Godot
is one of the riddles of Beckett’s play called Waiting for Godot. Neither the
author nor the critics do know exactly who Godot is. The audiences are only
left guessing about him. When Beckett was asked who or what was meant by
‘Godot’, he replied, ‘If I know, I would have said so in the play’. By such a
statement, we should not, however, conclude that Beckett actually did not know
about Godot. He wanted his readers and critics to interpret ‘Godot’ in various
ways suitable to them. Thus there is a variety of interpretations of ‘Godot’.
Waiting for Godot Imply for the Characters on Stage and for the Audience
To
the two tramps, Godot represents peace, rest from waiting, a sense of having
arrived in a place that provides shelter and comfort. His coming means that they
will no longer be tramps, homeless wanders, but will have arrived home. They
wait for him even though his coming is by no means certain.
Although
Godot fails to appear in the play, he is as real a character as any of those
whom we actually see. Godot very much exists for the tramps and he directs the
course of the evening for them. The tramps need Goodot, to give a meaning to
their universe. They depend on his arrival. So long as Godot does not come,
everything that happens is only provisional. Indeed Godot dominates the play
even though he does not appear at all. Although he is, at best, a dimly
remembered acquaintance, a general image of Godot does emerge in the play; so
the two are able to form at least a vague picture of him in our minds.
We
learn from the conversation of the tramps that Godot lives in the capitalistic
world of ‘family’, ‘agents, ‘correspondents’ and a ‘bank account’. The tramps
identify him with power and authority. To the boy who brings his message, Godot
has a white beard and his life is occupied by his mastery over the sheep and
the goats. Godot favours this boy who is a goat-boy but beats the boy’s brother
who is a shepherd. The two tramps feel uneasy about Godot. When the time comes
to meet him, they will have to approach him ‘on their hands and knees,’ and if
they stopped waiting for him he would punish them. Thus Godot has several
traits in common with the image of God as depicted in the Old and New
Testament.
However, several critics advise the reader not
to bother too much to know about Godot. The play is about ‘waiting’ and not
about ‘Godot’. If so, who is this waiting for? It is for Godot. Perhaps Godot
means only something for which one waits vainly, some promise that remains
unfulfilled, some hope that does not materialize.
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