Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett
“the most important play of the twentieth
century”
Beckett himself
Beckett wrote this play first in French 1948-49, En attendant Godot, and then wrote
it himself in English, by 1954, as Waiting for Godot.
 Born in Dublin in 1906 so heard about WWI but didn’t witness it. Went to Trinity,
which is THE upper-class college in Dublin, and majored in French and Italian. Went
to Paris to study, ended up writing a book on Proust, and basically lived in England,
France, and Germany until 1937 – lived in Paris until 1942, when he retreated to the
Unoccupied Zone, the Vaucluse 1942-44, but the fact is that he saw WWII from the
inside.
 Beckett: “To find a form that accommodates
the mess, that is the task of the artist now.”

Questions the play asks

Why must humans suffer?
Is there a God? (ot?)





In French, God = dieu.
Does religion or do religious symbols provide
meaning?
Does human life have meaning?
What place does friendship play in determining
the meaning of existence?
In a universe that is ultimately meaningless and
indifferent, what do we do? –

“Que voulez-vous? Que voulez-vous?”
Godot













VLADIMIR: Let's wait till we know exactly how we stand. ESTRAGON: On the
other hand it might be better to strike the iron before it freezes. VLADIMIR: I'm
curious to hear what he has to offer. Then we'll take it or leave it. ESTRAGON:
What exactly did we ask him for?
VLADIMIR: Were you not there?
ESTRAGON: I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR: Oh . . . Nothing very definite.
ESTRAGON: A kind of prayer.
VLADIMIR: Precisely.
ESTRAGON: A vague supplication.
VLADIMIR: Exactly.
ESTRAGON: And what did he reply?
VLADIMIR: That he'd see.
ESTRAGON: That he couldn't promise anything.
VLADIMIR: That he'd have to think it over.
ESTRAGON: In the quiet of his home.
American review

Brooks Atkinson: “Faith in God has almost
vanished. But there is still an illusion of
faith flickering around the edges of the
drama. It is as though Mr. Beckett sees
very little reason for clutching at faith, but
is unable to relinquish it entirely.”
Does my life have meaning?
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.
ESTRAGON
We came here yesterday.
VLADIMIR
Ah no, there you're mistaken. (111-121)
Theater of the Absurd

Drama that “presents a view of the absurdity of the human condition by the
abandoning of usual or rational devices and by the use of nonrealistic form. It
expounds an existential ideology and views its task as essentially metaphysical.
Conceived in perplexity and spiritual anguish, the theater of the absurd portrays not a
series of connected incidents telling a story but a pattern of images presenting
people as bewildered beings in an incomprehensible universe” (Harmon & Holman).
Existentialism? Yes or no?
Theater of the Absurd/
Existentialism

“The Theatre of the Absurd aims to create a
ritual-like, mythological, archetypal, allegorical
vision, closely related to the world of dreams . .
. [about] man’s fundamental bewilderment and
confusion, stemming from the fact that he has
no answers to the basic existential questions:
why we are alive, why we have to die, why
there is injustice and suffering” (Crabb)
Existentialism
Emphasizes Existence (living, making
choices)
 Over Essence (the identity you were given
at birth – gender, class, ethnicity,
temperament, occupation, education)
 Basic philosophical question: “the
inadequacy of human reason to explain
the enigma of the universe” (H&H) (see

Scientific American)
Or not existentialist?
Do all the characters succumb to their
circumstances, without choosing and
without acting?
 Are they satisfied with the world as it is,
not seeking to change it?

 What
do you think?
Anti-existentialist view: The play
is about us



“If you feel superior to Estragon and Vladimir, you have seriously
misunderstood the play, and yourself. . . the audience is no more
enlightened than its characters. We don’t know who Godot is, and
neither does the author. As he put it, ‘If I knew, I would have said
so in the play’” (Mount).
“Existentialism’s denial of a preexisting narrative that would give
meaning to life is thematically evident in Godot’s failure to arrive
and formally evident in the play’s rejection of familiar dramatic
hierarchies [BUT the play] is not existentialist because it doesn’t
share the hope that Sartre found in the wreckage, the freedom of
humans to find their own explanations and create their own
identities” (Mount).
[The play] “doesn’t show humans controlling time, freely shaping
their own destiny” (Mount).
Tragicomedy?
1.5 minutes of Waiting for Godot
 Interview with Stewart and McKellan

Think about community,
repetition, and the Green World
A tragedy moves from community and cohesion to isolation and sometimes
death
 A comedy moves from problems within the community to a feeling of
community and harmony, such as a dance, a feast, a kiss
 A comedy involves repetition
 Frye: “the drama of the green world, its plot being assimilated to the ritual
theme of the triumph of life and love over the waste land . . . there is the .
. .rhythmic movement from normal world to green world and back again”
(182)

Comedy or tragedy?

