“The Human Condition” in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

In his essay about two painters, the van Velde brothers, Samuel Beckett presents a view that both men share a profound interest in “the human condition,” which precedes their interest in painting. This view relates to Beckett’s own conception of art. He himself was interested in “the human condition” in his creation of art. Beckett experienced the devastation of the Second World War. Through his work (e.g., Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Happy Days), he explored the condition of those who survive in the world in its extremity. This paper sheds light on “the human condition” revealed in the act of waiting in Waiting for Godot, a French play written in 1949. The play depicts the human condition as the condition of being “tied to Godot.” This condition implies the human finitude—the tormenting in-between condition—being short of the world and that of never being able to escape from the here and now. At the same time, this condition of being “tied to Godot” indicates one last ounce of belief in the world. By disclosing this invisible “tie,” Waiting for Godot evokes “the link between man and the world” (Deleuze) in the audience’s mind.