[Music] everything in this Bazaar play is worth talking about including the name the very title character who never actually shows up is most often referred to by American audiences as Godot audiences and critics in the UK however often say God Oh empathizing the God as if God is the very figure they're waiting for Samuel Beckett who lived in France and spoke fluent French called him Gobbo in French the emphasis is on the last syllable however you say the name it's impossible to forget the legendary absurd play in the introduction of the play Waiting for Godot too shabby men who seemed to be old friends Estragon and vladimir meet on the side of a country road near a leafless tree they consider repenting though they don't know what for getting bored they consider leaving but Vladimir says they are waiting for Godot they have asked him for something though they aren't sure what and they are waiting for a response they even consider hanging themselves as a diversion to pass the time in the rising action Vladimir and Estragon hear a terrible cry as the boisterous pop so stops to eat and talk to the two men as here uh flee orders around and abuses lucky his subservient slave he keeps on the rope lucky is unresponsive except when following patsavas orders pot so commands lucky dance and think after his silly dance Lucky's thinking produces a jumbled speech that verges on profound meaning until it becomes increasingly unhinged in his passionate delivery until me mothers might angrily attack him and make him stop lucky and pot so soon leave and a boy arrives with a message from Godot he will not come this evening but surely tomorrow it seems the two friends have also heard this message before although the boy claims not to have come yesterday they asked the boy to tell Godot he has seen them the next day Vladimir and Estragon return the tree now has a few leaves on it Estragon suggests they part ways but Vladimir doesn't want to reminding Estragon if their encounter with pot so and lucky yes today which s Turgenev only vaguely recalls the men debate the value of thought ultimately deciding it has little worth agitatedly confusingly arguing and continuing their random conversations and antics to pass the time as they wait for Godot lucky and Pato arrive again but they are much different Pato has gone blind and must rely on Lucky's guidance and support he falls down whenever lucky does and both fall as they arrive seemingly unable to get back up in the climax of the absurd play when Vladimir and Estragon try to help them they also fall and cannot get up eventually they help Pato up Pato has no memory of any previous meetings with Vladimir and Estragon in the falling action a boy arrives with the same message from Godot I cannot come tonight but will come tomorrow without fail the boy says he did not come yesterday and doesn't know if his brother who was sick did either night falls and in the resolution Vladimir and Estragon agreed to go for the Knights and decide to wait for Godot tomorrow neither man moves there are four characters in the theatrical absurdist triumph that is Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot Estragon along with his close companion and frequent partner in bickering Vladimir are essentially every men representing all of humanity but the two men also contrast in some ways sometimes Vladimir calls Estragon gogo Estragon is primarily concerned with feelings particularly his own suffering rather than intellectual thoughts and he has trouble understanding much of Vladimir's logic and philosophy he displays intuitive leaps that go deeper than Vladimir does with his logic if the two primary characters represent two parts of a person Estragon is the body possibly represented by his fixation with his boots the beatings Estragon says he receives represent the suffering that afflicts and traps humanity though esther Gon's complaints about it are self pitying and the fear of another beating keeps him locked in the endless waiting that comprises the play's action Wladimir is the more logical and intellectual of the two primary characters and he's the only character in the play who remembers most events from one day to another he works to fit these events into a logical time frame despite conflicting evidence and although he tries to explore philosophical ideas logically he often misses deeper truths that his friend Estragon who sometimes refers to him as didi seems to grasp instinctively occasionally searching his hat which he wears on his you guessed it head he represents the mind with all its ability to deceive itself if Estragon represents the body pop so is a wealthy landowner with power and resources and he sees Vladimir and Estragon is beneath him but condescend to talk with them anyway mostly he just likes the sound of his own voice his concern with appearances and social conventions is ridiculous pointing out their meaninglessness Pato uses his power over his leashed slave lucky to abuse him but his power and resources are ultimately useless they don't give his life meaning or protect him from misfortune which shows up in the form of his becoming blind then he must rely on lucky who was previously merely a convenience and used for entertainment to help him navigate life becoming a pitiful character in a single stroke I've suddenly changed fades lucky as potsos slave must constantly carry burdens that are not his own his body is constrained much like his free will as he wears a rope around his neck that pot so holds onto like a leash as he whips him this might be why he seems not even to consider leaving when Pato becomes blind losing most of the power he had wielded over lucky but lucky demonstrates some bizarre willpower during his long speech in act 1 and he's upset by the prospect of cazzo selling him which suggests he may choose to willingly remain in his subservient role there's a dependency between lucky and pot so that seems related to but isn't limited to their inequality Samuel Beckett famously refused to interpret his absurd surreal play Waiting for Godot letting his writing speak for itself but this doesn't mean that the play doesn't have key symbols it does the leafless tree Lucky's baggage and pots us rope the leafless tree near which Estragon and Vladimir meet is completely bare of leaves at the beginning of the play and represents the only