Discuss Becket’s dark vision of existence. / Assess a
comparative study on Vladimir and Estragon.
Samuel Beckett, the
existentialist has projected his dark vision of existence in his absurd drama Waiting
for Godot. Existentialism proposes that man is full of anxiety and despair
with no meaning in his life, just simply existing, until he made decisive choice
about his own future. That is the way to achieve dignity as a human being. The
concept of existentialism became popular during the Second World War in France,
and just after it. One of the major playwrights during the Second World War was
jean-Paul Sartre. Other popular playwrights were Albert Camus, and jean
Anouilh.
Right after the Second World War,
Paris became the theatre capital of the west, and popularized a
new form of
surrealistic theatre called “Theatre of the Absurd”. Many historians
contribute the sudden popularity of absurdism in France to the gruesome
revelations of gas chambers and war atrocities coming out of Germany after the
war. The main idea of the “Theatre of the Absurd” was to point out man’s
helplessness and pointless existence in a world without purpose. As Richard Coe
described it, “It is the freedom of
the slave to crawl east along the deck of a boat going west”. Two of
the most popular playwrights of this time include Samuel Beckett, who’s most
famous piece was Waiting for Godot, and Eugene Ioensco with Exit the
King. The play, Waiting for Godot proves the pointless existence of
man. It reveals the human condition at its absolute worst.
In certain respects Backett’s
work is quite different from that of Sartre and other early exponents of
Existentialism. However, there is sufficient resemblance between the standpoint
of Beckett and that of the Existentialists to warrant a comparison of the two
and to study Waiting for Godot as a play having Existential elements.
The play deals with the absurdity of man’s existence in this universe. The
world presented in the play is full of boredom, meaninglessness; and life is
without purpose. Man may wait ceaselessly for the end of his suffering and
misery, yet he would find that there is no end for human misery.
