repetition as a dramatic tool
TRANSCRIPT
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Masarykova univerzitaFilozofick fakulta
Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky
Magistersk diplomov prce
2010 Vital Voranau
VitalVoranau
2010
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Masaryk UniversityFaculty of Arts
Department of Englishand American Studies
English Language and Literature
Vital Voranau
Drama of Repetition
Repetition as a Dramatic Tool inSamuel Becketts Writing
Masters Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D.
2010
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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
..Authors signature
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Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER 1: THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD .................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2: THE DRAMA OF SAMUEL BECKETT ......................................... 32
CHAPTER 3: REPETITION AS A DRAMATIC TOOL IN SAMUEL
BECKETT'S WRITING .............................................................................................. 48
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 65
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 67
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Nothing is absurd in a world
bereft of judgement.
Samuel Beckett
Introduction
The aim of this work is to show that linking Samuel Becketts drama to the theatre of
the absurd, and interpreting his plays through the prism of this convention, runs counter
to attempts at unbiased reading of this author. The inescapable subjectivity derived of
reading Beckett, is exemplified through Martin Esslins discussion of the theatre of the
absurd as compared with Samuel Becketts own dramatic works, demonstrating
fundamental incongruities between the two. This will be followed by an analysis of
Becketts use of repetition, his primary dramatic tool, as that which facilitates and
provides for those subjective interpretations beyond the theatre of the absurd. Source
materials dealt with are mainly Becketts dramatic works, since that is where his use of
repetition reached nearest to perfection, while his prose, poetry and essays are taken
into consideration where they serve to farther illustrate his use of the stylistic device.
Chapter One characterizes the theatre of the absurd, its language, humour and
various formal aspects as organized and understood by Martin Esslin. Then, those
characterizations are traced in history through traditional drama, from Greek drama and
Medieval theatre, through Commedia dellarte and Shakespeare, by way of Camus and
Sarte, to Chaplin and Keaton. This is followed by a study of Becketts writing in the
context of the theatre of the absurd and an analysis of four common elements: absurd,
tragicomedy, symbolism and avant-garde. On the whole, the survey of this chapter
explores Samuel Becketts writing within the context of the theatre of the absurd,
showing both, how Beckett pertains to it, and in what ways he is detached. Ultimately,
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Chapter One concludes with a criticism against the attribution of Samuel Beckett to the
theatre of the absurd. In Chapter Two, by contrast to Chapter One, Becketts drama is
presented out of the context of the theatre of the absurd. Here, priority is given to the
scope and specifics of traditional disciplines having common influence with Becketts
works, e.g., philosophy, art, religion and certain aspects of drama, such as silence,
language, light etc. The final section, Chapter Three, focuses on repetition in Becketts
writing. Discussion centres on repetition here for being the tool most specific to his
dramatic work. It has become conventional to divide Becketts writing career into three
periods: early works, middle period and late works, and this is normally useful enough
a division for the sake of a general study of the whole of his oeuvre. For the study of his
drama, however, a tri-part division is more practical between his major works (Waiting
for Godot,Happy Days,Endgame), short pieces and plays for radio and television.
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The Theatre of the Absurd
The theatre of the absurd is a term which usually refers to a type of drama which
dominated West-European literature between the years 1940-1960 and is most often
associated with the names of famous writers, such as: Samuel Beckett, Eugne Ionesco,
Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Edward Albee, Arthur Adamov, Fernando
Arrabal, Friedrich Drrenmatt, Witold Gombrowicz, Sawomir Mroek, Vaclav Havel
and many other less famous playwrights. However, as any characterization of genre,
attempts to encompass its abstract relations and phenomena, this term has many
inconsistencies. Unlike other coinages used to describe different kinds of theatre in the
XX century such as: prose drama, kitchen-sink drama, theatre of menace, or
theatre of cruelty, which mainly refer to a few, or even singular, plays o r playwrights,
of distinguished manner, in close time proximity, or being clearly associated with a
specific literary movement, the theatre of the absurd tends to entail too many
features, authors, and spans of time.
