ESTRAGON
What exactly did we ask him for?
VLADIMIR
Were you not there?
ESTRAGON
I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR
Oh . . . Nothing very definite.
ESTRAGON
And what did he reply?
VLADIMIR
That he'd see.
ESTRAGON
That he couldn't promise anything. (1.202-212)
Even Godot is unsure! If Godot is a real omniscient, omnipresent God, then none of these statements can be true. If he is a figment of the men’s imaginations, their security blanket figure of certainty and truth, why do they assign to him all these doubts?
ESTRAGON
His name is Godot?
VLADIMIR
I think so. (1.277-8)
The doubt surrounding Godot increases as the play continues. Now they cannot even be sure of the man’s name, arguably the one "fact" they were operating with until now.
ESTRAGON
Why doesn't he put down his bags?
[…]
ESTRAGON
Why doesn't he put down his bags? (1.407-15)
The asking of questions—often the same question over and over—sets the tone of uncertainty in Waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON
They're coming!
VLADIMIR
Who?
ESTRAGON
I don't know.
VLADIMIR
How many?
ESTRAGON
I don't know.
VLADIMIR
(triumphantly) It's Godot! At last! Gogo! It's Godot! We're saved! Let's go and meet him! (2.378-83)
Vladimir takes Estragon’s uncertainty and draws a conclusion of assurance; in some ways, he’s regressed since Act 1, since he now can’t even admit that he is unsure of anything.
ESTRAGON
Are you sure it wasn't him?
VLADIMIR
Who?
ESTRAGON
Godot.
VLADIMIR
But who?
ESTRAGON
Pozzo.
VLADIMIR
Not at all! (Less sure.) Not at all! (Still less sure.) Not at all! (2.786-791)
The uncertainty surrounding Godot increases as the play goes on. Now, not only are they unsure of his name, whether he is coming, who he is, what he looks like, or whether they missed him, but Vladimir also has to wonder whether he has already met Godot.
Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting.
He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again.
As before.
Enter Vladimir.
ESTRAGON
(giving up again) Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR
(advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart) I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle.) (1.1-2)
Estragon’s opening lines define the tone of the play and the plight of its players. They also establish the view of the world that Waiting for Godot presents: there is nothing to be done for Estragon and Vladimir, and, perhaps, for the rest of us, too.
ESTRAGON
Fancy that. (He raises what remains of the carrot by the stub of leaf, twirls it before his eyes.) Funny, the more you eat the worse it gets.
VLADIMIR
With me it's just the opposite. (1.278-9)
This is one of the key moments of opposites between Vladimir and Estragon. One finds repetition (in most of existence, not just with regards to the carrot) dulling, and the other finds it exciting.
ESTRAGON
All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR
They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON
Like leaves.
VLADIMIR
Like sand.
ESTRAGON
Like leaves.
[…]
VLADIMIR
What do they say?
ESTRAGON
They talk about their lives.
VLADIMIR
To have lived is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON
They have to talk about it.
VLADIMIR
To be dead is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON
It is not sufficient. (2.98-114)
Vladimir and Estragon project their own dissatisfaction with their lives onto the noises they perceive as "dead voices." To live is insufficient, and so is to die; this leads right into Estragon’s earlier conclusion that to do neither is therefore the safest option. Of course, as the play demonstrates, this too is dissatisfying.
ESTRAGON
We don't manage too badly, eh Didi, between the two of us?
VLADIMIR
Yes yes. Come on, we'll try the left first.
ESTRAGON
We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?
VLADIMIR
(impatiently) Yes yes, we're magicians. (2.292-4)
Again, Vladimir is concerned solely with the boot while Estragon focuses on the larger issue at hand. He understands what thus far has been made clear only to the audience: that, unsure of how to be human, Vladimir and Estragon are forced to play-act, to pretend, to imitate what they think to be the normal course of human activity. It is through these affectations that the men "give [themselves] the impression [they] exist."
ESTRAGON
(aphoristic for once) We are all born mad. Some remain so.
[…]
VLADIMIR
I wouldn't go so far as that.
[…]
VLADIMIR
No, I mean so far as to assert that I was weak in the head when I came into the world. But that is not the question.
[…]
VLADIMIR
We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. (2.536-545)
Vladimir isn’t concerned with his condition when he came into the world, but only his present condition. His conclusion that the only problem is boredom is ironic, since while he speaks he ignores the call to action spurred by Pozzo’s cries for help.
Quote 31
ESTRAGON
(violently) You let me alone. (Advancing, to the Boy.) Do you know what time it is?
BOY
(recoiling) It's not my fault, Sir. (1.745-6)
Estragon berates the Boy for being late, an odd criticism coming from a man who seems to have no sense of time himself.
ESTRAGON
We came too soon.
VLADIMIR
It's always at nightfall.
ESTRAGON
But night doesn't fall.
VLADIMIR
It'll fall all of a sudden, like yesterday.
ESTRAGON
Then it'll be night.
VLADIMIR
And we can go.
ESTRAGON
Then it'll be day again. (Pause. Despairing.) What'll we do, what'll we do! (2.334-40)
Estragon seems to catch only glimpses of the horrible stagnancy in which he and Vladimir are stuck. At this brief moment of realization he despairs, only to be distracted once again by Vladimir or by some inane element of their surroundings.
ESTRAGON
What's all this about? Abused who?
VLADIMIR
The Saviour.
