Modern Drama
Assignment
Name: Rabia Khan
Class: MA 3C
NUML
Question:
Waiting of Godot as an absurd
play with reference to the two characters.
Answer:
The play “Waiting
for Godot” written by “Samuel Beckett” represents the theme of
absurdity throughout the drama. Samuel Beckett has pictured or presented an
image of absurdity in life, that the element of absurdness surrounds
our lives.
Now the play starts with the
conversation of two people who are waiting for someone named Godot and the
whole play focuses on these characters who are waiting and waiting. The
characters (Vladimir and Estragon) in the play symbolize us, the humans who are
just living a life full of absurdity.
Vladimir and
Estragon are wanderers on the bare country road that symbolizes life.
They wait for Godot symbolizing God or anything that is awaited with
anticipation, under the dead tree as barren as the lives they lead. But instead
of Godot, every day a messenger boy arrives to inform them that the Godot will
come the next day. The boy is a messenger of hope that sustains Vladimir and
Estragon. In the boring situation, they pass the time with endless and useless philosophical
and repetitive conversation.
The absurdity of circular dialogue
is humorous yet tragic. Both have just wasted their entire lives in this false
and hopeless wait of Godot. No sense of confirmation and no sense of vitality
is there in their dialogues throughout the novel. It’s like they are
trapped in the same situation every day. They have ceased to move on their
journey through life.
Another important aspect is that
they never realize they need to change because they never remember the daily
mistakes they make. Both resolve to hang themselves but always delay. In spite
of all there waiting they never met Godot. It seems like all their waiting has
gone to waste. Tragically, they do not realize that Godot’s elusiveness is a
result of their own inactivity. As Vladimir himself says:
“There’s man for you,
blaming on his
Boots the fault of his
feet”.
So we can say that
the drama is basically an allegory of modern man’s wait for personal
salvation. Instead of just waiting people should take action in order
to achieve their goals.