Editing Waiting for Godot (section)

==Interpretations==
"Because the play is so stripped down, so elemental, it invites all kinds of social and political and religious interpretation", wrote Normand Berlin in a tribute to the play in autumn 1999, "with Beckett himself placed in different schools of thought, different movements and 'isms'. The attempts to pin him down have not been successful, but the desire to do so is natural when we encounter a writer whose minimalist art reaches for bedrock reality. 'Less' forces us to look for 'more', and the need to talk about ''Godot'' and about Beckett has resulted in a steady outpouring of books and articles."{{sfn|Berlin|1999}}<ref>Genest, G., "Memories of Samuel Beckett in the Rehearsals for ''Endgame'', 1967" in Ben-Zvi, L., (Ed.) ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'' (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p x</ref>

Throughout ''Waiting for Godot'', the audience may encounter [[religion|religious]], philosophical, [[classical antiquity|classical]], [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytical]] and biographical – especially [[French Resistance|wartime]] – references. There are [[ritual]]istic aspects and elements taken directly from [[vaudeville]],<ref>The game of changing hats is an echo of the [[Marx Brothers]]' film ''[[Duck Soup (1933 film)|Duck Soup]]'', which features almost exactly the same headgear-swapping action. See Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 609.</ref> and there is a danger in making more of these than what they are: that is, merely structural conveniences, avatars into which the writer places his fictional characters. The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and [[pathos]]."{{sfn|Cronin|1997|p=391}} Beckett makes this point emphatically clear in the opening notes to ''[[Film (film)|Film]]'': "No [[truth value]] attaches to the above, regarded as of merely structural and dramatic convenience."{{sfn|Beckett|2006|page=371}} He made another important remark to [[Lawrence E. Harvey|Lawrence Harvey]], saying that his "work does not depend on experience – [it is] not a record of experience. Of course you use it."<ref>An undated interview with Lawrence Harvey. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 371, 372.</ref>

Beckett tired quickly of "the endless misunderstanding." As far back as 1955, he remarked, "Why people have to complicate a thing so simple I can't make out."<ref>SB to [[Thomas MacGreevy]], 11 August 1955 (TCD). Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 416.</ref> He was not forthcoming with anything more than cryptic clues, however: "[[Peter Woodthorpe]] [who played Estragon] remembered asking him one day in a [[taxicab|taxi]] what the play was really about: 'It's all [[wikt:symbiosis|symbiosis]], Peter; it's symbiosis,' answered Beckett."<ref>Interview with Peter Woodthorpe, 18 February 1994. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 371, 372.</ref>

Beckett directed the play for the Schiller-Theater in Berlin in 1975. Although he had overseen many productions, this was the first time that he had taken complete control. [[Walter Asmus]] was his conscientious young assistant director. The production was not naturalistic. Beckett explained,

<blockquote>It is a game, everything is a game. When all four of them are lying on the ground, that cannot be handled naturalistically. That has got to be done artificially, balletically. Otherwise everything becomes an imitation, an imitation of reality [...]. It should become clear and transparent, not dry. It is a game in order to survive.<ref>Quoted in Asmus, W., 'Beckett directs ''Godot'' in ''Theatre Quarterly'', Vol V, No 19, 1975, pp. 23, 24. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 607.</ref></blockquote>

Over the years, Beckett clearly realised that the greater part of ''Godot'''s success came down to the fact that it was open to a variety of readings and that this was not necessarily a bad thing. Beckett himself sanctioned "one of the most famous [[multiracial|mixed-race]] productions of ''Godot'', performed at the [[Baxter Theatre Centre|Baxter Theatre]] in the [[University of Cape Town]], directed by [[Donald Howarth]], with [...] two black actors, [[John Kani]] and [[Winston Ntshona]], playing Didi and Gogo; Pozzo, dressed in checked shirt and gumboots reminiscent of an [[Afrikaner]] landlord, and Lucky ('a [[shanty town]] piece of [[white trash]]'<ref>[[Irving Wardle]], ''[[The Times]]'', 19 February 1981.</ref>) were played by two white actors, [[Bill Flynn]] and Peter Piccolo [...]. The Baxter production has often been portrayed as if it were an explicitly political production, when in fact it received very little emphasis. What such a reaction showed, however, was that, although the play can in no way be taken as a political [[allegory]], there are elements that are relevant to any local situation in which one man is being exploited or oppressed by another."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), pp. 638, 639</ref>

