Strindberg

’s Miss Julie And Beckett’s Waiting For Godot Essay, Research Paper

The motivations and behavior of key characters in Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot will be analyzed according to Eric Berne’s method of transactional analysis. Eric Berne deals with the psychology behind our transactions. Transactional analysis determines which ego state is implemented by the people interacting. There are three possibilities which are either parent, adult, or child. The key characters in Waiting for Godot are Vladimir and Estragon. Vladimir is the more intellectual of the two and Estragon is more emotional. Their ego states are always shifting from minute to minute. In Miss Julie the key characters are Jean and Miss Julie. Jean shifts his ego state according to his situation either to compliment the ego state of the person he is talking to or to exploit the situation. In the relationship between Miss Julie and Jean their ego states interchange as Miss Julie begins as the parent, then she falls so they are equal on the adult level and eventually she is on the bottom so Jean is on the top as parent ego state.

People are made with three basic ego states which are the parent, adult, and child. Some people have a dominant ego state and others are constantly changing. All parts are necessary for a well rounded personality. The child is linked with intuition, creativity, spontaneity, drive and enjoyment. The adult is the rational, objective and logical side which allows work to get done. This is the part of us that should be involved in difficult decision making because it weighs the pros and cons of the decision without bias. The parent is useful for actually raising children and for routine decisions that do not require the deductive reasoning of the adult. A transaction can be either complementary or crossed and at the same time simple or ulterior. A simple complementary transaction would be any transaction where the lines do not cross. It could be a transaction between psychological equals; these transactions are gossip (parent-parent), problem solving (adult-adult), or playing (child-child).

If the lines of communication in the transaction are crossed, the communication will cease unless one of the participants alters their ego state to compliment the ego state implemented by the other communicant. If the responses of the people interacting continue to cross they will no longer be communicating but instead there will be fruitless arguing. An example is “I can’t find my shoes do you know where they are.” response “why don’t you keep track of your things, you would lose your head if it wasn’t attached”. The question was an adult one but the response was parent to child so the lines are crossed. There was no positive that came out of the transaction and the conversation cannot be sustained.

Ulterior transactions are more complex and more than one ego stat is involved at one time by a participant. An ulterior transaction can be used to take advantage of a vulnerable ego state in someone else. An example is a car salesman sees a middle aged family man that appears to be having some sort of a midlife crisis. The car salesman shows him an expensive sports car and says ” young people love these flashy cars, but you look like more of a Lincon town car type”. The middle aged man then turns around and buys the expensive sports car. The salesman’s comments were both objective observations that were made by the adult. They could be received by either the adult or child of the middle aged man. If received by the adult it would steer the middle aged man to a car that would be more appropriate and practical for him and his family. Instead it is received by the child which in this case is dominant and vulnerable and causes the man to think “I’m still young this is as much a car for me as it is for anyone”.

In Waiting for GodotEstragon and Vladimir converse on all levels with each other. Through the play they are killing time while waiting for Godot. Estragon realizes that their existence is stagnant and he has trouble remembering things because of the repetition. In the second act he does not recall what happened in the first act. For him, remembering the day before would be like trying to remember a specific rain drop in a rain storm. Godot, the unseen character represents a hope of change that is to come. Their meeting with him is always delayed which defers their hope, but does not extinguish it because they agree to meet him again the next day. At some points they play with each other, this is an effective way to kill time. An example of them playing is when they are wondering what to do while waiting for Godot, Estragon comes up with the idea of hanging themselves. Vladimir says it will give them an erection and Estragon gets excited. They play around giving reasons why the other should be hanged first. Estragon says that Vladimir should be hanged first because he is heavier and the branch of the tree might break. If it doesn’t break for Vladimir there will be no trouble hanging him so they will both be dead. Whereas, if Estragon is hanged first and the branch supports his weight but is unable to support Vladimir he will be alone. Vladimir is more likely to take a parental role than Estragon. An example of this is when Estragon is attempting with great difficulty to remove his boots he asks for help. Vladimir lectures him by saying “Boots must be taken