Structure and Theme in Waiting For Godot

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Structure and Theme in Waiting For Godot

By Abhishek Shandilya Samuel Beckett who is regarded as one of the leading playwright of modern times crafted some of the rare masterpieces and Waiting for Godot is no exception. The play explores the purposelessness and void present in the day to day human life, so much so that it baffles explanation. It explores extensively the mystery of existence, the unnamed fear and the anxiety of the human subconscious mind that defy rationality. The play belongs to the genre of Theatre of Absurd which is basically Parisian in nature. Old theatrical conventions are replaced in the absurd. Usually there is a dream situation and the sequence of events are unrelated. Like real life events there is a movement from image to image through association. So, it doesn't follow the pattern of logic and the only logic lies in the associative connections of images. In waiting for Godot, the images convey boredom, despair, tediousness, helplessness of waiting. The images tend to become more and more desperate as the play goes on (mainly in the second act). In the play Psychological state of waiting is captured which gets worse during the course of the play. The action is mechanical. It is quite a different play from the conventional ones and does not have a story to tell us. Two tramps named Vladimir and Estragon meet on a country road with a bare tree and a mound at the background. They wait incessantly for someone called Godot who does not turn up to meet them. At the end of both the acts they are informed by a boy messenger that Godot won't come that day but surely tomorrow. They agree to go but do not go anywhere. In both the acts, a master (Pozzo) and a slave (Lucky) pass by as the tramps are waiting. Thus in both the acts nothing really happens and there is nothing to be done. Everything is static in the play and the play rather depicts a static human condition. Nothing to be done are the words that are repeated frequently and quite significantly in the play. They are first voiced by Estragon in the beginning and its significance is further extended by Vladimir in the same scene when he says-"I am beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the Struggle." So it is supposed in the beginning that action is futile. The tramps are pretty much sure of the uselessness of the action and they play silly games just to pass the time and it is here that elements of slapstick comedy pours into the play. The inaction gets transformed into theatrical action. Nothing happens twice in the play, waiting is doing nothing and something at the same time. Waiting is experience dramatised and there is enough clue to this in the title of the play itself, inaction is dramatic action in Waiting for Godot. Thus the apparent theme of the play is waiting which Vladimir and Estragon do throughout the two acts. It is with time that the play is obsessed and it stresses that all action is futile including waiting and that's the theme of the play. The human condition is explored beautifully in the play by Beckett in Waiting for Godot. Both the acts are similar and the first act is repeated in the second with only change in dialogue and sequence of events, Vladimir and Estragon meet Pozzo and Lucky the same pair under different circumstances. In both the acts Pozzo and Lucky, master-slave remain tied together as the tramps continue to wait for Godot. Both the acts begin in evening and end with night fall and terminate with the arrival of a messenger that Godot will turn up the next day and not on this particular evening. Thus waiting is endless for the tramps who are waiting for Godot who is endlessly promising his elusive arrival. Boredom is deliberately introduced to create tension in the play. The tramps are waiting for a person for their probable salvation and while waiting the tramps feel the passage of time which constantly subject everything to change. But more things change, more they remain the same " That is the terrible stability of the world: as said by Pozzo "the tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops". " One day is like another and when we die we might never have existed." Between birth and death light gleams only for an instant but man hopes for salvation Godot represents that haven for the two tramps in the play. The tramps here are not sure whether they have come to the right place or even the right day. This is the basic human condition where all the days appear same and its hard to distinguish between any of the same. The wretched condition of Vladimir and Estragon regarding confusion of day is a testimony to this. The tramps have no rights but they have got rid of them, though there is no question of their being tied. The uncertainty is present throughout the play. Even the chance of man being saved by

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Structure and Theme in Waiting For Godot

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Christ depends on chance and there is an element of chance in human destiny. Pozzo says of Lucky" Remark that I might easily have been in his shoes and he in mine." On a broader level Pozzo and Lucky are master and slave representing the body and mind. The play is chiefly concerned with the mystery and inexplicable puzzle and purposelessness of human life, the anxiety and despair that the human condition entails. It is this concern that reflects in the moods of the tramps through their waiting. Beckett has not told the identity of Godot in the play and it is left as the mystery and whether Godot represents God is a debatable topic but he is surely the one who is looked upon by the tramps for their probable salvation. Godot though promises them to turn up but his assurance was as vague as the tramps' prayer to him. There is total absence of information regarding the personal background information of all four characters which add up to the mysterious atmosphere in the play that seeks to state the illogicality and absurdity of the human condition.The superficially comic dialogue conveys a deeper message to us and is repetitive in nature. The words not said and the pauses are more meaningful than the explicit things said in the play. It has been said that "silence pours into this play water into a sinking ship". The two tramps might appear an outsider to us but they present to us the modern day meaninglessness of life that in which we all are trapped- a habit to which there is no escape. Even the empty stage here acts as a metaphor for life, it is we who have to fill it up and should not wait for the outside help to invest meaning to our lives. The Godot which doesn't appear in the entire play represents the outer world and expects unquestioned submission otherwise the tramps will be punished by him. According to Beckett-"there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with an obligation to express". Godot is just like any other miniature god for which men wait hopefully and in fear, to solve their problem and invest meaning to their pointless lives, and for whose sake they sacrifice the only real gift they have, their free will. To sum up,the futility waiting symbolises the futility of human life which is trapped in a world best compared to a hall of mirrors from which the attempts to get away only makes the prisoner look comic. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Abhishek_Shandilya

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