=== Political ===
"It was seen as an [[allegory]] of the [[Cold War]]"<ref>[[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]] in [http://samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/production_history.html ''The Guardian'', 4 January 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518185502/http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/production_history.html |date=18 May 2007 }}</ref> or of [[French Resistance]] to the Germans. Graham Hassell writes, "[T]he intrusion of Pozzo and Lucky [...] seems like nothing more than a [[metaphor]] for Ireland's view of mainland [[Great Britain|Britain]], where society has ever been blighted by a greedy [[ruling class|ruling élite]] keeping the working classes passive and ignorant by whatever means."<ref>Hassell, G., ''[http://www.picks.plus.com/howard/godotreview.htm What's On' London] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521014351/http://www.picks.plus.com/howard/godotreview.htm |date=21 May 2024 }}'', 2 – 9 July 1997.</ref>

The play was written shortly after [[World War II]], during which [[Samuel Beckett#World War II and French Resistance|Beckett]] and his partner were forced to flee occupied Paris to avoid arrest, owing to their affiliation with the [[List of French Resistance museums and memorials|French Resistance.]] After the war, Beckett volunteered for the [[International Committee of the Red Cross|Red Cross]] in the French city [[Saint-Lô]], which had been almost completely destroyed during the [[D-Day (military term)|D-Day]] fighting. These experiences would have likely had a severe impact on both Beckett's personal politics, as well as his views on the prevailing policies that informed the period in which he found himself.<ref>{{cite news |last=McNally |first=Frank |date=5 June 2019 |title=Down but not out in Saint-Lô: Frank McNally on Samuel Beckett and the Irish Red Cross in postwar France |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/down-but-not-out-in-saint-l%C3%B4-frank-mcnally-on-samuel-beckett-and-the-irish-red-cross-in-postwar-france-1.3915861 |newspaper=The Irish Times |location= |access-date=1 July 2022 |archive-date=12 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112070445/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/down-but-not-out-in-saint-l%C3%B4-frank-mcnally-on-samuel-beckett-and-the-irish-red-cross-in-postwar-france-1.3915861 |url-status=live }}</ref> Some academics have theorized that ''Godot'' is set during World War II, with Estragon and Vladimir being two Jews waiting for Godot to smuggle them out of occupied France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hirsch |first=Oliver |date=2020 |title=Beckett's Waiting for Godot : a historical play with two Jews as main characters |url=https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/sites/default/files/pdf/142606.pdf |journal=Brno Studies in English |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=175–194 |doi=10.5817/bse2020-1-8 |issn=0524-6881|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Vladimir and Estragon are often played with Irish accents, as in the [[Beckett on Film#Waiting for Godot|Beckett on Film]] project. This, some feel, is an inevitable consequence of Beckett's rhythms and phraseology, but it is not stipulated in the text. At any rate, they are not of English stock: at one point early in the play, Estragon mocks the English pronunciation of "calm" and has fun with "the story of the Englishman in the brothel".<ref>Beckett 2008, p. 8.{{incomplete short citation|date=September 2020}}</ref>

=== Psychological ===
==== Freudian ====
"Bernard Dukore develops a triadic theory in ''Didi, Gogo and the absent Godot'', based on [[Sigmund Freud]]'s trinitarian description of the [[psyche (psychology)|psyche]] in ''[[The Ego and the Id]]'' (1923) and the usage of [[onomastics|onomastic]] techniques. Dukore defines the characters by what they lack: the rational Go-go embodies the incomplete ego, the missing [[pleasure principle (psychology)|pleasure principle]]: (e)go-(e)go. Di-di (id-id) – who is more instinctual and irrational – is seen as the backward id or subversion of the rational principle. Godot fulfills the function of the superego or moral standards. Pozzo and Lucky are just re-iterations of the main protagonists. Dukore finally sees Beckett's play as a [[metaphor]] for the futility of man's existence when salvation is expected from an external entity, and the self is denied introspection."<ref>Sion, I., "The Zero Soul: Godot's Waiting Selves In Dante's Waiting Rooms". ''Transverse'' No 2. Publisher: University of Toronto. November 2004, p. 70.</ref>

