 |
Endgame by Samuel Beckett
|
Critical Analysis
The Endgame falls into the
category of theatre of absurd since it is a despairing play about hopelessness.
It is a play where nothing happens once. The sense of despair is heightened by
the fact that the characters are not waiting for anything other than death in
the play. The fear of being incarnated after death is dominant to all the
characters.
In the play, two senses of
characters are presented. Hamm and Clov represent human brain while Nagg and
Nell represent memory. Hamm is a master, father figure. He is blind, paralytic
and cannot stand. He sits on a chair and tells Clov to look on the dustbin and
outside. Clov is servant son who cannot sit. The Idea of dependence is dominant
on the play. The reciprocity is also realized in the play as Hamm provides food
and shelter for Clov and Clov provides legs and eyesight to him. Finally, the
break of reciprocity is the death for both of them in the play. Nagg and Nell
are parents to Hamm. The parents Nagg and Nell are in the dustbin that displays
the meaningless existence of old people.
Like other absurd drama the
Endgame basically projects the human condition. In the play, Hamm and Clov talk
the things related to brain that is the attempt to gain knowledge. Time and
again Clov looks out on the sea, but finds nothing. There is no ship, no sail
and no fish which suggest that there is no development in the life of these
characters. Dead existence is prominent in the play. Clov looks out on the
earth, but finds no tree and leaf.
As far as the stage setting
is concerned; it is like a skull that suggests hell. The two windows, the
ladder and the chair posited into the center embody the sign of danger. It is a
creative element in the play. The play also possesses quite a number of
allusions. The universe of endgame is seen as purgatory that is a state of
limbo for purification. The purgatory is a region where one sinks to wipe out
the sin. The play suggests purgatory. The characters have committed a sin, so
they are in the process of purification in purgatory. Their sin was their birth
and the window in the play represents the hope of salvation. As the play
consists of Death in life and Life in Death, it tries to convey the idea that
the worst thing that can happen to us is to be born and the next best thing
that can happen to us is to be dying. The death is a reality, so it is better
to be prepared for death. In this sense it is pessimistic play. Killing the
rats and the flies suggests the death consciousness.
As far as the title is
concerned; Endgame is a certain move in the chess. It is a term that describes
an ending in chess where the outcome is already known. The reference of white
and red is the pun for chess. In chess, someone loses and someone wins but in
the play no one wins but all dies. The title of this play is symbolic in the
sense that living the life is analogous to playing chess. All the characters
are waiting for death. The death consciousness is alive throughout the play.
That projects the helpless situation of human beings.
Themes
Endgame has the theme of
'End' and 'Finished'. The opening line of the play has a word 'Finished' and
the very word is repeated throughout the play several times. Beckett tries to
clarify the idea that beginning and ending is inter-wined. The worst thing for
him is to take birth and the best is to have death.
He has the escapist mentality
and all his characters also suffer from same mentally. While Hamm and Clov are
in the endgame of their lives with death surrounding them, they are stuck in a
never ending loop that never permits final closure. Hamm claims he wants to be
finished, but at the same time admits that
he hesitates to do so. The death cannot arrive to stop the life totally,
in the same manner, Hamm and Clov cannot close the chapter of life and start
another. We can take the instance of Clov, who frequently fails to leave Hamm
and returns. At the end, even after vowing to leave, he cannot exit from the
room. He threatens Hamm many times, but he never makes a clean break. Hamm also
continuously tells Clov to leave him alone, but pulls him back too soon. They
cannot say why they both are living together and why cannot leave each other.
Beckett’s characters are stuck in eternal
static and motionless routine life. They go through the ‘farce’ of set actions
of life, and they call it because there is nothing else to do while waiting for
death, an ultimate escape. Even the environment around them is static,
everything outside is zero and the light which is the only hope of life is also
too dull and gray.
Their empty lives are filled
with unspoken pain and none can console each other. One of the themes of the
play is that having someone else around, even irritant and unfriendly helps to
soothe the pain.
Another striking important
theme is an absurdity. From the beginning to the end of the drama, alienation,
meaningless, futility and nothingness have dominantly been presented. The setting that symbolizes skull of the dead
man, the minimal actions, the minimal dialogue and conversation, use of
monosyllabic words, use of words or lexicons that just refers to finishing,
death and end all are the salient features of absurdity. Beckett in his play
‘Endgame profoundly uses these features and caters the theme of absurdity.
Style and Techniques in Endgame
A play is a space where a
dramatist depends on the dramatization of the interrelationships between and
among the styles, techniques and the thematic content. One kind of style and
techniques is purposefully chosen to corroborate and support one particular
theme picked up by the playwright.
Beckett’s use of repetitive
chronological development and symbolic characters succeeds in supporting the
theme of horror, stagnation, powerlessness, death, meaninglessness of life and
a loss of faith and emptiness which come together to characterize the condition
of modern man in a world threatened by nuclear wars.
To talk about the language
first, Becket uses meaningless clichés and repetitive dialogues to show the
failure of communication. The agonies of every individual are locked within
himself and his attempt to communicate them to others fails badly. People can’t
understand each other well and the impact of horror and the destructive
activities of man are unspeakable. Through the use of minimal language Beckett
communicates the inability to communicate meaningfully. Many of the words used
by the characters refer to the lack of mobility, endings, death, extinction and
comic situations of life in the modern world. The setting of the play is a
closed room signifying the inability of the modern man to move freely. The
characters are tied to certain things. They are physically unfit and dependent
upon others for their movement. Hamm cannot move without help from Clov. Clov
too cannot move beyond the bounds of the room, though he is the only character
who moves more than any other character in the play. They are like the chess
pieces and cannot move the way they like. Their movement is highly restricted.
Nagg and Nell are in the ashcan and cannot come out. It is an allusion to the
imprisonment of modern man. The chess pieces can move only in a given way. The
rules of the game impose restriction on their movement. It seems as if the movement
of the characters is preprogrammed and cannot move the way they please.
The names of the characters
refer to nails and the hammer. Through this Beckett could possibly be trying to
refer to the nations participating in the war. They are the builder of the
world with their won tools, but they cannot build the world but destroy it. The
characters in the play accomplish nothing during the course of the play. They
suffer from stagnation and the play ends where it began. By using characters
with physical deformities the playwright may be referring to the spiritual
paralysis which is so very characteristic of the modern world. Unlike the
conventional notion of plot, Endgame has no clear cut beginning, middle and
ending. At the end of the play things are where they were in the beginning. It
symbolically stands for the lack of evolution and progression in the life of
modern people and the world as a whole. Neil is the only female character in
the play and her death suggests the end of life as she is the source of life as
a female character in the play and her death suggests the end of life as she is
the source of life as a female. When Clov looks outside through the window all
he sees is zero and emptiness.
Thus, Beckett uses languages
and other dramatic techniques that vividly explore the issues of the modern
world. To a great extent the themes are well backed by the styles and
techniques chosen. The formal elements suit the meaninglessness and absurdity
of life in the contemporary times. The play is really a great success in this
regard.
***********************
***********************
No comments: