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.