LITERATURE III: HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

One of my favourite plays when I was growing up was a play called ‘Waiting For Godot’ by Samuel Beckett. It became one of my favourites because I loved the debates it caused. It was open to interpretation in so many ways.

The basic premise is this: Estragon – also known as Gogo – and Vladimir – also known as Didi – meet near a tree. They get talking and eventually it is revealed that they are waiting on a man named Godot. Whilst waiting they meet Pozzo and his slave Lucky. Once they depart a boy enters and tells them Godot won’t arrive tonight but will surely arrive tomorrow.

The next day, they again meet at the tree, where they once more encounter Pozzo and Lucky, who do not recognise them. When they depart a young boy tells them once more that Godot won’t be coming but he will surely arrive tomorrow. The young boy denies speaking to them before.

There are a great many articles devoted to discussing ‘Godot’ in a political fashion, as an allegory of the Cold War, or as an ethical quandary, as the boy tells them Godot won’t be arriving soon after they are openly selfish or callous. And of course many people link the play to religion, and Christianity in particular, with the titular Godot a thinly veiled reference to God.

All of these takes on the source are fine, class, but I like to boil it down to something a lot simpler. The play is simply a lesson on the philosophy of expectation. The whole play is nothing more than a tension generator, as the main characters endlessly wait for their acquaintance Godot. In the end, it is their reliance on these expectations that turns the play into a tragedy. Godot never arrives, and the pair are left waiting in an eternal loop.

The men feed on hope.

Hope is what keeps them returning to the tree, even though nothing changes, and Godot never arrives, because if they hope, they feel like change is coming. We are all guilty of it, even I have lost myself in hoping my tag partner this week would change. But I have hoped since the first moment I met him, and nothing has changed. The man is still as cold as ever.

And that’s where your downfall will be, Spero. When Walker passed on his blue ring, and made you the last holder of Hope, he gave you a poisoned chalice. Hope is a dangerous trait to have if it is not controlled, and as the saying goes: “Hope springs eternal”.

If you forever live in hope, then life passes you by, Spero. You miss the true goings-on of the world around you because you are always thinking about what is yet to come. And just like Didi and Gogo fell into an endless loop of despair, you will tread that same path too, if you are not careful.

Spero your assignment is a simple one, and that is a matter of self-control and moderation. If you gorge on hope, you’ll only get fat on disappointment.