Who Is Godot.docx 5c6138

WHO IS GODOT?

Many believe that Godot is really God. I think that Beckett initially wants us to believe he is God simply because of the name, but it's more involved than that. Godot is 'who' we are waiting for, and in the course of the play that can take on many meanings such as hope, salvation, nemisis etc. In Christianty, they wait for Jesus, the 'second coming of Christ,' therefore a Christian audience would view Godot in this way. The Jews on the other hand still await the coming of the Messiah. ". . . Any critic who accepts the religious analogy sees the boy messenger as equivalent to an angel ("angel" is in any case derived from the Greek word for "Messenger"), but Pozzo seems to be a stumbling-block for most of them. He need not be: although Pozzo denies that he is Godot, he tells Vladimir and Estragon that they are "on my land". Other hints suggest that he may be the very person they are waiting for, but, like the Jews confronted with Jesus, they are expecting someone so different that they fail to recognize him . On the other hand, one must it that Pozzo’s treatment of Lucky in Act I resembles the behaviour of the God of the Old Testament ; it is in Act II that Pozzo himself begins to seem a victim, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." There are moments in the Old Testament when the Jews—or some of them—failed to recognise their God, so we could perhaps argue that Act I represents the Old Testament and Act II the New. But if Vladimir and Estragon represent Christianity rather than Judaism, there are several texts in the New Testament which warn that the Second Coming of Christ will resemble in its stealth that of "a thief in the night". . . ." (1) We all occasionally feel that something is missing in our lives. There are many who 'wait' for God to change their lives and do nothing to change them on their own. Beckett uses parables from the Bible.

"At the end of Act I, when the boy arrives to say that Mr Godot " won’t come this evening but surely tomorrow " and Vladimir proceeds to question him about his "credentials", the boy reveals that he minds the goats and his brother minds the sheep. Placing these two words together is enough to suggest one of Jesus’s best-known parables, frequently used in art and sermon, the parable of the sheep and the goats : This parable is, of course, a narrative about salvation and damnation; the sheep are the saved, the goats the damned. It is significant that the messenger who attends Vladimir and Estragon is the goatherd. Previous ironies about the nature of the God parodied in this play are intensified by his perverse beating of the boy who tends the sheep, not the one who tends the goats (the damned are damned and the saved get beaten). Act II ends after the appearance of a similar messenger (apparently not the same one, but not necessarily his shepherd brother either). This boy, in response to questions, provides the information that Godot has a white beard, frightening Vladimir into pleas for mercy and expectations of punishment." (2)

There are so many possible interpretations of this story. my own opinion is that Godot is Jesus (That he is the , the salvation, the savior and all other interpretations and even the punisher) and the 'waiting' is for the second coming, a time when there won't be any tramps

looking for a better world because they'll already be in it, that they won't need fulfillment because they'll already have it, and that there won't be any loneliness because God is always with us. The characters in the play don't understand that God lives within each of us every moment............. they wait, but they don't look SYMBOLS

HATS Because the play has so few props, the props that do appear onstage take on an exaggerated significance. As one example, Vladimir, Estragon, Lucky, and Pozzo all wear hats and at times seem oddly preoccupied with them. Lucky, for instance, needs his hat to think, and stops his long monologue once his hat is knocked off. In act two Estragon and Vladimir exchange their hats and Lucky's hat back and forth, trying different ones on. Given the importance of these hats to their individual owners, this scene can be seen as representing the fluidity and instability of individual identities in the play. As Pozzo and Lucky don't having already seen Vladimir and Estragon in act two, Vladimir begins to wonder whether the Pozzo and Lucky of act two are the same as those of act one. Estragon, for one, does not recognize them, and calls Pozzo Abel. Estragon can't even his own past, and at one point tells Pozzo that his name is Adam. Moreover, it is not clear whether the young boy in each act is one boy or two different ones. The boy also calls Vladimir Mr. Albert, which may or may not actually be Vladimir's name. With all of this ambiguity and instability regarding people's identities, the scene of the hat exchange playfully represents an exchange of identities, as Vladimir and Estragon wear different combinations of hats. Vladimir ends up wearing Lucky's hat—notably, the one he needed to "think"— seemingly taking on a new identity, as he then asks Estragon to "play" at being Lucky and Pozzo. Indeed, it's uncertain whether Vladimir and Estragon (or other characters) are actually being themselves throughout the play, or if they even have stable selves they can be.

NAMES Many of the names in Beckett's play can be seen has having hidden meanings. The most important example is Godot, whose name evokes

similarity to God for many readers. Along this reading, Godot symbolizes the salvation that religion promises, but which never comes (just as Godot never actually comes to Vladimir and Estragon). But the similarity between "Godot" and "God" could also be a game Beckett is playing with his audience and readers, a kind of red herring that actually imparts no important information. This would be in line with other character names: Estragon means "tarragon" in French, for example, while Pozzo is Italian for a water well, but these meanings hold little to no significance for those characters. And Lucky's name is anything but fitting, as he is the character who unluckily suffers the most onstage. In the end, Beckett's character names suggest the possibility of meaning but fail to deliver on this promise, just as Godot promises to save Vladimir and Estragon but never shows up. As further examples of the nihilist worldview that pervades Waiting for Godot, the play's character names may be significant precisely for being insignificant, meaningful in that they mean nothing.

The Boots: The boots are a symbol of daily struggling — Estragon is constantly affected by his boots, always taking them off and putting them on but never makes a difference. This parallels with the many day to day struggles we have but can’t change. The Willow Tree: A symbol of both the end of life and hope — The lack of leaves in act one signify that the characters are lost and have no direction; they talk of hanging themselves, possibly to escape from the endless waiting. However, in the second act the tree sprouts leaves, which can symbolize new hope as Estragon and Vladimir continue to wait.

the willow tree has great religious significance. In the Judeo-Christian tradition it represents, among other things, the promise of new life as well as chastity. But the willow symbol is even older than that, going way back to the strange, mystical world of Celtic antiquity. The willow is a symbol of harmony, of strength, of rootedness to the soil. But Estragon's none too impressed with the willow. Far from being a symbol of strength and stability, the willow tree has become for Estragon, at least, a source of uncertainty, an object whose integrity must be called into question. Vladimir soon s Estragon in his questioning of the tree's positive symbolic value. No more is it a site of salvation; it's simply an object from which you can hang yourself. In this expression of existential ennui, it's not just the creation that's being called into question, but the Creator himself. By contrast, Vladimir initially sees the willow in more conventional , excited as he is by the new leaves that seem to prefigure hope. But ultimately, he succumbs to despair through all that endless waiting. By the close of the play, the tree is no longer a symbol; it is a thing, something that just happens to be there. No more, no less.

Rope: Symbolizes being tied to one’s current situation, as Vladimir and Estragon are stuck waiting without a real idea of why. They even speak of being tied down to Godot, with implies that they don’t really know why they’re waiting but feel they must all the same. Lucky, also, is tied by a rope to Pozzo’s control, and cannot even think for himself without direction to do so. The rope is also used as a symbol of escape from being tied down, when the two talk of hanging themselves on the tree. Or time or power