Just Trivial or Weighty: A Study on Beckett’s Tramps from Shakespearean Fool to Ahmad’s Vagabonds in Waiting for Godot, King Lear and The Thing

Abstract

This paper examines the presence and significance of vagabonds in Shakespeare’s King Lear, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s The Thing, and shows how Beckett’s tramps are similar to Shakespearean fool and Ahmad’s vagabonds. As not enough attention has been given to the recurrent presence of vagabonds in world literature, this research sheds some light on the Fool in King Lear to identify how Beckett’s tramps in Waiting for Godot are similar to Shakespearean fool and Ahmad’s vagabonds in The Thing from the philosophical perspectives concentrating on the reality of absurdity in their plays. Lear’s Fool tells the truths by criticizing his master and reminding him of the wrong decisions he has made whereas the vagabonds in Waiting for Godot and The Thing tell truths about the harsh reality and predicaments of human existence in different forms and faces. The use of language is different from one another because they manipulate it to create misunderstanding and word games in implicit and philosophic manners. Through the actions and dialogues of Beckett’s tramps and Ahmad’s vagabonds, we can perceive that life is absurd and that we live in a world full of uncertainties. In this qualitative research, apparently, the fool, the tramps and the vagabonds may seem trivial but they are of great significance in the theater and have a distinctive manner of interrelating with other characters as well as with the audiences through their philosophic voices telling the truth.