When he wrote Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett established himself on the forefront of the avant-garde. Becket did so by experimenting with avant-garde techniques such as dramatism and symbolism. The play itself seems to expose the concept of time in relation to the human experience.
The play focuses on Vladimir and Estragon as they wait and wait with no obvious progress towards their goal in meeting up with Godot. This seems like a rather boring topic for a play. However, Beckett is able to squeeze meaning out of the non-action of waiting. Zarilli makes it clear that dramatists often dramatize a “photogenic ‘slice of life,’ with all its banality, cynicism, sentimentality, and violence,” ( Zarilli, 357). This is exactly what Beckett is doing in Waiting for Godot. Becket dramatizes waiting in a way that exposes the concept of time and a pessimistic view on the cycle of life. Vladimir and Estragon continue to wait and wait but these periods seem to be separated into different stages. At first, they wait alone, and eventually they encounter Pozzo and Lucky. They then go back to waiting alone and eventually encounter the boy. I got the idea that Beckett was attempting to relate these stages of waiting to different stages of life. In doing this, Becket was essentially illustrating life as many different non-productive stages of waiting until ultimately ended with death. For example, a point when Vladimir and Estragon consider ending their wait is when Estragon suggests that they should “ hang ourselves immediately!” ( ACT I, 236). The two characters discussed hanging themselves as a means of ending their wait, further illustrating Beckett’s idea that life is a series of stages of pointless waiting that only ends with death.
Zarilli notes that playwrights often times “evoke a mood of mystery through multiple symbols,”( Zarilli, 358). Perhaps the most prominent symbol used by Beckett is the tree, which is where Vladimir and Estragon have been told to wait for Godot. Vladimir and Estragon continually wait at the tree, which in many ways represented life. In the second act, the tree grows leaves, which depicts the tree as being alive. However, the tree is an immovable object, which always seems to be waiting. This is how Becket uses the tree to further represent life as continual waiting. The tree is a natural representation of life because it seems to change and grow leaves, yet it is always still and continually waiting until it dies. This further parallels the situation of Vladimir and Estragon and strengthens Beckett’s comparison between life and waiting.
Questions:
- Is Samuel Beckett’s portrayal of life as continual waiting until death accurate? Does his view here have any connection to his situation as a writer in post WWII Europe?
- Symbolism can often have multiple meanings, and different members of the audience may understand certain symbols differently. What other meanings does the symbol of the tree have?
- In what ways do we see dramatism and symbolism today? Do you see dramatism or symbolism on TV or on social media?
– Jordon Castonguay