The waiting in Waiting for Godot

The Absurd Theatre is genre that is associated with the name Beckett
and vice versa.. Although Samuel Beckett wrote poems, essays and novels,
he clicked as a playwright. He is considered to be one of the first
postmodernist and the father of the Theater of the Absurd. This play takes
place on an empty country road by a tree at evening while two old tramps
are waiting for unknown person with the name Godot, and this is what they
do throughout the two acts of the play. Many readers think that this play is
pointless and meaningless and that Vladimir and Estragon are waiting doing
nothing. However, while those two characters are waiting doing nothing,
they are actually doing something. And the verb ‘waiting’ is truly the core of
the play The two characters of the play are actually playing. They are playing
with language, playing games and they take very long”pauses” and
“silences” throughout the play.

Vladimir and Estragon are creative when it comes to playing with

language. They repeat each other’s and their own sentences, words and
phrases. In the article ‘Beckett’s German Godot’ by Ruby Chon she talks
about ‘doublets’ and ‘triplets’ which are kinds of the repetition of language in
the play. The doublet repetition it takes more than one form in the play. Here
is one form:
Estragon: our relaxation
Vladimir: our elongation
Estragon: our relaxation

Estragon: relaxation
Vladimir: recreation
Estragon: relaxation
 Estragon: the circus
Vladimir: music-hall
Estragon: the circus

Estragon: like leaves

Vladimir: like sand
Estragon: like leaves

These two are like a repetition that echoes:

Vladimir: say I am happy

Estragon: I am happy
Vladimir: So am I
Estragon: So am I
Vladimir: We are happy
Estragon: We are happy

Estragon: what did we do yesterday?

Vladimir: what did we do yesterday?

The triplet repetition is like this:

Estragon: Does it hurts?
Vladimir: Hurts? He wants to know if it hurts

Vladimir: Christ! What has Christ got to do with it.You’re not going to
compare yourself to Christ!

These kinds of repetition give a rhythm as if we are reading or listening to a

poem. However there are some sentences repeated so many times that the
readers and the audience cannot help but feeling that they are the themes of
the play. Throughout the play Vladimir keeps on repeating that they are
“waiting for Godot.” Actually, he repeats it for eight times and ninth was by
Estragon. Also “nothing to be done” is repeated two times by Vladimir and
two times by Estragon. And “passed the time” or “will pass the time” is
repeated five times, only once by Estragon. Also they abuse each other by
words while they wait: ‘VLADIMIR: Moron! ESTRAGON: Vermin! VLADIMIR:
Abortion! ESTRAGON: Morpion! VLADIMIR: Sewer-rat! ESTRAGON: Curate!
VLADIMIR: Cretin! ESTRAGON: Crritic! While they are waiting Vladimir sings
not once, but twice in act two. At the beginning of act two Vladimir moves
around the stage and start singing a song about a dog who stole a crust of
bread. It has a catchy rhythm and it can be sung forever, it mirrors Vladimir
situation that has no end. The other song Vladimir sings is lullaby to put
Estragon to sleep.

Beckett said “it is a game, everything is a game.” They don’t play with
language only but they also play games. They play the guessing game. In act
one after Lucky’s dance, Vladimir and Estragon try to guess the dance’s
name. Estragon thinks it is The Scapegoat's Agony, Vladimir thinks it is The
Hard Stool while the correct name is The Net. Moreover in act two when
Lucky and Pozzo enter and fall and Pozzo starts yelling for help, Estagon try
to remember their names by guessing them. He guessed Cain for Lucky and
Able for Pozzo. However, the funniest game they play is swapping the three
hats. In act two , when they find Lucky’s hat, Vladimir takes off his and wears
Lucky’s while Estragon takes off his and wears Vladimir’s and the game goes
on until Vladimir ends up wearing Lucky’s hat and throwing away his.
Another game is Pozzo and Lucky. It is an interlude play, a play within a play.
In act two and after they exchanged the hats, Vladimir suggest to Estragon
playing Pozzo and Lucky. Where Vladimir plays Lucky, Estragon plays Pozzo.

The pause and the silence are very significant and Estragon and
Vladimir are taking them on purpose for they are a very specific stage
direction. Beckett said that the silence throughout the play is like pouring
water into a sinking ship. Taking a silence and pauses nearly the whole play
is actually playing; playing the absence of language. The silence and the
pauses are expressing what the language didn’t express; their frustration,
discomfort anxiety which the audience, the readers would feel. The silence
and the pauses are explicit as the dialogue itself. And they have done their
purpose; while Vladimir and Estragon wait with every pause and every
silence they take, we the audience, the readers await with them.

Therefore, the waiting in Waiting for Godot is the essence of the play. Without
playing with language, playing with games and taking pauses and silence;
the play would fall apart and perhaps there will be no play.