Waiting for Godot

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Summary: Don't let Samuel Beckett fool you!
Review: I am very interested in absurdism and meaninglessness in literature and philosophy, so naturally I picked up a collection of works by Samuel Beckett, one of them being Waiting For Godot. Needless to say I was disappointed to the point of absolute frustration. I felt ripped off. I picked up Beckett like I have picked up works by Camus and Sartre, expecting drama, passion and moving accounts of the futile struggles of everyday man. This is not the case with ANY of his works. Reading his works was like the equivalent of staring at a robot saying "life is pointless, life is pointless," over and over again. His works have no soul and no since of the actual struggles and conflicts the modern human faces when coming to terms with existence. Shame on these so called intellectuals who tout Beckett's brilliance. Read "The Stranger" by Albert Camus and "Nausea" by Jean-Paul Sartre, which are written with a strong sense of urgency and introspection. And forget about Beckett's works, which read like they come from the pen of an automaton.

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Summary: I don't understand this entry
Review: This entry makes no sense. In one section of the "Editorial Review" it mentions that this hardcover is a recording of a production at the Toronto Stratford Festival starring "McCamus and Ouimette." Then the "Production Notes" state that it stars Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith with Kurt Kaszner and Alvin Epstein and directed by Alan Schneider. Mostel and Burgess were in an early 1950's TV version - which is quite good. But what does that have to do with this "book"? What does either? Very unclear.

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Summary: "Nothing happens, twice".
Review: "Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!". That phrase, said by one of the main characters of "Waiting for Godot", somehow sums up the whole plot of this short tragicomedy in two acts. Strange??. You can bet on that!!!. So much that a well-known Irish critic said of it "nothing happens, twice".

The play starts with two men, Vladimir and Estragon, sitting on a lonely road. They are both waiting for Godot. They don't know why they are waiting for him, but they think that his arrival will change things for the better. The problem is that he doesn't come, although a kid does so and says Godot will eventually arrive. Pozzo and his servant Lucky, two other characters that pass by while our protagonists are waiting for Godot, add another bizarre touch to an already surreal story, in which nothing seems to happen and discussions between the characters don't make much sense.

However, maybe that is exactly the point that Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wanted to make. He was one of the most accomplished exponents of the "Theatre of the Absurd", that wanted to highlight the lack of purpose and meaning in an universe without God. Does Godot, the person that Vladimir and Estragon endlessly wait, symbolize God?. According to an irascible Beckett, when hard-pressed to answer that question, "If I knew who Godot was, I would have said so in the play." So, we don't know. The result is a highly unusual play that poses many questions, but doesn't answer them.

Ripe with symbolism, "Waiting for Godot" is a play more or less open to different interpretations. Why more or less open?. Well, because in order to have an interpretation of your own, you have to finish the play, and that is something that not all readers can do. "Waiting for Godot" is neither too long nor too difficult, but it shows a lack of action and purpose in the characters that is likely to annoy many before they reach the final pages, leading them to abandon the book in a hurry. That is specially true if the reader is a student who thinks he is being barbarously tortured by a hateful teacher who told him to write a paper on "Waiting for Godot" :)

My advice, for what it is worth, is that you should persist in reading it. If it puts you to sleep, try reading it aloud with some friends, and discuss with them the implications of what happens with the characters. This play might not be thoroughly engaging, but it changed theatre and the possibilities opened before it forever. In a way, it provoked a blood-less revolution, and because of that it deserves at least a bit of our attention.

Belen Alcat


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Summary: "Yes, let's go. (They do not move)"-- Waiting for Godot
Review: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a play of subtle beauty and truth of humanity's search or lack of search for meaning. Beckett uses minimalist techniques such as one set for the two acts to achieve the idea that merely letting life pass one by is absurd. The play takes places on a road where is little scenery besides one tree, alluding to the tree of knowledge. However in the first act, the tree is leafless, symbolizing that knowledge is dead; thus, life is chaotic and absurd. Contrastingly in the second act, the tree has leaves illustrating that there is still some hope. However, Vladimir and Estragon do not utilize this hope since they never leave this area. They wait for Godot to come to them. This lack of action demonstrates that if meaning is to be found one cannot wait for knowledge or life to come to him, it must be sought out. Furthermore, the two men's inability to leave their situation illustrates the difficulty humans have in searching for meaning. Moreover, Beckett does not suggest that the searching for meaning is worthless but a struggle. For instances, the leaf filled tree signifies the existence of knowledge and the characters talk of other places to flee to; they are not bound to their area. However, they do not leave. They wait for Godot to come them and once he has not come they do not move. In Waiting for Godot the absurdity of life lies in its characters inability to search for meaning since they hope it will come to them eventually. Consequently meaning or knowledge never comes to a person, which explains the ludicrousness in the two men's worlds where they no longer have a grasp of reality. They are bound to a world of chaos by their choice.

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Summary: I got woken up for this?
Review: What is the meaning of the play? There is no meaning to the play other than that there is no meaning to the play. What is the meaning to life? There is no meaning to life other than that there is no meaning to life, which is the meaning of life, which has no meaning, which is the meaning of life, which has no meaning.... Ok, I'll stop.

In order for the play to have meaning, you have to be IN the play. Are you in the play? No. If you were IN the play, what would be the meaning of the play? The meaning of the play would be the play, the playing of the play, for which there is no meaning. So, the meaning of life, for someone IN life, is life, for which there is no meaning. Are you the actor who FEELS, or are you the audience member who THINKS? If you are the actor who feels, then you are Waiting For Godot, and alternately you feel anxious, depressed, bored, etc. Now knowing this, you the audience member no longer think but feel; you feel for the actors, who are Waiting for Godot, who ain't gonna show up. I suppose there is a kind of mad pathos in all this waiting, thinking, and feeling. Nevertheless, Samuel Beckett was an insufferable ass! The jokes on you for coming to the play. The play is tautologically nonsensical.

And it ain't Shakespeare, Sophocles, or Euripides.

And now I'm going back to sleep. And I demand a refund! But how can I demand a refund from Godot, when he or HE doesn't exist? And Samuel Beckett sneaks out the back of the theater, cash in hand.... HAR, HAR, HAR!

But yes, I must admit, there is a kind of pathos to this whole play-going/life-going experience. Not enough pathos, however, for me to esteem the play very highly.

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Summary: But the night won't fall...
Review: This is truly one of the most impactful and meaningful pieces of literature I have ever read. I've been through it and through it and through it, and I never tire of the thought is provokes. While it seems to be one of those works that you either totally love, or totally hate, anyone with an interest in existentialism will find this to be an utterly delightful non-story.

I've noticed many reviewers state that this book is laced with Christian themes, that Godot is symbolic of God. This is not entirely correct, and should not really be dwelled upon. While Beckett himself denies the book's apparent biblical themes (He claims that the play is about shoes, and that the naming of the saviour comes from a road near his house, "Godot St."), one can almost declare that it doesn't matter who or what Godot is - you will find the story (Or lack thereof) to be much more profound if you focus not on the fact that Didi And Gogo are waiting for Godot, but merely that - much like all of us - they are waiting - and wait on.