UNIT 3 WAITING FOR GODOT: THEMES Waiting for Godot:

Themes and

AND CHARACTERIZATION Characterization

Structure

3.0 Objective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Brief Comments and Important Questions
3.3 Critical Analysis : Act II
3.4 Let Us Sum Up
3.5 Glossary
3.6 Check Your Progress: Possible Questions

3.0 OBJECTIVE
The objective of this unit is to complete the critical analysis of the play and
establish connections between Acts I and 2.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Before we resume analysis of the text, we will raise some questions, which
you will do well to answer so that you can follow the discussion of the play.

3.2 BRIEF COMMENTS AND IMPORTANT

POINTS TO PONDER OVER: ACT II
As the curtain goes down on Act I, we find the two tramps frozen in their
situation. Going by your experience of reading plays by other playwrights,
what expectation do you have in this play when the curtain goes up in the
second Act?

In the first Act, we found Estragon and Vladimir waiting for the elusive
Godot. Do you think the two tramps would not be ‘waiting for Godot’ as
expectantly as they did in the first Act? You would recall that in the first Act,
the two tramps do not state exactly what they expect Godot to do for them.
Can you make a guess about their expectation?

Do they expect him to improve their life in any specific manner? Is there any
indication about it in the play?

Or, do you think they will give up their wait for him?
If they terminate their wait, where would they go? Do they have anywhere to
go?

As noted earlier, Beckett presents a stark austere setting and deprives his
characters of any antecedents, and gives them little human dignity. In view of 155
Samuel Beckett: this existentialist situation do you think the tramps will achieve anything
Waiting For Godot
even if Godot came? To put it differently, would their waiting or not -waiting
for Godot make any difference to their life?

And, in the background of this existentialist situation, is any fulfilment

possible in the life of Estragon and Vladimir?

We will discuss various aspects of the play in later units of the study
material. However, to understand the structure of the play, please make note
of repetitions and differences at all levels in the play, especially keeping in
mind the situation of the two tramps and their relationship with each other.

Towards the end of both the Acts the two tramps propose to move and yet
don't and the curtain in both cases fall with the stage directions: "They don't
move."

Is there any finality at the ends of the two Acts? Why or why not?

3.3 CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ACT II

When the curtain goes up at the beginning of Act II, we see that the tree,
which was leafless in the first Act, has four or five leaves. Vladimir,
however, exaggerates on p. 60 and says, "it's covered with leaves." The swift
leafing keeps the tree at the center of attention and speculation. Beckett gets a
great deal from this visual image: it can stand for spring, as Estragon
comments; for renewals, and the cycle of life. The leafing can stand for hope
as well. Yet the tree is associated with death, since the two planned to hang
themselves from it, and reminds us of Christ's crucifixion.

Vladimir moves about feverishly on the stage and suddenly begins to sign a
dog song-an old Gelman ballad.

When we go through the seemingly circular dog song, it appears we could go

on and on with it; it seems never-ending, but Vladimir's brooding repetition
of the word "tomb" "tomb" and "tomb" gives that idea a conclusiveness, a
finality; the word itself conveys a final destination. The song is circular, but
the effect is linear. Its syntax, using so simple a vocabulary, with its
repetition and its emphasis on death, brings to mind Lucky's very different
speech in Act I. The dog song ends with "tomb ", and Lucky's speech ends
with 'I the labours abandoned left unfinished . . . so calm . . . cunard . . .
unfinished . . ,." We thus see a presentation of balance and antithesis
throughout the play.

The Meeting of the two tramps in Act II begins on a note identical to the one
we have at the beginning of Act I.

In Act I, Estragon was joined by Vladimir, it is vice-versa here. Also,

Vladimir's invitation to embrace in Act II is slightly differently worded. At
the end of the embrace Estragon who is no longer supported by Vladimir,
156 almost falls. This manifests the complementary nature of their relationship,
Nonetheless, their nagging continues and each claims to be better off without Waiting for Godot:
Themes and
the other. Vladimir also questions Estragon about his tormentors and whether Characterization
they beat him again. Their beating of Estragon defies all reason.

