Abstract:

‘Waiting for Godot’ is a play about behaviour which is identifiably religious from a sociological point of view, although not explicitly so. Because it is a play, it is an icon of implicitness, as plays don’t say what they mean in the form of explicit messages from the author to the audience, but communicate implicitly through fictitious events and personages. In this particular play, the main characters demonstrate by means of what they say and do, that, for them, life’s meaning is associated with a longed-for consummation, a life- and purpose- -giving encounter, and that the action of waiting for this provides the focus for all their other actions and intentions, affecting the way they interpret whatever occurs in their world. They are committed to waiting for Godot to arrive; a state of mind encapsulated within the symbolic scenario which is the play. In other words, then, their behaviour chimes with the three defining characteristics of Implicit Religion: commitment, integrating focus, and extensive effects which proceed from an intensive concern, when these occur in circumstances which are not associated with explicit religion of any kind. The tramps themselves never mention God or religion, and the play’s author is recorded as saying ‘If I had meant God I would have said God’. Nevertheless the parabolic shape and the poetic language of the play produce an effect similar to that of religious ritual.

Author: Roger Grainger