Silence: A Dramatic Persona in Becket’s Waiting for Godot Megha Ghosh College

Waiting for Godot is a play characterized under the genre of The Theatre of the Absurd, where communication is said to collapse and thus the dialogue consists of meaningless phrases only. The silence produced as a consequence serves as a confession to the failure to communicate. Paul Foster in his work Becket and zen: Dilemma in Samuel Becket’s novels, raises the question “Is Waiting for Godot simply an exercise full of words and pompous pauses which does not want to express more than waiting as such?” The question is certainly appropriate in this context.

Silence is an important stage direction in Waiting for Godot, present throughout the play. It is like a dramatic persona present in the bare stage along with Vladimir and Estragon. Silence renders a lyrical quality to the conversations between Vladimir and Estragon. The following extract is a perfect example of how Becket designs poetic stanzas with his ‘silences’-

VLADIMIR: They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
VLADIMIR: Like sand.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: They all speak at once.
ESTRAGON: Each one to itself.
Silence.
VLADIMIR: Rather they whisper.
ESTRAGON: They rustle.
VLADIMIR: They murmur.
ESTRAGON: They rustle.
Silence. VLADIMIR: What do...