity still holds a sway. Here we know that their
endless waiting seems to be aimless.

What is Existentialism ?
It is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence
and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world.

It is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing
their essence or nature.

It is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through
free will, choice, and personal responsibility.

The belief is that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout
life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook.
An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible
without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.

◄ Existentialism takes into consideration the underlying concepts :

1. Human free will
2. Human nature is chosen through life choices .
3. A person is best when struggling against their individual nature, fighting for life.
 4. Decisions are not without stress and consequences .
5. There are things that are not rational .
6. Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial .
7. Society is unnatural and its traditional religious and secular rules are arbitrary.
8. Worldly desire is futile.

Existentialism is broadly defined in a variety of concepts and there can be no one

answer as to what it is, yet it does not support any of the following :
- wealth, pleasure, or honor make the good life
- social values and structure control the individual
- accept what is and that is enough in life
- science can and will make everything better
- people are basically good but ruined by society or external forces
- “ I want my way, now! “ or “ It is not my fault! “ mentality.

What is the Impact of Existentialism on Society ?

● Existentialistic ideas came out of a time in society when there was a deep sense
of despair following the Great Depression and World War II.
● This despair has been articulated by existentialist philosophers well into the
1970s and continues on to this day as a popular way of thinking and reasoning.

An existentialist could either be a religious moralist, agnostic relativist, or an amoral

atheist.

Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus are credited for their works and writings
about existentialism. Sartre is noted for bringing the most international attention to
existentialism in the 20th century.
Each agrees that human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying because of
suffering and losses that occur when considering the lack of perfection, power, and
control one has over their life. Even though they do agree that life is not optimally
satisfying, it nonetheless has meaning.

● Existentialism is the search and journey for true self and true personal meaning
in life.
● Existentialism then stresses that a person's judgment is the determining factor
for what is to be believed rather than by arbitrary religious or secular world
values.
Five themes of Existentialism :

1. Existence precedes essence.

What you are (your essence) is the result of your choices (your existence) rather than
the reverse. Essence is not destiny. You are what you make yourself to be.

2. Time is of the essence.

We are time-bound beings. Unlike measurable, ‘ clock‘ time, lived time is qualitative :
the ‘ not yet‘, the ‘already‘, and the ‘present‘ differ among themselves in meaning and
value.

3. Humanism .
Existentialism is a person-centered philosophy. Its focus is on the human individual‘s
pursuit of identity and meaning amidst the social and economic pressures of mass
society for superficiality and conformism.

4. Freedom / Responsibility .
Existentialism is a philosophy of freedom. Its basis is the fact that we can stand back
from our lives and reflect on what we have been doing. In this sense, we are always
‘more‘ than ourselves. But we are as responsible as we are free.

5. Ethical considerations are paramount .

Though each existentialist understands the ethical, as with ‘freedom‘, in his or her
own way, the underlying concern is to invite us to examine the authenticity of our
personal lives and of our society.

The Theater of the Absurd

It refers to a new form of drama after The Second World War. Playwrights of the
Theater of the Absurd reveal the conditions of human beings‘ existence in modern
society. Theater of the Absurd refers to a literary movement in drama popular
throughout European countries from the 1940s to approximately 1989.
Main Characteristics of the Theater of the Absurd

1. Anti-character

Traditional dramas Theater of the Absurd

- The characters are created with curious and grotesque - Characters are
personalities on the stages from the beginning to the shaped with
end. their own
personalities in
- The author specializes in shaping the characters with
common sense.
the sense of absurdity and tries to dig out their
hopelessness to life and society. - Their languages
and behaviors
- People who abandon the normal sense and behaviors should be
are completely shaped and described by the reasonable and
playwrights on the stages. easy to
understand.
- The character of the protagonist has special
personalities and nature. They sometimes talk to
themselves continually or repeatedly.

- Their words and sentences are interrupted or

disordered, it is difficult to understand the character‘s
words and behaviors.
- People regard their own personalities as a formal case

2. Anti-language

● Language is an important constituent of literary work. The use of language is

regarded as a criterion to evaluate a writer‘s style and ability.
Traditional dramas Theater of the Absurd
- language is usually used in - Language has no fixed or settled form and
a logical order. regularities.

