The Purpose Of Human Life Essay Research — страница 2

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Godot” a tragedy amidst all the comical actions of its characters: the silent plea to God for meaning, for answers, which symbolizes the plea of all humanity, and God’s silence in response. “The recourse to bookkeeping by the philosopher [Pascal] no less than the clownish tramp shows how helpless we are with respect to God+s silence” (Astro, 121). Either God does not exist, or he does not care. Whichever is the case, chance and arbitrariness determine human life in the absence of divine involvement. The world of “Waiting for Godot” is one without any meaningful pattern, which symbolizes chaos as the dominating force in the world. There is no orderly sequence of events. A tree which was barren one day is covered with leaves the next. The two tramps return to the same

place every day to wait for Godot. No one can remember exactly what happened the day before. Night falls instantly, and Godot never comes. The entire setting of the play is meant to demonstrate that time is based on chance, and therefore human life is based on chance. Time is meaningless as a direct result of chance being the underlying factor of existence. Hence there is a cyclic, albeit indefinite, pattern to events in “Waiting for Godot.” Vladimir and Estragon return to the same place each day to wait for Godot and experience the same general events with variations each time. It is not known for how long in the past they have been doing this, or for how long they will continue to do it, but since time is meaningless in this play, it is assumed that past, present, and

future mean nothing. Time, essentially is a mess. “One of the seemingly most stable of the patterns that give shape to experience, and one of the most disturbing to see crumble, is that of time” (Webb, 34-35). The ramifications of this on human existence are symbolized by the difference between Pozzo and Lucky in Act I and in Act II. Because time is based on chance and is therefore meaningless, human life is treated arbitrarily and in an almost ruthless manner, and is also meaningless. In Act I Pozzo is travelling to the market to sell Lucky, his slave. Pozzo is healthy as can be, and there seems to be nothing wrong. Lucky used to be such a pleasant slave to have around, but he