Name: Muhammad Usman Azeem

Roll no: LHR 2070

Class: BS 6 (Afternoon)
Subject: Modern Drama
Topic: Waiting for Godot as Absurdist
Play
Submitted to: Miss Fasiha Batool
Assignment: 3
 Waiting for Godot as Absurdist Play
Samuel Beckett was a groundbreaking playwright known for his revolutionary style.
He didn't follow traditional rules of theater; instead, he created something entirely new called
absurd drama. This kind of drama doesn't fit neatly into categories like tragedy or comedy.
It's all about showing the absurdity of human life and our existential struggles.

Against the backdrop of conventional theatre, Waiting for Godot represents irony in
extremes. Unlike conventional forms in which everything on the stage exists for a larger
purpose, the world of Godot is a world without meaning: bare in both matter and form. With
its extreme paucity of action, Godot confronts the theatre-goer with an experience of failed
expectations: nothing happens, Godot never comes. In this sense, Godot presents a brilliant
simulacrum of real life in which desire is continually frustrated by the boring facts of the
everyday.

The haunting image of despairing bumpkins hobnobbing around a stage barren except
for the lone, skeleton-like tree, creates a situation of powerful metaphorical significance. The
characters are so featureless, so context-less, that it is nearly impossible to view them as
representations of empirical entities; rather, they appear almost as symbolic abstractions. In
his seminal essay on the subject, Esslin argues that the Theatre of the Absurd shares a kinship
with the mystery plays of medieval Europe for this very reason— because these plays often
portray characters and situations too vague and generalized to signify any particular thing.
Rather, the complete impotence of Vladimir and Estragon is suggestive of the failure of
human thought, in the macrocosm of human existence at large, as well as in the individual
mind.

"Waiting for Godot" is a prime example of absurd drama. In these plays, you won't
find the typical plots, stories, or clear divisions into acts and scenes. Instead, you get a
handful of characters with symbolic meanings. Their dialogues are short and to the point, and
not much really happens on stage. Absurd drama prefers themes that explore the human
condition without explaining everything outright.

One major feature of absurd plays is the lack of action. Things may seem to happen,
but they don't really lead anywhere significant. "Waiting for Godot" is a perfect example of
this. The characters spend the entire play just waiting for someone named Godot, who never
actually shows up. It's like they're stuck in a cycle of waiting with no purpose.

In absurd drama, characters often lose their sense of self. In "Waiting for Godot," the
main characters are tramps who seem to lose their identities as the play goes on. By Act II,
their relationship is unclear, and they spend the night apart. Life for them is just one
disappointment after another. Even the other characters, like Pozzo and Lucky, lose
something—Pozzo goes blind, and Lucky becomes mute.

The play tackles the absurdity of human existence head-on. The characters, Estragon
and Vladimir, admit they have nothing to do and feel like they've lost themselves. They even
consider suicide as a way out. It's not just them—Pozzo and Lucky's existence is just as
absurd. They suffer loss and hardship without any clear reason.

The end of the play is full of absurdity too. Estragon suggests they hang themselves,
but they can't find a rope. When they try to use Estragon's trouser cord, it breaks. They're left
with nothing but their futile existence. This final scene symbolizes the human condition—
we're all waiting for something, but we're not sure what.

The setting of "Waiting for Godot" adds to the sense of absurdity. There's only one
tree, bare in Act I but with leaves in Act II. The background emphasizes themes of loneliness,
aliWaiting for Godot” is an absurd play for not only its plot is loose but its characters are also
just mechanical puppets with their incoherent colloquy. And above than all, its theme is
unexplained. It is devoid of characterization and motivation. So far as its dialogue technique
is concerned, it is purely absurd as there is no witty repartee and pointed dialogue. What a
reader or spectator hears is simply the incoherent babbling which does not have any clear and
meaningful ideas. Nothing special happens in the play, nor do we observe any significant
change in setting. The situation almost remains unchanged and an enigmatic vein runs
throughout the play. “Nothing happens, nobody comes … nobody goes, it’s awful!”

Godot remains a mystery and curiosity still holds a sway. The wait continues; the
human contacts remain unsolved; the problem of existence remains meaningless, futile and
purposeless. All this makes it an absurd play.

So, "Waiting for Godot" is an absurd drama through and through. It challenges the
idea of a meaningful life, mocks our search for purpose, and questions the existence of a
higher power. In the end, it suggests that life is just one big joke with nothing to do but wait.