ESTRAGON
(restored to the horror of his situation) I was asleep! (Despairingly) Why will you
never let me sleep?
VLADIMIR
I felt lonely.
ESTRAGON
I had a dream.
VLADIMIR
Don't tell me!
ESTRAGON
I dreamt that—
VLADIMIR
DON'T TELL ME!
ESTRAGON
(gesture toward the universe) This one is enough for you? (Silence.) It's not nice of
you, Didi. Who am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can't tell them to you?
VLADIMIR
Let them remain private. You know I can't bear that. (1.146-153)
Comedy or tragedy?

ESTRAGON: (forcibly). Bags. (He points at Lucky.) Why? Always hold. (He sags,
panting.) Never put down. (He opens his hands, straightens up with relief.) Why?
POZZO: Ah! Why couldn't you say so before? Why he doesn't make himself
comfortable? Let's try and get this clear. Has he not the right to? Certainly he has. It
follows that he doesn't want to. There's reasoning for you. And why doesn't he want
to? (Pause.) Gentlemen, the reason is this. VLADIMIR: (to Estragon). Make a note
of this. POZZO: He wants to impress me, so that I'll keep him. ESTRAGON: What?
POZZO: Perhaps I haven't got it quite right. He wants to mollify me, so that I'll give
up the idea of parting with him. No, that's not exactly it either. VLADIMIR: You
want to get rid of him? POZZO: He wants to cod me, but he won't. VLADIMIR: You
want to get rid of him? POZZO: He imagines that when I see how well he carries I'll
be tempted to keep him on in that capacity. ESTRAGON: You've had enough of
him? POZZO: In reality he carries like a pig. It's not his job. VLADIMIR: You want
to get rid of him? POZZO: He imagines that when I see him indefatigable I'll regret
my decision. Such is his miserable scheme. As though I were short of slaves! (All
three look at Lucky.) Atlas, son of Jupiter! (Silence.) Well, that's that, I think.
Anything else?
The End or the Beginning?

ESTRAGON: I can't go on like this. VLADIMIR: That's what you think.
ESTRAGON: If we parted? That might be better for us. VLADIMIR: We'll hang
ourselves tomorrow. (Pause.) Unless Godot comes. ESTRAGON: And if he comes?
VLADIMIR: We'll be saved. Vladimir takes off his hat (Lucky's), peers inside it, feels
about inside it, shakes it, knocks on the crown, puts it on again. ESTRAGON: Well?
Shall we go? VLADIMIR: Pull on your trousers. ESTRAGON: What? VLADIMIR:
Pull on your trousers. ESTRAGON: You want me to pull off my trousers?
VLADIMIR: Pull ON your trousers. ESTRAGON: (realizing his trousers are down).
True. He pulls up his trousers. VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go? ESTRAGON: Yes,
let's go. They do not move.
Waiting for Godot as metatheater

Estragon: Charming spot. (He turns, advances to front, halts facing
auditorium). Inspiring prospects.

Vladimir: All the same . . . That tree . . .
(turning towards auditorium) that bog . . .




Vladirmir: Worse than the pantomime.
Estragon: The circus.
Vladimir: The music-hall.
When Vladimir suddenly needs to relieve
himself, he “hastens towards the wings,”
Estragon says, “End of the corridor, on the left”
We are responsible for what it
means

The play is “asking us about our desire for
[a messiah or a God] and the difficult
realization that we create meaning in the
fact of nothingness, to stave off that
nothingness . . . Beckett asks, do we put
away these painfully sustaining beliefs and
move on? Beckett, as in all things in
Waiting for Godot, answers the question,
twice” (Boulter).
Minimalism

“One can see the minimalist tendencies in
Samuel Beckett’s late works: brevity,
economy, modesty” (Harmon & Holman).

ESTRAGON: Then adieu. POZZO: Adieu. VLADIMIR:
Adieu. POZZO: Adieu. Silence. No one moves.
VLADIMIR: Adieu. POZZO: Adieu. ESTRAGON: Adieu.
Silence. POZZO: And thank you. VLADIMIR: Thank
you. POZZO: Not at all. ESTRAGON: Yes yes. POZZO:
No no. VLADIMIR: Yes yes. ESTRAGON: No no.
Silence. POZZO: I don't seem to be able . . . (long
hesitation) . . . to depart.
Minimalism & Language

Absurd drama uses conventionalized speech,
cliches, slogans, and technical jargon, which it
distorts, parodies, and breaks down” (Crabb).

