Kate Aguilar's Blog Post 2

When first reading “Waiting for Godot”, it is unclear exactly what reader’s should take from it. Many reader’s first instincts are to write off this play as having no plot or reasoning behind the events that take place. However, I believe “Waiting for Godot”, by Samuel Beckett, makes a deliberate comment on insanity. Beckett portrays Vladimir and Estragon’s seemingly senseless actions in order to portray the affects insanity has on two people and their actions. 

According to the Miriam Webster Dictionary, “insanity” can be defined as, “a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder”. A secondary definition of “insanity” is, “extreme folly or unreasonableness”. While these two definitions encompass what some may consider insane, they also leave some aspects out. For example, a definition that, in my opinion, would describe “insanity” better is irrationality. Not only is an action that an insane person is doing be considered unreasonable, but completely irrational. A type A personality may feel the urge to make sure all of the lines on their art project are measured with a ruler, which may be unreasonable, but definitely not irrational. 

Furthermore, some cultural ideas of sanity may be considered insane, per the definition I’ve provided. For example, people who tell their kids about Santa Claus, and go as far as to eat cookies in the middle of the night in order to support their claims. This is extreme unreasonableness, especially because the children usually grow up to find out Santa Claus is not real, and their parents fabricated everything they “knew” about Santa Claus for years. While this unreasonable act falls under the definition of insanity, no one questions a parents sanity when their children believe in Santa Claus.

I believe Vladimir and Estragon are insane according to my definition. They not only commit unreasonable acts, but they also are completely irrational. Both of them do strange things that have no apparent reasoning behind them, and sometimes will fixate on one senseless task. Both men appear to be insane, as their strange acts only encourage one another to do something even more irrational. For example, Vladimir continuously “takes off his hat…peers inside it, feels about inside it, knocks on the crown, blows into it, [and] puts it on again”. This action has no reasoning behind it, and it is unclear why Vladimir feels the need to vigorously inspect his hat. One could argue that Vladimir has a disordered state of mind, to where he may see something in the hat that is actually not there, and is inspecting it because he believes something is occurring in his hat. Or, maybe Vladimir is insane, and just carrying out an unreasonable action of consistently fiddling with his hat.

The second irrational behavior Vladimir shows is his repetition of sentences. Vladimir repeats “unless they’re not the same…”, and it is not because Estragon cannot hear him. With this repetition, Vladimir shows a severely disordered state of mind, as it seems he is repeating these phrases to himself like a broken record. His repetition is irrational, it is almost as if he had inherited a tic to make him say these words over and over. He is not pondering whether the men are actually not the same, he is only repeating it because he is stuck on what he said, and is unaware of what is happening around him. While Estragon is in pain, Vladimir fixates on this sentence, ignoring the rational world around him.

Estragon also shows signs of insanity, especially in the sense of Miriam Webster’s original definition. In one of the very first scenes, Estragon says, “let’s hang ourselves immediately”, which catches many readers off guard. This is a tell-tale sign of a mental illness, possibly depression, which is a specific disorder of the mind. It is not every day that a man exclaims him and his friend should kill themselves, which allows readers to identify how strange it truly is. Suicidal thoughts are unreasonable to most people, but prove to be rationalized thoughts in Estragon’s mind. Especially because Estragon says they should commit suicide with excitement, and only turn down the idea because the branch would break. For these reasons, it is true that Estragon, as well as Vladimir, are insane. 

While the definition for “insanity” does not cover all the term could mean, it does encompass the insanity that Vladimir and Estragon demonstrate. Vladimir fixates on tasks, such as checking his hat or repeating a sentence. Estragon excites himself with the thought of committing suicide. It is clear that both Vladimir and Estragon in “Waiting for Godot” are insane.

Word count: 768