English 101: English Literature

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In this lesson, we'll explore Samuel Beckett's groundbreaking play, Waiting for Godot. We'll look at its main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, and hear an example of their circular, sometimes nonsensical banter. We'll also briefly discuss the play's legacy in modern theater.

Waiting for Godot

We're going to talk about Waiting for Godot. The British Royal National Theater took a poll on which English language play is the most significant of the 20th Century. Guess what they picked. They picked Waiting for Godot.

We're going to talk about why. And we're going to talk about what happens. Hint: it's not much that happens. We're also going to take it to the stage and act out some of the most circular, absurdist dialogue. (No, I don't have any friends, so I'm going to play everybody.)

We're going to take a look at how much Beckett, and this play in particular, which kind of starts it all, influences later playwrights and theater. Also, how he fits into the general Theater of the Absurd movement. Hint: it's a lot. He fits in very well.

So let's set the stage, as it were. This play is part of a movement called the Theater of the Absurd, which is what it sounds like: presenting bizarre characters and situations with usually fairly minimal sets. This is a two act play. It is largely a blank stage; there's basically just a tree and a mound of dirt.

Its minimalism is kind of a departure from more traditional theater at the time. Any kind of black box theater stuff, where it's just actors on stage and no set? That's all influenced by Beckett and some others were doing at this time.

So let's go into what happens. Like I said before, it's really not that much. We've got these two guys: Vladimir and Estragon. Their nicknames for each other are Didi and Gogo, which is cute.

They meet at a maybe-pre-appointed place by this bare tree and they're going to wait for Godot. They talk in circles about the Bible and damnation and repenting. They keep forgetting their purpose. They have to remind each other that they're waiting for Godot. They keep forgetting. They aren't even sure if it's the right spot, or if they even came here yesterday to wait. Let's take it to the stage for that.

Act I

Estragon: Charming spot. Inspiring prospects. Let's go.

Vladimir: We can't.

Estragon: Why not?

Vladimir: We're waiting for Godot.

Estragon: Ah! You're sure it was here?

Vladimir: What?

Estragon: That we were to wait.

Vladimir: He said by the tree. Do you see any others?

Estragon: What is it?

Vladimir: I don't know. A willow.

Estragon: Where are the leaves?

Vladimir: It must be dead.

Estragon: No more weeping.

Vladimir: Or perhaps it's not the season.

Estragon: Looks to me more like a bush.

Vladimir: A shrub.

Estragon: A bush.

Vladimir: A-- What are you insinuating? That we've come to the wrong place?

Estragon: He should be here.

Vladimir: He didn't say for sure he'd come.

Estragon: And if he doesn't come?

Vladimir: We'll come back tomorrow.

Estragon: And then if he doesn't come?

Vladimir: We'll come back tomorrow.

Estragon: And the day after tomorrow?

Vladimir: Possibly.

Estragon: And so on.

Vladimir: The point is -

Estragon: Until he comes.

Vladimir: You're merciless.

Estragon: We came here yesterday.

Vladimir: Ah, no. There you're mistaken.

Estragon: What did we do yesterday?

Vladimir: What did we do yesterday?

Estragon: Yes.

So you can see that it's extremely repetitive. It kind of goes around in circles. It's kind of all about banter, but it's sort of banter about nothing.

The lines like 'A bush,' 'A shrub,' 'A bush,' does it really matter whether it's a bush or a shrub? It's kind of yes and no. It's sort of analogous to their worrying about whether it's the wrong spot. It might be the wrong spot. It might be a bush; it might be a shrub.

But it doesn't really matter in the end because they're not going to do anything about it. They're not going to do anything different. It's really just talking for talking's sake.

That's sort of the general feel of the thing and of their dialogue. So we're going to keep on going with what happens. They're hanging around, talking like that. As they're waiting and bickering, this guy named Pozzo and his slave Lucky turn up. They're on their way to sell Lucky at the fair, which is kind of sad.

Vladimir and Estragon examine Lucky, who seems tired and sick. They're not that happy with Pozzo's treatment of him, particularly that he's going to sell him. Pozzo says that Lucky's going to perform for them. He can dance and he can think. He's going to perform thinking!

They watch him do both. He can't think without his hat, so they have to put his hat on. They hate his performance. They hate both his dancing and his thinking. They take his hat off his head and stomp it on the ground to make him stop. Then Pozzo and Lucky leave. It's just a little interlude with them.

