This document summarizes key elements and themes from Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. It discusses how: 1) The play presents a logical problem as the two main characters do not remember what they did the day before and fail to recognize their surroundings. 2) Nothing new happens in Act II as scenes repeat themselves and the characters suffer from memory loss, unaware of the repetition. 3) The tramps try to stay occupied by engaging in trivial activities and conversations to pass the time but ultimately remain in the same place. 4) They are codependent on each other for company to endure their meaningless existence. 5) The play emphasizes how waiting is a universal human experience

1. Name: Baraiya Bhavna P.
Roll No: 3
Sem: 3
Year: 2013-14
Submitted To: Dr. Dilip Barad
Dpt. Of English
Bhavnagar Uni.

2. "Their lives would have been the same even if this day was somehow skipped..."
Logical problem-faulty memory
, “But you said we were here yesterday.” (8-9)
This situation presents a problem in logic, for
why would they not remember what they did
the day before and, if they did wait in the
same place yesterday, why would they not
recognize the landscape? The answer, beyond
a simple explanation citing their faulty
memories,
"Their lives would have been the same even if
this day was somehow skipped..."

3. Nothing new in act II
Scenes repeat themselves
Character suffering from a complete loss of
memory
None of the characters is aware of repetition
Their experience or conversations of
yesterday’s events or talk
“Killing “ time
The two tramps try to produce merely
the sequence of time
When they decide to leave, they
remain
E.g.
Estragon: Well, shall we go ?
Vladimir: Yes, let’s go.
They don’t move.

4. The Tramps Indispensable to Each Other
If they did not cling to each other, if they had not their quarrels,
if they did not leave each other or re – unite, they would actually
be lost,
These are actions which after all can not take place without
taking up time,
Beckett presents us with a pair is thus not only motivated by his
wish to show that everyone is the other’s pastime,
Company facilitates endurance of the pointlessness of
existence.

5. The Modern Worker’s Work,-A sham
Activity
The pitiful struggle, which the two tramps wage to
keep up some sort of action, is so impressive only
because it mirrors our own fate , the fate of multitude of
modern men
Through the mechanisation of labour, the worker today
is deprived of the chance to recognize what he is actually
doing,
His work has therefore become something like a sham
activity.

6. Our Existence, A Mere Playing of Games
The two tramps invent the games to pass the time
Estragon plays with his shoes
Such a way he doesn’t exhibit fool himself but
exhibit us as a fool
"The play emphasized the common nature of
waiting among all people...it suggested that the
meaningless of time is universal..."

7. Quote
VLADIMIR
He said Saturday. (Pause.) I think.
ESTRAGON
You think.
VLADIMIR
I must have made a note of it. (He fumbles in his pockets, bursting
with miscellaneous rubbish.)
ESTRAGON
(very insidious) But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not
rather Sunday? (Pause.) Or Monday? (Pause.) Or Friday?
VLADIMIR
(looking wildly about him, as though the date was inscribed in the
landscape) It's not possible!
ESTRAGON
Or Thursday?
Waiting for Godot reminds us that our labeling of
time is ultimately arbitrary. Words like "Saturday"
or "Thursday" are made-up anyway, so we have
no way of knowing what day it really is.

8. Quote:
POZZO
That was nearly sixty years ago . . . (he consults his watch). . . yes, nearly sixty. (1.467)
Pozzo is the one character to have a watch, and in fact it is quite a watch. He uses it
to speak not of minutes or hours, but a span of years, an impressive feat in a world
where the men must examine the sky at length to determine whether or not night
has come.
Quote:
“A dog came in the kitchen
And stole a crust of bread.
Then cook up with a ladle
And beat him till he was dead.
Then all the dogs came running
And dug the dog a tomb”
Vladimir’s song reflects the cyclic nature of time in Waiting for Godot.

9. Ah!
Vladimir’s notion of time is tied up with the concept of waiting for Godot. The fact is, waiting for Godot is as repetitive, predictable, and never-ending as waiting on a daily basis for n
POZZO
Help!
VLADIMIR
Or for night to fall. (Pause.
Quote:
We are waiting for Godot to come—
ESTRAGON
Ah!
POZZO
Help!
VLADIMIR
Or for night to fall. (Pause).
Vladimir’s notion of time is tied up with the concept of waiting
for Godot. The fact is, waiting for Godot is as repetitive,
predictable, and never-ending as waiting on a daily basis for night
to come. The end result is always the same, and the process
always begins anew the next day, with no end in sight.