Each character inhabits a world that has been shaped by thousands of individual experiences, accumulated through their five senses, arranging elements in their minds differently. Conversation occurs but the arrangement of words, poor starved strings do not bridge the gulf that exists between them. The silences seem to punctuate conversations that represent the void, emptiness and loneliness between people. Lucky’s breakdown of speech and final collapse into silence could portray Beckett’s ultimate response to the chaos, randomness and meaninglessness of the universe: silence.
Beckett portrays the human condition as a period of suffering. Heidegger theorized that humans are ‘thrown into the world’ and that suffering is part of existence. Proust describes this point as the, ’sin of being born’, which Estragon and Vladimir refer to as Vladimir ponders about repenting being born. Estragon’s references to Christ represent his sympathy towards suffering as well as symbolizing human suffering:
” Vladimir: What’s Christ got to do with it? ?
Estragon: All my life I’ve compared myself to him. ? And they crucified quick!” (p.52).
Estragon feels that Christ’s suffering on the crucifix was short while Beckett implies that the suffering of life is long. Estragon’s suffering is shown more directly in the stage directions, when he attacks the messenger boy:
” Estragon releases the Boy, moves away, covering his faces with his hands. ?Estragon drops his hands. His face convulsed.” (p.50).
Beckett perhaps feels that to reduce the individual’s suffering one must detach oneself from one’s emotions. Vladimir wishes himself and Estragon to “try and converse calmly” (p.62) for this reason and it explains Estragon’s apprehension of being embraced and Vladimir’s fear of laughing, “One daren’t even laugh any more” (p.11). They perhaps wants to distance themselves from emotion to numb the pain of living. Early Greek philosophers believed in objectivity – distancing oneself. The Buddhist religion believes in separating oneself from the torrent of human emotions. Beckett makes it sound as though the noblest human condition is to be emotionally robotic – conditioned out of human feeling by boredom.
Beckett infers that life may not offer any alternatives to suffering – namely love or pleasure. The only consolation is that suffering is a precondition of contemplation or creativity; it inspires. For example, out of Estragon’s and Vladimir’s suffering arise very imaginative techniques for passing time.
Beckett uses of bathos, staccato-like speech or actions and vulgarity flavoured with black or tragicomic humour to present a reductive view of human nature. Vladimir’s perpetual need to urinate illustrates one of these vulgarities. Beckett’s pessimism is understandable. He lived through two world wars, fighting the second World War for the French resistance against the Nazis. He would have witnessed the atrocities of human nature, chaos, the pointlessness of violence and the breakdown of communication. He would inevitably spent time during the war helplessly waiting for something to happen.
Estragon injects bathos into the serious debate about the thief who was saved by Christ by declaring with bluntness a reductive statement, “People are bloody ignorant apes.” (p.13). Estragon and Vladimir often behave comically, finding interest in the banal – reducing human experiences to the mundane. The tramps comic, banal behaviour is very similar to the behaviour of another pair of comic characters – Laurel and Hardy:
” Vladimir: Pull on your trousers.
Estragon: What?
Vladimir: Pull on your trousers.
Estragon: You want me to pull off my trousers?
Vladimir: Pull ON your trousers.
Estragon: ( realizing his trousers are down) True. ( He pulls up his trousers.)”
Laurel and Hardy journeyed and shared a reasonably dependent relationship, tested by bouts of exasperation while seeming to not to age and none the wiser. They coped in perpetual nervous agitation, Laurel the most anxious while Hardy tended to solicit a philosophic calm. Neither characters were especially competent and Laurel was the weaker of the two often being defeated by the most trivial or trifling requirements. For example, in Way Out West (1937) (A readers Guide to Samuel Beckett – Hugh Kenner):
” Hardy: Get on the mule.
Laurel: What?
Hardy: Get on the mule.”
The Seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal viewed human life in terms of paradoxes: The human self is itself a paradox and contradiction. Estragon and Vladimir are full of contradictions, as their emotions often change erratically from violence to sympathy, from the philosophical to the banal. Pozzo’s cruelty towards Lucky emphasizes the contradictions in human nature. They share a master-slave relationship in which Pozzo can be the worst of all tyrants, shouting authoritarian instructions at Lucky, such as, “Up pig!” (p.23), and yet can be equally filled with self-pity:
” I can’t bear it ? any longer ? the way he goes on ? you’ve no idea ? it’s terrible” (p.34).
Beckett’s devotion to and relationship with Joyce was not quite that of the master’s secretary but Joyce did dictate part of Finnigan’s Wake to the younger Beckett and some said that Beckett was his own model for a Pozzo-Lucky relationship. Beckett himself summed up his own contradictory situation as a writer in a 1949 dialogue with Georges Duthuit:
“The expression that there is nothing to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.”
This contradictory statement is very reminiscent of the final lines of the play, which show the contradiction between words and action:
” ‘Well? Shall we go?’ ‘Yes, let’s go.’ They do not move.”
A sense of balance within the universe is illustrated in the play, as the silences counteract the conversation, the actions counteract the inactivity. Balance satisfies the mind which recoils from the random. Estragon represents a man of the body and Vladimir represents a man of the mind. Together they represent the divide of self: the mind and body, in Freudian terms – the id and the ego. Pascal thought it important to recognize that the self consists of the mind and body. Note the physical troubles of Estragon, concerning his boots, and the philosophical problems, such as time and existence, facing Vladimir:
” Vladimir: ( gloomily). It’s too much for one man. ( Pause. Cheerfully.) On the other hand what’s the good of losing heart now, that’s what I say. We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties.” (p.10).
Estragon: Ah stop blathering and help me off with this bloody thing.” (p.10).
To summarize Waiting For Godot as a display of Beckett’s bleak view of life would be a simplistic presumption, as Estragon and Vladimir epitomize all of mankind (as Estragon refers to himself as “Adam” ,p.37), showing the full range of human emotions. Estragon and Vladimir do suffer but equally show glimpses of happiness and excitement. They are excited by Pozzo’s arrival and Estragon is “highly excited” about the prospect of an erection. Equally, as acts of random violence and anger are committed signs of affection are displayed between the characters. Gogo and Didi are the affectionate names Estragon and Vladimir call each other. Didi apologizes for his behaviour and displays affection: “Forgive me ? Come, Didi. ? Give me your hand. ? Embrace me!” (p.17). Even brief signs of happiness are portrayed, as Gogo finds Lucky amusing, “He’s a scream. ? ( Laughs noisily.)” (p.35). Although Gogo and Didi fear being ‘tied’ or dependent on each other. This can be seen as either positive or negative. The pessimistic view is that they cannot escape waiting for Godot, from each other or from their situation in general. The optimistic view of the play shows a range of human emotion and the need to share experiences alongside the suffering of finite existence; governed by the past, acting in the present and uncertain of the future.
Bibliography:
A Readers Guide to Samuel Beckett – Hugh Kenner
Beckett – A. Alvarez
Waiting For Godot – York Notes
Encyclopaedia Brittanica references
Microsoft @ Encarta 96 Encyclopaedia
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