Vladimir (Waiting for Godot) Vladimir (Waiting for Godot) Vladimir (affectionately known as Didi; a small boy calls him Mr. Albert) is one of the two main characters from Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". The "optimist" (and, as Beckett put it, "the major character") of "Godot", he represents the intellectual side of the two main characters (in contrast to his companion Estragon's earthy simplicity). One explanation of this intellectualism is that he was once a philosopher. This would explain his constant references and his attempts to engage Estragon in philosophical/religious debate. Vladimir is deeply concerned with appearances, and goes to great lengths to make sure
Krapp's Last Tape eighty degrees to make coitus possible in the position he is in!'"––a position that Rosette Lamont proposes also "suggests that of a suckling babe." Beckett would not be 69 until 1975 so, from his perspective, with Krapp a proxy for him, the action is set in the future. The first line of the play explicitly sets it 'in the future', although nothing onstage reveals this. Beckett wrote this play shortly before he turned 52 years old. As it happens, with "Waiting for Godot", success had found him but, at 39, the future must have seemed a lot bleaker for the