Look Back in Anger and Waiting for Godot - essay

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Anyhow, even Vladimir and Estragon are concerned about their suffering, they are indifferent to the suffering or cruelty of others. When Lucky and Pozzo enter the stage, Lucky is treated horribly and physically abused, wearing a rope around his neck meanwhile Pozzo drives him as an animal. Vladimir is at first outraged at Pozzo’s vicious treatment of Lucky but soon gets used to it and later even encourages Estragon to kick him (Hutchings 44). The question is, what is the real tragedy then? The ill-treatment of Pozzo or the silence of Vladimir and Estragon?

Pozzo is tyrannical, focused only on himself and severe. He has a full power over Lucky, whose name is a little bit ironic, when someone whose name is „luck“ has such a bad luck, and he treats him as he is not a human being at all.

“He can no longer endure my presence. I am perhaps not particularly human, but who cares? (To Vladimir.) Think twice before you do anything rash. Suppose you go now while it is still day, for there is no denying it is still day. (They all look up at the sky.) Good. (They stop looking at the sky.) What happens in that case– (he takes the pipe out of his mouth, examines it) –I'm out– (he relights his pipe) –in that case– (puff) –in that case– (puff) –what happens in that case to your appointment with this . . . Godet . . . Godot . . . Godin . . . anyhow you see who I mean, who has your future in his hands . . . (pause) . . . at least your immediate future!” (Beckett, 23).

There are many references to God, which point out that Pozzo might represent the spirit of the god but very different one than the imagination of Godot. Pozzo represents the cruel and tyrannical god, perhaps the Greek god, he has human flaws, emotions and he is very selfish. Then he mentions Godot, even though he mistakes his name, he talks about their future and how Godot can influence their immediate future very easily. The question is whether Godot should be taken as a God. Godot is observably active in the tramps’ imagination, he keeps them waiting without knowing whether he is coming or not. Godot is absent the whole play but still the observer can feel that this absence implies a presence (Smith, 896). The cruelty of Pozzo is really transparent in his treatment to Lucky but the cruelty of Godot is not transparent. He lets Estragon and Vladimir wait, perhaps for the whole eternity. “Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won’t come this evening but surely tomorrow.” (Beckett, 45).

Throughout the history, the drama has always represented the human cruelty but the difference in these dramas is that the cruelty seems so common. Jimmy bursts out in anger monologues whenever he reads something or just hears the bells ringing. He is constantly frustrated, lacking feelings in his domestic life, whereas he treats his wife in an cruel and inhuman way. At the end, his anger starts to be destructive to all people in his life. On one hand he represents the antihero, who is frustrated by the society but on the other hand he is just a man who does nothing to make the world better and even makes it worse. Similarly in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Vladimir and Estragon are talking about the cruelty of beating them up or disapprove of Pazzo’s cruel treatment but they never do anything about it. They complain just as Jimmy does.

Works cited

Goethals, Thijs. “ Comparative study of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking“ ” Ghent : Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, 2010. Print.

William Hutchings. “ Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: A Reference Guide”. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. Print.

Berlin, Normand. “Traffic of our stage: why Waiting for Godot?.”The Massachusetts Review, Amherst. Autumn 1999. Web. 1 May 2016.

Smith, Pofahl Stephani. “ Between Pozzo and Godot: Existence as Dilemma”. The French Review. American Association of Teachers of French, 1974. Print.

Beckett, Samuel. “Waiting for Godot”. iBooks, 2012. Print.

Osborne, John. “Look Back in Anger”. iBooks, 2013. Print.