Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

If the word Kafkaesque can be associated with any literature other than that of Kafka, that has to be with Beckett. Try coupling it with some Camus type Absurdity, and you get Beckett. It is with mush apprehension that I try to talk about the book. I might be able to tell you how impressed I am with Kafka, but to describe how I feel about a Kafkaesque drama is beyond my vocabulary.

Thanks to my ability to imagine the most absurd of things and some association with those “modern” dramas in college, I found the book an irresistible read. I knew there were no story, no meaning but just dialogues that too grossly incoherent.

Though many people tried to interpret the drama Beckett only said "It means what it says". I can’t explain it any further. But I would suggest it to all the Kafka fans.

The play has two parts and five characters on stage, everything happening while two of them - Vladimir and Estragon - are waiting for someone called Godot who never appears. Vladimir and Estragon tries to pass the time in conflict while giving a strong indication that they themselves don’t know who this Godot is and why are they waiting for him. Soon comes Pozzo and Lucky and presents us with even bizarre circumstances. Over all these circumstances are very much similar in both the parts, but with subtle difference. And if at all there is a story it is nothing but two guys waiting for someone who doesn’t appear at all and send a boy to inform that he would meet them the next day.

The much quoted ending should say it all:

Vladimir: Well, shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let's go.
They do not move.