Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Happy Days

Society has always questioned their lives in order to find meaning of their existence. Some have turned to religion, while others have embarked on meaningful careers like being a doctor, firefighter, or soldier. Samuel Beckett, an Irish dramatist, offers a bleak outlook on human existence and demonstrates this view throughout his two plays Happy Days and Waiting for Godot. In both plays, Beckett uses the structure of the plays, the use of language, and symbolism to show the audience that life has lost all meaning and we are destined to an isolated and unchanging life.

Beckett creates an illusion of no change within both plays throughout the structures. In Happy Days, Winnie, a 50-year-old woman buried up to her waist, spends the day from the morning bell to the evening bell performing her daily routine. As she speaks and performs each task, she mentions how these tasks make the day go by. However, nothing fundamentally changes from Act I to Act II. In Act I, Winnie's parasol catches fire; however, Winnie mentions that it will be returned to normal the next day. In Act II, we see that is the case and that the only change that occurs is the earth overcoming Winnie.

In Waiting for Godot, Beckett implements the same unchanging structure. Vladimir and Estragon are on a road next to a tree in Act I and Act II. Both spend the day rambling and preoccupying themselves with mundane actions to pass the time. Although both want to leave, both Didi and Gogo do not move from that area. Similar to Happy Days, this play lacks the fundamental structure of a play. Both plays do not have a beginning, middle and end, but rather are continuously in the middle. Beckett uses the lack of change to create an illusion that we, as mankind, are stuck; that our lives do not fundamentally change.

In addition to structure, Beckett uses language to demonstrate the meaningless of our lives. In Happy Days, Winnie feels lonely and begs for the company of her husband, Willie. Since Willie is unresponsive most of the time, Winnie is left to pass the time by speaking. It is seen that Winnie is afraid that one day her words will lose meaning and she will "gaze before [herself] with compressed lips." The rhythm with which Winnie speaks also adds to the drama of her life, although fundamentally nothing changes. The use of language is an illusion that life has meaning. Conversing with Willie and begging for a response, sometimes in desperation, embodies language as a validation of her existence. Using language to name an object or person, allows Winnie to create meaning for that object or person and therefore give purpose to Winnie. In Act II, Winnie sings a love song. By singing this song, Winnie adds romanticism into her life to make it exciting and to try to give her life significance.

In Waiting for Godot, language is used similarly to create an illusion of time and drama. However, Beckett tries to show this illusion of language by