Uncertainty Is the Only Certainty
Uncertainty Is the Only Certainty Samuel Beckett is known to be among the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Beckett’s comedic and tragic outlook on human nature was represented in his works’, and for that, he has given his readers reason to call them masterpieces. Waiting For Godot is one of his most well-known plays, famous for its odd humor and cryptic plot. Literary uncertainty was first brought to the stage with Waiting for Godot, and this element made it harder for audience members to follow the story. For some viewers, the confusion only made them want to understand more, making the play more enticing. This play is a perfect example of Beckett’s famous abstract style of writing, which involves the use of binary oppositions. Of the several couplings in Waiting For Godot, the relationship between certainty and uncertainty is the most pertinent. The characters become so obsessed with discovering anything unambiguous, it consumes them. Throughout the play, the amount of uncertainty expressed by the characters intensifies so significantly, one would question if anything out of the eighty five pages is definite. After a close analysis of the dialogue, themes, and the plot, it is evident that the only thing certain is the promise of uncertainty. Beckett’s abstract writing style is far from conventional, and even farther from mediocre. The name of the play is just the beginning of seemingly endless confusion, entwined with hidden intention. The title, Waiting For Godot, does hold a certain significance to the play, and that is with one word, waiting. The full title certainly implies that the story is mostly likely going to revolve around the arrival, or absence of Godot. The presence, or lack there of, of Godot is definitely a noticeable interference in the lives of the characters, but that is just an obvious observation. The simple action of waiting for someone named Godot will prove to be irrelevant,
Cited: Beckett, Samuel. Waiting For Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1994. Print. Bullock, Richard. Goggin, Maureen Daly. Weinberg, Francine. The Norton Field Guide To Writing. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 2010. Print.