Kurdistan Regional Government-Iraq

Ministry of Higher Education &

Scientific Research

Koya University

Faculty of Humanities & Social sciences

School of Languages

English Department

Body Language in Waiting for Godot

Submitted by

Shakar H. Kareem

Supervised by

Dr.Tavgah G.Saeed

1435 (H.) 2714 (K.) 2014 (A.D)

I

Dedication

This Research Paper is lovingly dedicated to

My lovely parents who have been my

constant source of inspiration and to my

siblings

My supervisor dear Dr. Tavgah

My dear instructors who taught me every

single word

My friends

II

Acknowledgement

Thanks to the light, almighty God, who guided me through the way.

Thanks to all the members of English Department for their tiresome

efforts throughout the process of learning.

I would like to thank my supervisor dear Dr. Tavgah, for her great

efforts of supervising and leading me to accomplish this paper.

Special thanks to Dr. Harith Al-Darweesh, Dr.Safeen Numan, M.

Ahmed Muhammad, and my dear friend Bayar Esmaeel for their kind

help while doing the research.

Thanks also, to my family for being the main encouragement source for me to reach into such a high degree in my life. Thanks to everybody who gave me something to shed light on the

subject.

III

Table of content

Dedication………………………………….……………......I

Acknowledgement……………………….…………..……...II

Table of contents……………………………….………......III

Introduction ……………………….………..……………….1

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 The theatre of the Absurd …………………………...….……….....2 1.2 Samuel Beckett's Intellectual Views………………………….........6 Notes…………………………………………………..…………….….9

CHAPTER TWO

2.1 Waiting for Godot………………………………………………..11

2.2 Body language as communicative tools………….........................13

Notes ……………………………………………….…......................17

CHAPTER THREE

3.1 Body language in Waiting for Godot…………….……….……..19

Notes……………………………………………………………...….31

Conclusion…………………………………………………….33

Bibliography……………………………………......................35

1

Introduction

This research tries to show the problems that faced human being in

the twentieth century in addition to the significance of body language in

daily life's communication. It is about the problems man faced after they

lost faith in all the aspects of life because of the two World Wars. The

loss of faith made people to lead an aimless life that is empty of every

meaning. This total loss made language to be unable to describe the

situation of human being that is why Samuel Beckett preferred Body

language to the verbal language in giving a portrait of the absurd

condition of human.

The research is divided into three chapters; the first chapter is divided

into two sections; the first section gives an introduction about what the

Absurd theatre is and the second one is about some of Samuel Beckett's

views toward life generally and how they affected his writing. Chapter

two is also divided into two sections; one is a general introduction about

Waiting for Godot, which is the core subject of the research and the

other is about body language as communicative tools when verbal

language is replaced by certain gestures to express what human feel

inside. Chapter three consists of one sections that focuses on Body

Language in the play in which the problems of human being are

visualized in certain body gestures instead of verbal language.

The research ends with a conclusion which sums up the main points

of the research and a bibliography that follows it.

2

Chapter one

1.1The Theatre of the Absurd

Theater of the Absurd is a term used to identify a group of plays written

primarily in France from the middle of the 1940’s through the 1950’s. These works

usually have illogical situations, unconventional dialogue, and minimal plots to

express the absurdity of human existence.1

The word absurd as it is defined by dictionaries means ridiculous, but this is not

the sense when it comes to the Absurd theatre. Further the word means the

definition of human condition as being meaningless as Albert Camus in his essay

“Myth of Sisyphus” for the first time has used the word.2

The term the Theatre of the Absurd never comes without the name of Martin

Esslin who first used this term in 1961 in a critical study of several dramatists after

he selected this term in Camus’s writing that life is meaningless.3 The Theatre of

the Absurd dates back to 1940 when a group of European writers such as, Samuel

Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Arthur Adamov expressed the belief that human

existence has no meaning through their writing.4 It is also preferred to be

determined as intellectual shorthand of complex philosophical ideas.5

There are some factors which helped the emergence of this new movement in

drama; one of the factors is the two World Wars which forcefully affected this

group of dramatists. They felt the loss of values because of the horror of the war.6

The experience of life and living in 1945 under the conflicts and the theatre of the

nuclear bombs was also an important factor in the rise of this new theatre.7 The

impact of the Second World War, the loss of religion and the loss of human

validity lead the playwrights to alert the audience about the absurdity of life. That

is why Absurd theatre appeared and became an anti theatre against the traditional

theatre which was no longer a suitable form with the way of mirroring the reality

of life.8

3

The Theatre of the Absurd does not belong to any school or movements but it

includes individual dramatists that express their own personal visions toward life,

with this kind of writing new mode of expression arise and reject all the standards that

drama has been judged for years.9 Thus Martin Esslin makes a kind of comparison

between a well-made play and the Absurd play, considering that if a good play must

have a clear story an absurd play has no story or plot. Thus Martin Esslin makes a

kind of comparison between a well-made play and the Absurd play, considering that

if a good play must have a clear story an absurd play has no story or plot. If a good

play is judged by characterization or motivation absurd play often without

recognizable character. If a good play has to be fully explained theme the absurd ones

often has neither beginning nor ending. A good play must have a pointed dialogue but

the absurd ones consists of incoherent babblings.10

Critics also write about how the absurd works are like poetry rather than narrative.

In traditional narrative drama, there is a story that develops dynamically. The

characters grow or change before our eyes, and that is the aim of the story. But the

theater of the absurd doesn’t aim to narrate because it rejects such narration as too

artificial.11 The absurd playwrights believe that the world is not really as neat and tidy

as all that. Things happen by chance, at random. Irrationality and mess describes

reality better than rationality and order. So the aim is not to create artificial plots, but

to reveal for audiences a powerful image, which can be literal, and metaphorical, like

poetry.12

Unlike the traditional drama this kind of drama does not have recognizable

characters but they are unknown characters with no identity. Actions are unmotivated

and the characters lack a direct speech as if they are talking without any aim that is

why dialogues are empty chatters.13 Yet despite being a form of drama, which must

have a chronological order of events that is starting from the beginning then reaching

to the climax which is the middle and then the end, the Theatre of the Absurd starts

4

and ends arbitrarily and does not have a recognizable plot for the actions that take

place in the plays.14 In traditional plays the action moves from a point to another and

makes a sense to the audience to ask what will happen next, but in such plays the

audience asks what will be the completed image that the play tells. In a play such as

Waiting for Godot literally nothing happens because, it is aimed to show that nothing

really happens in the life of human beings. That is why the aim of the play will not be

reveled until the curtains fall. Such plays do not have actions instead they give logical

ideas about the state of life of human beings because, the writers do not believe in

such a well-ordered life.15

The Absurd theatre expresses a sense of shock at the loss of any well-defined

system of beliefs because of the impact of the atmosphere of life at the age. People are

shocked because they were expecting a better life from the new science but they have

lost this belief both in science and religion after they witnessed the two World Wars.

That is why such playwrights like to show that because of the social problems life has

lost it is meaning.16

Since these characteristics of the Absurd plays are not the characteristics of a well-

made play, at first these plays were rejected by the audiences. They were not the

means of their interests as the audiences were still familiar with the traditional kind of

drama in which everything is so clear. The Absurd theatre could not satisfy its

audience as the dramatists applied a very different convention to drama.17

After the Second World War, Paris became the capital of dramatic art and it was

soon associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. However, the playwrights never were

school sharing but they thought of absurdism in Paris at that time.18 This sudden

outburst of French absurdism is explained as a nihilistic reaction to the recent

atrocities of the gas chambers and the nuclear war. This theatre revealed the negative

side of the existentialism of human being in a world which seemed to be futile and

purposeless. Also as a play the Absurd theatre does not discuss the condition of

5

human beings, but it represents the image as worst as it is in order to shock the

audience. 19

The dramatists do not form any self-proclaimed school or movement, on the

contrary, each of them is an individual regarding himself as alone outsider and

isolated in his private world. The playwrights have their own personal background,

source or roots toward the subject matter.20 These playwrights try to be free from the

traditional rules or ways of writing drama. They want the audience to find out what

they intended, because, the only thing they are concerned about is their visions toward

life not the story or the characters of the play.21 The poetic images talk about dreams

and nightmares and their focus is not to tell a story but it is higher than telling a story.

That is why the playwrights use meaningless conversation to express their feelings

toward life and to show that such a life of war and doubt has no meaning at all.22

Because of the lack of the means of communication inside this life, the language of

philosophy and politics becomes empty chatters, that is why the real conversation of

the Theatre of the Absurd is in fact absurd in order to shock the audience by

presenting the idea that there is no solution to the meaninglessness of human

existence.23 The playwrights no longer believe in the possibility of such neat

resolution. They are indeed chiefly concerned with expressing a sense of wonder and

incomprehension, at the lack of cohesion and meaning that they find in the world. If

they could believe in clearly acceptable solutions, settlements of conflict in tidily tied

up endings, these dramatists would certainly not overcome them. But obviously, they

have no faith in the existence of so rational and well ordered a universe.24

6

1.2 Samuel Beckett’s Intellectual Views

One of the most powerful voices of the Twentieth Century, Samuel Beckett was

born in Foxrock-Ireland, in 1906, he had a restless childhood. Beckett's drama is

mostly associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. His stage always contains unclear

situations and characters. Tragedy and comedy mixed in a clear illustration of the

human condition and the absurdity of existence. Each work serves as a metaphor for

existence and a philosophical discussion. The works of Samuel Beckett appear to

equate life itself with aimless and endless weakness. Beckett's own life was more

adventurous than his nothingness vision of human condition.25

Some say that Beckett was destined in terms of his date of birth as it is the Good

Friday which is the date of Christ's crucifixion, April 13 1906, as Christians believe

that it brought an almost mystical symbolism into his personal life and writings.

Christ's death and the attendant theory that one of the two thieves who had been

crucified with him was saved while the other was damned are the motifs which

Beckett used in various forms throughout his writing.26

Paris was the strongest factor influencing the spirit of his writings. On his way to

France Beckett traveled first to Germany to visit his father's sister Frances Beckett.

He was greatly attracted to one of the daughters named Peggy with whom he fell in

love. They wanted to marry, but the family did not agree and at the age of twenty she

died. This brought more misery into his life.27 Peggy was Beckett's first love and she

is generally believed to be the original for the green-eyed heroines who appear in

Beckett's writings.28 After that, Beckett returned to Paris to be with his friends. During

the war due to some political issues he was forced to find a sanctuary, that is why in

the south of France he spent a long period of time in the apartment of his companion

Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil's friend during the war years. Because of this political

matter the basic Beckettean themes as the alienation from the world appear.29

7

Beckett’s writing reveals his own immense learning. It is full of allusions to a

number of literary sources as well as to a number of philosophical and theological

writers. The main influences on Beckett’s thought were the Italian poet Dante, the

French philosopher René Descartes, the 17th-century Dutch philosopher Arnold

Geulincx a student of Descartes who dealt with the question of how the physical and

the spiritual sides of man interact and finally, his Irish friend James Joyce.30

It is essential for the understanding of Beckett’s work that his work is concerned

primarily with the sordid side of human existence. He dealt with human beings not

because he was interested in the sordid and diseased aspects of life but because he

concentrated on the essential aspects of human experience.31 The subject matter of the

world’s literature is the social relations between individuals, their manners and

possessions, their struggles for rank and position, or the conquest of sexual objects.

However, the subject matter appeared to Beckett as external trappings of existence,

the superficial aspects that mask the basic problems of the human condition.32

The two characters of Waiting for Godot, are frequently referred to by critics as

tramps, yet they are never described as such by Beckett. For Beckett since man is a

rational being and cannot imagine that his being could be completely meaningless.

They are only two human beings in the most basic human situation in the world, not

knowing what they are there for, as this is his basic conception of the beings of

human.33

The Second World War made Beckett aware of suffering and of fearful uncertainty,

as well as of the inability of language. While Beckett has never written directly about

war experience into a direct imagery. But it can be seen that Beckett's work is a kind

of representation of human condition through the dark experiences of the war years. 34

Thought in post-war France tended to be controlled by Jean- Paul Sartre's idea of

existentialism, in its simplified version of a 'vision of the world' that sees each self

thrown into life without definition or purpose. In its technical version this philosophy

8

explores the total alienation of each person from others and the 'nothingness' of the

self as separated from the world of things and actions. Such ideas clearly have some

relevance to Beckett's vision, and created an impact on his post-war work.35

Beckett is not presenting ideas but constantly transmuting his own idiosyncratic

versions of received ideas into vision. He has no system of belief; on the contrary, his

novels and plays are all written against any system. But Beckett's choice of French

after the war had much more to do with an internal stylistic conflict - the desire to

'write without style' for him writing and style are inseparable. But Beckett liked the

neutral 'styleless' writing of the classical period. So it is clear that Beckett’s writing

were under the influence of the atmosphere of the period he lived in.36

9

Notes

1 Anonymous, "Theater of the Absurd," http://encarta.msn.com, 6, November, 2013, p

1 of 1.

2 Martin Esslin, The theatre of the absurd, ( Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972),

23.

3 "Theater of the Absurd," p 1 of 1.

4 Ibid.

5 Anonymous, “

Absurd Drama - Martin Esslin,” http://www.samuel-beckett.net/ , 5,

November, 2013, p1 of 2.

6 Jan Gulik, “The theatre of the absurd the West and the East,”

http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk, 28, November, 2013, P1 of 1.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Esslin, 21.

11 " Absurd Drama - Martin Esslin," p1 of 2.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

10 17 Gulik, P1 of 1.

18 Alireza Farahbakhs, English Drama for the students of English Literature,

(Tehran: Rahnama Press, 2009), 320.

19 Ibid, 321.

20 Esslin, 22.

21 “ Absurd Drama - Martin Esslin,” p1 of 2.

22 Esslin, 25.

23 “

Absurd Drama - Martin Esslin,” p1 of 2.

24 Ibid.

25 Vahid Norouzalibeik, “A Traditional Approach to Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for

Godot," http://www.vahidnab.com, 5, December, 2013, p1 of 1.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 Anonymous, “Continuity of his philosophical explorations,”

http://www.britannica.com, 23, November, 2013, p1 of 1.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

11 33 Andrew K. Kennedy, Samuel Beckett, ( New York: Cambridge University Press,

1991), 23.

34 Ibid, 24.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid, 25.

12

Chapter two

2.1 Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is one of the most famous works of Samuel Beckett. It is

originally written in French then translated into English by the author himself.1 It

is considered as one of the most exceptional plays of the post Second World War

time and called by Esslin “one of the successes of the post-war theatre”.2

At the beginning, the play was unsuccessful in the United States and failed to

satisfy the audience that got used to the traditional kind of drama, because of miss

advertisement as ''the laugh of the four continents''.3 That is why it had been

criticized by critics as a play that lacks all the dramatic elements. But later on a

subsequent production in New York City, it was more carefully advertised and

gained success.4

In 1957 the play was chosen to be presented in San Quentin prison in front of

fourteen hundred prisoners because no women appeared in it. All the audiences

were shocked by the play because they did not fail to understand it as a result of

their situation that is based on hopeless waiting.5 The prisoner responded excitedly

to the performance of Beckett's play because it was completely strange and

meaningful to them. They could draw on their own experience of waiting because

the repetition of actions in the play represented their daily routine.6

The play does not tell a story but it explores a situation which is unchangeable,

the whole play take place in a country road. The opening situation of Act I is that

two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, who are considered as the central

characters of the play are waiting for the arrival of Godot.7 A messenger who is a

boy comes and announces that Mr.Godot will not come today but tomorrow. When

the boy leaves, night falls, the moon rises and one of the characters tells the other

to leave but they do not move or leave their places.8

13

Act II repeats the same thing; the same boy arrives and delivers the same

massage. In each act the characters meet another pair of characters, Pozzo and

Lucky, in different circumstances.9 Most of the play deals with the fact that

Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for something to ease their boredom.10 There is

no conclusion or declaration in the play because the play is repetitive in nature.

The setting and the time are the same in both of the acts. Each act begins early in

the morning and ends within the moon rise .11 The action also takes place in the

same place on an isolated road with a single tree. Thus from Act I to Act II there is

no difference.12

The play begins and ends with the characters waiting for Godot. But the subject

of the play is not waiting for Godot but waiting as a quality of human condition in

life. Even the characters in the play are pictures of human attitudes in life.13

Waiting for Godot is a play about the fact that there is no absolute truth in the

world. Also it is about the meaninglessness of waiting for the appearance of a

better future that hopelessly human think that it may arrive.14

2.2 Body Language as communicative tools

Language as a theatrical tool is essentially symbolic. It carries a lot of

significant meanings because of its multiple faces in usage. But what can be found

in the Theatre of the Absurd is totally different. Because, the language that have

been used by the dramatists has no meaning and vague to understand. Language is

only used as a means to pass time.15 In the Theatre of the Absurd, language is

devaluated from its significant usage and drawn more toward poetic language that

does not give a clear image to the reader, instead the images are juxtaposed

together which creats a kind of confusion to the reader.16

Absurd dramatists write in a language that is ditched from content, this makes

language a significant tool of the Theatre of the Absurd to represent the stagnancy

of life.17 There is a link between language and reality which undermines the very

14

logic of representation. This is shown by most of the characters in Beckett's plays

when they play with words to spend time while this logic tends to be the futility of

life.18 The characters are ironically playful in the use of language in order to be

able to cope with their existential failure.19 Because the absurdist plays fail to

convey their message through language, this lead to the emergence of the use of a

theatrical language that is a sign, gesture, or body movements that convey

meaningful messages. 20

In Samuel Becket's plays language is also reduced from it's features and is

treated as a means that lead to weaken the communication between humans beings

in life.21 Beckett has chosen to write in a language that shows the world's absurdity

and man's despair. He believes that language is the fundamental means of

deception in life, because the conversations between human beings are only empty

chatters to run time, otherwise it does not function as a means of progress in man's

life.22 Beckett's language is always ambiguous. It does not give a clear meaning

and is full of unpleasant details, violence and terrifying ideas about the futility of

human life.23

In waiting for Godot the conversation between the characters seems to be

empty of meaning. There is no clear meaning in it, because their life is futile and

also their world is obviously meaningless. Beckett's language is totally separate

from knowledge or truth. This detachment can be interpreted as the failure of life

in his point of view that life does not offer man anything except pain. In the play

his characters are engaged to ridiculous language in order to pass time and giving

them an impression that they exist.24 Beckett's language recalls that man is

essentially confused, perplexed and lost in life. In spite of longing for knowledge,

man only use the words of his speech and they are not enough to make a change in

their daily routine. since words are too little for piercing the essence of reality.25

Beckett's theatre is a theatre of absence where language occupies a humble

position in the realm of the expressible. Waiting for Godot is typical to his

endeavor to minimize the faith and trust in the ability of language to represent the

world and replace the mess in which modern man is engaged to. That is why in

15

order to explore the issue of representation in Beckett's plays there must be verbal

signs.26 The Theatre of the Absurd is the age old tradition in a new form that is

based on traditional theatrical effects.27 They have deep metaphysical meaning and

express more than language could, because theatre is always more than what

language can tell.28 Theatre of the Absurd, by following the tradition, turns away

from language as a tool of expressing deepest meaning and returns to the non-

verbal performances.29

One of the traditional impacts on the Theatre of the Absurd is the tradition of

mime that is a form of theatre that exists with classical tragedy and comedy which

is a scene containing dancing, juggling and singing but based on the realistic

representation of character types. In the old mime plays there is always a clown

that appears as the stupidest that is unable to understand logic.30 In the mime plays

there were not any observations of the unity of time and place because they were

not bound by any rules of the regular tragedy or comedy. Thus, in the mime plays

the horrifying matters of seriousness are mingled with humour.31

The appeal of the Commedia dell'arte was a strong impact on the Theatre of

the Absurd which means comedy of artists that is a theatrical art form based on the

interaction of traditional stock characters originated in streets of the early Italian.

These plays are accessible to all social classes. Language is not an obstacle. The

play performers wear masks, had broad physical gestures, unprepared dialogue.32

The tradition of the Commedia dell'arte has its own impacts on the Theatre of the

Absurd because it deals with futility of human existence that can be relieved by

seen characters as absurd.33

characters are made silent and this lead to pantomime which is the use of

gestures instead of language.34 This kind of theatre emerged the presence of music

hall and vaudeville that are two major techniques used in the pantomime play

modes.35 They are theatrical genres of variety entertainment, their performance are

made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill.

Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers,

16

comedians, trained animals, magicians, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, are

performed in their acts.36

Beckett creates a fine-grained philosophical variety show, using techniques

more commonly associated with music, dance, and such popular forms as circus,

which is group of entertainers which gives performances, typically in a large tent,

in a series of different places, than with those of traditional theatre. He does not

develop theme by creating a linear plot governed by certain cause and effect; nor

does he present characters whose perceptions reveal the meaning of their lives and

the larger import of the entire action.37

Beckett’s play is valuable in recent dramatic literature not only because of its

subject matter but for the puzzled search for transcendence in a mysterious world

and of its characteristic modes of presentation of mythical also the merge of

humour and metaphysics.38

The silent film comedy is another traditional influence on the Theatre of the

Absurd which is a dream like world that is non-verbal, has a sense of nightmare

and a world that is wholly full of purposeless movements. The great performer of

this cinema is Charily Chaplin. This silent movie created an important influence of

the use of body language and gestures in the Theatre of the Absurd.39 Another

source is Freud's study of the source of the comic that is delight in nonsense, talks

about stringing words together without logical order or meaning that gives delight.

Verbal nonesense is a metaphysical endeavour to enlarge the limitation of the

material world.40 Thus, the Theatre of the Absurd is the use of mythical, allegorical

language and dream like thoughts that have been called the collective dream

images of man kind.41 The reality that the Theatre of the Absurd concerned with is

psychological that is represented not in verbal languages but in images that are the

outward projection of mind, fears, nightmares.

17

Notes

1 Ewan Glenton, "Beckett, Pinter and the Theatre of the Absurd: Background, Introduction and context," enotes.com, retrieved on 14, November, 2013, p26 of 34. 2 Noorbakhsh Hooti, "Samuel Beckett's waiting for Godot: A post modernist

study," www.ccsenet.org/ells, retrieved on 14, November, 2013, p3 of 10.

3 Glenton, p26 of 34.

4 Ibid.

5 Martin Esslin, The theatre of the absurd, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,

1972), 19.

6 Andrew K. Kennedy, Samuel Beckett, ( New York: Cambridge University Press:

1991), 24.

7 Esslin, 45.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Glenton, p 26 of 34.

11 James L.Robert, waiting for Godot and other plays, ( New York: Hungry

minds,1980), 43.

12 Ibid.

13 Esslin, 49.

14 Hooti, p4 of 10.

15 Neil Cornwell, The absurd in literature, (United Kingdom: Manchester

university press, 2006), 126. 16 Harold Bloom, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, ( New York: Infobase

Publishing, 2008), 31. 17 Ibid.

18 18 Khalid Besbes, The Semiotics of Beckett's Theatre: A Semiotic Study of the

Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett, ( USA: Universal-Publishers,

2007), 132. 19 Ibid, 134. 20 Ibid, 53. 21 Michael Butler, The Anatomy of Despair, Encore, Vol. VIII, No. 3, 1960, 17. 22 Lawrence Graver and Raymond Federman, Samuel Beckett: The Critical

Heritage, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979), 4. 23 Ibid,8. 24 Ibid, 93. 25 Ibid. 26 Besbes, 120. 27 Martin Esslin, The theatre of the absurd, ( Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,

1972),318. 28 Ibid, 319. 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid,320. 31 Ibid, 321. 32 Anonymous, "A brief history of the Commedia dell'arte", http://shane-

arts.com/commedia-history.htm, 3, march, 2014, p1 of 1. 33 Esslin, 328. 34 Esslin, 324. 35 Ibid, 325. 36 Anonymous, "Music_hall", www. Wekipedia.org, 3, March, 2014. 37 Lawrence Graver, Beckett; Waiting for Godot, (New York: Cambridge

University Press, 2004), 25. 38 Ibid, 101. 39 Esslin, 326. 40 Ibid, 332. 41 Ibid, 339.

19

Chapter three 3.1 Body language in waiting for Godot Waiting for Godot is a play that is dominated by silence from the beginning

until the end; this silence is indicated by those things that are not said or the pauses

between the words and lines that creates the odd atmosphere in which at the very

beginning suggests suffering of what may come in the play.1 Act I begins with

Estragon looking inside his boots, and then he says:

ESTRAGON: There's nothing to show.

VLADIMIR: Try and put it on again.

ESTRAGON: (examining his foot). I'll air it for a bit.

VLADIMIR: There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the

faults of his feet. (He takes off his hat again, peers inside it, feels

about inside it, knocks on the crown, blows into it, puts it on again.)

This is getting alarming. (Silence. Vladimir deep in thought, Estragon

pulling at his toes.) One of the thieves was saved. (Pause.) It's a

reasonable percentage. (Pause.) Gogo.2

The pauses in this play are used on purpose to emphasis that there is not a clear

definition to the condition of the modern human being, this is shown when

characters can not find words to express their situation, and as a result they remain

silent or stop talking for a while.3

The basic structural unit of the play is routine or ritual in which the couple

blends the cross-talk and stylish patter of the vaudeville and music hall with the

rough vocabulary of philosophical discourse.4

20

Act I in the play opens in a Chaplanic style when Estragon tries to take off his

boot;

Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He

pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests,

tries again. (p:5)

This is one of the routines of the play that starts with a brief pantomime, in the

opening scene of the play when Estragon is sitting on the low mound trying several

times unsuccessfully to take off his boot. After the brief clash about pain, and

Estragon’s surprising success in removing the boot, Vladimir silently engages in a

fussy examination of the inside of his hat;6

VLADIMIR: Sometimes I feel it coming all the same. Then I go all

queer. (He takes off his hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it,

shakes it, puts it on again.) How shall I say? Relieved and at the same

time . . . (he searches for the word) …( p: 6)

The every day mess of people feeling pain and wishing for comfort and

sympathy is one of the subjects of the play. It is clearly shown in the examples

above when Estragon is busy with the boots and Vladimir with the hat.8 These kind

of gestures are going to be repeated through out the play to convey the uneasy

circular process of their struggle with time and memory.9

The contrast between the two characters is drawn from the beginning of the play

in Vladimir's preoccupation with things of the mind symbolized by the hat and

Estragon's with things of the body symbolized by the boots.10 Beckett prefers to

give information about the two tramps through theatrical techniques as their

physical shape. And Estragon usually in Beckett's formula represented by a short,

stocky actor, and he is on the ground and belongs to the stone or mound. These

characteristics give hints that Estragon is the dreamer, instinctive man, engaged by

21

his own bodily functions and likely to respond emotionally to everything going on

around him.11

In contrast, Vladimir must be tall and thin, he is leaning towards the sky and

belongs to the tree. Vladimir is the most thoughtful self-confident about issues and

ideas, just a bit of an educational thinker and intellectual man.12 One of the routines of the play begins with Estragon in pain limping off to the

left and then far right of the stage to gaze longingly into the distance, as Vladimir

peers into his friend’s boot and with disgust recoils from the smell. These

pantomimic scenes establish immediately the basic physical reality of the action

that is: human beings are in immediate relation to primary objects and sensory

motivation such as boots and hat in what they look like and how they smell or

whether or not they fit.13

ESTRAGON: People are bloody ignorant apes.

He rises painfully, goes limping to extreme left, halts, gazes into

distance off with his hand screening his eyes, turns, goes to extreme

right, gazes into distance. Vladimir watches him, then goes and picks

up the boot, peers into it, drops it hastily.( p: 9)

The dumb show which is similar to the silent movie also suggests that feeling

comes before language. In addition to the idea that human being before making

utter a word they express their suffering through certain gusters.15 In addition these

serve as tableau that present as a graphic of some of the play’s major themes. 16

One of the major routines is that when the characters stop talking. This is a

pantomime in which Estragon, having sat down on his mound, about to sleep,

while Vladimir paces back and forth stopping only to stare off into the distance as

if looking for relief. Unable to bear the ending of speech, because of the

atmosphere that is nightmarish, he cries out his friend's name to wake him up,

because in such loneliness man feels doubtful in his existence. 17

22

In the theatre of the Absurd emotions are not allowed, that is why whenever a

character is about to come close to another one, the emotional scene will be

destroyed by something. Estragon's disgust at the smell of garlic is one of the

examples when Estragon and Vladimir can not embrace each other because of the

smell of garlic; 18

ESTRAGON: (step forward). You're angry? (Silence. Step forward).

Forgive me. (Silence. Step forward. Estragon lays his hand on

Vladimir's shoulder.) Come, Didi. (Silence.) Give me your hand.

(Vladimir half turns.) Embrace me! (Vladimir stiffens.) Don't be

stubborn! (Vladimir softens. They embrace. Estragon recoils.) You

stink of garlic! (p: 13)

Another example of this emotional avoidance is after the arrival of Lucky and

Pozzo when Lucky kicks Estragon while he wants to help him not to cry :

VLADIMIR: Here, give it to me, I'll do it. Estragon refuses to give the

handkerchief. Childish gestures.

POZZO: Make haste, before he stops. (Estragon approaches Lucky

and makes to wipe his eyes. Lucky kicks him violently in the shins.

Estragon drops the handkerchief, recoils, staggers about the stage

howling with pain.) Hanky! Lucky puts down bag and basket, picks up

handkerchief and gives it to Pozzo, goes back to his place, picks up

bag and basket.(p: 28)

The entrance of Pozzo and Lucky is another routine in the play and all the

actions that take place in this scene is a reason to forget all about Godot.21 Pozzo

enters in circus-master fashion, driving Lucky, a rope around his neck, before

him:22

23

Enter Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo drives Lucky by means of a rope

passed round his neck, so that Lucky is the first to enter, followed by

the rope which is long enough to let him reach the middle of the stage

before Pozzo appears. Lucky carries a heavy bag, a folding stool, a

picnic basket and a greatcoat, Pozzo a whip.(p:17)

With the arrival of Pozzo and Lucky, we see how two people are physically tied

to each other. Estragon and Vladimir are tied to each other by abstract bonds and

also by their common act of waiting for Godot, but Lucky is literally and

physically tied to Pozzo.24

Lucky’s outburst echoes the writers inner thoughts about the real world, and

when he himself is violently silenced by Vladimir’s pulling off his hat and given

back his bags, these actions indicate that there is no climax in the Absurd theatre

because every body is obsessed by routine of life that is why the actions return to

the world of habit in which they had earlier been accustomed to; i.e, the circus

world of wasteful theatricality: 25

POZZO: His hat!

Vladimir seizes Lucky's hat. Silence of Lucky. He falls. Silence.

Panting of the victors.26

…………………………………………………………………….

POZZO: Don't let him go! (Vladimir and Estragon totter.) Don't

move! (Pozzo fetches bag and basket and brings them towards

Lucky.) Hold him tight! (He puts the bag in Lucky's hand. Lucky

drops it immediately.) Don't let him go! (He puts back the bag in

Lucky's hand. Gradually, at the feel of the bag, Lucky recovers his

senses and his fingers finally close round the handle.) Hold him tight!

(As before with basket.).( p: 41)

24

The shrill comedy of Pozzo’s farewell, the parody about the misplaced watch,

the ridiculous exchange of ‘adieu . . . yes yes no no’ – are forced efforts to escape

the implications of Lucky’s speech:28

POZZO: I must go.

ESTRAGON: And your half-

POZZO: I must have left

Silence.

ESTRAGON: Then adieu.

POZZO: Adieu.

VLADIMIR: Adieu.

POZZO: Adieu.

Silence. No one moves.(p: 43)

At the end of the first Act the light fails, the theatrical moon suddenly rises at

the back, and it is night once more. This creates a sense that Vladimir and Estragon

have nothing left in this case. When the moon rises, they are both tired as if the

play is about to end. Thus Vladimir’s opening ‘At last!’ seems a conclusive enough

welcome to the coming of dark night and an end in their cyclic life. But Estragon’s

placing of his boots at the edge of the stage introduces a note of beginning again

and getting ready for a new day just like the other day: 31

He steps back, hesitates, turns and exit running. The light suddenly

fails. In a moment it is night. The moon rises at back, mounts in the

sky, stands still, shedding a pale light on the scene.

VLADIMIR: At last!

(Estragon gets up and goes towards Vladimir, a boot in each hand.

He puts them down at edge of stage, straightens and contemplates the

moon.) What are you doing?( p: 48)

25

Act II starts almost the same as Act I because of the circularity of the play;

Estragon's boots front center, heels together, toes splayed.

Lucky's hat at same place. The tree has four or five leaves.

Enter Vladimir agitatedly. He halts and looks long at the tree,

then suddenly begins to move feverishly about the stage. He

halts before the boots, picks one up, examines it, sniffs it,

manifests disgust, puts it back carefully. Comes and goes. Halts

extreme right and gazes into distance off, shading his eyes with

his hand. Comes and goes. Halts extreme left, as before. Comes

and goes. Halts suddenly and begins to sing loudly . (p: 53)

Everything occurs in circle and repetition in this act. In the opening tableau, the

boots and the hat appear to have seized centre stage and in the first pantomime,

Vladimir hurries back and forth seems even more troubled than he had been in Act

I.21

The two characters run out of words to keep their discourse continuous.

Consequently, they turn back to the old pantomimes like estragon's boots and

Vladimir's turnip and radishes to spend their time;22

ESTRAGON: Are there no carrots?

VLADIMIR: No. Anyway you overdo it with your carrots.

ESTRAGON: Then give me a radish. (Vladimir fumbles in his

pockets, finds nothing but turnips, finally brings out a radish

and hands it to Estragon who examines it, sniffs it.) It's black!

(p: 64)

Vladimir's problem is mental suffering that is why he tries to have a kind of

change in his mentality in order to escape the routine way of thinking . In this

26

moment he intentionally wants to exchange his hat for Lucky's hat, this signifies

Vladimir's desire for another person's thoughts and mentality: 23

VLADIMIR: I knew it was the right place. Now our troubles

are over. (He picks up the hat, contemplates it, straightens it.)

Must have been a very fine hat. (He puts it on in place of his

own which he hands to Estragon.) Here.(p: 67)

The hat exchange between the characters is another pantomime that indicates the

cyclic nature of the play itself;24

VLADIMIR: Hold that.

Estragon takes Vladimir's hat. Vladimir adjusts Lucky's hat on

his head. Estragon puts on Vladimir's hat in place of his own

which he hands to Vladimir. Vladimir takes Estragon's hat.

Estragon adjusts Vladimir's hat on his head. Vladimir puts on

Estragon's hat in place of Lucky's which he hands to Estragon.

Estragon takes Lucky's hat. Vladimir adjusts Estragon's hat on

his head. Estragon puts on Lucky's hat in place of Vladimir's

which he handsmto Vladimir. Vladimir takes his hat, Estragon

adjusts Lucky's hat on his head.(p; 67-68)

In the midst of all the ambiguous philosophical consideration, there is another

pantomime in the play. In the tradition of the old burlesque theater, a tramp that is

Vladimir in an old bowler hat discovers another hat on the ground that belongs to

Lucky. An exchange of hats between himself and Estragon. The comic exchange

begins when Vladimir gives his own hat to Estragon and replaces it with Lucky’s.

Estragon then does the same, offering his hat to Vladimir, who replaces it for

Lucky’s, and hands Lucky’s hat to Estragon, which is total absurdity of action.25

27

This act is the exact representation of the cyclic nature of the everyday routine of

the two characters.26

Doing the tree’ is one of the most important of Beckett’s mimes, not only

because of symbolic impact, but because the scene expresses so much of what has

been happening up till now in the dramatic movement of the entire play. Here, Didi

and Gogo again find a skillful style for their despair. Vladimir’s suggestion that

they do the tree ‘for the balance’ reveals man’s insistence for self-assurance while

doing ordinary exercises like doing the tree. Estragon’s reply may look at first like

silliness, but he is being quite sensible in wondering what else he and his friend

might be able to do with the tree other than hanging themselves. 27 Doing the tree

has a religious meaning in this act, because the tree has not a direct symbolic

meaning, it can be interrupted by several meaning; here it can be understood as the

image of the cross. As if the two characters are doing prayer by imitating the cross

but then they fall and ask for mercy which signifies the collapse of the religious

aspects in the life of the modern man.28

Vladimir: . . . Let’s just do the tree, for the balance.

Estragon: The tree?

Vladimir does the tree, staggering about on one leg.

Vladimir: (stopping). Your turn.

Estragon does the tree, staggers.

Estragon: Do you think God sees me?

Vladimir: You must close your eyes.

Estragon closes his eyes, staggers worse.

Estragon: (stopping, brandishing his fists, at the top of his

voice.) God have pity on me!

Vladimir: (vexed). And me?

Estragon: On me! On me! Pity! On me! (p; 72)

28

Pozzo and Lucky for the second time intrude the stage, but in a different manner

that contradictory to the first appearance in that; this time Pozzo is derived by

Lucky by a shorter rope;

Enter Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo is blind. Lucky burdened as

before. Rope as before, but much shorter, so that Pozzo may

follow more easily. Lucky wearing a different hat. At the sight

of Vladimir and Estragon he stops short. Pozzo, continuing on

his way, bumps into him. (p73)

Another contradiction in this act is that this time Lucky is drawing Pozzo behind

himself which means this time it is Pozzo whose dependant not Lucky. That is why

the two characters can not go on individually because they are totally dependant on

each other.29

Lucky falls, drops everything and brings down Pozzo with him.

They lie helpless among the scattered baggage. (Ibid)

Unlike the first act, here Pozzo is blind and led by Lucky on a shorter rope. He

falls on the ground in a noisy mess. The collaps of Pozzo defines the condition

under which this act, which is seen as the other phase of the play, takes place. It

represents the collapse of meaning in the play.30

VLADIMIR: We're coming!

He tries to pull Pozzo to his feet, fails, tries again, stumbles,

falls, tries to get up, fails. (p;77)

.…………………………

ESTRAGON: Come on, Didi, don't be pig-headed!

He stretches out his hand which Vladimir makes haste to seize.

(p;78)

29

Most of the ridiculous reunion scene takes place after all four men have

suddenly dropped to the ground, it is a tableau that is seen as the visual expression

of the common situation of the characters. The scene is that of a clown show but it

has a intellectual reason in that the characters are trying to raise up but they can

not. This is the visualization of the situation of all mankind that because of the

collapse of all the aspects of life they can not continue going on a normal live and

they are unable to rescue in that absurd situation. This act is the real picture that

describes the aim of the play that is man in this life is being helpless because of the

total shatter of the meaning of life as there is nothing to believe in. 31

After an exchange about hanging themselves, Estragon loosens the belt that

holds his trouser in this case the trouser falls in to his ankles;

VLADIMIR: Show me all the same. (Estragon loosens the cord

that holds up his trousers which, much too big for him, fall

about his ankles. They look at the cord.) It might do in a pinch.

But is it strong enough? (p; 89)

…………………………………………

VLADIMIR: Pull on your trousers.

ESTRAGON: What?

VLADIMIR: Pull on your trousers.

ESTRAGON: You want me to pull off my trousers?

VLADIMIR: Pull ON your trousers.

ESTRAGON: (realizing his trousers are down). True. He pulls

up his trousers.(p; 90)

The action of falling the trousers is a piece of circus or clowning show that

expresses the absurdity which contributes to the sense of helplessness of nothing to

be done in the play.32

30

When the two of them are trying to test the belt for their suicide, it breaks and

they both fall which illustrates in a comic way the hopelessness not only of their

lives but of all their efforts to end it.33

ESTRAGON: Yes, let's go.

They do not move.(p; 90)

The play ends in a repetition of Act I which emphasizes the endless circularity

of the play and mans absurdity to take an action in life in that the language has lost

its function in making man to take an action physically.34

31

Notes 1 Lawrence Graver, Beckett: Waiting for Godot, (New York : Cambridge

University Press, 2004),24. 2 Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, edited by A.N. Jeffares, ( Lebanon;

Yorkpress, 2002), 7. All the subsequent quotations are taken from the same text

and will appear within the text. 3 Harold Bloom, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, ( New York: Infobase

Publishing, 2008),7. 4 Ibid, 32. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid, 26. 7 Khalid Besbes, The Semiotics of Beckett's Theatre: A Semiotic Study of the

Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett, ( USA: Universal-Publishers,

2007), 66. 8 Bloom, 30-31. 9 Ibid, 31. 10 Ibid, 32. 11 Ibid, 33. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid, 36. 14 Anonymous, "Waiting for Godot", www. Wekipedia.org, 10, April, 2014, p1 of1. 15 Harold Bloom,40. 16 Lawrence Graver,35. 17Anonymous, "Waiting for Godot", www. cliffnotes.com, 10, April, 2014, p1 of1. 18 Bloom,49. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid, 52. 21 Bloom, 54. 22 Ibid. 23 Waiting for Godot, www.Wekipedia.org. p1 of 1.

32 24 Anonymous, Waiting for Godot, www.shmoop.com, 19, April, 2014, p1 of 1.

25 James L.Robert, waiting for Godot and other plays, ( New York: Hungry

minds,1980), 35.

26 Waiting for Godot, www.shmoop.com. p 1of 1

27 Bloom, 61.

28 Waiting for Godot, www.shmoop.com. P 1of 1

29 Bloom, 62.

30 Roger C. Scofeld, " Time up Time down; Rope, Belt and Cord in Waiting for

Godot", www.Samuel-beckett. Net, 20, April, 2014, p1 of1.

31 Bloom, 63.

32 Beckett, 116.

33 Bloom, 68.

34 Beckett, 116.

33

Conclusion

To sum up, Waiting for Godot is a play that breaks all the traditional rules of

writing a conventional play. It is different in terms of characters' Plot, theme and

language. All of these show a sharp contrast with the traditional theatre. Waiting

for Godot is one of the masterpieces that describe the condition of human life after

the Second World War in which it is absurd and nonsense. Samuel Beckett, as a

major writer of the twentieth century, tries to represent the aimlessness of human

life in a set of bodily activities instead of verbal language. Hence, for the modern

writers language as a communicative tool fails to express the exact emotion of

human in such an absurd condition of life.

Beckett uses a circular setting to show the cyclic nature of the routine life that

kills human beings. The four characters in the play, that are considered to be the

representative of all man kind in life, are unable to talk verbally about their

problems in life, that is why they are trying to do certain gestures to express their

condition.

Language in this play, as a theatrical tool, is dysfunctional, it is not that much

efficient to describe the absurdity of human condition. Instead of a well ordered

language, what is found here is verbal nonsense. That is why the play does not give

a direct meaning but it ends in nothing as it started.

For Beckett humans are dump to express their suffering in this life that is why

they lack communication and harmony, in this case what replaces language is body

gestures. In the play, no matter a character is dump or not, all are the same,

because they do not face problem while communicating in that they can not

express their attitudes through language but body movements.

The inadequacy of language and lack of communication between the characters

are major themes of the play used by Beckett to convey that the life of human

beings is meaningless and no one can understand it as Vladimir and Estragon

represent.

34

It can be notice that the characters live in an utter sense of absurdity

that there is no meaning in any side of their lives which shows the

absurdity of the human existence.

35

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