People demand and supply meaning to life and what they encounter throughout it. The passing of time signifies that something must have occurred and therefore must be given meaning to. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot presents a paradigm to this habit of prescribing meaning to a plethora of everyday acts that are otherwise meaningless to those who are not, in the context of the play, waiting for Godot. This lack of meaning is the meaning given to the performance itself. Repetition occurs in both dialogue and action to convey the cyclical mundane and the inescapable normality that the characters Estragon and Vladimir attempt to escape. Time is the oppressor that demands all characters to act accordingly to the pressure of the illusory end that lacks
…show more content…
There is no overarching conclusion: only an abrupt end where a sense of finality is absent. The audience extrapolates the cause for sufferings of the characters as the reason for waiting for Godot is never given, along with the cause of Lucky’s enslavement to Pozzo and Pozzo’s blindness in Act Two. In effect, the play itself is without the subtly of the traditional structures of narrative. The Beckettian narrative also fails to allow the protagonists to be conventional protagonists: they are unable to move forward in time though they move in space, and “everything oozes” (Beckett 51). The characters give meaning to this meaningless time through action, no matter how mundane, in order to pass it with less agony than they would alone and be able to believe that “things could be different tomorrow” (Erickson, 2007: 263). Instead of any defining moments of action to move the plot forward, there is instead a stasis in the experience of life; where something should be done, instead there is “nothing to be done” (Beckett 1) because the meaning of existence is defined in what the characters are already doing. Note that this is the first spoken line of the play, indicative of the theme of repetition and lack of mobility. Nothing has been done but waiting, and hoping for a tomorrow where the wait can be …show more content…
There is the inability to do anything other than waiting. The characters are defined by their actions and their names alone. The meaning of their existence is signified by how they move through time: Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot, and Pozzo and Lucky are on opposite ends of a noose-like rope. Action — movement through space — is an indicator of time, which also prompts action from the characters themselves. Though Levy argues that “time does not precede experience but acts as a conclusion for it” (2011: 90), the opposite can also be observed. In this way the relationship between time and experience can be reflected in that of Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo has an intimate relationship with time, as can be seen from his love for his watch (29) and the urgency with which he commands Lucky to act. Time pushes a character into action, as is with Pozzo and Lucky. However, Pozzo loses his sight for reasons unrevealed while the action, characterised by Lucky, continues to move forward, preceding time
There is no overarching conclusion: only an abrupt end where a sense of finality is absent. The audience extrapolates the cause for sufferings of the characters as the reason for waiting for Godot is never given, along with the cause of Lucky’s enslavement to Pozzo and Pozzo’s blindness in Act Two. In effect, the play itself is without the subtly of the traditional structures of narrative. The Beckettian narrative also fails to allow the protagonists to be conventional protagonists: they are unable to move forward in time though they move in space, and “everything oozes” (Beckett 51). The characters give meaning to this meaningless time through action, no matter how mundane, in order to pass it with less agony than they would alone and be able to believe that “things could be different tomorrow” (Erickson, 2007: 263). Instead of any defining moments of action to move the plot forward, there is instead a stasis in the experience of life; where something should be done, instead there is “nothing to be done” (Beckett 1) because the meaning of existence is defined in what the characters are already doing. Note that this is the first spoken line of the play, indicative of the theme of repetition and lack of mobility. Nothing has been done but waiting, and hoping for a tomorrow where the wait can be …show more content…
There is the inability to do anything other than waiting. The characters are defined by their actions and their names alone. The meaning of their existence is signified by how they move through time: Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot, and Pozzo and Lucky are on opposite ends of a noose-like rope. Action — movement through space — is an indicator of time, which also prompts action from the characters themselves. Though Levy argues that “time does not precede experience but acts as a conclusion for it” (2011: 90), the opposite can also be observed. In this way the relationship between time and experience can be reflected in that of Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo has an intimate relationship with time, as can be seen from his love for his watch (29) and the urgency with which he commands Lucky to act. Time pushes a character into action, as is with Pozzo and Lucky. However, Pozzo loses his sight for reasons unrevealed while the action, characterised by Lucky, continues to move forward, preceding time