Dreaming of Godot

Abstract

In his study of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Martin Esslin argued that although inherent meaning might exist in the universe, we are incapable of understanding it because of our intrinsic limitations.1 Like Beckett's play, dreams invite boundless speculation about their origin and meaning. Psychiatrist Allan Hobson long ago called the oneiric protoconsciousness of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep a primordial state of brain organisation,2 to which we revert every night, as to our own theatre of the absurd.