Both the tramps, nonetheless, feel happy having come together and would
wait for Godot. Things also seem changed since the previous day. But
Estrogen's statement: “It's never the same pus” is a sick remark about living
and the passage of time; it hints also at its (life and time's) irreversibility/
irreversible movement/unidirectional movement.

Estragon has forgotten everything which took place the previous day.
Vladimir attempts to remind him to end up with another sick remark about
his life condition. He has, he states, crawled about in the mud all his lousy
life, and never stirred from the muck heap of lit. Vladimir unsuccessfully
attempts to calm him down, but Estragon expresses his disgust at his failed
life saying, "I've puked my puke of a life" (p.62). He also echoes Pozzo's
words about Lucky (p.32) and wishes. "The best thing would be to kill me,
like the other." Vladimir, however, reminds him of the Biblical saying, "To
every man his little cross… Till he dies…And is forgotten."

The two are inexhaustible in inventing new ways of passing time (see
discussion of the play). They once again lapse into music hall cross-talk
wherein they speak of the dead voices, which according to Martin Esslin are
"the rustling, murmuring voices of the past, are the voices we hear in the
three novels of his trilogy; they are the voices that explore the mysteries of
being and self to the limits of anguish and suffering. Vladimir and Estragon
are trying to escape hearing them."

The cross-talk here stresses that death is as inadequate as life, and at the end
of it they once again fall back on Godot.

As a means of passing time they propose different things: to sing, to think or

to contradict each other, or ask each other questions. They also agree that if
they thought less, there will be that much less misery, since "to think is to be
full of sorrow" - as Keats would have us believe.

To the two tramps, the audience and the auditorium assume metaphorical and
existentialist proportions. In another example of Brechtian influence, their
remark, "where are these corpses... skeletons… A charnel-house! A charnel
house" embraces the audience and the auditorium (wherein copses/skeleton
and charnel house refer to audience and auditorium respectively).

Lucky's speech in Act I emphasized the failure of religion and science to help
mankind in such a world, Estragon now suggests that they turn to nature for
'succour'. But Vladimir knows that that too has failed.

Looking at the tree "covered with leaves" they become unsure about the place
of their last visit. Their inability to recall the past truthfully is compounded
by the fact that nothing has happened in their life for over half-century.
Besides, there is nothing certain in Beckett's world. Estragon, by association; 157
Samuel Beckett: tries to recall their earlier visit through the kick Lucky gave him; he,
Waiting For Godot
however, does not remember the bones given by Pozzo. Vladimir wishes to
confirm it by showing the wound Estragon had received, which has begun to
fester in a day's time-so fast is the process of degeneration. The idea of the
uncertainty is further underlined by Estragon's unsureness about the colour of
his boots.

Throughout this exchange, Vladimir has been patiently leading his friend
towards what he hopes (vainly, as it turns out) will be an incontrovertible
demonstration of the fact that they were in very truth at the same spot the
previous evening. Such small insignificant and absurd situations in their life
enable the two to have the "impression" that they exist, The use of the word
'impression' gives a feeling of vagueness about their existence; "the
impression" means we believe that something is the case, often when it is not
actually so. Such is their life, in line with the motif of uncertainty (and
vagueness about the identity of Godot, the exact time and place of their
appointment with Godot) is their indefiniteness about the boots which
Estragon had left behind when the curtain went down on the First Act.
Further, the boots, which Estragon now finds "too big," reinforce what
Lucky's speech had stated about human life. About the boots, Beckett wrote
to Duckworth.

'The second-day boots are no doubt the same as first and Estragon's feet
wasted, pined, shrunk, and dwindled in the interval’ as Lucky's speech had
warned. This evokes further questions: how does it happen overnight? Is
there a longer interval between the two Acts than is indicated in the play? Is
the 'next day' being used metaphorically rather than literally?

Desiring to rest now Estragon angrily puts an end to the discussion about the
boots. He soon falls asleep in a fetal posture while Vladimir sings a lullaby in
a loud voice. The whole sequence brings out the mother-child relationship
between the two tramps, (cf. shoes should be aired.) This is reinforced by
Vladimir's laying his coat across sleeping Estragon's shoulder and his
maternal assurance to the scared 'child' (Estragon), when the latter "wakes
with a start,'' and, "casts about wildly." (p.70).

