Lucky-Christ

             We as people do not take comfort in the strange and forbidding. Because of this, we try to find explanations or personal connections to everything in our experiences. It thus follows that any theatregoer will make an attempt to put the work in front of him or her into familiar terms, much to the dismay of a one Samuel Beckett. His attitude towards critics who attempt to impose values and ideas onto his work (on of utter contempt) is well documented. But he seems to give us no other choice by providing us with very strange and forbidding environments in his theatrical works. Each of these works has a few generally accepted "explanations," none endorsed by Beckett himself. Many critics say that Waiting for Godot (the only one of his theatrical works that I have seen in production, and therefore the only one I am qualified in the least bit to comment on) is wrought with Christian symbolism, especially symbols for a dying Christ. One such symbol is the character of Lucky.
             Lucky enters the world of Godot on a leash, held and followed by his master, Pozzo. Lucky carries Pozzo's luggage and acts as his slave, completely subservient and sedate, save when he violently lashes out against an attempt to comfort and when he is ordered, by Pozzo, to think. He is the subject of much discussion by two of the other characters in the play, a pair of Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin-type tramps by the names of Vladimir and Estragon.
             His arrival in each act is the first possible reference to Lucky as a saviour. Throughout the play the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, refer to Godot, the man for whom they wait. They cannot leave until he comes, for fear of punishment. This is popularly compared to waiting for rapture or the coming of God. Thus, when Lucky enters in the first act, seemingly alone due to the immense length of his leash, the first assumption by the two tramps is that this is the man they have been waiting for; this is G
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Lucky-Christ. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:09, April 20, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/32088.html