https://doi.org/10.4081/let.2019.675
UN'IPOTESI SU DI UN PERSONAGGIO DI SAMUEL BECKETT
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Pubblicato: 8 luglio 2020
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.