On the surface. “Waiting for Godot” is strictly a series of absurd conversations and efforts by the chief characters in making recreations to go through the clip. However. there is some grounds that the drama is more than merely a slapstick modus operandi of two bored. aged work forces waiting for another adult male named Godot near a skeletal tree. Though the consequence of the inane duologue over fiddling affairs is so amusing. and has likely contributed to holding the drama considered portion of the Theatre of the Absurd ( Merriam Webster ) . Samuel Beckett’s two-act drama besides portrays a calamity of kinds.
The drama does non go around around a solid secret plan. but instead gravitates around the restlessness and exchangeability of yearss when there is nil much to make. In the two Acts of the Apostless. nil much happens except two people waiting for another individual. The entryway of two other characters. Pozzo and his slave. Lucky near the terminal of each of the two yearss supply some much needed action that makes the hours base on balls by more rapidly. At the terminal of each act. a boy arrives with a message from Godot. but the one awaited for does non come. Therefore. in a manner. the drama is concentrating on “nothing” . though “nothing” here is non every bit pointless as it seems.
“Nothing” really is what makes the two chief characters busy. They invariably have to happen something to make full the nothingness. or wipe out the silence ; hence. they are busy seeking to ostracize nothingness. This nothingness is a hint that this piece is stating more than a amusing narrative of two friends. It is in fact dubbed as a tragicomedy. wherein two people are seeking to happen the significance of their lives ( Merriam Webster ) . It is portion calamity because the premiss of holding to wait for person who does non even come provides uncertainness. Estragon complains that “Nothing happens. cipher comes. cipher goes.
It’s atrocious! ” ( Beckett ) For two aged work forces to hold no other purpose each twenty-four hours other than waiting is sad in itself. particularly viewed from the position of modern people who are invariably on the spell. Each twenty-four hours has a end. and for some. a set docket. Vladimir and Estragon pass their clip waiting for a adult male that they have non even met. This adult male. Godot. does non look even at the terminal of the drama though the drama is about waiting for him. Vladimir and Estragon may be giving their hours waiting for this adult male. but they do non even cognize what he looks like.
In Act I. they mistake another adult male. Pozzo for Godot. Pozzo takes note of this. “You took me for Godot. ” ( Beckett ) It seems that what breaks the humdrum can be thought of as Godot. nevertheless at this point it is non him yet. In another visible radiation. Vladimir and Estragon are seemingly anticipating a important alteration to come with the reaching of Godot. Near the beginning of Act I. they talk about the two stealers crucified on either side of Christ. Vladimir reminds Estragon. “Our Saviour. Two stealers. One is supposed to hold been saved and the other. . . ( he searches for the reverse of saved ) .
. . damned” . ( Beckett ) There are two of them every bit good. and they seem to be waiting for person to salvage them. That person could be Godot. However. the narrative of the two stealers suggests that merely one of them may profit from Godot’s reaching. Estragon has to fight with short-run memory. while his comrade. Vladimir has to invariably remind him the clip of twenty-four hours and certain events that supposed to hold happened to Estragon himself. When asked by Vladimir whether the same group of people have beaten him up. Estragon answers. “The same? I don’t know.
” ( Beckett ) The insistent events do non assist in doing the events comprehendible to Estragon. In both Acts of the Apostless. Pozzo and his slave. Lucky base on balls by Estragon and Vladimir’s manner. Furthermore. a male child who looks like the courier in the first act arrives with yet another message on the 2nd twenty-four hours. None of the three acknowledges holding met the two aged work forces by the leafless tree during the first twenty-four hours. Estragon’s memory job may add to the desolation of the state of affairs. but Vladimir’s reminders give a sense of the relationship between the two. Vladimir Acts of the Apostless as a existent friend by supplying Estragon the missing pieces.
There are minutes when Estragon surprisingly relates some information vividly. “There are no beginnings in the current document… The Dead Sea was pale blue. The really expression of it made me thirsty. That’s where we’ll travel. I used to state. that’s where we’ll travel for our honeymoon. We’ll swim. We’ll be happy” . He seems to retrieve the Dead Sea clearly. although whether he remembers who he is speaking to at that really minute is ill-defined. He refers to a honeymoon which he is supposed to portion with the 1 he is discoursing with. He could be mentioning to his close friendly relationship with Vladimir. or he could hold been believing of a actual partner.
“Waiting for Godot” reveals sketchs of calamity disguised in two Acts of the Apostless of comedy. Through the apparently unpointed duologue where the two work forces fight. embracing and even contemplate hanging themselves. the reader gets glances of the two chief characters’ lives. When Vladimir says. “Hand in manus from the top of the Eiffel Tower. among the first. We were respectable in those yearss. Now it’s excessively late. They wouldn’t even allow us up. ” ( Beckett ) he is hankering for the yesteryear. This yearning suggests that the two comrades have had a better life.
Vladimir and Estragon have a friendly relationship that serves as a invariable in the two Acts of the Apostless. and in their lives. The old mention to the yesteryear is besides a mention to their length of service as comrades and friends. Their relationship. which involves encompassing and dependance. together with the mention to a honeymoon. is implicative of a matrimony. Vladimir and Estragon’s relationship is like a married couple’s. Their friendly relationship is what they can truly depend on in a universe that is going so confusing and empty. particularly for the unretentive Estragon. The other characters are non so dependable.
Pozzo. in his sightlessness. becomes another character who is confused about clip and the people he meets. Something different. though tragic. has happened to him but how he has become blind. and why he does non retrieve the incident taking to his sightlessness. are ne’er explained. POZZO: I woke up one all right twenty-four hours every bit blind as Fortune. ( Pause. ) Sometimes I wonder if I’m non still asleep. VLADIMIR: And when was that? POZZO: I don’t know. ( Beckett ) In decision. “Waiting for Godot” may be a drama about “nothing” in the sense that there is no secret plan. but it is written non merely to supply some laughs or a sense of obfuscation.
As mentioned earlier. it is a tragicomedy. a dramatic piece which incorporates both tragic and amusing elements. ( Encyclopedia Britannica ) The drama explores hopelessness and uncertainness as two people try to happen the significance of their being. The two await Godot. who may keep the replies in his custodies. Considered as an invention in play ( Merriam Webster ) . “Waiting for Godot” can be referred to as experimental. It is tragic. but non to the point of complete hopelessness. At the terminal of the drama. Estragon feels like he can no longer travel on with his life and suggests that they bring adequate rope the undermentioned twenty-four hours.
Vladimir agrees that they should hang themselves. but provides a status that they will non travel through with the self-destruction if Godot arrives. Godot is the melting hope to a meaningless being. Both Vladimir and Estragon are already despairing about the deficiency of way in their lives. which have turned for the worse as they become older. However. the repeat that happens in the two Acts of the Apostless suggests that what the two are sing has been traveling on for much more than two yearss. Vladimir and Estragon have already considered self-destruction in Act I. but have opted to see what Godot will state ( Beckett ) .
Their ideas seldom linger on one subject. so they have rapidly discarded the thought of killing themselves. “Waiting for Godot” is a alone manner of showing the values and uncertainnesss of people without making a concrete beginning and stoping.
Plants Cited:
Beckett. Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Chelsea House. 1987. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 3 October 2007 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. britannica. com/eb/article-9073149/tragicomedy & gt ; . Merriam Webster. Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. 1995.