Tired, Estragon suggests they leave but is reminded by Vladimir that they are
‘waiting for Godot’. He also complains about the night that does not fall. The
night which will bring only temporary relief followed by a long period of
despair, the next day.

Vladimir rebukes him for always complaining about things. To be able to

pass time and fill the void, the two, now, decide to re-enact the Pozzo -Lucky
drama, with Vladimir choosing to play Lucky. He asks Estragon to curse
him, as Pozzo cursed Lucky earlier in the play. Estragon begins with a mild
one and later calls him "Gonococcus! Spirochaete!" (p.73). In a huff,
Estragon exits left but rushes back to Vladimir fearing the arrival of his
tormentors. He, however, is uncertain about their identity and their number.
158
Vladimir, nonetheless, assures Estragon that it is Godot and that they are Waiting for Godot:
Themes and
saved. Estragon next rushes to the right and finds them coming there too. It is Characterization
a "no exit" situation for him when Vladimir tells him: There is no way out
there.

Beckett thus humorously exploits the fact of being in a theatre. Fletcher

remarks - "the stage, in Beckett, has a particular reality, it is not a facsimile of
a middle-class living room as in a drawing-room comedy, but a place in its
own right… The stage is an emblem of the notion of imprisonment."

In yet another example of Brechtian influence, Vladimir gestures toward the

audience and remarks, “There! Not a soul in sight!”. The statement further
brings into focus the existentialist theme in the play.

Vladimir suggests Estragon to disappear, whereas the latter attempts to hide

behind the tree, but fails. They now stand back to back to watch out for the
'coming' people. Once again they suggest playing a game to pass time. Now
they decide to abuse each other.

They call each other moron, vermin, abortion, sewer-rat, morpion, curate, etc.
Estragon calls Vladimir "Critic" and silences him. Beckett, the creative writer
seems censorious of critics, using the term opprobriously. Using "critic" as an
abuse seems the ultimate. Besides, from a highly formal note, their banter
degenerates into personal abuse.

Soon they make it up. Vladimir acts maternally once again and invites him to
his 'breast'. They, once again, lapse into a music hall cross-talk and then
decide to do their exercises, including deep breathing. Estragon however is
tired breathing. A seemingly innocuous remark, once more, points at the
existentialist dimensions of the play and expresses Estragon's sense of the
futility of living. He shouts for God's pity and is joined by Vladimir.

Pozzo and Lucky enter, Pozzo is blind and is now led by the latter Lucky.
The rope has become much shorter. This too fits well in the scheme of things
where humans shrink and dwindle. With the distance between the two
reduced, they seem to have come closer to each other, existentially, too. One
may ask: Has Pozzo, the master, become his servant’s dependant? Are the
roles reversed?
A Pozzo-Lucky couple here seems to illustrate Gloucester's line in King Lear,
“Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind."
Lucky and Pozzo fall and shout for help. With their arrival, Vladimir hopes,
they will be able to see the evening out. While these two discuss whether to
help the fallen Pozzo or not, the latter keeps shouting for it. Vladimir does
not wish to waste time in idle discourse and wishes the two of them to avail
of the chance to help Pozzo, as a representative of "mankind", the "foul brood
to which a cruel fate has consigned us". (p.79).
Lost in a diatribe against fate and humanity, Vladimir goes tangential and
does not hear Pozzo's cries for help. In this ''immense confusion", that the
world is, he finds only one thing certain they are Waiting for Godot. 159
Samuel Beckett: Vladimir is conscious of the unavailing nature of the games they play to fill
Waiting For Godot
the void while ‘waiting for Godot’. It's a sort of self-deception. Vladimir
looks at the chance to help Pozzo as a "diversion" amid immense confusion,
amid nothingness.

Vladimir, finally, tries to pull Pozzo to his feet but fails and himself falls. He
too shouts for help now. After a long dilly-dallying Estragon extends a
helping hand to Vladimir, but he falls on the "sweet mother earth," where he
wants to have a little nap. "This multiple fall Beckett sees as the visual
expression of their common situation and as being related to the threat in the
play of everything falling.” (Fletcher, p. 68).

