In literature, repetition is not pointless. In existential plays, such as Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, repetition is downright essential. Both words and situations recur incessantly throughout the play, not because the events themselves are important, but because the fact that they keep occurring drives home the meaning of the story. In this two-act play, two men battle boredom, indecisiveness, and illogical predicaments combined with highly ridiculous, Catch-22-like situations. One of these instances takes place when Vladimir and Estragon are debating on what they should do to amuse themselves while they wait for the elusive Godot. When Estragon suggests they hang themselves, they debate on who should go first to insure that they would both die and cannot decide who is lighter, and then Estragon decides that it is better to wait and ask Godot when he comes who should hang first while they wait for him to come. This, of course, makes no sense. And there are several places in the play in which the protagonists debate on whether to hang themselves. They always reach the same conclusion: that it is "safer" to wait. This scene repeating itself makes it obvious that absolutely no decision is ever reached, and that the characters are forever searching for the truth, only to discard their efforts when they decide temporarily that it would be better to let someone else decide for them; that someone is Godot, and he never comes. However, they retain hope that one day their questions will be answered in the form of the nameless boy who always returns at the end of the day, saying he had a message from Godot that he will be there tomorrow. By the end of the last act, it is obvious that the characters have been going through this forever and could conceivably never be free of waiting for Godot. Since Godot never comes, their questions are never answered, and they retain their indecisiveness and and are deprived of any relevant information. Also, it is never made clear why the characters are waiting for Godot. It is almost sure that the characters themselves do not know. They are in existential angst because they don't know when he will come, when they should be wondering why he is expected to come. The meaning is never made clear to the poor, bewildered Estragon and Vladimir.

     Another aspect of the play that repeats itself is the men's continually changing attitude towards each other. In the instance of Estragon's dreams, which also repeat, Vladimir seems to hate him. A minute later along the storyline they are embracing. Dissatisfaction with clothing, most notably hats, is also prevalent. Estragon is seen at the beginning cursing his boots as he tries to remove them, at which point Vladimir remarks, "There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet." But Vladimir is guilty of this as well, when he removes his hat and tries in vain to find out what is wrong with it. Later in the play, Lucky, Pozzo, Vladimir, and Estragon all switch hats only to have the hats come full circle again. It shows the characters' misguided self-loathing as they look for flaws in their clothing. The fact that this circumlocution with the hats occurs makes it obvious that the characters keep looking for ways of making themselves feel better through trivial mendings of outside wrongs as they suffer the angst in their deeper nature. At the beginning of the second act, the dissatisfaction with clothing drags itself into the next day in the form of Estragon's smelly boots lying dead center of the stage when Vladimir arrives, and in the form of Lucky's discarded hat, remaining through the night in the same place it was left. So every day the dissatisfaction recurs.

     Another recurring event is the returning of Lucky and Pozzo every day. Even though the men all met the day before, they seem to not know each other. It is obvious in many ways that all the characters remember selected parts of the day before, but none of them are sure enough of themselves even to trust their own memories. They, as existential characters, trust nothing but the present. Their memories are there, they just don't trust them. Some evidence of their memories is the fact that Vladimir's speech toward Estragon tends to change to resemble Pozzo's from the day before, when he calls him a "pig" as Pozzo called Lucky. He never did this before. They also "play Pozzo and Lucky;" Estragon cursing Vladimir and Vladimir dancing and trying to "think" as Lucky had. Also, Estragon remembers Lucky kicking him and Pozzo allowing him to have his chicken bones. However, he does not remember their names.

     There is also quite a bit of dialogue which recurs in the play, whole sections of dialogue which is repetitive in itself in addition to being repeated. The abundance of references to heaven and hell are evident; in the scene in the play in which Vladimir, thinking he hears Godot coming, exits left and Estragon exits right, Vladimir remarks, "We're saved!" relating Godot as a savior. When Estragon re-enters, seeks out Vladimir, falls into his arms, and remarks, "There you are again," Vladimir exclaims "I'm in hell!" Neither character can define Heaven or Hell, because they have always only known their situation, each other, and the site of the tree. The tree is always there, a constant reminder and measure of the time that is slipping away as they wait without reward.

     Estragon and Vladimir are constantly trying to amuse themselves with words. At one point they ask each other questions. At another point they pretend to fight, then pretend to make up. And several times, they have discussions, seriously executed but completely inconsequential. Estragon tends to repeat certain phrases, playing the "constant" as Vladimir attempts to make sense out of the situation. These phrases, though meaningless and irrelevant, tend to recur throughout any conversation with Vladimir. These show his inability to think for himself and his resulting existential dilemma.

     The one exchange that resurfaces throughout the entire play is the following: "Let's go." / "We can't." / "Why not?" / "We're waiting for Godot." They're staying there simply because waiting for Godot is the only purpose they have in life. Neither character has any idea what they would do or say if Godot did eventually show up. They simply wait. This is evident partly because neither character even knows what Godot looks like and sometimes even forget his name.

     Not once in the actual dialogue are the names "Vladimir" and "Estragon" ever mentioned. Instead, the protagonists call each other "Didi" and "Gogo." These names themselves are repetitive, showing that everything, even the men's names, and symbolically, the men, constantly recur into a meaningless cycle of waiting for Godot.

[My comment: I got an A on this (295 out of 300 points), and the teacher said I made very strong points but lost five points in one paragraph because I didn't support my statement enough.]