Waiting for Godot: Inside the Play

The theaters of the 20th century witnessed a great number of peculiar experiments. It was, needless to reiterate, an avant-garde era. Of many, however, the one that still shakes and excites me is “Waiting For Godot.” A Beckett masterpiece, it revolutionized the literary world with a series of unusual ones that he brought with the ‘silent’ dialogues. I would like to recall the aspects of the work that may interest and benefit readers.

The Pun – Do you remember Voltaire’s words? He said: “If God did not exist, he would have to be invented.” Translating the words into the English language will provoke, “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Beckett played all four aces from his allotted portion. He called his work-Waiting for God (ot). God is everywhere! Talking about God, in any sense, has always attracted mass readers. However, Beckett abandons the audience’s delicate hopes of him by not hinting at God throughout the play. He tries, however, to show a society where there is no faith, a society without God.

The Philosophy – Do you think the work carries out any philosophy? At least for Beckett, the answer is no! In one place, Beckett admitted that this play is for pure pleasure. However, for scholars, this work appears as an instance full of examples of rootlessness, existential philosophy and humanity’s dilemma. What ends do you want to extract from the work?

The Message – The message of the work is ambiguous. There may be a thousand interpretations or even more than that! More interesting is the fact that there is no happiness to be derived from the play. You can force your mind to move in any direction, you will see hopelessness, sadness, confusion and all the other negative aspects of humanity. The work moves… but what it shows is immobile! You must remember:

And they don’t move.

The Godot – What keeps the audience and readers curious? It is Godot’s identity. Once you go through the play, as a reader or as someone watching the play in action, you are curious to find out the truth of Godot. Who is Godot? What is Godot? People keep their minds busy. In other words, Beckett succeeds in instigating the connection of the audience and the play. However, this connection is juxtaposed with the missing connection of the development of the work.