Waiting For Godot
Explain the significance of the title “Waiting For Godot”.
Or,Discuss the main theme of the play “Waiting for Godot”.
Or,Waiting for Godot is not about Godot but about Waiting-
discuss the concept of time presented in the play.
Answer:-The two key words in the title of the play are
‘waiting’ and ‘godot’ what Godot exactly means has been subjected of much
controversy. It has been suggested that Godot is the diminutive form of the
word God. Godot may suggest the intervention of a supernatural agency. Furthermore
although Godot fails to appeare on the stage still he is as real a character as
any of those whom we actually witness. However the subject of the play is not
Godot but Waiting. Bechett presented time as a constant on the stage. The act
of waiting is an essential characteristic aspect of human condition. Throughout
their lives human being always waits for something or the other and God simply
represents the object of their waiting. It may be an event, a person, a train,
a love letter, a job or even death. Beckett has depicted in this play a
situation which has a universal human application.
Two men Vladimir and Estragon meet again near a tree on a
country roadside. They converse on various topics and reveal that they are
waiting therefore a man named Godot. While they wait two other men enter. Pozzo
is on his way to the market to sell his slave Lucky. He stopped there for a
while to speak with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky entertains them by dancing and
thinking and after that performance they leave. Next a boy enters and tells
Vladimir that he is the messenger from Godot. He informs Vladimir that Godot
will not come that night but he will surely come tomorrow. Vladimir asks him
some questions about Godot and the boy departs. After his departure Vladimir and
Estragon decide to leave but they don’t move as the curtain falls.
The next night they again meet at the same place to wait for
Godot. Pozzo and lucky enter again. But this time Pozzo is blind and Lucky is
dumb. Lucky helps to Pozzo to walk. Pozzo does not remember about the meeting
with the two men night before. They leave Vladimir and Estragon continues to
wait. After a while the previous boy arrives once again and tells that Godot
will not come tonight as well. After the boy leaves Estragon and Vladimir
decide to commit suicide but fails as both of them cannot find a proper way to
commit it. Next day, they decide to leave but again they don’t move as the
curtain falls and ends the play.
At first sight this play does not appear to have any
particular relationship with the human predicament. For instance we feel hardly
any relation to identify ourselves with the two garrulous (talkative) tramps
who are indifferent to all to concerns of civilize life. Although they may say
that they are waiting for Godot but they do not know Godot or they are not sure
if they are waiting at the right place or on the right day. They ever do not
know what would happen when Godot comes or what would happen if they stop
waiting. They are ignorant about their present situation and without this
essential knowledge they cannot act. So, they are actually impotent.
We can appropriately say that the play is not about Godot or
even about waiting. The play only puts ‘waiting’ on the stage but its main
concern is ignorance, impotence and boredom of life and its meaninglessness. At
these things have been made visible on the stage and presented as the things
itself. In the waiting of the two tramps, we the audience recognize our own
experience. We may never have waited beside a tree or on a deserted countryside
but we have certainly experienced other situation in which we have waited and
waited. In other words we can discover a common ground between ourselves and
the two trumps. Here is the recognizable significance of the play which brings a
universal appeal. The two tramps still carry some hope and that is why they are
waiting. If Godot counts a new factor may be introduce into their existence
where as if they leave the certainly miss it. This aspect of hope has also a
universal validity because whenever we wait we have an expectation even though
we are almost certain that our waiting will not be rewarded.
It is in the act of waiting we experience the flow of time.
When we are active we use to forget the passage of time. But if we are waiting
passively we are confronted with the action of time itself. In act-II when
Pozzo and lucky reappear they are deformed by the action of time and the tramps
again have their doubts whether they met on the previous day. Here another
aspect of waiting is conveyed is that the act of waiting makes us to experience the flow
of time. To wait means to experience the action of time which is in a constant
change. So, we can conclude that this play is a parable. Godot may stand being
or for the meaning of life on for death on for something else. This fable is
representation of stagnant life experienced by every modern human being.
Beckett himself said, “I am not so much concern with Godot as with waiting.”