organic element in the setting and it's dead or at least dormant this tree portrays the world as barren and lifeless emphasizing the lack of purpose and meaning the characters must contend with the apparent growth of leaves on the tree in act 2 only adds to the character's uncertainty about the place and the passage of time the staging is telling in this regard despite Vladimir's description of the trees covered with leaves the stage directions explicitly specify only four or five leaves Lucky's baggage is a symbol lucky never puts down except when it's necessary to fulfill one of potsos orders after which he immediately picks them up again even when he has been told not to do so this action echoes the human tendency of enslavement to burdens holding on to them even when doing so is totally unnecessary and the baggage luck he carries seems to consist mostly of items for potsos comforts in act 2 however one of the bags which is never opened in act 1 is revealed to contain only sand yet lucky takes it up again and again another example of a character deadened by habits fulfilling the task mindlessly and without real purpose potsos rope is the only rope that physically appears in the play and it represents the balance of power in the relationship between pots oh and lucky in act one pot so dominates lucky with a rope half the length of the stage pot so drives lucky by means of a rope passed around his neck and lucky is often the recipient yet lucky accepts even embraces this balance of power without question as if he cannot envision any other state for himself when the Rope is shortened in act two the balance of power and pots oh and Lucky's relationship is less clear pot so now blind depends on lucky for direction though lucky still depends psychologically on pot so also there are a number of figurative ropes in the play Vladimir and Estragon like Pato and lucky are similarly tied to each other and tied to Godot and the belief that his arrival will provide a meaning for their lives Vladimir and Estragon also entertained the idea of hanging themselves with a rope the suicide is never a real option its discussion provides the pair a diversion from the act of waiting for Godot the rope here becomes a symbol of submission to an illogical belief [Music] the main themes in Waiting for Godot the absurdity of existence the purposelessness of life the folly of seeking meaning and the uncertainty of time represent larger truths about existence and the human condition indeed one of the most noticeable features of the play is the utter absurdity of existence Vladimir and Estragon dressed shabbily engage in physically often inept actions and partake in clownish nonsensical conversations they absurdly wait endlessly for an unchanging situation to change when it is clear Godot will never come Beckett's emphasis on the absurdity of human behavior shows both the tragic and comedic sides of the existential crisis though Vladimir and Estragon agree there is nothing to be done they certainly seem to work frivolously hard to fill the time while they wait the unavoidable conclusion is that human existence itself is absurd none of the characters in Waiting for Godot has a meaningful purpose purposelessness of life is a key theme illustrated by the fact that the titular Godot never arrives rendering the waiting that comprises the entire play meaningless likewise pots oh and lucky might seem to be travelling towards something but their travels are ultimately shown to be equally purposeless all the characters seem to be trapped in their purposeless roles by little more than habits which Vladimir calls a great deadener the idea that life has no purpose is a recurring theme in the theatre of the absurd which Waiting for Godot helped define similarly there's the folly of seeking meaning it's unclear who or what Godot represents but by waiting for him Vladimir and Estragon are seeking some type of meaning outside themselves early on the men remember making a kind of prayer to Godot expecting it to give them some kind of direction and they decide it's safer to wait and see what Godot says rather than die by hanging themselves but Godot never comes representing the futility and folly of such a search for meaning in an inherently meaningless existence finally there's the uncertainty of time time seems to pass normally during the period the characters are on stage with predictable markers like the sunset and moonrise even though the characters are sometimes confused about it but the intervals between the two acts and various events are wildly uncertain at the beginning of act 2 the growth of leaves on the tree suggests a longer period of time has passed than the one day the character seemed to be tracked by time endlessly repeating essentially the same day again and again in an absurd dreamlike way time helps people organize their lives and memories thus the uncertainty of time in the play contributes to the feeling of meaninglessness duality and hats are the dual motifs in the play Waiting for Godot [Music] duality is everywhere in Waiting for Godot every character has a counterpart that complements and contrasts the other Vladimir and Estragon seem nearly identical at first but contrasting characteristics show them to essentially be two different parts of a whole pazzo and lucky are opposite in status yet share a bizarre mutual dependence the boy although written as one part played by a single actor may actually be two brothers one of whom tends the sheep while the other tends the goats also the entire play is dual in structure consisting of two acts depicting nearly the same events act two mirrors act one for example Estragon first arrives in act 1 while Vladimir is the first to appear in act 2 it's also clear that the two days seen in the play are reflections of many days in the past and days that will continue endlessly hats are worn by vladimir Estragon lucky and Pato and are a vehicle for the characters to show their identities lucky needs his hat in order to think got so shows his power over lucky by taking his servants at off Vladimir the thinker of the two main characters is fixated on his hat while Estragon thinks first of his boots in act 2 Estragon and Vladimir have a long bit in which they exchange their hats along with Lucky's an aimless attempt to make time pass as they wait for Godot [Music] you