WAITING FOR GODOT
1)What do you think about the character of the play?
Characters of the play -
. Vladimir
One of the two main characters of the play. Estragon calls him Didi, and the boy addresses him as Mr. Albert. He seems to be the more responsible and mature of the two main characters.
Estragon
The second of the two main characters. Vladimir calls him Gogo. He seems weak and helpless, always looking for Vladimir's protection. He also has a poor memory, as Vladimir has to remind him in the second act of the events that happened the previous night.
Pozzo
He passes by the spot where Vladimir and Estragon are waiting and provides a diversion. In the second act, he is blind and does not remember meeting Vladimir and Estragon the night before.
Lucky
Pozzo's slave, who carries Pozzo's bags and stool. In Act I, he entertains by dancing and thinking. However, in Act II, he is dumb.
Boy
He appears at the end of each act to inform Vladimir that Godot will not be coming that night. In the second act, he insists that he was not there the previous night.
Godot
The man for whom Vladimir and Estragon wait unendingly. Godot never appears in the play. His name and character are often thought to refer to God.
I found absurdity in the characters of Waiting for Godot. In order to prove it, if we consider the main characters of “Waiting for Godot'' for example, Estragon and Vladimir, we can see that they are waiting without knowing the purpose they are waiting for. Furthermore, they are not making sense of the lives and existence and that is why they think about suicide.
In the same way, they also indicate the carelessness of Godot towards them. This relationship is represented in the shape of a master slave dichotomy named Pozzo, the master and Lucky, the slave, where no importance is given to the slave and is overburdened without any care. This is to make Estragon and Vladimir realize that though you are waiting for Godot but this could be your situation in the end.
Another thing which is also associated with the absurdity in the characters of “Waiting for Godot” is their trust on each other for holding up and support. Each of them believes to get some sort of help from the other one and thus tries to put a seal to his chaotic life. Therefore, we can say that it is this meaninglessness, this detachment, this strangeness and finally this spiritual and physical isolation in the characters of the text that make them absurd characters.
2. What do you say about their activities and its significance?
"But what does it all mean?" is the most frequent statement heard after one has seen or finished reading a play from the Theater of the Absurd movement. Beckett's plays were among the earliest and, therefore, created a great deal of confusion among the early critics.
In this play all characters do nothing.Their activities are meaningless and absurd.
For example
In Waiting for Godot”, the very first page and in fact the very first dialogue between Estragon and Vladimir has absurdity and purposelessness of life. Estragon while pulling off his shoes, panting and quite exhausted rests for some time when Vladimir enters Estragon says,
ESTRAGON: (giving up again). Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR: (advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He brood s, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So, there you are again. (P-1)
When Pozzo asks time and again that his name is Pozzo but then too Estragon and Vladimir are indifferent and call him with wrong name. If somebody loses his identity and name, the situation becomes unbearable and absurd.
This gives the sense that like Pozzo, everybody will lose his or her iden tity in this chaotic world where people become so indifferent that they cannot even recognize you by your name. Absurdity is not only in the meaninglessness of the world we live in but also in the time when we become blind to it and cannot realize its effects or functions.
Symbolically, this means that we all are blind without the notion of time. In fact, this is the situation of all human beings. The meaninglessness of time is in fact the meaninglessness of life and this meaninglessness cannot be changed if one makes efforts as Vladimir says that “one is what one is…the essentials doesn’t change (p.15). It means that the absurdity of the world is not to be changed but it is you who is supposed to undergo change and that is death.
3. Is there any similarity between the situations in the play and the lockdown period of 2020?
Yes, i think both are the same situation in play and in real life also. We can feel what the characters felt. They are waiting for godot and we are waiting for the end of the CORONA. Still we are eagerly waiting for corona to end soon.
4. Did you feel like existential crisis?
Yes,I felt existential crisis during Lockdown.Around the world, many people have found that the Covid-19 crisis has helped them realise what is truly important in their lives. The basics: like health, relationships, a safe and warm place you can call home, dignity, freedom from persecution and discrimination. Being able to feed yourself and pay the bills.
Meanwhile, the virus will continue to travel across the world, and within communities, exploiting any gaps in protection measures. We don’t yet know how this will play out, but we can be certain of the uncertainty the pandemic will continue to create, and of our need to live with and adapt to it safely, while taking measures to protect both health and livelihoods.
5)What did you do to pass time?
It was family time so of course we were spending beautiful time with our family. I used to do lot of works like reading, cooking, cleaning watching tv etc. In this time i get to know many new things which i apply in my daily life.
6) How was your psychological condition?
Me and my family was afraid from pandemic even the whole world was afraid and we are still in fear how will the life go. We have to face terrible moments, incidents but we have to be positive (not in the report of corona but in our life😂).
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