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Waiting for Godot as Tragicomedy

Shaheer by Shaheer
January 4, 2022
Reading Time: 6 mins read
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Waiting-for-Godot-as-Tragicomedy-1

Tragicomedy is a play which claims a plot apt for tragedy however which ends happily like a comedy. The action is critical in theme and subject matter and tone additionally generally however it appears to be a tragic catastrophe till a surprising turn in events brings out the joyful ending. The characters of a tragicomedy are noble however they’re concerned in improbabilities. In such a play tragic and comic parts are blended up collectively. 

“A tragic-comedy is not so called in respect to mirth and killing, but in respect it wants death which is enough to make it no tragedy. Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’ may also be categorized as tragicomedy.”

“Waiting for Godot”, revealed in 1956 describes the play as a “tragicomedy” in two acts. There are many dialogues, gestures, conditions and actions which can be stuff of pure comedy. All musical devices are employed to create laughter in such a tragic scenario of waiting. The complete environment of the play may be very akin to dark-comedy. For instance, Vladimir is set to not hear Estragon’s nightmare. The latter pleads with him in vain to listen to him, saying that there’s no person else to whom he might talk his personal nightmares.

Read About: Realism in Waiting for Godot

The viewers burst out in laughter once they see Estragon placing on and off his boots. Vladimir’s recreation together with his hat seems as if that is taking place in a circus. Vladimir is affected by prostrate downside. Vladimir’s manner of walking with stiff and brief strides is as humorous as Estragon’s limping on the stage. Estragon’s gestures of encouraging Vladimir to urinate offstage are farcical. The comedy on this play at certain occasions gives the look of Vaudeville. There are many dialogues:

Estragon: Let’s go.
Vladimir: We can not.
Estragon: Why not?
Vladimir: We are waiting for Godot.
(They do not move.)

These dialogues happen like a comic paradigm within the play.

Estragon and Vladimir put on and take off one another’s hat in addition to that of lucky many times. It reveals that on this planet of tramps, there is no such thing as a place of great actions. The most farcical scenario within the play is the one where the tramps are testing the power of the cord with which they want to hold themselves. The cord breaks under the strain. One can not have an uninhabited laugh on the situation for there may be additionally one thing deeply uncomfortable.

“Waiting for Godot” has a number of moments of anguish and despair. Someone beats Estragon every day.

Estragon: Beat me? Certainly they beat me.

Estragon’s feet and Vladimir’s kidneys are additionally taken to be granted. The tramps resent that they need to be requested whether or not it nonetheless hurts. It goes with out saying that it hurts on a regular basis. When Vladimir asks Estragon whether or not his boots are hurting him, he responds:

“Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!”

Somewhat later Estragon asks Vladimir about his kidney trouble and the latter replies in the identical phrases.

In reality his hassle is so bad that it doesn’t even allow him to laugh. Life lies all bleak and barren before them and that solely legitimate comment on the one with which the play opens, “Nothing to be done”. There is a world of negation through which inactivity is the most secure course; as Estragon says:

“Do not let us do anything, it’s safer”.

The tramps reside on the barest stage of existence. Carrot, turnips and radishes are all they need to eat. Estragon’s remarks present tragedy and helplessness:

Read About: Waiting for Godot and Language as a Theme

“Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.”

The scenario of Lucky is sort of pathetic, particularly in view of his wonderful past, as Pozzo describes it. His speech tells us that in his sonar moments Lucky will need to have brooded deeply over the anguish of the human situation. 

The comedy in “Waiting for Godot” directly turns into tragedy when the viewers thinks in regards to the helplessness of tramps. Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for somebody who never comes. In order to move time they take pleasure in irrelevant, meaningless activity. The aspect of power fades away and depressing situation of man looms massive in our creativeness. Their life might be in contrast with that of a prisoner for whom there is no such thing as an escape, even suicide is inconceivable. Every activity is a mockery of human existence.

The altering of farce into absurdity brings a variety of tragic sentiment within the play. Estragon’s nakedness is an image of ‘man’s miserable condition’. The absurd living is a serious source of tragedy. The source is the scenario of pointless waiting of Estragon and Vladimir. They have no idea who Godot is. They are certain neither in regards to the time nor in regards to the place of their appointment. They even have no idea what is going to occur in the event that they stop waiting? Lack of important information makes them completely impotent and powerless. They are glued to a situation. Nothing is definite all they will say is “Nothing to be done”.

Read About: Existentialism in Waiting for Godot

The complete impact of this co-mingling of tragic and comic means that Samuel Beckett’s is a practical dramatist who appears at life from a place of a pessimist and an optimist. The type of tragicomedy is very appropriate to this imaginative and prescient of life. The climax of Beckett’s tragicomedy is the function of Lucky. He is carrying servant’s vest whereas holding his master’s overcoat, a basket and a stool. His neck is tied with one end of the rope. His look will not be solely fantastic however grotesque also. The moment we notice that he’s a half-wit; he turns into a picture of man’s distress. We are all of the feel sorry for Lucky when it’s revealed that Pozzo has learnt all the beautiful issues of life from lucky. But now Pozzo is taking the identical person to sell in a fair. The relationship of a ringmaster and his skilled animal, modifications right into a relationship of an owner and a slave. It is an exploitation of a person by a person who stops the viewers from bursting out into laughter. Comedy has been checked by tragic aspect or sentiments, whereas the impact of tragedy has been mitigated by farce created by means of characters, dialogues, gestures and actions.

We can sum up with the remarks of Sean O’ Casey as:

“Beckett is a clever writer, for within him there is no hazard of hope; no desire for it; nothing in it but a lust for despair and a crying of woe, not in a wilderness, but in a garden.”

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Shaheer

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I'm a well-rounded individual who combines technical expertise with creative writing skills to provide comprehensive and compelling content to the readers. My passion for technology, literature, and writing drives them to stay up to date with the latest trends and developments in these areas.

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