Hope, Bad Faith, and Biblical Allusion in 'Waiting for Godot'

I am writing this blog to examine the themes of hope, faith, and moral judgment in Waiting for Godot and to understand whether the characters’ waiting reflects Christian belief, Sartrean bad faith, or existential uncertainty. Through this exploration, I aim to deepen my academic understanding of Beckett’s philosophical complexity and to analyze how religious symbolism, such as the image of the sheep and the goat, functions within the framework of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Hope - Christian Faith or Sartrean Bad Faith | Waiting for Godot | Samuel Beckett

After engaging with the lecture “Hope – Christian Faith or Sartrean Bad Faith”, I noted that the speaker presents a balanced critical inquiry into Waiting for Godot, situating the play between religious allegory and existentialist philosophy. The lecture initially interprets the act of waiting and the mutual interdependence of Vladimir and Estragon as reflections of Christian values such as charity, faith, and spiritual perseverance. It also draws parallels with Indian philosophical traditions like Karma and Bhakti, where patient endurance and devotional surrender carry metaphysical significance. However, the argument gradually shifts toward an existentialist critique, proposing that hope in the play functions as a Sartrean “bad faith.” In this reading, hope becomes a psychological “deadener” that sustains an unconscious state and prevents the characters from confronting the stark reality of nothingness. By clinging to the anticipated arrival of Godot, they evade the existential responsibility of self-awareness and self-creation. Ultimately, the lecture frames the play as a poetic meditation on time, where the cyclical structure of waiting reveals the paradoxical coexistence of necessity and absurdity within the human condition.

The Sheep and the Goat | Waiting for Godot | Samuel Beckett

After reviewing the lecture “The Sheep and the Goat”, I noted that it focuses on Beckett’s symbolic adaptation of the biblical parable from the Gospel of Matthew, where sheep traditionally represent the righteous and goats the damned. The lecture explains that in Waiting for Godot, this conventional Christian symbolism is deliberately inverted: the boy who tends the goats is treated kindly, while his brother who minds the sheep is beaten. This reversal destabilizes the theological certainty associated with divine justice and suggests the arbitrariness of suffering. I observed that such inversion challenges the fear-based moral structure embedded in traditional religious doctrine. Moreover, the lecture extends the symbolism of sheep and goats to human behavior, associating them with docility and stubbornness, and thereby critiquing how individuals may become submissive or rigid under religious and political ideologies. Ultimately, the lecture argues that Beckett employs this biblical allusion to depict a fractured moral universe in which stable notions of justice, happiness, and divine order have collapsed.

Infographic : Hope – Christian Faith or Sartrean Bad Faith ?

The Paradox of Hope in Waiting for Godot — An infographic exploring the tension between Christian faith and Sartrean “bad faith,” illustrating how hope functions both as spiritual virtue and existential illusion within Beckett’s meditation on time, habit, and absurdity.

 

Slide Deck : The Sheep and the Goat in Waiting for Godot

the-sheep-and-the-goat-beckett-s-subversion-of-divine-justice-in-waiting-for-godotfrom sejadchokiya