Narrative Salvation in Waiting for Godot

Narrative Salvation in Waiting for Godol LOUISA JONES • CRITICS FREQUENTLY COMMENT ON BECKETT'S QUESTIONING of language and its tenuous links with the shadowy phenomena known as reality. On the one hand, language appears the only means to a sense of existence, the very form of being.} At the same time, in all of Beckett's works, the process of communication may appear circular, as if words referred back to themselves, never beyond. Characters discuss the meanings of the words they use, never concluding, so that the debate produces a sound pattern of rhythmically repeated words, a result remaining on the level of the language-object or signifiant? Linguists call language used for the examination of language problems "metalanguage," and Beckett constantly uses this device for evaluating the communication process. Strikingly parallel techniques appear in Beckett's presentation of narrative: one could perhaps speak of "metanarrative " elements in his works. The author continually emphasizes passages which raise questions about what "story" can mean, their dubious inconclusiveness expressing the same pessimistic ambivalences about narrative that other parts convey about language. Examples abound in all the works; the analysis of anyone would prove rich in implications. A typical passage is Beckett's favorite parable of the thieves at Calvary, as told by Vladimir to Estragon early on in Waiting far Gadat 3 Here we have an example of story within story, Gide's famous "mise en abime" approach, in which the microcosm reflects and comments on the macrocosm. Like Gide, Beckett is questioning the metaphysics of narrative. Beckett here recalls a Christian myth. In so doing, he not only borrows events from Christian literature, he also exploits certain Christian connotations of narrative, according to which history represents man's struggle towards salvation. He invokes the tradition whereby linear (narrative) time, 179 180 LOUISA JONES the progression from one point to another, is only possible after the fall out of Eden's eternity into sin. Story, in such a fallen world, takes on tremendous significance: whether in Biblical tales or in saints' lives, it represents the search for salvation. For individuals as well as for humanity in general, linear time leads to the last judgment which is then the denouement of history, the return to eternity. At the end of the tale lies an uncertain hope for salvation which, if reached, means the end of narrative struggle. Beckett also alludes to a later dimension of Christian narrative: the possible conflict between myth and history. Modern approaches to Christian literature have often stuck on this thorny problem: does a story mean more if it is historically verified? Or is its symbolic content - unverifiable myth sufficient ? In the sense that fiction is sufficient? Sufficient for what purpose? Beckett combines the original story-salvation association with modern questioning about modes of truth: what hopes can various treatments of story offer us, if any? The passage in question takes as its point of departure Estragon's discomfort with his shoe. Such intrusions - one might say invasions - by the physical world are a common means for disrupting dialogue and bringing any elan to a standstill.4 Here, however, Vladimir philosophically converts this digression into another train of thought: There's a man allover for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet. [He takes off his hat again, looks inside it, feels about inside it, knocks on the crown, blows into it, puts it on again.] This is getting alarming. [Silence. Vladimir deep in thought, Estragon pulling at his toes.] One of the thieves was saved. [Pause.] It's a reasonable percentage. [Pause.] Gogo ... (11) Typically, Beckett distracts attention from the message through gestures which are unrelated to the words spoken. Continuity is undermined even further by silences. Language is born out· of the material world with great difficulty, yet the need for it is irresistible. Vladimir is having trouble getting started; still, he manages a tenuous continuity. His first statement projects him beyond the particular situation which now becomes typical of a general plight. The French formulation, even stronger, has the force of a proverb: "Voila l'homme tout entier, s'en prenant a sa chaussure alors que c'est son pied Ie coupable" (9...