Literary Analysis
The play “Endgame” was written by Samuel Beckett and performed for the first time in 1957. Becket is known for his avant-garde approach to his works. The following play, which is considered by critics to be one of the best works of the writer, focuses on the life of one family after a natural disaster that has destroyed the world. There is no direct information about the catastrophe that preceded the events described in the play, but, on the basis of the characters’ appearance and their words, one may conclude that almost everything that moves has been demolished: there are no other people, animals, and even insects in the outer world. Moreover, all characters of the play have particular disabilities: Hamm is blind and cannot stand, Clov is not able to sit, while Hamm’s parents, Nagg and Nell, have no legs and are forced to live in dustbins. Even a dog that lives in their house has only three legs. The play touches upon the themes of suffering, the absurdity of existence, and the endlessness of the latter that are presented via specific setting, language, and symbols used by the author.
The first element that contributes to the atmosphere of the play and helps the author to present its main themes is the setting. At the beginning of the play, Becket presents a detailed description of the space in which the actions take place: it is a small room with a door and two curtained windows on either side. There are almost no furniture and décor in it but for a picture near the door, two dustbins that serve as beds for two characters of the play, and an armchair on which Hamm sits. Bare walls and emptiness in the room have two functions. On the one hand, they allow the audience to concentrate on the characters and their words without being disturbed by any unnecessary details and decorations. On the other hand, the following interior environment allows the audience to draw parallels with the outer world which, just like this room, is empty, grey, and has nothing beautiful in it. It is also remarkable that Clov, though standing in the door all the time, does not open it not allowing the audience and the characters to see what is outside it. The lack of knowledge and fear of the unknown make the characters of the play trapped inside the house believing that “outside of here is death” (Beckett). Having almost no food, medicine, and not having an opportunity to share their pain with somebody else, they are forced to spend their lives in expectation of the end of the latter. It emphasizes the themes of loneliness and absurdity of the existence of the main characters who, in fact, live to die. There is also no information about the time in which the events take place: the audience does not know the year, the season, and even the time of the day. This peculiarity of the setting emphasizes the cyclicity of everything happening in the world and the endlessness of time and human sufferings. Another important feature of the play’s setting is the “Grey Light” (Beckett). The lack of bright colors and any daylight and the grey palette can also be viewed as effective methods with the help of which the author of the play creates the depressing atmosphere of the work and conveys the moods of the main characters.
Language is also used as an expressive means contributing to the presentation of the themes of the play. In particular, the cues of all characters are short and laconic. All questions require mostly “yes” or “no” answers. From the point of view of grammar, most sentences are simple and do not contain any exquisite figures of speech. Similarly to the setting, such “bare” language aims at demonstrating the audience only the essence of what is discussed, without any adorning and superfluous polemic. At the same time, there are particular points in the play when the dialogue of the main characters is interrupted by their short monologues in which they reveal their philosophical meditations. For instance, when discussing unhappiness, Nell calls it “the most comical thing in the world” and compares it to “the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh anymore” (Beckett). The author also frequently uses repetitions of particular phrases. In particular, throughout the play, Nagg is constantly asking for some food, demanding, “I want me pap!” (Beckett). Such demands usually interrupt the rising verbal confrontation between Clov and Hamm as if returning them to reality. Nagg is a bright example of an egocentric person who has lost his conscience and who lives just to follow his physiological instincts and cherish his memories. Though the characters seem to lead a dialogue, they express little interest in each other being completely absorbed by their rueful personal feelings and their sufferings. In some sense, they interact and communicate just because “there’s no one else” (Beckett). Generally, the language the main characters use helps the author to demonstrate the relations between the main characters, the key traits of the later, and to reconstruct the absurd of the conditions they live in.
Finally, the play is characterized by rich symbolism that emphasizes the atmosphere of decline and existentialist crisis the characters experience. One of the central symbols of the play is a wall that divides the world of the main characters of the one they can survive in and the one that reminds “hell” (Beckett). In fact, the wall symbolizes death that is the moment one goes from one world to another. In his dialogue with Clov, Hamm mentions that one day, “when you open them [eyes] again there’ll be no wall anymore. Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn’t fill it, and there you’ll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe” (Beckett). Another significant symbol is a flea that appears in the house of Hamm. This small insect stands for humanity “that might start from here all over again” (Beckett). Hamm is so afraid that humanity will be reborn that he is willing to kill anyone or anything to prevent it. The final and the most fundamental symbol is a game, namely the endgame. When Clov is to go away, Hamm asks him to cover him with the sheet mentioning that “old endgame lost of old, play and lose and have done with losing.” (Beckett). In fact, for the main characters of the play, this game is their life: they try hard to beat the opponent, but the loss is inevitable.
Summing up, the play “Endgame” is a unique dramatic work that touches upon the problem of existentialist crisis and loneliness of people in the never-ending flow of time. First, the play is characterized by an unusual setting, namely the absence of time borders, limited space, grey palette, and lack of details. Moreover, to convey the theme of the play, the author uses specific language that suggests the simplicity of grammar and vocabulary, dialogic interaction between the characters, and repetitions. Finally, the play contains a number of significant symbols, such as the wall, flea, and the game, that contribute to its meaning and gives it additional senses.