He does not tax his mind with the memory of the past, of time and date. He has to suffer for being an intellectual.Įstragon, on the other hand, has a mind that is a clean slate. Hugh Walpole observes : “The world is a comedy to those who think, the world is a tragedy to those who feel.” But Vladimir gives the lie to this statement, and suffers intensely in spite of thinking. His ability to think is also a source of suffering. Vladimir suffers unbearable agony arising out of spiritual questionings. They, then, stop talking and resort to thinking. ![]() Vladimir wants to meet the challenge of time by having recourse to idle talks and harangues playfully abusing each other doing the tree, antics and exercises, playing at Pozzo and Lucky-all traditional pastimes. Knowing full well that “Habit is a great deadner”. He chooses to live in the world of spirit, and asks: “Was I sleeping while others suffered ?” Pozzo philosophies that man has an inevitable passage from the womb to the tomb : “One day we were born, one day we shall die.” Vladimir does not philosophize. They don’t know if Godot will come today or tomorrow. The two tramps have lost all sense of time. It is here that Estragon and Godot represent the hopeless and helpless suffering humanity. They are equally ignorant and helpless, pitted against the inexorable and enigmatic Godot. Here Estragon and Vladimir are on the same footing. “ All my life”, he continues, “I’ve compared myself to Christ”. All that he knows of the Bible is from a lonely picture of the Holy Land. Estragon does not seem to have read the Bible, and, therefore, does not know that what the four Evangelists have said about the redemption and damnation of the two thieves, crucified by the side of Christ on Mount Calvary. ![]() He knows Latin and has read the Old Testament as well as the New with avid care. Vladimir faces the reality.īoth Vladimir and Estragon have to share the intolerable boredom of waiting. Estragon wants to forget his past as well as the stark reality. He has only one mental weakness, his hat constantly pricks him. Vladimir, however, is serious about salvation. He waits for God not so much for spiritual salvation as for some material benefit. Once he had thrown himself into a river to put an end to his dreary existence, and Vladimir rescued him. His boots constantly pinch him, and he whines like a child. Estragon dreams, for by dreaming he can withdraw from the alien and hostile world.
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