Waiting for Godot | Contemporary Playwrights: Samuel Beckett

In this excerpt from his book, Hayman speculates on the symbolism of Waiting for Godot's stasis of characters and action, concluding that, despite the play's more opaque moments, it is nonetheless an entertaining work.

The action of most plays can be summed up in a few sentences, but not the action of Godot. Vivian Mercier's summary of the plot is: "Nothing happens, twice." But how can we describe the nothing that happens? The act of waiting is itself a contradictory combination of doing nothing and doing something. Vladimir and Estragon don't actually do anything and they are agreed right from the beginning that there's nothing they can do. "Nothing to be done" is the play's opening line and although Estragon is talking about his boot, which he's trying to take off, Vladimir's answer immediately makes...

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