There are many biblical references
in this text, one that I found particularly interesting was when they refer to
Pozzo as both Abel and Cain as he is writhing on the ground. I think that this
goes along with the absurdist principles that we have discussed in class. In
the story of Cain and Abel, they are the two sons of Adam and Eve, and Cain
kills abel per God’s request. One of the qualities of absurdism is that there
are contradictions. By calling Pozzo Cain and having him respond with, “help,” (1403)
and getting the same response when calling him Abel tells us a lot about the
nature of the setting. Cain was the first human born, and Abel was the first
human to die, creating a contradiction by calling him both names. By being both
Cain and Abel, it is hard to place an identity on Pozzo, is he a killer, or is
he the one being killed? This further emphasizes the hopelessness of the
setting, you don’t really have an identity you can attatch yourself, you merely
latch on to any identity as the cycle continues. Does Pozzo seem more like Cain
or Abel? Is he a victim or is he the one with the knife?
Joe, this is a very interesting comparison that I had not noticed. There are many references in this work to the bible, maybe making comparisons between the characters to describe what Hell feels like. As to your questions, it is hard to answer those because the story never goes anywhere for me to analyze his character. But based on the fact that he was yelling 'help' and was acting like the victim makes me think that he plays more of an Abel character in this story.
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