In what ways do Lucky and Pozzo contribute to the thematic structure of the play, Waiting for Godot?

Thematic structure – this term is quite useful in a discussion of this work, because Beckett is dealing with the essential duality of mind and body, the two problematic elements in human existence. Of course, as has been pointed out numerous times, Gogo and Didi, in their actions, their obsessions with feet and heads, boots and hats, etc. are character examples of this essential duality in Mankind. This thematic structure is reiterated several times, as...

Thematic structure – this term is quite useful in a discussion of this work, because Beckett is dealing with the essential duality of mind and body, the two problematic elements in human existence. Of course, as has been pointed out numerous times, Gogo and Didi, in their actions, their obsessions with feet and heads, boots and hats, etc. are character examples of this essential duality in Mankind. This thematic structure is reiterated several times, as in the two messenger boys, the two seasons, even the two-act play structure. But the most telling of these dualities is the pair of Pozzo (putatively the order-giver) and Lucky (the slave, subject to the demands of the mind, but locked into the physical world – food, the stool, the rope,etc.) It is ironic and dramatic genius, then, for Beckett to have Lucky dance and talk nonsense (“Think, pig!”) in Act II, a parody of the inability for mind and body to communicate effectively. Here is Beckett’s larger theme, our need to find “meaning” and “direction” by resorting to our own facticity, not relying on the presence of "Godot" to give us the ability to choose (that is, invent). Pozzo and Lucky make the existential condition universal.