GROUP: 01

Wajiha Waheed
Maria Rasheed
Laraib Jabeen
Mahrukh Abbas
Jaweriya Farooq

d To: Mam Mansoora

Sameul
Backett
 Major Characters (Vladimir)

• Estragon calls him Didi, and the boy adresses him as Mr  Albert

.He seems to be the more responsible and mature of the two
main characters.

• Like Estragon, he wears slightly oversized boots and a bowler

hat, in other words he seems a bum like Estragon, but retains a
memory of most events.

• Vladimir , although possessing a better memory, distrusts what

he remembers .And since Vladimir cannot rely on Estragon tore
mind him of things, he too exists in a state of forgetfulness.

• He is the one who makes Estragon wait with him for

Mr.Godot’s imminent arrival throughout the play.
•Vladimir is more hopeful, than Estragon. He represents a man of the mind, in
Freudian terms, the ego. He has been compared to the intellect.

•Vladimir is a somewhat philosophical tramp, spending a lot of time thinking

about the state of his life in general.

•He is usually committed to waiting for Godot , and constantly reminds Estragon

that they must wait rather than kill themselves or move on.

•He likes to talk about the past, and has vague recollections about Bible stories
which he periodically shares; he enjoys good conversation and becomes
frustrated with Estragon when he does not keep up with him.

•At times, he displays some pride, such as when he does not want Estragon to beg
a bone from Pozzo. Estragon looks to him for intellectual guidance.
 • During the play Vladimir attempts to

n very quickto
protect and take care of Estragon
and feels that this duty and
responsibility defines
 their relationship.

d.
• Vladimir is often very quick
to change his mind.
 Estragon (GoGo)
• Vladimir calls him Gogo. He is a bum with a sore foot
( accompanied by Vladimir often referred to as ‘tramps’) and
sleeps in a ditch where he is beaten each night.
• He wears boots and a bowler hat.
• He is obsessed with his needs, his health and his hunger.

• He has no memory beyond what is immediately said to him,

and relies on Vladimir to remember for him.

• Estragon is impatient and constantly wants to leave Vladimir,

but is restrained from leaving by the fact that he needs
Vladimir. It is Estragon's idea for the bums to pass their time
by hanging themselves. Estragon has been compared to a body
without an intellect, which therefore needs Vladimir to provide
the intellect
•In Freudian terms, Vladimir and Estragon represent
the divide of self, Vladimir as the ego and Estragon as
Id. Estragon may have been a poet, but now only
quotes.

•Since Estragon cannot remember anything, he needs

Vladimir to tell him his history.

•Estragon also serves as a reminder for  Vladimir all

of the things they have done together.

•Estragon illustrates the parallel between the two

man and the rest of humanity when he tells Vladimir
that ‘billions’ of people can also claim that they have
kept their  appointment.
 Minor Characters
Pozzo
• Pozzo is the master who rules over Lucky. He passes
by the spot where Vladimir and Estragon are waiting
and provides a diversion.

• He stops and talks to the tramps in order to have

some company. His arrogance and pride annoys the
two tramps. He treats his servant, Lucky , with
contempt and heaps abuses on him.

• Pozzo represents the adverse, the controlling being.

•In the second act Pozzo is blind and
requires their help.

•He, like Estragon, cannot remember people

he has met.

His transformation between the acts may

represent the passage of time.
 c k
u
L y
e other charactersw Lucky
• Lucky is the slave of Pozzo.

off his hat. 

• He is tied to Pozzo via a rope around his neck and he
carries Pozzo’s bags.

• Lucky is only allowed to speak twice the entire play,

ute in the secondac

but his long monologue is filled with incomplete ideas.
• He is silenced only by the other characters who fight
with him to take off his hat. 

• Lucky appears as a mute in the second act.

 THE BOY
• The massanger who arrives near the end of each act to
inform the tramps that Godot will not arrive is simply
called ‘boy’.

• Timid and fearful, he adresses Vladimir as Mr. Albert.

• The boy periodically reveals bits of information about the

mysterious Godot. He claims that he tends goats for Mr.
Godot and that Godot is good to him, though he admits
that Godot beats the boy’s brother.

• On each visit the boy claims to have not seen Vladimir and

Estragon before. In the second act the boy reports that he
thinks Godot has a white beard
 GODOT
• An unseen person whom Vladimir and Estragon are
waiting unendingly.

• All that is known about Godot is that he has goatherds and

shepherds and a long white beard.

• He does nothing all day, and has asked the tramps to meet
him bythe tree on Saturday. He never appears

• Godot might also be an antagonist, bearing down on the

two tramps and making their lives unbearable
 Art of Characterization

• “Waiting for Godot” is one of the masterpieces of

Absurdist literature.
• It attacks the two main ingredients of the traditional views
of Time, i.e. Habit and Memory.
• Its characters are also just mechanical puppets with their
incoherent colloquy.
• Its theme is unexplained.
•  “Waiting for Godot” is an absurd play for there is no
female character. Characters are there but they are devoid
of identity.
• Characters in this play may be referred as absurd and
artificial.
• These characters, their words and their actions contain
numerous symbolical meaning.
• All five characters are illogical and disjointed but
simultaneously thy are all interdependent.
• Backet was an innovator.
• His characters use ordinary words and short sentences;
they seldom soliloquies and they never preach.
• Although the name suggests the opposite, characters in
absurd play are closer to reality than those in the
traditional narrative plays.
• He keep his character busy.
• Vladimir and Estragon are two complementary characters
dependent on one another.
• We find it very difficult to identify ourselves with the
characters in Absurd drama.
• It presents anxiety, despair and a sense of loss at the
disappearance of solutions, illusions, and purposefulness.
• Pozzo and Lucky reflect the mind vs body distinction with
a function to confirm Vladimir and Estragon’s meaningless
living.
• Godot is not a real character but rather a symbolic
manifestation of human longing and waiting for some
thing or someone.
•Thanks
For
Bearing