WAITING
FOR GODOT
Author:
Samuel Beckett
Title:
Waiting for
Godot
Subtitle: A tragicomedy in two
acts
Editorial: Faber and Faber
Year and
place published: First published in 1956,
London.
Dramatice personae: Characters are very important in this play,
because the play is about themselves. Here we have five different characters:
Estragon, Vladimir, Pozzo, Lucky and the boy.
The main characters are Vladimir and Estragon. They are two tramps about sixty years old.
Vladimir seems to be more intelligent
than Estragon, he used to speak as if he know more than Estragon. He is more
responsable and he feel a lot of affection for Estragon. He is like Estragon’s
father. Vladimir is called Didi by Estragon.
Estragon is
less clever, and he has very bad memory, he never remember what he has done the
previous day. He is a little childish. He is called Gogo by
Vladimir.
These two
characters pass all the time waiting for Godot.
The
secondary characters are Pozzo, Lucky and the boy.
Pozzo is a
healthy person who has a slave called Lucky. This character is the master. He is
a dominant person who feels himself more superior than the rest of the
characters. He has a bad temper when he gets angry. In the second act this
character goes blind.
Lucky is
the slave. He doesn’t speak throughout the play except when he thinks. It’s
funny the relation between the name of the character and the meaning of this
word, because he is treated as if he was a dog. He is insulted and beaten by
Pozzo.
The boy is
the character who relate the out-stage world with on-stage. He is a servant of
Godot. He says to Vladimir and Estragon that Godot won’t come those
nights.
Plot:
Vladimir and
Estragon are two miserable tramps who want to change their lifes. In the first
act they are waiting for Godot, a character who never appears, because they
think that he will save them and he will change their lifes. They are bored
while they are waiting, so they play and think about hanging themselves. While they
wait they meet with Pozzo and Lucky: They stay a while with the two tramps and
later they go away. A boy appears and tells them that Godot will not come that
night.
In the
second act happens the same than the first, more or less. They keep waiting for
Godot and try to pass the time. Estragon can’t remember anything about the
previous day. Pozzo and Lucky come again but they don’t remember Vladimir and
Estragon, and Pozzo has gone blind. The tramps wait and wait but Godot never
comes. The boy appears again and he doesn’t remember them either. He tells them
that Godot can’t come and he will come the next day. The end is a reflection of
Vladimir, and they both say to go away, but they don’t
move.
Space: The space of the
play is an open space, a country
road. It’s the same setting, the same space during all the play. There is only
one setting element: a tree. This tree has a lot of symbolism. It represents the
temptation of the suicide.
It’s a simple
space, an empty space.
Time: In this play the
time is the present. Every action, every dialogue happens in the present. The
play happens in two days. The time represented is the evening and night. Each
day is an act. There’s no flash-backs, and there are mentions about the tramps’
past and what they did the previous day.
In both acts it is
the same time, it happens the same. There is temporal
coherence.
Literary and stylistic
solutions: The language in
the play is a colloquial language, with abundance of vulgarism, seen in the
insults. It’s an easy language because the characters are slums. The play is
rich in short sentenes and it gives speed to the play. Abound the repetition of
the same sentence by the characters and the changes of conversation theme
without sense at all. This is a characteristic of the absurd’
theatre.
There are also
abundance of pauses and silences.
Personal opinion: I consider that
this play is a very interesting play. It’s not only a play to read and enjoy it,
I think there is a message between the lines. Apparently it is a comedy about
these two unlucky tramps and maybe it is funny to see these slums, we laugh
about their bad luck but in fact is a tragedy. I think that the purpose of the
author is to show the uselessness of the things and make us reflect about the
human existence and the importance of the time.
It could seem a
little bit difficult to understand the first time you read, because this play
belongs to the absurd theatre, but reading it again there is no problem to
understand.
The play could
become slow and tiresome because
the action is the same in two acts, it’s the same setting, the same thing, all
is repeated.
I find curious the
character of Godot. Who is Godot is the question which everybody is wondering
when they read the play. And the most curious is that he never appears in the
play. But who is Godot? In my opinion it is just an idea of salvation, but maybe
it could be God (God-ot_God).
The thing that I
really like in this play is the end. It is an opening end, you don’t really know
what is going to happen after the curtain falls. You don’t know if they’ll find
Godot someday.
In short, I like
this play very much because I think it’s a funny play and moreover it makes you
think and reflect.