by Annette

Created on: July 21, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

"I have a clear memory of my own fetal existence. It was an existence where no voice, no possible movement could free me from the agony and darkness I was subjected to." (Samuel Beckett)

These words uttered by Beckett relates directly to feelings and emotions portrayed in his characters in Waiting for Godot.

As with most periods in theatre, Absurd Theatre is a response to the times. After WW2 people lost their believe in God and in science. Everything they previously believed in was suddenly pointless and cruel. Science failed them with the killing of millions of people in the two world wars so very close to each other. Absurd playwrights were strongly influenced by the philosophies of the Existentialists who believed that existence is pointless and illogical. Absurd plays reflect these feelings of despair and futility in plots, characters, language and themes.

In the structure of the play there are no plotted crises, no climax and no discoveries or reversals. The structure does not adhere to the well made play structure. There are no unities of time, place or action. In Absurd theatre the unities are dislocated to show a world out of harmony with itself. Most plots are circular and repetitive action emphasizes the meaninglessness of live. No progress is made and no resolutions to problems found. At the end of Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting for Godot to come. There problems are not solved and there was no significant improvement in their struggle against the world.

The characters are stereotype and represent mankind in general. The audience has no information on the history of the character and focus is mostly on one or two personality traits with little knowledge about the rest. In Waiting for Godot we know that Vladimir has a bladder problem and Estragon has trouble with his feet. We also know that they are tramps waiting for Godot to save them. Who Godot is, nobody knows and never finds out. Characters normally come in pairs, so does Vladimir and Estragon. Even though they think they will be better off alone they never seem to be able to exist without each other. They need each other to prove their own existence. There is also the slave - master relationship which is obvious in the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky. This can be argued as the relationship between the world and man. Man became the slave of an uncaring and cruel world. Where gods and heroes were evident in the preceding time periods, the hero has now become

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