L’attente dans le théâtre de Samuel Beckett En attendant Godot

Abstract

Kamyabi Mask, AhmadAssociate Professor, University of TehranKamyabi١٩٤٤@yahoo.frReceived: ١٢٫١٠٫٢٠١١ Accepted: ١٢٫٠٢٫٢٠١٢The Man who is subject to permanent disasters cannot live without hope, and having hope means to wait. Man has always been waiting for a savior. In patriarchal societies, this man is called by different names depending on different cultures: Souchiante, Buddha, the Messiah, and Mahdi. It is the awaited man who will bring a message, a message which in the state of anxiety and perpetual anguish of the soul is the only permanent sign of hope. In the Western world, when Man had not yet created machines, he truly waited for someone, but in our era of wars and the conquest of space, what is he waiting for? Beckett is one of the thinkers who have asked this question. We would like to show here, through the study of Waiting for Godot, that it is ‘waiting' itself that becomes the subject matter of his theater. His characters manifest the humanity in this strives towards something which makes complete men of them. The play is thus a parable of the existence of modern man faced with a world in which he can no longer rely on the traditional foundations of his existence.Key words: Beckett, waiting, Waiting for Godot, Saviour, hope, human condition.