Who is Godot

To what extent do you consider Waiting for Godot to be an existential play? The play Waiting for Godot leaves the audience still unsure of who this vital character is. Estragon and Vladimir are seen waiting for Godot, the all-important personality who never arrives. The character Godot is portrayed as the driving force of Estragon and Vladimir. The essence of these two characters is to wait for the arrival of Godot in an eager manner. The presence of the character Godot would reshape the destiny of the two characters who are kept waiting for him. The interpretation of the show by the characters Estragon and Vladimir that they want to give in yet they don’t is that this represents the situation in this life whereby people give up hope of a better living or seeing God.

Although the characters cannot determine the benefits of waiting for this Godot, they do not give up completely on waiting for him. It is clear that they do not precisely know the kind of a reward that they will get upon the coming of Godot. However, the reward seems to have the power to change their lives and destiny. Although Godot keeps on promising that he would arrive but does not fulfil the promises, his vagueness is the most absurd thing of the play and perhaps represents the idea that life and its meaning is unclear and may be nonexistent. Thus, the eye of the critic may simply lack the proper perception of the role played by the two protagonists. When analyzing the two characters, Vladimir represents individuals who see that religion and spiritual life is the best that they can ever live.

On the other hand, Estragon is seen as the ideal existentialist human being who decides to choose to put an end to the waiting and start of a better life. He prefers to construct a better life based on the experience he has already had in his life. This life is based on the tangible and physical environment that he is in. It is the ideal course of life advocated by the play. He, therefore, follows the notion of no longer holding on to empty hopes of religion for solutions to this life and opts to go for the philosophy of existentialism. Estragon is presented as progressively humanistic while Vladimir is seen as faithfully religious. This is depicted by the dialogue between the two of them.

Vladimir reply shows that he is being annoyed by being told to wait for Godot. Vladimir shows this kind of faith when the boy comes in at the end of both acts and informs him that the much-awaited Godot is about to come (Javaid & Nisar, 35). It can be seen that Vladimir never doubts about how truthful the boy's statement is or whether the boy has the knowledge and if any, how much of it about Godot. Vladimir only goes ahead to ask the boy about superficial things about himself, the brother of the boy and life at home. Vladimir never tries to question the reliability of the information that the boy delivers to him. He believes that it is spiritually wrong to question things of the spirit.