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Waiting for Godot

by Samuel Beckett

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Discussion Topic

Characteristics of Lucky and the boy in Waiting for Godot

Summary:

Lucky in Waiting for Godot is subservient and obedient, often carrying out Pozzo's commands without question. He rarely speaks, but when he does, it's a long, nonsensical monologue. The boy is a messenger who brings news about Godot, appearing innocent and somewhat fearful, adding to the play's mysterious and ambiguous atmosphere.

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What are the characteristics of Lucky in Waiting for Godot?

Lucky is the elderly slave of Pozzo, an elderly man himself.  He is physically whipped and prodded onto the stage and forced to dance and sing like a trained monkey.  If Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for hope in the form of a person named Godot, Lucky is the arrival of bitterness and sadness.

Oddly, Lucky does not lash out at Pozzo, but is eager to do what is asked of him despite the pain and sadness it causes him.  In this, Lucky, as a character is a paradox.  Why does he act kindly toward a man who grossly mistreats him?

Interpreting Lucky's character depends on which approach you take.  For example, a religious intepretation could have Lucky represent faithful because he follows Pozzo around when Pozzo mistreats him and when Pozzo is nicer to him.

Another interpreation is that Lucky is actually lucky.  He doesn't have to make...

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any decisions because he is ordered to do everything he does.

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Describe the characteristics of Lucky and the boy in Waiting for Godot.

In Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting For Godot, one of the characters we see several times is Lucky. He is a slave owned by Pozzo—he is treated violently by his master. Even in face of Pozzo's abuse, Lucky (a poor name for a slave it would seem) is fiercely loyal to him. At one point when Estragon tries to help Lucky, Lucky goes after him, obviously resenting the other man's attempts to help. He has one very long speech in Act One, but does not talk much.

As Pozzo speaks to Vladimir and Estragon in Act One, the stage directions highlight Pozzo's treatment of Lucky:

POZZO:

(with magnanimous gesture). Let's say no more about it. (He jerks the rope.) Up pig! (Pause.) Every time he drops he falls asleep. (Jerks the rope.) Up hog! (Noise of Lucky getting up and picking up his baggage. Pozzo jerks the rope.) Back! (Enter Lucky backwards.) Stop! (Lucky stops.) Turn! (Lucky turns. To Vladimir and Estragon, affably.)

By the beginning of the second act, Lucky and Pozzo have deteriorated. While Lucky's master is now blind and feeble, Lucky is mute—though he didn't talk a great deal in Act One. While he could easily overpower Pozzo and make his escape, Lucky is still dedicated to Pozzo, helping him move about in his seriously weakened condition. In fact, Lucky still helps Pozzo—gives him his whip when Pozzo asks for it, the rope he uses to lead Lucky, and still carries the bags. Though Lucky's situation has deteriorated, he is still devoted to Pozzo.

On the other hand, we the audience meets the boy (who is given no name) in Act One, we find that he is a messenger. It is he that brings news of Godot's arrival or delay. He claims to work for Godot. The boy (who does not have any other name) is fearful and shy: Pozzo's behavior toward Lucky frightens him. He tells Vladimir and Estragon that he was fearful of Pozzo's whip and roar, and "The two big men."

However, where both the boy and Lucky seem to be accountable to someone else, Lucky is a slave who is beaten but seems sadly sotic about it, while on the other hand, the boy is free to move as he wishes. And though he is afraid of being beaten (he says his brother is beaten by Godot), seemingly no violence comes to him.

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Who is the character Lucky in Waiting for Godot?

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is an example of Theater of the Absurd, a term created by literary critic Martin Esslin to describe plays in the 1950s that feature existentialist themes in irrational worlds where people have lost a sense of meaning in life.

Early in his career as a writer, Beckett worked for Irish author James Joyce, assisting him with the creation of Joyce’s novel Finnegan’s Wake, a masterpiece of experimental fiction. After working with the Joycean style, which incorporated dizzying wordplay, Beckett developed a contrasting modernist, minimalist style.

The characters in Waiting for Godot illustrate Absurdist themes, as they seem to have little or no meaning in their lives, engage in repetitive motions, and communicate in fragments. Vladimir and Estragon spend an aimless life, wandering and waiting by a barren tree for Godot. When Lucky appears in act 1, he seems to be an independent person with a purpose, as he enters the stage first. But then it’s revealed that Lucky is tied by a long rope to Pozzo, who controls Lucky. In act 2, the characters are still tied together, but their roles are reversed with Lucky now leading a blind Pozzo.

In his plays, Beckett often features character pairs he termed “pseudo-couples” to illustrate relationship dynamics. Lucky and Pozzo symbolize power-imbalanced relationships, the forces that drive and enslave people’s minds, and how roles between the powerful and powerless can change and shift from one person in the dynamic to the other. Lucky’s mind is enslaved, and his sense of self is lost to the point where he can’t recognize kindness from Estragon and responds with violence. Pozzo admits that Lucky taught him “beautiful things,” but from his own enslavement to his role as master, he continues to abuse Lucky and commands him to dance. When Lucky finally speaks with help of a hat, his speech is a rambling pastiche of ideas broken up by a nonsensical phrase. His lifelong enslavement has damaged his sense of self, thought, and speech.

Despite the unhappy arrangement, Lucky and Pozzo appear to be addicted to their relationship. Pozzo doesn’t sell off Lucky, and despite the abuse, Lucky stays with Pozzo. Perhaps in a meaningless, absurd world where people wander and wait, their relationship, abusive as it is, gives Pozzo and Lucky some sense of meaning and purpose.

Further Reading:

Lawley, Paul. Waiting for Godot: Character Studies. London, Bloomsbury, 2013.

References

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Lucky gets his name because he has a job. This is symbolized by the rope around his neck. No doubt many people who work to enrich other people feel the way we would assume Lucky feels. He is earning a living, but he is not getting any satisfaction out of the work he does. The gibberish he speaks in his long monologue symbolizes that kind of work. He might be a lawyer, a salesman, an advertising copywriter, a speech writer for a politician, a hack television writer, a television game-show MC, or anything else that requires a lot of insincere and mercenary talking or writing. The name Lucky, of course, is ironic. He is obviously a slave. He will say anything whether it is true or not. He doesn't care about such things. After all, he is making a good living. He has become very glib, but the words he utters seem meaningless because they are meaningless to him. This would seem to be Beckett's view of the condition of modern middle-class man. There are many people who consider Lucky fortunate because he has a good job. They would gladly take his place if they could. There are many people like Pozzo who get rich by using people like Lucky. They need people like Lucky because they are inarticulate themselves. They are inarticulate because they are too gross to use language any way but bluntly. But they despise people like Lucky because he has no integrity left. He will jump through hoops if they tell him to.

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