Waiting for Godot and the Harsh Realities of the Postmodern State

Waiting for Godot has grown to be Samuel Beckett’s most well-known and debated play. The two-act play was published in 1948 and therefore greatly evokes the effects of World War II. The effects of war, however, are not explicitly shown, but rather implied through its very absence. The play is built on the notion of nothingness and meaninglessness, leaving the audience waiting for something to happen, waiting for the reason behind what is happening, waiting for Godot, as it were. This waiting for a narrative, which would give Estragon and Vladimir a raison d'être, is never satisfied thereby realising the elimination of the grand narrative, a typical postmodern trait. Beckett leaves no room for narratives for his characters, in fact there is no place or time in the play: the characters are placed in a no-man’s land. What makes this play truly tragic, however, is that Estragon and Vladimir still possess a modernist yearning for a narrative despite being placed in a postmodernist setting. The sense of entrapment is therefore keenly felt: Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot! They are unable to move as though their hope physically grounds them to the earth, as they wait for something that is long gone. Waiting for Godot is a remarkable representation of the harsh realities of the postmodern state and mocks the desperate attempts to hold on to the illusions of the past.

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