Summary Waiting for Godot dramatic arts grade 12

Estragon (Gogo,  Comes off as inferior to
Vladimir
Adam)  Chronically poor memory
 Struggles with his boots
 Has to be told what to do
 Spends most of his time
trying to fall asleep
 Comes across as a
simpleton
Vladimir (Didi, Albert)  Interchangeable with
Estragon
 comes off as more
intellectual
 alpha male
 better memory, more
logical
 Estragon depends on him
for his life
Lucky  Pozzo’s slave
 Abused physically and
verbally
 Made to work to point of
exhaustion
 Denied any opportunity to
act of his own accord

Pozzo  Tyrannical, cruel, focused
only on himself
 Seems to possess some
sort of mystical
 Estragon mistakes him for
Godot
 Begs us to compare
Pozzo and Godot
 Defective memory
 helpless

, Boy  Messenger who says he
represents Godot
 Appears briefly in act 1
and 2 to tell V and E that
Godot has postponed his
meeting with them
 In act 2: claims he is not
the same boy from act 1
 But Beckett mentions only
one boy
Godot  Not really a character
 Name had G-O-D in it
 Beckett stated Godot was
not supposed to represent
God
 Godot: French word for
army boot

Waiting  V and E wait for Godot to
arrive but he never comes
 At end of play audience
can deduce that they will
stay there and wait



Choices  Depicted by two men
unable to act, move, or
think in any significant
way
 While they kill time waiting
for Godot the characters
fail to realise that the act
of waiting is a choice
 They view it as a
mandatory part of their
routine