Disturbed by Pozzo's cries, Estragon suggests Vladimir to silence him by

kicking him in the crotch, which he does. Once again they invite Pozzo, who
does not respond. They call him Abel, and Lucky Cain, and imagine the blind
Pozzo to have the power to see into the future.

Together they hoist Pozzo, his arms around their necks. They cart him
around, for a while. Vladimir uses Latin Memoriapraeteritorum bonorum to
describe Pozzo thinking of his past happiness. The two tramps, you will
observe, can quote the Bible and Shakespeare, and speak Latin. How lightly
they carry their erudition! Is Beckett ridiculing scholarly pursuit in much the
same way as he ridicules a critic's vocation in Godot?

Speaking of his blindness Pozzo informs them that he "woke up one fine day
as blind as fortune" (86). Pozzo questions them about their whereabouts and
asks, "isn't by any chance the place known as the Board”-a humorous
reference to the theatre. Vladimir's faithful description of the stage and its
properties, and Pozzo's response thereto on p. 87: "Then it's not the Board," is
reminiscent of critics' initial reactions to Beckett's avant-garde theatre. It also
shows how Beckett was able to anticipate critics' responses to Godot.

Pozzo enquires about his menial and suggests ways of awakening him from
his sleep, which will provide Estragon an opportunity to "revenge" himself,
Finding Lucky breathing, Estragon begins to kick him, but in turn, he hurts
himself and comes limping and groaning. Pozzo who had till now not
recognized Vladimir and Estragon does so now and gets ready to leave.
Lucky we learn carries sand, a symbol of burden and of time (in an
hourglass), in his bag.

Pozzo, in his blindness, has acquired a new insight into the meaning of life
and human existence, which underlines the absurdity of life, Life is a mere
series of meaningless repetitious activities. The journey from womb to tomb
is full of miseries. Delivery is no deliverance.

Pozzo's last word "On!" as he leaves the stage, (on p. 88) now closely tied to
Lucky, is leading them both to death. That "On!" is itself tied to Pozzo's most
important last words: "They give us birth astride of a grave…", which make
the first significant existentialist statement on human life.
160
After Pozzo and Lucky leave Vladimir makes comments on his own Waiting for Godot:
Themes and
condition, on the cries of a tormented man and innocent babe, on watchers Characterization
and watched, on those awake and those asleep. A series of seeming balances
and anti-theses, and complementarities, but again the emphasis is on death.
He repeats Pozzo's words, "Astride of a grave . . . puts on the forceps" (p.89).
He uses the imagery of childbirth by forceps: Obstetrician becomes grave
digger, and forceps correspond to shovel. Vladimir's journey is slower than
Pozzo's; the crucial word is "lingeringly". His is a long day's journey into the
night-so painful that he says, "I can't go on!"

In a repeat of the first Act, we have the Boy. Vladimir, unlike in Act I, asks
the Boy no questions. Instead, he makes statements. For the first time,
Vladimir asks him about Godot, and if he has a beard. The Boy replies, "I
think it is white Sir. According to Beckett, the whiteness shows that Godot is
very old: if he were less experienced there might be some hope" (Fletcher, p.
70).

Under these circumstances, Vladimir asks for God's pity for both, and
possibly for the entire humanity. Disappointed with Godot's non-arrival and
the futility of wait they think of leaving, bowing they can't go far away from
here as they will have to come back to wait for Godot the next day. Estragon
proposes 'Let's go," but "they do not move." The pattern is repeated. It further
reinforces the static nature of the action in the play. They have nowhere to
move to. It is all a landscape of barrenness and despair, of Dr. Faustus:

Faustus: Where are you damn'd?

Mephistopheles: In hell.
Faustus: How comes it then that thou art out of hell?
Mephistopheles: Why this is hell, nor am I out of it. (I, iii, 75-78).
Nor are the two tramps out of their hopeless situation in life.

3.4 LET US SUM UP

Waiting for Godot is a play with a difference and so it has been called an
avant-garde play. In the previous units, we have analysed the play covering
both the acts, highlighting scenes, sequences, characters, language, and issues
that the play raises.

