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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Act 1
Explanation and Analysis—Pale for Weariness:
At the end of the first act, Estragon quotes a poem by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Art thou pale for weariness." This allusion makes the mood pensive as night falls and the act comes to an end. In addition, Estragon's impromptu reference to Shelley complicates his characterization.
Just before Estragon makes the allusion, the sky becomes dark. Vladimir, who has repeatedly expressed longing for night to fall, is the first of the two to react to this. He exclaims, "At last!" Estragon's stirring, poetic reaction takes more time to form:
ESTRAGON: Pale for weariness.
VLADIMIR: Eh?
ESTRAGON: Of climbing heaven and gazing on the likes of us.
Estragon's initial line comes from the first line of Shelley's poem. Addressing the moon, the poem's speaker asks, "Art thou pale for weariness." The speaker develops the question further in the second line: "Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth." Despite the subtle changes Estragon makes to the poem, he's clearly quoting Shelley. The typical dynamic between the men is reversed here, as Vladimir is usually the one making comments that Estragon is unable to follow.
The allusion to Shelley seems to be a direct response to the stage directions, which have just indicated that "The moon rises at back, mounts in the sky, stands still, shedding a pale light on the scene." It seems as though the moon's "pale light" sparks Estragon's recitation of the poem, which asks the moon whether its pallor is a result of exhaustion and loneliness. The third and fourth lines of Shelley's poem, which Estragon doesn't quote, describe the moon "Wandering companionless / Among the stars that have a different birth." While the speaker in the poem seems to identify with the moon's loneliness, Estragon isn't alone—he has Vladimir. The relationship between the two men is one of the play's few redeeming, heartening elements. Gazing upon the moon seems to remind Estragon that he's fortunate to have a companion. Shortly after, when Vladimir asks whether they should part ways, Estragon tells him that "It's not worth while now."
Moreover, Estragon's allusion to the poem seems to be a response to the poetic quality of the stage directions. While the stage directions feel straightforward and dry in other parts of the play, the ones that indicate the arrival of night feel more sensitive and stirring. As night falls, the reigning humor and absurdity give way to a more wistful mood. Additionally, Estragon's mood changes, as his disgruntlement gives way to contemplation. Earlier in the play, he tells Vladimir that he once was a poet. This earnest and unexpected Romantic allusion backs up his claim.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
Waiting for Godot contains a number of biblical allusions, and both Vladimir and Estragon make references to Christ over the course of the play. These allusions indicate that there's a connection between the play's absurd, rather bare setting and the real world beyond the play's fictional frame. They also bolster the existential mood that Beckett evokes otherwise in the dialogue, as the characters look to religious texts and figures for a sense of meaning.
The characters do not always realize the religious nature of these references, however. Vladimir unknowingly quotes the Bible early in the play, when something Estragon says prompts him to say "Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?" This line comes from Proverbs 13:12: "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." Even if he fails to remember the full proverb or its provenance, Vladimir's line shows that he has some familiarity with the Bible. Moreover, given that the set consists simply of a tree, it's significant that the proverb Vladimir brings up happens to revolve around the tree of life.
Soon after, he makes another biblical reference. After standing "deep in thought" for some time, he says, "One of the thieves was saved." When Estragon doesn't understand what he's talking about, Vladimir asks if he "ever read the Bible," whether he remembers "the Gospels," and eventually whether he remembers the story of "the two thieves." Vladimir then proceeds to sum up the story:
VLADIMIR: [...] Two thieves, crucified at the same time as our Saviour. One—
ESTRAGON: Our what?
VLADIMIR: Our Saviour. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other . . . (he searches for the contrary of saved) . . . damned.
[...]
VLADIMIR: And yet . . . (pause) . . . how is it—this is not boring you I hope—how is it that of the four Evangelists only one speaks of a thief being saved. The four of them were there—or thereabouts—and only one speaks of a thief being saved.
In this part of the first act, Vladimir attempts to engage Estragon in a sort of critical discussion of the discrepancies among the Gospels. Although Vladimir doesn't explicitly name the Evangelists, he correctly recalls that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give differing accounts of the crucifixion.
The discrepancies in the Evangelists' accounts also mirror the uncertainty and forgetfulness that plague Vladimir and Estragon. In both acts, when they talk about what happened the day before, they rarely reach a conclusive answer. Although Vladimir's questions are interesting, his analysis only goes so far because Estragon is unwilling to "return the ball." As happens frequently in the play, they relinquish the conversation just before they seem to reach a real answer. For Estragon, the biblical contradictions merely support his conviction that "People are bloody ignorant apes."
