The Stranger And Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot

Albert Camus's novel, “The Stranger”, and Samuel Beckett's play, “Waiting for Godot” have many differences and similarities. Firstly, “The Stranger” is a book about the main character, Meursault, who has irregular characteristics. In the book, he is an absurdist who is very indifferent to everything if it doesn’t affect him physically. Also, he only believes and cares about himself. Furthermore, the second piece of literature, “Waiting for Godot”, is a play that focuses on two people who wait for a man named Godot. It is inferred that this man may be God. From the play, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, have totally different characteristics from Meursault. They are much more emotional than normal people. They believe in each

Meursault experiences routines that involve aspects of his life that he finds fulfilling. Also, in “Waiting for Godot”, there is a lot of repetition in terms of dialogue. Meursault likes to experience routines such as swimming, going to his favorite restaurant called Celeste’s, spending the night with Marie and smoking: “We arrived at Celeste’s dripping with sweat. Celeste was there, as always with his big belly, his apron, and his white moustache.” (Camus, 26). The common thing about his favorite routines are that they all relate to his physical world. He only experiences routine when his body feels like it. Furthermore, Estragon and Vladimir’s days quite possibly repeat themselves. Estragon and Vladimir repeat similar thoughts, events, behavior and dialogue. For example, when the day begins and they meet each other, they repeat the same dialogue again and again: “Estragon: We came here yesterday. Vladimir: Ah no, there you’re mistaken. Estragon: What did we do yesterday? Vladimir: What did we do yesterday?” (Beckett, 6). This dialogue shows that they don’t remember anything about the previous day, and the reason they don’t remember is because they didn’t do anything meaningful that can remain in their memories. They just spend their time waiting for Godot. Therefore, Estragon and Vladimir lose the meaning of existence because even if they live to see the light of another day, they

Firstly, for Estragon and Vladimir, their freedoms are limited due to their strong faiths in God. In “Waiting for Godot”, they stay in the same place and just keep waiting for a God without having any plans for their future. However, at least once a day, they have a feeling that they want to leave the place: “Estragon: Charming spot. Inspiring prospects. Let’s go. Vladimir: We can’t. Estragon: Why not? Vladimir: We’re waiting for Godot.” (Beckett, 6). This quote shows that when they have thoughts of leaving the place, they limit their freedom by reminding themselves of the existence of God. Additionally, in “The Stranger”, Meursault’s freedom is limited by the people around him and the law of his world. For Meursault, his freedom in deciding to believe in God or not is taken away by the people around him because other people think that Meursault should naturally believe in God regardless of Meursault’s own decision. Also, his freedom of enjoying the physical world is limited by the law. After he went to jail, he couldn’t repeat his favorite actions anymore. Therefore, it is a similarity that the characters’ freedoms are all limited in both pieces of literature, but the difference is that Estragon and Vladimir limit their own freedom and Meursault’s freedom is limited by other people and the