Waiting for Godot Scene Analysis

Waiting for Godot is the most well-known play from the "Theatre of the Absurd movement". The play was written by Samuel Beckett, firstly in French, and performed for the first time in Paris on January 5th 1953. At the play's premier, the new style shocked its audience as it presented a new type of theatre which used abstract and unconventional methods. According to Esslin it is said to have nearly caused riots across Western Europe (Esslin 2). Waiting for Godot's debut in the United States took place at San Quentin Penitentiary Prison in 1957. IT is said the prisoners were able to relate to the play, purely because they understood the idea of waiting (Esslin 19). Now the play has its place with the classics of modern theatre and is regarded as one of Samuel Beckett's finest works. This assignment will attempt to analyze a scene in Beckett's play and discuss the crucial aspects of scene, including stage directions and themes.

Absurdist theatre tends to discards the idea of traditional plot, characters, and action tobring a disorienting experience to its audience. Time, place and identity are ambiguous and fluid in the plays. The characters mainly engage in meaningless dialogue or activities. Vladimir and Estragon throughout Waiting for Godot continue to use this technique and, as a result Beckett's audience senses what it is like to live in a universe that doesn't "make sense". The scene which I will be analyzing is a great example of this. The beginning of the passage in question lands the audience in a stream of be wilderness as we see a deflated slave tied by a rope to his neck. Pozzo who arrives as his master comes across as an authority, but as in many of Beckett's works authority is a masquerade. Pozzo immediately appears as a pathetic substitution for the absent Godot to the audience, his cruelty and tone of voice clearly marks a character that claims authority and tries to exaggerate it with his slave. It is clear immediately that Lucky suffers at the hands of Pozzo willingly and without hesitation.

Pozzo immediately gives the impression of cruelty and what is compared to treatment of a wild animal upon Lucky. The similarities between the treatment of Lucky and the treatment of an unobedient dog is uncanny, he enters with a rope which resembles a leash, he then "Jerks the rope" (Beckett, 24). The following lines depict a string of one word commands from Pozzo as he shouts "Up", "Stop", "Back" at Lucky, all this time Lucky is also completing dog like actions to further enhance the image to the audience. It is written in the stage directions to depict the "Noise of Lucky getting up" after Pozzo jerks the rope. This immediate action in the scene alludes the image of animal from his perspective also, Lucky continues to complete the actions which his "master" requests. The first of which involve giving Pozzo his coat while he carries the bags, then Pozzo places the whip in Lucky's mouth which the audience are inevitably led to believe is used on the slave. He then arranges the jacket to his needs while Lucky then places it on him. Lucky's rope is ridiculously long in this scene. At the beginning he is either sleeping or carrying out tasks for his master. It is clear how essential the character is to the plot despite not having a line in the scene.

Pozzo gives two critical appearances of himself. Firstly as an authority figure as he shouts directions as he shouts directions at his slave as previously mentioned, and secondly an arrogant figure who seems to be above Vladimir and Estragon in the social pecking order on stage. Vladimir and Estragon's relationship has already been defined in the earlier parts of the play and they resemble two tramps. While Pozzo although mistaken for Godot he carries his own air about him on the stage. From the moment he appears, the bellowing master and his shacked slave stand as contrasts to the impoverished Vladimir and Estragon. Pozzo does in fact refer to this as he states "I cannot go for long without the society of my likes, even when the likeness is an imperfect one". While making his statement Pozzo is looking the men up and down through his glasses. He then orders a stool from a servant, the next actions sees Lucky continuously serve his master without hesitation as the men gaze. Pozzo again tries to exert his sense of place while claiming "he stinks" while drinking a bottle of wine and eating a piece of Chicken. At this stage the scene perhaps reaches a pinnacle point as the men cautiously move towards Lucky, while Lucky engulfs his meal. Authority is once again portrayed as the slave sleeps Pozzo sucks the chicken bones and throws them on the ground as the men bravely move closer to Lucky.

It is only now in this extract that we hear a line from any character bar Pozzo. As the men move closer to Lucky their clown-like volley of words seems to reassemble. "What ails him", "why doesn't he put his bags down", "How do I know, Carelful!" (Beckett, 26). These lines come immediately after one another without any stage direction. The two men move close to lucky as if to investigate him. This takes the audience's attention away from the feasting Pozzo and more attention is focused on the sleeping slave. The men as they get closer give a description of Lucky, perhaps this was Beckett's attempt to humanise the slave who had mainly been portrayed as a dog. Firstly his injuries carried from the rope around his neck are pointed out. They are described as a "running sore", "chaffing" (Beckett 26), the men analysis continues on the wrecked slave. The stage directions point out "they resume their inspection, dwell on the face", the men's dialogue then focuses on to Lucky's appearance as