Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett :-

Samuel Beckett was born near Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1906 into a Protestant, middle class home. His father was a quantity surveyor and his mother worked as a nurse. At the age of 14 he was sent to the same school that Oscar Wilde attended. Beckett is known to have commented, "I had little talent for happiness." This was evidenced by his frequent bouts of depression, even as a young man. He often stayed in bed until late in the afternoon and hated long conversations. As a young poet he apparently rejected the advances of James Joyce's daughter and then commented that he did not have feelings that were human.  This sense of depression would show up in much of his writing, especially in Waiting for Godot where it is a struggle to get through life.

Samuel Beckett moved to Paris in 1926 and met James Joyce. He soon respected the older writer so much that at the age of 23 he wrote an essay defending Joyce's magnum opus to the public. In 1927, one year later, he won his first literary prize for his poem entitled "Whoroscope." The essay was about the philosopher Descartes meditating on the subject of time and about the transiency of life. Beckett then completed a study of Proust which eventually led him to believe that habit was the "cancer of time." At this point Beckett left his post at Trinity College and traveled.

All of Beckett's major works were written in French. He believed that French forced him to be more disciplined and to use the language more wisely. However, Waiting for Godot was eventually translated into the English by Beckett himself. Samuel Beckett also became one of the first absurdist playwrites to win international fame. His works have been translated into over twenty languages. In 1969 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, one of the few times this century that almost everyone agreed the recipient deserved it. He continued to write until his death in 1989, but towards the end he remarked that each word seemed to him "an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness."

 Works by Samuel Beckett :-

1.  Act Without Words
2. Happy Days
3. Malone Dies
4. “Waiting for Godot”
5. “The Unnamable”
6. “Molloy”
7. “Watt”
8. “Endgame”
9. “Murphy”
10. “Whoroscope

 Waiting for Godot :-

Waiting for Godot is generally considered as a masterpiece example of what has come to be known as the theater of the absurd. The play is written by an Irish novelist, Samuel Beckett, a prominent literary figure well known for this work, and remembered as the founder of the theatre of absurd. The play was performed in 1949, having the theme of existentialist philosophy. The play Waiting for Godot is famous for purposeless characters, meaningless actions, and lacking a basic plot.

Setting of the play :-

one such play of an Irish playwright Beckett presents this image of a tree differently in the setting of his play. The setting of the play 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett is inspired by two paintings by Caspar David Friedrich - a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter. The title of this painting is 'longing'.

Themes of Waiting for Godot :-

1. ABSURDITY :-

The play has the repetition of many words and phrases, nonsensical lines, purposeless characters, meaningless dialogues, and wordplay. Characters both Vladimir and Estragon have forgotten everything even about their own identities. The text is full of humor but mixed up with tragedy . Vladimir and Estragon's nonsensical actions, suicide attempts, and rude behavior with Lucky on the Pozo's side create a discomforting effect on the audience. The play confuses readers as well as the audience whether to laugh or cry at the events presented on the stage. The useless conversations and extreme utterance of characters showed the emptiness and aimless world after World War II.

2. PURPOSELESSNESS OF LIFE :-

  Vladimir and Estragon have some purpose, but Godot's not arriving make their waiting vain. The visiting of Pozo and Lucky in the first act likely seems that Pozo wants to sell him but failed to do so as the play progress and ultimately shown to be equally purposeless. They are simply wandering from place to place, while on the other hand, Estragon and Lucky doing different acts even an empty suicide attempt. . The theater of absurd has a special message that life is purposeless vividly shows in the play Waiting for Godot. The boy's message is also equally vain, that Godot is never coming. Both Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for a long time without any purpose completely conform to the characteristics of the theater of absurd.

3. UNCERTAINTY OF TIME :-

Time is uncertain in this play, but in the opening scene, it passes normally. Morning, daytime, and evening pass systematically, but the characters are sometimes showing confusion about it again and again. Many scenes show that they wait a long time. In the second act, the growth of leaves also suggests the same, and on the other hand, Estragon and Vladimir have no firm idea of how long they have been together or how long ago they did .the scenes and event repeating the same way every day, but Estragon and Vladimir never remember to bring the rope they would need to hang themselves.It shows the meaningless life and cheap use of time.

4. THEME OF RELATIONSHIP :-Relationship and Friendship is one of the major themes of the play Waiting for Godot. The writer explores and portrays different types of relationships ranging from friendship to slave and ownership. Of course, they are different entities with different physical as well as mental problems but on combining they play a big role in the play.

1. Relationship between Estragon and Vladimir

2. Association of Pozzo and Lucky

3. Relationship of Estragon and Vladimir with Godot.

5. THEME OF EXISTENTIALISM :-

Both the characters Vladimir and Estragon put themselves into an absurd situation just like humans have been put in the world without any motivation.Samuel Beckett's play 'Waiting for Godot' exposes that it is up to the individual to change the meaning of life through personal experience in the world and make it better.

In very simple words the philosophy of existentialism means that every person is responsible for his actions and no second person is pulling his strings or controlling his fate.

Characters of Waiting for Godot :-

Vladimir (Didi) :- An old derelict dressed like a tramp; along with his companion of many years, he comes to a bleak, desolate place to wait for Godot.

Estragon (Gogo) :- Vladimir's companion of many years who is overly concerned with his physical needs, but is repeatedly told by Vladimir that, above all, they must wait for Godot.

Pozzo :-  A traveling man dressed rather elaborately; he arrives driving another man (Lucky) forward by means of a rope around the latter's neck.

Lucky :- The "slave" who obeys Pozzo absolutely.

Boy Messenger :- I and Boy Messenger II Each is a young boy who works for "Mr. Godot" and brings Vladimir and Estragon news about "Mr. Godot"; apparently he takes messages back to "Mr. Godot."

Godot :-  He never appears in the drama, but he is an entity that Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for.

Waiting for Godot :-

Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet near a tree. They converse on various topics and reveal that they are waiting there for a man named Godot. While they wait, two other men enter. Pozzo is on his way to the market to sell his slave, Lucky. He pauses for a while to converse with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky entertains them by dancing and thinking, and Pozzo and Lucky leave.

After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy enters and tells Vladimir that he is a messenger from Godot. He tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming tonight, but that he will surely come tomorrow. Vladimir asks him some questions about Godot and the boy departs. After his departure, Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move as the curtain falls.

The next night, Vladimir and Estragon again meet near the tree to wait for Godot. Lucky and Pozzo enter again, but this time Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. Pozzo does not remember meeting the two men the night before. They leave and Vladimir and Estragon continue to wait.

Shortly after, the boy enters and once again tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming. He insists that he did not speak to Vladimir yesterday. After he leaves, Estragon and Vladimir decide to leave, but again they do not move as the curtain falls, ending the play.