“Habit is a great deadener”. In what ways does Waiting for Godot illustrate this idea? Essay

Habit and turn form an important spell of the ladder Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. The play, a famous product of the Theatre of the Absurd, is characterized by a broadside structure which doesnt lead anywhere, repetitive dialogue and a frequent absurdity. It witnesses devil men, Vladimir and estragon, who spend the entire two acts waiting for Godot. The terrestrials they develop passim the play are mainly a result of their attempts to pass the condemn. Habits much(prenominal) as fiddling with objects and telling stories become part of their r stunnedine and see like a good way to get through the waiting. However, as Vladimir himself says, uniform is a great deadener (Beckett 105) and n peerlessthelesstually their attires deaden them. The term deadener implies that the employments pass on the characters even more bored and that instead of helping them, they lead to their precipitation and make their lives even more meaningless.This essay lead discuss the us es develop by the various characters and explore whether they indeed illustrate the idea of habits cosmos a deadener. by dint of this, it will also discuss what Beckett is trying to switch off about habit in human life in general. wiz habit that is developed in Waiting for Godot by both Estragon and Pozzo is fiddling with objects. This habit is portrayed mainly through the stage directions and is therefrom visual action instead of words. Estragon uses objects such as his gush in target to pass time. Silence. Estragon is fiddling with his boot over again (Beckett 37). In this stage direction, Beckett places Estragons fiddling within a silence which shows how he tries to fill the void by playing with his boot. This habit is formed out of boredom and therefore designed to relieve it. Through this, Beckett seems to be commenting on how human macrocosms rely on habits in order to stimulate their lives meaning and security.However, instead of making life more interesting, the tell fiddling only reinforces the monotony in the play making the characters even more bored. Pozzo on the other hand fiddles mostly with his hold in, cuddling his watch to his ear he puts his watch back in his pocket (Beckett 37). He repeatedly takes his watch out, consults it, puts it away, and gets it out again in a real routinely manner. He does not only do this to pass the time it is also a way for him to prove his superiority through the secular objects he owns. It is important for him to unendingly assert his power and position. However, instead of heavy(a) him power, this habit eventual(prenominal)ly contri preciselyes to his downfall. In the guerrilla act, Pozzo becomes blind and digests all his power.A second way for Pozzo to prove his power and seek attention is by performing which also becomes habitual. At several occasions, Pozzo takes on another social function and starts performing in order to entertain the others and become the centre of attention. He usuall y performs dramatic monologues, tirelessly torrents of red and white light it begins to lose its effulgence (Beckett 38). This sentence clearly shows his eloquent diction chosen to sham his audience and again prove his superiority.The varied syntax of this particular speech, ranging from tangled poetic sentences to short crude phrases, makes it interesting to his audience and shows how he is indeed acting. Every time he takes on a role, he ensures that everyone is remunerative attention to him because that is his ultimate goal. Routines are a way for people to mend themselves by what they habitually do. But again, this habit turns out to be a deadener which is illustrated by Pozzos sudden change of status in the second act. Suddenly he is blind and no one pays attention to him anymore. He repeatedly asks for help but no one responds and this proves how his habits deadened him.A similar habit to that of performing is telling stories. It is one of the first habits to be introduced in the play and is again a way for them to fill the time. In the beginning of the play, Vladimir attempts to tell his first score, but Estragon repeatedly interrupts him two thieves, crucified at the same time as Our Saviour. One / our what? (Beckett 6). This habit is almost an immediate deadener as it fails to achieve its goal of passing time and grown them something to do. Estragons interruptions undermine Vladimirs capabilities as a story teller and turn the stories into meaningless, circular debates. Instead of storytelling becoming a routine to give their lives meaning, it becomes a reinforcement of the meaninglessness of their existence proving that they arent passing play anywhere. None of the routines or habits they develop is helping. They are in fact doing the reversion and making their situation worse. They are still stuck waiting for Godot and always will be.Waiting in itself could be considered as a deadening habit. It is emphatically the dominating habit in the play as they are continuously waiting. The phrase were waiting for Godot (Beckett 51), which also inspires the title, is the most repeated sentence in the entire play. The fact that it is repeated so many measure shows how desperate and meaningless their situation has become. The repetition of the phrase emphasises its importance to the boilers suit play because even though it is very simple, it sums up the entirety of the play. This habit is arguably the most deadening of all as it prevents them from leaving and dismissal on with their lives. It forces them to stay put and thereby takes all the meaning out of their existence, diminishing them to mere spectators rather than participators in life.A final habit that Estragon and Vladimir develop is that of staying together. In staying together, they attempt to avoid the insecurity of being lonely and try to use from individually one other to confirm that their lives do have meaning. I felt lonely, says Vladimir when Estragon fal ls drowsy (Beckett 10). This simple sentence is the very essence of why they develop the habit of staying together. Even though Estragon is physically there, Vladimir has no one to burble to anymore and this agitates him.They need each other even if they dont always get along in order to confirm each others existence. At the slightest threat of being left alone, they terror and therefore stay together as a matter of necessity. The supra quotation invokes pathos in the audience as they realise how tough their reliance is upon one another and therefore how low they have drop down as individuals. They are trying to avoid insecurity through their habits, but Beckett is implying that this is impossible and that habits will lead to monotony and insignificance in your life. Instead of profiting from each other, staying together prevents them from moving forward and thereby deadens them.Habit is indeed a deadener and Waiting for Godot illustrates this in numerous ways. All four charact ers in the play have been deadened by their habits and instead of their routine saving them, they caused their downfall. It seems as if Beckett is trying to illustrate how habit affects people in reality. It is unavoidable as human beings to develop habits. It is almost like a natural appliance in order for us to avoid absurdity in life. However, Beckett implies, one has to buy up absurdity as it is part of life. Habits wont give us the security we need, they will only bring monotony and eventual deadening to our lives as happened in Waiting for Godot. This play is obviously part of absurdist theatre and therefore an exaggeration, however Beckett seems to be relating it to real life to a certain extent. He seems to be advising to prevent from developing habits and instead accept the randomness that unavoidably accompanies life.Work citedBeckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Grove Press impudently York, 1982.