In an essay on Beckett Alan Schneider relates an "apocryphal story
about Sam’s next play": "Untitled, of course. In two acts, the usual
pause between. In the first act, the curtain rises on a bare stage.
No actors, of either sex. Runs about half an hour. In the second act,
the curtain doesn’t rise at all; but it’s a very short act."

Lois Oppenheim Directing Beckett
Lucky’s Speech

“In Lucky’s repetitious, bombastic, pseudo-scientific speech. Beckett
congeals the disarticulation of the rational language . . . Lucky
systematically disconnects . . . various discourses from their ‘spinal
cord,’ from their point of convergence . . . The fragmentation and
repetition of the speech reflect the linguisticintellectual chaos
[which came from the imposition of order]. Lucky’s speech
deconstructs that unity . . . The impossibility of reasoning when
causes are unintelligible . . . Deteriorating syntax [which fades
away]” Velissariou
Modernism implied

“Discontinuity, alienation, asocial
individualism, solipsism, and
existentialism” (Harmon & Holman)


but also!!!!
Modernist “works of art create within
themselves an ordered universe” (Harmon
& Holman)
Then World War II
Effect on Theater of the Absurd

“World War II was the catalyst that finally
brought the Theatre of the Absurd to life.
The global nature of this conflict and the
resulting trauma of living under threat of
nuclear annihilation put into stark
perspective the essential precariousness of
human life . . . anti-theatre. It was
surreal, illogical, conflictless, and plotless”
(Crabb).
And its aftermath
Naziism
On newsreels
Beckett and historical context
Is the set a reference to the world left
after World War II?
 Or does Beckett reject history and
historical context in favor of a purer, more
metaphysical and abstract drama?

Postmodernism: look for
A denial of order
 Highly fragmented universes
 Aesthetic surfaces
 Anti-novels, anti-heroes
 Anti-theater – in what ways is Waiting for
Godot an anti-play?

 ___________
 ____________
 _____________
From Modernism to
Postmodernism

“the postmodern clearly . . . developed
out of . . . modernist strategies: its selfreflexive experimentation, its ironic
ambiguities, and its contestation of classic
realist representation” (Hutcheon 43).
Waiting for Godot

ESTRAGON: An Englishman having drunk a little more than usual proceeds
to a brothel. The bawd asks him if he wants a fair one, a dark one or a redhaired one. Go on. VLADIMIR: STOP IT! Exit Vladimir hurriedly. Estragon
gets up and follows him as far as the limit of the stage. Gestures of
Estragon like those of a spectator encouraging a pugilist. Enter Vladimir. He
brushes past Estragon, crosses the stage with bowed head. Estragon takes
a step towards him, halts. ESTRAGON: (gently.) You wanted to speak to
me? (Silence. Estragon takes a step forward.) You had something to say to
me? (Silence. Another step forward.) Didi . . . VLADIMIR: (without
turning). I've nothing to say to you. ESTRAGON: (step forward). You're
angry? (Silence. Step forward). Forgive me. (Silence. Step forward.
Estragon lays his hand on Vladimir's shoulder.) Come, Didi. (Silence.) Give
me your hand. (Vladimir half turns.) Embrace me! (Vladimir stiffens.) Don't
be stubborn! (Vladimir softens. They embrace. # Estragon recoils.) You
stink of garlic! VLADIMIR: It's for the kidneys. (Silence. Estragon looks
attentively at the tree.) What do we do now? ESTRAGON: Wait.
Beckett in an interview

I speak of an art . . . weary of puny exploits, weary of pretending to
be able, of being able, of doing a little better the same old thing, of
going a little further along a dreary road.

And preferring what?

The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which
to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no
desire to express, together with the obligation to express.
The kind of work I do is one in which I’m not master of my material.
The more Joyce knew the more he could. He’s tending toward
omniscience and omnipotence as an artist. I’m working with
impotence, ignorance. I don’t think impotence has been exploited in
the past.


Kevin J H Dettmar Waiting for Godot and Critical Theory from June Schlueter and
Enoch Brater
Another Irish writer
Two Irishmen went into a bar . . .
in France

Compare Waiting for Godot to “Proteus”
section of Ulysses.
 Language
 Trust
that life has meaning
 Characters
 Plot
 Setting
 Post-modern? Post-colonial? Poststructuralist?
More versions
Hollywood does Godot
Or this
Famous cartoonist does Godot
If you hate Xfinity