==== Jungian ====
"The [[analytical psychology#Archetypes|four archetypal personalities]] or the four aspects of the [[Psyche (psychology)#Jungian school|soul]] are grouped in two pairs: the [[analytical psychology#Complexes|ego]] and the [[analytical psychology#Shadow|shadow]], the [[Persona#In psychology|persona]] and the soul's image ([[Analytical psychology#Anima and animus|animus or anima]]). The shadow is the container of all our despised emotions [[psychological repression|repressed]] by the ego. Lucky, the shadow, serves as the polar opposite of the [[egocentrism|egocentric]] Pozzo, prototype of prosperous mediocrity, who incessantly controls and persecutes his subordinate, thus symbolising the oppression of the unconscious shadow by the despotic ego. Lucky's monologue in Act I appears as a manifestation of a stream of repressed unconsciousness, as he is allowed to "think" for his master. Estragon's name has another connotation, besides that of the aromatic herb, [[tarragon]]: "estragon" sounds similar to [[estrogen]], the female hormone (Carter, 130). This prompts us to identify him with the [[anima (Jung)|anima]], the feminine image of Vladimir's soul. It explains Estragon's propensity for poetry, his sensitivity and dreams, his irrational moods. Vladimir appears as the complementary masculine principle, or perhaps the rational persona of the contemplative type."<ref>Sion, I., "The Shape of the Beckettian Self: Godot and the Jungian Mandala". ''Consciousness, Literature and the Arts'' Volume 7 Number 1, April 2006. See also Carter, S., 'Estragon's Ancient Wound: A Note on Waiting for Godot' in ''[[Journal of Beckett Studies]]'' 6.1, p. 130.</ref>

=== Philosophical ===

==== Existential ====
Broadly speaking, [[existentialism|existentialist]]s hold that there are certain fundamental questions that all human beings must come to terms with if they are to take their subjective existences seriously and with intrinsic value. Questions such as life, death, the [[meaning of life#Existentialism|meaning of human existence]] and the place of God in that existence are among them. By and large, the theories of existentialism assert that conscious reality is very complex and without an "objective" or universally known value: the individual must create value by affirming it and living it, not by simply talking about it or philosophising it in the mind. The play may be seen to touch on all of these issues.

[[Martin Esslin]], in his ''The Theatre of the Absurd'' (1960), argued that ''Waiting for Godot'' was part of a broader [[literary movement]] that he called the [[Theatre of the Absurd]], a form of theatre that stemmed from the [[absurdism|absurdist]] philosophy of [[Albert Camus]]. Absurdism itself is a branch of the traditional assertions of existentialism, pioneered by [[Søren Kierkegaard]], and posits that, while inherent meaning might very well exist in the universe, human beings are incapable of finding it due to some form of mental or philosophical limitation. Thus, humanity is doomed to be faced with ''the Absurd'', or the absolute absurdity of the existence in lack of intrinsic purpose.<ref>Ball, J. A. and McConachie, B. "Theatre Histories: An Introduction." (New York: Routledge, 2010.) P. 589.</ref>

==== Ethical ====
Just after Didi and Gogo have been particularly selfish and callous, the boy comes to say that Godot is not coming. The boy (or pair of boys) may be seen to represent meekness and hope before compassion is consciously excluded by an evolving personality and character, and in which case may be the youthful Pozzo and Lucky. Thus Godot is compassion and fails to arrive every day, as he says he will. No-one is concerned that a boy is beaten.<ref>On the other hand, Didi only learns of this in asking the boy's brother how Godot treats him, which may in itself be seen as a show of compassion.</ref> In this interpretation, there is the irony that only by changing their hearts to be compassionate can the characters fixed to the tree move on and cease to have to wait for Godot.

=== Christian ===
Much of the play is steeped in scriptural allusion. The boy from Act I mentions that he and his brother mind Godot's [[The Sheep and the Goats|sheep and goats]]. Much can be read into Beckett's inclusion of the story of the two thieves from [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] 23:39–43<ref>{{sourcetext|source=Bible|version=King James|book=Luke|chapter=23|verse=39|range=–43}}</ref> and the ensuing discussion of repentance. It is easy to see the solitary tree as representative of the [[Christian cross]] or the [[tree of life]]. Some see God and Godot as one and the same. Vladimir's "Christ have mercy upon us!"{{sfn|Beckett|1988|p=92}} could be taken as evidence that that is at least what he believes.

