"Waiting for Godot” is one of the most recognizable plays. It stands as a symbol of contemporary theater, deeply ingrained in the culture of our society. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize and translated into nearly all widely used languages worldwide.
The play was written in the middle of the 20th century by an Irishman of humble origins, Samuel Beckett. It is strongly influenced by the events that tore Europe apart during that era. Born before the First World War, Beckett's life was steeped in blood and discord. "Waiting for Godot" is a play written on the backdrop of decades of military conflict. The First and Second World Wars, the emergence of terrorism and extremism in Beckett's homeland, Ireland, and the subsequent economic recessions.
Beckett is considered a pioneer of the "Theatre of the Absurd,".The genre is known for its humorous approach to often fatalistic and existential questions. Existentialism forms the philosophical underpinning of this artistic movement and, consequently, the genre often poses questions about the purpose, meaning, and value of life. "Waiting for Godot" is an excellent example of this. Existentialism, like Beckett himself, was heavily influenced by the discord in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. This philosophical movement attempts to make sense of a needlessly brutal and unjust life. The Theatre of the Absurd, in turn, denies that there is any meaning at all. Instead, life is chaotic, almost arbitrary, both in a humorous, innocent, and playful way and in a tragic, brutal, and diabolical way.
The plot of the play itself is simple. Two homeless, desperate, exhausted men stand under a bare tree and wait for "Godot" a mysterious figure to the audience and reader. We know that he holds power, and our protagonists expect salvation from him. The agonizing waiting of the two characters is interrupted only by a temperamental man named Pozzo and a slave named Lucky, as well as a young boy, a servant of Godot, who merely urges our heroes to continue waiting.
Several key symbols provide hints about some of the layers of content that Beckett has embedded in his masterwork. First, the tree itself, bare, impoverished, and barren. It offers neither food nor adequate shade for the characters; it offers only a branch on which they unsuccessfully try to hang themselves. The tree can be recognized as a symbol of mother nature, having turned her back on humanity, as well as loneliness and alienation, as it stands alone in a barren field.
The tight shoes that Estragon desperately tries to put on, which do not fit him and ultimately serve only as a marker of where he has been and whether he is going anywhere symbolize how the poor and unjustly treated have no place in society, there is no comfortable niche for them to fit into, and their lives constrict and torment them, like uncomfortable shoes.
The bones with which Pozzo feeds his slave Lucky, a biblical symbol of temptation, provide us with an opportunity for interpretation through the prism of Christianity. Pozzo is supposed to be the Devil tempting the weak, but he is also weak himself in the face of Vladimir and Estragon's determination. Godot, an obvious symbol of God who can deliver our heroes from suffering and bring purpose, direction, and peace to their lives. A God who sends only encoded messages through the boy character, perhaps a seraphim of sorts. A God who never comes, who never saves anything. Leaving our characters in waiting. In eternal oscillation between hell and heaven, in limbo, leaving them alive but beaten and tortured.
The lack of a final resolution, the barren tree and fruitless waiting, the inept Devil, and the absent God all perfectly describe the main problems of the Theatre of the Absurd and confirm its philosophical foundation: life is meaningless and chaotic, we attribute meaning and significance to it, for better or worse. As for God, He either does not exist or simply is not interested in human destinies.
These conclusions, of course, coincide with the author's profile. In the latter half of his life, Beckett abandoned religion and recognized himself as an atheist, precisely because of the absurdities of his own life.
"Waiting for Godot" is a masterpiece, a play that can be interpreted in countless ways, and certainly the one presented in this essay is not the only adequate one. But it aligns with the philosophy and historical context that surrounded its writing. Beckett was recognized with a Nobel Prize in Literature, and his works unquestionably capture the essence of the era in which he lived, as well as the eternal Sisyphean torment in human life.