This
paper explores the state of modern man presented in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Moreover, the study highlights
Beckett’s depiction of man’s belief of waiting for his survivor to come for his
help. Beckett juxtaposes modern human psyche with hope or pursuit of happiness
in one way and in other way he shows the absurdity of human life. Beckett
presents two major characters Vladimir and Estragon who go on waiting for
Godot. They represent today's human psyche. If we go into the street of any
city we can see everyone running, fighting or craving for the same Godot but actually
they also don’t know what he/she/it is. But everyone is just behind it; waiting
for it or dreaming to attain Godot. In this sense we all are Vladimir and
Estragon. Therefore, here in this writing I will show how Beckett appeals to
this modern time with his writing from the twentieth century’s writing.
At
the turn of the 20th century, a crisis in Enlightenment humanism had
began to emerge; from the ashes of a dying romantic era, a cultural revolution
known as the modernist movement arose as a progressive force promising to
liberate humankind from ignorance and irrationality. Weary from the weak,
unchanging patterns of Victorian writing, a collection of writers sought to
break away from pre-existing ‘dead-end’ methods of creating literature by
exploring new styles which were expressed in their prose and poetic works.
Placing a greater emphasis upon experimentation, modernist writers took a great
interest in purposely disorientating their readership with fragmentation and
elements of the absurd. As the play is
postmodern writing, it centers on the theme of meaningless life as Julie
Armstrong suggests, "The essence, therefore, of post-modernity is that
there is no essence" (98). A conscious experimentation with language to
express both its powers and limitations became apparent components in a vast
body of modern literature. While the previous era embodied a strong connection
to nature in the belief this relationship was crucial for man’s development as
an individual, modern writers displayed little interest towards the natural
world. Instead, an established vein of modern thought developed that progress
as an individual was dependent upon directing the eye inward.
One
particular modernist who became fascinated with the idea of the individual and
perception was to be the Irish playwright, Samuel Beckett. A key piece of his
work which has been heralded as a defining piece of modernist literature is his
abstract play, Waiting for Godot. Frequently noted for its
minimalist style, Beckett’s absurdist play has invited a multiplicity of
possible interpretations. While Godot does technically still
reside in the ‘modern’ bracket of literature, elements of a postmodern nature
can also be subtly detected within Beckett’s work; the characters of Vladimir
and Estragon for example, have been noted to resemble the tragic comedic
figures Laurel and Hardy, as their methods of ‘passing the time’ act as a
pastiche to classic American Vaudeville routines. The play thus appears in what
Robert Scholes states, Beckett's play "challenging traditional forms of
theatre, they ultimately challenge traditional view of human existence,
suggesting that it may be as illogical, as absurd, as the dramatic spectacles
they portray" (1272).
For writers who use absurdist
techniques, the world is incoherent, illogical, nonlinear, and irrational. The laws of cause
and effect don’t operate, language ceases
to have any inherent meaning, numbers and places are only arbitrary, and it all winds up being
so horrible you can only survive by laughing at the absurdity of trying to find meaning where
there is none. (240)
Within Beckett’s play, a
palette of primarily modern features can be identified as the two primary
protagonists await the arrival of an absent character named ‘Godot.’ Awaiting
this absent person, Vladimir and Estragon perform an array of activities to
pass the time, from silly things such as playing games and swapping hats, to
darker matters such as contemplating suicide. Vladimir and Estragon resemble
the activities of modern man in the play. Today’s man is also waiting some
unknown in his or her each and every action. From buying a latest model of
mobile, car, cloth or any artifact, there is always a craving of that unknown
Godot. That Godot, who never comes in any good. But we go on seeking shadow of
Godot in our each and every action. Parents grow children in the hope that one
day they will arrange a meeting with that Godot. So, they send them school so
that they will find some way to know Godot. They go to college, get married, do
job, give birth to new generation and go on hoping one day they will meet Godot
and be happy. But that Godot never comes. Human grows old and finally in death
bed also he/she hopes till last breath of have a small glimpse of that Godot.
