Becketts Endgame Essay - 2792 Words

Becketts Endgame While Beckett’s works are often defined by their existentialist themes, Endgame seems to offer no solution to the despair and melancholia of Hamm, Clov, Nagg, and Nell. The work is replete with overdetermination that confounds the efforts of critics and philosophers to construct a single, unified theme for the play. Beckett resisted any effort to reconcile the problems of his world, offer solutions, or quench any fears overtly. However, this surface level of understanding that aligns Beckett with the pessimism of the Modernist movement is ironically different from the symbolic understanding that Beckett promotes through his characters and the scene. Beckett’s work does not suggest total hopelessness,†¦show more content†¦All that loveliness! [Pause.] Hed snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes. [Pause.] He alone had been spared. [Pause.] Forgotten. [Pause.] It appears the case is ...was not so...so unusual. (En dgame 2474) Hamm and Clov seem entirely like the madman depicted here, and Hamm’s suggestion that the condition is typical says that Hamm and Clov are experiencing this psychosis. Clov sees the same nothingness when he looks out of the window, declaring everything to be â€Å"corpsed† (Endgame 2469). Beckett also deliberately associates psychosis with art: the madman was a painter—and engraver (Engame 2474). This suggests that in the context of conflict in the post-war world, a â€Å"desert† (Engame 2467) of creativity amongst artists is especially dangerous, because we fail to recover and reconstruct a new world with some meaning. The use of storytelling to pass the time and remember the past is common in Endgame, but it never satisfies the characters and it fails to kill the sense of despair. Beckett also remarks on the power of art as Clov takes down the picture hanging on the wall shortly after Clov informs Hamm that there are no more painkillers. In this sense, art seems to supply some hope and inspiration in life. Beckett suggests that art in as far as it represents independent creation can dramatically overhaul the world. The allegory of ModernismShow MoreRelated Codependency in Samuel Becketts Endgame Essay1328 Words   |  6 PagesCodependency in Samuel Becketts Endgame Clov asks, What is there to keep us here? Hamm answers, The dialogue. In the play Endgame, Samuel Beckett demonstrates dramatically the idea of codependency between the two focal characters who rely on each other to fulfill their own physical and psychological needs. Beckett accomplishes this through Hamm, who assumes the identity of a kingly figure, and his relationship with Clov, who acts as his subject. 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