Waiting for Godot- An Analysis

 

Although Beckett’s existentialist play ‘Waiting for Godot’ (1952) superficially appears to lack plot and therefore perhaps purpose, it is in fact challenging and thought provoking, encouraging the audience to question the purpose of struggle and perhaps existence. Various political and religious interpretations of this seemingly bleak and desolate play indicate the importance of the individual in interpreting this complex play. In my opinion the play’s main theme is the juxtaposition between the acceptance of the seemingly hopeless struggle of existence, ‘Nothing can be done…One is what one is…No use wriggling…the essential doesn’t change’[1]; and the quest for hope represented in the quest to wait for Godot, ‘What do we do now that we're happy . . . go on waiting’. The message of the play is that 'there are no answers, and even the questions are pointless'

 

Act one is spent with the two tramps Estragon and Vladimir ruminating, and waiting, for the appearance of Godot, this mysterious person who seems to encapsulate their quest for the meaning of their lives;

ESTRAGON: He should be here.

 

VLADIMIR: He didn't say for sure he'd come.

 

ESTRAGON: And if he doesn't come?

 

VLADIMIR: We'll come back tomorrow.

 

ESTRAGON: And then the day after tomorrow.

 

VLADIMIR: Possibly.

 

ESTRAGON: And so on.

 

VLADIMIR: The point is—

 

ESTRAGON: Until he comes.

 

VLADIMIR: You're merciless.

 

 

Then the action changes slightly when two new characters arrive, Pozzo a fearful master and Lucky his servant who he treats like an animal,

 

POZZO:

You're being spoken to, pig! Reply! (To Estragon.) Try him again.

 

Lucky who is treated as a subhuman savage then, towards the end of Act one recites a lyrical, absurd monologue with no punctuation and a nonsensical content;

 

LUCKY:

Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment plunged in fire….

 

This shocks us, but at the same time ultimately has no meaning, similar to the play. The play does not seem to want to instruct, it does not teach us anything, it entertains but is thought provoking rather than humourous or dramatic. A play about waiting for something unknown is challenging and intriguing, so perhaps it is not necessary to know its true purpose.