But no one ever got any chance to meet Godot. So, the characters of Waiting for Godot not only resemble the
story of every modern human but it mocks on the existence of meaningless
repetition of same waiting since time immemorial. Because of this endless
repetition today human has reached to such a state that he/she even doesn’t
notice the fault on doing so. It has become a ritual of life. “Everyone does
so, so I do it.” That’s the answer of each individual. Beckett artistically
depicts that true picture of modern man in this play. Between Waiting
For Godot and The Myth of Sisyphus, we learn a little bit about the redundancy of
our lives; "Habit is a great deadener." Vladimir states near the end of the
play.
Human in many ways has become puppet
in the hand of system created by big multi-international companies, corporate
organizations, big companies and brands. Human follows the trend which actually
is just a conspiracy against him. Unknowingly he goes to the market and asks
for cold drink and gets coca cola and drinks even though he probably was
thinking to drink water. But water is not banded as coca cola till today. Human
mind is poisoned by the slogan such as “cold means coca cola” and many other
slogans which actually is poison against the free will. We are not free in this
sense. We go to market and by only those things that are popular, or are
advertised. We never buy the advertised cheap things. We rather buy expensive
things but don’t relay in not advertised thing. In this way, we all are
hypnotized to act, be and react in certain order. Because of so many stimuli in
the city people develop blaze attitude and alienate the being of individual. Because
the city is so impersonal and objective as Georg Simmel, German sociologist,
philosopher, and critic even sees a "regression of the culture of the
individual" in his era, where individuals try extra hard to be unique in
whatever ways remain open and haven't been legislated or subordinated to
economic efficiency.
From one
angle life is made infinitely very easy in the sense that stimulations,
interests, and the taking up of time and attention, present themselves from all
sides and carry it in a stream which scarcely requires any individual efforts
for its ongoing. But from another angle, life is composed more and more of these
impersonal cultural elements
However, Vladimir
and Estragon are in a complete state of unconscious and uncertainty because
they do not have the knowledge about Godot. They do not know where they are
going to have a meeting with Godot. They know nothing about Godot except the
“white beard” (37) Godot has. Belief, knowledge and experience give justify
man’s indications to his religion. Vladimir and Estragon have bad faith of
coming Godot for their salvation. Vladimir and Estragon are identical to each
other as if they are identical to all human kind. Lucky and Pozzo also are
interconnected with each other with a rope. There is not any specific
relationship between the characters of Waiting for Godot. As if they are
representing other part of humans who have their own pain and sorrow and have
no hope of any one to come and give salvation to them. They are in the same
relationship in which all human beings are tied to each other. Beckett’s
religious quest is clearly shown when both of his characters in muddle ask
themselves that why are they here? They did not get answer instead of their
consistent attitude towards their waiting for Godot. One more thing is
noticeable in Beckett’s play that there is no escape from their life except
having belief on their salvation according to their deeds. Despite Pozzo
becomes blind, Lucky did not flee. Beckett does not show the way to escape
humanity from their solitude, but he wants his characters to stay there in same
estrangement and keep on waiting for their savior. All the characters of the
play are not living in their selves but they are dependent and interconnected
to each other and are not free and independent.
In conclusion, the play depicts the modern man seems to
be free in nature but he does not let him free from his worldliness. This play depicts the condition of modern man and is a
mock. He becomes again a slave of his desires and materialistic attitudes due
to which he makes a distant between him and his divine power. The more man
becomes materialist the more he gets away from his self. Chaos and despair
would be found everywhere as it is depicted in Beckett’s play. In the play, the
two vagabonds are in a continuous wait for Godot, the survivor to come and save
them from ultimate disparity and desolation. It is their belief and commitment
that let them tied with their faith of salvation. Modern man is also in the
same scenario of Vladimir and Estragon. Thus, the whole play can also be
applied while analyzing the beliefs and commitments of Vladimir and Estragon to
the commitments and beliefs of modern man.
Works Cited
Armstrong,
Julie. Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers.
London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Rush, David. A
Student Guide to Play Analysis. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 2005.
Sholes,
Robert, Nancy R. Comley, Carl H. Klaus and Michael Silverman, editors. Elements
of Literature. Oxford University Press, 1978.
Simmel, Georg. "The
Metropolis and Mental Life". The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Ed.
Kurt H. Wolff. The Free Press, 1950.
Wikipedia
contributors. "Waiting for Godot." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4 Apr. 2018. Web. 17 Apr.
2018.
Lane, Richard J. editor. Global Literary Theory : an Anthology.
New York :Routledge, 2013. Print.