- When someone asks some - The protagonists usually speak or talk in

questions, other people will
give their answers. No
matter whether the answers
are true or false, they must
obey a certain logical order.
disorder. What the character has said
sometimes is not the words that his
partner has asked or wanted to get.
Sometimes a character asks his partner
something, but the partner says another
thing that is irrelevant to what they are
talking about.

● This special feature has caused people to understand the Theater of the Absurd
with many difficulties. But the Theater of The absurd is still popular among
people because it reflects the darkness of reality in modern society.
 3. Anti-drama
Traditional dramas
- They are easy to
understand from its
contents and themes.
- Shakespeare and Bernard
Shaw are the representative
playwrights of traditional
drama in Britain.
- Plot is clear and the
contents are easy to grasp
for common people.
- The main characters often
are endowed with particular
and typical behavior and
personalities.
- Language in traditional
drama is usually simple
and suitable for common
sense.
Ex : though Shakespeare‘s plays
were written many years ago,
people can grasp their contents
and enjoy them easily when they
read them.
Theater of the Absurd
- It is difficult to understand from many
aspects.
- Beckett, Pinter and Albee belong to the
Theater of the Absurd.
- Though a lot of troubles and obstacles exist
for people to understand the themes and
language, many researchers and specialists
still try to explore it.
- The audience is confronted with characters
whose motivations and actions remain
largely incomprehensible.
- The more mysterious their actions and
nature are, the less humanistic the
characters become. It is more difficult for us
to understand the world from a normal
point of view.
- The audience and readers fail to identify
The characters in the play so it makes
people feel humoristic and funny.
- Theater of the Absurd transcends the
category of comedy and tragedy and
combines laughter with horror.
 4. Anti-plot

Traditional dramas Theater of the Absurd

- Traditional dramas - The plot is fractured and scattered.
are arranged in time, - Theater of the Absurd is surprising or obscure, and
place or logical order. most of the time it has no end or results. For
example, in Waiting for Godot, audience cannot
- We can easily guess guess the result of the play.
what the protagonist
would do according - From the beginning to the end of this play, we do
to their words and not know what they are waiting for and what they
sense. are talking about
- We cannot conclude that the Theater of the Absurd
- Sometimes the has no realistic essence because of its special plot.
author will give us
some hints to deduce - In Waiting for Godot, we cannot get any essence
the plot. You can and theme in it when we read it for the first time.
guess the end of the In fact, emptiness in the characters‟ hearts is the
drama. essence of the play.

- Nothingness is the essence. People are searching

for their existence in modern society but in vain.
- Thus anti-plot is an important feature of the
Theater of the Absurd .

Playwrights often associated with the Theater of the Absurd

- Samuel Beckett ‘s contribution to this particular genre ( Theater of the Absurd )

allows us to refer to him as the grand master, or father, of the genre.

- The playwrights most often associated with the movement are Samuel Beckett,
Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov. The early plays of Edward
Albee and Harold Pinter fit into this classification.

- Early critics referred to the Theater of the Absurd as a theater in transition,

meaning that it was to lead to something different.

- Every play in the Theater of the Absurd movement mirrors the chaos and basic
disorientation of modern man.
Unusual Stylistic Features in Waiting for Godot
▪ Juxtaposition of brief situations
▪ Vladimir’s formal language (highly poetic and elaborate)
▪ Rapid statements that echo and contradict each others
▪ Effective use of silence and pauses
▪ Symbolic images and objects ( i.e. hat, boot, tree, Godot)
▪ Repetitious style (the two acts seem to be part of an endless series)

● No definite conclusion or resolution can ever be offered to Waiting for Godot

because the play is essentially circular and repetitive in nature.

- A traditional play, in contrast, has an introduction of the characters and the

exposition; then, there is a statement of the problem of the play in relationship
to its settings and characters.

- The characters are developed, and gradually we come to see the dramatist's
world view; the play then rises to a climax, and there is a conclusion. This type
of development is called a linear development.

