Who is Godot / Identity of Godot in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Beckett, of course, always vehemently insisted that Godot was not God, but it would be simply naive to think that he would have had a title character's name spelled that way--a character eagerly awaited who never appears--without expecting an audience/reader's first expectation to be that he was referring to God.

The point, I think, is that the characters are waiting for Someone else, an Other, Someone-out-there who will make sense of the world for them and help them make sense of their own lives. That "god-ot" doesn't show.

The Frenchman (Estragon) and the Russian (Vladimir), after their respective rationalistic "revolutions," represent the post-modern humankind who will never find such a One outside themselves. They must look within. Vladimir and Estragon shouldn't be waiting around; they should listen to their own language and "go do it." The name for a god-with-us or a god-within-us would be Emanuel. (So Beckett is absolutely right: Godot is NOT god, but rationalistic humans' substitute for Emanuel, the real god-with/within-us.)

The English/American Lucky is, indeed, "lucky," in that he never has to subject himself to such soul searching. He doesn't even talk at all (probably he's too busy watching television or pro-football or some huckster's advertising or a Karl Rove puppet). He talks only when someone else tells him to "think." For him, thinking is talking, but he really prefers listening. LIstening is being entertained. It's what theater audiences come expecting.

And Godot, for the American Lucky after all, is always just around the corner. In Godot he trusts. His is one nation under Godot. Godot serves his needs, but just exactly who Godot is or whether he ever comes--or even what his name means--doesn't much matter. He's "lucky" that way. Let the show go on. (And Lucky is with us still--still dancing to someone else's tune. How lucky we are!)

And, of course, the show does go on, repeating itself in the second act. Pozzo, the key character, however, is now blind and Lucky mute. Pozzo is The Boss, who tells everybody else what to do and shares his scraps. Lucky is completely under his control. Pozzo doesn't wait for Godot; he plays god himself. Think of him as Mussolini or Hitler or Stalin or any Big-Name politician who exerts power over the masses and uses Machiavellian means to attain and secure that power (or maybe even popes that come and go through the centuries: Popes-go). Pozzo doesn't wait around; he comes and goes at will, telling others what to do and when to think, just sharing his scraps, even though he himself be blind.

The end of the play summarizes the theme of the play.
Vladimir: Well, shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let's go.
They do not move.

Shall we GO? they say. Yes, let's GO. But they never DO IT. They are waiting to "GO-DO-IT," to find meaning for themselves, to make meaning for themselves, to experience Emanuel within themselves. Still waiting. Well, I guess they're just not as "lucky" as someone willing to be led around on a leash by a Pozzo.

You won't find a play much more "ghastly" than that.