Waiting for the Stranger

While reading Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, I could connect it with the existentialist novel The Stranger by Albert Camus. The connection was not through the plot or any common events. It was the theme of the meaningless of life that struck me. In both the play and novel the idea that life has no meaning rises through a series of uncommon events that happen to the main characters. Vladimir, Estragon and Meursault all think that they are living for no reason. Meursault does nothing to make his life have any meaning, while Vladimir and Estragon are being just as pointless, by waiting for someone that "could" fix their problems, that will never show up. In both texts the characters simply are finding ways so that time passes. Anything one does will make no difference, in fact being dead or alive is insignificant. 

Though Vladimir and Estragon have similarities to Meursault they also have similarities to other characters in the The Stranger. Throughout the play Gogo and Didi beat each other and verbally abuse each other just as Salamano does to his old dog. In both situations there is abuse but they are dependent, so neither of the abused characters will dare to leave. For instance, Didi and Gogo talk about hanging themselves; they don't because they would not bare life without each other. 

Another connection I made was with the theme of death. In the novel The Stranger Camus proves Meursaults idea that life has no meaning by including many deaths that have no affect on his life. In a similar way Beckett shows the idea of existentialism in the two scenes in which Didi and Gogo are talking about hanging themselves. As mentioned before they decided not two because not both of them would be able in killing themselves. These scenes clearly show that none of these characters have an eager urge to live. They think it is indifferent whether they are alive or dead. Except in Didi and Gogo's case, they would be unable to live or die without each other. This is the biggest difference i found between the main characters of the texts. In Waiting for Godot they have a true relationship between each other that would be highly affected if the other wasn't around. Meursault on the other hand is a true stranger that has no tight relationships with anyone. For example, even when his lover asked him if he loved her, he said that he "didn't think so". So to make the Stranger equal to the amount society frowns upon him, Didi and Gogo would have to be added together.