| Samuel Beckett who is regarded as one of the | | | | master-slave remain tied together as the tramps |
| leading playwright of modern times crafted some of | | | | continue to wait for Godot. Both the acts begin in |
| the rare masterpieces and Waiting for Godot is no | | | | evening and end with night fall and terminate with the |
| exception. The play explores the purposelessness and | | | | arrival of a messenger that Godot will turn up the |
| void present in the day to day human life, so much | | | | next day and not on this particular evening. Thus |
| so that it baffles explanation. It explores extensively | | | | waiting is endless for the tramps who are waiting for |
| the mystery of existence, the unnamed fear and the | | | | Godot who is endlessly promising his elusive arrival. |
| anxiety of the human subconscious mind that defy | | | | Boredom is deliberately introduced to create tension |
| rationality. | | | | in the play. |
| The play belongs to the genre of Theatre of Absurd | | | | The tramps are waiting for a person for their |
| which is basically Parisian in nature. Old theatrical | | | | probable salvation and while waiting the tramps feel |
| conventions are replaced in the absurd. Usually there | | | | the passage of time which constantly subject |
| is a dream situation and the sequence of events are | | | | everything to change. But more things change, more |
| unrelated. Like real life events there is a movement | | | | they remain the same " That is the terrible stability |
| from image to image through association. So, it | | | | of the world: as said by Pozzo "the tears of the |
| doesn't follow the pattern of logic and the only logic | | | | world are a constant quantity. For each one who |
| lies in the associative connections of images. In | | | | begins to weep somewhere else another stops". " |
| waiting for Godot, the images convey boredom, | | | | One day is like another and when we die we might |
| despair, tediousness, helplessness of waiting. The | | | | never have existed." Between birth and death light |
| images tend to become more and more desperate | | | | gleams only for an instant but man hopes for |
| as the play goes on (mainly in the second act). In the | | | | salvation Godot represents that haven for the two |
| play Psychological state of waiting is captured which | | | | tramps in the play. |
| gets worse during the course of the play. The action | | | | The tramps here are not sure whether they have |
| is mechanical. | | | | come to the right place or even the right day. This is |
| It is quite a different play from the conventional ones | | | | the basic human condition where all the days appear |
| and does not have a story to tell us. Two tramps | | | | same and its hard to distinguish between any of the |
| named Vladimir and Estragon meet on a country road | | | | same. The wretched condition of Vladimir and |
| with a bare tree and a mound at the background. | | | | Estragon regarding confusion of day is a testimony |
| They wait incessantly for someone called Godot who | | | | to this. The tramps have no rights but they have got |
| does not turn up to meet them. At the end of both | | | | rid of them, though there is no question of their |
| the acts they are informed by a boy messenger that | | | | being tied. The uncertainty is present throughout the |
| Godot won't come that day but surely tomorrow. | | | | play. Even the chance of man being saved by Christ |
| They agree to go but do not go anywhere. In both | | | | depends on chance and there is an element of |
| the acts, a master (Pozzo) and a slave (Lucky) pass | | | | chance in human destiny. Pozzo says of Lucky" |
| by as the tramps are waiting. Thus in both the acts | | | | Remark that I might easily have been in his shoes |
| nothing really happens and there is nothing to be | | | | and he in mine." On a broader level Pozzo and Lucky |
| done. Everything is static in the play and the play | | | | are master and slave representing the body and |
| rather depicts a static human condition. | | | | mind. |
| Nothing to be done are the words that are repeated | | | | The play is chiefly concerned with the mystery and |
| frequently and quite significantly in the play. They are | | | | inexplicable puzzle and purposelessness of human life, |
| first voiced by Estragon in the beginning and its | | | | the anxiety and despair that the human condition |
| significance is further extended by Vladimir in the | | | | entails. It is this concern that reflects in the moods of |
| same scene when he says-"I am beginning to come | | | | the tramps through their waiting. Beckett has not |
| round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it | | | | told the identity of Godot in the play and it is left as |
| from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't | | | | the mystery and whether Godot represents God is a |
| yet tried everything. And I resumed the Struggle." So | | | | debatable topic but he is surely the one who is |
| it is supposed in the beginning that action is futile. The | | | | looked upon by the tramps for their probable |
| tramps are pretty much sure of the uselessness of | | | | salvation. Godot though promises them to turn up |
| the action and they play silly games just to pass the | | | | but his assurance was as vague as the tramps' |
| time and it is here that elements of slapstick comedy | | | | prayer to him. |
| pours into the play. The inaction gets transformed | | | | There is total absence of information regarding the |
| into theatrical action. Nothing happens twice in the | | | | personal background information of all four characters |
| play, waiting is doing nothing and something at the | | | | which add up to the mysterious atmosphere in the |
| same time. Waiting is experience dramatised and | | | | play that seeks to state the illogicality and absurdity |
| there is enough clue to this in the title of the play | | | | of the human condition.The superficially comic |
| itself, inaction is dramatic action in Waiting for Godot. | | | | dialogue conveys a deeper message to us and is |
| Thus the apparent theme of the play is waiting which | | | | repetitive in nature. The words not said and the |
| Vladimir and Estragon do throughout the two acts. It | | | | pauses are more meaningful than the explicit things |
| is with time that the play is obsessed and it stresses | | | | said in the play. It has been said that "silence pours |
| that all action is futile including waiting and that's the | | | | into this play water into a sinking ship". The two |
| theme of the play. The human condition is explored | | | | tramps might appear an outsider to us but they |
| beautifully in the play by Beckett in Waiting for | | | | present to us the modern day meaninglessness of |
| Godot. Both the acts are similar and the first act is | | | | life that in which we all are trapped- a habit to which |
| repeated in the second with only change in dialogue | | | | there is no escape. Even the empty stage here acts |
| and sequence of events, Vladimir and Estragon meet | | | | as a metaphor for life, it is we who have to fill it up |
| Pozzo and Lucky the same pair under different | | | | and should not wait for the outside help to invest |
| circumstances. In both the acts Pozzo and Lucky, | | | | meaning to our lives. |