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.
A) The playwrights of this technique depend much on showing the inner states of the
mind.
B) Absurd plays took a highly unusual form, directly aiming to shock the viewer. They
are surreal, illogical, conflict less, and plotless.
C) Absurd drama uses traditional speeches, clichés, slogans, and technical language.
D) 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.
page 1
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 selfknowledge 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."
page 2
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 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
page 3
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.
page 4
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.
page 5