Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down:
Ropes, Belts, and Cords in Waiting for Godot
By Roger C. Schonfeld
Interpersonal relationships in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot are
extremely important, because the interaction of the dynamic characters,
as they try to satiate one another's boredom, is the basis for the play.
Vladimir's and Estragon's interactions with Godot, which should also be
seen as an interpersonal relationship among dynamic characters, forms the
basis for the tale's major themes. Interpersonal relationships, including
those involving Godot, are generally couched in rope images, specifically
as nooses and leashes. These metaphors at times are visible and
invisible, involve people as well as inanimate objects, and connect the
dead with the living. Only an appreciation of these complicated rope
images will provide a truly complete reading of Beckett's Godot and his
God, because they punctuate Beckett's voice in this play better than do
any of the individual characters.
The only rope that appears literally is the leash around Lucky's neck
that Pozzo holds. This pair of characters appears separated by a rope
that is half the width of the stage. In terms of the rope, the
relationship between these characters is one of consistent domination.
The stage directions say that "Pozzo drives Lucky by means of a rope
passed round his neck." [p15] Lucky is whipped often. He is essentially
the horse pulling Pozzo's carriage in a relationship that seems cruel,
domineering, and undesirable, and yet Lucky is strangely sycophantic. In
explaining Lucky's behavior, Pozzo says,
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...He imagines that when I see how well he carries I'll be tempted
to keep him on in that capacity...As though I were short of slaves.
[p21]
Despite his miserable condition, Lucky does not seem to desire change.
Perhaps he is happy. Or perhaps he is not miserable enough. Or perhaps he
has no sense of the world beyond his present situation; perhaps, as
Vladimir and Estragon, he cannot envision himself any differently.
The relationship between Pozzo and Lucky does not, however, stagnate at
this juncture. The very next day, when the two next appear, the rope
between them is significantly shorter so that the now-blind Pozzo may
find his way. In this new situation, it is less clear which character
leads the other, or if either one is truly in control. As the stage
directions read,
Pozzo is blind...Rope as before, but much shorter, so that Pozzo may
follow more easily. [p49.5]
For the first time in the text, Pozzo is dependent on Lucky for
direction; Lucky is dependent on Pozzo for the same reason, though this
relationship is one of emotional, rather than physical, dependence. The
shortness of the rope, necessary because of Pozzo's blindness, affects
their relationship; their new-found closeness makes it difficult for
Pozzo to dominate and for Lucky to be truly servile and completely
pathetic. As the stage directions indicate, after bumping into Estragon,
Lucky falls, drops everything and brings down Pozzo with him. They lie
helpless among the scattered baggage. [p49.5]
The two men, one disabled with blindness and the other on the verge of
death, are unable to rise off the ground, from which Pozzo hopes to
ascend but cannot without assistance. He calls pathetically for help
rising from the ground, which apparently represents despair in a manner
similar to that of the forest floor in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter's
forest sequence of chapters.
Pozzo tries to end the despair by telling Estragon to jolt the rope that
is still around Lucky's neck. But Pozzo forgets that Lucky will react
differently because, ignoring the vast differences between his own
roped-in sadomasochistic relationship with Lucky and Estragon's blunt
hatred of Lucky. So Estragon kicks Lucky in revenge, and the anger
endemic in this action fails to achieve an upward result. Estragon's and
Lucky's collective pathetic impotence soon ends, however, as Pozzo
decides to once again dominate Lucky in the familiar manner. The loving
belligerence resumes as Pozzo screams "Enough! Up pig!" Lucky soon gets
up, since his normal condition (of being dominated by Pozzo) has been
restored and he no longer must feel somehow equal to his master. Although
the length of the rope is not literally changed, there is clearly an
equilibrium length which must separate Pozzo from Lucky figuratively in
order for their relationship to proceed naturally; any longer or shorter
and there would not be the proper amount of domination and submission.
But is the despair found on the ground any different from the surrounding
misery that is omnipresent in the lives of Vladimir and Estragon? In a
way, it is, for there is a terminus to the despair of the ground: Pozzo
and Lucky eventually get back on their feet. But, back on their feet,
they reenter the surrounding, omnipresent misery. In being upright once
again, there thus is a concurrent pleasure (in being away from the
despair of the ground) and misery (in their omnipresent surroundings),
further underscoring Pozzo's and Lucky's sadomasochistic desires.
Vladimir and Estragon have a similar relationship in many ways, for there
is a certain amount of submission and domination in their interactions
with one another. The submission and domination, however, is less
consistent and less rigidly defined than it is for Pozzo and Lucky. But
when the two principal characters seek to play a game, Vladimir suggests
they "play at Pozzo and Lucky" [p47], a game that requires them to abuse
one another for amusement. But Vladimir asks Estragon to play Pozzo and
dominate him, a situation that diverges from Vladimir's seemingly normal
assertiveness in their relationship. Overall, their relationship is one
of misplaced dominance, where Vladimir is generally the stronger of the
two, but he clearly wishes he were not.
As yet another way to pass the time, Vladimir and Estragon also consider
suicide, by hanging with a rope. The rope that they would hang themselves
with, however, is not the rope that ties their relationship together;
their binding rope is figuratively present throughout the entire play and
yet they cannot find a rope suitable for hanging themselves. The topic of
suicide first arises in a fit of boredom, as the two friends search for
ways to speed up the passage of time while they wait for Godot:
ESTRAGON: What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON: (highly excited). An erection!
VLADIMIR: With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow.
