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the fellow human being he has casually killed without a trace of remorse. He can see nothing outside his own existence as having any significance. In another context, Meursault would have been diagnosed as a psychopath. Yet so far had the `dark inversion' which had been taking place since the dawn of Romanticism now gone, that he could be presented to the world as a hero: to be admired precisely because he seemed to be a man `liberated' from all moral, social or religious constraints. Sooner or later, in this process of `dark inversion', it was logical that a storyteller would one day come up with such a hero. But in terms of how storytelling reflects what happens when the split between ego and Self becomes irretrievable, the process still had one more very significant step to take.

Samuel Beckett: The end of the road

Two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, are standing by a roadside in front of a leafless tree, engaging in inconsequential chatter. We later learn that they have been together, `blathering' like this, for 50 years. Suddenly, after they have been discussing Estragon's difficulty in pulling off his boot, in which his friend refuses to help him, Vladimir refers, seemingly apropos of nothing, to the thief crucified alongside Jesus who was saved. `Suppose we repented' he says. `Repented what?' replies Estragon. `Oh', says Vladimir, `we wouldn't have to go into the details'. He then wonders aloud why only one of the four gospels mentions the thief who was saved, while another says that `both of them abused him'. 'Abused who?' asks the bored and baffled Estragon. `The Saviour' comes the reply. `Why?' `Because he wouldn't save them'. `From hell?' `Imbecile! From death' retorts Vladimir. These Christian references, drawn from Beckett's upbringing by his domineering and `profoundly religious' Irish-Protestant mother, from whom he spent much of his life trying to escape, serve as prelude to what is to be the central thread of the story. Estragon suggests they should move on. `We can't' says Vladimir emphatically. `Why not?"We're waiting for Godot.

We are thus introduced to what is really the only significant element of plot in the play. The two tramps, stripped of any social context, are simply two disembodied human egos. But the one thing which defines them, it becomes clear, is that they are waiting for the arrival of this mysterious `Godot. They know nothing about who, what or where he might be. But gradually we become aware that they look on him as someone of almost cosmic importance. They cannot do anything or go anywhere until they encounter him. If only Godot comes, everything will be different. His arrival is the one thing which could give meaning and purpose to their otherwise empty and hopeless existence.

Eventually diversion arrives in the shape of two more characters, Pozzo driving his servant Lucky in front of him like an animal, on a lead. Their relationship is like a caricature of Lenin's famous question about human society, `Who? Whom?' Pozzo is the `above the line' figure who can sit down, picnicking on chicken and a bottle of wine, enjoying a smoke, while treating his wretched, silent, `below the line' companion like dirt. But then the `below the line' servant suddenly bursts into a startling flood of pseudo-profound gobbledygook about

`a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension Who from their heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell ...'

and so forth for several minutes, before relapsing into silence. No sooner have the newcomers departed than a boy arrives. He has brought a message from Godot. His master will not be coming today but will definitely come tomorrow. The two tramps discuss hanging themselves from the tree, then Estragon suggests they should move on. `Yes, let's go' agrees Vladimir, but they do not move. So ends the first act.

The second act, set at the same time and place the following day, is much the same. Pozzo and Lucky eventually return, more