Ollila 1 Bernie Ollila May 8, 2008 Absurdity and Angst in Endgame Samuel Beckett has been identified not only as an existentialist, but also as an absurdist playwright by William I. Oliver in his essay, Between Absurdity and the Playwright (224). Beckett demonstrates the qualities attributed to absurdists in many, if not all of his dramatic works. For the purposes of this discussion, Beckett s play, Endgame, will be the work in question. Beckett stages an existential angst in the play through its main character, Hamm. This angst that Hamm has leads to an absurdity that shrouds not only himself, but also the play s atmosphere, and its supporting characters. Beckett employs devices such as monotony, darkness, and a fear of the outside world (if there is one) through Hamm in order to achieve this absurdity. Hamm s relationship with Clov is the key feature of the play s absurdist theme, particularly the dialogue that the two have. They both express a kind of detestation, as well as a dependency on one another. Beckett uses each of these elements of the play to correspond with each other in order to stage an existential angst, and absurdity in the Endgame. Beckett utilizes obscurity as a tool to give the play an absurdity from the opening with the setting. The stage description given reads as: Bare interior. Grey Light two small windows, curtains drawn a door its face to wall, a picture two ashbins in an armchair on castors, covered with an old sheet, Hamm, (Beckett 1). The obscurity here is found in that the audience is ignorant regarding what kind of world is outside the curtains, why the light is grey, what the picture on the wall is a depiction of, what could be in the ashbins, and what is outside the door. This uncertainty, or obscurity is a characteristic that forces the play s audience to guess what could happen. Absurdists are
Ollila 2 not afraid of obscurity in art since they employ it as a direct symbol of the obscurity they find in life, (Oliver 231). So, Beckett is using the room to symbolize something about life by way of almost alienating his audience with the obscurity of the place. The play s setting is meant to symbolize the brain. The windows are eyes, the ashbins are memories, and Clov removing Hamm s dust sheet is Hamm waking up in the morning (Hayman 43). This is the first instance in which Beckett employs symbolism. Being a representation of the brain, we see the room as a strange place, unfamiliar to anything recognizable to us as an audience. The characters are confined to this room throughout the duration of the play. We never know for certain what it is that lays outside the room. We merely speculate as to whether it could be a normal world, a dying world, or nothing at all. We are told that through one window there is a shore, and through another there is land (Beckett 63-64). However, we never see either, and Hamm says that outside is death (Beckett 9), and this adds to the obscurity of the room. Since the room symbolizes the brain, this echoes the existential idea that we are confined to ourselves, and never certain of how others perceive the same world which we all share, as the cast is confined to that setting. From the discussion between Clov and Hamm at the end of the play in which Clov threatens to leave, it is clear that the characters have a freedom. Though they may die if they choose to leave the room, they are still free to do so. This freedom is overwhelming to the characters, especially to Hamm, the main character who appears to control, or at the very least influence, the actions of the other characters. The infinite possibilities of this freedom causes angst, an anxiety of not actualizing all potential and the angst of possibility becoming reality (Tillich 208). This concept is pronounced
Ollila 3 through Hamm. He faces what is unknown to him if he or Clov were to leave. Though they are free to do so, neither does because of Hamm s will. Without Clov s assistance, he faces certain death, as he is dependant on Clov to do virtually everything for him. If he were to leave, it would have to be with Clov; thus, both of them, according to Hamm, face certain death. This is the source of Hamm s angst. Angst is the situation of the isolated individual facing the abyss of nothingness and the threat of annihilation all around him, (Tillich 211). At a rehearsal in London, Beckett spoke of Hamm s anxiety : There should be nothing out there, there must be nothing out there He wants Clov to see what he s going out into, but if there is something out there alive, it is not as he supposed, and that would be terrible, (Bachem 98). Hamm says that beyond their place is another hell, implying that the room they are in now is hell (Beckett 26). Beckett says that he intended there to be nothing outside, because the play is based around Hamm and his conception of what the