That's why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you
not know that?
ESTRAGON: Let's hang ourselves immediately! [p12]
The erection, the ejaculation, and even the death itself would be
something at variance from the monotony of their everyday waiting and
would therefore help speed up the passage of time. But never do Vladimir
and Estragon contemplate suicide in a realistic context, where they can
see it as an act that would inevitably prevent them from meeting Godot
(at least in the literal interpretation that he is human). Suicide for
them, therefore, is just another diversion, perhaps a titillating
autoerotic fantasy, but a diversion nonetheless, whose consequences they
do not bother to or cannot fathom.
It impossible, however, for the two to kill themselves. They first
realize that the only tree in their world, a weeping willow, will not
support Vladimir's weight on the noose and therefore will not break his
neck. The second day, Vladimir and Estragon cannot hang themselves
because they do not have the requisite piece of rope. By the second day,
however, they have forgotten that they cannot hang themselves from the
only available tree, and therefore their complaints about the lack of a
suitable piece of rope (and their attempts to substitute it with a belt
of cord) are unnecessary. Thus, it seems that Vladimir and Estragon are
merely using suicide as a topic for conversation, using the mere thought
of an autoerotic death - one in which there is pleasure in sadness or
pain, again, in a masochistic outlook - as an inherently pleasing ponder.
Estragon says explicitly on the subject, "Don't let's do anything. It's
safer." [p12.5]
How would suicide for Vladimir and Estragon be at all unsafe? If they are
living a virtual death, then dying will be nothing but more of the same.
But, if they are merely living an extraordinarily mundane and pathetic
life, then death, particularly pleasant death, will be the exclamation
point that relieves them of their boredom with life. And are these two
possibilities all that different? It seems that Estragon gives credence
to the former when he says "everything's dead but the tree" [p59.5], but,
regardless, it makes no difference; for, since neither possibility can be
any more unpleasant than life and one is far preferable to life's
incessant boredom, it follows that the rope should be used; suicide
should be attempted as the logical conclusion. Perhaps this is why the
willow grows five new leaves and starts to weep - because its weak boughs
prevent it from fulfilling the cries of the audience to allow the
characters to kill themselves. And so, from one perspective, Vladimir and
Estragon are roped to the willow and its potential for suicide while they
are also being kept at rope's length from the potential for this
achievement.
Vladimir and Estragon's sad situation of waiting endlessly for the
mysterious Godot is another form of inescapable frustration. Vladimir,
typically certain of his words while questioning their veracity upon the
slightest prodding, denies Estragon's suggestion that they are tied to
Godot. "To Godot? Tied to Godot! What an idea! No question of it.
(Pause.) For the moment." [p14.5] There is, of course, a figurative rope
that ties them to Godot, though Vladimir refuses to admit this. Even
Pozzo recognizes that Godot "has your future in his hands . . . (pause) . . . at
least your immediate future." [p19.5] Interestingly, both Pozzo and
Vladimir seems to believe that their view on Godot is only temporal;
from characters who have no memory and at least an uncertain
understanding of time, a vague foresight of changes to come illustrates
their confusion with the character of Godot. Because the nature of Godot
is at best unclear, it is impossible to determine the exact arrangement
of Vladimir's and Estragon's relationship to him. Nonetheless, it is
clear that this interaction in many ways follows the model already
established: By waiting interminably for this most mysterious character
without trying to escape the situation, there is a degree of masochism
present in Vladimir and Estragon. Though it is not clear that Godot
specifically enjoys their boredom and pain, their conversations with the
boy make this most likely.
While Vladimir and Estragon are tied to Godot in the typical manner,
Godot's rope to them is tied uniquely. Estragon questions what would
happen if they left Godot, asking, "And if we dropped him? (Pause.) If we
dropped him?" [p59.5] Godot, who the reader has assumed to be in control
of his own actions, is apparently hanging, most likely from a noose. And
Vladimir and Estragon, the inexorably bored and miserable sadomasochists
who are virtually dead, somehow know that they have the power to drop
Godot from his noose. It follows from the text that Godot - is he nothing
more than Beckett's characterization of God? The similarities become
harder and harder to ignore - is dead; as Vladimir says virtually
immediately after Estragon's questions, "Everything's dead but the tree."
[p59.5] But even though Godot is dead, "he'd punish us" if Vladimir and
Estragon cut him free from his noose. Death for Godot, then, is perhaps
less literal and more a figurative state in which he cannot or will not
attend to Vladimir and Estragon though they wait for him. But if Godot is
literally dead, as hanging from a noose should indicate, then he cannot
directly cause the punishment. Rather, the punishment will come
indirectly as a result of Vladimir and Estragon dropping him. With
everything dead but the willow, what other punishment could there be but
the death or defacement of the one glimmer of life and hope in an
otherwise bleak existence - the tree. Here the tree perhaps represents
Godot, Vladimir's and Estragon's only hope. Since Vladimir and Estragon
are fundamentally hopeful individuals who would not want to see this last
glimmer of hope destroyed, Vladimir's message is that they should not
drop Godot. Instead, they should allow him to hang, and they should
ignore his death; as humans should ignore Nietzsche's decision that the
belief in "God is dead." And this, it seems Beckett hopes, must be the
strongest rope of all in Waiting for Godot - the noose surrounding
Godot's neck that is held aloft, and out of sight, by hope.
From http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~rschon/acad/godot.html
http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~rschon/acad
© 1995-6 Roger C Schonfeld
to Samuel Beckett Resources