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.
