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The distinction of clock time and subjective time is one of the themes found in Waiting For Godot. Time in the play is subject to one’s mental condition. Didi and Gogos’ perception of time differs from other characters, as they doubt their very own concept of time. This leads them to doubt their very own existence. Actions are meaningless to them, their time does not flow with others, their very own existence can be mistaken for one of their dreams, they do not have a grip on their own reality. Time plays with them leading them in to sense of self and quickly taking it away as if they are being played with. Their life is characterized as purposeless, almost like a life without time. Time is given importance by our own thoughts and goals, Vladimir and Estragon have no such need for such concepts, this leads to play to have no need for time to exist either.
All that will remain are their hats of empty knowledge and vague memories of those they will come to meet or have already met. They wait by the only thing they know, a tree, and as they wait for Godot, the man who they hope will give them gold-dyed salvation, they wait aimlessly, wandering around a tree, wandering around time. After a while, this spiral movement gives the impression of being standing still alongside with time. It is in this very act that we experience the flow of time. When we are lively, we neglect the passage of time, but if we are waiting compliantly, we are confronted with the notion of time itself. Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot’s’ coming that will bring their flow of time to a stop.
At the start of the play they start to wait for Godot however Estragon realizes that they had already been here before.
ESTRAGON We came here yesterday.
Vladimir Ah no, there you’re mistaken. (Beckett 7)
It is Estragon who realizes that they are repeating their actions again, not Vladimir. Although Vladimir is considered to be the more intelligible one why is it that he cannot realize that he has been repeating his actions. This is due to his dulled senses of waiting without a purpose, he does not even realize why he is waiting, when he had started to wait, what he is waiting for, and even where he should be supposedly waiting.
The setting in the play is unknown and the two main character’s not having their own sense of time enforces the theme of time being subject to their understanding.
ESTRAGON (very insidious) But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not rather Sunday? (Pause.) Or Monday? (Pause.) Or Friday?
VLADIMIR (looking wildly about him, as though the date was inscribed in the landscape) It’s not possible!
ESTRAGON Or Thursday? (Beckett 7)
This reminds us that words such as Thursday and Friday are ultimately words we use to label time. These words however are also made up in themselves, and so in our own reality, we do not know what day it could be, because we gave it meaning ourselves.
POZZO You are severe. (To Vladimir.) What age are you, if it’s not a rude question? (Silence.) Sixty? Seventy? (To Estragon.) What age would you say he was?
ESTRAGON Eleven.
POZZO I am impertinent. (Beckett 21)
The notion of keeping track of time is absurd once more, with this portrayal of time in the play Estragon call Vladimir “eleven” just as easily as he could call him “seventy”. Answering Pozzo’s question and completely disregarding anything else, they see human interaction as a method of passing the time, however they are unable to grasp what human interaction is and simply ignores it all, enjoying it without an understanding of it.
POZZO That was nearly sixty years ago . . . (he consults his watch) . . . yes, nearly sixty. (Beckett 26)
Pozzo is the only character with a watch in the play, signifying he might have an idea of what the concept of time is. However he consults his watch to not tell minutes or hours but years. This further shows that Beckett has no intention of allowing the audience or the main characters gain a sense of self or time as he skews Pozzo to have lost or never have had common sense, using a watch to tell the time in years.
Vladimir comments on how fast time had passed since they had met Pozzo and Lucky, saying that their meeting only served to pass time faster than it would have normally.
VLADIMIR That passed the time.
ESTRAGON It would have passed in any case.
VLADIMIR Yes, but not so rapidly. (Beckett 38)
Passing the time until nightfall has become Vladimir’s sole objective; because of this obsession with time, people have become nothing more than entertainment, and he is unable of seeing people only as objects for his own amusement, not as humans.
VLADIMIR It’s always at nightfall.
ESTRAGON But night doesn’t fall.
VLADIMIR It’ll fall all of a sudden, like yesterday.
ESTRAGON Then it’ll be night.
VLADIMIR And we can go.
ESTRAGON Then it’ll be day again. (Pause. Despairing.) What’ll we do, what’ll we do! (Beckett 63)
We get a small glimpse of Estragon realizing that his time is motionless and when he does come to this realization he falls into despair only to be distracted moments later by his own surroundings. He realizes that time has stopped but is soon distracted by his own empty thoughts showing that they do not have a need for time because even if they came to the realization that time has stopped, they will simply forget about it, causing an endless cycle.
POZZO (violently) Don’t question me! The blind have no notion of time. The things of time are hidden from them too. (Beckett 80)
The realization that Pozzo has become blind leads the play into despair. Pozzo as the only character with a sense of time has lost it. He was obsessed with his watch but now he has resigned himself to being timeless, admitting that he has become blind to it and is unable to understand it. Without his notion of time he has been characterized as purposeless, before itching to progress throughout his day on he now lacks the concept of time to progress through his day.
ESTRAGON (violently) You let me alone. (Advancing, to the Boy.) Do you know what time it is?
BOY (recoiling) It’s not my fault, Sir. (Beckett 40)
Estragon seems to berate the boy for leaving him alone. Asking him whether or not he knows the time. This is an odd remark because not only should he have never met the boy as the boy does not remember him, but he asks what time it is. This quote strikes the theme of time because Estragon despite having no regard for time or a sense of it asks the boy for the time. Estragon realizes his purpose and why he is waiting when he sees the boy as he inches closer towards his “goal”.
‘You cannot take your bath twice in the same river’ ― Heraclitus
There is a ceaseless flow of water. So also there is a ceaseless flow of time. In Waiting for Godot, however, the flow of time has stopped. The play is static, the characters static. In fact, everything in the play has stopped. As the situations and the dialogues are being repeated, nobody seems to notice it. For everybody has lost their memory. The main characters suggest that they should move, and yet they remain unmoved as if terrified.
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin
Vladimir and Estragon waste their time, waiting and hoping for Godot to come, spending days, weeks and even months. Just as the quote says Gogo and Didi haven’t discovered the value of life. They wait for someone to give it to them, leading them in an endless cycle of boundless suffering and waste.
“Time is a game played beautifully by children.” ― Heraclitus
The concept of Waiting for Godot is much like a child. A dreadful barrier, in which they can do nothing but endure. Waiting for someone who might never come, time plays with them like children, unable to do nothing but endure and go on with the wishes of time.
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