Thinking Activity: Waiting For Godot

 Hello Beautiful People,

I am Riddhi Bhatt. And yes, today I am coming with something interesting.  This thinking activity task about  Waiting For Godot  is assigned by Our Prof. Heenaba Zala at English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU).

As a part of syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper called History of English literature 1900-2000 (paper-110). So let’s start friends. First, we see that WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett. So let's start......

Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting Godot, who never arrives.Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French-language play, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) "a tragicomedy in two acts".The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949.

Throughout Waiting for Godot, the audience may encounter religious, philosophical, classical, psychoanalytical and biographical – especially wartime – references. There are ritualistic aspects and elements taken directly from vaudeville,[60] and there is a danger in making more of these than what they are: that is, merely structural conveniences, avatars into which the writer places his fictional characters. The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and pathos." Beckett makes this point emphatically clear in the opening notes to Film: "No truth value attaches to the above, regarded as of merely structural and dramatic convenience." 

There are some questions given as task so I am tried to given answers of quetions and also describe that what I understand in this play..

1. What do you think about the characters of the play?

There are few characters in this play.  Following are brief introduction of all the characters included in the play :

1) Vladimir and Estragon:

One of the two main characters of the play. Estragon calls him Didi, and the boy addresses him as Mr. Albert. He seems to be the more responsible and mature of the two main characters.The second of the two main characters. Vladimir calls him Gogo. He seems weak and helpless, always looking for Vladimir's protection. He also has a poor memory, as Vladimir has to remind him in the second act of the events that happened the previous night.

Throughout the play the couple refer to each other by the pet names "Didi" and "Gogo", although the boy addresses Vladimir as "Mister Albert". Beckett originally intended to call Estragon "Lévy" but when Pozzo questions him he gives his name as "Magrégor, André"

ESTRAGON

Let's go!

VLADIMIR

We can't.

ESTRAGON

Why not?

VLADIMIR

We're waiting for Godot.

ESTRAGON

(despairingly) Ah!

2) Pozzo and Lucky:

He passes by the spot where Vladimir and Estragon are waiting and provides a diversion. In the second act, he is blind and does not remember meeting Vladimir and Estragon the night before. Pozzo's slave, who carries Pozzo's bags and stool. In Act I, he entertains by dancing and thinking. However, in Act II, he is dumb.

Pozzo controls Lucky by means of an extremely long rope, which he jerks and tugs if Lucky is the least bit slow. Lucky, appears to be the subservient member of their relationship, at least initially, carrying out every task that Pozzo bids him to do without question, portraying a form of "dog-like devotion" to his master.

3) The Boy:

He appears at the end of each act to inform Vladimir that Godot will not be coming that night. In the second act, he insists that he was not there the previous night.

 In both acts, the boy seems hesitant to speak very much, saying mostly "Yes Sir" or "No Sir", and winds up exiting by running away.

4) Godot:

The man for whom Vladimir and Estragon wait unendingly. Godot never appears in the play. His name and character are often thought to refer to God.

2.what do you say about their activities and its significance?

All characters do nothing in the play. Their gestures and activities are meaningless and absurd . Vladimir and Estragon, have traveled towards total nihilism, but they have not fully achieved it. They still retain enough remnants of hope to be fomented by despair. And in place of hope as a dynamic, they have expectancy. This is the main motif of the play. The two tramps are in a place and in a mental state in which nothing happened and time stands still.

For ex. Vladimir and Estragon's talk. Also Pozzo ans Lucky's talk. Their talk and all activity are meaningless.It's a totally trivial thing.

3.Is there any similarity between the situation in the play and lockdown period of 2020 ?

Yes ,there were so many similarities among play and lockdown 2020. If we observe this situation we realise that we all are like Estragon and Valdemir. we find that in the play everthing is based on false hope and in lockdown also people were having false hope that the pandemic will get off soon but that both things are wrong In pandemic also people will never meet to their desires to go out and do things as before. We all are sufffer from this situation and also waiting for good days, in similaiar way Estargon and Valdemir are waiting for Godot.

4.Did you feel like existential crisis?

Yes , I have felt an existential crisis during that time and till the date. First we have to know what  does mean by existential crisis:

Existential crisis, also known as existential dread, are moments when individuals question whether their lives have meaning, purpose, or value, and are negatively impacted by the contemplation. It may be commonly, but not necessarily, tied to depression or inevitably negative speculations on purpose in life such as the futility of all effort (e.g., "if one day I will be forgotten, what is the point of all of my work?"). This issue of the meaning and purpose of human existence is a major focus of the philosophical tradition of existentialism.

In lockdown  2020 we have passed with the same situation.We are all in the same trouble. Life becomes meaningless. Still the corona cases increase like anything. I think that is the most important thing of todays world.

5.what did you do to pass time?

For the above thing i prefer to do watch web series, movies, TV serials, news.Also I read books and magazine.In lock down I have learned cooking. The time table was distorted. Also I like to write a diary& poem & articles.In this lockdown I prefer to do various things.

 6.How was your psychological condition ?

We all have mental health to look after, as well as physical health, and the way we live our lives has a direct influence on them both. There are lots of small things we can change to improve or maintain good mental health and wellbeing without spending lots of money to do it.Sometimes feeling meaninglessness of life. There was no hope for anything.what is the purpose of this play and at what psychological level the play is defined and in which form the play tackles with the mind of the readers ..This shows the condition of the society in falseness and hopelessness.

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