SPECIALIZAREA: LIMBA ȘI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ – [606001]

UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
SPECIALIZAREA: LIMBA ȘI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ –
LIMBA ȘI LITERATURA SPANIOLĂ

LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

Coordonator științific:
Lect.univ.dr. Georgiana Dil ă

Absolvent: [anonimizat] 2019 –

UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
SPECIALIZAREA: LIMBA ȘI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ –
LIMBA ȘI LITERATURA SPANIOLĂ

EXPLORING THE DEFINING THEMES
OF WAITING FOR GODOT AND HAPPY
DAYS BY SAMUEL BECKETT

(EXPLORÂND TEMELE DEFINITORII
ÎN WAITING FOR GOD OT ȘI HAPPY
DAYS DE SAMUEL BECKETT )

Coordonator științific:
Lect.univ.dr. Georgiana Dil ă

Absolvent: [anonimizat] 2019 –

Contents

Introduction ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………… 4
Chapter 1 – Discovering Waiting for Godo t through its main themes ………………………….. . 6
1.1. Waiting and boredom in Beckett’s play ………………………….. ………………………….. …… 6
1.2. Exploring time in Waiting for Godot ………………………….. ………………………….. ………. 11
1.3. Relationship, Companionship, Humanity ………………………….. ………………………….. . 15
Chapter 2 – Happy Days and the rituals of the p lay ………………………….. ………………………. 23
2.1. Language and the failure of communication ………………………….. ………………………. 23
2.2. Dependence on others and fear of loneliness ………………………….. …………………… 29
2.3. The repetitive actions and their consequences on the characters ………………… 31
Chapter 3 – Beckett’s plays and their success ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 35
3.1 Beckett’s preference for the Theatre of Absurd ………………………….. ………………. 35
3.2 Performance and public appreciation of the two plays ………………………….. ……. 40
Conclusion ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………… 45
Bibliography: ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………….. 47

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Introduction

Exploring the defining themes of Waiting for Godot and Happy Days by Samuel
Beckett , tries to bring in attention the role of th e Theatre of the Absurd portrayed by Samuel
Beckett in his best work , Waiting for Godot , where he speaks about the lack of p urpose,
waiting without result and time. In Happy Days , Beckett reunited themes like loneliness,
failure of language and put in toge ther in his first play with a woman as protagonist.
I chose to speak about this theme because I was captivated by Beckett’s unusual way
of displaying ideas and beliefs, by his deeply philosophical observations of life. He chose
unusual themes, but he imput ed his style and created real masterpieces of modern literature.
He provides the audience with extreme plots, curious characters and extreme endings.
His main themes are related to time and language, where time is inexorable and the
failure of communicatio n is very present in his plays. At their publications , Waiting for Godot
and Happy Days were badly seen, but nowadays both plays are very appreciated by the public
and also by the critics.
The first chapter , Discovering Waiting for Godot through its main , themes deals with
the major themes of the play and also of Beckett’s works. Th e first subchapter, Waiting and
boredom in Beckett’s play , reveals the acts of waiting and boredom where waiting add much
more absurdity to the play itself. The eternal waiting o f an unknown person called Godot
gives the absurdity of the play. The idea of boredom is also present because Vladimir and
Estragon are searching different ways to pass the time, they are singing songs, playing verbal
games. The second subchapter , Explorin g time in Waiting for Godot , speaks about how Didi
and Gogo explored time, they try to reproduce time when they decide to leave, but they stay
because t ime is uncontrollable, they do not have an order in their actions. The third
subchapter , Relationships, companionship and humanity in the play , contain the relationship
between characters. In case of humanity, where faces are easy to forget and the only one who
recognise all is Vladimir.
The second chapter, Happy D ays and the rituals of the play , has in cen tre the woman
buried in mound who speaks, expresses herself and does her routine even if she is trapped in
mound. In the first subchapter, Language and the failure of communication , Winnie speaks
continuously and language fails when Winnie talks to herself and Willie responds her only
sometimes. The second subchapter, Dependence on others and fear of loneliness , centred on
the main characters, Winnie and Willie, where Willie wants to get as much attention as

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possible, but her husband will reveal his love on ly at the end of the play, but even at the end,
the audience is left to say its own perspective. The third subchapter, The repetitive actions
and their consequences on the characters , contains series of repetitive actions, habits that are
key elements in B eckett’s work.
The third chapter, Samuel Beckett’s plays and their success , deals with the public
appreciation and the distinctions between traditional and innovative. The first subchapter,
Beckett s’ preference for the Theatre of the Absurd , reveals the au tobiographical elements of
Beckett’s life and his choice to write about the Theatre of the Absurd where he focuses on
meaninglessness. The second subchapter, Performance and public appreciation of the two
plays, talks about her success with Waiting for God ot and Happy Days . The success with
Waiting for Godot was so little at the beginning, but after the performance from Paris, the
play had big success due to the originality. Happy Days was a big success being performed
even nowadays at big theatres all arou nd the world.
Thus, in my paperwork Exploring the defining themes of Waiting for Godot and
Happy Days by Samuel Beckett , I had in mind bringing Beckett’s plays close -up to all of us,
to emphasize and highlight their importance in English and universal lite rature. In
accomplishing this paperwork, I started from the premise that the two plays are reference
points of the modern theatre, enjoy popularity all over the world, remaining everlastings.

6
Chapter 1 – Discovering Waiting for Godot through it s main
themes

1.1. Waiting and boredom in Beckett’s play

Samuel Beckett is best -known for his play Waiting for Godot , a play where nothing
happens and as Vivian Mercier noted: “has achieved a theoretical impossibility -a play in
which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What’s more, since the
second act is a subtly dif ferent reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing
happens, twic e. (Mercier, Vivian. “Irish Times” , 1956, p. 6)
Samue l Beckett’s career was influenced by the great James Joyce, the author of
some confusing works, the one that stirred people’s inspiration and imagination. Samuel
Beckett admired Joyce but he realized that he had to do something different from Joyce.
Joyce recommended Beckett how to write, he always told him to write the natural, the real .
Beckett is one of the most appreciated and discussed author s of the 20th century. The
influence that James Joyce had on Samuel Beckett’s style is known, but Beckett focuse d on
the reality of life rather than Joyce’s reality of mind.
Although Sartre’s philosophy of theoretical freedom rooted in Nietzsche’s remark
“God is dead ” and this statement is applied in Beckett’s work, as a result of his freedom in
thinking, Beckett ai med to envisage the result of concrete, also he wr ote, sp oke and th ought
about the limitations of human beings.
Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot or En attendant Godot because the play
was first written in French and then translated in to English as Beckett spend his life in France
even if he was born in Dublin, Ireland but he moved in Paris for his studies.
The action or, we can say the lack of it is unmistakable; it is a play about nothing.
“The unsolved antagonisms of reality return in artworks as i mmanent problems of form. This,
not the insertion of objective elements, defines the relation of art to society . (Adorno,
Theodor W. “Aesthetic Theory ”, Bloomsbury Academic, 1997, p. 6)
In this tragic -comic play we can speak also about allusions, but somet imes they are
hidden or prevent ed or sometimes are even blocked. An example in Beckett’s play can be the
two tramps; the image that the author told Ruby Cohn was drawn from Casper David
Friedrich’s Two men looking at the moon and staged in Waiting for Godo t.

“VLADIMIR: The sun. The moon. Do you not remember?

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ESTRAGON: They must have been there, as usual.”
(Beckett, 1986:57 )
“POZZO: Help!
VLADIMIR: Time flows again already. The sun will set, t he moon rise, and we
away . . . from here.
POZZO: Pity! ”

(Beckett, 1986:67 )

In Waiting for Godot we deal with two tramps called Vladimir and Estragon , also
named Didi and Gogo who are waiting for somebody called Godot. They are set on a country
road with a tree. Estragon tries to take off his boots, but he can’t, but after some tries he
succeeds . Both, Vladimir and Estragon are looking inside the hat and the boot to see if ther e
is something. Estragon says various times that he wants to leave, but Vladimir is always near
him telling him that they cannot go because they are waiting for Godot , but the stranger thing
is that they do not know who Godot is or when he arrive s and wher e. In the play appear
Pozzo and Lucky, Pozzo with a whip which he has and sometimes uses it on Lucky and
Lucky who carries a bag, a coat and a chair. Gogo when he sees Pozzo thinks that he is
Godot, making Pozzo upset. Lucky is silent and obeys his master’ s charges. The master eats
chicken and for Lucky he only has some bones but when Estragon asks if he can have the
bones, Lucky does not respond and Estragon eats them . Pozzo tells Vladimir and Estragon
that he and Lucky have been together for about sixty y ears. Pozzo tells Didi and Gogo about
the night sky and the two tramps tell him that his speech was good and Pozzo offers
something for them. Pozzo offers a dance of Lucky and when Estragon tries to repeat the
movements he almost falls. The three men are t aking fight with Lucky and take off his hat
and from there Lucky stops talking. After Lucky’s return, Pozzo and his salve leave the scene
and let Estragon and Vladimir wait for Godot. A boy arrives on the stage as being sent by Mr.
Godot. The boy tells the m that Godot will not arrive today but surely tomorrow. Didi and
Gogo decide to leave for a night but neither of them moves.
Waiting for Godot include many themes but Beckett focused on suffering because
Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for somebody who c an stop their boredom. Beckett uses
the character’s interaction to show the meaninglessness and the boredom of the play.
If we deal with the problem related to the title, Waiting for Godot we can say that it
reflects absurdity and hence brings to our mind s the idea of meaningless, waiting or waiting