The term was first introduced by the dramatist, critic and scholar, Martin
Esslin, in his book titled Theatre of the Absurd, which, in the 1960s, became an
influential dramatic critique. In this book, the author sets out a re-framing in light of
misconceptions and confusions connected with the new type of theatre:
A public conditioned to an accepted convention tends to receive the
impact of artistic experience through a filter of critical standards, of
predetermined expectations and terms of reference, which is the natural
result of the schooling of its taste and faculty of perception. This
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framework of values, admirably efficient in itself, produces only
bewildering results when it is faced with a completely new and
revolutionary convention a tug of war ensues between impressions
that have undoubtedly been received and critical preconceptions that
clearly exclude the possibility that any such impressions could have
been felt. Hence the storms of frustration and indignation always caused
by works in a new convention. (Esslin 28)
The purpose of his book as he puts is to provide a framework of reference that will
show the works of the Theatre of the Absurd within their own convention (Ibid.). To
give a framework of reference, Esslin first explains what the difference between
traditional theatre and the theatre of the absurd is:
If a good play must have a cleverly constructed story, these have no
story or plot to speak of; if a good play is judged by subtlety of
characterization and motivation, these are often without recognizable
characters and present the audience with almost mechanical puppets; if
a good play has to have a fully explained theme, which is neatly
exposed and finally solved, these often have neither a beginning nor an
end; if a good play is to hold the mirror up to nature and portray the
manners and mannerism of the age in finely observed sketches, these
seem often to be reflections of dreams and nightmares; if a good play
relies on witty repartee and pointed dialogue, these often consist of
incoherent babblings. (Esslin 21, 22)
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The difference between the traditionally well-made drama and the drama to which
Esslin refers, lies, as he argues, in the dissimilarity of their purposes. Traditional
criticism, Esslin says, cannot be applied to the evaluation of the dramas described by
him as the theatre of the absurd. Therefore, he provides a set of references, which
according to the author coincide in plays of the theatre of the absurd. These references
encompass a variety of features based on the quality of language, form and style. The
largest focus is on language:
The Theatre of the Absurd tends toward a radical devaluation of
language, toward a poetry that is to emerge from the concrete and
objectified images of the stage itself. The element of language still plays
an important part in this conception, but what happens on the stage
transcends, and often contradicts, the words spoken by the characters.
(Esslin 26)
The role of language in this theatre, due to its incapability of illustrating reality, is
reduced to a minimum and devalued of its traditionally preconceived weight. On the
stage, language can be put into a contrapuntal relationship with action, the facts behind
the language can be revealed. Hence the importance of mime, knockabout comedy and
silence... (Esslin 85). Therefore, according to the author some functions of language
are transferred to other dramatic tools. Esslin cites Ionesco: Just as words are
continued by gesture, action, mime, which at the moment when words become
inadequate, take their place, the material elements of the stage can in turn further
intensify these (Ionesco, cited by Esslin 186).
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Humour is one of the tools, which compensates for the limited language of
the drama of the absurd. It serves both to release the tension of and to balance the
tragic part of such plays:
Humour makes us conscious, with a free lucidity, of the tragic or
desultory condition of man It is not only the critical spirit itself
but humour is the only possibility we possess of detaching ourselves
yet only after we have surmounted, assimilated, taken cognizance of it
from out tragicomic human condition, the malaise of being. (Ionesco,
cited by Esslin 186)
In the theatre of the absurd humour is not applied for the sake of fun, as in traditional
theatre. Here it serves another purpose: To become conscious of what is horrifying
and to laugh at it is to become master of that which is horrifying (Ionesco, cited by
Esslin 186). Laughter has a revealing and strengthening function against unbearable
misery and despair. It saves the character of the drama of the absurd from craziness and
self-annihilation.
Also connected with illogical communication and incomprehensible language
is the lack of linear plot. Again, this absence is compensated for with circularity of
actions and dialogues. Many of the plays of the Theatre of the Absurd have a circular
structure, ending exactly as they began; others progress merely by a growing
intensification of the initial situation (Esslin 405, 406). Since, the linear developmen t
is absent; there is also no typical resolution, or culmination in a classical meaning of
these words.
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Still another feature is the absence of Aristotles unities of place, time, and
action. The theatre of the absurd usually distorts all the dramatic rules described in
Poetics. Absurdist drama does not need to be attached to one realistic scene, often does
not need any stage props at all; the actions become distorted, and time changes its
primarily function.
