Structure and Setting

Abstract

Even so curt an outline of the plot may perhaps indicate that symmetry is one of the most striking features of the play. The impression of a random, inconsequential, even shapeless action which baffled early audiences is an artful illusion designed to draw the audience into the feelings Vladimir and Estragon have about the slow passage of time, the perpetual threat of boredom, the sense that existence may be a void in which there is no special reason for being anywhere or doing anything in particular. But the shape of the action contradicts the idea of shapelessness that bothers the characters. Everything is symmetrical and tends to come in doubles.