Neurological inspiration in Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Abstract

The work of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906–89) was substantially influenced by his medical readings. In 1952, he wrote his masterpiece Waiting for Godot, a play associated with the Theatre of the Absurd which described the fanciful lucubrations of two marginalised men, Vladimir and Estragon, awaiting the arrival of someone (a saviour; does Godot represent God?) who will never come. While they wait, they are joined by two other marginalised men (Pozzo and Lucky) with a comparable style of dialogue.