THE THEMES OF SOLITUDE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE MEANING IN SAMUEL BECKETT'S "WAITING FOR GODOT"

The principal objective of this paper is to explore the notion of the traditional quest of meaning that Samuel Beckett ultimately defamiliarized in his play Waiting for Godot. The paper is based on two differing approaches when it comes to search for meaning – the belief that God (or in this case Godot) is the ultimate saviour and that the “waiting” is the only approach, while the other approach is essentially based on the philosophy of Existentialism, which basically stands for the subjectivity of human perception and the individual search for meaning. While Beckett was not essentially regarded as an Existential writer or philosopher, there is no doubt that Waiting for Godot is characterised by having many Existential elements; and conversely, even though Beckett was not regarded as a religious person, his personal insights on religion give an excellent perspective on Christianity and the notion of divinity that is presented through the image of Godot.Glavni cilj ovog rada je istražiti tradicionalni pojam traženja za smislom koji je Samuel Beckett putem defamiliarizacije napravio u njegovoj drami “U očekivanju Godota”. Rad se temelji na dva različita pristupa koja su usko povezana s potragom za smislom – na uvjerenju da je Bog (“Godot” = Bog) konačni spasitelj i da je “čekanje” jedini pristup, dok se drugi pristup temelji na filozofiji Egzistencijalizma, koja se u osnovi zasniva na subjektivnosti ljudske percepcije i na individualnoj potrazi za smislom. Iako se Beckett izvorno nije smatrao piscem Egzistencijalizma ili filozofom, nema sumnje da se u drami “U očekivanju Godota” mogu pronaći mnogi elementi Egzistencijalizma; i obratno, iako Beckett nije bio doživljavan kao religiozna osoba, njegova osobna saznanja o religiji nude izvrsnu perspektivu na kršćanstvo i sami pojam božanstva koje je on prezentirao pomoću slike Godota