Essay on

" Waiting for Godot "

By :

Vahid

Norouzalibeik

As an absurd play , Waiting for Godot is a play in which "Nothing happens.

Nobody comes , nobody goes."

Considered as one of the great voices of the 20th century and also as a well-known

absurdist dramatist , Samuel Beckett writes from "A sense of metaphysical anguish

at the absurdity of the human condition."

Surely , Beckett is a wastelander of all wastelanders whose plays show the futility

of life and the absurdity of Man's desires in a meaningless world.

In his two act masterpiece , Waiting for Godot , two tramps called : Vladimir and

Estragon are awaiting a mysterious being called : Godot , in an almost bare stage

with only one bare tree in that.

The two tramps have been told by Mr. Godot to stay there and wait for him until

he comes.

They are cold and hungry. Godot is supposed

to save them from the misery they are

suffering from.

While waiting , we can hear them talking about

everything , we can see Vladimir playing with his

hat while Estragon playing with his boots.

They talk about their life , about suicide and

trying to commit it , too.

They are bored to death and they do anything to pass their time.

Two passers-by , Pozzo , a master and Lucky , his slave , arrive. Lucky is pulled

by Pozzo by a piece of rope around his neck.

They stop and rest , while Vladimir and Estragon take Pozzo for Godot.

Lucky does whatever Pozzo orders him to do. Pozzo eats and drinks and they

decide to leave the two tramps.

After that , a boy , who is a messenger from Mr. Godot , comes and tells them

that Mr. Godot cannot come tonight , but surely tomorrow.

They decide to commit suicide , but they fail and at the end of the 1st act , just

before the curtain falls , we read :

ESTRAGON : Well , shall we go ?
VLADIMIR : Yes , let's go.
They do not move.
Curtain

In act two , there are only little changes and critics believe that in this play :

"Nothing happens , twice."


Now , the tree has got 4 or 5 leaves.

At the beginning , we see Vladimir singing while Estragon enters.They've gone

there to wait for Godot again.

While Estragon has lost his hope , Vladimir

tries to calm him and make it easier for

him to wait and forget all his miseries.

Again they try to pass the time in any way ,

but they fail.

Many times , we see them deciding to part and

become separated , but they fail to do this ,

too , since they are tied to each other and they have no other half in

this world except each other.

They talk about yesterday ,while Estragon has almost forgotton everything .

Again the two passengers arrive. Lucky is now dumb and Pozzo is blind , while the

rope is also much more shorter than the one in the 1st act.

Pozzo is quite helpless and asks them to help him while he has fallen on

the ground.

The situation goes on until Pozzo and Lucky decide to leave the two tramps again.

When they leave , another boy , perhaps anothe messenger from Mr. Godot comes

and tells them that Mr. Godot will come tomorrow since he's very busy tonight.

Now it's dark and they are absolutely helpless and hopeless and try to commit

suicide again while they also fail again.

Again at the end of act 2 , just before the curtain falls , we read :

VLADIMIR : Well ? Shall we go ?
ESTRAGON : Yes , let's go.
They do not move.
Curtain

Beckett's characters are bound to each other with a fear of being left entirely

alone.

Samuel Beckett is a master of showing the binary oppositions in his plays with his

characters that are in pairs and they complete each other.

Some are Heavenly while some are earthly.

If one of them can't sit , the other can't stand. If one is short , the other is

tall.

In Godot and in other plays of this kind ,

the plot loses its linear direction and is circular.

The audience is left while wandering and never

knowing the end or reaching to any logical

conclusion.

If we notice , also now we can see the two tramps

waiting for Godot to come , in that boring situation,

under the same tree when at the end of the day

they are told by a messenger that tomorrow will be

the promised day.

The same tomorrow that will never come.

( V áhi Ð _ Ñorouz Âli ßeik )

June , 28th , 2002