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.