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WAITING FOR GODOT

- Samuel Beckett

Introduction: The Theatre of Absurd literally means out of harmony. Ionesco, who is considered as one of the major dramatists of the school of the absurd, defines, the Absurd as that which is devoid of ur ose!. cut off from his reli"ious, meta hysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost, all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless. In #ec$etts words, human life is the endurance and tolerance to the boredom of livin" re laced by the sufferin" of bein". %amuel #ec$etts first lay, Waiting for Godot &'()*+ written ori"inally in ,rench is a lay in two Acts, in which two characters wait for someone named -odot, who never arrives. It does not tell a story, and it does not have a lot. Instead, it e. lores a static situation where nothin" ha awful human condition. The lay has a symmetrical structure. There are two Acts, two messen"er boys, and two sets of characters, that is /ladimir and 0stra"on, and 1o22o and 3uc$y. It a ears to have been structured on sets of binaries. It is considered that the structural attern of the lay is both arallel and circular. The two acts, each made u of four identical sections. Analysis: In this lay, the situation is Godot is one of monotonous sameness, and er etual recurrence, indicatin" that this cyclic attern will continue li$e an unbro$en circle till the end of time. 4e are waiting for Godot is an endless refrain that occurs in both acts. The futility and the monotony of such a wait is the lin$ that holds both Acts to"ether. This is hei"htened by the s arse sta"e decor. There is only an o en country road with a leafless tree. #ec$ett has not laced his characters in a s ecific lace or time. 5e thus lends his lay a universal dimension in terms of time and s ace. ens, nobody comes and nobody "oes. It re resents an

/ladimir, who is one of the two main characters of the lay seems to be more res onsible and mature. 5e is addressed as 6idi by 0stra"on and as 7r. Albert by the boy. 4hile 0stra"on, the second of the two main characters, is called as -o"o by /ladimir. 0stra"on seems to be wea$, hel less and always loo$in" for /ladimirs rotection. The ne.t set of characters are 1o22o and 3uc$y. 1o22o is the erson who asses by the s ot, where /ladimir and 0stra"on are waitin" beside a leafless tree. 5owever, 1o22o becomes blind in the second act and does not remember meetin" /ladimir and 0stra"on. 3uc$y is the ne.t character re resented as slave to 1o22o. 5e carries 1o22os ba"s and stool. In the first act, he entertains by dancin" and thin$in" aloud.however, in the second act he is found dumb. And, the ne.t im ortant characters are the boy who acts as a messen"er to -odot. 5e a ears at the end of each act to inform ears, his name is often /ladimir that -odot is "oin" to come on the ne.t day. -odot, is the man for whom /ladimir and 0stra"on are waitin" unendin"ly. -odot never a thou"ht to refer to -od, who does not arrive in the lay. In Act I, the two Tram s, /ladimir and 0stra"on, wait beside a leafless tree for -odot assin" time in verbal "ames. The lay follows two consecutive days in the lives of a air of men who divert themselves while they wait e. ectantly and unsuccessfully for someone named -odot who never arrives. They claim that they $now him, but in fact they have $now ac8uaintance with him as they admit that they would not reco"nise him if seen. To en"a"e themselves, they sin", lay "ames, eat, tal$, slee and contem late suicide9 anythin" :to hold the terrible silence at bay:. Two characters, 1o22o and his slave 3uc$y arrive on the scene. 1o22o treats his slave rather horribly. 3uc$y has to dance and thin$ aloud to entertain his master and the tram s. After sometime they leave and a boy arrives. The boy, obviously a messen"er from -odot, informs the tram s that -odot will definitely come the ne.t day. In Act II, there is no chan"e in the scene. ;ontinuin" to wait, 1o22o and 3uc$y enter a"ain. 1o22o is now blind and 3uc$y is dumb. <nce a"ain they leave, and the boy arrives with the same messa"e. Thou"h determined to leave, the tram s do not move. <nly the tree has a few leaves in Act II, otherwise there is no chan"e in the act.

Act I
The lay o ens with the character 0stra"on stru""lin" to remove his boot from his foot. 0stra"on eventually "ives u , mutterin", :=othin" to be done.: 5is friend /ladimir ta$es u the thou"ht and muses on it, the im lication bein" that nothin" is a thin" that has to be done and this air is "oin" to have to s end the rest of the lay doin" it. 4hen 0stra"on finally succeeds in removin" his boot, he loo$s and feels inside but finds nothin". >ust rior to this, /ladimir eers into his hat. The motif recurs throu"hout in the lay. Their waitin" is interru ted by the assin" throu"h of 1o22o and his heavily-laden slave 3uc$y, who may, accordin" to #ec$ett, :shatter the s ace of the lay:.1o22o and 3uc$y have been seen to re resent a sort of double of /ladimir and 0stra"on, with similar roles, an.ieties and incertitudes. At one oint, /ladimir observes that they are :tied to -odot: as 3uc$y is tied to 1o22o. /ladimir also refers to 0stra"on as a : i": several times later in the lay, echoin" 1o22o?s abuse of 3uc$y.