8
in vain and this waiting of somebody named Godot who may be seen as God or, maybe as a
mythical human being, this Godot also could be related to life, or even death, but as in
Waiting for Barbarians by John Max well Coetzee symbolised that the person that they are
waiting for does not exist but, indeed, they are waiting for death.
In this instance “waiting” may add much more absurdity to the play itself; “waiting”
is a simple clear word that in this context leads to the idea of nothing. But also we can talk
about the person named Godot and we can understand that this Godot is something or
someone very important because the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for its or
his arrival; they are always talkin g about its or his importance:
“ESTRAGON: His name is Godot?
VLADIMIR: I think so.”
(Beckett, 1986: 20)
“VLADIMIR: We are happy.
ESTRAGON: We are happy. (Silence.) What do we do now, now that we are
happy?
VLADIMIR: Wait for Godot. (Estragon groans. Silence.) Things have changed
here since yesterday.”
(Beckett, 1986:52 )

Regarding the existence of the name in the title Waiting for Godot we can discuss
about Aristotle’s rule about the tragedy that, the name of tragedy is based or could be based
on someone’s famous name and in this play we deal with this problem of waiting, looking for
somebody or something. The title plays the most important role in writing a play, a novel, a
poem because it ha s a “vital role”, it creates curiosity among the audience from the very
beginning.
Hence, the two defining words in the title are “wait” and “Godot” rounded among
the action. The title indicates the idea to be ready for something, becaus e something is going
to happen and will happen. Thus, the subject of Beckett’s play is not Mr. Godot, the subject is
“waiting” because people have a human characteristic in the process of waiting, we always
wait for a person, for an event and the author de scribes just a general human feature.
When Samuel Beckett was asked about Godot’s meaning he replayed very calmly:
“If I knew I would say so in the play” (Samuel Beckett)

9
If we search the history of the name Godot, we can see that “Godo” means God in
Irish language but another interpretation is that the word was formed by the English “God”
and French “Eau” which means water. We try to create a clearer image of the play itself, but
we could not because this play creates unimportance in our human mind.
If we try to think of another author who wrote about waiting was Honore de Balzac
but another appropriated play was the one of Simone Will’s Waiting for God because
Beckett’s play came into view a year after Will’s play. In this case, we can talk about a
religi ous possibility.
The play has lots of presentations related to waiting and boredom. As the play
begins, we can see Vladimir and Estragon who spent their entire life waiting for somebo dy
named Godot who never appear:
VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot.
ESTRA GON: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You ’re sure it was here?
(Beckett, 1986:14)
As Martin Esslin pointed out “the subject of the play is not Godot but Waiting, the
act of waiting as an ess ential and characteristic aspect of human condition”. (Esslin, Martin.,
The theatre of the absurd , Vintage Books, New York, 1961)
Beckett just highlighted this, for him, Godot is the idea of the unconsciousness and
also it/he could be seen as a human or ju st as a supernatural force, often perceived as the
appearance of God.
“Through our lives we always wait for something and Godoy simply represents the
objective of our waiting – an event, a thing, a person o maybe death. Moreover, it is in the act
of waiting that we experience the flow of time in its purest, most evident form. If we are
active, we tend to forget the passage of time, we pass the time, but if we are merely passively
waiting, we are confused with the action of time itself.” (Esslin, Martin., The theatre of the
absurd , Vintage Books , New York, 1961 ).
If we think of the two main characters of the play, Estragon and Vladimir, we know
that they are waiting, but we do not know for how long they have been waiting and how
much longer they will have to w ait for the “person” named “Godot”. An interesting and
important fact is that time is passing so fast so they do not have time to do something else
beside the fact of waiting, but on the other hand, they grow up because time is unforgettable
and they waste d the time in the process of waiting .

VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot.

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ESTRAGON (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You're sure it was here?
VLADIMIR: What?
ESTRAGON: That we were to wait.
VLADIMIR: He said by the tree. (They look at the tree.) Do you see any others?
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.
VLADIMIR: Or perhaps it's not the season.
ESTRAGON: Looks to me more like a bush.
VLADIMIR : A shrub.
EST RAGON: A bush.
(Beckett, 1986: 14)

In the play we find a leit motif and that is the tree and also it is seen as a waypoint
because Godot seems to have told them to wait by the tree . We also deal with the problem
that Vladimir and Estragon have because the tree near which they have to wait is not exactly
what they have expected to look like, as we go further we realise that the image of the tree
starts to look a little confusing a wi llow, a bush, a shrub but not the tree they have expected.
The tree is seen as embodiment of life and also of death. Waiting can be interpreted as an
escape from death. Also, the image of the tree reminds us of the Bible, of the image of the
two thieves cr ucified along with Jesus. The tree also represents the ‘cross’ on which Jesus
was crucified and from here we can say that the tree is a central symbol of the play and as
well as a symbol of hope. Also, if we refer to reli gion in literature we often have se en the
tree, the cross from religion as sign of victory. Moreover, the lack of leaves in the first act
signifies that the characters are distracted and they don’t know more things, but to wait.
If we take the adverb “Per haps” from Vladimir’s quotation “Perhaps it’s not the
season” (Beckett , 1986: 14) perhaps it’s not the right time, perhaps Godot will never come,
perhaps the place doesn’t matter.
In the second act, we deal with some differences because in act 2 the tree has now
leaves which is a new sign of hope and the tramps ar e remain there in order to wait:

ESTRAGON : (looking at the tree). What is it?

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VLADIMIR: It’s the tree.
ESTRAGON: Yes, but what kind?
VLADIMIR : I don ’t know. A willow
Estragon draws Vladimir the tree. They stand motionless before it. Silence.
(Beckett, 1986: 81)
In this tragic -comedy play we are also facing the idea of boredom because all that
Godot and Didi are doing is to wait and they are searching for different ways to pass the time,
for example they are singing songs, playing verbal games:

POZZO: Is is enough? No doubt. But I am liberal. It ’s my nature. This evening. So
much the worse for me. (He jerks the rope. Lucky looks at him.) For I sh all suffer, no
doubt about that. (He picks up the whip.) What do you prefer? Shall we have him
dance, or sing, or recite, or think, or –
(Beckett, 1986:35, 36)

Also the tramps in thei r games switch places, pretended to be Pozzo and Lucky, but
all their activities are done only to pass the inexorable time. Here we have the actions that
express boredom.
There might be a lesson here as to how we might read the play as a whole. Waiting
for Godot is full of suggestion, but it is not reducible to exact allegorical correspondence .
They can be confused and uncertain about where they are, where they were and where they
will be, and the audience, by extension, can feel bewildered by the elusive t hemes of a play
which, while orbiting around philosophical and religious issues, tends to keep them at a
distance, to keep us in a state of interpretative suspension. (McDonald, Ronan. The
Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett , Cambridge University Pres s, New York, 2006, p.
30)

1.2. Exploring time in Waiting for Godot

Time is an important theme in literature because tells us about when the play was
written, also it helps the reader to understand and set the play. As Tennessee Williams
pointed out in h is play “The Glass Menagerie” – “Time is the longest distance between two
places” (Willliams, Tennesse. 1944, “The Glass Menagerie”)

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Both tramps try to reproduce time when they decide to leave, but they stay, when
they want to be useful, to help, they do no t move. Time is something uncontrollable. Time is
meaningless because of combination of past and present, because there is no order in doing
the events.
The amount of time that they had spent together is unknown and also the amount of
time that they will s pend together. Vladimir and Estragon envy on Pozzo and Lucky ’s
relationship because they seem to be champions of time.
Time losses its meaning in Waiting for Godot because the actions have no relevance
the next day; do not have a logical base because Becke tt’s characters seems to have problems
with the ir memory. Time is only a barrier in the play.
This quotation remind s us of Waiting for Godot because time is related to waiting
and waiting is a long distance until you receive what you except. After waiting and boredom,
everything especially the time becomes cyclical and as the days are passing, the 2 tramps are
having philosophical discussion and the boredom settles with the repetitive actions. Time
leaves a mark here because the characters are losing the ab ility to wait hence they are cutting
down life .
Going through the story of the play we see the two tramps that are managing the idea
of waiting for Godot, but they do not know where they are, also they do not know where
Godot will be waiting for them, also they do not know when and if he will arrive.

VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON : (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You ’re sure it was here?
(Beckett,1986: 14 )
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 tomorrow.
ESTRAGON: And then the day after tomorrow.
VLADIMIR: Possibly.
ESTRAGON: And so on.
(Beckett, 1986: 14)

Didi and Gogo are waiting for something that even they don ’t know if it is real or
not, if he will come or not, which illustrates the idea of waiting in vain. Also in Act I we are

13
facing another problem of the two tramps, namely the skill of distinguish wrong different
settings.

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: (looking round). You recognize the place?
ESTRAGON: I didn ’t say that.
VLADIMIR: Well?
ESTRAGON: That makes no difference.

