Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

I wish I’d read (or heard since I listened to the audiobook) Waiting for Godot sooner. It isn’t mere embellishment that it’s considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest plays. Vladimir and Estragon, perhaps tramps or travellers (we can’t be sure), are waiting under a tree in some wasteland for someone named Godot. Although they claim to know him, they seem to know little about him but his name, even that they become unsure of in the second act. The relationship between Vladimir and Estragon is peculiar, perhaps sexual. They call each other Didi and Gogo and bicker in an altogether domestic manner. After one such bout, Estragon offers reconciliation 

“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...).” 

But this is an absurdist masterpiece so the affection professed quickly dissolves into disgust as Estragon recoils and says “You stink of garlic!” 

They are intensely bored and they try everything possible to pass the time including contemplating suicide. At one point, Estragon suggests that they contradict each other to kill time. 

Estragon: You think all the same. 
Vladimir: No no, it's impossible. 
Estragon: That's the idea, let's contradict each another. 
Vladimir: Impossible

A classic example of the intricate semantic play Beckett populates Waiting for Godot with. Just as Vladimir refuses to accept the premise of the game, he contradicts Estragon, thereby playing into its rules. Towards the end of act 1 when Godot sends word that he wouldn’t be able to come but would surely come the next day, we realise that this routine has been repeated infinitely.  

Estragon: Let's go.
Vladimir: We can't.
Estragon: Why not?
Vladimir: We're waiting for Godot.

It’s strange that they should shackle themselves to waiting for Godot as if there were no other choice and yet it would seem that waiting for Godot is in itself a choice. One that they limit themselves endlessly and when faced with option of doing something else: 

Vladimir: Well? What do we do?
Estragon: Don't let's do anything. It's safer.

They try to assert that doing nothing at all is safer, that “if you never act, you can never act wrongly, and if you never choose, you can never choose incorrectly.” But, in fact, they choose by not choosing and nothing is as dangerous as doing something. And where possible, they shift responsibility of choice on another: 

Vladimir: We'll hang ourselves tomorrow. (Pause.) Unless Godot comes. 
Estragon: And if he comes? 
Vladimir: We'll be saved. 

By eliminating the onus of choice from oneself and heaping it on another, Vladimir escapes the responsibility of dealing with his own future.  

In presenting dialogue which often makes no sense at all, Beckett gives us a work that is startlingly and profoundly full of meaning. The play is minimalist such that there’s room for a range of interpretations from humanity’s relationship with God to psychological and philosophical themes. I don’t have to skill to analyse Waiting for Godot beyond my own personal reflections on it. It seemed to offer me a motif for my own life, about choice, inaction and fate. But, perhaps making sense from the absurd is meant to be a private act and we infer different meanings from the play because we are all waiting for our own Godots.  

You can read Waiting for Godot online here.