Hope

and the Tree of Life in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

LSHV-433-01. Fall 2016: Theology and Literature


Linda Buckley

September 21, 2016

Buckley Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot LSHV-433.01.Fall2016

Introduction. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a post-World War II play about the

human search for meaning. A defensible reading of Waiting for Godot turns on a proper

appreciation of the following line spoken by Vladimir, or Didi, early in the play: “The last

moment…Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?”1 followed by these lines in Act

2.

Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I awake, or
think I do, what shall I say of today?...But in all that what truth will there be? But habit is a
great deadener. At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping,
he knows nothing, let him sleep on. I can’t go on! 2

The first line is a reference to Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a

desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”3 The only referenced scenery is a tree; however, in Act 1,

Didi is barely aware of it, as symbolized by its omission in his reference to the proverb. In

Act 2 of the play, Didi begins to engage his own consciousness, as he also begins to notice

the tree. In these lines, he concludes that his purpose is to wait for Godot, who never

comes; however, the change in the tree itself points him to a growing awareness that

external validation is also meaningless.

Waiting for Godot is structured in two parallel acts where the action essentially repeats, but

with subtle differences between Acts 1 and 2. It is these subtle changes that give us vital clues to

theme. This paper examines the evolution of Didi and the tree to shed light on what is potentially

Beckett’s true message.

Setting and Context. The setting for the play is a country road with a mound and, in the first

act, what appears to be a dead tree. Estragon, or Gogo, describes it as a “muckheap,”4 whereas Didi

describes the setting as, “indescribable. It’s like nothing. There’s nothing. There’s a tree.”5 Beckett

does not provide a timeframe, country or description of the surrounding area. The only clues that

the play takes place in France are references to francs and the Rhone River.

The setting has often been described as reminiscent of Dante’s purgatory or inferno.6

However, it is just as likely that the setting is that of World War II France, where Beckett went into

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hiding from the Nazis and was a member of the French Resistance.7 Therefore it is plausible to

assume that Godot is the Allied Forces come to free the French from Nazi occupation. In this light,

Didi’s questioning of his purpose and Gogo’s desire to leave or hang himself are not just the empty

ramblings of two tramps on a road. In this context, Waiting for Godot poses the fundamental

questions of human life: why do we suffer and how do we cope?

The Tree. As the only bit of scenery referenced by the characters, the tree seems to be an

integral part of the plot device. The tree is the meeting place specified by Godot. For Estragon it

represents a potential way out of his meaningless existence: a way to hang himself. It is a source of

entertainment as Didi and Estragon attempt to imitate it in the tree pose. But what the tree is not, is

a place of hiding, as Didi admits after it fails to shield Gogo from view.8 In this sense the tree is a

mirror that conjures dead voices for Gogo but begins to stir Didi’s soul.

The tree in Act 1 is bare, and Didi assumes it to be dead. When Gogo suggests hanging

themselves from the dead tree, Didi replies “It’d give us an erection. With all that follows. Where it

falls, mandrakes grow.”9 This is the analogous conclusion to Didi’s earlier reference to Proverb

13:12: typically the fulfillment of sexual desire is birth of new life. This particular scene ends with

Didi suggesting that they not try to hang themselves but wait for Godot’s advice. For Didi, in Act I,

the tree is a reminder of why he should continue: help is on the way, and new life is possible. Act I

ends with Estragon looking at the tree, longing for a bit of rope, and wondering if they should part

company. Didi rejects this notion: “it’s not worthwhile.”

In Act 2, the tree has drawn Didi’s attention by miraculously sprouting leaves. In Act 1, Didi

spends little time thinking about the tree; in the second Act it drives him into frenzied activity. In

the opening scene of Act 2, we realize that Didi’s actual role is to defend and protect Gogo. This

recognition of his interconnectedness with both Gogo and the tree makes Didi happy.10

Reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno Canto XIII, the Circle of Suicides, for Gogo the tree means

dead voices with leaves talking about their lives. Whereas Didi tries to use analogies of feathers,

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sand, ashes and wings, Gogo insists that they are leaves.11 This reflects Gogo’s preoccupation with

suicide and with the tree as a symbol of death and resurrection. According to Didi, living was not

enough for these dead voices; however, death does not bring fulfillment either. For Gogo, the tree

is the way out of his life. For Didi, in contrast, the tree is the mirror that forces him to face his life;

he knows that suicide will not bring them what they desire.

