EXISTENTIALISM

What does it mean by “existence precedes essence”? Discuss waiting for Godot
as an absurd play.
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was born in Ireland and attended Trinity College in Dublin.
He spent extensive time in Germany and France, where he finally settled permanently.
He took part in the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation during World War II.
Beckett was among the mid-twentieth century writers whose work collectively is referred
to as the Theater of the Absurd. Influenced by existentialism, they portrayed life as
meaningless and produced plays that gave little attention to matters of plot, theme, or
characterization. Waiting for Godot is perhaps the most well known example of this
despairing view of the human condition.
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a play that presents conflict between living by
religious and spiritual beliefs, and living by an existential philosophy, which asserts that
it is up to the individual to discover the Meaning of life through personal experience in
the earthly world.
Waiting for Godot is a highly celebrated existential play. Existential philosophy says that
we human beings simply exist in a world that does not have any overarching moral
order or meaning. We are not essentially good or bad, we are what we make of
ourselves, what we think of ourselves and we are what we choose to believe. Questions
such as life, death, the meaning of human existence and the place of God in that
existence are among them.in waiting for Godot; all the four characters Estragon,
Vladimir, Lucky, Pozzo discuss the problems of existence and also questions their own
existence in an absurd way. As is shown in the play, they are waiting for an unknown
person called ‘Godot’ at an unknown place. All of them suffer from meaninglessness,
isolation, and frustration. As it happens, no Godot comes but ironically, a messenger
boy comes who informs that Godot will not come. Moreover, these characters become
fed up of waiting repeatedly. The word ‘waiting’ is universalized in the play, which is an
essential feature of any existential play.
"Existence precedes essence". There is no pre-existent spirituality or soul; no god,
Christian or otherwise; no cosmic compassion for human life; no salvation in heaven
and damnation in hell; neither preset destiny nor inevitable fate; and nor the
transcendence of our worldly existence.
In "The Humanism of Existentialism", Sartre insists, "there is no human nature since
there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but…
man is nothing else but what he makes of himself." Everyone must bear the
responsibility for their own existence, since it is not predetermined or shaped by any
external force; a subsequent anxiety is one of the aspects of human nature.
Nevertheless, the burdens of anxiety and responsibility are often too heavy to bear, and
we often seek to shift them on certain individuals, institutions, religions, or even on a
Godot.
Loneliness is the second aspect in Sartre's theory, which Heidegger identified as the
consequence of godlessness. In a blank futile universe devoid of purpose, design or
care – represented by the featureless Beckettian landscape or darkness in his later
works – Sartre finds human beings "alone, with no excuses", at the same time
"condemned to be free." Afraid of this isolation Estragon and Vladimir cling together
despite their quarrels, and Pozzo and Lucky do not untie themselves. This futility leads
to the third characteristic, despair.
Waiting for Godot is an absurd drama. In fact, absurd drama presents human life and
human situation as absurd. This type of drama is free from traditional plot, story of
division into acts and scenes. Here we get few characters. They have symbolic
significance. Dialogues are very short and crisp. Nothing significant happens on the
stage. It prefers existential themes. Things are not explained but they are merely hinted
at. One can find all these features in Waiting for Godot.
Lack of action is one of the major characteristics of an absurd play. There is nothing
significant in the play. So is the case with Waiting for Godot. In this play, nothing
significant happens except waiting and waiting. The waiting also becomes meaningless
because no Godot arrives. As soon as the play opens, we find Estragon, a tramp. He is
trying to remove his shoes. In an absurd play, and the characters generally lose their
identity. In Waiting for Godot, we find tramps as characters. They lose their identity in
Act II. Their relationship is in doubt. They spend the night apart. Life to them is an
endless rain of bows. Estragon and Vladimir have lost their identity. The other pair of
characters Pozzo and Lucky become blind and dumb respectively. Suicide is a
recurrent temptation.
Waiting for Godot deals with the absurdity of man's existence in this universe. When the
play starts, Estragon and Vladimir agree that they have nothing to do. They think that
they have lost each other. They admit that struggle has been of no use. Some time they
feel that they should jump from a tower and kill themselves. On other Occasions, they
want to hang themselves immediately with a tree. The existence of pozzo and lucky is
absurd. They become blind and dumb respectively.
“Waiting for Godot” is an existentialist play for it embodies Christian existentialism.
Christian existentialism stress the idea that:
I God only, man may find freedom for tension. In whole play, they do nothing to
change their miserable condition. Existentialism emphasizes on the practice of doing
something and creating a purpose while accepting existence in this world. Hence, they
have freewill to make their life better. They can come out of this situation and can give
their lives a meaning but they do nothing. Estragon’s dialogue is notable in this regard.
He says:
For Christian, existentialism religious leads to God, whereas according to the Atheistic
Existentialism, it is based on the idea of Jean Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger who
state that:
"Man is alone in a godless universe." The comparative study of both philosophies
helps us to prove "Waiting for Godot" as a Christian existentialistic play.
We know that man is confronting the problem of his existence is a being. He is striving
or his survival and to control the bridle of the pacing time. He is struggling to save his
"individuality" and this very idea leads to the philosophy of existentialism.
"Waiting for Godot" is related to man's mental condition. For instance, the major
problem for the tamps is to make time pass in such a way that they are last bothered by
it. Vladimir and Estragon constantly complain of the slowness of time passing and do
their best to hurry it with their futile diversions. Estragon says:
"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, and it’s awful."
However, we know that outside the natural time, its consequences flow on. For
example, the tree has grown five or six leaves. Pozzo has grown blind and Lucky dumb.
Here Estragon remarks:
"They all change, only we not." It should be noted that waiting the natural course of
time, they think they would believe themselves from all of their problems without doing
any effort. They might die naturally and save the effort of hanging themselves.
There is a distinction between the momentary and eternal time for it deals with the
question of existence and identity. This difference can also be seen in this play. In
"Waiting for Godot”, physical time is sometimes taken seriously and sometimes it is
ridiculed or condemned. Estragon once succeeds in confusing Vladimir about the
passage of time as well as about the day of week. In the same sentence, the tramps
speak of a million years ago and in the nineties. We have no reason to be certain that
the second description is anyone factual than the first.
The play "Waiting for Godot" has all the traits of existentialism both Vladimir and
Estragon represent the man in general who is facing the problems of his existence in
this world. They are interdependent like all other man. Hope for salvation is the subject
of play and is the problem faced by the completely human race. Representing the man
is general, the two tramps realize the futility of their exercise and we note that they are
merely filling up the hours with the pointless activity. Hence, their 'waiting' is mechanical
and deals with problem of existentialism.
This last part of the play symbolizes human situation. We do not know why and for
whom the tramps are waiting. Like them, we are also waiting for something. We are also
living in the same situation in which these two characters are living.
To sum up, we can definitely say that Waiting for Godot is a remarkable existential play,
as all the four characters Estragon, Vladimir, Lucky, Pozzo are always worried about
their lot and try to adjust in the dreary setting of life. They fight with the hopelessness
and meaninglessness of life. The uncertainty and unreliability with which Godot
surrounds them reveal the existential outlook of the play. At first sight, the play does not
appear to have any particular relationship with the human predicament. Nevertheless,
as we probe through the absurd dialogues we are confronted with the existential
elements visible in the play. The perplexed helplessness of the couple ‘Vladimir’ and
‘Estragon’ appeals to us as our own helplessness on this earth.