Act II
Act II o ens with /ladimir sin"in" a round about a do" which serves to illustrate the cyclical nature of the lays universe, and also oints toward the lay?s debt to the carnivales8ue, music hall traditions and vaudeville comedy &this is only one of a number of canine references and allusions in the lay+. There is a bit of reali2ation on /ladimir?s art that the world they are tra ed in evinces convoluted ro"ression &or lac$ thereof+ of time. 5e be"ins to see that althou"h there is notional evidence of linear ro"ression, basically he is livin" the same day over and over. 0u"ene 4ebb writes of /ladimir?s son" that Time in the son" is not a linear se8uence, but an endlessly reiterated moment, the content of which is only one eternal event@ death. 1o22o and 3uc$y then arrive, with 1o22o now blind and insistin" that 3uc$y is dumb. The ro e is now much shorter and 3uc$y A who has ac8uired a new hat A leads 1o22o, rather than bein" driven by him. 1o22o has lost all notion of time, and assures

them he cannot remember meetin" them the day before, and that he does not e. ect to remember the current days events when they are over

3uc$y and 1o22o de art. The same boy returns to inform them not to e. ect -odot today, but he would arrive the ne.t day. The two a"ain consider suicide but their ro e, 0stra"ons belt, brea$s in two when they tu" on it. 0stra"on?s trousers fall down, but he doesnt notice till /ladimir tells him to ull them u . They resolve to brin" a more suitable iece and han" themselves the ne.t day, if -odot fails to arrive. A"ain, they a"ree to leave but neither of them ma$e any move to "o.

Throu"hout the wor$ one can find reli"ious, hiloso hical, classical, sychoanalytical and bio"ra hical A es ecially wartime A references, there are ritualistic as ects and elements literally lifted from vaudeville and there is a dan"er in ma$in" more of these than what they are@ that is, merely structural conveniences, avatars into which the writer laces his fictional characters. The lay e. loits several archety al forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and athos. Waiting for Godot also illustrates an attitude toward man?s e. erience on earth@ the oi"nancy, o ression, camaraderie, ho e, corru tion, and bewilderment of human e. erience that can only be reconciled in mind and art of the absurdist. If -odot is -od, then 6idi and -o"o?s &man$ind?s+ faith in -od is not only subject to doubt, but may also have almost entirely disa eared. Bet the illusion of faith9that dee ly embedded ho e that -odot mi"ht come9still flic$ers in the minds of /ladimir and 0stra"on. It is almost as if the faith of these two men has been tested to such e.tremes that they can erfectly well see the lo"ic of renouncin" it9but they cannot com letely Political@ It was seen as an alle"ory of the cold war, or of ,rench resistance to the -ermans. -raham 5assell writes, CTDhe intrusion of 1o22o and 3uc$y ! seems li$e nothin" more than a meta hor for Ireland?s view of mainland #ritain,

where society has ever been bli"hted by a "reedy rulin" Elite $ee in" the wor$in" classes assive and i"norant by whatever means. The air are often layed with Irish accents, an inevitable conse8uence, some feel, of #ec$ett?s rhythms and hraseolo"y, but this is not sti ulated in the te.t. E istentialist: #roadly s ea$in" e.istentialists hold there are certain 8uestions that everyone must deal with &if they are to ta$e human life seriously+, 8uestions such as death, the meanin" of human e.istence and the lace of -od in human e.istence. #y and lar"e they believe that life is very difficult and that it doesn?t have an :objective: or universally $nown value, but that the individual must create value by affirmin" it and livin" it, not by tal$in" about it. The lay touches u on all of these issues. !onclusion: All airs in the lay e.ercise lac$ of com assion9sometimes brutally, as when the main characters, always loo$in" at the advanta"e to themselves, see$ to $ic$, instead of hel , 1o22o, who is callin" out iteously for ity over and over a"ain. Is the island with the sin"le tree a lace of ur"atory in which airs eternally await an e. ression of com assion for their fellow, as one evildoer e. resses toward the ;hrist on the ;rossF Is -odot in fact not a man but ersonification of com assion that only arrives when created in the breast of man himselfF The boy comes to say -odot is not comin" just after the air in focus are articularly selfish and callous. The air of boys referenced in the lay are surely re resentin" mee$ness and ho e before com assion is consciously e.cluded by an evolvin" ersonality and character, and may be the youthful 1o22o and 3uc$yG in which case, 3uc$y would be the brother alle"edly beaten by -odot. That would ma$e 1o22o -odot, but also, since both main characters beat 3uc$y, they are also -odot.

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