(Beckett, 1986: 14, 15)

Also the chara cters did not make the difference on what happened on Saturday or on
Sunday. They only know that they have to wait for somebody called Godot and from here
they start repeating their actions entered in a state of boredom. The notions of Saturday and
Sunday bring us the notion of God and his/ its existence.

VLADIMIR: He said Saturday. (Pause.) I think.
ESTRAGON: You think.
VLADIMIR: I must have made a note of it. (He fumbles in his pockets, bursting
with miscellaneous rubbish.)
ESTRAGON: (very insidious). Bu t what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not
rather Sunday? (Pause.) Or Monday? (Pause.) Or Friday?
(Beckett , 1986: 15)

Moving on to the second act we are faced with the same ide a, with the idea of
cyclical ity because the second act opens with: “Next Day. Same Time. Same Place”
(Beckett, 1986: 49). Here the tree from the first act now is green, has leaves but cyclicality
strikes again because Estragon doesn ’t remember that somethin g has change.

14
VLADIMIR: Look at the tree. (…)
ESTRAGON: Was it not there yesterday?
VLADIMIR: Yes of course it was there. Do you not remember? We nearly hanged
ourselves from it. But you wouldn ’t. Do you not remember?
ESTRAGON: You dreamt it.
VLADIMIR: Is it possible you ’ve forgotten already?
ESTRAGON : That’s the way I am. Either I forget immediately or I never forget.
(Beckett, 1986: 52)

The next section from Waiting for G odot focuses on the idea of obl igation and
choice. The text is confusing because Estragon seems to have given up the idea of hanging
himself, he offers the chance to Vladimir to be a victim, but a victim of a strange desire.

VLADIMIR: Let’s go.
ESTRAGON: Wait, there ’s my belt.
VLADIMIR: It’s too short.
ESTRAGON: You could hang onto my legs.
VLADIMIR : And who ’d hang onto mine?
ESTRAGON: True.
(Beckett, 1986:81 )

Also, once again the ide a of hanging themselves is visible when Estragon and
Vladimir are discussing their future:

ESTRAGON: You say we have to come back tomorrow?
VLADIMIR: Yes.
ESTRAGON: Then we can bring a good bit of rope.
VLADIMIR: Yes.
Silence.
(Beckett, 1986: 82)

In the entire play , the two tramps are in a continuing waiting and even if the end
Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting for Godot:
VLADIMIR : Well? Shall we go?

15
ESTRAGON: Yes, let ’s go.
They do not move.
(Beckett,1986: 82 )
They are wasting their liv es just doing nothing but waiting and repeating the same
actions. It seems that every day something else will happen only to continue the process of
waiting. Vladimir a nd Estragon are situated in a me ntal state where time still stands. The
coming of Godot will be for them like a rescue from that bored life and also to rest from
waiting. Beckett ’s plays are simple, but the idea behind them is a more complex one.
Waiting for Godot is a unique way of presenting the values and uncertainties of
people without creating a concrete beginning and end. (Waiting for Godot, 2007, Feb 03 –
studymoose.com)
Waiting for Godot is a cyclical action that never comes to an end. Beckett ’s
characters are caught in an infinite time. Like Vladimir says:
VLADIMIR: Time has stopped .
(Beckett, 1986: 33)
Indeed, th e ending of the play seems arbitrary it because could have continued
endlessly as Vladimir and Estragon endlessly wait for Godot.
He felt, significantly, that ‘the early success of Waiting for Godot was based on a
fundamental misunderstanding, critics and public alike insisted on interpreting in allegorical
or symbolic terms a play which was striving all the time to avoid definition ’. (Graver and
Federman, Samuel Beckett: The Critical Heritage, Routlegde, New York, 1979, p. 10)

1.3. Relationship, Companion ship, Humanity

As we have seen in the previous subchapters also the theme of relationship s is one of
the most used and explored. In Waiting for Godot it appears many times the sentence “Are
we happy?” which is a central question in the human existence.
Human beings are stuck up in a world of meaninglessness, where it is hard to find a
way to communicate and express your feelings. Everyone desires to shot out, to find a way to
express him /herself. In Beckett ’s wor ld, one of absurdity, the relationship human -human is
unable to be understood because the characters fail to get involved in relationships of
communication , but what makes his play an interesting and fascinating one is that of
fellowship. In Waiting for Godot human beings are predisposed to failure b ecause they have
to repeat actions again and again.

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Firstly, the relationship between Estragon and Vladimir. Vladimir is the responsible
and the one who is mature, he represents the cerebral, the creative side of the two characters.
He is the one who seems to be the philosopher. Didi always tries to explain what is going on,
where they are, when. Vladimir is the one who remembers that they need to wait for
somebody named Godot. He finds his voice in order to scream and critic ise Pozzo for the
exploitation o f Lucky, but Pozzo ignores him. Didi is the one who can remember people ’s
identities. He always relies on Estragon ’s company as much as Gogo relies on Didi ’s.
Although Estragon disappears for very short moments, Didi always panics and thinks of fear
and lo neliness.
Estragon is the other central character of Beckett ’s play, he is rather helpless on his
own. He always searches for somebody who can stand near him. He tries in the be ginning of
the play to take off his boots :

“Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with
both hands, panting.
He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries
again. As before.
Enter Vladimir.
ESTRAGON: (giving 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 a re again .
(Beckett, 1986:10 )

Contrary to Vladimir, Estragon does not understand very well the meaning of time
and gets confused sometimes, if it is evening or morning. Also, Estragon does not recognise
people ’s identities or Lucky and Pozzo and he calls Poz zo Abel.

VLADIMIR and ESTRAGON: Pozzo! Pozzo!
VLADIMIR: He moved.
ESTRAGON: Are you sure his name is Pozzo?
VLADIMIR : (alarmed). Mr. Pozzo! Come back! We won ’t hurt you!
Silence .

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ESTRAGON: We might try him with other names.
VLADIMIR: I’m afraid he ’s dying.
ESTRAGON: It’d be amusing.
VLADIMIR: What ’d be amusing?
ESTRAGON: To try him with other names, one after the other. It ’d pass the time.
And we ’d be bound to hit on the r ight one sooner or later.
VLADIMIR: I tell you his name is Pozzo.
ESTRAGON : We’ll soon see. ( He reflects. ) Abel! Abel!
(Beckett, 1986:72 )
And he tells Pozzo his name is Adam:
POZZO: True. ( He sits down. To Estragon. ) What is your name?
ESTRAGON: Adam.
(Beckett, 1986:34 )

The relationship between the two tramps is firstly one of addiction. Vladimir is the
intellectual , the polite r, on the other side, Estragon is the funny tramp, he always likes to tell
funny stories even if he is not as intelligent as Vladimir. Even if they are two completely
different characters together they make a strong relationship. We do not know about their
past, we also do not know for how much time their friendship has exited, but we know that
the future sounds better because only together they can survive in their long journey of
waiting. We also deal with contrasting personalities that Beckett put togeth er to show us that
even two unknown strangers can have something in common. For example, both Vladimir
and Estragon do not know their future, they both wait for Godot. Neither Estragon can leave
Vladimir and vice -versa. When one says “I can ’t go on” the ot her gives hope, they motivate
each other. They remember some memories spent together:
VLADIMIR : (…), in the nineties.
ESTRAGON : Ah stop blathering and help me off with this bloody thing.
VLADIMIR : Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel Tower, among t he 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?
(Beckett , 1986:.11)

ESTRAGON: Mister . . . excuse me, Mister . . .
POZZO: You’re being spoken to, pig! Reply! ( To Estragon. ) Try him again.

18

(Beckett, 1986: 25 )

A second relation in the play is the one of Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo is the antagonist
of the play. He tries to get let us say the whole power, he shouts at Estragon and Vladimir,
ordering them. He considers himself above the society, a master. Pozzo is treating Lucky
inhumanly and he is ready to sell him.

VLADIMIR: You want to get rid of him?
POZZO: I do. But instead of driving him away as I might have done, I mean
instead of simply kicking him out on his arse, in the goodness of my heart I am bring ing him
to the fair, where I hope to get a good price for him. The truth is you can ’t drive such
creatures away. The best thing would be to kill them.
Lucky weeps.
(Beckett , 1986:29, 30)

In the end of Beckett ’s play, Pozzo is getting blind.
VLADIMIR: Do you not recognize us?
POZZO: I am blind.
Silence.
(Beckett, 1986:74 )
Lucky is Pozzo ’s slave, whom Pozzo treats like an animal, addressing him
sometimes with the word ‘pig’:
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.) (Beckett, 1986:
22)
Lucky is silent almost the entire play, he is the figure of phy sical exploitation as he
has been beaten by all others. The relationship between them is one of master -slave. Their
relationship is of interdependence because Pozzo can not go without his slave, Lucky. They
are set i n antithesis. If Pozzo is the ego than Lucky is the id in a psychological point of view
as Freud makes the distinctions between Beckett ’s characters.
Also, a third relation is that of Godot and the two tramps. They are always looking
for Godot and they don ’t want to miss him, but they do not even know who Godot is, when
we arrive s and where. Not even Samuel Beckett answered these questions. Their waiting is

19
interrupted by a boy who tells that Godot will not arrive today, but he will arrive for sure
tomorrow :
BOY: (in a rush). Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won ’t come this evening but
surely tomorrow.
Silence
VLADIMIR: Is that all ?
BOY : Yes Sir.
Silence
(Beckett, 1986:45 )

Also, the Boy in the second act tells Vladimir and Estragon again that Godot will not
come this evening, but surely he will tomorrow.