Another, perhaps less conspicuous, ''potentially'' religious, element in the play, is Pozzo's bout with blindness, during which he comes to resemble the biblical figure of Bartimaeus or [[Healing the blind near Jericho|'The Blind Beggar']].{{Original research inline|date=February 2021}}

This reading is given further weight early in the first act when Estragon asks Vladimir what it is that he has requested from Godot:{{sfn|Beckett|2006|pp=10–11}}

:{{Dialogue|Vladimir|Oh ... nothing very definite.
|Estragon|A kind of prayer.
|Vladimir|Precisely.
|Estragon|A vague supplication.
|Vladimir|Exactly.}}

Other explicit Christian elements that are mentioned in the play include, but are not limited to, [[repentance]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=7}} the [[Gospel]]s,{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=9}} a [[Messiah|Saviour]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=11}} human beings made in [[Image of God|God's image]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=35}} the [[Christian cross|cross]],{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=117}} and [[Cain and Abel]].{{sfn|Beckett|2015|page=163}}

According to biographer [[Anthony Cronin]], "[Beckett] always possessed a Bible, at the end more than one edition, and Bible [[concordance (publishing)|concordance]]s were always among the reference books on his shelves."{{sfn|Cronin|1997|p=21}} Beckett himself was quite open on the issue: "Christianity is a [[mythology]] with which I am perfectly familiar so I naturally use it."<ref>Duckworth, C., ''Angels of Darkness: Dramatic Effect in Samuel Beckett with Special Reference to Eugène Ionesco'' (London: Allen, 1972), p. 18. Quoted in Herren, G., "''[[Nacht und Träume]]'' as Beckett's Agony in the Garden" in ''[[Journal of Beckett Studies]]'', 11(1)</ref> As Cronin argues, these biblical references "may be [[irony|ironic]] or even [[sarcasm|sarcastic]]".{{sfn|Cronin|1997|pp=20, 21}}

"In answer to a [[Defense (legal)|defence counsel]] question in 1937 (during the [[As I Was Going Down Sackville Street#Libel lawsuit|libel action]] brought by his uncle against [[Oliver St. John Gogarty]]) as to whether he was a Christian, Jew or [[atheism|atheist]], Beckett replied, 'None of the three{{'"}}.<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 279. Referenced in Bryden, M., 'Beckett and Religion' in Oppenheim, L., (Ed.) ''Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies'' (London: Palgrave, 2004), p. 157.</ref> Looking at Beckett's entire œuvre, Mary Bryden observed that "the hypothesised God who emerges from Beckett's texts is one who is both cursed for his perverse absence and cursed for his surveillant presence. He is by turns dismissed, [[satire|satirised]], or ignored, but he, and his tortured son, are never definitively discarded."<ref>Bryden, M., ''Samuel Beckett and the Idea of God'' (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 1998), introduction.</ref>

=== Autobiographical ===
[[File:Friedrich - Two Men Contemplating the Moon.jpg|thumb|[[Caspar David Friedrich]]'s painting ''[[Two Men Contemplating the Moon]]''.]]
''Waiting for Godot'' has been described as a "metaphor for the long walk into [[Roussillon]], when Beckett and [[Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil|Suzanne]] slept in haystacks ... during the day and walked by night ... [or] of the relationship of Beckett to [[James Joyce|Joyce]]".{{sfn|Bair|1990|pages=409, 410, 405}} Beckett told [[Ruby Cohn]] that [[Caspar David Friedrich]]'s painting ''[[Two Men Contemplating the Moon]]'', which he saw on his journey to Germany in 1936, was a source for the play.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Knowlson|first=James|title=Damned to Fame. The Life of Samual Beckett|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=London|year=1996|pages=254, 378, 609}}</ref>

=== Sexual ===
Though the sexuality of Vladimir and Estragon is not always considered by critics,<ref>Sinfield, Alan. ''Out on Stage: Lesbian and Gay Theatre in the Twentieth Century''. Yale University Press (1999). {{ISBN|9780300081022}}</ref><ref>Green, Jesse. "Reviews: Pairing Up Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land". ''Vulture''. 23 November 2013.</ref> some see the two vagabonds as an ageing homosexual couple, who are worn out, with broken spirits, impotent and not engaging sexually any longer. The two appear to be written as a parody of a married couple.<ref>Chandrika. B. ''The Private Garden: The Family in Post-war British Drama''. Academic Foundation (1993) {{ISBN|9788171880430}}. page 130</ref> Peter Boxall points out that the play features two characters who seem to have shared life together for years; they quarrel, embrace, and are mutually dependent.<ref>Boxall, P., "Beckett and Homoeroticism" in Oppenheim, L., (ed.) ''Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies'' (London: Palgrave, 2004).</ref> Beckett was interviewed at the time the play was premiering in New York, and, speaking of his writings and characters in general, Beckett said "I'm working with impotence, ignorance. I don't think impotence has been exploited in the past."<ref>[[Israel Shenker|Shenker, Israel]]. "Moody Man of Letters; Portrait of Samuel Beckett, Author of the Puzzling ''Waiting for Godot''." ''The New York Times''. 6 May 1956.</ref>

Pozzo and his slave, Lucky, arrive on the scene. Pozzo is a stout man, who wields a whip and holds a rope around Lucky's neck. Some critics have considered that the relationship of these two characters is homosexual and sado-masochistic in nature.<ref>Jeffers, Jennifer M. ''Beckett's Masculinity''. Springer (2016) {{ISBN|9780230101463}} p. 98</ref> Lucky's long speech is a torrent of broken ideas and speculations regarding man, sex, God, and time. It has been said that the play contains little or no sexual hope; which is the play's lament, and the source of the play's humour and comedic tenderness.<ref>Katz, Allan. "''Waiting for Godot'' at the Charles Playhouse". ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]''. 28 November 1960.</ref> [[Norman Mailer]] wonders if Beckett might be restating the sexual and moral basis of Christianity, that life and strength is found in an adoration of those in the lower depths where God is concealed.<ref>Mailer, Norman. ''Advertisements for Myself''. Harvard University Press (1959). {{ISBN|978-0674005907}}. p. 324</ref>

=== Beckett's objection to the casting of female actors ===
Beckett was not open to most interpretative approaches to his work. He famously objected when, in the 1980s, several women's acting companies began to stage the play. "Women don't have [[prostate]]s", said Beckett,<ref>Meeting with Linda Ben-Zvi, December 1987. Quoted in "Introduction" to Ben-Zvi, L., (ed.) ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'' (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p. x.</ref> a reference to the fact that Vladimir frequently has to leave the stage to urinate.

In 1988 a Dutch theatre company, De Haarlemse Toneelschuur, put on a production directed by Matin Van Veldhuizen with all female actors, using a French-to-Dutch translation by [[Jacoba van Velde|Jacoba Van Velde]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Wachten_op_Godot_-_Stichting_Toneelschuur_Producties_-_1988-04-12|title=''Wachten op Godot'' – Stichting Toneelschuur Producties – 1988-04-12|website=theaterencyclopedie.nl|language=nl|access-date=29 March 2018|archive-date=8 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808140202/https://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Wachten_op_Godot_-_Stichting_Toneelschuur_Producties_-_1988-04-12|url-status=live}}</ref> Beckett brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against the theatre company. "The issue of gender seemed to him to be so vital a distinction for a playwright to make that he reacted angrily, instituting a ban on all productions of his plays in The Netherlands."<ref>Knowlson, James, ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 610.</ref> This ban was short-lived, however. 

In 1991 (two years after Beckett's death), a French judge ruled that productions with female casts would not cause excessive damage to Beckett's legacy, and allowed the play to be performed by the all-female cast of the Brut de Beton theater company at the [[Festival d'Avignon|Avignon Festival]], although an objection by Beckett's representative had to be read before each performance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/06/theater/judge-authorizes-all-female-godot.html|title=Judge Authorizes All-Female ''Godot''|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=6 July 1991|agency=[[Associated Press|AP]]|access-date=6 October 2021|archive-date=6 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006025007/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/06/theater/judge-authorizes-all-female-godot.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Similarly, an injunction was issued against a theatre in Pontedera, [[Tuscany]], by lawyers for [[Samuel Beckett]]'s estate who did not want female actors to play Vladimir and Estragon in the play, but in 2006 a court in Rome ruled that the women could play the roles.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/04/arts.italy|title= Beckett estate fails to stop women waiting for Godot|newspaper= [[The Guardian]]|date= 4 February 2006|access-date= 18 December 2016|archive-date= 21 May 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240521013140/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/04/arts.italy|url-status= live}}</ref> 

At the 1995 [[Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre|Acco Festival]], director [[Nola Chilton]] staged a production with Daniella Michaeli in the role of Lucky.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.accofestival.co.il/accoarchiv/1995/1995.html|title=Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 1995 Archive|website=accofestival.co.il|access-date=24 April 2009|archive-date=21 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721134630/http://www.accofestival.co.il/accoarchiv/1995/1995.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2021, [[São João National Theatre]] in Porto, Portugal, staged a version with Maria Leite as Lucky.<ref>{{cite web|title=À Espera de Godot · São João|date=26 March 2021 |url=https://www.tnsj.pt/pt/espetaculos/6078/a-espera-de-godot|access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>