Meaning Of Death Essays - Theatre Of The Absurd, Waiting For Godot

Meaning Of Death Essays - Theatre Of The Absurd, Waiting For Godot Meaning Of Death Death is a word that we know and fear, but what exactly does the word death mean to you? The end of life? The end of time? The end of hope? Wellmaybe. Some see Death as a messenger sent by god to take away people's lives. For some people, death is the worse of the worse thing of all, but for the protagonists in the plays Amadeus and Waiting for Godot death is something that they do not fear. They actually want to die or use death as a tool to achieve a certain goal. Although this might sound odd, there is a solid logic behind it. While death is a significant theme in both plays, the meaning of death between the two plays varies. In the play Waiting for Godot, Estragon and Vladimir were trapped in the days simply waiting for Godot. Throughout the two days of the play, most of the things that happened on the second day were identical to those happened on the first. The days always began with Estragon coming back from the ditch and meeting Vladimir; Estragon tries to take or takes off the boots; Pozzo and Lucky comes in; the idea of hanging themselves and leaving; the Boy comes in and tell them that Mr.Godot can't come but will come for sure tomorrow; Estragon tries to sleep; and then the day is over and Estragon goes back to the ditch. Their days were too boring and repetitive, and they were struggling to kill time by finding something to do: VLADIMIR: That passed the time. ESTRAGON: It ould have passed in any case. VLADIMIR: Yes, but not so rapidly. Pause. ESTRAGON: What do we do now? VLADIMIR: I don't know. (Beckette, P.32) On both days in the play, Estragon wanted to leave the country road and go somewhere else, but when Vladimir reminds him that they are Waiting for Godot, Estragon then changed his mind and stayed with Vladimir to wait for Godot: ESTRAGON: Let's go. VLADIMIR: We can't. ESTRAGON: Why not? VLADIMIR: We're waiting for Godot. ESTRAGON: (despairingly). Ah! Pause. (Beckette, P.31) In addition, the two bums wanted to hang themselves on both days, but on the first day they were afraid that if one died the other would be left alone, on the second day the rope broke while they were testing it to see if it was strong enough to hang them. This idea of hanging themselves was Estragon's: VLADIMIR: It's for the kidneys. (Silence. Estragon looks attentively at the tree.) What do we do now? ESTRAGON: Wait. VLADIMIR: Yes, but while waiting. ESTRAGON: What about hanging ourselves? VALDIMIR: Hmm. It'd give us an erection. ESTRAGON: (highly excited). An erection! (Beckette, P.12) This is because he couldn't stand the boredom and he wanted a form of change very badly. They seem to be trapped in the repetitive process of waiting for Godot, and they believe that they will be either happier when they hang themselves or when Godot eventually arrives to save them. Although Godot is referred to as a person in the play, we can certainly think of Godot as death itself, and that is what the two friends are waiting for. Still, death is considered to be a change and that's what Vladimir and Estragon wants. No matter what/who Godot is, Godot will still be the one who can give them this change that they so desperately need. Therefore, the result of both choices is death. In this case, death is considered to be a change or an escape from suffering in life, and both Estragon and Vladimir were not afraid of death, but rather they were hoping that death will come and end their suffer. The reason why Estragon and Vladimir have to wait for Godot (death) instead of killing themse lves is because they don't have the ability to die together. If only one of them dies, the other will be left alone and not be able to die. For example, if Estragon wants to hang himself and die, Vladimir had to lift him up so he could reach the tree and tie the rope; but after Estragon dies, there would be no one to lift Vladimir up the tree so he could hang himself. Although this reason is not mentioned in the play, this is the only