ARTS1030 Lecture 12: Beckett's Endgame part 2
4 Jun 2018
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12. 24/05/18 Beckett part 2
What is Loss? Nostalgia? Or relief?
Nostalgia:
• Nagg and Ness reminisce about their amorous youth. They yearn for the past
when the world offered possibility and experience. ‘Ah yesterday!’ Nell
elegiacally sighs.
‘Metatheatrical’ elements
• Meta - comments on the actual process of itself eg. metafiction - comments
on the process of fiction. Metatheatre comments on the process of theatre
• Hamm and Clov have to make judgements about the conversations they have
- “this is slow work”, “we’re getting on”
• More general allusions to theatrical languages
• Eg. Clov asks Hamm why he stays, Hamm answers “for the dialogue”
• Hamm’s angry rebuke to Clov, for not respecting the language of theatrical
convention: “An aside, ape! Did you never hear an aside before? (pause). I’m
warming up for my last soliloquy.”
• ‘Ham’ acting - Hamm
• Pretense and self-consciousness of performance - existential tedium, angst of
existential setting
• Post-war, Cold War, anxiety about human civilisation, post-apocalyptic
• Metatheatre - eg. 6 Characters in Search of an Author
• Breaking 4th wall - metatheatrical
• Hamm - tragic hero depleted of his lyricism - he wishes/believes he is a great
actor - but always stops, truncates, interrupts himself
• No significance or substance attributed to the emotions felt by Hamm
• “Can there be misery (he yawns) loftier than mine? No doubt.
Formerly. But now?”
• Allusions to Shakespeare - Clov to Hamm “I use the words you taught me…”
→ Prospero and Caliban “you taught me the language and my profit on’t/ is, I
know how to curse…”
• Hamm - “our revels now are ended” → direct quote of Prospero from end of
The Tempest
What is lost?
• World of literature and dramatic literature is gone in this context - as well as
nature, civilisation, art
• Allusions to Shakespeare perhaps exist to highlight the absence of grand
literary meaning
• Alluding to Shakespeare (generally regarded as highly meaningful) are
meaningless - subversion of this idea by Beckett
• Highlights absence of value, meaning, tragedy - the loss of loss. Lost
the ability to lose things properly
• In conventional tragedy, loss is valuable in that it is meaningful, but in
Beckett’s play this value and emotion is lost/gone eg. When Nell dies,
no one cares → “is she dead?” “looks like it”
• Existential meaninglessness
• The characters have no power - determinism - the script determines their
actions and performance, the philosophical repetition of the script determines
the characters’ endless repetition
• They also all have different disabilities / injuries that render them (all in
different ways) powerless/helpless
Existentialism
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
This is slow work , we"re getting on : more general allusions to theatrical languages, eg. Clov asks hamm why he stays, hamm answers for the dialogue : hamm"s angry rebuke to clov, for not respecting the language of theatrical convention: an aside, ape! Did you never hear an aside before? (pause). Ham" acting - hamm: 24/05/18 beckett part 2. Nostalgia: nagg and ness reminisce about their amorous youth. They yearn for the past when the world offered possibility and experience. Metatheatrical" elements: meta - comments on the actual process of itself eg. metafiction - comments on the process of fiction. But now? : allusions to shakespeare - clov to hamm i use the words you taught me . Prospero and caliban you taught me the language and my profit on"t/ is, i know how to curse : hamm - our revels now are ended direct quote of prospero from end of.
