Psychoanalytic Analysis of the Characters in Beckett?s "Waiting for Godot"

Abstract

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot which is a renowned play written after the World War II primarily focuses on its postwar-period characters. The play is categorized into "Theatre of the Absurd", and several studies were conducted on the post-war period and its impressions in the play. Besides, it called forth many studies on its political, biblical, psychological, and philosophical interpretations in literature. However, there were not enough studies about a full-psychoanalytic analysis of the characters. So as to fill this gap, the present study aims to analyze the two protagonists Estragon and Vladimir, and the hidden character Mr. Godot in terms of the Freudian Theory of Personality. The study benefited from a discourse analysis of these three characters according to Freud's "the id, the ego, and the superego" triangle. When deeply analyzed it was concluded that Vladimir who is the first voice in the play symbolizes "the ego", Estragon who has the second voice symbolizes "the id", and Mr. Godot who has a hidden voice symbolizes "the superego" of Freud's Theory of Personality. In addition, as in the case of the id, the ego, and the superego, these three characters cannot be separated from each other; they all contribute to the plot and stage development of the play.

The Symbols of Isolation In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

“…Thus, they become the prominent and the important symbols. Then, the characters in the play or novel find themselves in an unending despair; their dialogues which include uncompleted speeches, contradictions, and repetitions sometimes appear uncertain and meaningless although one may find deep philosophical ideas in them (Toksöz, 2017).…”