The second appearance of Pozzo and Lucky brings another biblical allusion. Estragon, doubting that their names are what Vladimir says they are, proposes that they call out various names to see if they'll respond to them. The first name he tries for Pozzo is Abel. Soon after, he says "Perhaps the other is called Cain." This is an allusion to Genesis, the first book in the Bible. Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain kills Abel out of jealousy, when God prefers Abel's sacrifice over Cain's. This is humanity's first act of murder. By attaching these names to Pozzo and Lucky, Estragon suggests that Lucky will betray Pozzo.
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Act 2
Explanation and Analysis—A Dog Came in the Kitchen:
The second act opens with Vladimir entering the stage on his own. The audience may expect a soliloquy from him, but instead he begins to sing a song about a dog. This song is an allusion to the German folk song Ein Mops kam in die Küche and symbolizes the characters' daily wait for Godot as well as the cyclical nature of life. By including this song at the very beginning of the second act, Beckett foreshadows that nothing substantial will happen and that the loop will merely continue until the play ends.
The original German song, which describes a pug, is believed to originate from the late 19th century. Although a few details differ between the German and English versions, the content and structure of the two songs largely correspond with each other. Most importantly, Vladimir's song is set up to continue endlessly in the same way as the German song.
VLADIMIR: A dog came in the kitchen
And stole a crust of bread.
Then cook up with a ladle
And beat him till he was dead.
Then all the dogs came running
And dug the dog a tomb—
He stops, broods, resumes:
Then all the dogs came running
And dug the dog a tomb
And wrote upon the tombstone
For the eyes of dogs to come:
A dog came in the kitchen
And stole a crust of bread.
Consisting of two verses, the song ends with a quotation of itself. Due to this recursive nature, the song has the potential to continue endlessly, as the verses are repeated again and again. With each repetition, an additional layer of quotation is added—and the song strays further and further from the original core of reality. Although the song seems entertaining and fun in the beginning, it gradually becomes more and more unnerving as the verses repeat.
It's significant that the second act of Waiting for Godot opens with an allusion to another work that explores never-ending loops. Through the song, Vladimir offers an indirect commentary on his existence and foreshadows the play's ending. The playful, haunting, and somewhat annoying folk song sets the tone for the second and final act. On this new day, the audience can reasonably expect that the men's loop of waiting for Godot and waiting for night will continue. Just as the song can be picked up and dropped off at any point in the loop, it increasingly seems insignificant which two days of the men's lives the audience gets to witness. And just as the song consists of two repetitive verses, Beckett's play consists of two repetitive acts.
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Explanation and Analysis—That Is the Question:
Over the course of the second act, Vladimir has several moments of comical verboseness. One such moment comes when he and Estragon struggle to make up their minds about whether to help Pozzo. After declaring "Let us not waste time in idle discourse!" Vladimir sets out on a long-winded speech about taking action. At the end of this speech, he makes an allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet.
But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come—
The first sentence of the quoted passage is an allusion to one of English literature's most quoted lines. In Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet, Hamlet reflects on death and suicide. The most famous line from this speech is its opening: "To be, or not to be, that is the question."
It appears that Vladimir disagrees with Hamlet. In his speech, Vladimir asserts that the question isn't whether to be or not to be, but rather what one should do while being. For him, life's great choice isn't whether to live or die, but rather what to do with one's life. This is an important question in existential philosophy, which is concerned with the role of individual responsibility in the pursuit of meaning. However, while philosophers rarely have a direct answer to this question, Vladimir claims that he and Estragon know what their purpose consists of: waiting for Godot. He proudly declares that they have "kept [their] appointment." However, the audience can't help but wonder whether it matters that they've kept their appointment when it seems as though Godot hasn't. Is waiting for Godot just an empty alibi, in order to give their existence some kind of purpose?
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Explanation and Analysis—Pozzo's Blindness:
Overnight, between the first and second acts, Pozzo somehow becomes blind. Pozzo's blindness becomes a motif in the second act, as the characters use allusions and similes to meditate on his lost eyesight. Through the motif, Beckett explores the challenges caused by taking people's statements at face value as well as the discomfort of living life without witnesses.
Immediately after appearing on stage, Pozzo falls on the ground. He calls out for help as Vladimir and Estragon discuss who he is and whether to help him. While he held quite a bit of power, especially over Lucky, in the first act, he's now completely helpless. Beckett produces an absurd situation as Vladimir and Estragon discuss the pros and cons of helping him rather than doing anything to help him. This can be read as a critique of world leaders in the 20th century, who spent a lot of time deliberating on how to respond to wars and other catastrophes—which often delayed their assistance to people who were suffering. Pozzo's pleas for help are urgent and frequent, but Vladimir and Estragon reveal a comical—as well as concerning—ability to drown them out. They only do something to help him after they've also fallen. Holding him up, they answer his questions about their surroundings. Just as they have to take his claims of blindness at face value, he has no choice but to accept their claims about what they see as fact.
