Godot
“Nothing to be done,” is one of the many phrases that is repeated again and again throughout Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot. Godot is an existentialist play that reads like somewhat of a language poem. That is to say, Beckett is not interested in the reader interpreting his words, but simply listening to the words and viewing the actions of his perfectly mismatched characters. Beckett uses the standard Vaudevillian style to present a play that savors of the human condition. He repeats phrases, ideas and actions that has his audience come away with many different ideas about who we are and how beautiful our human existence is even in our desperation. The structure of Waiting For Godot is determined by Beckett’s use of repetition. This is demonstrated in the progression of dialogue and action in each of the two acts in Godot. The first thing an audience may notice about Waiting For Godot is that they are immediately set up for a comedy. The first two characters to appear on stage are Vladimir and Estragon, dressed in bowler hats and boots. These characters lend themselves to the same body types as Abbot and Costello. Vladimir is usually cast as tall and thin and Estragon just the opposite.
The last two pieces of the excerpt is very literal. The idea that going someplace is doesn’t matter, because there is really nowhere to go. All you can do is find someplace else to wait. Also repeated in the beat is the stage direction for silence. Silence occurs in life and theater is just a reflection of our lives. It is, in effect, a line of dialogue. Repeated silence outlines the awkwardness of the beat. The repetition then creates the tone of the beat. Many of the play’s beats are comprised of some type of repetition. “All I know is that the hours are long, under these conditions, and constrain us to beguile them with proceedings which-how shall I say-which may at first sight seem reasonable, until they become a habit.”(52) Here Beckett has a character state flat out what is happening in the play. The plot of the play is based around repetition. All the pieces of their lives have become habit. When at first they were ways to pass the days they have become repeated, and through this repetition they have become unreasonable. The habit that controls our lives is the same habit that fuels the characters in Godot. The same habit that makes the structure of Godot a repetition in itself. In the first act, the goings-on in the play may seem reasonable to the audience. Merely a way for these two people to pass the hours of their particular day. By making the second act the same routine, the tragic humor of their situation is revealed. Estragon and Vladimir are stuck in this way of life. Bound to making each day more of the same, because they can find no other way to deal with their lives then to try to pass the time. All the ideas of the play and all the questions that are raised are highlighted through the use of repetition. Therefore, the structure of the play is dominated by this single characteristic of the play. Pozzo: I don’t seem to be ab
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1291
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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