UN’IPOTESI SU DI UN PERSONAGGIO DI SAMUEL BECKETT

Abstract

In the drama by Samuel Beckett En attendant Godot the real protagonist is never on the stage, he is simply the long-awaited one who never arrives: it is not even known if he really exists or if he is only a fantasy of those who on the stage converse about nothing waiting for who they know will never come. It has been much debated on the name Godot: reference to God suggesting various meanings, reference to real personages met by Beckett and much more. Here it is hypothesized a possible link with a character of Honoré de Balzac, a Godeau, he himself an absentee recalled who finally, without appearing on the stage, arrives as deus ex machina and rescues the protagonist from a difficult situation. Perhaps a metaphor for the contrast between the providential optimism of the nineteenth century and the scepticism of the twentieth century.