Essay on Samuel Beckett 's Waiting For Godot

Throughout the 20th century, the human population began to question many basic principles of societies of the past; for example, the foundations of established religions became questionable to some followers as scientists revealed explanations for the phenomena of the world. Samuel Beckett’s 1953 play Waiting for Godot paints a dramatic, memorable portrait of the author’s view of modern society and the effects it has upon the characters in the play. Beckett incorporates multiple themes within the play to illustrate the ramifications of the rapid changes in modern society on the characters; for example, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon (also known as Didi and Gogo), spend a significant amount of time engaged in repetitive, meaningless conversation. Beckett presents in Waiting for Godot the consequences of the modern world upon the characters by describing the ways that Vladimir and Estragon cope with the futility of their situation and the ultimate pointlessness of their existence. Beckett portrays the effects of modern society on the characters by examining certain human characteristics or constructs and how they lose meaning in the modern world. For example, certain words and phrases appear continually in the play, and their repetition reinforces the meaningless nature of the situation. One of the key phrases and most important quotations in the play is Estragon’s assertion “Nothing to be done,” (1) an aphorism that Beckett often uses to transition “scenes”;…