I

Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett

1952

Structure and Style of the Play

A drama in the tragicomedy style that combines both tragedy and comedy and minimalism. There’s a constant
simultaneity of tragedy and comedy. The tragic and the comic can be seen both in Estragon and Vladimir's
absurd way of waiting and hoping for Godot and in the fact that they hope for him to come and are disillusioned
at the end of each act. Moreover, besides, it won't help even if he comes and is willing to grant their request,
for they did not ask him to do anything tangible for them. What they said to him was only "a sort of prayer, a
vague supplication". In fact, the two literary styles intermingle and complete each other, serving to capture the
absurdity in every situation.

An absurd play reflects the arbitrary and irrational nature of life, usually through an arbitrary structure. In
philosophy, the term absurd means out of harmony with reason or plainly opposed to reason. The Absurdist
playwrights deal with the purposelessness of life and human existence which they find out of harmony with
its surroundings.

In Waiting for Godot, everything can be looked up as a metaphor for the human situation at its most 'absurd.'
Godot could be taken for anything or nothing. Waiting for Godot is also about the emptiness of the modern
world that does not know that it is empty. The constant need for the characters to fill the void or find an
alternative to the waiting is a perfect embodiment of existentialism.

Vladimir and Estragon are defined not about time, place, or social circumstance, but about eternity and to
human longings for a sense of purpose. The problem of Vladimir and Estragon is that they are alive. Like
everyone and like Everyman, they are trapped between birth and death.

The play has a 'symmetrical' structure. The apparent symmetry of the play is like the order that every human
being attempts to impose on the constant flux of discrete phenomena around him. You'll notice that the
everyday routine of a human is apparently the same-but scratch a bit and the differences come to the surface.
Let us compare the opening and ending of each Act, the sequence of events like the entry of Pozzo and Lucky
and the Boy, and the stage directions in the two Acts as also the dialogues. You will observe that both acts start
with the union of the two tramps. Similarly, the ending of each act is almost identical. Further, there is a
repetition of certain incidents in the second act; the arrival of Pozzo and Lucky, the coming of the messenger
Boy towards the end to announce that Godot will not come that day, etc. Such a repetition strikes a balance
between two acts

Nevertheless, the asymmetry can be seen in the details :

In Act I In Act II

Estragon accepts a carrot Estragon rejects a radish

Takes off his shoes Finds his boots too big
Nibbles a chicken bone Recalls it as a fishbone
Estragon rejects suicide Defers suicide for want/lack of a suitable rope
as the survivor will be alone
Tree-bare Has sprouted 4-5 leaves
Lucky is Pozzo’s slave Symbolically, Pozzo is a slave to Lucky
Boy arrives Boy denies he is the same who came the day before
II

The return to zero leaves us in the Act II with an overall impression of the monotony and futility of the eternally repeated
ritual enacted on that deserted road. The symmetry, and the differences between the two Acts-by which our interest has
been kept alive-are quietly subordinated. Beckett thus solves the immense problem of “how to create repetitious
monotony without being repetitious and monotonous."

"We are waiting for Godot" recurs in the play like a refrain. It occurs three times in the first Act and a dozen times in
Act II, indicating an increasing impatience as time goes on. The monotony becomes imperceptibly cumulative and more
unbearable for the two tramps as the play progresses.

What is most fascinating about Waiting for Godot is that it doesn’t really end. The structure of the plot is
circular as the play begins and formally ends with waiting for Godot. The audience is fully aware that the
waiting goes on and on. 'It has no plot, no climax, no denouement; no beginning, no middle and no end.''

Characters : Estragon (Gogo), Vladimir (Didi or Mr. Albert), Lucky, Pozzo, a boy, Godot

The main themes of analysis

o Nihilism
o Absurdity of Existence o Purposelessness of life
o Alienation o Seeking meaning
o Anxiety o Suffering
o Boredom o Suffering
o Denial o The message (Boys as messengers/prophets)
o Eternal recurrence o Uncertainty
o Existentialism o Uncertainty of time
o Flux of time o Vain expectancy
o Friendship o Waiting
o Human condition
Reflection

The main characters try to find meaning in their lives, and they have some sort of motivation. They want to meet with
Godot; therefore, they keep coming every day to the same spot and wait till the end of the day. But since they have spent
more than a decade doing nothing but waiting for Godot, then the main characters have wasted their lives doing nothing
but waiting and repeating their basic habit of passing time. This in turn gives a perception that their lives are meaningless,
they waste it without a real aim that could both develop and improve their situation. In other words, this is the primary
reason why the play is considered as presenting a meaningless life. The main characters do nothing but repeat the same
essential things in order to pass time. They live by the habit of doing their daily routines. Therefore, in an absurd play,
the plot is loose, and the dialogue is fragmentary, incoherent and, most of the times, meaningless. This means that
language has lost its function as a mean of communication.

Moral

Beckett's play shows a pessimistic view of life, but this is the reality of people and things after the WWII in which the
play as a whole form a moral lesson to people to beware of the dangers of war. Moreover, the play is a message to people
not to be idle like the protagonists in the play Vladimir and Estragon who try only to put an end to their life so that they
can get rid of their suffering and when they fail to do that their only effort to enhance their depressed situation is the
process of waiting for someone whom they do not know or even the have no appointment with him. They should at least
have the courage to move so that they can leave the desolate area where they live to find a new one which may provide
them with new opportunities of living. Besides, they have to involve themselves with groups so that they can get comfort
and communication as well to exchange and share their thoughts and ideas with them to make their life better.