Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett is an absurdist comedy/tragicomedy that is presented in two acts. It was originally written in French and titled En attendant Godot. It premiered on January 5th 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylon in Paris, and remains an important study in Modernist and Irish Drama.

Waiting for Godot: Summary

Act One

The play opens in a country road. Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet there by a leafless tree. Their conversation reveals that they are both waiting for the same person to arrive. His name is Godot and neither of them is sure if they have met him before or if he would indeed ever arrive. Vladimir and Estragon aren't aware why they exist and they hope that Godot has some answers for them.

Act Two

Act 2 opens on the following day. Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting by the tree which has now grown leaves. Pozzo and Lucky return but they are changed - Pozzo is now blind and Lucky has become mute. Pozzo doesn't remember ever having met the two other men. Estragon also forgets that he has met Pozzo and Lucky. The master and servant leave, and Vladimir and Estragon keep waiting for Godot.

Soon the boy comes again and lets Vladimir and Estragon know that Godot will not be coming. The boy also doesn't remember ever having met the two men before. Before he leaves, he even insists that he is not the same boy that visited them the day before. To wait for Godot was Vladimir's and Estragon's only purpose in life. In their frustration and desperation, they consider committing suicide. However, they realise that they don't have any rope. They announce that they will leave to get rope and come back the next day but they stay where they are.

Waiting for Godot: a short analysis

Let's analyse the main themes and symbols in Waiting for Godot.

Themes

Some of the themes in Waiting for Godot are:

Existentialism

Estragon says this to Vladimir. What he means is that neither of them is sure if they actually exist and if there's meaning in what they're doing. Waiting for Godot makes their existence more certain and it gives them purpose.

At its core, Waiting for Godot is a play about the meaning of life. Human existence is shown as absurd and, through their actions, Vladimir and Estragon fail to escape this absurdity. They find meaning in waiting for Godot and, when they learn that he will not be coming, they lose the only purpose they had.

The two men say that they will leave but they never do - the play ends with them stuck exactly where they started. This presents Beckett's view that human existence has no meaning unless people create their own purpose. The issue with Vladimir and Estragon is that instead of moving on to find a new purpose, they keep falling into the same absurd pattern.

The passing of time

While they're waiting for Lucky to show them how he's thinking, Estragon complains. His days are empty and time stretches out before him. He's waiting for Godot but nothing changes and he doesn't come.

The passing of time in the play is depicted through the return of the secondary characters - Pozzo, Lucky and the boy. The stage directions also contribute to that - the leafless tree grows leaves after some time has passed.

Waiting for Godot is essentially a play about waiting. For most of the play, Vladimir and Estragon hope that Godot will arrive and that doesn't make them feel as if they're wasting their time. Repetition is used in the language of the play and also as a dramatic technique. The same situations are repeated with slight changes: Pozzo, Lucky and the boy appear on the first and second day, both days they come in the same order. The repetitive nature of the story reveals to the audience that the two main characters are actually stuck.

Suffering

By saying this, Vladimir shows that he knows that everyone is suffering. He's also aware that he is not looking at the people around him who are suffering, and yet he does nothing to change that.

Waiting for Godot addresses the human condition, which inevitably involves suffering. Each character represents a different kind of suffering:

• Estragon is starving and he mentions that many people have been killed (this is an unclear remark, as most things in the play are non-specific).
• Vladimir is frustrated and feels isolated, since he's the only one who can remember, while the others keep forgetting.
• Lucky is a slave who is treated like an animal by his master, Pozzo.
• Pozzo becomes blind.

To lessen their suffering, the characters seek the companionship of others. Vladimir and Estragon keep telling each other that they will separate, but they stay together in a desperate need to avoid loneliness. Pozzo abuses his companion, Lucky, in a perverse attempt to ease his own misery. The reason why, at the end of the day, each character is trapped in a repetitive cycle of suffering, is that they don't reach out to each other. Lucky and Pozzo don't care that Vladimir and Estragon are losing their only purpose: Godot is probably never coming. In turn, Estragon and Vladimir do nothing to stop Pozzo's treatment of Lucky or to help Pozzo when he's blind. Thus, the absurd cycle of suffering goes on because they are all indifferent to one another.

Waiting for Godot is not a tragedy because the main reason for the suffering of the characters (especially Vladimir and Estragon) is not some great catastrophe. Their suffering is absurd because it's caused by their inability to make a decision - their uncertainty and inaction is what keeps them trapped in the repetitive cycle.

Symbols

Some of the symbols in the play are:

Godot

Godot is a symbol that has been interpreted in different ways. Samuel Beckett himself never reiterated what he meant by 'Godot'. The interpretation of this symbol is left to the understanding of each individual reader or audience member.

Some interpretations of Godot include:

• Godot is God - the religious interpretation that Godot symbolises a higher power. Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot to come and bring answers and meaning into their lives.
• Godot as purpose - Godot stands for the purpose that the characters are waiting for. They live an absurd existence and they hope that it will become meaningful once Godot arrives.
• Godot as death - Vladimir and Estragon are passing the time until they die.

The tree

There have been many interpretations of the tree in the play. Let's consider three of the most popular ones:

• The tree stands for the passage of time. In Act 1, it is leafless and when it grows a few leaves in Act 2 this shows that some time has passed. This is a minimalistic stage direction that allows for more to be shown with less.
• The tree symbolises hope. Vladimir was told to wait for Godot by the tree and although he's not sure that this is the right tree, it presents the hope that Godot might meet him there. What is more, when Vladimir and Estragon meet by the tree they find hope in each other's presence and in their shared purpose - to wait for Godot. By the end of the play, when it becomes clear that Godot is not coming, the tree briefly offers them the hope of escape from their meaningless existence by hanging on it.
• The Biblical symbolism of the tree that Jesus Christ was nailed to (the crucifixion). At one point in the play, Vladimir tells Estragon the gospel story of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. This points to Vladimir and Estragon being the two thieves, in a symbolic way.

Night and day

Vladimir and Estragon are separated by night - they can only be together during the day. Moreover, the two men can only wait for Godot during daytime which suggest that he can't come at night. Night falls right after the boy brings the news that Godot will not come. Therefore, daylight symbolises hope and opportunity, while night stands for a time of nothingness and despair.

Objects

The minimal props described in the stage directions serve a comedic but also a symbolic purpose. Here are some of the main objects:

• The boots symbolise that daily suffering is a vicious circle. Estragon takes the boots off but he always has to put them back on - this represents his inability to escape the pattern of his suffering. Lucky's baggage, which he never leaves and keeps carrying symbolises the same idea.
• The hats - On one hand, when Lucky puts on a hat, this represents thinking. On the other hand, when Estragon and Vladimir exchange their hats, this symbolises the exchange of their identities and their uncertainty about their individuality.

How has Waiting for Godot influenced culture today?

Waiting for Godot is one of the most famous plays of the 20th century. It has had many interpretations, ranging from politics to philosophy and religion. Indeed, the play is so well-known that, in popular culture, the phrase 'waiting for Godot' has become synonymous with waiting for something that would probably never happen.

The English-language premiere of Waiting for Godot was in 1955 at the Arts Theatre in London. Since then, the play has been translated into many languages and there have been numerous stage productions of it around the world. A notable recent English-language production is the 2009 performance directed by Sean Mathias, which featured the famous British actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Steward.