ESTRAGON
Let's hang ourselves immediately!
[…]
ESTRAGON
After you.
[…]
VLADIMIR
You're lighter than I am.
ESTRAGON
Just so!
VLADIMIR
I don't understand.
ESTRAGON
Use your intelligence, can't you?
Vladimir uses his intelligence.
VLADIMIR
(finally) I remain in the dark.
[…]
VLADIMIR
You're my only hope.
ESTRAGON
(with effort) Gogo light—bough not break—Gogo dead. Didi heavy—bough break—Didi alone. Whereas—
VLADIMIR
I hadn't thought of that. (1.174-189)
This is an interesting exchange. At nearly every other instance in the play, Vladimir is the more intellectual of the two men. Yet here, he needs Estragon to walk him through the scenario. Also, check out the line "I remain in the dark." On the one hand, Vladimir is confessing his ignorance; he remains in the dark cerebrally because he can’t figure out what Estragon is talking about. But his response "I remain in the dark" is also the answer to the problem Estragon has proposed: what happens if Estragon goes first? Then the bough holds up and Estragon dies hanging. Then, when Vladimir tries, he is heavier and breaks the bough—leaving him alone and, in a sense, in the dark. This isolation for Vladimir would be a worse fate than death.
ESTRAGON
Why doesn't he put down his bags?
POZZO
I too would be happy to meet him. The more people I meet the happier I become. From the meanest creature one departs wiser, richer, more conscious of one's blessings. Even you . . . (he looks at them ostentatiously in turn to make it clear they are both meant) . . . even you, who knows, will have added to my store.
ESTRAGON
Why doesn't he put down his bags? (1.405-7)
Pozzo’s lines are highly ironic here. He is busy declaring how much he benefits from personal interaction while he directly ignores 1) Estragon’s attempts at communication and 2) the suffering of his slave, Lucky, who is still holding the heavy bags. The way his comment is couched in Estragon’s repeated lines is a great example of how structure complements and builds meaning in Waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON
(on one leg) I'll never walk again!
VLADIMIR
(tenderly) I'll carry you. (Pause.) If necessary. (1.459-460)
And yet another example; Vladimir begins to express his feelings of friendship for Estragon, but, perhaps embarrassed, quickly pulls back.
ESTRAGON
Wait! (He moves away from Vladimir.) I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off alone, each one for himself. (He crosses the stage and sits down on the mound.) We weren't made for the same road.
VLADIMIR
(without anger) It's not certain.
ESTRAGON
No, nothing is certain.
Vladimir slowly crosses the stage and sits down beside Estragon.
VLADIMIR
We can still part, if you think it would be better.
ESTRAGON
It's not worthwhile now.
Silence.
VLADIMIR
No, it's not worthwhile now. (1.854-9)
Estragon and Vladimir ask this question repeatedly in Waiting for Godot: whether or not they would be better off alone than they are with each other. The answer never seems to change, and is always passive or indecisive in nature. Or, in Estragon’s earlier words, they don’t do anything because they believe "it’s safer." Too uncertain to part, and too hesitant to have a real friendship, the men are left in constant limbo.
ESTRAGON
Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me! (2.5)
Look at the tension in this one line of Estragon’s—he needs Vladimir close, but he can’t handle any sort of genuine friendship with him.
ESTRAGON
(sadly) You see, you piss better when I'm not there.
VLADIMIR
I missed you . . . and at the same time I was happy. Isn't that a strange thing?
ESTRAGON
(shocked) Happy?
VLADIMIR
Perhaps it's not quite the right word.
ESTRAGON
And now?
VLADIMIR
Now? . . . (Joyous.) There you are again . . . (Indifferent.) There we are again. . . (Gloomy.) There I am again.
ESTRAGON
You see, you feel worse when I'm with you. I feel better alone too. (2.17-23)
Vladimir’s line, in which his emotion ranges from joy to indifference to gloom, is an important one, and helps us to understand the men’s conflicting feelings in this passage. He’s happy to see Estragon, but Estragon’s very presence reminds him of his own plight, which makes him gloomy.
ESTRAGON
That wasn't such a bad little canter.
VLADIMIR
Yes, but now we'll have to find something else.
ESTRAGON
Let me see.
He takes off his hat, concentrates. (2.182-84)
Estragon and Vladimir are playing at having a relationship; the best they can do is simulate what they think they are supposed to do: have an argument, converse, make up, etc.
ESTRAGON
If I could only sleep.
