Understanding of Help and Humanity in Waiting for Godot

VLADIMIR: […] the best would be to take advantage of Pozzo’s calling for help –

POZZO: Help!

VLADIMIR: To help him –

ESTRAGON: We help him?

VLADIMIR: In anticipation of some tangible return.

ESTRAGON: And suppose he –

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 –

ESTRAGON: Ah!

POZZO: Help!

VLADIMIR: Or for night to fall. [Pause.] We have kept our appointment, and that’s an end to that. We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much?

ESTRAGON: Billions

Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot was first written in French in 1949 and was called En attendant Godot (Brater, 2011:4) The English version we read today is his own translation thereof. The play established Beckett’s credentials as a playwright as he is determined to do more and more with less thus raising his aesthetic as his drama develops and matures.( Gordan, 2010;31)Waiting for Godot is a play about the problems of human survival and the meaning of life ,both in its pleasures and hardships, its humor and brutality. (Gordan, 2010; 32) The play is an enigmatic but a very significant play in the absurdist tradition.(Lombardi, 2019;1) With close reference to the above passage from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, this essay analyses Vladimir’s understanding of ‘help’ while commenting on the cynicism and irony in his speech as well as his view of humanity, Furthermore it looks at Estragon’s deflation (‘Billions’) of Vladimir’s final triumphal assertion that ‘we have kept our appointment and What he implies about the human condition.

In order to understand this passage better we need to provide a summary of the backdrop of the play. Then first act begins on an evening country road with two men named, Vladimir and Estragon talking fitfully about their lives near a stalked tree. They are expectantly waiting to meet someone named Godot. While waiting to pass time they meet a landowner Pozzo and his animal-like servant Lucky. After their strange encounter Lucy and Pozzo move on and they meet a boy informing them that Mr Godot would “surely come tomorrow’’ As night falls Vladimir and Estragon contemplate suicide but decide to leave The second act begins much the same as the first as they wait to pass time and Lucky and Pozzo arrive and depart, the bot reappears to deliver the same message ‘surely tomorrow” and after again considering suicide the two men prepare to leave but at the final curtain do not move.

The backdrop of this essay provides an important understanding for this discussion. The question above takes place in the second act as Pozzo and Lucky now respectively blind and dumb, return to the country road near the stalked tree where Vladimir and Estragon await Godot’s arrival. Lucky and Pozzo slip and are unable to get up by themselves. Pozzo plead with the two men to help him up but instead if helping they talk incoherently about waiting for Godot and consider taking revenge on Lucky. It is not until that Pozzo offers then money in return for their help that Vladimir decides to help him.

When looking at the passage provided (Beckett, 1952:439) we can note that Vladimir’s understanding of help is both ironic and cynical

‘VLADIMIR: […] the best would be to take advantage of Pozzo’s calling for help –

POZZO: Help!

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VLADIMIR: To help him –

ESTRAGON: We help him?

VLADIMIR: In anticipation of some tangible return.

He is cynical in the way in which, he is concerned only with his own interests and typically disregarding accepted standards in order to achieve them. It is socially acceptable that we help other in need not for any gain but as it is morally correct to do so. However, Vladimir’s first response is that of self-gain ‘In anticipation of some tangible return’(Beckett,1952:439) The irony of this passage is that he speaks of humanity as selfish yet he does not freely help Pozza until he thinks he will receive the monetary gain he wants we

Vladimir: we wait. we are bored………

Pozzo: Two hundred!

Vladimir: We coming!( Act 2 page 450-451)

but also, at the slightest turn of events he is willing to leave Pozza helpless and leave with Estragon.

Estragon: I’m going.

Vladimir: Help me up first, then well go together.

Estragon: You promise?

Vladimir: I wear it! (Act 2 page 452)

It is his actions above that informs us of his view on humanity., his cynicism and irony shows us that Vladimir’s view of humanity is negative.

Pozzo: Help!

Estragon: He’s all humanity (Silence)……

Vladimir: well? what is there so wonderful about it (Act 2 page 467)

Estragon makes Vladimir suddenly lose confidence and feel dispirited, as he deflates Vladimir’s final triumphal assertion that ‘we have kept our appointment.’ Through this statement Estragon asserts that the human condition is flawed. Vladimir sees this as an achievement but in fact it should be seen as a normal act of decency, for one to keep your appointment says something good about ones character In keeping with the absurdist tradition of the play this passage it is key in that in highlighted the way in which Beckett explores the meaning and meaningless of life through the repetitive plot and dialogue

With close reference to the above passage from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, this essay analysed Vladimir’s understanding of ‘help ‘and commented on the cynicism and irony in his speech as well as his negative view of humanity, Furthermore it looked at Estragon’s deflation (‘Billions’) of Vladimir’s final triumphal assertion that ‘we have kept our appointment and his implication that the human condition is flawed.

Reference list

1. Brater, E (2011) “10 ways of thinking about Samuel Beckett: the falsetto of reason”. Bloomsbury Methuen drama. Great Britain
2. Graver, L (1984) Beckett waiting for Godot. A student guide 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, New York
3. Lombardi, E. (2019). 11 Quotes From Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'. [online] ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/waiting-for-godot-quotes-741824 [Accessed 22 Oct. 2019].