What are the characteristics of Waiting for Godot?

The two main characteristics of this excellent play that
you need to know about are its black humour and the way it is an example of the Theatre
of the Absurd. This latter term relates to the despairing vision of the human condition
in life and also the style that is the vehicle that is used to give voice to that
vision. The principal concept of this play and of other works that are examples of the
Theatre of the Absurd is that human life is essentially meaningless and without purpose
and that we live in a universe that is profoundly indifferent or even hostile to
us.

Apparently in contradiction to this unyielding and
thoroughly depressing view of life and man's place in it is the intensely comic nature
of this play. If you look at the subtitle, for example, you will see that Beckett
entitled this play "a tragi-comedy in two acts," and many critics have written at great
length about the way in which the play manages to maintain a precarious and delicate
balance between tragedy and comedy. The comedy element is appealed to through the
numerous elements of slapstick comedy and humour, such as the wild hat-swapping scene in
Act II and the various examples of humorous dialogue between the two central characters.
The black comedy can be linked in to our understanding of the Theatre of the Absurd and
how this impacts our understanding of the play. After all, if we really do live in a
universe that is profoundly indifferent to us, if not hostile, the least we can do is
laugh at it.