VLADIMIR
Yesterday you slept.
ESTRAGON
I'll try.
He resumes his foetal posture, his head between his knees.
VLADIMIR
Wait. (He goes over and sits down beside Estragon and begins to sing in a loud voice.)
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye–
ESTRAGON
(looking up angrily) Not so loud!
VLADIMIR
(softly)
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye . . .
Estragon sleeps. Vladimir gets up softly, takes off his coat and lays it across Estragon's shoulders, then starts walking up and down, swinging his arms to keep himself warm. Estragon wakes with a start, jumps up, casts about wildly. Vladimir runs to him, puts his arms around him. There . . . there . . . Didi is here . . . don't be afraid . . .
ESTRAGON
Ah!
VLADIMIR
There . . . there . . . it's all over.
ESTRAGON
I was falling—
VLADIMIR
It's all over, it's all over.
ESTRAGON
I was on top of a—
VLADIMIR
Don't tell me! Come, we'll walk it off.
He takes Estragon by the arm and walks him up and down until Estragon refuses to go any further. (2.312-323)
Check out the conflict here. Vladimir wants to sing Estragon to sleep, but he’s awkward and clumsy in his attempts to do so. He wants to get closer to his companion, but doesn’t know how. He then sacrifices his jacket for the sleeping Estragon though it means he suffers the cold himself—but when Gogo wakes up, Vladimir refuses to listen to his nightmare. Every attempt at connection is made futile by an inability or unwillingness to commit.
ESTRAGON
(recoiling) Who farted?
VLADIMIR
Pozzo.
POZZO
Here! Here! Pity!
ESTRAGON
It's revolting!
VLADIMIR
Quick! Give me your hand!
ESTRAGON
I’m going. (Pause. Louder.) I'm going. (2.566-71)
Smell is clearly an issue for Estragon. This is the second time (earlier it was Vladimir’s breath) that he recoils from another for such a reason. As we mentioned in Quote #6, it would seem that Estragon is bothered by the visceral nature of another’s humanity. This time, however, the smell isn’t enough to drive him away; he repeats loudly that he’s going to leave, possibly in the hopes that someone will stop him.
ESTRAGON
(wild gestures, incoherent words. Finally.) Why will you never let me sleep?
VLADIMIR
I felt lonely.
ESTRAGON
I was dreaming I was happy.
VLADIMIR
That passed the time.
ESTRAGON
I was dreaming that—
VLADIMIR
(violently) Don't tell me! (Silence.) (2.774-9)
We’ve gotten this several times by this point in the play, but this one is arguably the clearest in its message. Vladimir wants Estragon awake because he’s lonely—he needs the entertainment. But he doesn’t want to invest anything personally by listening to Estragon’s dreams; this would make Estragon human, real, which Vladimir can’t seem to handle.
ESTRAGON
Charming spot. (He turns, advances to front, halts facing auditorium.) Inspiring prospects. (He turns to Vladimir.) Let's go.
VLADIMIR
We can't.
ESTRAGON
Why not?
VLADIMIR
We're waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON
(despairingly) Ah! (1.91-5)
Vladimir and Estragon are confined by their waiting just as Lucky is confined by the rope around his neck. In this comparison, Godot is compared to Pozzo as the being that governs such confinement. But do the prisoners, Vladimir and Estragon, choose to be imprisoned?
ESTRAGON
(his mouth full, vacuously) We're not tied?
VLADIMIR
I don't hear a word you're saying.
ESTRAGON
(chews, swallows) I'm asking you if we're tied.
VLADIMIR
Tied?
ESTRAGON
Ti-ed.
VLADIMIR
How do you mean tied?
ESTRAGON
Down.
VLADIMIR
But to whom? By whom?
ESTRAGON
To your man.
VLADIMIR
To Godot? Tied to Godot! What an idea! No question of it. (Pause.) For the moment. (1.266-275)
The verb "tied" makes more explicit the similarity of these two men to Lucky, who is literally tied by the rope around his neck. Estragon is actually asking the same question we just did—whether or not they are made prisoners by Godot. Vladimir, of course, is unable to answer with any certainty. Interestingly, it is his very uncertainty that makes him a prisoner of his own inaction.
ESTRAGON
I'm unhappy.
VLADIMIR
Not really! Since when?
ESTRAGON
I'd forgotten. (1.766-8)
Waiting for Godot argues that suffering is the constant and eternal condition of man.
ESTRAGON
What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR
Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON
(highly excited) An erection!
[…]
ESTRAGON
Let's hang ourselves immediately! (1.170-4)
The appeal of hanging isn’t that it would bring death, but rather that it’s something to do during the eternal wait. The men are unable to comprehend the consequence of such an action.
ESTRAGON
Do you remember the day I threw myself into the Rhone?
VLADIMIR
We were grape harvesting.
ESTRAGON
You fished me out.
VLADIMIR
That's all dead and buried.
ESTRAGON
My clothes dried in the sun.
VLADIMIR
There's no good harking back on that. Come on.
He draws him after him. As before.
ESTRAGON
Wait!
VLADIMIR
I'm cold!
ESTRAGON
Wait! (He moves away from Vladimir.) I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off alone, each one for himself. (He crosses the stage and sits down on the mound.) We weren't made for the same road. (1.846-54)
The men seem to be talking about a suicide attempt on Estragon’s part. Notice that the discussion of Vladimir saving his life prompts Gogo to remark that maybe they’d be better off alone. If they had been "each one for himself," Estragon would have successfully drowned himself. So what he’s really saying is, maybe it would be better if he were dead.
ESTRAGON
It'd be better if we parted.
VLADIMIR
You always say that and you always come crawling back.
ESTRAGON
The best thing would be to kill me, like the other.
VLADIMIR
What other? (Pause.) What other?
ESTRAGON
Like billions of others.
VLADIMIR
(sententious) To every man his little cross. (He sighs.) Till he dies. (Afterthought.) And is forgotten. (2.85-91)
Both men seem to see death as some sort of relief or end; for Estragon, it is "the best thing" and for Vladimir it is the end of each man’s personal crucifixion. It follows, then, that they are not only waiting for Godot, but waiting for death.
ESTRAGON
All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR
They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON
Like leaves.
VLADIMIR
Like sand.
ESTRAGON
Like leaves.
Silence.
VLADIMIR
They all speak at once.
ESTRAGON
Each one to itself.
Silence.
VLADIMIR
Rather they whisper.
ESTRAGON
They rustle.
VLADIMIR
They murmur.
ESTRAGON
They rustle.
Silence.
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.
Silence.
VLADIMIR
They make a noise like feathers.
ESTRAGON
Like leaves.
VLADIMIR
Likes ashes.
ESTRAGON
Like leaves. (2.98-118)
This is arguably the darkest moment in Waiting for Godot, and it pretty much comes out of nowhere. It is disturbing that both men are in utter agreement about the voices they hear; it means either that the noises of the dead are a real, shared experience or that one man is willing to indulge the macabre fantasies of the other. Check out the three pairings of repetition in Estragon’s line. First "like leaves" is repeated twice, then "they rustle," and finally "like leaves" yet again. The repetition is par for the course in Waiting for Godot—a reminder of cycles and absurdity. But the image of leaves is also cyclic—just think about the tree that has sprouted overnight.
ESTRAGON
Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?
VLADIMIR
What is terrible is to have thought.
ESTRAGON
But did that ever happen to us?
VLADIMIR
Where are all these corpses from?
ESTRAGON
These skeletons.
VLADIMIR
Tell me that.
ESTRAGON
True.
VLADIMIR
We must have thought a little.
ESTRAGON
At the very beginning.
VLADIMIR
A charnel-house! A charnel-house!
ESTRAGON
You don't have to look.
VLADIMIR
You can't help looking.
ESTRAGON
True. (2.154-166)
Images of death and decay are thrown arbitrarily into otherwise unrelated dialogue in Waiting for Godot. This is what makes the discussions (of corpses, in this particular case) so disturbing, but it reiterates a main thematic point of the play: that death in fact is arbitrary and without justification.
Estragon draws Vladimir towards the tree. They stand motionless before it. Silence.
ESTRAGON
Why don't we hang ourselves?
VLADIMIR
With what?
ESTRAGON
You haven't got a bit of rope?
VLADIMIR
No.
ESTRAGON
Then we can't.
Silence. (2.853-8)
In light of Vladimir’s earlier conclusion, whether or not he and Estragon kill themselves here is a moot point. Life is meaningless regardless of death (because it is deadened by habit), so it doesn’t matter if they have a rope or not.
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)
For readers of the Bible, there wouldn’t be a difference between saving the thieves from Hell and saving them from death. Vladimir takes a secular approach to universally important matters—in this case, death—and attempts to understand them through religious means.