Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
The Play as an Absurd Drama
The "Theatre of the Absurd" refers to a term invented by the critic Martin Esslin. It can be defined
as a kind of drama that presents a view of the uselessness of human life by not using usual or rational
techniques and by the use of nonrealistic forms. The playwrights of this technique depend much on
showing the inner states of the mind. Absurd plays took a highly unusual form, directly aiming to shock
the viewer. They are surreal, illogical, conflictless, and plotless. Absurd drama uses traditional speeches,
clichés, slogans, and technical language. Other features of Absurd drama include stereotyped characters
that personify certain ideas; meaningless or empty conversation and manners; inharmonious actions;
many symbolic objects; and bare settings. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot corresponds with the
absurd theatre in several points.
First, As for the themes, the play is dominated by a feeling that the world is useless. There is no
hope in the future, and the play is set in the evening to give a dull impression of life. Thus, the world is
represented as static and there is no action. This aimless search gives the play a metaphysical touch; that
is, the two men are searching and waiting for a non-existent person. They are waiting for a person whom
they do not know, and what makes matters worse is that he does not appear, and yet they go on waiting.
Vladimir is more ambitious than his friend and is eager to make his life better understood and
meaningful; this is why he is always worried. This search for self-knowledge is another aspect of
metaphysics, but the problem is that it is not crowned with success because Godot does not come. Thus, it
is an internal journey aiming to achieve a feeling of self-realization but ends in failure.
Second, the circular structure of the play means that it begins at one point and ends at the same
point, and nothing happens. People are going in a kind of a circle. They are waiting at the beginning of
the play for somebody called Godot and he never comes until the end. We see Vladimir and Estragon
alive, feeling human emotions and functions, but their world is not alive. It consists only of a bare stage
with a single tree and a remote ditch. In fact, this is almost a non-world, an echo of Vladimir’s repeated
line, "Nothing to be done."
Third, as an absurd play, Waiting for Godot is marked by having no plot; it is quite static since
there is no action except waiting. Act Two nearly repeats the same incidents of Act One. The action of the
play is quite simple. In Act I, Vladimir and Estragon discuss their lives while waiting for Godot. Pozzo
and Lucky appear on stage and interact with Vladimir and Estragon. Pozzo and Lucky leave; a messenger
from Godot comes and tells Vladimir and Estragon that Mr. Godot is not coming today but he may come
tomorrow. The messenger leaves; and then Vladimir and Estragon decide to continue to wait. In Act II,
the exact same series of events is revealed. The only action of the play is waiting, which is no action at
all. They cannot leave because they know that if each goes his own way, they will be lonely. They are
afraid of the cruelty and absurdity of reality. Beckett seems to be telling his readers that this is modern
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life with its inaction and passivity. Modern man has reached a static stage in which he can do nothing.
Fourth, Beckett makes use of the stream of consciousness technique, which means that the
dramatist writes according to the ideas which come to his mind. This technique rejects the formal and
structural dialogue of traditional plays. Thus, traditional dialogue is replaced with monologue; that is, the
character speaks to himself to reveal his internal mental state. However, this does not mean to abandon
the dialogue completely; for the dramatist only adapts this technique to suit the stage. Thus, Waiting for
Godot makes heavy use of dramatic monologue as a means to express the thoughts of the characters.
Another element of Beckett’s style is the element of pathos, which refers to those things that create a
feeling of pity. The characters in this play are degraded figures who are helpless. This helplessness drives
the audience to sympathize with them, even though there is nothing to be sympathetic about, for there is
no theme, plot or action. We only pity them for their helplessness; for their inability to do anything; for
being victims of life. It is the modern way of life and we have to realize how man has come to suffer.
Vladimir and Estragon then deserve our sympathy simply for living in this modern world.
Fifth, the setting is another part of the structure of the play; the road on which the action takes
place reveals to us that it does not lead to any place, exactly as modern life leads nowhere. It seems that
modern man sticks to his place because he is afraid that if he tries to move, he may find nowhere to go
and will not be able to go back. In Beckett’s play, the place is not identified to confirm that the two men
are lost whether in life or even in their society. This is part of the technique intended to help the reader to
focus on the problem itself and overlook the location. The reader is faced with the simple picture of two
men fighting the void and being threatened by nothingness. We thus identify with the two men because
their fate is part of ours and Beckett wants his readers to get involved in the action so as to feel the
problem that faces humanity as a whole. Thus, there is no need to describe the setting, for we are part of it
as we feel the "still sad music of human life and fate." The tree is an important element of the play as it
stands for the tree of knowledge in the play that has different meanings. Vladimir and Estragon first refer
to it as the place where they are going to meet Mr. Godot. Yet, as time goes by, the meaning of the tree
differs in their eyes. They see it as a means of death. That is, they can use its branches to hang themselves
and thus break free from the troubles of the world. This is an indication of despair which is one of main
elements of absurd drama.
Sixth, Beckett chooses a strange kind of language for his characters to signify that they do not
belong to a certain culture or to a particular place. It reflects the isolation of man during this century. The
dialogue is a series of cliches. Beckett aims only to stress that language has become the last means of
communication among people and that speaking is the only action done by his characters. Language lost
its function in the modern world and became a sort of habit. The many short sentences, typical of absurd
drama, refer to the lack of communication in an age where each word is weighed carefully before it is
uttered. Perhaps this last social means will die out in the future.
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