Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

Overview

In "Waiting for Godot," two tramps (Estragon and Vladimir) are waiting by a sickly looking tree for the arrival of Mr. Godot. They quarrel, make up, and try to hang themselves on the tree while waiting for Godot. They re the protagonists in the play. There are other characters like the master (Pozzo) and his slave (Lucky). And the boy who was sent to tell the tramps that Mr. Godot could not see them yet. The play is a development of the title, Waiting for Godot. He does not come and the two tramps resume their vigil by the tree.

Russian Formalism as applied to Samuel Becketts' "Waiting for Godot"

Metaphor of the machine. The play has shown what is itnlike to wait. Estragon and Vladimir, tried lots of ways to keep themselves busy or rather made things like play games and tell each other stories to avoid boredom.

Organic phase. The whole play evolved in the act of waiting. The act of waiting is never over. It starts up again each day. The action in the story is the same way. It is described like a circle.

Defamiliarization. The language of the play is intense. There are parts wherein religion is included in the conversation of Didi and Gogo. While there one part that tells about a long meaningless speech of Lucky. Lucky probably is a donkey or a horse. In the play, Lucky can think and speak. Pozzo makes Lucky think. And he can also speak, although, in the later part, he became mute and his master became blind.

Retardation of the narrative. This one is very obvious in the play. Gogo and Didi would like to separate but whenever they think about doing it, they pause and realize that they are better off together. Gogo is the body and Didi is the intellect. Take for example the part when Vladimir told Estragon this "Well,? Shall we go?" Then Estragon answers and said, "Yes, let's go." Yet they were both immobile. There was some kind of absurdity. The phasing was slowed down and to think that the play was only set for two days.

To conclude, "Waiting for Godot" is a very nice play. It is beautiful because it suggests hope. Godot represents something that we want to have in our life and we keep on hoping that someday we will be able to get that thing. Although, Mr.