Didi and the Tree. This glimmer of understanding in Didi begins to coalesce as the now-

blind Pozzo and dumb Lucky return. In the face of Pozzo’s repeated cries for help, Didi understands

that he cannot passively wait for help to come. He has a responsibility to his fellow humans. In the

face of suffering, one cannot remain asleep, which Didi realizes when he questions whether he

himself is asleep.12 He finally understands that life is not wasted if one lives in community with

others, in helping others. When Pozzo repeatedly cries for help, Didi awakens to realize that

external salvation is not sufficient if there is nothing within him to save. He realizes that he has a

chance to take action and “make the most of it before it is too late,” that, despite his circumstances,

“when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species.”13

Despite the tragicomic scene where little help is actually offered, the concept of helping others

begins to give Didi purpose in life while he waits for Godot. Didi, like the tree, comes out of his

sleep.

In the repetition of the scene of the boy coming to tell Didi that Godot is not coming, instead

of instructing the boy to say that he has seen “us,” this scene ends in his anguished entreaty to the

boy to acknowledge him as an individual human. Didi says, “tell him you saw me….You’re sure you

saw me, you won’t come and tell me tomorrow that you never saw me!”14 The play ends with Didi

reassuring Gogo that they can hang themselves tomorrow unless Godot comes, and telling him to

pull on his trousers—a minor act of assistance. Didi, like the tree, displays growth from within.

Rather than awaiting a deus ex machina or staying with Gogo out of habit as in Act 1, Didi seems to

come out of his sleep and accepts responsibility for his relationship with Gogo.

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Observations. Beckett’s reference to Proverb 13:12 seems to indicate that if we allow hope

to take the place of life, we remain asleep, as Didi is throughout Act 1. However, in fulfilling every

day desires of life, or in assisting others in fulfilling their desires—no matter how minor—hope

becomes a goal.

With the Nazi occupation of France as the backdrop of Waiting for Godot, Beckett’s play may

be a call to action even while suffering. If one remains active in easing the suffering of others,

human suffering can serve a greater purpose. In staying alive, the survivors of World War II

preserved the memory of those that died. The Resistance, in the face of hopeless odds, served to

awaken the world to Nazi atrocities. In one of the most hopeless situations in recent history,

keeping these memories of the dead alive is a vital act in sustaining the tree of continued life.

Perhaps this is the true message behind Waiting for Godot: do not give up and waste your life in

endless waiting for external salvation; rather strive to act so as to be seen and thus remembered.

Beckett opens the play with the line “Nothing to be done,” and closes it with “Yes let’s go.”

Doing nothing and abandoning all hope are at the ends of the spectrum of human choice. Between

these choices is the substance of Waiting for Godot and what Beckett challenges us to consider. As

Didi says, “But it’s the way of doing it that counts, the way of doing it, if you want to go on living”

and living we must, lest we end up as unfulfilled dead voices.15

1 Beckett, p. 21.
2 Beckett, p. 81.

3 New Standard Revised Version (NSRV).

https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Hope+deferred&qs_version=NRSV.
Accessed Sep 18, 2006.
4 Beckett, p. 51.
5 Beckett, p. 77.
6 See for example, Lois A. Cuddy, “Beckett’s ‘Dead Voices’ in Waiting for Godot: New Inhabitants of Dante’s

Inferno,” Modern Language Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Spring 1982), pp. 48-660.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3194475. Accessed Sep 14, 2016.
7 Mel Gussow, “Beckett is Dead at 83; His ‘Godot’ Changed Theater,” The New York Times, December 27, 1989;
p. A1. http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/reviews/20046.html, accessed Sep 18, 2016. See
also,
8 Beckett, p. 64.
9 Beckett, p. 9.

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10 Beckett, p. 50.
11 Beckett, p. 52-53.
12 Beckett, p. 81.
13 Beckett, p. 70.
14 Beckett, p. 82.
15 Beckett, p. 50.