'Waiting for Godot'

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and analyzes the play 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett. According to the paper, the play is full of instances of repetition, circularity in structure, prose, and action that serve to enforce the play's theme of life always spent in waiting for something or someone that may never occur or arrive.

From the Paper:

"Similarly, the endings of both Acts are repetitive. Beckett reuses the ending of Act I with Estragon asking "Well, shall we go?" and Vladimir answering "Yes, let's go," in Act II. This exchange is followed by the stage direction comment "they do not move". The sole difference in Act II, however, is that it is Vladimir who asks and Estragon who answers. The conclusion of the play is deliberately recycled from the end of the first act. Beckett again uses repetition to support his observations of society's failure to act on their words or intentions. Vladimir recognizes this problem after deciding that they should try on the boots. Impatiently he says, "let us persevere in what we have resolved, before we forget." He is clearly aware of his own problem but this just makes his inability to solve it - to act and to move - seem even more exasperating and incomprehensible. Pozzo's and Lucky's scene in Act II also reflects this initial call to action and then subsequent inaction on Vladimir's part. He becomes abruptly passionate in helping Pozzo and shouts, "Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance!" The scene begins like an insistent rally against what he and Estragon have not been doing or have been incapable of doing throughout the play. However, Vladimir's unhurried and dawdling attitude towards helping Pozzo to his feet suggest that, even with the right intentions and resolution, helplessness as a habit cannot be broken immediately."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beckett's Theater Resonance by Ruby Cohn in Samuel Beckett Humanistic Perspectives Edited by Morris Beja, S.E. Gontarski, and Pierre Astier Co. 1983 by the Ohio State University Press Pages 4-7
• Chase, N.C. Images of Man: "En Attendant Godot". Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature. Vol. 7, No. 3. pp 295-303.
• Hamermesh, Madeline. On Escher and Beckett: Congruence in the Arts. Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1973. pp. 101-103

More papers on 'Waiting for Godot':

• Book Review # 117102 : "Absurd Theater and Existentialism in "Waiting for Godot"
• Book Review # 115215 : "Companionship in "Waiting for Godot"
• Analytical Essay # 8836 : "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett"

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