Godot Case

Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy "Waiting for Godot" is centered on two, bumbling buffoons, Vladimir and Estragon. The two characters, throughout the entirety of the play, do as the title suggest: wait for Godot. It is never specified whether Godot is a person, a place, or a thing, or what the significance of Godot is. The two main characters encounter another pair in the play, Lucky and Pozzo. Lucky is tied to a leash and carries a very heavy burden, while Pozzo commands and ridicules him. Both of them are asked about Godot, and Pozzo, the only of those two who talks (except for a three page rant by Lucky), has no idea of what or who this, "Godot", is. A boy also arrives, alone. He tells Vladimir and Estragon, very hesitantly, Mr. Godot is sorry he can not make it this evening but he will definitely arrive tomorrow. Later in the play, in Act II, the same exact thing happens. The boy appears as a single character, but talks about his brother, his partner. This paper will be discussing the significance of pairs in "Waiting for Godot", whether Godot, as a single character, is more prominent than the other characters, and the author's preference of pairs or single characters.

Samuel Beckett has written many plays, "Waiting for Godot" being one of his earliest ones, first performed in January of 1953. As mentioned earlier, five characters perform, but a total of seven are mentioned. There are Vladimir and Estragon (pair one), Pozzo and Lucky (pair two), the boy, who appears, and his brother, who does not (pair three), and one single character, Godot.