VLADIMIR: You have a message from Mr. Godot.
BOY: Yes Sir.
VLADIMIR: He won ’t come this evening.
BOY: No Sir.
VLADIMIR: But he’ll come tomorrow
(Beckett, 1986:79 )

As we have already mention ed in the previous lines, the Boy is a messenger. He
describes what he is doing for Mr. Godot. And the boy asks Vladimir if he had a message for
Godot, if they would like to say something and Vladimir says that he should say he meet
Didi and Gogo.
VLADIMIR : You work for Mr. Godot?
BOY : Yes Sir.
VLADIMIR: What do you do?
BOY: I mind the g oats, Sir. (…)
BOY : What am I to tell Mr. Godot, Sir?
VLADIMIR: Tell him . . . (he hesitates) . . . tell him you saw us. (Pause)
(Beckett , 1986: 45, 46)

In Beckett ’s play the characters are w aiting, nevertheless Vladimir and Estragon are
searching for two essential things: humanity and companionship. In case of humanity we

20
think of the key element for existence which means human condition that is and continues to
be a very complex and analysed subject. We are also faced with human condition in Beckett ’s
tragic -comedy Waiting for Godot . In this play where faces and identities are easy to forget,
the character which recognize s all is Vladimir and he wants some landmarks to know that he
is good. V ladimir and Estragon sometimes suggest the idea of going on separate ways, the
two tramps stay together because they are afraid of loneliness. For example, when Estragon
leaves for a brief moment, Vladimir panics and feels lonely:
VLADIMIR: Help!
ESTRAGON: I’m going.
VLADIMIR: Don’t leave me! They ’ll kill me!
(Beckett, 1986:70 )

Also, Estragon needs Vladimir as much as Vladimir needs him. Estragon needs
someone to talk with, to ask question, to hel p him with his ‘existential ’ problems, like when
he needs help tak ing off his boots and Vladimir is near, helping him.

ESTRAGON: Taking off my boot. Did that never happen to you?
VLADIMIR: Boots must be taken off every day, I ’m tired telling you that. Why
don’t you listen to me?
ESTRAGON : (feebly). Help me!
(Beckett, 1986: 11)

Although Vladimir and Estragon are always together one for another, in the
relationship with Pozzo and Lucky they ar e kind of indifferent to Pozzo and Lucky suffering.
Vladimir is disturbed by Pozzo and Lucky, but gets used to it and also encourages Estragon
to kick Lucky.

VLADIMIR: Then let him have it. (…)
ESTRAGON : Oh the brute!
He sits down on the mound and tries to take off his boot. But he soon desists and
disposes himself for sleep, his arms on his knees and his head on his arms .
(Beckett, 1986:76 )

21
Also, Pozzo is shouting for help endlessly but Didi and Gogo seem not to care about
his shout for help, although Pozzo is blind.

ESTRAGON: Is it Godot?
VLADIMIR: At last! ( He goes towards the heap. ) Reinforcements at last!
POZZO: Help!
ESTRAGON: Is it Godot
(…)
VLADIMIR : It’s Pozzo.
POZZO: Here! Here! Help me up!
VLADIMIR: He can ’t get up.
ESTRAGON: Let’s go
(Beckett, 1986: 67)

Although they are tired of waiting , Vladimir is the one who reminds Estragon all
time that they are waiting for Godot, no matter how hard it will be, the y will stay there until
Godot arrive s because they know that one dat e, they do not know when or where Godot will
arrive.

ESTRAGON : (having tried in vain to work it out ). I’m tired! ( Pause.) Let ’s go.
VLADIMIR: We can ’t.
ESTRAGON: Why not?
VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot.
(Beckett, 1986: 59)

Beckett suggests that this kind of indifference to the pain of others i s what allows the
vicious cycle of suffering to continue indefinitely, as it does in the play1. ()
In conclusion, Waiting for Godot is a play that highlights the idea that is worse to
wait alone than with someone like Vladimir and Estragon do. Waiting with another person ,
with your frien ds does not seem to look impossible and loneliness is a form of waiting.
Waiting for Godot it is a play where uncertain ty wins, a play where actions take
place without meaning, without sense . Beckett ’s play implies cruelty, hope, desire.

1 Ben Florman and Justin Kestler, LitCharts Editiors 2016. LitChart on Waiting for Godot. Retrieved March 11,
2016 from http://www.litcharts.com/lit/waiting -for-godot .

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The playwright introduces and explored various types of silence , like pauses, dots,
dashes breaking the monotony of the over fragmentary, repetitious and discontinuous text.
The short and elliptical sentences are like in every day style but the difference consists in the
fact that common elements of the play like the tree become symbols. Beckett ’s text is closer
to every day style.

23
Chapter 2 – Happy Days and the rituals of the play

2.1. Language and the failure of communication

Happy Days was Beckett ’s sixth play which was written in 1961. The play was
written initially in English, but then the French version appeared two years later. Happy Days
or Oh les beaux jours is Samuel Beckett ’s first play with a character and also pro tagonist as a
woman, but why did he chose a woman as a pro tagonist of the play? If we go back and
remember Waiting for Godot there were only men in the play.
Rina Kim remarks in Happy Days : “Beckett recuperates the female who was
forme rly silenced, r idicu led and objected (Rina, K., Women and Ireland as Beckett ’s Lost
Others , Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p.120)
Maybe this seen of women and this attention can be a try and also a challenge for
Beckett to correct the phallocentrism that he had in his previous creations. Also the centrality
of a woman could be seen as a stereotype. Remembering from history, where the woman was
only for the kids and the house, in modern times women are engrossed in work and family
times began to decrease. Beckett made a portrait of these times through Winnie and he
presented the woman of his time as being apathetic.
Beckett ’s portrayal of Winnie was a remarkable achievement because she spoke and
express ed herself even if she was trapped in a mound and that is why she is a stereotype of a
modern woman.
Like in Waiting for Godot also in Happy Days we are faced with the key terms like
isolation, alienation, identity crisis. Winnie suffers from a frustration and she wants and needs
to talk in order to be able to go on. Just l ike Vladimir and Estragon, Willie is near Winnie
proving her solace. Winnie is the one who is always happy and optimist ic against all odds,
even though she is buried in mound.
Happy Days is about physical and mental pain which is centred on different forms of
love. Beckett provides the audience with an extreme plot, with interesting things, with
curious characters and like in his formal style, with an extreme ending because this play does
not have an end.
Winnie, a woman of 50 is buried in mound and the Sun shines brightly overhead. All
that she has with her is a black blag in which he has a revolver. As the play goes on, she does
her hair, she does her routine like nothing happens, even if she is not a free woman but buried

24
in mound. She also picks from her bag all she need s for her routine. She combs her hair,
wash es her teeth, just normal things that all of us do. Near Winnie is her husband Willie, a
man of 60 and some blood is seen on his bold head. And he spends his time like a snake, just
crawling and h e says that:

“Weary of your hole, dear? [Pause.] Well I can understand that. [Pause.] Don ’t
forget your straw. [Pause.] Not the crawler you were, poor darling. [Pause.] No,
not the crawler I gave my heart to. [Pause.] ” (Beckett, 1986: 144)

She and Willie spend their time speaking. Winnie spends her time doing her
routine, washing her teeth, wearing hats, combing her hair. She is doing just normal
things like all us, even if she is buried in the ground and she hopes that things will be
better and happy lik e a happy day.

WINNIE: Oh this is a happy day! This will have been another happy
day!” (Beckett, 1986: 145)

In the second act, she is deeper into the mound and she repeats the actions from
the first one, but the revolver is now in front of her. Willie p leads Winnie to put back the
revolver lest he kill himself. But Winnie against all the things happening she still hopes
for Happy Days . In the end, Willie is dressed up in elegant clothes as if it was a wedding
or a funeral, cr awls and reaches out to her. Like in many of Beckett ’s works , also the
play Happy Days deals with the problem of words that are breaking down.
The setting of Krapp ’s Last Tape or Waiting for Godot or even that of Endgame
may be strange, unlikely and alienating. But they are not entir ely implausible. Happy
Days marks a radical severance with even the residual feasibi lity that existed in Beckett ’s
drama. ( McDonald, Ronan. The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett, 2007, p. 65)
Winnie ’s refusal to not talk on the duration of the play is a war between
language and silence, where here silence is equal with death.
Winnie sometimes remark s the fact that some words do not have me aning to her
and she thinks abou t the day when her words will fail. Language for her is now empty
because it does not mean more in her current world. Also “torrid” and “temperate” do not
have the right meaning for her because the weather is the same around her. Language

25
also fails because it created illusion, the illusion that a real dialogue is exchanged when,
if we think of Willie, he is not so talkative and when he speaks he takes a lot pauses.

