This PPT is prepared for classroom presentations of MA Semester 2, presented at the Department of English, MKBU. This presentation contains the discussion on the use of repetitive dialogues to raise existential questions in 'Waiting For Godot'.

1. Use of Repetitive Dialogues to raise
Existential question in ‘Waiting For Godot’

2. Prepared by Trushali Dodiya
Roll no:- 19
Enrollment no:- 4069206420220011
Sem:- 2(M. A.) Batch:- 2022-24
Paper no. :-107 Paper Code:- 22340
Paper name:- 20th century Literature- II
Submitted to:- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English,
MKBU
Dated on:- 12/03/2023
Email:- trushalidodiya84@gmail.com

3. ● Introduction
● Use of Repetitive Dialogues
● Desperation
● Comic Relief
● Existential Questions
● Conclusion
Table of Content

4. ● Play by Samuel Beckett, Published in 1952
● Absurd Play
● Conversation between Vladimir and
Estragon, Who are waiting for the arrival of
Mysterious God(“Waiting for Godot | Summary,
Characters, & Facts”)
● Continuous repetition of dialogues and behaviour
● Existential Questions - Why are we repetition the
same thing everyday?
● Why are we here? and What are we supposed to
do?
Introduction

5. ● Continuous repetition of dialogues in both the acts
● Absurd Drama- M. H. Abrams notes,”works in drama
and prose fiction which have in common the sense that
the human condition is essentially absurd, and that this
condition can be adequately represented only in works
of literature that are themselves absurd”. (Abrams)
● Presents Existential Questions
● Comic Relief
● Desperation
Use of Repetitive Dialogues in
Waiting For Godot

6. Desperation vs Hope
“But it's not Godot.
ESTRAGON:
It's not Godot?
VLADIMIR:
It's not Godot.”
“tell him you saw me and that . . . (he hesitates) . . . that you saw
me. (Pause. Vladimir advances, the Boy recoils.
Vladimir halts, the Boy halts. With sudden violence.)
You're sure you saw me, you won't come and tell me
tomorrow that you never saw me!”(Beckett)
● “...not only are the play's main characters waiting for
"someone" who never arrives, but they are depicted as
utterly hopeless and at times preferring death to the tedious
repetition of everyday life.”(Kubiak)
He will surely come tomorrow-
Hope
“ESTRAGON:
Well, shall we go?
VLADIMIR:
Yes, let's go.
They do not move.”
“VLADIMIR:
Well? Shall we go?
ESTRAGON:
Yes, let's go.
They do not move.”(Beckett)

7. ● Conversation between Vladimir and Estragon
● “It hurts?
Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!”(Beckett)
“He peers inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes
it, looks on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds
nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before
him.(Beckett)
Vladimir takes off his hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it,
shakes it, knocks on the crown, puts it on again.”(Beckett)
Comic Relief/Absurdity

8. “Nothing to be done”.(Beckett)
“Let's go. We can't. We're waiting for
Godot. Ah!”
“Nothing is certain.”
Where are the leaves?
“Let's wait and see what he says.
ESTRAGON:
Who?
VLADIMIR:
Godot.” (Beckett)
Existential Questions
● Forgetting nature of Estragon
● Conversation with the
messenger boy
I don't know, Sir
● Vladimir repeats dialogues I act
2 spoken by the messenger boy
in act 1(Beckett)

9. In ‘Abandoning the Empirical: Repetition and Homosociality’, Andrea L.
Yates notes how Existence of both the characters are interdependent
“Vladimir and Estragon’s repetitive and rhythmic behaviour and dialogue
functions as both cause and effect and constructs the only reality that these
two characters knows……. Which produces their fundamental bond”
“The repetition in ‘Waiting for Godot’ helps to mask the quake to convince
Vladimir and Estragon that they do indeed exist and to silence at least
temporarily the meaninglessness of that Existence”. (Yates)
Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus explores the existential questions-
Purposeless- Meaningless repetition (Camus)
Continue…

10. Conclusion
● Desperation and Comic Relief leads to
questions of existence
● Life is nothing but just repetition
● We can never get the answers of these
questions or can’t do anything except keep
living

11. Abrams, Meyer Howard. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999.
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. Grove Atlantic, 2011.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. Hamish Hamilton, 1955.
Kubiak, Aubrey D. “GODOT: THE NON-NEGATIVE NOTHINGNESS.” Romance Notes, vol. 48, 2008. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43803087.
“Waiting for Godot | Summary, Characters, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Waiting-
for-Godot. Accessed 12 March 2023.
Yates, Andrea L. “ABANDONING THE EMPIRICAL: Repetition and Homosociality in ‘Waiting for Godot.” Samuel Beckett
Today / Aujourd’hui,, vol. 14, 2004. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25781482.
Work Cited