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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? Well…maybe. 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 themselves 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 logical explanation of why they can't both hang themselves.
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