“Willie. [Pause. Normal voice.] Ah well, not long now, Winnie,
can’t be long now, until the bell for sleep. [Pause.] Then you may
close your eyes, then you must close your eyes – and keep them
closed. [Pause.] ” (Beckett, 1986: 150)

Also, language fails in the moment when Winnie talks with herself all among the
play and just sometimes Willie responds her. Beckett shows u s the confusion when
Winnie brushes her teeth and combs her hair and defines them as plural entities. The big
confusion begins when Winnie named the brushing teeth and the comb “them” in a
sentence.
“My hair! [Pause.] Did I brush and comb my hair?
[Pause.] I may have done. [Pause.] Normally I do. [Pause.] Ther e
is so little one can do. [Pause.] One does it all. [Pause.] All one
can. [Pause.] ‘Tis only human. [Pause.] Human nature. [She begins
to inspect mound, looks up.] Human weakness. [She resumes
inspection of mound, looks up.] Natural weakness. [She resumes
inspection of mound.] I see no comb. [Inspects.] Nor any
hairbrush. [Looks up. Puzzled expression. She turns to bag,
rummages in it.] The comb is here. [Back front. Puzzled
expression. Back to bag. Rummages.] The brush is here. [Back
front. Puzzled expres sion.] Perhaps I put them back, after use.
[Pause. Do.] But normally I do not put things back, after use, no, I
leave them lying about and put them back all together, at the end
of the day. [Smile.] To speak in the old style. [Pause.] The sweet
old style. [Smile off] And yet … I seem … to remember (…)
Them? [Pause.] Or it? [Pause.] Brush and comb it? (…)
What would you say, Willie, speaking of your hair, them
or it?(…)
WILLIE: It.
WINNIE: [Turning back front, joyful.] Oh you are going
to talk to me today, this is going to be a happy day! [Pause. Joy

26
off.] Another happy day. [Pause.] Ah well, where was I, my hair,
yes, later on, I shall be thankful for it later on .” (Beckett, 1986:
134,135 )

As Winnie strives to have a dialogue with Willie, she could not make Willie
speak and from here we understand that Winnie ’s speech is a monologue.
To say that Winnie is a full character in Beckett ’s play is kind of problematic
because her way as a character in Beckett ’s play is marked by the absence of subjectivity
and Winnie could not confess the truth.

“There is so little one can say, one says it all. [Pause.] All one can.
[Pause.] And no truth in it anywhere. [Pause.]” (Beckett, 1986:
147)

Here the truth has a specific utterance, it is her subjective nature because she
does not say something in order to discover the truth. She only speaks. Her discourse is a
monologue because she speaks to herself and the words that are for Willie are only false
exchanges of her mind.
In order to create a meaning, language at least needs two speakers and that is
why when Winnie talks to herself among the play, language fails because it is not an
essential medium of communication. Language is not significant for her because her
husband does not engage in any conversation, with little responses rarely.
In the second act words like ‘hogs ’ do not have any meaning for her or simply it
does not exist, hog is an ali en because she did not see it.

Winnie: (…)Fully guaranteed … [WILLIE stops fanning]
… genuine pure … [pause, WILLIE resumes fanning] … hog’s …
[WILLIE stops fanning, pause] … setae. [Pause, WINNIE lays
down glass and brush, paper disappears, WINNIE takes off
spectacles, lays them down, gazes front.] Hog’s setae. [Pause.]
Hog’s setae. [Puzzled expression.] What exactly is a hog?
[Pause. Do.] A sow of course I know, but a hog … [Puzzled
expression off.] Oh well what does it matter, that is what I always
say, it will come back, that is what I find so wonderful, all comes

27
back. [Pause.] All? [Pause.] No, not all. [Smile.] No no. [Smil e
off.] Not quite. (…) (Beckett, 1986 : 130)

In the second act the same happen s with the word breast . The word breast does
not have any meaning for her because Winnie is buried in mound.

“And should one day the earth cover my breasts, then I
shall never have seen my breasts, no one ever seen my breasts.
[Pause.] I hope you caught something of that, Willie, I should be
sorry to think you had caught nothing of all that, it is not every day
I rise to such heights.” (Beckett, 1986: 141)

Language creates illu sions here and Beckett draws illusions at the failure of
communication. Speaking is Winnie ’s best ability and speaking best describes her
because words flow endlessly from her. She uses “clichés to insulate [herself] from the
harshness of existence.” (Robi novitz, R. “Samuel Beckett ’s Revised Aphorisms ’s in
Contemporary Literature ”, 1995, p. 211)
“Language generally in Beckett ’s world is not a means of conveying meaning,
but a balm for the scores of existence. (Gontarski, S. “Beckett ’s Happy Days : A
Manuscr ipt Study ”, The Ohio University Libraries, Columbus, 1977 , p. 73)
Even though Willie is near Winnie in the play physical ly, the psychological
distance between them is enourmous because she begs for his attention even if Willie is
near her.
“No better, no w orse, no change. [Pause. Do.] No pain.
[Cranes back to look down at WILLIE, holding parasol by butt as
before.] Don’t go off on me again now dear will you please, I may
need you. [Pause.] No hurry, no hurry, just don ’t curl up on me
again. (Beckett, 1986 :130)

In the second act, W innie is buried in the ground up to her neck and that she can
do now is talk, the only thing that now has with her are just the words. Perhaps Beckett
wants to make us listen to her words in a way her spouse does not. Willie ’s indi fference
highlights the lack of language. Winnie is the face of a situation, of a tragedy in which
the lack of communication breaks down everything.

28
We cannot say that we know the past of Beckett ’s characters because they are
just put on a stage, with some things near them, making just normal things like all other s
do, waiting, combing hair, brushing teeth and the audience tries to correlate with what
they see and feel. For example, when Winnie is talking about a little girl named Mildred
who decides to und ress her doll in the middle of the night it suggests that Winnie
remembers something from her past and this suggests maybe that in her past, when she
was just a child, she was abused. Winnie says that this incident is her story, her own
autobiography.

“The sun was not well up when Milly rose, descended the
steep … [pause] … slipped on her nightgown, descended all alone
the steep wooden stairs, backwards on all fours, though she had
been forbidden to do so, entered the
… [pause] … tiptoed down the silent passage, entered the
nursery and began to undress Dolly. [Pause.] Crept under the table
and began to undress Dolly. [Pause.] Scolding her … the while.
[Pause.] Suddenly a mouse – [Long pause.] Gently, Winnie. [Long
pause. Calling.] Willie!” (Beckett, 1986:14 8,149 )

Also, Winnie talks about Mister Shower and Mister Cooker and here hints
something about vulgarity. She comments about the hidden parts of her body and even ask s
her if she is wearing some underwear.
“Has she anything on underneath. [Pause.] Ask her
yourself, she says. [Pause. With sudden violence.] Let go of me for
Christ sake and drop!( …)
Suddenly a mouse ran up her little thigh and Mildred,
dropping Dolly in her fright, began to scream –[WINNIE gives a
sudden piercing scream] –and screamed and scre amed –[WINNIE
screams twice] –screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed
till all came running, in their night attire, papa, mamma, Bibby
and… old Annie, to see what was the matter … [pause) … what
on earth could possibly be the matter. [Pause.] Too late. [Pause.]
Too late. [Long pause. Just audible.]” (Beckett, 1986 :150)

29
Winnie has put false names and shaped images of her childhood in Mr. Shower
and Mr. Cooker in order to narrate her childhood.
Profoundly ironic , Happy Days is a darkly comic satire on marriage, and about
couples whose communication is severely depleted of meaning. (Meyer J, Michael.
“Literature and the Grotesque ”, Rodopi Publishing House, Amsterdam -Atlanta , 1995 )

2.2. Dependence on others and fear of loneliness

The play rounds around the pair of characters of Beckett ’s Happy Days . It is
built on contrasts and in two separate directions. As the play opens, the spectators and
also the readers are welcomed with the picture of a woman of 50 years old and she is the
centre of the action whe n she is first seen she is:
“Maximum of simplicity and symmetry.” (…)
“Embedded up to above her waist in exact centre of mound ”
(Beckett, 2006: 128)
Well, the stage situation establishes the irony of Happy Days . Despite the fact
that Willi e is near Winnie all the time, he is:
To her right and rear, lying asleep on ground, hidden by mound, WILLIE.
(Beckett, 1986: 128) Winnie is always searching for his attention and sh e sometimes
whisper in order to get Winnie’s attention Winnie says to Willie and sometimes she is
imaging Willie talking to her.
“Not that I flatter myself you hear much, no Willie, God
forbid. [Pause.] Days perhaps when you hear nothing.” (…)
WINNIE: [Turning back front, joyful.] Oh you are going
to talk to me today, this is going to be a happy day! [Pause. Joy
off.] Another happy day. [Pause.] Ah well, where was I, my hair,
yes, later on, I shall be thankful for it later on. (…) (Beckett,
1986:134)

Winni e is that kind of woman who wants to be loved, to get as much attention as
possible, she some times even sings love songs for her husband in order to get more
attention and in her love songs she reveals us that she has forgotten what is love, what
means to be loved by her spouse also revealing the fact that she longs for love. Her
husband will reveal his love for her only at the end of the play but even at the end we

30
don’t know exactly, the audience is left to say its own perspective.
While Willie never use s words to express himself, Willie is feeling lonely and
she wants to know for sure if Willie is near her and if he listen s to her. She does not want
much from Willie, she only needs to feel that her words are important for him. Again her
love is sung and Winnie ’s favo urite love song is a duet. Sometimes she conjures up the
images of Mr. Shower and Mr. Cooker. Sometimes, Willie is indifferent about Winnie ’s
changes in different situations. While Willie appears perhaps irritable and inflictive and
she orders him to follow her advice:

