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Camus has added a little bit of hope to the lives we so often regret. Perhaps
Camus believed that Sisyphus tries again because someday he can push the rock
to the very top, and it will stay. Through the play Waiting for Godot, Samuel
Beckett leaves little room for hope. Two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, are
waiting for a man called Godot. Every day they wait, in the same spot, living out
their lives believing that Godot will come. They are unsure, unsatisfied, and
unhappy because they wait. They are restricted in their actions and decisions
because they wait. This exchange occurs at least five times in the only two acts
of the play:
"Let's go."
"We can't"
"Why not?"
In Waiting For Godot, does Vladimir have the same enlightenment as Sisyphus?
Their situations are very different. Sisyphus has been condemned by the Gods to
push his rock; this inescapable punishment represents the things in our lives that
we cannot change. Vladimir and Estragon are seemingly waiting for Godot by
choice. Their circumstance could represent our blindness of the things in which
we actually do have control. If it was his destiny to wait, Vladimir could have
been happy by accepting his destiny as Sisyphus had accepted his. If Vladimir
were free, he could have pushed his rock to the top, let it drop, and moved on.
This brings another question: Could Sisyphus have moved on also? It seems that
if he could make the choice to return to his rock, he could also make the choice
to leave it behind. We are not sure of Sisyphus's consequences, but in our lives
there are many things to consider when making choices; our families, our loved
ones, and our futures. If we choose to run from our destinies, we would only find
ourselves exactly where fate wishes us. If Sisyphus had pushed his rock to the
top and it remained still, on the walk down the slope to freedom, the rock would
roll behind him and squash him flat.
Between Waiting For Godot and The Myth of Sisyphus, we learn a little bit about
the redundancy of our lives; "Habit is a great deadener." Vladimir states near the
end of the play. It is a matter of how we perceive our misfortunes that determine
a true victory. If we become slaves to our fates, then the rock has won. If we
mock the cruel hand of fate, it can never crush us, and we have an eternity to
celebrate the triumph.