3.5 GLOSSARY
Music Hall:
Variety entertainment of songs and comic turns at which the audience could
buy a drink. It developed from the tavern entertainments. Gradually with
changes in the theatrical licensing laws, the pub connection vanished though
it was normal for there to be bars around the main music hall so that the
entertainment could be combined with alcoholic refreshments. The
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Samuel Beckett: programmes of the music hall in its heyday were really 'variety' shows in
Waiting For Godot
nature. Songs and comedy were accompanied by acrobats, animal acts, and
even interludes by legitimate actors, ballet dancers, etc. The 1960s have seen
something of a revival, however, starting, just where music halls did
originally, as free entertainment in bars of working-class public houses.
In 'cross-talk' two comedians swap gags or fail comically to understand each
other. Nowadays it is no longer a living form of entertainment. Usually, of
the two comedians, one is a 'straight' man and the other a 'funny' man. The
comedy arises out of comedian 'A' trying, for instance, to explain to 'B', the
complexities of the traffic system or income-tax rules, and feign
exasperations at the latter's comic propensity for getting the wrong end of the
stick. An echo of this sort of comedy can be heard frequently in the quickfire
exchanges between Vladimir and Estragon in this play.
The myth of Sisyphus:
In Greek mythology son of Aeolus whence, he is called Aeolides. He was
named to Merope, a daughter of Atlas, and became by her the father of
Glaucus, Ornytion, Thersander, and Halmus. In later accounts, he is called a
son of Autolycus, and the father of Ulysses by Anticlea; whence we find
Ulysses sometimes called Sisyphides. He is said to have built the town of
Ephyra, afterward Corinth. As king of Corinth, he promoted navigation and
commerce, but he was fraudulent and avaricious. His wickedness was
punished in the lower world, where he was condemned forever to roll uphill a
marble block, which as soon as it reached the top always rolled down again.
Vaudeville:
More or less the American equivalent of British music hall, vaudeville
consists of a series of comic, musical, acrobatic actions, deriving from the
rough vulgar beer. hall entertainments of the middle 19th century. The
heyday of vaudeville was almost exactly contemporary with that of music
hall, from the early 1890s to the mid-1920s; and in America as in Britain, it
was ousted mainly by the cinema, particularly the talkies.
Existentialism:
It may be defined as a school of thought based on the conception of the
absurdity of the universe and the consequent meaninglessness and futility of
human life and action; as Sartre has put it--all human activities are
equivalent, all are destined…to defeat. One of the basic tenets of Sartre's
existentialism is that man can shape his own destiny by the exercise of his
will in the face of the given set of potentialities which is his life. The main
premise is the concrete fact that man exists; predetermination is denied. Man
has freedom of choice and action; and each man's actions, while subjectively
inspired, influence other people, so every individual is responsible to
humanity as a whole. No dogmatic solutions to the eternal questions of
ultimate origins or endings are offered. A man can choose his faith. An
existentialist, says Sartre, can be Christian or atheist.
(From Everyman's Encyclopaedia)
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Adamov, Arthur (1908-70) French playwright of Armenian origin. Waiting for Godot:
Themes and
Adamov's twenties and thirties were marked by loneliness and neurosis, Characterization
chronicled in L'Aveu I (The Confusion, 1946) and L'Hommie et L’Enfant
(Man and Child, 1968). He began writing plays after the Second World War.
The masterpiece of this period is Professor Taranne (1953). In 1955 when
the theatre of the Absurd, with which his name had been linked, was
becoming well known, Adamov's Ping Pong heralded a move towards a more
politicized theatre. His other plays are Paolo Paoli (1957) Off Limits (1969)
If Summer Returned (1970).

Balzac, Honorefde (1799-1 850) depicted French society with utmost

realism. His greatness lies in his ability to transcend mere representation and
to infuse his novels with a kind of "suprarealism". Another aspect of Balzac's
extreme realism lies in his attention to the prosaic exigencies of everyday
life.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) During his early period in his career Brecht
trained actors and began to develop the theory of dramatic technique known
as epic theatre. Rejecting the methods of traditional realistic drama, he
preferred a loose narrative form in which he used distancing devices such as
asides and masks to create a historical frame around the action. The technique
prevents the spectator from identifying with the characters on stage. This is
known as the alienation effect.

