Editing Waiting for Godot (section)

===Pozzo and Lucky===
Pozzo and Lucky have been together for 60 years.{{sfn|Beckett|1988|page=21}} Pozzo controls Lucky by means of an extremely long rope, which he jerks and tugs if Lucky is the least bit slow.

It has been contended that "[[Pozzo (Waiting for Godot)|Pozzo]] and Lucky are simply Didi and Gogo writ large", unbalanced as their relationship is.<ref>Friedman, N., "Godot and Gestalt: The Meaning of Meaningless" in ''The American Journal of Psychoanalysis'' 49(3) p. 277</ref> However, Pozzo's dominance is superficial; "upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that Lucky always possessed more influence in the relationship, for he danced, and more importantly, thought – not as a service, but in order to fill a vacant need of Pozzo: he committed all of these acts {{em|for}} Pozzo. As such, since the first appearance of the duo, the true [[Slavery|slave]] had always been Pozzo."<ref name="themodernword.com" /> Pozzo credits Lucky with having given him all the culture, refinement, and ability to reason that he possesses. His [[rhetoric]] has been learned by rote. Pozzo's "party piece" on the sky is a clear example: as his memory crumbles, he finds himself unable to continue under his own steam.

Little is learned about Pozzo besides the fact that he is on his way to the fair to sell his slave, Lucky. From Beckett's own life experiences in Ireland and wartime France, commentators such as [[Hugh Kenner]] have identified Pozzo as representing German behaviour in occupied France, or alternatively as a bullying and conceited [[Protestant Ascendancy]] landlord.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beidler |first1=Philip D. |author1-link=Philip Beidler |title=The great beyond: art in the age of annihilation |date=2022 |publisher=The University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=9780817321260 |pages=112–113}}</ref> When translating his original French dialogue into English, Beckett took pains to introduce Irish idiom (specifically, Dubliners' idiom): Pozzo's [[tobacco pipe|pipe]] is made by [[Peterson Pipes|Kapp and Peterson]], Dublin's best-known tobacconists (which he refers to as a "[[Erica arborea#Uses|briar]]" but which Estragon calls by the dialect word ''dudeen''). Not only is his [[Hiberno-English]] text more colourful than the French original, but it emphasizes the differences in the characters' social standing.{{sfn|Bradby|2001|p=40}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roche |first1=Anthony |editor1-last=Gontarski |editor1-first=S. E. |editor1-link=S. E. Gontarski |title=The Edinburgh companion to Samuel Beckett and the arts |date=2014 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-7568-5 |page=203 |chapter=The 'Irish' translation of Beckett's ''Godot''}}</ref> Pozzo confesses to a poor memory but it is more a result of an abiding self-absorption. "Pozzo is a character who has to overcompensate. That's why he overdoes things ... and his overcompensation has to do with a deep insecurity in him. These were things Beckett said, psychological terms he used."<ref>Kalb, J., ''Beckett in Performance'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 175</ref> Beckett's advice to the American director [[Alan Schneider]] was: "[Pozzo] is a [[hypomania]]c and the only way to play him is to play him mad."<ref name="Alan Schneider 1998 p. 6" />

"In his [English] translation ... Beckett struggled to retain the French atmosphere as much as possible, so that he delegated all the English names and places to Lucky, whose own name, he thought, suggested such a correlation".<ref>Barney Rosset to Deirdre Bair, 29 March 1974. Referenced in {{harvnb|Bair|1990|p=464}}</ref>

Lucky appears to be the subservient member of their relationship, at least initially, carrying out every task that Pozzo bids him to do without question, portraying a form of "dog-like devotion" to his ''master.''<ref>[[Vivian Mercier|Mercier, V.]], ''Beckett/Beckett'' (London: Souvenir Press, 1990), p. 53</ref> He struggles with a heavy suitcase, falling on a number of occasions, only to be helped and held up by Estragon and Vladimir.

Lucky speaks only once in the play and it is in response to Pozzo's order to "think" for Estragon and Vladimir. The ostensibly abstract philosophical meanderings supplied to the audience by Lucky during his speech have been described as "a flood of completely meaningless gibberish" by [[Martin Esslin]] in his essay, [[Theatre of the Absurd#Etymology|"The Theatre of the Absurd"]].{{sfn|Esslin|1960}} Esslin suggests that this seemingly involuntary, philosophical spouting is an example of the actor's working "against the dialogue rather than with it",{{sfn|Esslin|1960}} providing grounds for Esslin's claims that the "fervor of delivery" in the play must "stand in a dialectical contrast to the pointlessness of the meaning of the lines".{{sfn|Esslin|1960}}

[[Jean Martin]], who originated the role of [[Lucky (Waiting for Godot)|Lucky]] in Paris in 1953, spoke to a doctor named Marthe Gautier, who was working at the [[Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital]]. Martin asked if she knew of a [[Physiology|physiological]] reason that would explain Lucky's voice as it was written in the text. Gautier suggested [[Parkinson's disease]], which, she said, "begins with a trembling, which gets more and more noticeable, until later the patient can no longer speak without the voice shaking". Martin began incorporating this idea into his rehearsals.<ref>[[Jean Martin]] on the world première of ''En attendant Godot'' in Knowlson, James and Elizabeth, (Eds.) ''Beckett Remembering – Remembering Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), p. 117</ref> Beckett and the director may not have been completely convinced, but they expressed no objections.<ref>Wilmer S. E., (Ed.) Beckett in Dublin (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1992), p. 28</ref> When Martin mentioned to the playwright that he was "playing Lucky as if he were suffering from Parkinson's", Beckett responded by saying "Yes, of course", and mentioning that his own mother had Parkinson's.<ref>[[Jean Martin]] to [[Deirdre Bair]], 12 May 1976. Quoted in {{harvnb|Bair|1990|p=449}}</ref>

When Beckett was asked why Lucky was so named, he replied, "I suppose he is lucky to have no more expectations..."<ref>Duckworth, C., ''The Making of Godot'', p. 95. Quoted in {{harvnb|Bair|1990|p=407}}</ref>