In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot two vagabonds wait for man who is only identifiable by his name. The pair attempts various actions to help pass the time but ultimately they are trapped in a wait without end and are forced to inhabit a circular structure of de-narrativised time. Time presents a list of problems in Beckett’s play causing panic, confusion and memory loss. This essay aims to discuss the various aspects of the play relating to the themes of time and waiting. This essay will also discuss the torture for consciousness of being in time and how time passes in the play, as well as examining de-narrativised time and the play’s circular time structure. Furthermore this essay will discuss the meaninglessness of time for the protagonists,
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In Waiting for Godot there is a sort of obsession with the day before due to the characters’ memory loss. Each new day, they question what happened the previous day, but they remain ignorant. At the beginning of the play Vladimir and Estragon argue about what they had done the day before and whether they were waiting in the correct location. The day before seems very distant. Without the structure of linear time, the characters become trapped in a repetitive circular time pattern which has no …show more content…
Life is a lengthy period of waiting where the passing of time has little importance. Waiting is a universal state of being for all mankind and while the event for which each person is waiting may change, the waiting will continue until the death of each individual. Each day the men wait for Godot, we are not made aware of how long they have been waiting or how long they will wait, the pair will continue waiting for Godot until he comes or until they die. Waiting in the play is continuous and death is inevitable. The two of them casually consider hanging themselves as a way out of their perpetual waiting. They ultimately do not commit suicide because they do not have a rope and they are unsure as to whether the tree is strong enough to hold their weight, and therefore there are forced to continue waiting. In this way the play illustrates that there are some things for which one must wait. If one takes reads the play in a metaphorical light and interprets Godot to be God then perhaps the pair do not kill themselves because they are waiting for God and this gives them hope so they do no commit
In Waiting for Godot there is a sort of obsession with the day before due to the characters’ memory loss. Each new day, they question what happened the previous day, but they remain ignorant. At the beginning of the play Vladimir and Estragon argue about what they had done the day before and whether they were waiting in the correct location. The day before seems very distant. Without the structure of linear time, the characters become trapped in a repetitive circular time pattern which has no …show more content…
Life is a lengthy period of waiting where the passing of time has little importance. Waiting is a universal state of being for all mankind and while the event for which each person is waiting may change, the waiting will continue until the death of each individual. Each day the men wait for Godot, we are not made aware of how long they have been waiting or how long they will wait, the pair will continue waiting for Godot until he comes or until they die. Waiting in the play is continuous and death is inevitable. The two of them casually consider hanging themselves as a way out of their perpetual waiting. They ultimately do not commit suicide because they do not have a rope and they are unsure as to whether the tree is strong enough to hold their weight, and therefore there are forced to continue waiting. In this way the play illustrates that there are some things for which one must wait. If one takes reads the play in a metaphorical light and interprets Godot to be God then perhaps the pair do not kill themselves because they are waiting for God and this gives them hope so they do no commit