Proust and Redemption in Waiting for Godot

PROUST AND REDEMPTION IN IVAITING FOR GODar EVER SINCE ITS STORMY PREMIERE at the Parisian Theatre de Babylone in January, 1953, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has been the subject of a long and continuing series of ingenious interpretations, covering more than fiifteen languages, in which it has been variously asserted that the mysterious Mr. Godot stands for a bicycle-racer, a character in Balzac's Le Faiseur) Charles De 'Gaulle, death, and the Judeo-Christian God. Nevertheless, religious interpretations with Godot as a symbol of the redemptive God of Christianty seem to predominate . As Fowlie has pointed out, "the fundamental imagery of the play is Christian. Even the tree recalls the Tree of Knowledge."l Yet, although its pervading imagery is Christian, it is not really a Christian play or even a religious one in the usual sense. Pronko, I believe, makes an important qualification: "A Christian interpretation of Waiting for Godot seems justified-or rather an interpretation that considers Didi and Gogo as reflections of a writer nurtured on Christian tradition."2 Too many Christian interpretations have neglected to make this distinction and have accepted the play's religious imagery on face value, ignoring the apparent indifference of Codot toward those who wait for him in a tormenting state of taedium vitae. Indeed, in order to endure the boredom and the pain of living "in the midst of nothingness," Vladimir and Estragon have reduced life to the beguiling narcotic of habit: The air is full of OUTcries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener.3 In Proust) a profound little volume published in 1931 that may be as important a key to his own writing as it is to that of its subject, Beckett says: "Habit is the ballast that chains the dog to his vomit."4 And further on, he quotes a statement by Proust that might be applied 1 Wallace Fowlie, Dyonisus in Paris~ A Guide to Contemporary Theatre (New York, 1960), p. 214. 2 Leonard C. Pronko, Avant-Garde: The Experimental Theater in France (Berkeley, 1962). p. 34. 3 Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (New York, 1954), p. 58. All references to this play hereafter will be made to this edition and will appear in parenthesis. 4 Samuel Beckett, Proust (New York, 1931), p. 8. 175 176 MODERN DRAMA September conveniently to the desolate condition of Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot: Of all human plants, Habit requires the least fostering, and is the first to appear on the seeming desolation of the most barren rock.5 But even though existence and the long, interminable wait for Godot are made endurable by habit, they remain insufferable enough to evoke periodic thoughts of self-destruction. In the very opening moments of the first act, Vladimir voices regret that he and Estragon had not thought of suicide earlier: We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties .... Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel Tower among the first (p. 7). And shortly afterward, when Estragon looks "attentively" at the play's lone tree, he is-as though it waved despairing arms-overwhelmed with a desire for self-destruction: What about hanging ourselves? (p. 12) As a matter of fact, Estragon, at some time in the past, has apparently atempted suicide by drowning: ESTRAGON: Do you remember the day I threw myself into the Rhone? VLADIMIR: We were grape harvesting. ESTRAGON: You fished me out (p. 35). Finally, at the play's end-after Godot's little boy messenger or intermediary has come and gone with only another promise for the morrow -Vladimir and Estragon are still preoccupied with the death wish, and have agreed to hang themselves on the next day: ESTRAGON: You say we have to come back to-morrow? VLADIMIR: Yes. ESTRAGON: Then we ,can bring a good bit of rope. VLADIMIR: Yes. Silence. ESTRAGON: Didi. VLADIMIR: Yes. ESTRAGON: I can't go on like this. VLADIMIR: That's what you think. ESTRAGON: If we parted? That might be better for us. VLADIMIR: We'll hang ourselves to-morrow. (Pause.) unless Godot comes. 5 Ibid., p. 16. 1967 PROUST AND REDEMPTION ESTRAGON: And if he comes...