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 #16
POZZO
(violently) Don't question me! The blind have no notion of time. The things of time are hidden from them too. (2.702)
When we realize in Act 2 that Pozzo has gone blind (and later that Lucky has become mute), we immediately want to know the reason why. Something must have happened in the time between yesterday and today. But time is not logical in Waiting for Godot. Pozzo, who in Act 1 was all about time (his watch, his exposition on the twilight) has now resigned himself to this painful fact. He now admits that he is "blind" to time, or cannot at all understand its workings.
Quote #17
POZZO
But he [Lucky] is dumb.
VLADIMIR
Dumb!
POZZO
Dumb. He can't even groan.
VLADIMIR
Dumb! Since when?
POZZO
(suddenly furious) Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? (2.769-73)
Frustrated at his inability to understand time, Pozzo writes it off as irrelevant.