Waiting for Godot

The existence of God is a highly debatable topic in philosophy and religion. We acknowledge God's existence on our views of life, humanity, morality, and destiny. We also argue of his non-existence with the fact of having poverty and suffering in mankind. However, if God does not exist, there's no reason to be interested in God at all. In Lucky’s monologue of Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot”, the author uses literary devices such as contrast, repetition and connotation to describe what man thinks about God. He also uses a bit of parody as well.dit away. Or, click the Write button to compose something new.

     The use of contrast emphasizes Samuel Beckett’s thoughts of the absence of God. For instance, by getting rid of some of the incoherent words, Lucky says: “Given the existence…of a personal God…with white beard … outside time without extension who…loves us dearly with some exceptions…and…with those…are plunged in torment plunged in fire whose…will fire the firmament that is to say blast hell to heaven…”Hence, Lucky first describes God as a fatherly character with a white beard and who loves us dearly. He then contrasts that statement with a being who is the complete opposite of a caring father. For instance, he mentions how mankind suffers and God seems to do nothing about it. He also says: “ from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia”.Although these words don’t exist, they resemble the words apathy, athamby, and aphasy.  Hence, if God exists, he shows divine apathy.  He is silent and doesn’t care about mankind and its suffering. Then again, the words aphasy and athamby don't exist either. This is problably to emphasize that God doesn't exist. Hence, the contrast between a "peaceful earth" and the actual suffering is huge. It seems to be because God has abandoned mankind.

The use of repetition and parodies prove the author’s thoughts of the consequences on God's absence. For instance, Lucky says: “and considering …that…it is established beyond all doubt … for reasons unknown …that in view of the labors of Fartov and Belcher left unfinished for reasons unknown…that man in Essy…is seen to waste and pine…in spite of…the practice of sports…and concurrently…to shrink and dwindle…for reasons unknown…the dead loss per caput…since the death of Bishop Berkeley being to the tune of one inch four ounce per…approximately …stark naked in the stocking feet…for reasons unknown…” Hence, the author insults God by parodying the authors Fartov and Belcher. Lucky also uses "for reasons unknown" repetetively to emphasize that men are shrinking. He emphasizes that we don't know why God has abandonned us. Hence, in the entire Universe, mankind has lost security, the meaning of life, everything. This is highlighted mostly with and after the mention of the death of Bishop Berkerly. Hence, this loss makes men homeless, like Vladimir and Estragon in the play.

The use of repetition and connotation emphasizes Beckett’s thoughts on the chaos of the consequences of the absence of God. In fact, lucky says: “and considering ……it appears …that in the plains in the mountains by the seas … the air is the same and then the earth namely the air …in the great cold the great dark …abode of stones ... I resume the skull to shrink and waste ... the skull the skull the skull the skull …graver still abode of stones … alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull... unfinished ...” Hence , Lucky constantly repeats words such as “skull”, “alas”, “light”, “stones”, etc. Hence, the words “skull” and “stones” become dominant and prominent. This can represent a connotation where the earth is a stone full of skulls which represent Death. In addition, Lucky’s last word is “Unfinished”. This can imply that the speech and the suffering of mankind are unfinished. The deterioration and the sufferings of mankind are also connoted in Lucky’s life. At the beginning, he was extremely intelligent, was knowledgeable, and was a great dancer. However, now even his dance resembles is speech where he is “caught in the net”. He then becomes mute, which means he also loses ability to speak which was one of his talents. This is indeed a connotation to the shrinking of Mankind because God’s absence