Summary Waiting for Godot Notes IEB Dramatic Arts Grade 12 Absurdism
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Course
Dramatic Arts
Institution
12th Grade
This set of notes cover the play, Waiting For Godot written by Samuel Beckett. They include pictures and are in-depth notes. These will be a sufficient source to study this play and prepare for your final Dramatic Arts Theory Exam.
Note: These notes are recommended for IEB students - as some info...
man is never happy with the present and is always looking to the future
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Nicola Waite Dramatic Arts October 2021
WAITING FOR GODOT
Title
“Waiting” – all of us, the audience,
are too waiting. Wasting 3 hours of
our lives for nothing to happen, but
we will still leave the play
questioning.
“Godot” – what is Godot? Hope?
God? A change? Death? Freedom?
Tomorrow? A better life?
Themes
Every Man is an Island
No one really ever knows us.
The tramps meet up during the day
but are alone at night. Pozzo and
Lucky – even though roped together,
are completely alone.
“We are born alone; we will die
alone.”
Conversation is Irrelevant
1. Misunderstanding: The conversation Didi and Gogo have about the ‘savior’ ‘from hell?’
‘from death’ ‘I thought you said he’d save us from hell?’
2. Talk around the topic: revolving around the same idea and yet nothing gets done. “Let’s
go” (they never leave); “Lets hang ourselves” (they never do).
3. They talk AT each other. E: “Taking off my boots, did that ever happen to you?” V: “Boots
must be taken off every day” – Gogo asks Didi a question, and he doesn’t answer, but talks
AT him, never truly listening.
Each man has his own signs of madness
“We are all born mad, some remain so.”
1|Page
Nikkiwaite2@gmail.com
, Nicola Waite Dramatic Arts October 2021
We cannot judge other by our standards – as what is the standard? What is normal? We
think that the 2 characters waiting are mad, yet we wait. We wait for everything to get
better, for something to happen.
Their dress is awful – hobos – why have they allowed that? Isn’t it mad to live as they do?
Isn’t it also mad to live as we do?
Man is never happy with the present, always looking to the future
Why wait for Godot? Why don’t they follow the boy and make something happen? Why
don’t they go to Godot? We all wait for happiness but never have the initiative to go and
find it for ourselves.
Time is meaningless
They re-live the same day, having the same conversations (with minor diversions). Pozzo,
Lucky, boy. Spending a lifetime waiting, or 3 hours. Waiting for Godot is the same – it is all
relevant.
Pozzo: “Don’t you know that the blind has no notion of time?” How is this possible or
relevant? Time passes whether you are blind or not.
“A million years ago” a reference made by the tramps, where they actually mean 10 years
ago.
Life is Futile
You keep on trying and going and waiting – only to achieve… nothing.
“Let’s hang ourselves” = desperation and futility showing
“We were presentable then” – the past and the future seem better than the present.
Life goes nowhere. “You’re born, you live, you die.” What is the point?
Relationships don’t exist
The deterioration of Pozzo and Lucky. We question as to whether one day this will be Didi
and Gogo. We don’t know each other truly. V and E have been together for years, and yet
they don’t know each other.
“You should have been a poet”, “I was, is that not obvious”
2|Page
Nikkiwaite2@gmail.com
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