Insanity in "Waiting for Godot"

Insanity, as a commonly used word, has become a term of subjective interpretation. As a medical diagnosis, a psychological term, an insult, a nod to the abnormal, a conduit for exaggeration, or as a synonym for lunacy, insanity takes many different forms to those who find it in their vocabulary. With all of these distinct meanings that are either owed to textbook definitions or semantic change, determining whether someone is or is not insane can be difficult without clearly distinguishing the definition being used. The Oxford English Dictionary contains several, slightly-differentiating definitions for the term “insane” that are dependent on context. In the case of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the most relevant definitions of the word are those that are applied to either persons or actions. So, in accordance with the OED, an insane person is someone who is “not of sound mind, mad, mentally deranged”. However, when the word is used in regards to one’s actions, this version of the term deviates from the other in that it is defines insane actions as being “mad, idiotic, utterly senseless, [and/or] irrational”. While these two definitions are sufficient on their own, an improvement to the first, person-oriented definition could be made by connecting the first and second definitions, seeing as how the latter definition can just as easily reference an insane person as being idiotic, irrational, and senseless— not just their actions. Thus, with this new and elongated denotation, the sanity (or lack thereof) of Vladimir and Estragon of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot can be determined by the comparison of their characters with that of this extended definition of the word “insane”. Therefore, with this defining the prerequisites for insanity, Vladimir and Estragon qualify as being insane due to their abilities to closely align themselves with idiocy, senselessness, and irrationality.

Vladimir and Estragon, or Didi and Gogo, establish themselves as masters of senseless, contradictory behavior throughout the play. Their most prominent displays of this occur when they speak senselessly with one another, essentially saying nothing and without getting any points across. The two often speak in repetitive, back-and-forth, segments of sentences when speaking to one another, resulting in conversations that mean very little. Similarly, they partake in physical actions that have the same effect— which is technically no effect. One of many provided examples of this occurs when the pair grapple with a blind Pozzo and his servant, Lucky, after they have fallen on the ground and are unable to get themselves up. After several ineffective attempts to help, Didi and Gogo both end up on the ground themselves, where they too are now stuck. They hopelessly grapple for a bit but ultimately stand up on their own, making their fallen struggles pointless because all was all a “simple question of will-power” to easily raise their bodies off the ground without the help of anyone else (Beckett 77). Those who are not “of sound mind”, as the definition of insane says, would be prone to behaving and speaking as senselessly as these two leads of Waiting for Godot.

Didi and Gogo also show strong signs of irrationality during their eventless journey, which further strengthens their case for insanity. For example, their tendency to suggest suicide as an answer to the inconveniences they’re faced with shows little sign of sensibility, seeing as the only reason they don’t follow through is because each time they “haven’t got a bit of rope” to do it with (Beckett 87). This, combined with their terrible memories and lack of reasoning for their actions, comes full circle to qualify them for the third prerequisite of insanity, which is idiocy. Estragon, especially, shows his inability to recall even the previous day’s events or to remember the most important, pressing issue of the play, which is that he and his pal are waiting for Godot, shows a lack of intelligence, otherwise known as idiocy. Vladimir and Estragon’s stupidity goes hand in hand with their senselessness, as their unjustifiable, wacky actions are just as pointless as they are idiotic. Their shared endeavor in removing and then putting on one another’s hats (with the inclusion of Lucky’s hat) without cause is an exemplification of this nonsensical idiocy, in which it takes twenty rapid hat-exchanges before they finally have enough of it (Beckett 63-64).

Whether they were speaking unintelligibly or acting just as unreasonably, neither Didi nor Gogo’s behavior resembled that of a sane person of practicability or sagacity. The play’s lack of a true plot mirrored its protagonists’ lack of purpose in their actions, leaving their behavior to make little sense overall. Thus, with the definition of insanity focusing on a person of un-sound mind that gravitates towards senselessness, irrationality, and idiocy, Vladimir and Estragon of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot prove to be two insane characters with their consistent displays of all of these qualifying characteristics throughout the play.

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