Friendship is tricky in Waiting for Godot, as each character is fundamentally isolated from each other. Relationships teeter between a fear of loneliness and an essential inability to connect. This tension is central to the play. The problems that keep characters apart vary from physical disgust to ego to a fear of others’ suffering.
Questions About Friendship
- What is the best term to describe Vladimir and Estragon’s relationship? Are they friends? Companions? Master and slave? Mere acquaintances?
- Vladimir and Estragon constantly ask whether they would be better off without each other. So… would they?
- Of Vladimir and Estragon, which man is more eager to draw closer, and which man is more hesitant?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Because Lucky and Pozzo understand and accept the nature of their positions as slave and master, they have a healthier relationship than Vladimir and Estragon.