Waiting for a Nihilistic Godot in a Godless World: A Critical and Speculative Quest for the Highly Absurdist Character 'Godot'
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is an icon of absurdist theatre that examines the existential nihilism, hopelessness, and human condition in a godless universe from the play's subtext. The play follows Vladimir and Estragon in their ceaseless wait for the titular Godot, whose absence symbolizes the futility of existence. From a Nietzschean perspective, the analysis contrasts nihilistic ideas such as ressentiment and asceticism with passive endurance in characters and features their cyclical suffering and fictitious salvation. The essay unpicks grounded meaning by comparing Godot's elusive identity—divine surrogate, panoptic authority, postmodern construct—against Derridean deconstruction. Beckett's ironic and absurdist mastery highlights the play's defiance of definitive meaning and reflects the post-war chaos of modernity. Overall, Waiting for Godot captures the essence of the absurdity found within human endurance in a world that has no reason.
Author: Sumit Saha
Language: English
Topic: Samuel Beckett and Modernism
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6930865380
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: