This document provides a summary and analysis of the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett in the context of existentialism. It discusses the characters Vladimir and Estragon who wait endlessly for Godot without any purpose or change in their situation. It analyzes how this demonstrates existentialist themes of humans being free agents who create their own meaning and purpose. The document also discusses other characters like Pozzo and quotes from the play that further illustrate existentialist ideas.

1. NAME : PANDYA MEHAL JITENDRABHAI
ROLL NO :13
SEM: 3
ENROLLMENT NO : 2069108420200029
SUBJECT : Mordinst Literature
TOPIC : Existentialism in Waiting for Godot
DATE :1/12/2020
BEACH -22019-2021
E-MAIL ID -MEHALPANDYA252@GMAIL.COM
SUBMITTED TO – DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
M. K. BHAVANAGAR UNIVERSITY

2. Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is play by
Samuel Beckett. It is very interesting
play by him. This play with simple
words but with deep meaning. It was
published in 1952. Waiting for Godot
is a one of the great example of
absurd play. The importance of the
play as an existential drama lies in
the multiplicity of meanings which
critics have discovered in it.

3. Characters in waiting for Godot
Lucky Estragone
VladimirPozzo

4. Existentialism is a philosophical theory that
people are free agents who have control over
their choices and actions. Existentialists
believe that society should not restrict an
individual's life or actions and that these
restrictions inhibit free will and the
development of that person's potential.
Existentialism

5. Albert Camus
Kierkegaard
Martin Heidegger
Jean-Paul Sartre

6. In the waiting for Godot both characters are waiting for Godot.
Now quetion is who is Godot? We have eagerness to know Godot is
female or male? Where he/she live band many other questions are
raising with the reading of play. It is a topic for thinking upon
existentialism. Some say that,
“ There is something misleading about this printed text “
In the play they both waiting for some inevitable but what is it?
Sometime our thinking tell us that it is just elusive and illustration
nothing more then that.

7. Vladimir and Estragone, who are the raw substance so commonly
dressed up in accident of occupation, role, relationship. They are
unacommodated men so ‘ Time is stopped ‘ for Vladimir but for
Estragone and Vladimir communnicat and they ask questions each other
and Estragon said that “ we have always find something, to give the
impression we exist? There is a one dialogue that
“Never neglect the little things of life”
Kierkegaard was a philosoper and he gave his contribution in
existeialism. So he reflect that “ to exist means to be in process of
becoming “so we can say that waiting is the process for them, a
process of becoming through which they seem to realize that they exist.

8. According to Kenner, “ The play constructa about its two actors
the conditions and the quality of waiting to much so that no one
blame the dtramtist’s perverse whim for the withholding of Godot
and the disappointment of their expectations. “
The long waiting for Godot and who does never appear
throughout the play, but there is entry of boy who is the messnager
of Godot and he said that
“ He will come tomorrow. Sir. .”

9. Waiting for Godot” is indeed a play that
demonstrates theme of existentialism. Two main
characters of the play named as Vladimir and
Estragon are put into an absurd situation just like
humans have been put in the world without any
purpose. In whole play they do nothing to change
their miserable condition. Existentialism
emphasizes on the practice of doing something and
creating a purpose while accepting existence in this
world. Hence, they have freewill to make their life
better.

10. They can come out of this situation and
can give their lives a meaning but they
do nothing. Estragon’s dialogue is notable
in this regard. He says:
“Nothing happens, nobody comes,
nobody goes, it’s awful.”
He knows that his situation is awful

11. Pozzo and Lucky both are important
character in this play. In act 2 pozzo
said that ,
When! When! One day, is that not
enough for you, one day he went
dumb, one day I went blind, one day
we'll go deaf, one day we were born,
one day we shall die, the same day,
the same second, is that not enough
for you? (Calmer.) They give birth
astride of a grave, the light gleams an
instant, then it's night once more.

12. Conclusion
BOY: What am I to tell Mr. Godot, Sir?
VLADIMIR: Tell him . . . (he hesitates) . . . tell him you saw
me...
Through the characters In play Samuel Beckett draws the
picture of human. He gave the example of human mind. Waiting
is a desire according to me in this play. Through that they
come to know about the life and absurdity of life. The law of
nature will continues going on.
Necessary thing can be absurd and absurd thing can
necessary at any time.

13. Work citation
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1954.
Brazil, Kevin. “Beckett, Painting and the Question of ‘the Human.’”
Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 36, no. 3, 2013, pp. 81–99.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.36.3.81. Accessed
1 Dec. 2020.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism
Sharma, Anurag. “‘WAITING FOR GODOT:" A Beckettian
Counterfoil to Kierkegaardian Existentialism.” Samuel Beckett
Today / Aujourd'hui, vol. 2, 1993, pp. 275–280. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/25781175. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.