Both Estragon and Pozzo are interested in the role of blindness in ancient mythology. After Pozzo declares that he's blind, Estragon muses that "Perhaps he can see into the future." This is an allusion to the Greek mythological figure Tiresias, a blind seer. Not long after, Pozzo alludes to another mythological figure in a simile: "I woke up one fine day as blind as Fortune." The Roman goddess Fortuna—known as Tyche in Greek mythology—is typically depicted with a blindfold over her eyes. By comparing himself to the goddess, he seems to attempt to reinstate his former authority.
Vladimir becomes fixated on Pozzo's blindness because it reveals just how forgetful everyone around him is. When Vladimir asks Pozzo whether he recognizes them, Pozzo simply responds "I am blind." Not only is he incapable of recognizing them visually, he doesn't remember them at all. This makes Vladimir increasingly uneasy, as the other characters' memory loss and blindness mean that he has no witnesses to confirm his experiences with. While Estragon doesn't remember meeting Pozzo the day before, Vladimir remembers meeting him and wants to know how he became blind from one day to another. After Pozzo and Lucky exit the stage, he says, "I wonder is he really blind." Estragon seems already to have forgotten and responds "Blind? Who?"
When the young boy later enters, Vladimir violently begs him to confirm that he saw them.
VLADIMIR: Tell him . . . (he hesitates) . . . tell him you saw me and that . . . (he hesitates) . . . that you saw me. (Pause. Vladimir advances, the Boy recoils. Vladimir halts, the Boy halts. With sudden violence.) You’re sure you saw me, you won’t come and tell me to-morrow that you never saw me!
Vladimir's "sudden violence" seems informed by the frightening experience of having been forgotten by Pozzo. In fact, Vladimir made the same request—albeit with less intensity—when the boy came the day before, at the end of the first act. His repetition of yesterday's plea reveals the comfort he takes in being seen—and his desperation for witnesses to his life.
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Explanation and Analysis—Night Is Drawing Nigh:
Throughout the play, the characters repeatedly comment on the light conditions and deliberate over the time of day. At one point, Vladimir describes nightfall with an allusion to a hymn. The motif of night largely takes on a positive connotation in the play. As the characters seem stuck in endless loops of waiting, the falling darkness becomes a way for them to confirm that time is passing.
The characters' conversations about night give insight into their unique perception of their surroundings. In the first act, Vladimir addresses night with a longing, impatient tone. On two occasions, he looks at the sky and asks "Will night never come?" Soon after, Pozzo describes night in more figurative, performative terms: "night is charging (vibrantly) and will burst upon us (snaps his fingers) pop! like that!" And at the beginning of the second act, Estragon and Vladimir discover that they have differing views of nightfall.
VLADIMIR: It’s always at nightfall.
ESTRAGON: But night doesn’t fall.
VLADIMIR: It’ll fall all of a sudden, like yesterday.
ESTRAGON: Then it’ll be night.
VLADIMIR: And we can go.
ESTRAGON: Then it’ll be day again.
Vladimir experiences night as something that falls, while Estragon indicates that he sees it differently. However, he never elaborates on this, so it never becomes clear whether their difference of opinion is semantic or more metaphysical. When night finally does arrive, it's worth noting that the stage directions do not indicate it through a falling motion, but rather as the moon rising and mounting in the sky. Perhaps Vladimir understands night as the descending of the darkness, while Estragon understands it as the rising of the moon.
Regardless of their differing view of night's movement, Vladimir and Estragon do have the same view of time's cyclical nature. In addition, they agree that the arrival of night means that they "can go." For Vladimir and Estragon, night offers a moment of reprieve from their endless waiting. Beckett already makes this explicit during their first conversation with Pozzo, in the first act. When Vladimir looks at the sky and asks whether night will come, Pozzo immediately connects nightfall, waiting, and Godot by saying that he would "wait till it was black night before [he] gave up." Vladimir confirms this in the second act, when he says that "in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come—[...] Or for night to fall."
In the second act, the blind Pozzo requires assistance from Vladimir and Estragon to determine the time of day. This once again uncovers a difference of opinion between Vladimir and Estragon. While Estragon claims that the sun is rising and hypothesizes that it's dawn, Vladimir says "Impossible." After much deliberation, Vladimir delivers a verbose speech certifying that it's evening. In this speech, he alludes to a hymn from the 19th century:
VLADIMIR: (reassuring). It’s evening, Sir, it's evening, night is drawing nigh. My friend here would have me doubt it and I must confess he shook me for a moment. But it is not for nothing I have lived through this long day and I can assure you it is very near the end of its repertory.
The line "night is drawing nigh" comes from a hymn called "Now the day is over." This allusion adds to the play's religious undertones and reinforces the night motif's positive connotation. Vladimir is relieved over his certainty that night has come because it means that he will soon have a break from waiting. He also sees nightfall as proof that time is passing, which gives him great relief.
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