Hope We’re still waiting for Godot, and shall continue to wait. When the scenery gets too drab and the action too slow, we’ll call each other names and swear to part for ever — but then, there’s no place to go! — San Quentin rison ournal, "ov ember #$%& Waiting for Godot by Samuel 'ec(ett is one of the most celebrated plays of the twentieth century. )ptimism, as the saying goes, is the nucleus of life. Sometimes a man has no choice but hope in vain, and this is what the Waiting for Godot deals deals with. *his is the horrible plight of the post war generation that the play foregrounds. *he play is a landmar( in modern drama and has been hailed as one of o f the greatest modern +uropean classics of -th entury. /t is considered as a milestone of modern 'ritish drama. 0*he drama. 0*he saddest play and yet the funniest’ declared the +nglish press for the simple reason that the theme of the play is serious but action is comic. /n other words, the play is tragicomedy in two 1cts because it combines tragic and comic elements. *he time of the plot is the present and the locale is a country road with a solitary tree which is barren. *he principal characters are a couple of tramps called 2ladimir and +stragon, o33o 4an affluent and tyrant master5, 6uc(y o33o’s decrepit slave who is treated li(e a beast of burden, whom o33o drives along by means of a rope tied round his nec(, and last of a 'oy, a messenger from Godot. *here is no female character in the play, which is the symbolic e7pression of the theme of sterility. *he ma8or theme themess of Waiting for Godot are are interminable waiting, ignorance, impotence, pang of mean e7istence, suffering of being, uncertainty vain optimism, futility and sterility of human life, purposelessness of human life, disintegration and so on. *he play is about two tramps waiting nowhere in particular for someone who never turns up. *his play shows two heroes whiling away the time in a succession of desultory and never9 ending games. *he act of waiting that we find in this play is futile but unavoidable. Waiting is an essential essen tial characteristi characteristicc of the human condit condition. ion. *he tramps are waiting for Godot, as 2ladimir says, :/n this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come; 4'ec(ett %#5. *heir waiting functions as an absurd parallel to our real lives, as we wait our whole lives to be happy for something. Sometimes we wonder if waiting is a habit because waiting is tied with hope, and there is no human e7istence without hope. /ndeed in our lives we have rational and practical hopes which may be fulfilled one day, but it proves li(e the tramps, who seem to have irrational hopes waiting for the mysterious Godot to come and to be 0saved’ 4'ec(ett <-5. 'ut there is no any hope for his arrival. So the 0waiting’ represents a common theme both in absurdity as well as in reality. =ence, it seems life is waiting, and all these activities happen while we are waiting. Godot seems to be the only hope in the lives of the tramps, who have no e7istence without the hope for Godot, therefore their future depends on that hope because the tramps truly believe that Godot can rescue them from their hardship and discomfort. 1ngela discomfort. 1ngela =otaling has the same idea of the tramps hope on Godot, goes on to e7plain it in such a way> *he characters 2ladimir and +stragon an7iously wait for Godot to come. *heir lives are spent waiting. *hey thin( that when Godot finally comes, they will be fulfilled or something. 'y, what? Godot will bring purpose and meaning to +stragon and 2ladimir’s life, and nothing else seems to have the ability to do this 4##9#5.
