What's she doing? What's the idea? What's it meant to mean? Why doesn't he dig her out?

Billie Whitelaw, Beckett's choice of actress for Winnie, considered that 'The play's about getting on with it, getting through the day and trying not to be too depressed.'

Beckett's dramatic technique offers a representation (explanation would be an impossibility) of the condition of human existence. Being woken (as involuntarily as being born) to the repetitive daily round, all that may be done to dispel despair is to try and cope during the 'hours still to run, before the bell for sleep'.

Understandably, Winnie sighs for a nostalgic alternative 'when I was not yet caught - in this way - and had my legs and had the use of my legs, and could seek out a shady place, like you, when I was tired of the sun, or a sunny place when I was tired of the shade, like you, and they are all empty words.' She tries to cope with the horrible emptiness of daily living by persuading herself that each day is a good day: 'Not a day goes by … without some blessing.' But how and when will this day 'go by'?

Life offers no alternative but to suffer the daily challenge of enduring this 'world without end'. Each 'heavenly' day brings an eternal suffering of the horror of living. There is nothing to be done of any real significance. Winnie can only assuage the time by manufacturing some comfort through superficial routines and chatter.

But time presses on and takes an increasing toll. She forgets, or can only vaguely recall memories long past, to the point where she has difficulty even in recognising her own body or lifelong companion: 'My arms. [Pause.] My breasts. [Pause.] What arms? [Pause.] What breasts? [Pause.] Willie. [Pause.] What Willie?' Every day is a struggle against the time when words must end. And what then?

She can only wish that 'some day the earth will yield and let me go, the pull is so great, yes, crack all round me and let me out'. However, when she tries to project into the future - what might be 'after all' the day is over - she is forced to concede that humankind can know only what has happened 'so far': 'Oh this is a happy day! This will have been another happy day! [Pause.] After all. [Pause.] So far.' How and when and if her existence will ever end remains an impenetrable mystery.

Any future that might exist lies beyond the present moment. The eternal present guarantees that waiting for any (future) end will be an endless wait. Of the present state of consciousness 'There always remains something.'

When Winnie does steel herself to confront the intolerable burden of consciousness and asks 'What is the alternative? [Pause.] What is the al-' the pathos is immediately undercut and dismissed by Willie comically blowing his nose 'loud and long'. When she does lose heart, she seeks the comfort of closing the eyes but at once the bell clamours and the temporal loop simply begins over again.