Miller's tragic hero & Godot

Miller's tragic hero is defined through his persistence in an environment that threatens to displace his rightful position in the world. Miller explicitly clarifies that this 'rightful position' with reference to the tragic hero is, in actuality, his own "image" or idea of his place in the world. While Willy Loman's insists upon believing and actively 'performing' his idea of himself despite the worldly truth of his circumstances, Beckett's Didi and Gogo 'perform' to sustain a variety of roles in order to accomplish the same end. Both worlds of characters seek to create personal (or inter-personal) meaning that overcomes the 'tragic' of their conditions, however illusory they may seem if taken from an external vantage-point. In that sense, Miller's concept of "dignity" becomes a personal victory that is guaged by one's belief (or fidelity) in his "performance" of his "role", a victory of insistence upon "self" in "environment". Willy Loman's dignity is earned through his adamant belief in his rightful role, as well as his right to personal dignity which should (and therefore will) be attained. In contrast, Didi and Gogo remain fidel to their "performative" functions. Personal dignity (or personal ideas of self) are strengthened through a paradox of role-play. Didi and Gogo's routine mocking Pozzo and Lucky is one that is borne out of good humour, but also of self-aware mockery. Mockery because it defines a position of the absurd (of which Lucky and Pozzo embrace) which they are unable to accept, and self-aware because it is this act of rebellion that reciprocally defines who they are. Didi and Gogo's tragedy lies not in an absence of self-awareness. On the contrary, it could be seen that it is their inability to express or to deal with their self-awareness in any logically reasonable language. Self-awareness is a threshold which they have come to pass, and having breached that stage of meaning, their conundrum is one that asks: "where do we go from here?" and "what meaning is there beyond the search for self-awareness?" This confoundement becomes a recurrent theme of the play, from Lucky's "think" tirade to Pozzo's blind laments. However, Beckett's protagonists nonetheless preserve dignity by a conscious deferrment of their condition much in the way Willy Loman refuses to acknowledge his. Their insistence upon the salvation and Godot reflects a condition that does not necessarily signify hope, but a necessary illusion that allows them to survive the absurdity of life and its increasing meaninglessness, much in the way games, humour and performance serve their purposes.