The play “Waiting for Godot” was written by Samuel Beckett and
published in 1952. This play by Beckett presented the life of the modern man in
certain ways.
Firstly, Beckett in this play presented the absurdity in modern
man’s life. Absurdity was the main focus of writers associated with Modernism
and post-Modernism. This play by Beckett was labeled as the play of the
twentieth century because it represented the absurdity of human life. This
notion of absurdity was first presented by Albert Camus in his essay “The
Myth of Sisyphus”. Beckett laid incorporated this notion in several ways.
This play “Waiting for Godot” started with both Estragon and Vladimir struggling
with Estragon’s boot.
They were even seen smelling Estragon’s boot in the first act.
Similarly, the repetition of words and actions, and the element of
forgetfulness also added to the meaninglessness of modern man’s life. The
phrase “Nothing to be done” highlighted the main theme of the
play. Beckett in this play rejected all the grand notions and traditions of the
past to show the helplessness and purposelessness of modern life. Estragon and
Vladimir are both waiting for Godot without knowing who he was, when will he
becoming and even oblivious of the fact that what had they asked him for:
“What exactly did we ask him for”.
All the characters in the play are entrapped repeating the same
monotonous routine. The playwright depicts this notion of absurdity at its peak
when one of the main characters, Estragon in the first act suggests hanging
themselves:
“Let’s hang ourselves immediately”.
A question may be asked!
What is the play
waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett about? How does it represent the plight of
modern man in this world? Elucidate with relevant examples from the text.
Martin Sealing in his book “The Theatre of Absurd”,
presented the idea that how the plays written between the 1940s and 1960s
highlighted the theme of absurdity. Absurdity in general deals with the sense
of being illogical and unreasonable and is often defined as “out of
harmony with reason and propriety; illogical”. Beckett like the other
writers associated with the Theatre of Absurd presented “a sense of
metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of human life”. He presented
life as an absurd, illogical, and irrational phenomenon in which all the humans
are waiting for their own Godot.
Secondly, alienation and isolation from the rest of the world
are also considered as the plights of modern man’s life. The modern man after
witnessing the horrors caused by the World War’s became isolated and alienated
from the rest of the world. The characters in Becketts’s play “Waiting for
Godot” are also alienated from the rest of the world and sometimes from one and
another. Both Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for Godot in the outskirts,
separated and alienated from the world.
They have absolutely no idea of time, place, and even why they
are waiting for Godot. Similarly, other than being cut out from the rest of the
world, they are isolated from one and others as pointed out by Estragon:
“I feel better alone too”.
Estragon sleeps in a ditch every night and is beaten up by
mysterious people without having any recollection of the last night. Though
these characters long from companionship, they are unable to communicate their
feelings. As Pozzo pointed out his belief regarding communication that even
meeting the “meanest creatures” is a blessing as one
becomes “wiser, richer and more conscious of one’s own blessings”.
Despite their longing for company, these characters are unable to communicate.
The writer very beautifully presents a lack of communication through the use of
short, repetitive, colloquial, absurd, and elliptical phrases and sentences.
This inability of the characters to communicate with one another highlights the
inner disorder and disorientation.
Thirdly, the playwright incorporates existentialist and
nihilistic approaches in presenting the purposelessness of modern man’s life.
The theories such as Soren Kierkegaard and Arthur Schopenhauer in presenting
the existential crisis and nihilism are well depicted in the play in certain
ways. The dramatist presents the notion that how human actions and human life
as a whole are suffering. The writer highlights the basic approach of the
nihilistic movement “To live is to suffer”, in this play to
highlight the meaninglessness and absurdity of human actions. Estragon and
Vladimir in the plays are waiting for Godot throughout the whole play but while
waiting for Godot they are involved in numerous meaningless actions. In fact,
their action of waiting for itself is meaningless as they have no idea why they
are waiting for Godot.
Lastly, hopelessness forms the basic theme of the play. Both
Estragon and Vladimir as a representative of modern man is hopeless as pointed
out by Vladimir:
“Hope deferred maketh the something sick”
Both these characters Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for
Godot not out of hope but habit. They just like a modern man are repeating
their monotonous routine which according to the writer is a great
deadener:
“Habit is a great deadener”.
In conclusion, one may say that the play, “Waiting for Godot”
basically represents the plight of a modern man in this world who longs for
companionship, meaning, and hope in his life but is only given a monotonous
life surrounded by absurdity and nihilism. This complaint against God was
presented by Lucky’s speech very artistically by the writer as:
“God loves us dearly but with few exceptions”.
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This piece is written by Syeda Areeba Fatima, one of the staff contributors to the SOL Community. She is a Master student at NUML, Islamabad.