- In Waiting for Godot, we never know where the play takes place, except that it is
set on "a country road."

- In the plays of the Theater of the Absurd, the structure is often exactly the
opposite. We have, instead, a circular structure, and most aspects of this drama
support this circular structure in one way or another.

- The setting is the same, and the time is the same in both acts. Each act begins
early in the morning, just as the tramps are awakening, and both acts close
with the moon having risen.

- The action takes place in exactly the same landscape — a lonely, isolated road
with one single tree.
Characterization

Vladimir
● In any comic or burlesque act, there are two characters, traditionally known as
the "straight man" and the "fall guy." Vladimir would be the equivalent of the
straight man.
● He is the one who reminds Estragon that they must wait for Godot.

● All implications suggest that Vladimir knows more about Godot than does
Estragon, who tells us that he has never even seen Godot and thus has no idea
what Godot looks like.
● Vladimir is the one who often sees religious or philosophical implications in
their discussions of events, and he interprets their actions in religious terms.
Ex : he is concerned about the religious implications in such stories as the two thieves
(two tramps) who were crucified on either side of Jesus .

● Vladimir also looks after their physical needs. He helps Estragon with his boots,
and, also, he looks after and rations their meager meals of turnips, carrots, and
radishes, and, in general, he tends to be the manager of the two.

Estragon
● In contrast, Estragon is concerned mainly with more mundane matters.
● He remembers that he was beaten, but he sees no philosophical significance in
the beating. He is willing to beg for money from a stranger (Pozzo), and he eats
Pozzo's discarded chicken bones with no shame.
● Estragon, then, is the more basic of the two. He is not concerned with either
religious or philosophical matters.
● Estragon's basic nature is illustrated in Act II when he shows so little interest in
Pozzo and Lucky that he falls asleep. He sleeps through the entire scene
between Vladimir and the Boy Messenger.

● Estragon, however, is dependent upon Vladimir, and essentially he performs

what Vladimir tells him to do.
Ex : Vladimir looks after Estragon's boots, he rations out the carrots, turnips, and
radishes, he comforts Estragon's pain, and he reminds Estragon of their need to wait
for Godot.
 ● Estragon is the less intelligent one; he has to have everything explained to him,
and he is so bewildered by life that he has to have someone to look after him.

Pozzo
● Pozzo appears on stage after the appearance of Lucky. They are tied together by
a long rope; thus, their destinies are fixed together in the same way that Pozzo
might be a mother figure.
● Everything about Pozzo resembles our image of the circus ringmaster.

● Pozzo constantly calls Lucky by animal terms or names. Basically, Pozzo

commands and Lucky obeys.
● In the first act, Pozzo is immediately seen in terms of this authoritarian figure.
He lords over the others, and he is decisive, powerful, and confident.
When he arrives on the scene and sees Vladimir and Estragon, he recognizes them as
human, but as inferior beings; then he acknowledges that there is a human likeness.

● Pozzo's superiority is also seen in the manner in which he eats the chicken, then
casts the bones to Lucky with an air of complete omnipotence.

● Pozzo is now blind; he cannot find his way alone. Rather than driving Lucky as
he did earlier, he is now pathetically dragged along by Lucky.

Lucky
● Lucky is the obvious antithesis of Pozzo. At one point, Pozzo maintains that
Lucky's entire existence is based upon pleasing him.

● Given Lucky's state of existence, his very name "Lucky" is ironic, especially since
Vladimir observes that even "old dogs have more dignity."

● All of Lucky's actions seem unpredictable. In Act I, when Estragon attempts to

help him, Lucky becomes violent and kicks him on the leg.

● Lucky seems to be more animal than human, and his very existence in the
drama is a parody of human existence. In Act II, when he arrives completely
dumb, it is only a fitting extension of his condition in Act I, where his speech was
virtually incomprehensible. Now he makes no attempt to utter any sound at all.
The Concept of Time in Waiting for Godot

● Waiting for Godot is a story of ‘time‘ written in the form of ‘absurd‘, set during
two consecutive days. The two main characters are tramps awaiting Godot‘s
arrival.
● Nevertheless, Godot‘s continual absence wastes time in the lives of the tramps
by making them living puppets in the world of the absurd.

