Eng426 20th century english literature

Characterisation in Waiting for Godot

The characters in Waiting for Godot are archetypes that portray the different world views and individual approaches to issues of spirituality, physical limitations and material accumulation.


Vladimir: He is also known as Didi. He understands that he needs a supernatural help in order to find meaning and purpose in his life. He is a foil to his friend Estragon who is only concerned about what he can see or feel physically. Because Estragon is only bothered about physical limitations alone, he cannot understand Vladimir’s spiritual inclination especially why Vladimir decides to use scriptural verses to explain their physical condition of helplessness. Vladimir looks like someone who does not know what he is doing as there is no physical evidence to support his claims especially as Godot does not show up but his hope that Godot will come is enough to control Estragon and make him join him in waiting for Godot. Vladimir, in a sense, is Estragon’s conscience as he keeps him in check and reminds Estragon that his life is nothing without something to look out for. He constantly reminds Estragon that they must wait for Godot thereby changing Estragon’s approach to life.


Estragon: He is also known as Dodo and is a foil to Vladimir because as Vladimir is concerned about the spiritual and hopes for a change, Estragon is preoccupied with physical limitations and the present. He complains about a sore foot and he is hungry and thirsty every now and then. His physical limitations and sufferings are never ending and his understanding of the world is about his present suffering unlike his friend Vladimir who thinks about the past and the future. Estragon tries to discourage Vladimir from his quest of waiting for Godot but because Vladimir is constant and committed about finding a purpose, he is not dissuaded but waits to the end. Estragon does not know that physical limitations like the sore foot, hunger and thirst and whatever his body craves for are just distractions that take his mind off the purpose of his existence and the nothingness and
hopelessness that this existence is about. Vladimir on the other hand has decided to find a meaning to this existence in outside forces, in spiritual beings whose existence is uncertain.