“Go back into your hole now, Willie, you’ve exposed
yourself enough. [Pause.] Do as I say, Willie, don’t lie sprawling
there in this hellish sun, go back into your hole. [Pause.] Go on
now, Willie ” (…) ( Beckett, 1986:135 )

Even though , we, the public and the readers are in doubt if she still loves Willie or
perhaps not we can notice that her feelings are mixed and confused. But Winnie does not
want to lose Willie and she expresses her fear of losing:
“You are going Willie, aren’t you? [Pause. Louder.] You
will be going soon, Willie, won’t you? [Pause. Louder.] Willie!”
(Beckett, 1986:137 )

Also the play has a symbolic meaning if we take the names of the characters,
Winnie and Willie we can feel that Winnie is higher than Willie. Willie is as Beckett said:

“Don ’t you ever have that feeling, Willie, of being sucked
up? [Pause.] Don’t you have to cling on sometimes, Willie?
[Pause. She turns a little towards him.] Willie.” (Beckett,
1986 :139)

The end of the play is ambiguous, it lets the audience decide if they are searching
for good and happiness or if they are even searching for good or if they are searching for
death.
Winnie ’s being depends on words, on someone who is talking to her, she does not

31
tolerate the word ‘alone ’, she ne eds to talk and express what is going on with her. Her
continuous discourse highlights silence and need for validation. Like in Waiting for Godot ,
Vladimir and Estragon or like in Endgame , Hamm and Clov, Winnie need s to fill her day
from morning to night w hen words fail.
Another pattern that we have seen in Beckett ’s play Happy Days is the
construction of the pair of characters that are established to be together and they are
different.
For example, Winnie and Willie try to find themselves materially, speak ing about
Winnie and spiritually speaking about Willie. Willie does nothing, but at the end of the play
tries to reach to Winnie. Winnie gathered only disappointment, unhappiness and a bitter
awareness. They are opposite and different but together they for m an entity but in this
world the y have lost the chance of being happy together.

2.3. The repetitive actions and their consequences on the characters

The repetitive actions in Happy Days are ordered by the central character of the
play, Winnie. The r eader takes part in a series of repetitive actions because Winnie speaks
continuously. Repetitions and habits are important elements in Beckett ’s play. He also
emphasizes the importance of absence and of silence. The f irst sign of repetition is the
ringing of a bell and this ringing every day sound is considered to be a cliché. This object
helps Winnie in doing her own routine.

“A bell rings piercingly, say ten seconds, stops. She does
not move. Pause. Bell more piercingly, say five seconds. She
wakes. Be ll stops. She raises her head, gazes front. Long pause.
She straightens up, lays her hands flat on ground, throws back her
head and gazes at zenith. Long pause.” (…)
“Bell rings loudly. She opens her eyes. She smiles, gazing
front. She turns her eyes, smil ing to WILLIE, still on his hands
and knees looking up at her. Smile off. They look at each other.
Long pause.]” (Beckett, 1986: 128,152 )

32
And the sound of the bell is considered a recurrent symbol in the play. Also a
repetitive action is the fact that Win nie is caught in a mound of earth and how the play
goes on, the earth layer is increasing from being buried in mound until her breasts in the
second act she is almost captive in earth and the only thing than she can do is speak.
The bell is the symbol of t he play because it makes the audience understand
Winnie ’s thoughts because she is dreaming of ignoring the bell but in Happy Days this
wish seems impossible to realise.
If we think of the prayer that Winnie is taking every day we see here another
mark of repetition. When she is saying her prayer, she gets a baptism , better say because
she desires to have a life that does not end.

“Lips move in inaudible prayer, say ten seconds. Lips still.
Hands remain clasped. Low.] For Jesus Christ sake Amen. [Eyes
open, hands unclasp, return to mound. Pause. She clasps hands to
breast again, closes eyes, lips move again in inaudible addendum,
say five seconds. Low.] World without end Amen.” (Beckett,
1986:128 )

In the first act, she is trying to fill up her time with t hings that he has in her black
bag. The bag is part of her normal life because in it she keeps all her things for a normal
life. For example when she is washing her teeth with the toothbrush and toothpaste from
her black shopping bag , she tries to read wha t is written on toothbrush handle.
She once again asks Willie if he know s what a hog is because she does not
remember that she asked one more time in the past this thing.
“What is a hog exactly? [Pause. Turns slightly towards
WILLIE.] What exactly is a ho g, Willie, do you know, I can ’t
remember. [Pause. Turning a little further, pleading.] What is a
hog, Willie, please! [Pause.]
WILLIE: Castrated male swine. [Happy expression
appears on WINNIE ’s face.] Reared for slaughter. [Happy
expression increases, WIL LIE opens newspaper, hands invisible.
Tops of yellow sheets appear on either side of his head.
WINNIE gazes before her with happy expression.]” (Beckett,
1986: 145)

33

She says that she is learning something new every day making an effort but if
this thing is not impossible at the moment she need to wait and these things helps her
when she is upset.
In the second act, these objects, the toothbrush, toothpaste, lipstick, a brush are
just near her because she is not capable anymore to use it because her arms are buried in
mound and she cannot anymore fill up her time with her usual things and here in this
state, she uses other things to fill up the time that she now has.
Also we are faced with the problem of Brownie, Winnie ’s revolver that is
always prese nt with her but is it never used. The significance of this gun is a symbolic
one because the revolver means ending, death.
“Brownie … [Turning a little towards WILLIE.]
Remember Brownie, Willie?(…)
You remember Brownie Willie, I can see him. [Pause.]
Brown ie is there, Willie, beside me. [Pause. Loud.] Brownie is
there, Willie. [Pause. Eyes front.] That is all.” (Beckett, 1986: 148)

Winnie ’s repetitive actions like brushing her teeth, combing her hair, looking in
the mirror, are just simple actions in order to occupy her leisure time, she realises that
without her daily routine she has nothing else to do and this discovery makes her life
hurtful. The only thing that keeps Winnie optimistic through the play is:
“Oh this is going to be another happy day!
WINNI E: [Turning back front, joyful.] Oh you are going
to talk to me today, this is going to be a happy day! [Pause. Joy
off.] Another happy day. [Pause.] Ah well, where was I, my hair,
yes, later on, I shall be thankful for it later on (…);
(Beckett, 1986 : 135)

So basically, in the chapter “Happy Days and the rituals of the play” we have
seen the changes that Winnie had, beginning with the failure of communication from her
spouse, past language, basically on her mo nologue because she knows that her best skill
is speaking. Mo ving on to loneliness and fear, Winnie is feeling lonely despite the fact
that Willie is near her and she begs his attention and even sometimes she is imaging him
talking to her and she repeats o ften:

34
“WINNIE: Oh this is a happy day!” (Beckett, 1986:145 )

In case of repetition we have seen that the ordinary things that we do every day
in the end for her become impracticable and her life becomes now painful. We are left
with the picture of the two characters, Winnie and Willie who are unable to escape from
life’s captivity.

35
Chapter 3 – Beckett ’s plays and their success

3.1 Beckett ’s preference for the Theatre of Absurd

Samuel Barclay Beckett was a great novelist, playw right, poet and literary
translator who lived in the capital of France for most of his life. He wrote firstly in
French and then in English. His works offer a tragic -comic view on humanity. He is the
creator of the silence of communication that means he ga ve a new meaning to common
words.
Beckett was a master of irony and he was endowed with a sense of humour that
was unseen before. He created a world in which he put his own strange desires, and
sometimes he used members of his own family.
The author’s aesthetics is unique and unconfused and one main feature is that he
presented the tragic, the degradation, the human suffering. His works reflect his life
experience.
Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland and moved to France. He was born on April,
13, 1906 on “G ood day”. He was the second son of William Frank Beckett, a successful
quantity surveyor and his wife Maria and was raised eight miles south of Dublin.

The typical Anglo – Irish boy (…) learns that he is not quite Irish almost before he
can talk; later he learns that he is far from being English either. The pressure on
him to become either wholly English or wholly Irish can erase segments of his
individuality for good and all. Who am I? Is the question that every Anglo –
Irishman must answer, even if it ta kes him a lifetime as it Yeats. (Mercier,
Vivien, “Beckett/Beckett” , Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 26)

He is best -known for his plays : En attendant de Godot (1948 -1949) or Waiting
for Godot , Fin de Partie (1955 -1957) or Endgame , Krapp’s Last Tape (1958) and Happy
Days (1961 ).
Beckett is one of the most important and creative writers of the 20th century, but
also he is one of the strange st writers because he explored themes like waiting, time, men
buried in mound without a vision on what he was doing.

36
Like his compatriots Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw he
was raise in a protestant family and the only one who read the Bible in the house was his
mother, Maria. Samuel Beckett was member together with his family of an Anglican
Church of Ire land. In his works we find a lot of religious and biblical references. For
example in Endgame, they did not understand the presence of God and they left their
solemn attitudes. And Hamm says : “The bastard! He doesn ’t exist.” (Beckett, 1986: 111)
Also in Wa iting for Godot we find religious aspects like in the nicknames that
Vladimir and Estragon put to Pozzo. And in both cases Pozzo -Abel -Cain.

