Godot Isn’t Coming

 Waiting For Godot is play in which nothing seams to happen. The entire show is two characters waiting for a man called Godot. He never shows and the story ends how it began. The lack of plot, the strange dialogues, character memory loss, and the mirroring between acts creates the book’s allegory. The true meaning of life. This eccentric novel reminds me of Christopher Nolan’s Memento. In the film, Leonard Shelby, a man suffering from short-term memory lost, goes on to find who killed his wife and avenge her.

As most characters in the play, Leonard has great trouble remembering anything. And as the play’s characters he only remembers his goal, find who killed his wife and avenge her. The problem with these goals is they are unobtainable and the characters don’t realize this. Refusing to accept this they will never meet it. Most readers, including myself, don’t understand there is an ever-existent goal until halfway through. The beginning of both the film and performance pose real goals. We only realize that the characters are insane because of the repetition in their actions. Albert Einstein defined madness as “the repetition of one task while expecting a different result”. Consequently we only realize the characters are nuts because they constantly repeat the same task. This madness is simply a fake reality that they create to have a purpose. Beckett emphasizes this through Lucky, Pozzo’s slave. He is truly lucky for his purpose in life is already set, follow his master’s orders. He does not need to create one.

These two masterpieces have big differences in plot development but somehow lead to the same idea. Vladimir and Estragon wait for a man they don’t know exists while Leonard chases two murderers he’s already killed. This endless pursuit for a true meaning is what Beckett and Nolan are trying to get across. Everyone has a goal to chase be it a house on the beach, a promotion or simple date with a girl.  Humans live for their goals.