Camus, Albert (b. Mondovi, French Algeria, 1913, died France, 1960). He
was a philosopher, novelist, and playwright. He believed human beings are
not absurd and the world is not absurd, but for humans to be in the world is
absurd. Attracted by the theatre, he organized the avant-garde drama group,
Theatre de Equipe in 1935 and worked with it until 1938. Among his
important plays are The Misunderstanding, Caligula, State of Siege, 1948,
and The Just Assassins 1950. His The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955, brought
immediate recognition to him. In 1957, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize
for literature, no mean achievement for a person born of humble parents - an
itinerant agricultural labourer for their father and a charwoman for his
mother.

Heidegger, Martin (1 889-1 976), a German philosopher, who developed

existential phenomenology.

In Sein und Zeit (Being and Time, 1927), Heidegger was concerned with the
philosophical question: What is it, to be? What kind of "being" human beings
are? They are, he said, thrown into a world that they have not made, but that
consists of potentially useful things, including cultural as well as natural
objects. Heidegger posited a fundamental relation between the mode of being
of objects, of humanity, and of the structure of time. The individual,
according to him, is, however, always in danger of being submerged in the
world of objects. The feeling of dread (Angst) brings the individual to a
confrontation with death and the ultimate meaninglessness of life, but only in
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Samuel Beckett: this confrontation can an authentic sense of Being and of freedom be
Waiting For Godot
attained.

Ionesco, Eugene ([Link], 1912, naturalised French citizen). At a

performance of an Ionesco play, there is considerable laughter in the
audience: it is a man laughing at his own emptiness, his own triviality.
Ionesco's first few plays are The Bald Soprano and La Lecon (The Lessons,
1950), Rhinoceros, and Anedee 1953. He calls his plays "comic dramas" or
"tragic farces," because the elements of the comic and tragic are not fused.
For Ionesco they co-exist, and each stands as a criticism of the other. In 1981,
a new play Voyages Chez Les Morts (Journeys to the Homes of the Dead)
recaptured the hallucinatory quality of early work.

Kierkegaard, Soren Aabye (1813-1855), Danish religious philosopher,

whose concern with individual existence, choice, and commitment
profoundly influenced modem theology and philosophy, especially
existentialism. He applied the term existential to his philosophy because he
regarded philosophy as the expression of an intensely examined individual
life. Kierkegaard stressed the ambiguity and paradoxical nature of the human
situation. The fundamental problems of life, he contended, were to defy
rational, objective explanation; the highest truth is subjective.

Kierkegaard maintained that systematic philosophy not only imposes a false

perspective on human existence, but that, it also, by explaining life in terms
of logical necessity, becomes a means of avoiding choice and responsibility.
Individuals, he believed, create their own natures through their choices,
which must be made in the absence of universal, objective standards. The
validity of a choice can only be determined subjectively.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. First gave the term existentialism general currency by

using it for his own philosophy. Sartre's philosophy is atheistic and
pessimistic. He declared that human life is a "futile passion." Sartre,
nevertheless, insisted that his existentialism is a form of humanism, and he
strongly emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility. Much of
Sartre's work focuses on the dilemma of choice faced by free individuals and
on the challenge of creating meaning by acting responsibly in an indifferent
world. In stating that "man is condemned to be free,'' Sartre reminds us of the
responsibility that accomplishing human decisions.

3.6 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE

QUESTIONS
1. What changes have Pozzo and Lucky undergone during the course of the
play?
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164 …………………………………………………………………………….
2. Do you observe any difference in Pozzo's demeanour in Act II? Does he Waiting for Godot:
Themes and
seem to be more serious and more philosophical than he is in Act I? Characterization
What do you think is the reason for it, and what is its significance?
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3. Do you see any change in the language of Pozzo compared to that he
uses in the first Act?
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4. Does the language used in Act II express the sense of metaphysical
anguish more explicitly than it did in the first Act?
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5. What difference do you see in the relationship between Lucky and
Pozzo? Is there a reversal of roles in Act II?
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6. How far, do you think, is Act II a repeat of Act I? Do you see any
development in terms of plot, theme, and characters in Act II?
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165
Samuel Beckett: 7. How does the ending of Act II compare with the ending of Act I? Do you
Waiting For Godot
find the end of Act II more optimistic or pessimistic than that of Act I? If
so why? Give examples.

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166