Post-War Wastelands

"The end is in the beginning, and yet you go on."
Samuel Beckett's Endgame (1957)

Points for Reflection

Samuel Beckett's Endgame (1957), PDF

1. why might Beckett assign a "very red face" to both Clov and Hamm, and a "very white face" to Nagg and Nell?
2. a quarter of the way into the play, Hamm contemplates what type of meaning an alien visitor to earth might apply to what s/he sees upon observing the actions of Clov and Hamm. What kind of meaning is the reader/viewer encouraged to derive from the actions of these characters?
3. what clues does the dialogue provide that these four individuals are living in some sort of apocalyptic environment?
4. why has Clov not left Hamm permanently, despite constant threats to do so? Why does he always obey Hamm?
5. why do the play's characters sometimes respond immediately with a "no" or "yes" before they know the import of the question to which they're responding? (Often, such a short response immediately precedes a request for clarification.)
6. how does Christianity fare in this play?
7. are any of these characters capable of love?
8. what appears to be the "natural" state of things in this play? Are there any predictable events or straightforward principles on which the characters can rely?
9. was the characters' past better than their present?
10. consider the relative validity and thematic significance of the following, seemingly absurd moments and observations:

• Nell's noting that "[n]othing is funnier than unhappiness"
• Hamm's recalling his visits to a madman in an asylum
• Clov's exclamation that the pain in his legs may eventually prevent him from thinking
• Clov's query of whether Hamm believes "in the life to come," and Hamm's response
• Hamm's storytelling, and Clov's commentary on Hamm's progress
• Clov's wondering what there is to keep him with Hamm, and Hamm's response
• Hamm's reflection that we weep so as not to laugh, and gradually begin to grieve
• Hamm's observation that solitary children create imaginary friends so they don't feel alone
• Clov's overhearing what Hamm meant to be a theatrical "aside"
• Hamm's final articulation of the now-familiar line "Me to play"

The Ladder (1957)
Marc Chagall

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu