Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett.
Title: Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts.
Author: Samuel Beckett.
Genre: Fiction, plays.
Country: Ireland.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1953.
Summary: The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone-or something-named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning.
My Rating: 8.5/10
My Review:
♥ ESTRAGON: (going up again) Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR: (advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying, Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again.
ESTRAGON: Am I?
♥ VLADIMIR: Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel Tower, among the first. We were respectable in those days. Now it's too late. They wouldn't even let us up. (Estragon tears at his boot.) What are you doing?
ESTRAGON: Taking off my boot. Did that never happen to you?
♥ ESTRAGON: What do you expect, you always wait till the last moment.
VLADIMIR: (musingly) The last moment... (He meditates.) Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?
ESTRAGON: Why don't you help me?
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)... appalled. (With emphasis.) AP-PALLED. (He takes off his hat again, peers inside it.) Funny. (He knocks on the crown as though to dislodge a foreign body, peers into it again, puts it on again.) Nothing to be done. (Estragon with a supreme effort succeeds in pulling off his boot. He peers inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes it, looking on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before him.) Well?
ESTRAGON: Nothing.
VLADIMIR: There's nothing to show.
♥ VLADIMIR: There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.
♥ VLADIMIR: ..One of the thieves was saved. (Pause.) It's a reasonable percentage. (Pause.) Gogo.
ESTRAGON: What?
VLADIMIR: Suppose we repented.
ESTRAGON: Repented what?
VLADIMIR: Oh... (He reflects.) We wouldn't have to go into detail.
ESTRAGON: Our being born?
Vladimir breaks into a hearty laugh which he immediately stifles, his hand pressed to his pubis, his face contorted.
VLADIMIR: One daren't even laugh anymore.
ESTRAGON: Dreadful privation.
VLADIMIR: Merely smile. (He smiles suddenly from ear to ear, keeps smiling, ceases as suddenly.) It's not the same thing. Nothing to be done. (Pause.) Gogo.
♥ ESTRAGON: I'm going.
He does not move.
♥ ..Estragon moves to center, halts with his back to auditorium.
ESTRAGON: Charming spot. (He turns, advances to front, halts facing auditorium.) Inspiring prospects. (He turns to Vladimir.) Let's go.
VLADIMIR: We can't.
ESTRAGON: Why not?
VLADIMIR: We're waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON: (despairingly). Ah!
♥ VLADIMIR: What are you insinuating? That we've come to the wrong place?
♥ VLADIMIR: He said by the tree. (They look at the tree.) Do you see any otgnhers,.
ESTRAGON: What is it?
VLADIMIR: I don't know. A willow.
ESTRAGON: Where are the leaves?
VLADIMIR: It must be dead.
ESTRAGON: No more weeping.
♥ ESTRAGON: He should be here.
VLADIMIR: He didn't say for sure he'd come.
ESTRAGON: And if he doesn't come?
VLADIMIR: We'll come back to-morrow.
ESTRAGON: And then the day after to-morrow.
VLADIMIR: Possibly.
ESTRAGON: And so on.
VLADIMIR: The point is-
ESTRAGON: Until he comes.
ESTRAGON: We came here yesterday.
VLADIMIR: Ah no, there you're mistaken.
ESTRAGON: What did we do yesterday?
VLADIMIR: What did we do yesterday?
ESTRAGON: Yes.
VLADIMIR: Why... (Angrily) Nothing is certain when you're about.
♥ ESTRAGON: (restored to the horror of his situation). I was asleep! (<>i>Despairingly.) Why will you never let me sleep?
VLADIMIR: I felt lonely.
ESTRAGON: I had a dream.
VLADIMIR: Don't tell me!
ESTRAGON: I dreamt that-
VLADIMIR: DON'T TELL ME!
ESTRAGON: (gesture towards the universe). This one is enough for you?
♥ VLADIMIR: ..What do we do now?
ESTRAGON: Wait.
VLADIMIR: Yes, but while waiting.
ESTRAGON: What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON: (highly excited). An erection!
VLADIMIR: With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That's why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you not know that?
ESTRAGON: Let's hang ourselves immediately!
♥ VLADIMIR: I don't understand.
ESTRAGON: Use your intelligence, can't you?
Vladimir uses his intelligence.
VLADIMIR: (finally). I remain in the dark.
♥ VLADIMIR: Well? What do we do?
ESTRAGON: Don't let's do anything. It's safer.
VLADIMIR: Let's wait and see what he says.
ESTRAGON: Who?
VLADIMIR: Godot.
ESTRAGON: Good idea.
VLADIMIR: Let's wait till we know exactly how we stand.
♥ ESTRAGON: What exacrtlty did we ask him for?
VLADIMIR: Were you not there?
ESTRAGON: I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR: Oh... BNothing very definite.
ESTRAGON: A kind of prayer.
VLADIMIR: Precisely.
ESTRAGON: A vague supplication.
VLADIMIR: Exactlyt.
ESTRAGON: And what did he reply?
VLADIMIR: That he'd see.
ESTRAGON: That he couldn't promise anything.
VLADIMIR: That he'd have to think it over.
ESTRAGON: In the quiet of his home.
VLADIMIR: Consult his family.
ESTRAGON: His friends.
VLADIMIR: His agents.
ESTRAGON: His correspondents.
VLADIMIR: His books.
ESTRAGON: His bank account.
VLADIMIR: Before taking a decision.
ESTRAGON: It's the normal thing.
VLADIMIR: Is it not?
ESTRAGON: I think it is.
VLADIMIR: I think so too.
♥ VLADIMIR: You'd make me laugh if it wasn't prohibited.
ESTRAGON: We've lost our rights?
VLADIMIR: (distinctly). We got rid of them.
♥ VLADIMIR: Listen!
They listen, grotesquely rigid.
ESTRAGON: I hear nothing.
VLADIMIR. Hsst! (They listen. Estragon loses his balance, almost falls. He clutches the arm of Vladimir who totters. They listen, huddled together.) Nor I. Sighs of relief. They relax and separate.
ESTRAGON: You gave me a fright.
VLADIMIR: I thought it was he.
ESTRAGON: Who?
VLADIMIR: Godot.
♥ ESTRAGON: (his mouth full, vacuously). We're not tied?
VLADIMIR: I don't hear a word you're saying.
ESTRAGON: (chews, swallows). I'm asking you if we're tied.
VLADIMIR: Tied?
ESTRAGON: Ti-ed.
VLADIMIR: How do you mean tied?
ESTRAGON: Down.
VLADIMIR: But to whom? By whom?
ESTRAGON: To your man.
VLADIMIR: To Godot? Tied to Godot! What an idea! Not question of it. (Pause.) For the moment.
ESTRAGON: His name is Godot?
VLADIMIR: I think so.
♥ ESTRAGON: Funny, the more you eat the worse it gets.
VLADIMIR: With me it's just the opposite.
ESTRAGON: In other words?
VLADIMIR: I get used to the muck as I go along.
ESTRAGON: (after prolonged reflection.) Is that the opposite?
VLADIMIR: Question of temperament.
ESTRAGON: Of character.
VLADIMIR: Nothing you can do about it.
ESTRAGON: No use struggling.
VLADIMIR: One is what one is.
ESTRAGON: No use wriggling.
VLADIMIR: The essential doesn't change.
ESTRAGON: Nothing to be done.
♥ POZZO: Waiting? So you were waiting for him?
VLADIMIR: Well you see-
POZZO: Here? On my land?
VLADIMIR: We didn't intend any harm.
ESTRAGON: We meant well.
POZZO: The road is free to all.
VLADIMIR: That's how we looked at it.
POZZO: It's a disgrace. But there you are.
ESTRAGON: Nothing we can do about it.
♥ POZZO: (To Vladimir.) What age are you, if it's not a rude question? (Silence.) Sixty? Seventy? (To Estragon.) What age would you say he was?
