Existentialism in Waiting for Godot

In English we read a play called Waiting For Godot, a work classically known for its existentialist themes. It reminded me of what we talked about in class about the meaning of life, a subject about which the author, Samuel Becket, has a lot to say.

Becket uses his play to explore the condition of human insignificance. Becket takes a narrowly focused look at two pairs of people then delves into the importance of perspective and cycles in dealing with the human condition.
A key issue that surfaces in the piece is the insignificance of people. As members of the human race, people aren’t valued. A person is only one among a huge mass of self-interested people. In Waiting for Godot, Beckett shows the audience two couples of people who have deep and intricate relationships, but are insignificant to anyone else. Estragon and Vladimir have known each other for years and have become co-dependent on each other. Their value to each other is immeasurable. The case is comparable for Pozzo and Lucky. They are so emotionally bonded that they cannot be separated. Pozzo tries to get rid of Lucky by selling him, but it is evident that he is unable to do so. Vladimir and Estragon’s relationship and Pozzo and Lucky’s relationship, as monumental as they may seem to themselves, will never be important to the world.
Another issue explored is how cycles depreciate the value of life. For Becket, a cycle is one day and he makes each cycle distinctly separate from the one previous. Estragon can never remember what he has done the day before. All of his actions lose meaning because he will never remember them long enough to build on them. While Vladimir’s memory is much better than Estragon’s, he is still unable to connect the events of one day to the next. This circumstance prevents both of them from being able to ever make any progress. In a situation comparable to that of the legendary Sisyphus who pushes his rock up the mountain infinitely, each day Vladimir and Estragon start from scratch in dealing with their troubles. No matter how they push, they never reach the top. Like Sisyphus, they always start again at the bottom of the mountain.
Becket’s word choice reveals his strong opinions on existence. He repeats the phrase “Shall we go?" emphasizing a fixation on destination. In his opinion, life is mainly comprised of waiting. As Estragon says, “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes.” In that vein, it would be useless to measure life by what is gained. Instead, Becket is intent on destination. He looks to see if people can end the day in a different place then when they started. As Vladimir and Estragon are stagnant and fail to achieve a destination, it is clear that Becket concludes that people cannot, and therefore they bear no significance.
Becket makes comparatively little of the human experience. There is little meaning in the relationships between people when looked at the perspective of the whole world. There is also nothing gained in the span of one cycle or even in one whole life. His work deconstructs life and searches for its meaning and ultimately does not find much to explain why we exist.

Dana "Sunshine"