Humanism In Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot

Waiting for Godot centers around humanism as it inquires into the minds of human beings, their relationships, the sufferings they face and the difficulties of the life they are living through. Vladimir and Estragon are representatives of human race. They are fighting with life as disappointed, helpless creatures and destined to wait for the unknown. A humanistic view suggests that human beings have always tries to improve their lives and follow their dreams. Vladimir and Estragon spent their time waiting for Godot helplessly to save them from their physical and mental pains. But as we know that they fail to soothe their pains, to communicate, they are lifeless. Just as humanism takes notice of human potentials, their ideals and problems, the

Humanists emphasize free will and our ability to choose to have a more meaningful and peaceful life. They stresses upon human strengths over their weaknesses, and focuses that human beings are not victims of deterministic forces. The Humanists optimism reaches its peak in the theories of Carl Rogers. Taking a look at Waiting for Godot, this paper investigates the humanistic concerns expressed in the course of the play that is of human nature, suffering and relationship, and analyzes them so to reveal whether or not Beckett’s portrayal of these humanistic concerns is in concern with the basic premise of humanistic theories manifested in the work of Carl Rogers. Based on the optimistic view of Rogers, free will is an crucial part of human nature and man can himself determine the path of his life. By looking at this view, man must tries to step forward in the path of self-growth, should have the power to solve his problems and take the matters into his hands. The humanist perspective stresses the necessity of freedom in all aspects of economical, cultural and political life, and believes in that morality which connects human values with worldly relationships so that he can move further towards freedom and happiness. Waiting for Godot deals with the same humanistic concerns, but it provides the evidence to excavate the

Carl Rogers is emphasizing the importance of the self-actualization tendency in shaping human personalities. He believes that in the development of self-concept, positivity is the only key. Human beings develop a real self and ideal self based on the conditional status of positivity. Rogers believed that fully functioning people could achieve "the good life," in which they constantly aim to fulfill their potential and allow their personalities to emerge from their experiences. Here, I am claiming that human should think at positive level. He should never haunted by others and never believed in other people. He should have his self identification. So that he can develop an ideal self because if he will relay on other people like all the characters are in the play are relaying and waiting for Godot, then they will lose their identity and they will never be able to think positively and to actualize