*he tramps hope to meet Godot continues their desire to fight for their lives as 2ladimir says, :6et’s wait and see what he 4Godot5 says@/’m curious to hear what he has to offer; 4'ec(ett #5. *he two tramps are in a place and mental state in which nothing happens and time stands still. *heir main preoccupation is to pass the time as well as they can until night comes and they can go. *hey realise the futility of their e7ercises and that they are merely filling up the hours, with pointless activity. /n this sense, their waiting is mechanicalA it is the same thing as not moving. /n another sense, it is an obligation. *hey have to remain where they are though they resent doing so and would li(e to leave. *his might be called a moral obligation, since it involves the possibilities of punishment and reward. /f Godot comes, a new factor may be introduced into their e7istence whereas if they leave they will certainly miss him. *heir waiting, therefore, contains a certain element of hope, no matter how cynical they may be about it. /f they terminate their wait, where would they go? Bo they have anywhere to go? *he answer is monosyllabic 0")’. *hey have no alternative but waiting. *hey have no option but to hope against hope. *hus with this infamous refrain :6et’s go.;—:We can’t.;—:Why not?;—:We’re waiting for Godot.;—:1h.;, Samuel 'ec(ett introduces the strange world of Waiting for Godot . *he tramps hope that Godot will be the saviour to bring comfort into their lives. +stragon as(s :/f he comes?; 2ladimir replies :We’ll be saved; 4<-5. *hey decide to commit suicide and then decide against the idea of suicide they select the act of waiting. *he play starts with +stragon statement :"othing to be done; 4&5 and concludes with the idea that the tramps may want to spend their time doing nothing. *his becomes certain when 2ladimir insists : /’m beginning to come round to that opinion; 4&5, and throughout the play they come bac( to the same conclusion, :"othing to be done;4&5. 1ngela =otaling points out :"ot only is the waiting difficult, but figuring out what to do while waiting is difficult; 4C5. =owever 2ladimir’s lust for hope comes to light in his dialogues, :We wait. We are bored. "o, don’t protest, we are bored to death; 4'ec(ett %5. *hat is why they choose to wait for Godot. *he play suggests that 0waiting’ is the only choice the tramps have if they want to continue their lives. Similarly, the tramps are merely passively waiting. +sslin points out> Waiting is to e7perience the action of time, which is constant change. 1nd yet, as nothing real ever happens, that change is in itself an illusion. *he ceaseless activity of time is self9defeating, purposeless, and therefore null and voids 4%5. /t seems to suggest that the circle of coming and going is the only choice to the tramps, and 0hope’ and 0waiting’ are inevitable products of this circle. /t cannot be said that the two tramps are waiting for anything in particular. *hey even have to remind each other of the very fact that they are waiting and of what they are waiting for. *hus, actually they are not waiting for anything. 'ut, e7posed as they are to the daily continuation of their e7istence, they cannot help concluding that they must be waiting, and e7posed to their continued waiting, they cannot help assuming that they are waiting for something. /t is meaningless to as( who or what the e7pected Godot is. Godot is nothing but the
name for the fact that life which goes on pointlessly as wrongly interpreted to mean as 0waiting’ or as 0waiting for something’. What appears to be a positive attitude of the two tramps amounts to a double negationA their e7istence is pointless and they are incapable of recognising the pointlessness of their e7istence. 'ec(ett himself said that he was not so much concerned with 0Godot’ as with Waiting. /n the play we are not told who Godot is and what the two characters really e7pect him to do for them. *hey (eep on waiting but for Godot, but Godot never comes to meet them. Godot does not appear in the play, they ma(e the uncertain assumption that there might be some hope in their e7istence, which is why they do not give up waiting for him. +stragon> 1nd /f he doesn’t come? 2ladimir> We’ll come bac( to9morrow. +stragon> 1nd the day after to9morrow. 2ladimir> ossibly. +stragon> 1nd so on. 2ladimir> *he point is. +stragon> Dntil he comes 4#-5. *he play therefore, shows how man is thrown bac( into solitude and non9action. *he two tramps waiting for Godot may be representing human beings whose waiting may thus be humanity’s vain hope of salvation or as others call it 0hopelessly hoping’. *he sub8ect of the play is not Godot but waiting, the act of waiting as an essential and characteristic aspect of the human condition. *hroughout our lives we always wait for something and Godot simply represents the ob8ective of our waiting E an event, a thing, a person, death. )ver the last si7ty years critics have suggested that Godot is happiness, eternal life, love, death, silence, hope, time, God and many other things. 'ec(ett in this play e7presses the +7istentialist philosophy, according to which suffering is an inseparable part of human condition. /t remains unmitigated. Suffering in case of human beings ends with death. /n +7istentialist view living is suffering. +7istentialism portrays man as thrown into this world as a diseased animal. /t is opposed to all forms of utopian thin(ing. /t constantly underlines human finitude, and the misery and despair that dog human life form cradle to the grave. ourney from womb to tomb is full of miseries. Belivery is no deliverance. 'ec(ett appropriately Fuotes alderon who said that an ’s greatest sin is to have been born. *he way the two tramps pass time is indication of boredom and triviality of human activities, the lac( of significance in life and the constant suffering which o33o philosophises on the persistent cycle of suffering in the world. =e says targeting +stragon and 6uc(y that the tears
