The Absurdity of the Waiting in “Waiting for Godot”

Introduction

“Waiting for Godot” is, for many, one of the most exceptional plays in the 20th Century. This unusual play originated many reactions all around the globe and impressed scholars and people alike. But its complexity was also its weak spot as many scholars tried to organize and reduce the play to a single meaning; they strayed from what the play intended to present. This lead many to look for answers outside the play. Desmond Smith who wanted to present Godot in Canada asked Beckett about the meaning of the play to what Beckett answered: “I am afraid I am quite incapable of sitting down and writing out an “explanation” of the play. (…) Do try to see the thing primarily in its simplicity, the waiting, the not knowing why, or where, or when, or for what”(Beckett, 1956).

From the tons of papers that try to explain the play there are just a few that considered the feelings that arise from the play because it is almost impossible to describe these feelings with words. The impossibility of describing the feelings that result from the play becomes the leitmotif and it is strongly connected to the idea of the Camusian “absurd”. The absurd, defined by French philosopher Albert Camus, is the awareness of the human futility to give meaning to himself and his universe. Both, the absurd and “Waiting for Godot” agree that language is futile when trying to convey meaning, but the play goes beyond the philosophical absurd as the play does not intend to explain the absurd but it presents it in terms of concrete images. The play takes the shape of the absurd and uses it as the principle of formal construction.

The philosophical absurd presents a confrontation between man’s burning desire for meaning and the unreasonable silence of the world. This confrontation is also present in the play, but oriented towards the aesthetic act; that is, oriented towards the feeling of nothingness that arises from the play. In a sense, the play intends to show that the real duty of art is to reveal the failure of language which, to a certain extent, is to reveal the absurd. The feeling of the absurd is the feeling of the contemplation of the nothingness and in order to contemplate this void the language layer must be torn apart. It is through the confrontation between the human nostalgia and the irrational world that the play shatters the language layer and displays the nothingness that lies beneath it. This is the reason why it feels like nothing is happening. Vivian Mercier accurately pointed out that “Waiting for Godot” is a play where “nothing happens twice”(Words on Plays, p2) because that is how it feels when the aesthetic act is fulfilled, it feels like contemplating a void where the only familiar piece is silence.