Waiting for Godot has variously been interpreted. Indicate some of the principle approaches to the play/themes.

Introduction:

Waiting for Godot is a complex and puzzling play. It offers a variety of meaning and interpretations. It is a play by Samuel Beckett.  The original French text was composed between 1948 to 1949. The English language version premiered in London in 1955. The play has a widespread appeal and each set of audiences interpreted it in its own manner. It found favor not only with intellectuals but also with average theater goers. There is something in the play for almost everybody.

As a Picture of Humanity at Large:

According to one interpretation of the play the two tramps are two parts of a person or of a community seen subjectively with Vladimir representing the more spiritual part and Estragon the animal similarly Pozzo and Lucky make up a person or a community viewed objectively. The play may be regarded as picture human attempts to fiddle through life.

“The tears of the world are a constant quantity for each

Who begins to weep somewhere else another

stops. The same is true of the laugh.”

-Samuel Beckett

As a Picture of the Pointlessness of Human Life:

Different from this somewhat positive approach is another which is entirely negative. According to this other interpretation the play is a fable about a kind of life that has no longer any point. The playwright wishes to convey to us that life is devoid of action and that human beings have been pulled out of the world and have no longer anything to do with it. So, Godot is nothing but a name for the fact the life which goes on pointless is wrongly interpreted to mean waiting for something.

The ordeal of Waiting Ignorance and importance Boredom.

A third interpretation regards the play as a presentation of the ordeal of waiting ignorance, impotence, boredom. It is more convincing than the other interpretations given above people in the world go on waiting for something or the other. They wait for a job or promotion or the return of a long last child or friend or a love-letter or a reunion with a divorced wife, or the birth of a child or for the riches and so on.

The problem of getting through life:

Yet another interpretation says that the problem in Beckett’s plays is how you get through life. The answer which Beckett gives is that we get through life force of habit. By going in spite of boredom and pain by talking by not listening to the “silence” absurdity and similar to Estragon’s meaningless action in taking off his shoes and putting them on.

The meaninglessness of life:

The play according to some scholars is about the meaningless of life. The way the two tramps pass time is indicative of the boredom and triviality of human activities. The lack of significance which existence is it also brings out the hollowness and insincerity of most social intercourse.

"Nothing happens, nobody comes;

Nobody goes, it’s awful.”

-Samuel Beckett

The theme of suffering:

One of the themes of waiting for Godot is that suffering is an inseparable of the human condition. Vladimir and Estragon suffer intensely and incessantly. Vladimir cannot even laugh without suffering excruciating pain. Estragon feet make life a long torture for him. They have nowhere to rest their head on top of this. Estragon is beaten daily by some gang of ruffians without his providing them any sort of provocation.

“There’s man all over for you blaming

On his boots faults of his feet.”

-Samuel Beckett

The Religious theme:

Some critics have found a religious meaning in the play and it is not difficult to see why Vladimir raises and seriously too, the issue of human salvation early in the play. He feels worried at the throughout that one of the two thieves was dammed. However, it is difficult to read in the play a consistent and elaborate religious allegory.

The Theme of Disintegration and Regression:

Among the depressing interpretations of the play is yet another. According to this interpretation the play represents a disintegrating the play represents a disintegrating of human beings the climax in the four characters fall to the ground upon one another creating a formless mass from which Vladimir’s voice emerges saying. “we are men! Nothing escapes the destructive force of this regression. Lucky’s speech effectively represents the regression of man’s thinking intelligence.

The theme of the German Occupation of France:

According to yet another view the world represented in this play resembles France occupied by the Germans during world war II when Beckett lived first in the occupied zone and then escaped to the unoccupied region. The play simply suggests the German occupation and thus acquires a certain historical value.

Conclusion:

Thus, the play is very rich in meanings and themes besides the above themes the playwright has also incorporated some minor themes as the inadequacy of human language as a means of communicative and the illusory nature of such concepts as past and future.