Transcript Comedy in Waiting for Godot

Comedy in Waiting for
Godot
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Waiting for Godot is a dramatic enactment of the
unrecognized absurdity in the world. The drama is
absurd in two senses. In the first place, it is ridiculously
funny. Placed in the perspective of eternity. In the
shadow of death that the living can never forget
(“Where are all these corpses from?” p.64), the antics
with which the characters fill their short span are
ridiculous. All are levelled down to the same laughable
status, Estragon’s lament over his aching feet, Vladimir’s
complaints of his friend’s sweaty socks, games of
losing, finding, swapping hats and boots, suicide
attempts, debates on damnation.
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That particular translation of ‘absurd’ as comic is Beckett’s translation of its
other, philosophical sense. His black, obscene, pantomine humour is an
attempt to being life-preserving detachment into a situation so atrocious that
to view it head-on could only produce a formless cry of despair. An absurd
world is a frightening one. It has in itself no norms, no absolutes, no
consoling certainties, and no direction. Nothing and nobody living in it has
any pre-ordained sense or purpose. To say that life is absurd is to challenge
head on the two great acts of faith on which Western culture is foundedreason and religion. Confidence in reason is the basis of belief in the human
ability to control the material world. Religion, especially Christianity and its
personal God whose providence directs history, gives an over-arching
assurance that everything is in control. These are the two languages with
which Vladimir and Estragon must make sense of their world, and they
would seem just empty words.
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Waiting for Godot illustrates the tensions between pathos and
comedy, negation and affirmation, inertia and liveliness. The
stage directions opening the first act embody such
contradictions: ‘Estragon tried to take off his boot, tugging with
both hands, panting with effort. He gives up exhausted, and tries
again. As before. The repetition of the action emphasizes its
importance. ‘ Beckett has said that this is a mime of what the
play is about, monotony. Such unsuccessful action helps Vladimir
and Estragon pass the time as they persist in waiting for
something better, hoping the waiting is not in vain. Beckett
subtitled ‘Waiting for Godot’ a tragicomedy’ because his clown
heroes will not accept their fate as ‘true tragedy heroes would,
and here lies the comedy of the human condition.
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The tone of Waiting for Godot is skeptical and defiant,
the humour ironical. The notions of resignation,
apatheia, are firmly resisted, in this celebration of man’s
insistence on using his own will, however
circumscribed, and determination to persist in his
efforts. When Vladimir asks the blind Pozzo what he
does, when he falls far from help: the answer is “We
wait till we can get up. Then we go on”. Here the
waiting and determination to go on are combined,
Waiting for Godot catalogues the ploys men use to
combat heroic discouragement and doubts, which
makes them comic and heroic.
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The heroes of Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and
Estragon, are down on their luck, but have seen better
days. They are complementary, one responsive, the
other aggressive, one selfless, the other self-absorbed.
They relate to each other, yet long to be free,
understand each other, yet are opposed. From their
wranglings and changes in mood comes the ambivalent
comedy. For example, Vladimir remembers landscapes
and scenery. The sceptical Estrgon scoffs: “You and
your landscapes. Tell me about worms.:
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Waiting for Godot has become a universal
metaphor for existential tedium that cannot be
escaped, and comic mileage is got from
criticisms not only of existence, but of the play
itself . For example when Vladimir and
Estragon break off at a hiatus in the
development of the Lucky/Pozze theme, to
criticize the inconsequentiality and vulgarity of
the action, which is a metaphor for life:
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V: Charming evening we’re having.
E: Unforgettable.
V: And it’s not over.
E: Apparently not.
V: It’s only the beginning.
E: Its awful
V: Worse than the pantomine.
E: The circus.
V: The music hall.
E: The circus
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Beckett’s humour never takes the form of comic relief. It is
never a way of punctuating the horror, of giving the audience a
break from pervasive despair. It exists, rather, right at the heart
of Beckett’s vision. Beckett is a purveyor of thrilling bleakness,
beating his breast about the sorrow of the world and the
awfulness of existence. His real interest is in the endless ways we
think up to stave off despair, the fabulous, perverse energy we
bring to the task to keep going. The words and gestures with
which his people defy darkness, because they are pointless, be
utterly tragic. But, because they can have no effect, they are also
free and loose light, utterly gratuitous and gloriously excessive
and therefore, funny.