Blau

Beckett's Waiting for Godot  is a play about basic striving for meaning in a world in which meaning is not forthcoming.  The desire for meaning is, at the same time, a desire to understand one's suffering and a desire for justice.  Reading Beckett "politically" means at once attempting to understand where the political impulse--the impulse toward justice--comes from, and at the same time demonstrating, through facing the frustration of meaning or sense of justice, the limits of politics as an overarching explanatory force. Political philosopher Judith Shklar's question about distinguishing between "misfortune" and "injustice" guides this essay's considerations of tragedy, comedy, absurdity, and our attempts to make sense of suffering and death.