Waiting for Godot is an example of the Theater of the Absurd, where the absurdity creates uncertainty and paints a picture of life that is devoid of any meaning.
"You'd be nothing more than a little heap of bones at the present minute" (page 3).
'We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties" (page 3). Time has no meaning in Waiting for Godot, which establishes the absurdity early on.
"Nothing is certain when you're about" (page 9).
Vladimir and Estragon try to find an existential meaning to life through religion and being saved.
VLADIMIR:
Suppose we repented.
ESTRAGON:
Repented what?
VLADIMIR:
Oh . . . (He reflects.) We wouldn't have to go into the details.
ESTRAGON:
Our being born?
Being born refers to the original sin from the Garden of Eden, which causes all generations of man to be born with sin in their soul, and only repenting can save them. Becket also puts forward the idea that there is little difference between damnation, hell, salvation or even death:
ESTRAGON:
From hell?
VLADIMIR:
Imbecile! From death.
ESTRAGON:
I thought you said hell.
VLADIMIR:
From death, from death.
ESTRAGON:
Well what of it?
VLADIMIR:
Then the two of them must have been damned.
ESTRAGON:
And why not?
VLADIMIR:
But one of the four says that one of the two was saved.
With the repentance option eliminated, Vladimir and Estragon ponder suicide:
ESTRAGON:
What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR:
Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON:
(highly excited). An erection!
They do not even know what date of the week it is:
ESTRAGON:
(very insidious). But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not rather Sunday? (Pause.) Or Monday? (Pause.) Or Friday?
Pozzo says he doesn't want to speak in a vacuum, although in this existential world, everything is an empty barren wasteland.
Lucky doesn't relinquish the bags because he tries to impress his master Pozzo:
POZZO:
Ah! Why couldn't you say so before? Why he doesn't make himself comfortable? Let's try and get this clear. Has he not the right to? Certainly he has. It follows that he doesn't want to. There's reasoning for you. And why doesn't he want to? (Pause.) Gentlemen, the reason is this.
VLADIMIR:
(to Estragon). Make a note of this.
POZZO:
He wants to impress me, so that I'll keep him.
Only sickness and death are certain:
ESTRAGON:
Come come, take a seat I beseech you, you'll get pneumonia.
POZZO:
You really think so?
ESTRAGON:
Why it's absolutely certain.
Nothing is certain, not even sickness and death:
ESTRAGON:
Wait! (He moves away from Vladimir.) I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off alone, each one for himself. (He crosses the stage and sits down on the mound.) We weren't made for the same road.
VLADIMIR:
(without anger). It's not certain.
ESTRAGON:
No, nothing is certain.
Uncertainty again:
ESTRAGON:
You see, you feel worse when I'm with you. I feel better alone too.
VLADIMIR:
(vexed). Then why do you always come crawling back?
ESTRAGON:
I don't know.
There is no uncertainty that Estragon has spent his entire life in the mud:
ESTRAGON:
(suddenly furious). Recognize! What is there to recognize? All my lousy life I've crawled about in the mud! And you talk to me about scenery! (Looking wildly about him.) Look at this muckheap! I've never stirred from it!
ESTRAGON:
The best thing would be to kill me, like the other.
ESTRAGON:
All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR:
They make a noise like wings.
VLADIMIR:
What do they say?
ESTRAGON:
They talk about their lives.
VLADIMIR:
To have lived is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON:
They have to talk about it.
VLADIMIR:
To be dead is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON:
It is not sufficient.
All the events in Act 1 were meaningless:
ESTRAGON:
Oh . . . this and that I suppose, nothing in particular. (With assurance.) Yes, now I remember, yesterday evening we spent blathering about nothing in particular. That's been going on now for half a century.
VLADIMIR:
This is becoming really insignificant.
(page 73).
Lucky's speech is full of absurdity, but actually contains words that occur in everyday life, yet are still considered absurd in the context of good society: "belcher" means "belch", "fartov" means "fart", "testew" means "testes", "cunard" in French means "idiot", "possy" means "pussy", and "feckham" means "fuck him".