Estragon: We ’ll soon see. (He reflects) Abel! Abel!
Pozzo: Help!
Estragon: Got it in one.
Vladimir: I begin to wear y of this motif.
Estragon: Perhaps the other is called Cain. Cain! Cain!
Pozzo: Help!
(Beckett, 1986:73 )

Beckett said that he was not a religious person but said that his mother was the
religious one in the family and he admitted that many of his religious references come
from his mother.
Also to understand better Beckett is to look at his relationship with his mom,
which was a mixed one from feelings of love, happiness also to feelings o f domination,
she was also the severe with Samuel, her feelings were of love -hate and her mother
remains a symbol for Beckett ’s life.
Beckett had three main periods of writing, early writing, middle period and late
period. In the first period his works are considered to be influenced by Joyce because are
obscure like in More Pricks than Kicks that is similar to Dante Alighierie ’s Commedia.
In Beckett ’s first novel Murphy we find similar elements like craziness. He changed
something in Watt, simplifying the style.
In the second period he wrote his masterpieces: Waiting for Godot , Happy Days ,
Krapp’s Last Trap , Endgame being the key elements in Beckett ’s theatre of the absurd.
Also he wrote in this period his three major novels Malone dies , Molloy and The
Unna mable after these three major novels he wrote in the late 1950 ’s How it is where he

37
wrote about an unnamed author crawling in mound while dragging a canned bag and it
was written in a special style.
In his late period, he started to minimize his works, he reduced the number of
characters like in Play which has only three characters. In this period he wrote Not I ,
Catastroph e, Eh Joe . These works deal with the theme of the self -confined. In his last
days, in 1988, he wrote What is the Word , a work in which h e could not find his works to
express himself perhaps because of his illness.
In his works, especially in novels, we can find influences from Laurence Sterne,
Jonathan Swift and Miguel Cervantes because the author enters in the novel itself like a
characte r and he also, often interrupts the novel to intersperse other secondary narratives
and he does it very well because in this way he shape s the final narrative structure of the
work.
Samuel Beckett is also best -known for his preference for the Theatre of th e
Absurd and he is the first who won fame with this complicated theme.
The “Theatre of the Absurd” was invented by Martin Esslin in 1962. The
playwright s of the absurd view life different from other s, they do not understand life and
the human beings, they create new themes like the meaninglessness of human existence,
condemnation of loneliness, alienation are also absurdist themes.
Martin Esslin points out the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd which are
found even in the traditional art forms as follows:
 Pure theatre: Scenic effects as they are familiar in the circus or revue, in the works of
jugglers, acrobats, bullfighters, or mimes
 Clowning, fooling, and mad -scenes
 Verbal nonsense
 The literature of d ream and fantasy (Esslin, Martin., “The theatre of the absurd” ,
Vintage Books, New York, 1961)
Some playwrights that wrote this type of content were Samuel Beckett, Eugen
Ionescu, Jean Genet, Fernando Arrabal, Arthur Adamov. The major productions were
The maids , The Blacks by Jean Genet, The Bald Soprano by Eugen Ionescu, Beckett ’s
Waiting for Godot , Happy Days , Krapp’s Last Tape and Catastrophe .
The absurdist plays tried to focus on Albert Camus The Myth of Sisyphus where
Sisyphus roll s a rock up a hill and once the rock is above the hill, he m ust start again

38
doing the same thing and Sisyphus was doing this action endlessly. We can say that
Albert Camus ’s play was an important start of the theatre of the absurd.
In the Theatre of the Absurd the characters are speaking less, they present a
world of mystery. Often the y are seen in comic ways and sometimes in tragic, combining
laugh ter with cry ing, also in the absurd plays we find psychological elements.
The T heatre of the Absurd is subjective, it is preoccupied with the concrete and
this subjectivi ty wants to show to the reader and also on stage the real feelings of the
author itself.
Between traditional and absurd theatre, the playwrights try to create a fairytale
image of life but in the Theatre of the Absurd this was no longer available because t he
absurdist writers try to create a world far away from fairytales. They often pointed out
the human being and its questions about our life, Why are we here? When will we die?
Why are we on this Earth? Why are we suffering?
Absurd is that which is devoid by purpose. As Eugen Ionescu pointed out in The
Bald Soprano ; “Cut off from his religious, metaphysical and transcendental and
roots…lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd and useless. (Ionescu, Eugen. “Dans
les armes de la vie”, Cahiers de la Ca mpagne, Madeleine Renaud Jean – Louis Barrault,
no.20, 1957)
Samuel Beckett is probably b est known as being an important absurdist
playwright because his most important work Waiting for Godot focuses on the failure of
communication and on meaninglessness.
Beckett ’s works do not rely on what was written before, on what was behind
him. He creates new genre better said, he sees language as a wasteful tool and that is why
he creates special characters with specific feelings.
Beckett ’s characters are just in a dr eam, they do not feel pain. They like in
Waiting for Godot are just waiting for the arrival of somebody named Godot but they do
not know details about this man, they just experience the new. He focuses on failure,
poverty and on damage.
Beckett said about his characters that are “nothing” or “people without feelings”.
Beckett had international success with his plays, but he did not write for anybody
because they are people who do not feel the same as h im. In his plays there is no love, no
beauty, no colours , the author only shows depression, pain, chaos.
In Beckett and also in the Romanian writer, Eugen Ionescu who wrote about the
absurd theatre we find plays where speaking does not exist as in Beckett ’s Act without

39
words and in Ionescu ’s “The new tenant ” w here the actor does not speak or move a
piece of furniture because of the arrival o r more. Here, the language is not a gainful tool,
the movement of the objects represent the dramatic action. Language is just a too poor
instrument to express all the feelin gs and that is why theatre is the only tool that we can
represent the complexity of human beings condition.
The human being ’s condition in Beckett ’s play is about loneliness, death, doubt
and the theatre must confront with these ideas that the world is and will be an
impenetrable mystery. While the world is presented as a complex and hard to interpret,
the public itself tried to create its own view of the plays.
In his most famous work Waiting for Godot , Beckett shows us the world of two
tramps, a world of loneliness, usage, chaos. As an example of Beckett ’s absurdist ideas is
the one of time because in this play time passes without notice, they do not know if it is
day or night and what is more they do not remember what they have done in the previous
days.
This process of waiting is repeating over and over again becoming cyclical. The
lives of Vladimir and Estragon are unique, they have to be every day at their place and
they need to remember what they have done. They form a single person and they
sometimes experience play to pass the time.
Estragon: Oh, I say!
Vladimir: A running score!
Estragon: It ’s the rope.
Vladimir: It ’s the rubbing.
Estragon: It ’s inevitable.
Vladimir: It ’s the knot.
Estragon: It ’s the chafing .
(Beckett, 1986 :24)

In Beckett ’s plays we find the difficulty of expressing, the difficulty of finding
the sense in a world that continue s to change fast. He uses the dramatic theatre in order to
play. He knows that on stage; he can give up words or just reveal what is under the
words like in Vladimir ’s and Estragon ’s contradiction: “Let ’s go!” (They do not move)
ending the first and the second act.
In the plays of Samuel Beckett he, the author, drops some questi ons marks on
what means that language changed and now, questions do not need a reply but their view

40
in the past language should be view ed as a try. Beckett also says that all his drama
elements are free.
The author is known for admiring Joyce, but he wante d to make his own voice
heard and he focuse d on poverty, hardship, silence, timelessness, lack of success, trying
to break the classic rules that were too straightforward. And this change in the opposite
direction provides him with an enormous success.
He, as an absurdist writer puts just real life on stage, what he sees and feels he
puts on stage without any additional comments making his plays ambiguous and etern al.
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 “for his writing, which – in new forms for
the novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation. (The
Nobel Prize, accessed on 3rd June 2019)
Beckett ’s health was not so good and become worse in 1986 with the arrival of
emphysema and he died in December same year less than h alf a year after his wife
Suzanne. They were b oth buried in Paris and on the funeral stone it is written “Any
colour, as longs as it is grey”.
Beckett constructed loneliness with characters that are never alone, but always
different. He created silence a s a means of communication, to give up meaning to his
words. He created delimitations entrapping his characters, but offered them the chance to
discover who they really are. He eventually reflected man ’s split personality and the
oscillation between being content and discontent, between the position of slave and
master, between life and death and explained his shattered feelings and memories and
life in common language and simple setting reaching the essence of everyday life. He
wrote about his real life, a bout his feelings making the play a more ambiguous one. He is
remarkable for his entire career being highly discussed as being one of the most
important writers of the Theatre of the Absurd.

