Waiting For Godot
Discuss the Ways in which Form and Visual Element of Waiting For Godot Reveal Beckett's view of the Meaning of Existence.On the surface Waiting for Godot is a hopeless play and was summed up by Jean Anouilh 'Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it is terrible'. However, Waiting for Godot is also a play primarily about hope in a hopeless situation. The act of waiting for hope to arrive. The subject of the play quickly becomes an example of how to pass the time in a situation which offers no hope. Beckett's meaning of existence therefore revolves around hope, hopelessness and chance. He uses various concepts and objects to represent tis ideas such as the hat, the tree, the boots and the bible.The meaning of the human life is an unanswerable question as it varies from person to person. Existentialism is an idea raised in this play, that is a theory emphasising the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development. The underlying premise of Waiting for Godot is that chance is the determining factor behind existence and thus human life is controlled by chance. This notion is established early on in the play when Vladimir mentions the parable of the bible.
It is never clear whether or not Godot is real or not and in both acts Vladimir and Estragon mistake Pozzo as being Godot. Both tramps try to distract on another from the endless wait by arguing over very petty and pedantic topics. They have never seen Godot nor will they ever see him. The objects take on greater importance and this symbolises chaos as the dominating force in the world. Time has no meaning as a world which is based on chance can have no orderly time sequence. He tells Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not becoming today but will surely come tomorrow, thus signalling hope, giving them something, a reason to wait. The only contact with Godot comes via a messenger boy who cannot remember anything, another indication of the absence of a meaningful time sequence. Beckett uses this change in Pozzo and Lucky to show us that human life is meaningless because time is meaningless. They contemplate suicide but that would mean that they would not be there when Godot finally does arrive, this being the mutual goal of both men. The world is Waiting for Godot is one without any meaningful pattern. Pozzo becomes irritated and responds violently 'Don't question me'. There is continuos, cyclic pattern to the events in Waiting for Godot. There is no guarantee that even when Godot comes they will be saved but the hope that Godot will bring change to their lives is enough to empower them to keep waiting. The situation of both Vladimir and Estragon is totally hopeless yet they continue to wait as they have faith and hope that one day Godot will come.
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