1. Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot

2. Origination of WFG
Beckett first wrote Waiting for Godot in the 1940’s while he was journeying through France with his wife, Suzanne.
Opened in Paris in 1953
Not fully completed by Beckett until 1965
Should not be read as a purely Christian play
Beckett says in his biography that Waiting for Godot does NOT mean Waiting for God!

3. Waiting for What? Beckett believed we are waiting for the unknown
Sometimes the waiting is more important than the thing or person we are waiting for!
WFG is a play of humanism

4. Gogo and Didi (Estragon and Vladimir)
Their saving grace is their relationship with each other
Some of the lines where they seem to wax romantic come from conversations Beckett had with Suzanne as they walked across France together.
One character says “I’m leaving,” and the other answers “Maybe it would be better if we parted.”
Their relationship is bleak at times, hopeful at others.

5. Existential Play

6. Beckett ponders the meaning of life
Why live, why not die?
The play is not religious, although Beckett often uses Biblical allusions
WFG is similar to Hamlet in many ways
Asks the question “To be or not to be?”
Why should we choose to go on living?

7. WFG is not about waiting for God
Not a question of God’s existence
It is more about how we act in the world while we are waiting for life to end
We won’t solve the question until we ourselves die
Beckett is more concerned with how we as humans operate in the world
Religion offers hope, and Beckett doesn’t write this to give hope, more to ask questions

8. WFG is a balance between hope and despair
Hope can be found in each other – Gogo and Didi, Pozzo and Lucky
The characters worry that they have repented for nothing
We all share guilt, the state of sin
We are all guilty of being born! (5)

9. “Nothing to be done”
Act of acceptance, since we can’t change our destiny/fate
Gogo and Didi are waiting for Godot, a man of power who we know nothing about.
Beckett pulls from Sartre, a French philosopher, who believes we are condemned to our freedom.
They say, “Let’s go,” but they never actually leave.

10. Estragon and Vladimir Gogo Didi Estragon is child-like
Estragon is a poet
Estragon is emotional
Estragon lives in the moment
Estragon accepts what happens
Vladimir is more the adult
Vladimir is a philosopher/intellectual
Vladimir is rational, seeks answers
Vladimir lives in a construct of time
Vladimir is trying to find reasons for what is happening

11. Groundhog Day
Gogo and Didi live the same day over and over again, either in the moment or in historical context, but they always end up in the same place.
Life goes back and forth, it is self- perpetuating.
Vladimir says “It’ll pass the time” and for him, passing the time means we are all working towards death, waiting for death.

12. Pozzo and Lucky Pozzo Lucky Pozzo is a social being, a leader
Pozzo is elitist, he has a blindness to human elements
Pozzo is a Nietzschean master figure
Lucky is told what to do, a follower
Lucky doesn’t have to make choices
Lucky is a slave

13. The human condition is a recurrent theme
The human condition, we are all here on earth, sharing little hope, lots of despair
There is not meaning in life except for what we create for ourselves
Gogo and Didi reject suicide
They don’t want to be left alone
Being left alone is worse than death!
The human bond is most important part of life

14. “We’re Not Tied” Gogo and Didi insist they are not tied to Godot
Destruction of religious hope after WWI and WWII
Some found hope in God, others gave up hope
Political loss of freedom and independence
Crawling on all 4’s
“We’ve lost our rights” (15)
We have created our own monsters

15. Switching of Roles in Act II
Characters switch roles in Act II
Gogo sometimes speaks first and independently in Act II
Pozzo becomes the slave
Lucky becomes the leader/master
Life is absurd!
Changing roles is another way to pass the time

16. Changes in Act II 1. Re-entry of Pozzo and Lucky with role reversal
2. The tree has 5 leaves to show the passage of time
3. Speech given by Pozzo instead of Lucky
These changes can be seen as mirroring Act I

17. Beckett’s Focus He is considering the human condition
Different and interactive aspects of the four primary characters
Changes that occur from Act I to Act II

18. Human Condition
The Human Condition is the problem of not knowing the answer to the question, “Why are we here?”
“What is our purpose in life?”
All of the characters in WFG are looking for answers to these questions, but are not searching in a way that will help them find resolution