● The tramps' excitement to meet the mysterious Godot may be a representation

of man‘s desire to fill the time between birth and death with something
meaningful.
● This period of time often could be a continuation of endless hope which
connects the beginning, birth, to the end, death. In Waiting for Godot it seems
that the tramps‘ hope is Godot.

● However, if they did not have the hope of meeting Godot they may already have
taken the action of suicide as Angela Hotaling points out ―The only options
that seems available to the men are waiting or suicide.

● The suggestion of suicide is tragic and yet the audience receives it as a comic
one.

Camus‘ concept of philosophical suicide is when by claiming that life is meaningless,

one attempts to find meaning amidst the meaninglessness.

The Concept of Space/place in Waiting for Godot

● In Waiting for Godot a space without identification of its background, either
materially or culturally. This allows the audience to focus on the dialogue itself
rather than the scenery.

● The tree is the only object that exists in the middle of emptiness. The first
astonishing absurdist element, the tree, seems struggling to survive with the
tramps, and functions as everything that the tramps have except the clothing
that they are wearing. The tramps‘ attention to the tree is repeated in the play.
● The tree may symbolize many possibilities, such as death, survival, change, and
life. The tree which has no leaves or fruit could be a representation of
lifelessness and death, although it is surviving throughout the harsh
circumstances.
 ● The tree slowly begins to change, growing leaves, and perhaps regaining life.
One of the symbolic meanings of the tree is ―The appearance of death in the
winter- losing their leaves. This aspect makes the tree a symbol of resurrection.
● The tree could symbolize the connection between life and death. In the play this
idea reflects the tramps who struggle between waiting and suicide, often
considering the idea of suicide, but they come back to the same point to wait.

● The space in the play can also be seen as eternity. It could be interpreted in a
number of ways. It could be hell; a reflection of the miserable situation the
tramps are in. It could be limbo; waiting for Godot or it could be heaven.
● Whatever the space happens to be, whether it is either visible or invisible, seems
absurd in both aspects.

Uncertainty in Waiting for Godot

● The tramps' lack of knowledge about everything seems to be a metaphor for
mankind‘s lack of basic understanding of the universe and life itself.

● Another important issue in the play is the characters‘ names. A person‘s name is
an important signifier of his existence, but the audience‘s perception of the
tramps is confused since they go by many names given to them by different
people.

● The tramps go by names including Vladimir, Didi, Albert, Estragon, Gogo and
Adam.
● There are no two people who call them the same name, as Estragon calls
Vladimir, Didi, the boy calls him Mr. Albert , and Vladimir calls Estragon Gogo,
but Estragon introduces himself to Pozzo as Adam.

● The entire plot flows with the hope of this mysterious character‘s arrival.

● Critics have suggested that Godot is happiness, eternal life, love, death, silence,
hope, time, God and many other things. Indeed, it seems Godot is everything, at
the same time he is nothing.
● Beckett has created the entire plot of the play based on the themes of unknown
and uncertainty.
 ● The play provides the idea that whatever is certain in this moment may turn out
to be uncertain in the next moment, and as Estragon insists ―No, nothing is
certain .

● In act one Pozzo and Lucky were healthy, but in act two, the following day, Pozzo
has become blind and Lucky dumb. Pozzo, the master, was ―rich, powerful, and
certain of himself, the day before, but the following day he is as deflated as a
balloon without air.

Paradoxical situations in the play (confusion)

▪ Vladimir as mind and Estragon as body
▪ Pozzo as oppressor and Lucky as oppressed
▪ Abrupt change of their physical conditions
▪ Lucky’s incoherent tirade contrasts with Vladimir’s poetic style
▪ Godot as kind to the boy but he beats his brother, the sheppard

Waiting for Godot as a Postmodern play

▪ Structure / shape / form (highly simplified form).
▪ Theme (alienation- pessimism- lack of communication)
▪ Simple action
▪ Simple location (setting)
▪ Time duration
▪ Number of characters (7)
▪ No confidence in language (conversation doesn’t lead anywhere)
▪ No confidence in memory (p.84)