For my choice book, I decided to read Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, which is apparently considered to be an extremely important work of the 20th century. Now, part of the reason as to why I chose a play is because they are, generally, much more straight-forward works, and I'm not a fan of so much dilly-dallying in reading, so to speak. However, Waiting for Godot turned out to be just the opposite of what I was expecting. Repetition is one of the strongest elements in this play; so much, in fact, that the two acts are very similar to each other in structure, setting, and even diction.
Waiting for Godot is a story about two men, Estragon and Vladimir, and, as the title suggests, they are waiting for a man named Godot. They don't know who Godot is (and admit that they wouldn't even recognise him if he showed up), but they do know that they need to wait for this man. While waiting, they pass the time talking about various things, and this is where most of the comedy comes in. For example, while discussing committing suicide as a way to pass the time, we get the lovely following exchange:
ESTRAGON:
What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR:
Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON:
(highly excited). An erection!
This comedy becomes more absurd later on in the day, when two men, Pozzo and Lucky, happen to stroll by. Lucky is Pozzo's slave, and, in the most comical line of the play, Lucky spits out an unintelligible series of pretentious, scholarly phrases when he is ordered to think. At the end of the first night, a messenger boy comes to tell the men that Godot will not come that evening, but will for sure come the next evening.
The second act is where the tragedy of the play begins to set in, but it is not expressed directly. We quickly learn that waiting for Godot is something these men do often, perhaps even every day. Estragon and Vladimir get into the exact same conversations, meet Pozzo and Lucky again (although this time Pozzo is blind), and, at the end of the night, have a messenger boy come to say that, again, Godot will not come that evening, but will definitely come the next day. The entire tragedy of the play is cemented in this exchange, because the reader or viewer can say for certain that these two men are stuck in some sort of infinite loop, and that they will forever be Waiting for Godot.
The major themes presented in Waiting for Godot revolve around fate. Personally, I found the themes of existentialism most prominent. It can be interpreted in a Nihilistic lens, posing the question if there's even any purpose or reason for the men, representing all of humanity (at the very least Pozzo does, according to Estragon), to keep on going with their repetitive, endless lives. Their contemplation of suicide, joke or not, is a conversation that helps to support this point of view. The fact that the men are waiting for something that will never come is also quite depressing. However, there are many more ways to interpret this play. I saw on Wikipedia that a Mr. P. Boxall found the play to be homoerotic, saying that, “they bicker, they embrace each other, they depend upon each other … they might be thought of as a married couple.” Thinking back, this certainly isn't something I can argue with, although personally I would not come to this conclusion first.
I think that the reason as to why this play is such a common choice for the 3rd FRQ on the AP English Literature Exam is because there are so many valid interpretations of the work. For example, many readers or viewers will take the interpretation that Godot represents God, and that the two men are waiting for a salvation that will never come. Despite the fact that Beckett has personally denied this interpretation, it still holds literary weight because of the Biblical allusions scattered throughout the play. Additionally, the play's various eccentricities allow for the student to write an essay that is very well developed. For example, the 3rd FRQ of the 2001 Exam asks for students to write about how a character's madness or irrational behaviour contributes to the meaning of literary work. After reading Waiting For Godot, I feel that I could very easily write an essay regarding that subject.
So, did I enjoy Waiting for Godot? While reading through it, I'll admit that it was not exactly appealing to me. While amusing at points, the majority of it was so very repetitive and almost painful to slug through. It reminded me a lot of The Bald Soprano, in which the absurdity is heightened through the use of repetition and the scenario that the audience is presented with. However, once you reach the second act of Godot, you begin to realise what the whole purpose of the play is, and it definitely reaches a much more tolerable position. It's almost fun to see how Vladimir will react to what happened to him just yesterday. And then, after reading it and checking out the various interpretations of the play, the various layers of meaning really make you think. I have a feeling that this is a story that's going to stick with me for a long while, and I hope to be able to use it come May....less
Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts 
Max's review