Then a small boy comes onstage and he says that he's got a message for them from Mr. Godot saying that Mr. Godot won't be here today. Vladimir and Estragon ask him to tell Mr. Godot that he's seen them. Then they ask him if he's seen them.

The boy goes offstage and they say that they'll leave, but they just keep sitting. Then, it's curtain down on Act I.

Act II

Act II starts, and it's just more of the same. Although, now the bare tree has leaves on it. That's important.

Vladimir is singing a weird song about a dog and stealing bread. Estragon comes back and they resume their banter. Some things are the same, but they can't totally remember if they did this yesterday or not. But now we know that they did it yesterday. We know that they're just being weird about it.

There gets to be this sense that they're just talking to stave off nothingness. So let's take it to the stage again to illustrate that.

Estragon: In the meantime, let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.

Vladimir: You're right. We're inexhaustible.

Estragon: It's so we won't think.

Vladimir: We have that excuse.

Estragon: It's so we won't hear.

Vladimir: We have our reasons.

Estragon: All the dead voices.

Vladimir: They make a noise like wings.

Estragon: Like leaves.

Vladimir: Like sand.

Estragon: Like leaves.

Vladimir: They all speak at once.

Estragon: Each one to itself.

Vladimir: Say anything at all!

Estragon: What do we do now?

Vladimir: Wait for Godot.

Estragon: Ah!

So facing the silence seems to be kind of intolerable to them. They have to keep talking so they won't think and so they won't hear these dead voices that they mention. Perhaps the voices are those who have waited in vain for Godot before. We're not sure what's going on. But it's clear that it's upsetting to have silence for them.

As for the rest of the action of the play, they find Lucky's trampled hat, which confirms that they are at the spot where they were yesterday. So that's good news.

Pozzo and Lucky return, except now Pozzo is blind and Lucky can't talk, just kind of randomly. Pozzo wants to know what time it is, but they can't decide if it's morning or evening. And none of them remember meeting each other, so that' s upsetting.

Pozzo and Lucky leave, then the boy comes back, the boy that has the message from Mr. Godot. He says, 'I'm sorry, but Mr. Godot won't come today.' But then this boy says that he didn't come yesterday. That freaks out Vladimir and Estragon.

They end up thinking about hanging themselves. They don't. They say they should go. They don't. And that's the end.

Lesson Summary

So that's what happens. You can tell it's kind of nuts. But why is this play so important? Why is this the one that's voted the most significant one in theater?

It's really because maybe for the first time, or one of the most significant times, we get this play that's entirely about inaction. Other Modernist texts are difficult because they cram everything in and they give you too much information. Beckett ends up being difficult and cool and significant because he gives you so little.

Paradoxically, it's going to have the same effect as giving you too much information. We basically end up getting the same kind of openness to interpretability. You can say that this means anything.

At the heart of the play is, 'Who is Godot?' We don't know. Some people see it as a God-like figure, because 'GODot.' But Beckett points out that he wrote the thing in French and in French, God is Dieu, not God.

We don't get any answers. And we don't know anything about Vladimir and Estragon either, so they can be anybody.

Basically, what this means is that a single director's change can make it a play about socialism, can make it a play about race, can make it a play about fascism. Really, you can do anything with this base dialogue about worrying about meaninglessness.

This can be true in fiction as well, but it's really heightened in drama because there are so many choices involved, with the actors, directors and everyone else. It has to be imbued with meaning by somebody else. And the audience as well.

There's an argument to be made that post-Beckett, we just do this in theater more. He gives rise to people like Tom Stoppard, who writes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. That play is about two minor characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet who end up bickering like Vladimir and Estragon. It's very similar.

It also affects with this new sensibility how we perform old stuff. Shakespeare is a great example. People will set Shakespeare in Nazi Germany, on a tropical island, in space. They do whatever they want to it because it's the same idea of this bare text. It can kind of be interpreted in any way that you want.

Waiting for Godot and these plays that come after it are kind of about nothing, but they're also about everything. That's the key interesting thing about it. Vladimir and Estragon are discussing these trivial things that go around and around. It could be about anything. It could be about God, or it could be about something else.

They're outside of time and place. They don't know where they are or how long they've been waiting. So the actors, the directors and the audience have to make a choice about what's going on. That's why it endures in its popularity and its significance.