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Existentialism & Identity Crisis in 'Waiting for Godot'
Introduction:
Yesterday deform us, and we deform
yesterday – Existentialist Critics
The basic idea of Identity Crisis and Existentialism
is with thinking and here Rodin’s statute of ‘Thinker’ becomes a symbol.
What is Existentialism? What is the Identity Crisis?
How it is reflected in the play ‘Waiting for Godot’? These are the some
questions about which I have tried to give answers.
Brief about the author & The
Play:
The Play ‘Waiting for Godot’ is written by Samuel
Beckett and was published in 1952. The play was originally written in France
language and later translated into English language by Beckett him. He was born
on 13th April 1906 and died on 22nd December 1989 at the
age of 83. ‘Waiting for Godot’ is his one of the notable works. The setting of
the play is much similar to the painting ‘Longing’ by Caspar David Friedrich.
The play is divided into two acts. Critics
labeled the play “the strange little play in which ‘Nothing Happens’”.
Existentialism & Identity Crisis:
Existentialism is a movement in 20th
century philosophy and literature that centers on the individual and his or her
relationship to the universe or God. This existentialist label has been applied
to writers, philosophers, visual artist and filmmakers; the movement flourished
in Europe. What is Existentialism? To give answer to this question in very
simple words then one’s way of living life, the way an individual wanted live
life is existentialism.
The basic idea of Existentialism is do whatever you
want to do. Means there is the difference between ‘My World’ [Emotional]
and ‘Your World’ [Logical]. Generally our approach
towards society remains like this that ‘My
World is better than Your World’. There are two ways of looking toward
the society: one is Secular way of looking and another is religious way of
looking. If I start from the self then when somebody asks us who are you? Then
our answers must be like this that I am John or David or any other name. But
who said this that my name is so and so? Then our next answer must be like this
that my parents or relatives. Apart from this we don’t know much about
ourselves. Our names are related with our physical appearance only. But this
are the not appropriate answers for who am I? When we think about all these
questions then we find that everything is meaningless. Why? The answer is
because our ultimate destiny is death.
GWF Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Kafka, Sartre, Beckett, Beauvoir, Camus
these
are the well-known names in the field of existentialism. (Wikipedia)
Basically the existentialism asks us the question about our existence in this
universe. Why we are here? Who am I? The basic consult is search for the self.
That is why the existentialist critics would say that
our birth is not in our hand so at least our death must be in our hand. It
means the way I want to die I must be free to do so. And that is why other
critics say that Existentialism is a
negative criticism. That is way many critics would say that Existentialism is Nihilism. There is a
minor difference between existentialism and nihilism.
It is true that Existentialism talks about the death
idea but here death in the sense the philosophical death. Every day we wake up
in the morning, do our routine work and end of the day goes to our bed. Apart
from this we never tried to think about existence that why I am here? What is
my purpose in this human world? Who am I?
Among the most famous and influential existentialism
propositions is Sartre’s dictum.
“Existence precedes and rules essence”, which is generally taken to
mean that ‘there is no pre-defined essence to humanity except that which we
make for ourselves.’ For Sartre humans are fundamentally different from the
things like car, fan etc. before making a car we can say that what will be the
work of the car but about human we can’t say, and still we try to bind
ourselves in different identities. I.e. religious identity, family identity,
community identity etc. and then we see the clash between all these
identities.
Then next question arises in our mind that what is
identity crisis? The
concept originates in the work of developmental psychologist Erik Erikson who
believed that the formation of identity was one of the most important parts of
a person's life. (Kit)
Existentialism and Identity Crisis
in Waiting for Godot:
Basically the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ is an absurd
play. But from where this absurdity comes? When we think that from where I am
belonging, my being and my purpose in this nature. In the play the characters
are tramps. First of all this is a kind of new experiment which Beckett does
with his play. Generally tramps are those people who are out casted from the
society. Society never cares for their being. For the society this tramps are
insignificant, the same way for this tramps the society is insignificant. How
from time to time and person to person the point of view changes. And this is
known as Existentialism. May be according to nature we human beings are also insignificant.
So first of all let’s start with the setting of the
play. The setting of the play is inspired by the painting ‘Longing’ by Caspar
David Friedrich. So if here we focus on the word ‘Longing’ means deep desire of
something. This desire is connected with my desire. And when this word ‘My’
comes Existentialism also comes. May be the characters are in search of
something (Mr. Godot). May be this is the search of Beckett himself or let us
apply universal touch that may be this search is all of us. In our life each
and every mode we are always in search of something. All the time we want
something.
The second thing
is that we put lots of impression in our name. This very basic thing of human
nature is falsified by Beckett. We are not sure about the names of the
characters in the play. When the messenger comes to convey the message from Mr.
Godot at that time he calls Vladimir as Mr. Albert and Estragon calls Vladimir
as Didi so here the ambiguity about his name remains. The same way Vladimir
also calls Estragon as Gogo. So this thing is connected with existentialism as
well as identity crisis. Who they actually are? What they are doing here? I.e.
‘BOY:
Mister Albert . . . ? VLADIMIR:
Yes.’
Yesterday is
memory and tomorrow is hope. I.e.
‘ESTRAGON: I'd forgotten. VLADIMIR:
Extraordinary the tricks that memory plays!’ This play is in between this situation. Both the
tramps try to recall their memory and hope which is connected with the tomorrow
which is never going to come. Here this thing we can connect with us. We don’t
know about our last life, and we also don’t know about our future the only
thing we can do is hope. And still we go on living our present life. I.e. ‘BOY: Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won't come this evening
but surely tomorrow.’
Here we are talking about hope, we Hope for
everything. We hope for our home, we think that at the end of the day I will go
to my home. So with this at sub-conscious level there is also a fear that may
be I will lose my home. We connect this home with God. Existentialism is all
about the absence of the God from the universe. We think that there is God and
so if I will do wrong thing then God will punish me. But Beckett’s characters
are tramps. Means they must not be having home so they have no fear about
losing their home. Basically Existentialist critics would say think rationally.
Where God is not responsible for anything rather we human beings are
responsible for everything.
The other thing about Existentialism is that it talks about the repetitive nature of human beings. I.e. ‘ESTRAGON: I'm tired breathing.’
The other example of Identity Crisis is about the
name of Mr. Godot. We can say that Mr. Godot is may be the almighty God and we
are waiting about Him and the way it happened in the play He is never going to
come. We don’t know about God’s identity and that is way we creates different
identities of God the way we want to depict him. We have never seen God and the
same the characters in the play also never seen Mr. Godot.
Conclusion:
Existentialism
is the world where God is absent. We
are remembering God because there is lack of confidence in ourselves. And that
is why we are afraid of God. And that is why there is a kind of fear that I
will lose something. Everybody wants freedom and it is also good but the thing
is that we also have to be ready to pay the price of our freedom. There is Life plus anxiety and that is
why there is Existentialism in our life.
Works Cited
Kit, Advertising
& Press. Identity Crisis. 2015. 13 October 2015 <http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/childdevtheory.htm>.
Wikipedia, contributors. Existentialism.
27 October 2015. 30 October 2015
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism>.
Thanking You...
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