ESTRAGON: Eleven.
♥ VLADIMIR: I'm going.
POZZO: He can no longer endure my presence. I am perhaps not particularly human, but who cares? (To Vladimir.) Think twice before you do anything rash. Suppose you go now while it is still day, for there is no denying it is still day. (They all look up at the sky.) Good. (They stop looking at the sky.)
♥ VLADIMIR: (to Estragon.) Show. (Estragon shows his leg. To Pozzo, angrily.) He's bleeding!
POZZO: It's a good sign.
♥ POZZO: ..(Lyrically.) The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. (He laughs.) Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. (Pause.) Let us not speak well of it either. (Pause.) Let us not speak of it at all. (Pause. Judiciously.) It is true the population has increased.
♥ POZZO: He subsides. (Looking round.) Indeed all subsides. A great calm descends. (Raising his hand.) Listen! Pan sleeps.
VLADIMIR: Will night never come?
All three look at the sky.
♥ POZZO: ..I'd very much like to sit down, but I don't quite know how to go about it.
ESTRAGON: Could I be of any help?
POZZO: If you asked me perhaps.
ESTRAGON: What?
POZZO: If you asked me to sit down.
ESTRAGON: Would that be helpful?
POZZO: I fancy so.
♥ POZZO: ..(He consults his watch.) But I must really be getting along, if I am to observe my schedule.
VLADIMIR: Time has stopped.
♥ POZZO: (..To Estragon.) What is your name?
ESTRAGON: Adam.
♥ POZZO: ..Look! (All look at the sky except Lucky who is dozing off again. Pozzo jerks the rope.) Will you look at the sky, pig! (Lucky looks at the sky.) Good, that's enough. (They stop looking at the sky.) What is there so extraordinary about it? Qua sky. It is pale and luminous like any sky at this hour of the day. (Pause.) In these latitudes. (Pause.) When the weather is fine. (Lyrical.) An hour ago (he looks at his watch, prosaic) roughly (lyrical) after having poured forth even since (he hesitates, prosaic) say ten o'clock in the morning (lyrical) tirelessly torrents of red and white light it begins to lose its effulgence, to grow pale (gesture of the two hands lapsing by stages) pale, ever a little paler, a little paler until (dramatic pause, ample gesture of the two hands flung wide apart) pppfff! finished! it comes to rest. But-(hand raised in admonition)-but behind this veil of gentleness and peace night is charging (vibrantly) and will burst upon us (snaps his fingers) pop! like that! (his inspiration leaves him) just when we least expect it. (Silence. Gloomily.) That's how it is on this bitch of an earth.
♥ ESTRAGON: So long as one knows.
VLADIMIR: One can bide one's time.
ESTRAGON: One knows what to expect.
VLADIMIR: No further need to worry.
ESTRAGON: Simply wait.
VLADIMIR: We're used to it.
♥ POZZO: ..Well, would you like him to think something for us?
ESTRAGON: I'd father he'd dance, it'd be more fun.
POZZO: Not necessarily.
ESTRAGON: Wouldn't it, Didi, be more fun?
VLADIMIR: I'd like well to hear him think.
ESTRAGON: Perhaps he could dance first and think afterwards, if it isn't too much to ask him.
♥ POZZO: He used to dance the farandole, the fling, the brawl, the jig, the fandango and even the hornpipe. He capered. For joy. Now that's the best he can do. Do you know what he calls it?
ESTRAGON: The Scapegoat's Agony.
VLADIMIR: The Hard Stool.
POZZO: The Net. He thinks he's entangled in a net.
♥ Silence. They put on their hats.
ESTRAGON: Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody does, it's awful!
♥ VLADIMIR: (to Estragon). Give him his hat.
ESTRAGON: Me! After what he did to me! Never!
VLADIMIR: I'll give it to him.
He does not move.
♥ Silence.
ESTRAGON: Then adieu.
POZZO: Adieu.
VLADIMIR: Adieu.
POZZO: Adieu.
Silence. No one moves.
VLADIMIR: Adieu.
POZZO: Adieu.
ESTRAGON: Adieu.
Silence.
POZZO: And thank you.
VLADIMIR: Thank you.
POZZO: Not at all.
ESTRAGON: Yes yes.
POZZO: No no.
VLADIMIR: Yes yes.
ESTRAGON: No no.
Silence.
POZZO: I don't seem to be able... (long hesitation)... to depart.
ESTRAGON: Such is life.
♥ VLADIMIR: Haven't they?
ESTRAGON: What?
VLADIMIR: Changed?
ESTRAGON: Very likely. They all change. Only we can't.
VLADIMIR: Likely! It's certain. Didn't you see them?
ESTRAGON: I suppose I did. But I don't know them.
VLADIMIR: Yes you do know them.
ESTRAGON: No I don't know them.
VLADIMIR: We know them, I tell you. You forget everything. (Pause. To himself.) Unless they're not the same..
♥ VLADIMIR: ..What's the matter with you?
ESTRAGON: I'm unhappy.
VLADIMIR: Not really! Since when?
ESTRAGON: I'd forgotten.
VLADIMIR: Extraordinary the tricks that memory plays!
♥ VLADIMIR: But you can't go barefoot!
ESTRAGON: Christ did.
VLADIMIR: Christ! What has Christ go to do with it? You're not going to compare yourself to Christ!
ESTRAGON: All my life I've compared myself to him.
VLADIMIR: But where he lived it was warm, it was dry!
ESTRAGON: Yes. And they crucified quick.
♥ VLADIMIR: We've nothing more to do here.
ESTRAGON: Nor anywhere else.
♥ ESTRAGON: Wait! (He moves away from Vladimir.) I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off alone, each one for himself. (He crosses the stage and sits down on the mound.) We weren't made for the same road.
VLADIMIR: (without anger). It's not certain.
ESTRAGON: No, nothing is certain.
Vladimir slowly crosses the stage and sits down beside Estragon.
VLADIMIR: We can still part, if you think it would be better.
ESTRAGON: It's not worth while now.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: No, it's not worth while now.
Silence.
ESTRAGON: Well, shall we go?
VLADIMIR: Yes, let's go.
They do not move.
♥ VLADIMIR: You again! (Estragon halts but does not raise his head. Vladimir goes towards him.) Come here till I embrace you.
ESTRAGON: Don't touch me!
Vladimir holds back, pained.
..ESTRAGON: Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!
VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you?
ESTRAGON: You let me go.
♥ VLADIMIR: Say you are, even if it's not true.
ESTRAGON: What am I to say?
VLADIMIR: Say, I am happy.
ESTRAGON: I am happy.
VLADIMIR: So am I.
ESTRAGON: So am I.
VLADIMIR: We are happy. (Silence.) What do we do now, now that we are happy?
VLADIMIR: Wait for Godot. (Estragon groans. Silence.)
♥ VLADIMIR: I was saying that things have changed here since yesterday.
ESTRAGON: Everything oozes.
♥ VLADIMIR: ..Do you not recognize the place?
ESTRAGON: (suddenly furious). Recognize! What is there to recognize? All my lousy life I've crawled about in the mud! And you talk to me about scenery! (Looking wildly about him.) Look at this muckheap! I've never stirred from it!
♥ ESTRAGON: It'd be better if we parted.
VLADIMIR: You always say that and you always come crawling back.
ESTRAGON: The best thing would be to kill me, like the other.
VLADIMIR: What other? (Pause.) What other?
ESTRAGON: Like billions of others.
♥ ESTRAGON: ..let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.
VLADIMIR: You're right, we're inexhaustible.
ESTRAGON: It's so we won't think.
VLADIMIR: We have that excuse.
ESTRAGON: It's so we won't hear.
VLADIMIR: We have our reasons.
ESTRAGON: All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR:L They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
VLADIMIR: Like sand.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: They all speak at once.
ESTRAGON: Each one to itself.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: Rather they whisper.
ESTRAGON: They rustle.
VLADIMIR: They murmur.
ESTRAGON: They rustle.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: What do they say?
ESTRAGON: They talk about their lives.
VLADIMIR: To have lived is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON: They have to talk about it.
VLADIMIR: To be dead is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON: It is not sufficient.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: They make a noise like feathers.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
VLADIMIR: Like ashes.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
♥ VLADIMIR: When you seek you hear.
ESTRAGON: You do.
VLADIMIR: That prevents you from finding.
ESTRAGON: It does.
VLADIMIR: That prevents you from thinking.
ESTRAGON: You think all the same.
VLADIMIR: No no, impossible.
ESTRAGON: That's the idea, let's contradict each other.
VLADIMIR: Impossible.
ESTRAGON: You think so?
VLADIMIR: We're in no danger of ever thinking any more.
ESTRAGON: Then what are we complaining about?
VLADIMIR: Thinking is not the worst.
ESTRAGON: Perhaps not. But at least there's that.
VLADIMIR: That what?
ESTRAGON: That's the idea, let's ask each other questions.
VLADIMIR: What do you mean, at least there's that?
ESTRAGON: That much less misery.
VLADIMIR: True.
ESTRAGON: Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?
VLADIMIR: What is terrible is to have thought.
ESTRAGON: But did that ever happen to us?
VLADIMIR: Where are all these corpses from?
ESTRAGON: The skeletons.
VLADIMIR: Tell me that.
ESTRAGON: True.
VLADIMIR: We must have thought a little.
ESTRAGON: At the very beginning.
VLADIMIR: A charnel-house! A charnel-house!
ESTRAGON: You don't have to look.
VLADIMIR: You can't help looking.
ESTRAGON: True.
VLADIMIR: Try as one may.
ESTRAGON: I beg your pardon?
VLADIMIR: Try as one may.
ESTRAGON: We should turn resolutely towards Nature.
VLADIMIR: We've tried that.
ESTRAGON: True.
VLADIMIR: Oh it's not the worst, I know.
ESTRAGON: What?
VLADIMIR: To have thought.
ESTRAGON: Obviously.
VLADIMIR: But we could have done without it.
ESTRAGON: Que voulez-vous?
VLADIMIR: I beg your[pardon?
ESTRAGON: Ah! que voulez-vous. Exactly.
Silence.
♥ ESTRAGON: Let me see.
He takes off his hat, concentrates.
VLADIMIR: Let me see. (He takes off his hat, concentrates. Long silence.) Ah!
They put on their hats, relax.
♥ ESTRAGON: I tell you we weren't here yesterday. Another of your nightmares.
VLADIMIR: And where were we yesterday evening according to you?
ESTRAGON: How would I know? In another compartment. There's no lack of void.
♥ ESTRAGON: ..(With assurance.) Yes, now I remember, yesterday evening we spent blathering about nothing in particular. That's been going on now for half a century.
♥ ESTRAGON: ..Let's go.
VLADIMIR: We can't.
ESTRAGON: Why not?
VLADIMIR: We're waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON: Ah! (Pause. Despairing.) What'll we do, what'll we do!
VLADIMIR: There's nothing we can do.
♥ ESTRAGON: ..It's black!
VLADIMIR: It's a radish.
ESTRAGON: I only like the pink ones, you know that!
VLADIMIR: Then you don't want it?
ESTRAGON: I only like the pink ones!
VLADIMIR: Then give it back to me.
Estragon gives it back.
ESTRAGON: I'll go and get a carrot.
He does not move.
♥ ESTRAGON: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?
♥ VLADIMIR: It's always at nightfall.
ESTRAGON: But night doesn't fall.
VLADIMIR: It'll fall all of a sudden, like yesterday.
ESTRAGON: Then it'll be night.
VLADIMIR: And we can go.
ESTRAGON: Then it'll be day again.
♥ 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 hands to Vladimir. Vladimir takes his hat. Estragon adjusts Lucky's hat on his head. Vladimir puts on his hat in place of Estragon's which he hands to Estragon. Estragon takes his hat. Vladimir adjusts his hat on his head. Estragon puts on his hat in place of Lucky's which he hands to Vladimir. Vladimir takes Lucky's hat. Estragon adjusts his hat on his head. Estragon hands Vladimir's hat back to Vladimir who takes it and hands it back to Estragon who takes it and hands it back to Vladimir who takes it and throws it down.
How does it fit me?
♥ VLADIMIR and ESTRAGON: (turning simultaneously). Do you-
VLADIMIR: Oh pardon!
ESTRAGON: Carry on.
VLADIMIR: No no, after you.
ESTRAGON: No no, you first.
VLADIMIR: I interrupted you.
ESTRAGON: On the contrary.
They glare at each other angrily.
VLADIMIR: Ceremonious ape!
ESTRAGON: Punctilious pig!
VLADIMIR: Finish your phrase, I tell you!
ESTRAGON: Finish your own!
Silence. They draw closer, halt.
VLADIMIR: Moron!
ESTRAGON: That's the idea, let's abuser each other.
They turn, move apart, turn again and face each other.
VLADIMIR: Moron!
ESTRAGON: Vermin!
VLADIMIR: Abortion!
ESTRAGON: Morpion!
VLADIMIR: Sewer-rat!
ESTRAGON: Curate!
VLADIMIR: Cretin!
ESTRAGON: (with finality). Crritic!
VLADIMIR: Oh!
He wilts, vanquished, and turns away.
♥ ESTRAGON: (stopping). That's enough. I'm tired.
VLADIMIR: (stopping). We're not in form. What about a little deep breathing?
ESTRAGON: I'm tired breathing.
♥ Estragon does the tree, staggers.
ESTRAGON: Do you thinjk BGod 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!
Enter Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo is blind.
♥ VLADIMIR: We are no longer alone, waiting for the night, waiting for Godot, waiting for... waiting. All evening we have struggled, unassisted. Now it's over. It's already to-morrow!
POZZO: Help!
VLADIMIR: Time flows again already. The sun will set, the moon rise, and we away... from here.
POZZO: Pity!
♥ VLADIMIR: Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! (Pause. Vehemently.) Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say? (Estragon says nothing.) It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflection, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come-
..Or for night to fall. (Pause.) We have kept out appointment and that's an end to that. We are not saints, but we have kept out appointment. How many people can boast as much?
ESTRAGON: Billions.
..VLADIMIR: All I know is that the hours are long, under these conditions, and constrain us to beguile them with proceedings which-how shall I say-which may at first sight seem reasonable, until they become a habit. You may say it is to prevent our reason from foundering. No doubt. But has it not long been straying in the night without end of the abyssal depths? That's what I sometimes wonder.
♥ ESTRAGON: (aphoristic for once). We are all born mad. Some remain so.
♥ VLADIMIR: We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste. Come, let's get to work! (He advances towards the heap, stops in his stride.) In an instant all will vanish and we'll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness!
♥ VLADIMIR: We've arrived.
POZZO: Who are you?
VLADIMIR: We are men.
Silence.
♥ POZZO: (violently). Don't question me! The blind have no notion of time. The things of time are hidden from them too.
♥ VLADIMIR: Dumb! Since when?
POZZO: (suddenly furious). Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! 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. (He jerks the rope.) On!
♥ VLADIMIR: Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? To-morrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of to-day? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? (Estragon, having struggled with his boots in vain, is dozing off again. Vladimir looks at him.) He'll know nothing. He'll tell me about the blows he received and I'll give him a carrot. (Pause.) Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener. (He looks again at Estragon.) At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on. (Pause.) What have I said?
♥ VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go?
ESTRAGON: Yes, let's go.
They do not move.
Curtain.