VLADIMIR: We’ve nothing more to do here.
ESTRAGON: Nor anywhere else.
VLADIMIR: Ah Gogo, don’t go on like that. To-morrow everything will be better.
ESTRAGON: How do you make that out?
VLADIMIR: Did you not hear what the child said?
ESTRAGON: No.
VLADIMIR: He said that Godot was sure to come to-morrow. What do you say to that?
ESTRAGON: Then all we have to do is wait on here. (Beckett 57)
Prufrock, like Vladimir and Estragon, choose to wait rather than actively strive to reach his goal. He goes to the party wanting to talk to a women but instead he wastes his time, thinking about “Should I then presume?” (line54) or “How should I begin” (line 69) instead of just talking to her. Rather than achieving his easy goal Prufrock makes up excuses not to talk to the women: “Should I, after tea and cakes and ices \ Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis” (lines 79-80). Prufrock’s and Vladimir and Estragon’s goals aren’t impossible to reach yet they, for some reason, choose not to reach them and just wait. Vladimir and Estragon waste their tome by playing mindless word games and by thinking about death. A typical word game follows:
VLADIMIR: How they’ve changed!
ESTRAGON: Who?
VLADIMIR: Those two.
ESTRAGON: That’s the idea, let’s make a little conversation.
VLADIMIR: Haven’t they?
ESTRAGON: What?
VLADIMIR: Changed.
ESTRAGON: Very likely. They all change. Only we can’t.
VLADIMIR: Likely! It’s certain. Didn’t you see them?
ESTRAGON: I suppose I did. But I don’t know them.
VLADIMIR: Yes you do know them.
ESTRAGON: No I don’t.
VLADIMIR: We know them, I tell you. You forget everything. Unless they’re not the same… (Beckett 52).
This also shows that they are living very meaningless lives, because if Estragon can’t even remember what happened the day before it shows that it didn’t mean too much, because if it was meaningful anyone could remember it. They also think very negatively of themselves saying that they will never change, which is strange because everything changes. They also talk about death but they don’t think that’s the ultimate solution
VLADIMIR: We’ll hang ourselves to-morrow. Unless Godot comes.
ESTRAGON: And if he comes?
VLADIMIR: We’ll be saved. (Beckett 109)
And prefer waiting for Godot. In Acts I + II the same people talk to them, Pozzo andLucky and the messenger boy, yet Estragon doesn’t remember anything and they would rather wait than change the lives they have “VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go?; ESTRAGON: Yes, let’s go. They do not move” (Beckett 59, 109). Prufrock conveys the same attitude: “And how should I presume? \ And how should I begin” (line 68-69) showing he thinks of what to do instead of just doing it. He walks through “half-deserted streets” (line 4) looking at scenery extremely closely thinking about what he’s going to say to the woman he admires. After finishing his tea he wonders whether he should “force the moment to its crisis?” (line 50). Instead he keeps quiet, thinking about what could go wrong. He wonders if he “is worthy” (line 87) to talk to her, that she might not even notice him or that she may misunderstand him and he would have to say “That is not it at all \ That is not what I meant, at all” (lines 109-110). He doesn’t want rejection or miscommunication so instead he waits. Instead of taking action, Prufrock, Vladimir and Estragon just wait.
Instead of reaching their goals in life, Prufrock and Vladimir and Estragon in the Love Song for J. Alfred Prufrock and Waiting for Godot choose not to take any action and just wait. Prufrock and Vladimir and Estragon do not strive toreach their goals as they are happy with their lives right now. It seems as if Prufrock and Vladimir and Estragon are just waiting pointlessly but waiting gives them hope and makes them go on. Prufrock and Vladimir and Estragon both have low self-esteem. Vladimir and Estragon talk about death all the time “VLADIMIR: we’ll hang ourselves to-morrow” (Beckett 109) and Prufrock says, “I do not think that they will sing to me” (line 125) but the mermaids sing to everyone else. Prufrock and Vladimir and Estragon don’t reach their goals, but they seem to still have good spirits. Since no one is there to help them Prufrock or Vladimir and don’t go anywhere and don’t take a step towards their goals. Instead the only thing they really can do is wait. Prufrock has tea parties while thinking about the girl, just waiting time, and Vladimir and Estragon go to the same spot day after day, the messenger comes by and so do Pozzo and Lucky yet Vladimir and continue to think about death and wait for Godot.
Prufrock and Vladimir and Estragon in The Love Song for J. Alfred Prufrock and Waiting for Godot have chosen their passive, pointless lives and they lack the courage and intellegence to change them. Their lives are based on a goal, yet this goal will never be achieved. They have a reason to get up every morning, their lives are based on waiting for on goal and they have no desire to change their passive lives. They are achieving their goals in life by just simply WAITING.
