Godot
Godot is the title character of Beckett’s famous play, Waiting for Godot, and is, subsequently, his most famous character. It is in keeping with the absurdity of the man’s thematic interest that Godot never appears. The other two main characters of that play, the tramps Vladimir and Estragon, spend the entire time on stage waiting for Godot to arrive, but he never does. The first few letters of his name have led to a not-entirely-universal assumption that Godot is actually God.
M, W1 and W2
As their “names” indicate, these three are a man and two women who appear in the Beckett play titled, simply, Play. To say they are characters is a bit of stretch: they appear only as heads lodged firmly inside oversized funeral urns.
The Auditor
An interesting and idiosyncratic character in the Beckett canon who appears, usually, in the play titled Not I, the Auditor is described in the stage directions as simply a “tall standing figure, sex undeterminable, enveloped from head to foot in loose black djellaba, with hood.” He cannot be seen by the audience except for raising and lowering his arms in a “a gesture of helpless compassion.” His opposition analogue on stage is the Mouth, an extremely chatty set of female lips.
Hamm and Clov
Perhaps Beckett’s second most famous play is Endgame. Hamm is a tyrannical despot who is nevertheless, ironically, dependent upon Clov. The title and the typical set design and overall feeling bring to mind a chess game, but to suggest that one is watching a chess game being played out simplified the text to a ridiculous degree. It is apocalyptic in nature set in a strangely unfamiliar world where life has really ceased to exist as we know it. Hamm is blind and confined to a wheelchair while Clov himself walks with a notable disability of mobility.
