How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line) Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
Quote #10
LUCKY
Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell […]. (1.639)
Lucky’s speech parodies the absurdity of pedantic jargon. With repeated phrases such as "qua," "for reasons unknown," "time will tell," etc., the speech has an academic exterior but no substance.
Quote #11
ESTRAGON
You think all the same.
VLADIMIR
No no, it's impossible.
ESTRAGON
That's the idea, let's contradict each another.
VLADIMIR
Impossible. (2.140-3)
The absurdity is that, in calling Estragon’s idea of contradiction impossible, Vladimir is in fact contradicting Estragon.
Quote #12
ESTRAGON
Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?
VLADIMIR
What is terrible is to have thought.
ESTRAGON
But did that ever happen to us?
VLADIMIR
Where are all these corpses from?
ESTRAGON
These skeletons.
VLADIMIR
Tell me that.
ESTRAGON
True.
VLADIMIR
We must have thought a little.
ESTRAGON
At the very beginning.
VLADIMIR
A charnel-house! A charnel-house!
ESTRAGON
You don't have to look.
VLADIMIR
You can't help looking.
ESTRAGON
True. (2.154-166)
OK, we’ll admit, this exchange at first seems entirely without logic. But it’s actually just a series of conversations all taking place at once, with several of the responses interchangeable and taking place in more than one back-and-forth. Vladimir’s statement that it is terrible to have thought is continued when Estragon replies "True" several lines below. The question of the corpses is abandoned until Vladimir realizes they come from a charnel-house. Didi ignores Estragon’s question about mercies, so Estragon resumes this strand of thought himself with the line "But did that ever happen to us?" (likely referring to acts of mercy, although one can’t be sure if this is part of a different exchange).