ESTRAGON
Are you sure it wasn't him?
VLADIMIR
Who?
ESTRAGON
Godot.
VLADIMIR
But who?
ESTRAGON
Pozzo.
VLADIMIR
Not at all! (Less sure.) Not at all! (Still less sure.) Not at all! (2.786-791)
The uncertainty surrounding Godot increases as the play goes on. Now, not only are they unsure of his name, whether he is coming, who he is, what he looks like, or whether they missed him, but Vladimir also has to wonder whether he has already met Godot.
Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting.
He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again.
As before.
Enter Vladimir.
ESTRAGON
(giving up again) Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR
(advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart) I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle.) (1.1-2)
Estragon’s opening lines define the tone of the play and the plight of its players. They also establish the view of the world that Waiting for Godot presents: there is nothing to be done for Estragon and Vladimir, and, perhaps, for the rest of us, too.
ESTRAGON
Fancy that. (He raises what remains of the carrot by the stub of leaf, twirls it before his eyes.) Funny, the more you eat the worse it gets.
VLADIMIR
With me it's just the opposite. (1.278-9)
This is one of the key moments of opposites between Vladimir and Estragon. One finds repetition (in most of existence, not just with regards to the carrot) dulling, and the other finds it exciting.