outside world is. This nothingness is what Hamm refers to as another hell. The experience of anxiety also yields the existential theme of the absurd, (Stanford). Nothingness is the crisis that Hamm has throughout the play, and is thus a central idea in the play s conveying existential absurdity through angst, first with the setting, second with the dialogue. This anxiety, or angst, of Hamm s about nothingness is staged conversationally at various points of the play by Beckett. The absurdist expresses the problem by forcing his language to nonsense, (Oliver 228). The language is forced into nonsense through the periodical repetition of topics of discussion among Hamm and Clov. The absurdist must make his statement comprehensive and, at the same time, demonstrate it in terms of
Ollila 4 action, (Oliver 232). Oliver goes on to add that this is done through monotony in absurdist drama. Monotony of the sort described is often expressed by repetition of gestures and situations, time and time again within the course of one play, (Oliver 232). The monotonous repetition used to stage angst and absurdity in Endgame can be observed through the theme of nothingness that is not only prevalent in Hamm s thoughts of the outside world, but also in the dialogue; and, it is this concept which is the principal crisis for Hamm. He asks for pain-killers, but Clov tells him to wait several times, and then finally says that there are none (Beckett 71); there are also no more bicycle wheels (Beckett 8), no more pap (Beckett 9), no more sugar plums (Beckett 55), no more tide (Beckett 62), no more rugs (Beckett 67), and finally no more coffin (Beckett 77). The complex web of references, recurrences, reflections, might easily turn into mere tangle. It is given coherence by the play s dominant and almost absurdly simple theme, which is stated in the opening sentence of Clov s prologue (Fletcher and Spurling 25). In his opening prologue, Clov says, Finished, it s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished, (Beckett 1). The theme communicated here is that of an end: nothingness. Throughout the course of the play, this theme is explored in much greater depth as seen in the dialogue when Clov repetitiously tells Hamm that there is nothing. By the actual end of the play, Hamm believes that Clov has left; however, he hasn t. He stands motionless by the door behind Hamm until the play s conclusion. Since everything is no more for Hamm, including his companionship with Clov, then this is the end of the game/story for him and for the audience. All Hamm does, or can do, is cover his face and remain motionless when he thinks that Clov leaves. Clov is still standing
Ollila 5 there, watching, but Hamm believes that he has gone and that there is no one left to witness him. If he neither sees nor is seen, then he doesn t exist, (Hayman 97). Thus, he has become a part of, or believes that he has become a part of the nothingness which he has hated and dreaded throughout the play. Through the setting and dialogue, Beckett conveys a theme of nothingness because of ending in Endgame. These dramatic devices culminate to eventually channel absurdity through existential angst. Ultimately, this is done so through Hamm. All action, all value, all hope is absurd because it is imperfect, transitory, or illusory, (Oliver 231). This is exclusive to absurdist drama. With Endgame, everything that Hamm wants is transitory because it is in due course no more in an illusory world where the outside bears an ambiguity in respect to certain death, and there is no hope for improvement because of the debilitating circumstances in which we see the characters. We know this because of how Hamm, who is the focus of the play, exercises an influence over the characters to never leave the room. Therefore, Beckett stages absurdity and existential angst in Endgame that is communicated both in dialogue, and symbolically in setting.
Ollila 6 Works Cited Bachem, Walter, et. al. A Student s Guide to the Plays of Samuel Beckett. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1978. Beckett, Samuel. Endgame and Act Without Words. New York: Grove Press, 1958. Crowell, Steven. "Existentialism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 23 Aug. 2004. Stanford University. 19 Feb. 2008 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/>. Fletcher, John, and John Spurling. Beckett: A Study of His Plays. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. Hayman, Ronald. World Dramatists: Samuel Beckett. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing co., 1973. Oliver, William I. Between Absurdity and the Playwright. Educational Theatre Journal 3 rd ser. 15 (1963): 224-235. JSTOR. 06 May 2008. Tillich, Paul. "The Conception of Man in Existential Philosophy." The Journal of Religion 3rd ser. 19 (1939): 201-215. JSTOR. 06 May 2008.