of the world are a constant Fuantity> for each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. *he tramps seem to be frustrated after they have been manipulated for :Hifty years may be; 4I%5. *hroughout the play, although 2ladimir persuades +stragon not to give up hope on Godot, Godot’s absence ma(es 2ladimir frustrated, disappointed as well depressed when they do not attain what they are waiting for, he goes on> )r for night to fall. 4ause.5 We have (ept our appointment and that’s an end to that. We are not saints, but we have (ept our appointment. =ow many people can boast as much? 4%#5. When their only hope fades away, they become hopeless and that may be the reason they came up with the idea of hanging themselves. Waiting for Godot is a play about the repetitious nature of e7istence and this central theme is well focused by the fact that the ending of the two 1cts f the play is almost identical. *owards the end of both the 1cts the two tramps propose to move and yet they don’t and the curtain in both cases falls with the stage directions> *hey don’t move. *here is a repetition of certain incidents in the second actA arrival of o33o and 6uc(y, coming of the messenger 'oy towards the end to announce that Godot will not come that day. /n both 1cts, +stragon handles food, plays with his boots, in both acts the two central figures contemplate suicide. 1ll this shows that there is a plenty of repetitions which suggests one of the thematic aspect of the play that is to say, life is a mere series of meaningless repetitive activities. *he non9action of futile waiting by the two tramps is enacted twice in the play. /n the second 1ct we find the master 4o33o5 as blind and the slave 46uc(y5 as dumb. 'oth stumble and fall. 2ladimir decides that they should help o33o and 6uc(y get up. 'ut +stragon wants to consider an alternative plan. 1fter all be was wounded by 6uc(y the day before. 2ladimir reminds +stragon howeverA that 0it is not everyday that we are needed.’ *his is one of the most profound comments of the drama. )ne needs to be needed. Heeling of being needed is essential to realise our purpose of e7 istence. /t gives us the sense of wholeness. /n Waiting for Godot , 'ec(ett made use of the universal theme of :human condition, and man’s despair at being unable to find a meaning in e7istence; 4+sslin C%5, when confronting men’s desire to understand the meaning of life. Generally, men try to find the meaning of life by creating their own pattern based on their daily routine. /f a man is not able to find his own pattern, then he will get lost in the world of confusion ma(ing it very difficult to find his way, while simultaneously fantasising about the meaningful life that he has been e7pecting. Waiting for Godot is the story of two homeless men desperately see(ing some meaning for their e7istence, and constantly hoping to meet someone called Godot who might be able to help them out of their current circumstances. /n order to fulfil this hope, waiting is the pattern they create to represent the meaning of their lives, because they strongly believe that their lives will be fulfilled if they meet Godot. =owever, they would be hopelessly disappointed if they encounter a negative aspect from Godot. :*he real despair underlying Waiting for Godot is the meaninglessness of waiting, especially in the face of a Godot who may never come;4Jovira %5.
'ec(ett believes that the first words should introduce the theme of the play. *he opening words in Godot 0"othing to be done’ do precisely that. *hese words echo again and again during the course of the play. +stragon sitting on a low mound tries his best to ta(e off one of his boots that hurts his leg very badly. *ired of his fruitless efforts at removing his boot he says, :"othing to be done; pointing to his utter helplessness with his boot. 2ladimir and his fellow tramps, who come there after his friend ta(es up the remar( of +stragon in a larger conte7t referring to the utter helplessness and hopelessness of human life on earth. "othing to be done is the (ey note of the play which points out the absurdity of human e7istence without any direction or purpose. *his also epitomises the essence of the absurd drama which lays bare the absurdity, the ennui, the boredom and the suffering of being. oreover, the play is based on the yth of Sisyphus. *he situation of Sisyphus, forever rolling a boulder 4a marble bloc(5 up a hill, forever aware that it never reaches the top is a perfect metaphor for the play Waiting for Godot . *he play is a metaphor of one’s tragic awareness of one’s self, the self that is caught up in the endless process of decay and destruction. *o sum up, the play primarily deals with the theme of hoping against hope which is unavoidable human condition. /t gives a latent message to those who are torn between their needs and desires> :'lessed are those who do not hope, for they shall not be disappointed. 1 man with moderate e7pectations rarely meets with disappointment. *he play dwells upon the absurdity of human e7istence that stems from the huge discrepancy between the needs and desires of human beings, necessities and aspirations of the mortals.
