Blog Post 3 Topic 1

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket is a play in the style of absurdism. The play mainly focuses on the dialogue between two characters, one being Vladimir and the other Estragon. Throughout the work, the two characters mention the fact that they’re waiting for Godot. However, they never see Godot. The storyline doesn’t lead to any satisfying resolution or finality. Throughout, the play it seems as if the characters have short term memory loss. They can never recount the events of the previous day. They also seem to not have common sense, as they question commonalities of every-day life. Since this play doesn't seem to apply to nominal conventions, to try to get any perspective into what the play means, it’s necessary to inspect every minor detail, such as repetition, patterns, and common themes.

I focused on 20 lines, starting from when Vladimir says “The tree, look at the tree” Followed by Estragon who says “Was it not there yesterday?” Then Vladimir says “Yes of Course it was there. Do you not remember? We nearly hanged ourselves from it. But you wouldn't. Do you not remember” then Estragon responds with “You dreamt it.” When Estragon says “was it not there yesterday” this statement makes it seem like Estragon doesn’t know that it takes a long time for a tree to grow. In addition, even if he did know that, he doesn’t remember that it was there the previous day. The only way that I can justify these events in my mind is by believing that the setting is a dream.

When Vladimir says that we nearly hanged ourselves from it, this changes the tone of the play darker in an instant. Then by saying but you couldn’t, it gives off the impression that Vladimir had some conception of what he was doing and couldn’t go through with it. By continuing with my initial justification that they are in a dream, many times when you can’t escape from a nightmare or dream, the only way to escape is through death. It seems as if Estragon is the one who is dreaming, while Vladimir is a part of Estragon’s self-conscious. This reminded me of Alice in Wonderland when Vladimir says “Is it possible you’ve forgotten already?” It reminded me of how when Alice would initially come back to Wonderland, she wouldn’t remember her friends from her past visits.

Estragon states that he “remembers a lunatic who kicked the shins off of him. Then played the fool” Vladimir says “that was Lucky.” Estragon responds “I remember that. But when was it?” Vladimir says “And his Keeper, do you not remember him?” Estragon says “He gave me a bone.” Then Vladimir responds “that was Pozzo.” From my previous statement that the reality of the setting is that they’re in a dream, it seems that Estragon is referencing a previous dream that he had and trying to remember what happened. In that dream it seemed as if Estragon and Vladimir were dogs who were given a bone by a character named Pozzo.

All in all, it seems that within these 20 lines, Beckett is trying to convey a story line using abstract conversations, which compared to other straight forward poetry may seem allusory. By breaking down each of the conversational prose within these lines, from my interpretation, I inferred, that the play takes place in one of Estragon’s dreams. It also seemed as if he had visited the characters in his dream before. This dream scenario would account for the thematic short term memory loss and the lack of common sense which is prevalent throughout the play.