What Is The Meaning Of Godot?
Who Is Godot? What Does He Stand For?
The first question that comes to mind after reading or watching Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot is who is Godot? or What is Godot a symbol of? The dramatist too does not specifically mention who or what Godot is. The audience too are left guessing. When Beckett was asked who or what was meant by Godot, he replied," If I knew I would have said so in the play." However by such a statement we should not conclude that Beckett actually did not know about Godot. He in reality, wanted his readers to interpret Godot in various ways suitable to them. Hence a variety of interpretations have been proposed regarding Godot, since the publication of Beckett's waiting for Godot.
Many critics suggested that the word Godot is a diminutive form of the word God. But Beckett denied any association of Godot with God. He said to Ralph Richardson that, " ... if by Godot I meant I would have said God and not Godot." However, Beckett did once concede- "It would fatuous of me to pretend that I am jot aware of the meanings attached to the word Godot and the opinion of many that it means God... it was somewhere in my unconscious and I was not overtly aware of it." Now, if we match this statement of Beckett with the fact that Beckett often stressed the strong unconscious impulses which partly controlled his writing, then surely we can safely say that there is something God-like about Godot.
Vladimir and Estragon wait in the hopes that Godot will save them. They worry that, if angered,he might punish them. They have made prayer to him. They ant be sure if he exists. He is perpetually absent, but human representatives speak of him in veiled terms. All these hint at Godot being a God-like figure. These characteristics make Godot a very different kind of deity unlike the cruel, self-centred, potentially divine Pozzo.
Will Godot Arrive In Waiting For Godot?
The problem is, these differences are precisely the reason Godot cannot ever really show up. The type of God Godot seems to be is omniscient and omnipresent, a personal God without extension which exists outside the boundaries of time. It is therefore impossible for him to take physical form and exist at any given moment to interact with Vladimir and Estragon. If Godot ever did show up, it would mean he was not Godot- atleast not as Vladimir and Estragon define him. This renders all waiting, all the non-action and banality of Vladimir and Estragon useless.
One character in Waiting For Godot does realize this fundamental predicament and makes what is perhaps some sort of attempt to communicate it to the others -- it is Lucky. This is made clear in his speech in Act-I. Unfortunately for all the mankind that Vladimir and Estragon represent, everyone misses this delightfully useful piece of information. But Didi does manage to gain something from Lucky's rambling- the fact that Godot has a white beard . While this serves absolutely no purpose for Vladimir, it provides for us- the readers/audience- another hint that Godot is the God that Vladimir has in my mind.
SO the fact that Godot can never show up is depressing. But there is an alternate explanation that provides some possibility of redemption. The theory is that Godot has already arrived. He is just part of the characters on the stage. Pozzo clearly has divine attribution and there is the phonetic confusion of his name (Pot-so) with that of God-Oh. Then there are the nick names of Estragon and Vladimir- Gogo and Didi- which together are reminiscent of the name in question. Even Lucky becomes a Christ-figure when we take a closer look. He is abused and made to suffer while bears this sort of 'crucifixion' in silence. And Lucky himself has long white hair. Godot could be any of these men or he could be all of them- that certainly fits with the idea of Godot as omnipresent and without concrete form. Beckett wrote the play in the post-world-war period. So, is not possible that Beckett is teaching us to help each other instead of fighting with each other in order to meet with our personal Godots, our personal goals?
The interpretation of Godot changes from person to person, from circumstance to circumstance. When the play was performed in San Quentin prison, the setting brought an un-expected reading to the play- one of unmitigated realism. The prisoners had no difficulty in understanding what the play was about- it was about them and thier situation. Godot was the outside world, the society. They knew what it was like to wait and kill time- for release, for parole, for appeal,l for letters, for nothing. Again, in November 1989, the success of the Velvet revolution led the crowds to shout that Godot had arrived. During the period of martial law in the early 1980s in Poland, 'we are wating for Godot' became a subverse way of declaring that one wanted the regime to fall.
Thus who Godot is depends on who reader is, at what point of life he is reading the text and in which country he resides in. He may represent a hope, some promise or some development to happen.
Lastly, the question that hurts like a thorn is whether Godot will atlast come. Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot. The nature of human beings is to wait. Whether we wait for a better job, a more faithful lover, boots that fit, a better tomorrow, or Godot- is not important. The important thing to note is, without this waiting there would be nothing to live for. The tramps must wait in order to evade the realization that there is actually no Godot, that there is npthing to wait for, that there is no saving. The conscious realization that they are the ones who have who have invented their own Godot might just snap the last thread that connects them to the world. Deep down Vladimir and Estragon know that Godot will never come but to have meaning to their existence, they have to wait for Godot-
Vladimir- Well? Shall we go?
Estragon- Yes. Let's go.
[THEY DO NOT MOVE]
Sk Marifur Rahaman Sources,
+917003807898 1. Waiting for Godot,
http://facebook.com/rahaman123 Longman study edition
2. Shmoop
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