3.2 Performance and public appreciation of the two plays

“Before Beckett, drama was synonymous with action: a plot in which nothing
happens was inconceivable. Beckett is the first dramatist to focus exclusively on the act of
waiting and to make this into his dominant metaphor for existence. ” (Bradby, David.
“Beckett : Waiting for Godot (Plays in productions), Cambridge University Press, 2001: 25)

41
Waiting for Godot was first performed in Paris in 1953 under Roger Blin ’s
direction. The play firstly was performed in French, in Paris and the version in English
appeared i n 1955 at Arts Theatre, London directed by Peter Hall.
When the play was sent to be performed at Criterion Theatre this was the
moment when the theatre was censored in England. The debut in the U.S.A was in 1956
at Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami and Wait ing for Godot was the first play to open
the theatre ’s doors. The actors were Bert Lahr and Tom Ewell but the play was a
complete fail. In 1957 the play was performed in a jail where the inmates love it.
Waiting for Godot is a masterpiece of the modern wor ld. When it was first
performed in Paris, it was a big success due to the originality exhibited because Beckett
brought something new on stage, something that nobody had heard in a play like this
before.
There were two camps after seeing the play, one was with the one s who were
puzzled and the other s who were enthusiastic. The play was a culminating success and
neither Beckett believed in its own success. And in short time, audiences came to the
theatre to see Beckett’s newwork . The play was performed over 300 times in Paris, but
not only, it was also performed in London and in others major cities.
The play would be translated in many languages in order to receive more
success. After a terrible performance in 1956 in the USA, the play Waiting for Godot
gained a lot of success in New York.
Critics tried to unravel the significance of ‘Godot ’ and most of them think that
Godot comes from God. Beckett is a master of style and of language and he plays with
words. For example when Estragon starts a sentence Vladim ir finishes it. The monotony
is present in dialogues suggesting the debasement of language.
As the play continues, we start learning from the characters ’ lives because they
are always together and take care of one another only for spending time together a nd
living in the same place. From the beginning of the play, we see Estragon sitting alone
on a rock, trying to put off his boots. We know that Vladimir and Estragon were not
together in the past but now they are together. Vladimir helps Estragon take off his boot.
This perspective let us see the friendship between them and this happiness is
seen in Vladimir ’s words to Estragon: Vladimir: I ’m glad to see you back. I thought you
were gone forever. (Beckett, 1986: 10)

42
This quote suggests that if Estragon is l eaving, this leaving will bring Vladimir
feelings of sadness, disappointment but the word ‘glad’ strengthens the doubts that we,
the public could have.
“Godot is very much about relationships between human beings ” (McMillan,
1990: 85). Beckett says also th at Waiting for Godot is a play where exi st moments of
misunderstanding between Vladimir and Estragon.
David Smith says in “The Observer” that the play “reveals humanity ’s talents for
stoicism, companionship and keeping going ” (David Smith, The Observer, 2009). The
pair Vladimir and Estragon remind s us of loneliness and we think that the waiting for
Godot strengthens their relationship.

Vladimir: Gogo!
Estragon: Didi!
Vladimir: Your hand!
Estragon: Take it!
Vladimir: Come to my arm!
Estragon: Your arms?
Vladimir: My breast!
(Beckett, 1986:65, 66)

In Waiting for Godot the personalities of the characters complete each other
because Estragon is the one who always asks something and Vladimir replie s.

Estragon: Why we are here? (…)
Estragon: Let ’s go!
Vladimir: We can ’t!
Estragon: Why not?
Vladimir: We ’re waiting for Godot!
(Beckett, 1986 :73)

“The writings of Samuel Beckett seem to be particularly, perhaps uniquely,
resistant to philosophical interpretation.” (Simon Critchely, Very little…Almost Nothing:
Death, Philosophy , Literature, London, Routledge, 1997: 141)

43
The play is still performed today. The success of his plays makes B eckett a new
career, the one of theatre director. A new adaptation of Beckett play was While Waiting
for Godot which was produced in New York University in 2013, making a modern story
of the homeless. This adaption is based on the original work of Beckett and this
interpretation received a prize for Best Cinematography in 2014, in Rome.
As is evident in this play, Beckett was keenly interested in the ways in which
individuals struggle between the desire to disown their past with the need to speak of it. The
inability to resolve this tension result in a recalling or replaying of the past […] In Winnie ’s
need to fill in the silence with constant talk of the past, trying to remember her classics
perhaps in an attempt to forget memories of an unhappy childhood, she displays signs of
trauma. (Weiss, Katherine. The plays of Samuel Beckett, London, Methuen Drama, 2013, 40)
Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway) plays Winnie in
Samuel Beckett ’s masterpiece Happy Days . With her husband Willie (Michael R udko)
increasingly out of reach and the earth itself threatening to swallow her whole, Winnie ’s
buoyant optimism shields her from the harsh glare of the inevitable in this absurdly
funny and boundlessly compassionate portrait of the human spirit. Wiest is both radiant
and heartbreaking ( The New York Times ) in this extraordinary Yale Repertory Theatre
production of Happy Days . (“Centertheatregroup”, Happy Days , accessed on 3rd June
2019, https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/mark -taper -forum/2018 -19/hap py-
days/ )
Happy Days was the first performed on stage at Cherry Lane Theatre in New
York, in 1961 under the directions of Alan Schneider, with Ruth White as interpreting
Winnie and John Becker as Willie. The first production of Europe was at London, at
Royal Court Theatre in 1962, directed by Tony Richardson and George Devine, having
Winnie as Brenda Bruce and Willie as Peter Duguid. When “ Happy Day” was performed
in United Kingdom, there were many disagreements about the production.
The most recent st aging was at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2008, New
York, with Juliet Stevenson and in 2015 with Brooke Adams and Tony Shaloub. In 2018
the role of Winnie will be of Maxime Peake, directed by Sarah Frankcom. Also, in 2001
a play was made after Beckett ’s play Happy Days , as being part of ‘Beckett film project ’
starring Rosaleen Linehan as Winnie.
On 7 April 1994, Beckett spoke to Brenda Bruce, who performed Winnie in the first
London production of HD at the Royal Court in 1962 (dir. George Devine), about his
thoughts when devising the play:

44

Well I thought that the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody, would be
not to be allowed to sleep so that just as you ’re dropping off there ’d be a “Dong” and
you’d have to keep awake; you ’re sinking into the ground alive and it ’s full of ants;
and the sun is shining endlessly day and night and there is not a tree … there ’s no
shade, nothing, and that bell wakes you up all the time and all you ’ve got is a little
parcel of things to see you through life […] And I thou ght who would cope with that
and go down singing, only a woman.” (Knowlson, “Damned to Fame: The Life of
Samuel Beckett ”, Grove Press, 1996, p. 501)

For Billie Whitelaw, known unanimously as Beckett ’s favourite actor, each role she
embodied struck a perso nal chord. Whitelaw spoke to Linda Ben -Zvi about taking on the
role of Winnie:

Whenever I ’ve read anything of Beckett ’s that I ’ve been asked to do, the first thing
that I ’ve always wondered is how it is that everything he writes seems to be about my
life. When I read Happy Days , I thought, what the hell was this man doing writing
about me? He didn ’t even know me. Now having said that, Beckett ’s women are me,
and therefore I don ’t know how I can discuss these women because they are all about
me. ( Whitelaw in Ben -Zvi, “Women in Beckett: performance and critical
perspectives”, University of Illinois Press , 1992, p. 3)

To sum up, we believe that Waiting for Godot and Happy Days were two reference
points of the modern theatre. Beckett explored best his themes and the directors put it on
stage just as he want ed it. His plays have enjoyed an enormous success through the world
and even nowa days his plays are very popular being present on big stages very often.

45
Conclusion

To conclude, my paperwork followed to analyse Beckett’s most interesting and
captivating plays, Waiting for Godot and Happy Days , in which he exposed his non –
traditional ideas, making his plays real masterpieces because he bring something new in
modern literature. His unconventional style of wr iting is exactly what sets him apart from
others writers. The meaning behind the meaning, failure of communication, suffering, time
are Beckett’s most exciting themes.
The first chapter, Discovering Waiting for Godot through its main themes , talks about
the meaningless dialogue and also about the characters who are waiting for the arrival of
someone named Godot. Waiting and boredom , others main themes, where the tramps are
waiting for Godot, but they do not know for how long they have to wait and they do no t know
who Godot is. Also, Exploring time in Waiting for Godot , is Beckett’s most popular theme
because the action of the two tramps become cyclical and time leaves marks because the
characters are losing this ability, to wait. They are cutting down life, also the idea of waiting
in vain is present here because they do not know if Godot will come or not and they do not
make the difference on what happened yesterday or the day before yesterday. Relationships,
companionship and h umanity highlight the idea of loneliness because Vladimir always panics
when he is alone even for very brief moments. From here we can see that Vladimir and
Estragon’s relationship is one of addiction, they complete each other even if they do not have
something in common.
The second ch apter, Happy Days and the rituals of the play , present the physical and
mental pain from where Beckett provides the audience with an original and extreme plot
where analyses the routine of a couple, especially of Winnie. In Language a nd the failure of
comm unication, Winnie, the protagonist try to have a dialogue with her spouse but she could
not make Willie speak and language fails because only Winnie is talking to herself creating a
monologue. In Dependence on others and fear of loneliness , she desires to get more attention
and longs for her husband love, she needs to know that her words are important for him.
Although, Winnie and Willie are opposite together, they form an entire. The repetitive actions
and their consequences on the characters present the c hanges of Winnie and the repetitions
that we have seen in this subchapter become impracticable for Winnie and her life becomes
painful and their lives become captivity.
The third chapter, Samuel Beckett’s plays and their success , contain the major plays
of Beckett and his exploration of the Absurd. The theatre of the Absurd reveals his best

46
abilities to do absurd plays and he is best -known for being the first who gain fame with this
abstract theme. Performance and public appreciation of the two plays revea ls his beginnings
with this type of plays, being a complete fail at the beginning and after some years his plays
are still performed and are considered masterpieces.

47
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