Their position on stage: waiting for Godot, becomes eternal. If they went off stage, they would no longer be fitting the present-tense nature of the title. This entrapment of the characters that it causes is shown from the end of the play's 'yes, let's go' followed by the stage direction This lack of movement conveys not only that since they are fictional characters, they can only exist on stage, but in this specific play they can only be 'waiting'. More interestingly, however, is the fact the characters are powerless against the title of the piece of art: 'waiting'. This conveys that due to this being a piece of artwork, the characters have to create an artificial representation of reality for the purpose of entertainment. Primarily, the fact they are powerless against one of the purposes of a play being for entertainment is conveyed through Estragon's claim 'we are incapable of keeping silent'. In this reading, the characters are not only powerless against the characteristics of a play being for entertainment, but their role in the plot is dependent on failing to meet with Godot. With this consciousness of the piece of art, the play itself conveys the lack of autonomy the characters have against the fact it is a play. With this idea, by pointing and subverting to other conventions of theatre or traditions, it questions whether conventions or characteristics of theatre (such as Aristotelian importance of plot) should define its value, and with that, questions whether Beckett's plotless play is any different from these traditional ancient Greek or Shakespearean works, since they all are based on the common ground that art cannot represent reality, whatever that piece of art contains. In one way, this questions what constitutes as 'art', and is linear with post-modern thinking which went against distinctions of 'high' and 'low' art. What we are doing here, that is the question', points to traditional and plot-driven pieces of theatre to highlight the opposing form of 'Waiting for Godot'. Moreover, the intertextuality, with allusions to other theatre works such as Shakespeare's Hamlet, in Vladimir's quotation 'that is not the question. Moreover, the dialogue is often meaningless, in which Estragon's quotes such as 'that’s the idea, let's ask each other questions' is a way to fill the duration of the play instead of to display an interesting plotline. Beckett subverts the idea of traditional tragedy, especially the Aristotelian importance of plot, since 'nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes'.
As Chris Sandford conveys, Beckett rejected 'all that had previously been accepted as part and parcel of mainstream theatre', and reached a consciously artistic level. Beckett questions what counts as 'literature', or even 'art' and arguably confronts the overarching similarity of all works if none can point to reality.
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