Purpose and Meaning of Human Existence Essay

One of the great ironies with respect to Samuel Becketts hold for Godot is that superstar of the worlds greatest plays is so poorly unders likewised. on that point atomic number 18, to be sure, m some(prenominal) conflicting interpretations. Precise radixs or intentions stupefy been tough to discern from the plays textual matter. These interpretive difficulties have been complicated by the occurrence that Beckett was often evasive when asked or so the exact intention of reliable characters in the play or the meat of the text.This is non meant to suggest that sealed ascendants and intentions bed non be determined, for there surely bug out to be certain thematic patterns, but instead to suggest that the play does appear in certain ways to be open to different types of interpretations. A review of the bookish texts and articles, for instance, reveals academic arguments to the nucleus that the play is about God, salvation, the French resistance to German occupation in the historical period in which the play was written, the purpose of piece innovation, and the kernelless of cartridge clip.With such(prenominal) a variety of interpretations, supported by specific references to the plays text and other historical circumstances, it would front nearly impossible to identify an overarching or unifying theme. A paying attention examination of the plays text, however, suggests that such a dominant thematic element tail assembly buoy be found. The thesis of this paper, therefore, is that the dominant theme in hold for Godot is the valet de chambre bes lookup for purpose and intend in a world that gracious beings either do not figure or cannot understand.In support of this thesis, this paper go away move to harmonize the different critical interpretations and demonstrate that the main characters through their intercourse on a number of different subjects consistently illustrate the clementkind bespeak for purpose and inwardness in a world that take c ars hopelessly beyond their comprehension. Critical Confusion and Multiple Interpretations Harmonizing Different Perspectives As an sign matter, before proceeding to an examination of the plays text, it is useful to defer the critical confusion that has arisen from multiple interpretations of the play.This is useful because even these different interpretations can be harmonized to some extant if the truly dominant theme of the play is said to be the gentle search for purpose and meaning in a complicated or complex world. It is well-established, for example, that the play presents a series of universal capitulums specific all toldy, as one academic has observed, Waiting for Godot, in many ways, simply extends those uncertainties Why be we here? Are we unaccompanied in an uncaring globe, or not?What be we to do firearm we argon here? How can we know? And, ultimately, what does it matter? (Hutchings x) These types of questions, to a spectacular extant, tr anscend many of the conflicting interpretations. If Godot is God, as some have argued, and thenly Vladimir and tarragon ar date lag for God. They freely admit that they are not particularly familiar with Godot and this admission reflects and reinforces the occurrence that these two human beings do not have a perfect knowledge of the creator of their world.If Godot is not God, as some have argued, then Vladimir and estragon are by chance waiting for some type of intellectual spark in fix to tell them why they are waiting, whether they should leave, or whether it might be infract to leave their spot by the channelize and take affirmative move to go and find the mysterious Godot. In either particular, whether Godot represents God or a figurative type of intellectual illumination, the core theme is one of two human beings who seem consistently unable to determine what to do.They shoot in a series of superficial conversations, they consider suicide as a way of ending their confusion, and in the end they lie unwaveringly planted on the country road frequently as the tree where they wait is firmly planted in the ground. Even if one is to assume, as some scholarly persons have, that the play is really an artistic allusion to the French resistance or the onset of the Cold War, this does not necessarily undermine the notion that human beings are somehow trapped within a world or social circumstances in which they have little control or little understanding.The important point, for purposes of this papers thesis, is that the conflicting interpretations can be transcended if one assumes that the transcendental theme is one most specifically connect to the human beings search for purpose and meaning in a confusing physical world. Whether Vladimir and tarragon are waiting for God, a real person, intellectual knowledge of social circumstances, or the laws of the globe is basically tangential to the concomitant that they are helpless in the circumstances that Beckett has created. They are petty, feeble, and plyive.The rest of this paper therefore proceeds from the assumption that the conflicting interpretations can be unified by treating the fundamental theme as the search for purpose and meaning in life. This fundamental theme will be discussed in the following sections by referring to specific features of the play. Significance of Human club Pairs, Dependence, and Shared Searches One of the most important structural features of the play is the fact that human beings are portrayed as being extraordinarily pendent and unable to exist in isolation or single(a)ly.This is most apparent(a) in the fact that the plays characters come in bridges and seem in many ways to be inseparable. The main characters, for instance, are Vladimir and tarragon. It would appear that they have arrived as a twain, they continue to wait as a pair, and although they never leave they do talk about leaving as a pair. They have different personalities, they would appear to have different backgrounds given(p) the different stories that they tell, and yet they seem unwilling or unable to remove and go their own ways.This notion of human inseparability, a vulgar panic or ignorance about the meaning of human existence, is particularly clear when Vladimir and estragon are discussing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the two thieves on the embrace next to Jesus. Specifically, the fear of being alone and the emphasis of human familiarity is provided in the following passage VLADIMIR Ah yes, the two thieves. Do you remember the grade? tarragon No. VLADIMIR Shall I tell it to you? ESTRAGON No. VLADIMIR Itll pass the time. (Pause. ) Two thieves, crucified at the same time as our Saviour. One ESTRAGON Our what?VLADIMIR Our Saviour. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other . . . (he searches for the strange of saved) . . . damned (Becket n. p. ) This passage illustrates the use up for human companionship and too the need for human beings to depend on each other. This companionship is necessary because human beings must face the uncertainties of the world and human existence to belongher. The dependence is gum olibanum caused by a fear that individuals will be unable to sleep with with these uncertainties whereas humans sharing these fears can at least confront these uncertainties together.This common bond, in short, helps human beings to deal with their confusion about the meaning of human existence better than if they pondered these questions alone. An examination of the entire play consistently reinforces these notions of companionship and dependence. Later on in the play, for example, Vladimir and Estragon are considering suicide and the pair again grow doctored that one will successfully act suicide and the other will fail. The prospect that one of them will croak and one will live is a frightening thought for two(prenominal) men because one will be unattended in shoemake rs last and the other will be unattended in life.Again, because the purpose and the meaning of human existence is unknown both in life and in death, the pair refuse to split up or pursue any consummation that might destroy their emotional and physical bonds. At another(prenominal) point in the play, Estragon states that There are times when I wonder if it wouldnt be better for us to part to which Vladimir responds sort of matter-of-factly You wouldnt go far. (Beckett n. p. ). The play could not exist as it was mean if the pair ever did separate.The quest for purpose and the meaning of human existence is therefore a common human quest earlier than an individuals personal burden. These notions of human companionship and a divided quest are even more powerfully presented with the human pairing of Pozzo and flourishing. In their first appearance, booming is a slave and yet he prefers being a slave and being dependent to being set free. Lucky is ridiculed, he is called a pig, an d yet he reacts angrily when someone other than Pozzo attempts to help him more particularly, he kicks Estragon in the shins.A verbalise scene in this respect is when Lucky appears to faint after leaping and giving his rather incoherent speech more particularly, Pozzo is deeply direful at the prospect of losing his slave when he says Dont let him go (Vladimir and Estragon totter. ) Dont move (Pozzo fetches bag and field goal and brings them towards Lucky. ) Hold him tight (He puts the bag in Luckys hand. Lucky drops it immediately. ) Dont let him go (He puts back the bag in Luckys hand. Gradually, at the feel of the bag, Lucky recovers his senses and his fingers finally dear round the handle.) Hold him tight (Beckett n. p. ) Even a human sweep over is dependent on his slave, the companionship of master and slave is intimate because both fear facing the uncertainties of life alone, and deal the bond that exists amongst Vladimir and Estragon, so too does a very real bond exist between Pozzo and Lucky. This bond is reinforced in the second act when Pozzo returns blind and his neck is tied to a rope being held by Lucky. Pozzo could not treat his slave and the slave is now leading the master.As if these two clues were not enough, Beckett included yet one more human pair to underline the common fears that human beings have about the purpose of their lives and the meaning of human existence. This final human pairing is the son sent as Godots messenger. The son and Godot constitute a final human pairing and the boy recounts to Vladimir and Estragon that Godot is real and that Godot beats my brother. (Beckett, n. p. ) Despite the beatings, the boy and his brother remain with Godot as is established at the end of the second act.This scene is also notable because it establishes that Godot exists and that the most essential human relationships are about the aforesaid(prenominal) human pairings rather than about Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot. The waiti ng, as it were, may simply be the context within which Beckett sought to establish the shared human bonds with respect to their confusion about the meaning of life. The question thus becomes how these dependent and mutually burdened companions ought to approach their lives.Function of Idleness d show of Action and Aversion to Failure In addition to their unwillingness to separate, Vladimir and Estragon seem also quite unwilling to commit to any performance despite a great deal of conversation. To be sure, the play is marked almost exclusively by dialogue rather than action. The pair brand on a series of seemingly endless conversations, most of them rather childish and inane, and these conversations in the end seem to represent a rather firm commitment to making no commitments at all.Vladimir, for example, recognizes this fear of action or commitment when he says to Estragon Let us do something, while we have the chance It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we are personally needed. Others would equate the case evenly well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too latterly (Beckett qtd. in Brater 147)Vladimir and Estragon, for all of their apparent desire to actually meet Godot, are wholly unprepared to take any affirmative stairs to actually go and locate him on their own initiative. They admit that time is passing, that they represent all mankind, and that it will be too late if they do not do something. It is this very unfitness to do something, an inability which they represent figuratively as all human beings, that characterizes their function in the