The Concept of Absurdity in 'Waiting for Godot'

TOPIC : The Concept of Absurdity in 'Waiting for Godot'

PAPER 09 : The Modernist Literature

STUDENT'S NAME : Gohil Yashpalsinh Baldevsinh

CLASS : M.A., Sem-3

ROLL NO. : 15

YEAR : 2013

 The term ‘Theatre of Absurd’ was coined by Martin Esslin in his essay ‘The Theatre of Absurd’. The main exponents of this school were – Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet. Although these writers oppose the idea of belonging to a particular school, yet their writings do have certain common characteristics on the basis of which they can be clubbed together in one category.

The term ‘absurd’ has also been linked to the mathematical term ‘surd’, which means a value that cannot be expressed in finite terms. In terms of literature, therefore, we can say that it refers to something that is irrational.

The concept of ‘absurd’ seems to have begun with Sartre’s philosophy. “The absurd is not a mere idea”, says Sartre, “it is revealed to us in a doleful illumination – getting up, tram, four hours of work, meal, sleep; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.” The idea is similar to what Camus expressed in his essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. The point stressed here is, beginning all over again as if it were a new life. The actions of the absurd hero are meaningless and illogical. 

          Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot largely deals with the absurd tradition. The play is without any plot, character, dialogue and setting in the traditional sense.
In this play the setting creates the absurdist mood. A desolate country road, a ditch, and a leafless tree make up the barren, otherworldly landscape whose only occupants are two homeless men who bumble and shuffle in a vaudevillian manner. They are in rags, bowler hats, and apparently oversized boots--a very comic introduction to a very bizarre play. There is a surplus of symbolism and thematic suggestion in this setting. The landscape is a symbol of a barren and fruitless civilization or life. There is nothing to be done and there appears to be no place better to depart. The tree, usually a symbol of life with its blossoms and fruit or its suggestion of spring, is apparently dead and lifeless. But it is also the place to which they believe this Godot has asked them to come. This could mean Godot wants the men to feel the infertility of their life. At the same time, it could simply mean they have found the wrong tree.

          This setting of the play reminds us the post-war condition of the world which brought about uncertainties, despair, and new challenges to the all of mankind. A pessimistic outlook laced with sadism and tangible violence, as a rich dividend of the aftermath of wars. It is as if the poignancy and calamities of the wars found sharp reflections in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

          Then next comes the plot. In the traditional sense a plot should concentrate on a single motivated action and is also expected to have a beginning, a middle and a neatly tied-up ending. But it’s almost impossible to provide a conventional plot summary of Waiting for Godot, which has often been described as a play in which nothing happens. It is formless and not constructed on on any structural principles. It has no Aristotelian beginning, middle and end. It starts at an arbitrary point and seem to end just as arbitrarily. Beckett, like other dramatists working in this mode, is not trying to "tell a story." He's not offering any easily identifiable solutions to carefully observed problems; there's little by way of moralizing and no obvious "message." The pattern of the play might best be described as circular. The circularity of Waiting for Godot is highly unconventional.

          As per as the portrayal of characters is concerned the play also fits into the absurd tradition. A well-made play is expected to present characters that are well-observed and convincingly motivated. But in the play we five characters who are not very recognizable human beings and don’t engage themselves in a motivated action. Two tramps, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), are waiting by a tree on a country road for Godot, whom they have never met and who may not even exist. They argue, make up, contemplate suicide, discuss passages from the Bible, and encounter Pozzo and Lucky, a master and slave. Near the end of the first act, a young boy comes with a message from Mr. Godot that he will not come today but will come tomorrow. In the second act, the action of the first act is essentially repeated, with a few changes: the tree now has leaves; Pozzo is blind and has Lucky on a shorter leash. Once again the boy comes and tells them Mr. Godot will not come today; he insists he has never met them before.

          The speech of the play begins with ESTRAGON’s disgust at his work, though here his work is very absurd, “to take off his boot”:
“Nothing to be done. 

These words symbolically shows the absurdity and meaninglessness of life which the characters will elaborate later. 

          In his play, Beckett presents before us a highly absurd situation of two tramps – Vladimir and Estragon – waiting for their appointment with the never defined Godot, who doesn’t come. Both the tramps follow the same routine every day. They cannot but wait: 

Valdimir: Let’s go
Estragon: Let’s go
(They both don’t move.)
Martin Esslin comments,
“The subject of the play is not Godot but waiting, the act of waiting is an essential aspect of human condition.”(p.44)

Therefore, in order to only pass time, they indulge themselves in some senseless activities, talk on and on, argue, joke, imagine themselves in different characters, rebuke, protest and question each other. 

ESTRAGON: That's the idea, let's contradict each another.
…………..
ESTRAGON: That's the idea, let's ask each other questions.
But again they keep on waiting the whole day and find that
“Nothing happens, nobody comes … nobody goes, it’s awful!”

Estragon’s putzing about with his boot is a central iteration of absurdity in the play. Look at their absurd activities
(Estragon with a supreme effort succeeds in pulling off his boot. He peers inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes it, looks on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before him.) Well?
ESTRAGON: Nothing.

The unreliability of memory is one of the reasons that Waiting for Godot lacks rationale and establishes a world of absurdity and purposelessness. 

ESTRAGON : What did we do yesterday?
VLADIMIR : What did we do yesterday?
ESTRAGON : Yes.
VLADIMIR : Why . . . (Angrily.) Nothing is certain when you're about.
ESTRAGON : In my opinion we were here.
VLADIMIR : (looking round) You recognize the place?
ESTRAGON : I didn't say that.
Estragon can’t recall his original question: the questions of the past have no meaning in the present. 

Vladimir and Estragon switch rapidly from serious subject matter to absurdly inane details. This is part of the play’s attempt at "tragicomedy," but this is also the reason why Vladimir and Estragon can’t take part in anything meaningful: they are too distracted by the petty habits of everyday life.
VLADIMIR : I thought it was he. 

ESTRAGON : Who?
VLADIMIR : Godot.
ESTRAGON : Pah! The wind in the reeds.
VLADIMIR : I could have sworn I heard shouts.
………….
ESTRAGON : (violently) I'm hungry!
VLADIMIR : Do you want a carrot?

Lack of communication:
Vladimir asks his question five times without response
VLADIMIR
You want to get rid of him?
   

           The characters of the play recognize like Macbeth, though there is fundamental difference between them in their action, that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”:
VLADIMIR : (sententious). To every man his little cross. (He sighs.) Till he dies. (Afterthought.) And is forgotten.
ESTRAGON : In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.

            In the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ many times, a possibility is suggested then immediately undercut by its unhappy opposite. This technique is used by Beckett to relay his theme that life is uncertain and unpredictable at its best, unfortunate and unending at its worst. To further state this theme, Estragon asserts that "There's no lack of void" in life. It is actually of little importance where they were the previous day, as everywhere every day the same empty vacuum envelops them. Absence, emptiness, nothingness, and unresolved mysteries are central features in the play.

            In this way we can say the play Waiting for Godot contains almost all the elements of a absurd play. The play depicts the irrationalism of life in a grotesquely comic and non-consequential fashion with the element of "metaphysical alienation and tragic anguish." It was first written in French and called En attendant Godot. The author himself translated the play into English in 1954. The uniqueness of the play compelled the audiences to flock to the theaters for a spectacularly continuous four hundred performances. At the time, there were two distinct opinions about the play; some called it a hoax and others called it a masterpiece. Nevertheless, Waiting for Godot has claimed its place in literary history as a masterpiece that changed the face of twentieth century drama.