In Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, spend the entire duration of the text waiting for the illusory Godot, leaving the two in a cyclical and repetitive course of events while they wait for it to appear. Although the name itself suggests that Beckett intended Godot to symbolize God, a claim which the author denied, further analysis of the text suggests the hypothesis that Godot may not be a deity, but instead a representation of death. This is embodied in the overall notion of Vladimir and Estragon's habitual waiting, boredom and inability to kill themselves, proposing the idea that their situation may be a metaphor for the human experience, waiting for the release of death to set them free from the task. of reality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As seen in the main motif of time that reappears throughout the text, Vladimir and Estragon spend both acts literally waiting for Godot to arrive. In essence, the text suggests that both men have been under the tree for a long period of time, so long that they forget they were there before as each day is as insignificant as the next. As a result, “time had no meaning to them” (Bigham, “The Meaning Of Time As Depicted In Waiting For Godot”), which is evident when Estragon asks “Ah! (Break). Are you sure he was here?” (Beckett, age 8), unsure where he should greet Godot, despite having been there countless times before. Vladimir consciously expresses this belief when Pozzo announces his departure, claiming that "time has stopped". (Beckett, 37). Therefore, this reduced gravity of time and repetition brings to mind the idea that, as with all humanity, time and life have no real meaning, and are simply an extended sequence of waiting for death, as Vladimir and Estragon awaits Godot. In addition to the period of waiting they experience throughout the play, the meaning of boredom that Vladimir and Estragon often comment on also brings to mind existential ideas of death. This is particularly enunciated in the concepts raised by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who emphasized the idea that God is dead, and was also largely “interested in people hiding the meaninglessness of life and using diversions to escape boredom” ( Cline, “Existentialism”). Therefore, this correlates to the climate of Vladimir and Estragon's world as they continually attempt to satiate their boredom through the story of thieves, the topic of suicide, wearing boots, and other recreational activities, marking their actions with commentary standardized "IS". I'll pass the time.' Once again, Vladimir acknowledges the reality of their situation, this time in Act II, when he tells Pozzo that "We're bored... No, don't protest, we're bored out of our minds, there's no denying it." (Beckett, 92). Furthermore, another important clue pointing to Godot as the presence of death is Vladimir and Estragon's inability to commit suicide, which they casually discuss but are unable to carry out. In Act I, they realize that the tree will not support Vladimir's weight on the noose and therefore will not break his neck, while during Act II Vladimir and Estragon fail to hang themselves because they do not have the necessary piece of rope. Aside from the knowledge that the two view suicide as a means of boredom, their inability to end their own lives corresponds to the lack of free will they demonstrate throughout the text, as seen in their inability to actually do anything, which is seen in their inability to help. 2015