Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett Is One of The Most Famous Plays of The Twentieth

The circular structure of Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is one of the most famous plays of the twentieth
century. It is a brilliant play, absurdist in nature, and has raised various questions among
critics due to its open-endedness which offers neither a resolution nor any closure at the end.
The plot of the play is circular and repetitive in the sense that both acts of the play are similar
in nature, and the play ends where it begins - with two co-dependent individuals - Vladimir
and Estragon waiting for a mysterious individual named Godot. The setting of the play is that
of a country road set in the evening, with a tree in the background where Vladimir and
Estragon try to pass their time as they wait for Godot to arrive. The setting remains the same
in both the acts which are of unequal lengths with no significant changes. There are three
more characters in the play, Pozzo, Lucky and a boy who makes an appearance in both the
acts of the play.
In a traditional play, there is always a linear development of characters by the end and the
plot has a climax and a resolution. A traditional play has a beginning with a prologue or an
introduction which sets the theme and tone of the play, followed by a rising state of action
which leads to the climax or the turning point. It is followed by falling action and a resolution
at the end. However, "Waiting for Godot is not constructed on along traditional lines with
exposition, development, reversal and denouement; but it has a firm structure based on
repetition and balance" (Frag 2). In Waiting for Godot, there is no such change in the
structure and the plot is chiefly embedded in monotony, meaninglessness and absurdity.
Apart from the repetition of time and setting, there is also a repetition of actions in the play.
For instance, Estragon repeatedly comes to a junction of hopelessness where he says
"Nothing to be done." The plot is static in nature with no real progress. Both the acts of the
play are concerned with the same actions of meeting each other, struggling with Estragon's
boots,the sudden the appearance of Lucky; Pozzo and the young boy, eating, contemplating
on committing suicide, parting ways and so on.
The circular nature of the play echoes the myth of Sisyphus. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus,
the king of Ephyra, was doomed to roll a large rock in the mountain every day only to watch
it roll back down again every night. He has been known for pushing the rock uphill for
eternity. Vladimir and Estragon's situation is a lot like Sisyphus. They are engaged in a never-
ending, pointless and repetitive waiting for Godot. Waiting for Godot can be seen as
Sisyphian in nature due to its very circular nature. Just like Sisyphus pushes the rock uphill
every day, in Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot without fail every day
in a similar manner. It is almost as if they are trapped in a kind of prison of their own making
as they always have a choice to not wait for Godot. However, they are bound by this
compulsion and an obligation to wait. Just like Vladimir and Estragon, Pozzo and Lucky are
also not ready to give up their roles. We can see that all the characters are constrained and
trapped by their roles and are unable to break free from this cycle of repetitiveness. This
circular structure of the play also emphasises the pointlessness as well as raises a question in
the minds of the audience - whether or not it is possible to break free from this cycle. This
structure is central to the play as it makes us reflect the meaninglessness and absurdity of life.
The nature of the dialogues in the play also plays an important role in emphasizing its
circularity. A lot of dialogues in the play are inconclusive, repetitive and often
complimentary in nature. For instance, " whenever the characters have exhausted their trivial
conversation and whenever they can no longer find some activity to help them pass the time,
they think of leaving. Yet, the conclusion is ever the same: they must wait for Godot. Thus,
such kind of conversation is like one draws a circle starting from one point and goes round to
return to the same point" (Frag 6).
The theme of uncertainty also adds to the circular nature of the play. We are hopeful till the
end of the play and even after the play ends that Godot will arrive some day. Also, the
character of Vladimir and Estragon are not self assured and need assurance of their own
existence every once in a while."The play is a dramatization of the themes that continually
are repeated in Beckett’s works: boredom and suffering of man. Such themes are fielding to
the circular structure that we face in the play" (Frag 8).
It is also because of the circular nature of the play that there is no development in the
characters. The characters are inactive, and passive in nature who wait for a God-life figure
like Godot to bring a change in their lives.
However, despite the circular and the repetitive nature of the play, it is also ironical because it
does not let the audience leave. This repetition is unique in nature as the audience are
compelled to watch the play till the end. As Vivian Mercier says, Beckett has achieved “a
theatrical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to
their seats. What’s more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has
written a play in which nothing happens twice.”
Hence, we can say that Waiting for Godot is an absolute defiance of a perfect tragedy, with
no change in the setting and characters, no progress in the plot and no reversal or turning
point. The play is one of a kind with its circular structure and repetitiveness which questions
the purpose of our existence.
Works Cited
Beckett, Samuel, Waiting For Godot, (Pearson, 2017)
Frag, Amal Nasser, The circular structure of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
Mercier, Vivian “The Uneventful Event,” in The Critical Response to Samuel Beckett by
Cathleen Culotta Andonian, (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998), p.95.

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The circular structure of Waiting for Godot

Beckett, Samuel, Waiting For Godot, (Pearson, 2017)

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