Why is waiting for godot a tragedy

Lucky never laughs during the production of the whole play, however, his useless actions are still amusing for the audience. Further, there are certainly farcical elements in the play that increases the interest of the audience.

Although there is a theme of boredom in the play yet that never prevails tragedy of the play. The writer never forgets what he has decided to portray in the play. There is a humour of actions. For instance, Estragon time and again messes with his boots, Vladimir with his hat. Likewise, the remaining two characters of the play also do such type of actions that create physical humour. Most of the dialogues of this play are based on confusion.

A character starts a discussion and expresses it through his dialogues, which are vague and unclear, hence, creates misunderstanding and confusion. Due to this reason, more time wasted in the explanation of that discussion than actual dialogues of the play.

However, not exactly the purpose of those extra dialogues is to lengthen the duration of play instead every dialogue creates pleasure and a strange type of amusement no matter how many times the same is repeated in Act-I or Act-II. Comic relief is something that is different from tragicomedy. The tragedy of their relationship is that they would be better off without each other.

They are happier alone, but continue their relationship without knowing why. Most can relate to this sentiment, and furthermore, to how painful it is to see the better option and to choose the worst. Vladimir and Estragon state that they do not know why they do not control themselves; however, it seems to be a matter of familiarity. As human beings, we typically flock towards things that we know because our instinct is to be afraid of unfamiliar things.

This is why Vladimir and Estragon remain together and precisely why they are not able to exert control over themselves. When the mind is not conscious of itself, the body defaults to a series of routines that are familiar and do not require mental concentration. Essentially, habits are indicative of a loss of self-control. Vladimir frequently fiddles with his hat and Estragon with his boots:. He takes off his hat again, peers inside it. He knocks on the crown as though to dislodge a foreign body, peers into it again, puts it on again.

Nothing to be done. Estragon with a supreme effort succeeds in pulling off his boot. He peers inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes it, looks on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before him Beckett 1.

It is humorous that they keep checking within their hats and boots as if something might be inside of them. The fact that they never actually find anything within these garments, is the tragic aspect of the scene. They are, in a sense, slaves to their own fruitless habits.

Essentially, their lack of self-control sentences them to an existence which produces nothing valuable. All of these moments where Vladimir and Estragon lack self-control are comedic because one should be able to make himself or herself do something, especially when the tasks are as simple as those which the characters propose.

At the same time, they are tragic solely because the characters honestly feel that they have no control over themselves:. They talk almost as if they operate outside of themselves—that they are not present in their own bodies—and therefore, have no control. Furthermore, with these lines, they admit that they are resigned to this lack of control because they feel it is useless to try—things will not change.

Essentially, Vladimir and Estragon cannot control neither themselves nor the outside forces that act upon them. When one cannot control anything, it seems as if nothing one says or does can have any effect on the world. Essentially, the world becomes an isolated entity and our presence in it meaningless.

This type of darkness refers to their intellectual state of mind. It is the knowing of light and darkness…. Trufle was frustrated with Inkle because he could not understand how he could sell Yarico when she had practically saved their lives. The plays presents a love story, which can distract the audience. Throughout the play, the characters struggle with the idea of virtue and morality. Then on the precipice of the play, it…. This ambivalence is also causing him to delay in acting.

Shakespeare also delays the length of the soliloquy by having Hamlet add extra clauses to his sentences, which in turn adds to ambivalence of Hamlet. Shakespeare intertwines the two themes of ambivalence and delay in this soliloquy and accomplishes this by the utilization of antitheses and lengthy….

He had a big impact on Paul as he was the only positive parental figure in his life. Bassett is the only adult in the story who treats Paul with respect. He takes what Paul says seriously, follows his instructions on how to bet on the horses, and keeps the boy's winnings safely hidden away for him. Waiting for Godot bars from the stage all forms of mobility and natural communication between characters, and, therefore, the result is crippled and monotonous.

The atmosphere in the play is tragic, and yet Waiting for Godot is not a tragedy in the conventional sense. Aristotle insists that a tragedy should have certain characteristics, namely plot; character, a complete action, an ideal tragic hero, and Catharsis. The ancient Greek tragedies are religious in impulsion, rhetorical in style, serene in action, and ironical in the plot. Judged from the Aristotelian as well as the Greek point of view, Waiting for Godot does not seem to be a tragedy.

For in it there is no plot; the action, if any, is incomplete; there is no artistic embellishment in the language of the play; there is no tragic hero, who compels our admiration; there is no Catharsis either. In the tragedies of the twentieth century the heroes, the anti-heroes, are victims of circumstances rather than the architects of their own destiny. The social, political, and economic values have replaced the gods of ancient Greek tragedy. Though the ancient criteria of tragedy are not found in Waiting for Godot, it is a tragedy.

The heroes of the play, Vladimir and Estragon, have been together for fifty years. They were once on the top of the Eiffel tower, which is the symbol of happiness and prosperity.

But they are two ill-clad tramps with no roof over their heads, hunger gnawing them at their entrails. They evoke pity and fear. They are shrouded in mystery, and yet the readers and the audience do not experience any Catharsis, which is not mere tragic relief but emotional equilibrium.