play. There are several clues to the effect that they can find Godot if they were not inhibited or afraid in some way.First, Vladimir and Estragon have obviously followed a country road to the tre e where they are waiting for Godot. The fact that they have walked this particular country road, and selected this particular tree, suggests that they know in which direction the mysterious Godot resides. Presumably, if their actions were not somehow constrained, they would simply continue travel along the same country road until they found Godot. They could ask for directions or assistance along the way and they could become more active in pursuit of their ultimate destination.The problem, however, is that both Vladimir and Estragon perhaps do not know their precise destination. The second clue to the effect that the waiting of Vladimir and Estragon is a product of their own doing rather than Godots apparent tardiness is the fact that a boy appears twice in the play as a messenger. The boy admits quite literally that he and his brother know Godot, that they are employed or otherwise beholden to him in certain respects, and that he will return to Godot as soon as his message has be en provided to Vladimir and Estragon.Why, then, could they not have simply followed the boy home to Godot? Indeed, this is a curious question that can only be resolved if one assumes that Godot is unsuitable to the waiting. some interpretations, it must be acknowledged, have suggested that Beckett mean Godot as God and that they boy messenger was intended as a type of angel ( Mercier 27) such an interpretation, whether accurate or not, does not undermine a thesis to the effect that the predominant theme remained mans tentative quest to understand himself and the universe in which he lived.This is true for a couple of reasons. First, when asked whether he intended Godot as God, Beckett repeatedly stated that there was never intended to be any relationship between Godot and God. Presumably, the plays precedent knows what was intended. That many interpretations have focused on Godot as God, however, is not surprising. The name calling are almost the same and the quest to understand the spirit and the meaning of human existence necessarily implicates some questions related to God and how the universe was created.Thus, although these interpretations are somewhat rational, the evidence that can be derived from Becketts own statements and the plays text taken as a undivided counsel against such an interpretation. God is relevant, as one possible chronicle for the meaning of human life, but Godot is no more God than Vladimir and Estragon are hoping for salvation. Godot is Godot and the human pair waiting by the tree are seeking understanding and illumination rather than salvation. Second, the plays theme is more about the waiting and the rational underlying the waiting than it is about Godot.The entire play, to be sure, takes place in one setting. Other settings, including Godots, are tangential and not central features of the plays structure. The waiting, in this respect, transcends the irrelevant character vaguely known as Godot. One leading scholar of the pl ay has noted how the waiting is more important than Godot by leaning that The plays minimal plot and action are accurately described in its title throughout the duration of the play, and throughout an undeterminable amount of time that elapses in their lives, the two central characters await an event that does not happen and may never happen.Meanwhile, necessarily, they pass away their time in some- times abrasive conversation, in chance encounters with a pair of odd passersby, and in expressions of mutual if sometimes exasperated compassion and the long-standing concern that can develop only between inseparable friends. (Hutchings 23) Taken together, the better argument that one can derive from the plays text is that there is a dominant theme that dominant theme, in turn, is that human beings are collectively and inseparably bound together by the fact that they do not know the purpose of the human race or the meaning of their own existence.Such a lack of knowledge encourages cl oser types of human dependence and simultaneously inspires caution, uncertainty, and fear. All the while, amidst this uncertainty and fear, time passes by and all human beings are faced with dying without ever having mute why they existed in the first place. Life is a tree to which we are all tethered much in the same way that Vladimir and Estragon were figuratively tethered. Conclusion In conclusion, Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot is best read as an artistic rendition of the greatest human dilemma of all time.Human beings, in this respect, are born with an imperfect knowledge of themselves and of the universe in which they exist and are expected to function. This imperfect knowledge lends itself to much speculation of the purpose and meaning of human existence, as the many religions somewhat the world forcefully attest to, but in the end it is nought more than idle and meaningless speculation. Godot, whether he is God or not, is irrelevant in the play. It is the waiting, the search and the confusion that all human beings share, that is the plays common lamentation.That all of the critics tend to characterize the play as disaster or comedy somewhat misses the plays essential nature as a lamentation for a quest for knowledge that can never be fulfilled. We are better advised to forget Godot and get on with living rather than waiting for divine inspiration that will probably never arrive.Works CitedBeckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Samuel Beckett. net Brater, Enoch. The Globalization of Becketts Godot. Comparative Drama 37. 2 (2003) 145+. Questia. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Hutchings, William. Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot A Reference Guide. Westport, CT Praeger, 2005. Questia. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Mercier, Vivian. The Uneventful Event. The Critical repartee to Samuel Beckett. Ed. Cathleen Culotta Andonian. Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1998. 95-96. Questia. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.