Themes
Theme of the Meaninglessness of Life
The way the two tramps pass time is indicative of the boredom and triviality of human
activities, the lack of significance in life and the constant suffering which existence is. It also
brings out the hollowness and insincerity of most social intercourse. Estragon and Vladimir
question each other, contradict each other, abuse each other, become reconciled to each
other without any serious meaning or intention. All these devices are employed to one end to
the end of making their waiting for Godot less unbearable. Estragon takes off his boots,
gropes inside them, and shakes them out expecting something to fall out of them, but
nothing happens. Vladimir does the same with his hat, with the same result. The very
essence of boredom and triviality is concentrated in the scene in which Estragon and
Vladimir repeatedly put on and take off the three hats, their own and Lucky’s. It is this utter
lack of meaning which drives Estragon and Vladimir to thoughts of suicide, but the world of
this play is one in which no significant action is permitted; therefore even suicide is not within
their reach. In addition to trivial actions, the only other that are permitted are cruel ones, like
.that of beating Pozzo and Lucky
The Theme of Suffering
One of the themes of Waiting for Godot is that suffering is an inseparable part of the human
condition. Vladimir and Estragon suffer intensely and incessantly. Vladimir cannot even
laugh without suffering excruciating pain. Estragon’s feet make life a long torture for him.
They have nowhere to rest their head. On top of this, Estragon is beaten daily by some gang
of ruffians, without his providing them any sort of provocation. They have nothing to eat
either, except carrots, turnips and radishes. Vladimir pretends to like this muck as he eats it,
but Estragon is frank enough to confess that it becomes more and more unbearable as he
takes it. They have nothing to look back on except the days when they did not look so
shabby that they could go up Eiffel Tower and jump to their deaths from there. Even those
days were far from happy otherwise, for Estragon even then tried putting an end to his life by
jumping into the Rhone but Vladimir fished him out. Estragon wistfully recollects that he once
planned to go to the Holy Land for his honeymoon because he was enchanted by the colour
of the Dead Sea as shown in maps of the Holy Land in an edition of the Bible. The hopeless
ordeal of waiting for Godot, and the desperate devices which must be employed to make
time pass, are nerve-racking. Each day appears to end like its predecessor, with a message
.that Godot won’t be able to visit them that evening but would surely do so the next day
This suffering pervades the episode of Lucky and Pozzo also. Lucky gives expression to the
human condition by dancing what he styles the Dance of the Net. In Act II, both Lucky and
Pozzo have suffered great physical affliction. The enslaved and chained Lucky has now
been rendered dumb also. Pozzo, who led him on a rope in Act I can no longer be regarded
as master. Although he still abuses Lucky and calls him ‘pig’ and orders him about, in reality,
being blind, he is absolutely at Lucky’s mercy. It is Pozzo who expresses the misery of the
human lot in the striking metaphor of the birth astride a grave. And the worst of it is that the
suffering is both purposeless and without the consolation of a hoped-for end. A theme
related to that of suffering is the one of ignorance and the untrustworthiness of memory
Estragon is asleep while the second boy tells Vladimir that Godot would not come that
evening, Vladimir wonders whether he would be able to tell himself convincingly the next day
:that what is happening right now is a reality
Was I sleeping, while the others suffered ? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or“
think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall
of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us?
Probably. But in all that what truth will there be ?… He’ll know nothing. He’ll tell me about the
”.blows he received and I’ll give him a carrot
In Act l, Estragon is unable to recognize the place as one they have already visited. He says
so again in Act II. He is unable to recall Lucky and Pozzo, or insists that the meeting with
them took place in the remote past and not yesterday, as Vladimir claims. Pozzo does not
remember that he has met Estragon and Vladimir already. He shows frank incredulity when
Vladimir states that he and Lucky met them the previous day, that he gave chicken bones to
.Estragon and that Lucky danced and thought for them
On the other hand, he says that he became blind all of a sudden one day and that Lucky
became dumb in the same manner. Vladimir thinks that the second boy is the same as the
first. He seems satisfied by the thought that it might be the brother of the boy of the First Act,
but his suspicions are greatly aroused. He asks the boy sternly whether he would claim the
next day that he did not meet them or talked to them the previous day. In some profounder,
non-rational sense, everyone is ignorant to some extent. He believes that someone who has
a better view of things may know that Vladimir also is asleep when he claims to be awake
:and conscious
At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, he is sleeping, he knows“
”.nothing, let him sleep on
The Theme of Existentialism
Existentialism emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free. In Waiting for
Godot the very existence of human life is questioned. The portrait of daily life painted by
Waiting for Godot is a dismal one. It is repetitive and stagnant. It lacks meaning and purpose
and entails perpetual suffering. As one character says, “habit is a great deadener”—our
.actions should stem from conscious choice rather than apathy