Waiting For Godot Religion Essay

The Christian Explanation of Waiting for Godot

"The human predicament described in Beckett's first play is that of man living on the Saturday after the Friday of the crucifixion, and not really knowing if all hope is dead or if the next day will bring the life which has been promised." --William R. Mueller

In the five decades since Waiting for Godot's publication, many of the countless attempts to explain the play have relied on some variation of this religious motif proposed by William Mueller. Though Beckett's open text invites the reader to hunt for an interpretation, statements as decisive as this one overstep the search and leave little room for any other possibility. His idea has a compelling textual basis,

If Mueller's likening of this book to the interim between crucifixion and resurrection really is accurately, perhaps Beckett's most biting statement is that Sunday closes without any coming. Vladimir probably offers the best summary of the author's views when he utters, "Hope deferred maketh something sick" (8). Throughout the play Beckett gives a glimpse of the interminable waiting that faith demands, shaded by the view that it is unnatural and unwise. He also makes clear notice of the unnatural significances shown to religion. Perhaps this examination itself demonstrates the extremes to which people will go to extract religious significance. Very early in the play Vladimir first introduces the notion of religion as he asks, "Did you ever read the Bible?"(8). Estragon, with all possible profanation, responds, "the Bible...I must have taken a look at it...I remember the maps of the Holy Land. Coloured they were. Very pretty" (8).

In the end, is there sufficient evidence to draw so heavily on a religious motif in this play? Though Beckett surely intended some degree of meaning to the religious undertones, in making our case we have fallen into one of Beckett's most wily traps. In a play to which there can simultaneously be assigned no meaning and infinite meaning, we have obstinately found an explanation. As Kenneth Tynan suggests, "Waiting for Godot frankly jettisons everything by which we recognize theater." We have tried to apply our methods of dealing with all other drama and in doing so have violated this