Vladimir and Estragon thumb|Vladimir and Estragon (The Doon School, India, 2010)|222x222px When Beckett started writing he did not have a visual image of Vladimir and Estragon. They are never referred to as tramps in the text, though they are often performed in tramps’ costumes on stage. Roger Blin advises: "Beckett heard their voices, but he couldn't describe his characters to me. [He said]: 'The only thing I'm sure of is that they're wearing bowlers.Quoted in Le Nouvel Observateur (26 September 1981) and referenced in Cohn, R., From Desire to Godot (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press), 1998, p. 150 "The bowler hat was of course de rigueur for men in many social contexts when Beckett was growing up in Foxrock, and [his father] commonly wore one." The play does indicate that the clothes worn at least by Estragon are shabby. When told by Vladimir that he should have been a poet, Estragon says he was, gestures to his rags, and asks if it were not obvious.
Vladimir and Estragon thumb|Vladimir and Estragon (The Doon School, India, 2010)|222x222px When Beckett started writing he did not have a visual image of Vladimir and Estragon. They are never referred to as tramps in the text, though they are often performed in tramps’ costumes on stage. Roger Blin advises: "Beckett heard their voices, but he couldn't describe his characters to me. [He said]: 'The only thing I'm sure of is that they're wearing bowlers.Quoted in Le Nouvel Observateur (26 September 1981) and referenced in Cohn, R., From Desire to Godot (London: Calder Publications; New York: Riverrun Press), 1998, p. 150 "The bowler hat was of course de rigueur for men in many social contexts when Beckett was growing up in Foxrock, and [his father] commonly wore one." The play does indicate that the clothes worn at least by Estragon are shabby. When told by Vladimir that he should have been a poet, Estragon says he was, gestures to his rags, and asks if it were not obvious.