ESTRAGON
Why?
VLADIMIR
Because he wouldn't save them.
ESTRAGON
From hell?
VLADIMIR
Imbecile! From death.
ESTRAGON
I thought you said hell.
VLADIMIR
From death, from death. (1.73-80)
Estragon, although he is portrayed as the simpleton of the pair, has a point: Vladimir did say "hell." What is the difference for the two thieves in the story? What is the difference for Estragon and Vladimir?
ESTRAGON
What exactly did we ask him [Godot] for?
VLADIMIR
Were you not there?
ESTRAGON
I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR
Oh . . . Nothing very definite.
ESTRAGON
A kind of prayer.
VLADIMIR
Precisely.
ESTRAGON
A vague supplication. (1.202-8)
In case you didn’t catch the GOD inside his name, Beckett gives some hints that GODot has something to do with GOD. Case in point, this line here, where Estragon says they have offered a prayer to Godot. The problem is, they don’t seem to know exactly what they’ve prayed for. In a way, this exchange mocks religion for its inherent uncertainty.
ESTRAGON
To try him with other names, one after the other. It'd pass the time. And we'd be bound to hit on the right one sooner or later.
VLADIMIR
I tell you his name is Pozzo.
ESTRAGON
We'll soon see. (He reflects.) Abel! Abel!
POZZO
Help!
ESTRAGON
Got it in one!
VLADIMIR
I begin to weary of this motif.
ESTRAGON
Perhaps the other is called Cain. Cain! Cain!
POZZO
Help!
ESTRAGON
He's all humanity. (2.619-626)
OK, this passage can be confusing. We had to read it a few times. Estragon thinks that if they call Pozzo by the correct name (presumably, it isn’t "Pozzo"), he will answer them. He guesses "Abel" and is delighted to see that he got it right on his first try. When he says "Perhaps the other is called Cain," he’s talking about Lucky. Unfortunately, Pozzo also responds to the name "Cain," prompting Estragon to remark that Pozzo is all of humanity—he would therefore answer to any name.
Now for the religious stuff: in the Bible, Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve. One day, they both make sacrifices to God, but for some reason (and here’s what the play is getting at regarding the random and illogical nature of religion) God accepts one sacrifice (Abel’s) and rejects the other (Cain’s). This leads to Cain sitting Abel down and having a conversation about his feelings. No, wait, it leads to Cain killing Abel in a fit of jealousy, which in turn leads to God punishing Cain. Just note that Cain and Abel are yet another pair, much like the two thieves crucified with Jesus. Coincidence? Probably not.
ESTRAGON
And if we dropped [Godot]? (Pause.) If we dropped him?
VLADIMIR
He'd punish us. (2.848-9)
Vladimir doesn’t know anything about Godot—what he looks like, who he is, and he even if Godot's really his name. Yet Vladimir seems undeniably certain about his fear, which means he is certain of Godot’s power, if nothing else.
ESTRAGON
(feebly) Help me!
VLADIMIR
It hurts?
ESTRAGON
(angrily) Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!
VLADIMIR
(angrily) No one ever suffers but you. I don't count. I'd like to hear what you'd say if you had what I have.
ESTRAGON
It hurts?
VLADIMIR
(angrily) Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts! (1.23-28)
One of the barriers preventing an authentic friendship between these two men is that neither can truly understand what it means for the other to suffer. This sounds a lot like the primary thesis of The Plague, the existentialist work of fiction published just one year before Beckett wrote Waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON
(restored to the horror of his situation) I was asleep! (Despairingly) Why will you never let me sleep?
VLADIMIR
I felt lonely.
ESTRAGON
I had a dream.
VLADIMIR
Don't tell me!
ESTRAGON
I dreamt that—
VLADIMIR
DON'T TELL ME!
ESTRAGON
(gesture toward the universe) This one is enough for you? (Silence.) It's not nice of you, Didi. Who am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can't tell them to you?
VLADIMIR
Let them remain private. You know I can't bear that. (1.146-153)
Here we see the incredibly contradictory nature of Vladimir’s relationship with Estragon. He wakes him up for company, but can’t commit emotionally to listening to the workings of Estragon’s subconscious (i.e., his dreams).
ESTRAGON
(coldly) There are times when I wonder if it wouldn't be better for us to part.
VLADIMIR
You wouldn't go far. (1.154-5)
Vladimir speaks repeatedly of Estragon’s dependence on him. At times this seems warranted, but at other times we wonder whether he isn’t just assigning a physical dependence to Estragon when he himself is emotionally dependent on the presence of another.
ESTRAGON
(gently) You wanted to speak to me? (Silence. Estragon takes a step forward.) You had something to say to me? (Silence. Another step forward.) Didi . . .
VLADIMIR
(without turning) I've nothing to say to you.
ESTRAGON
(step forward) You're angry? (Silence. Step forward.) Forgive me. (Silence. Step forward. Estragon lays his hand on Vladimir's shoulder.) Come, Didi. (Silence.) Give me your hand. (Vladimir half turns.) Embrace me! (Vladimir stiffens.) Don't be stubborn! (Vladimir softens. They embrace. Estragon recoils.) You stink of garlic! (1.164-7)
This time Estragon takes the step forward in their friendship. But we find yet another barrier in the way, this time smell. Throughout the play Estragon will repeatedly cite smell as the reason he cannot get close to another, almost as if he is disgusted by others’ visceral humanity.