Abstract

In this paper I analyze Waiting for Godot from the perspective of Nietzsche’s understanding of nihilism. I argue that Beckett is exploring—or showing—the opposite of the Christian parousia in the characters of the play. Indeed, in a broader sense, I attempt to show that Beckett is rejecting the Western eschatological meta-narrative as such, in socio-political as well as religious terms. The main characters of the play, Estragon and Vladimir, are thus interpreted as paradigms of inauthenticity and nihilism in Nietzsche’s precise, genealogical sense