Relationships between Vladimir and Estragon

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Name – Pandya Riva m

Roll no -23

Paper – 9

Topic :-  Relationships between Vladimir and Estragon

Email id- rivapandya.rp@gmail.com

Year :- 2015-2017

Submitted to :- M.K Bhavnagar university, Department of English

Relationships between Vladimir and Estragon

Waiting for Godot is Samuel Beckett's most famous work. Originally written in French in 1948, Beckett personally translated the play into English.He often focused on the idea of "the suffering of being." Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for godot . Godot can be understood as one of the many things in life that people wait for.

The play has often been viewed as fundamentally existentialist in its take on life.

Vladimir and Estragon are the main protagonists of the play, Waiting for Godot. In hearing the play read, even the most experienced theater person will often confuse one of the characters for the other. Therefore, the similarities are as important as the differences between them.

The name Vladimir can mean prince, man of the people or ruler of peace. Estragon has the connotative meaning of estrogen.Vladimir is the soul or mind, the conscious and  practical one and Estragon is the body.

Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for Godot, some indication that life is meaningful or an escape. Both are tramps dressed in costumes which could be interchanged - big boots which don't necessarily fit, big bowler hats, baggy and ill-fitting suits. Their costumes recall the type found in burlesque or vaudeville houses. The opening scene with Estragon struggling with his boots and Vladimir doffing and donning his hat to inspect it for lice could be a part of a burlesque routine. Such comic episodes continue until the characters and the audiences are bored with it.

Estragon represents the physical split and Vladimir the mental split of the assumed person, Estramir.  Beckett strictly limits Estragon to physical awareness. He cannot think, nor act of thinking. He never feels mentally tired, but physically; Whereas Vladimir always thinks philosophically. He also plays at thinking. He, unlike Estragon, feels mentally tired, and does not suffer physically (except kidney disease).When men are too happy or too sad, their physical reactions don’t match with their thinking, and their physical bustles seem strange or absurd.

 We see in this play that Estragon engaged in trying to take off and put on his boots; While Vladimir is engaged in taking off his hat, peering in it and putting it on his head. Hat and boot represents the mentality of people's mindset. Boot is symbolized lower or poor thinking. It also represents Estragon’s poor memory, while hat is the symbol of power. These two extreme behaviors show the affinity of Estragon with body, and Vladimir with mind.

 Vladimir is the person who is aware of his own cog-like existence in the world, and says: "All my life I’ve tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven’t yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle.”  But Estragon who represents the physical entity says, having failed taking off his boot, “Nothing to be done” physically. The hat is used to wear on head, and head symbolizes mind/brain. The boot is used to wear in legs, and leg has nothing to do with thinking or mind.

Wherever is body, there is hunger. Throughout the play, Estragon feels hunger thrice. Once he is given bones by Pozzo. And twice he is given carrot by Vladimir. Mind never gets hungry like this; rather it helps body to get its food (carrot). We do not find Vladimir being hungry, but providing Estragon with carrots.

Body has nothing to do with memory and past. If it has any relation with past, it is the marks of wounds that are lefts on it. Estragon hardly remembers about his past. He says,

“That’s the way I am. Either I forget immediately or never forget.”  He could remember the bones, the kick, and so. But he cannot recollect Pozzo and Lucky. He also does not identify the place; While Vladimir recognizes the place, persons, and also remembers the incidents from the past.

Honour and pride are abstract things that only a mind could understand them, not a body. Estragon is found begging for money and bones. But Vladimir suggests him not to beg since they (Estramir) are not beggars.

Estragon, however, is dependent upon Vladimir, and essentially he performs what Vladimir tells him to do. For example, Vladimir looks after Estragon's boots, he rations out the carrots, turnips, and radishes, he comforts Estragon's pain, and he reminds Estragon of their need to wait for Godot. He wants to leave but is restrained from leaving by the fact that he needs Vladimir.Estragon is the less intelligent one; he has to have everything explained to him. Vladimir is more masculine and contemplative and Estragon is more feminine and emotion-driven of the duo

  Vladimir would be the equivalent of the straight man in burlesque comedy. He is also the intellectual who is concerned with a variety of ideas. Of the two, Vladimir makes the decisions and remembers significant aspects of their past. He is the one who constantly reminds Estragon that they must wait for Godot. Vladimir seems to know more about Godot. Vladimir often sees religious or philosophical implications in their discussions of events, and he interprets their actions in religious terms; for example, he is concerned about the religious implications in such stories as the two thieves who were crucified on either side of Jesus. Vladimir correlates some of their actions to the general concerns of mankind. In addition to the larger needs, Vladimir also looks after their physical needs.

Estragon is concerned mainly with more mundane matters: He prefers a carrot to a radish or turnip, his feet hurt, and he blames his boots; he constantly wants to leave, and it must be drilled into him that he must wait for Godot. He remembers that he was beaten, but he sees no philosophical significance in the beating. He is willing to beg for money from a stranger (Pozzo), and he eats Pozzo's discarded chicken bones with no shame. Estragon, then, is the more basic of the two. He is not concerned with either religious or philosophical matters. First of all, he has never even heard of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ, and if the Gospels do disagree, then "that's all there is to it," and any further discussion is futile and absurd.

One cannot separate body from mind. They live together. In the absence of one, another has no value. So, Vladimir and Estragon always live with each other.

As mind controls body, Vladimir controls Estragon in the worst suicide situations. Therefore, Estragon represents the body of a person, to have simple understanding, of Estramir; while Vladimir represents mind (soul) of Estramir.

This is the way that Beckett unconsciously split Estramir into two different aspects of a single person: Estragon as body  and Vladimir as mind or soul

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