While the play with a linear plot describes a development in time, in a
dramatic form that presents a concretized poetic image the plays
extension in time is purely incidental. Expressing an intuition in depth,
it should ideally be apprehended in a single moment, and only because it
is physically impossible to present so complex an image in an instant
does it have to be spread over a period of time. The formal structure of
such a play is, therefore, merely a device to express a complex total
image by unfolding it in a sequence of interacting elements. (Esslin 394)
Hence, as time depends on unreal images it becomes deformed and is often marked by
its absence. For the characters of this theatre, time is not to be counted or referred as to
some reality, but simply to pass or fill with irrelevant actions.
As the author admits his term does not refer to those contributing, in his view,
to the theatre of the absurd, but rather to a common basis for their works, which is
illustrative of the preoccupations and anxieties, the emotions and thinking of many of
their contemporaries in the Western world (Esslin 22). He also acknowledges that such
an illustration is always relative:
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It is an oversimplification to assume that any age presents a
homogenous pattern. Ours being, more than most others, and age of
transition, it displays a bewilderingly stratified picture The Theatre of
the Absurd, however, can be seen as the reflection of what seems to be
the attitude most genuinely representative of our own time. (Esslin 22,
23)
Therefore, in his book, Esslin does not seem to aspire to giving an exclusive and
homogenous name to the group of writers, as if placing them in the same school or
convention. On the contrary, he is rather describing the receptions of such dramatic
pieces, which according to classical conventions, are deemed absurd in their nature.
Instead of saying what the aesthetics of the theatre of the absurd are, assuming that such
aesthetics exist at all, he is rather saying what they are not, in contrast to the aesthetics
of a well-made drama in the conventional meaning. Although, Esslin introduces a
series of characteristics which, in his opinion define the essence of the drama of the
absurd, they are always discussed in the terms of absence or contradiction to traditional
ones, rather, than possessing sustainable quality of their own.
Although the theatre of the absurd is often viewed as a purely avant-garde
creation, its elements can be found in the variety of theatrical traditions. Esslin
comments that the novelty of this theatre is rather in the audiences perception than in
the theatre itself:
If there is anything really new in it, it is the unusual way in which
various familiar attitudes of mind and literary idioms are interwoven.
Above all, it is the fact that for the first time this approach has met with
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a wide response from a broadly based public. This is characteristic not
so much of the Theatre of the Absurd as of its epoch. (Esslin 388)
According to Esslin the public plays an important role as far as writers inspirations
and applications are concerned.
Absurdist elements are already to be found as early as in Greek drama.
Similarly to the theatre of the absurd, Greek drama is preoccupied with language:
With respect to Greek tragedy, which, of course, comes to us only as a drama of
words (Nietzsche 199). Another focus of absurdist drama is on laughter, which in
many senses echoes with a specific usage of laughter in Greek drama. As Erik Segal
puts it: All Comedy aspires to laughter although not all laughter is related to
Comedy (Segal 23). This evokes the association of laughter as applied in the theatre
of the absurd in order to achieve a sort of cathartic effect. However, the most
astounding commonality between the two theatres is the domination of merging
quality:
The wearing of masks, symbolizing changes of personality, a practice of
multi-levelled cross-dressing, the presence of a chorus (giving out its
commentary, plus an argument in the form of parabasis (a
pronouncement of advice, often seemingly unrelated to the rest of the
play), a widespread tone of vulgarity (evident both in stage-props and
dialogue), and various metatheatrical devices were all prominent
features. The more unusual the combination of such elements contained
in a particular play or performance, the closer such a drama (the Greek
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drama, meaning something done) might approximate to our modern
understanding of Theatre of the Absurd. (Cornwell 34)
Alike Greek drama the theatre of the absurd is a certain fusion of sometimes loose and
seemingly unrelated elements of performance.
Elements of the theatre of the absurd can be also traced to the medieval
theatre, in the form of allegorical farces, which represents a world gone wrong; social
institutions and people in general are in the grip of vicious folly from which no one is
able to break free... often peopled with wise or benign fools, clowns, and acrobats,
whose function is to reveal, ridicule, and censure the folly around them (Knight 80).
Such plays are closely intertwined with performances of travelling clowns, which
became extremely popular in The Middle Ages.
Commedia dell'arte was another source of inspiration for the writers of the
theatre of the absurd. Commedia dell'arte has three main stock roles: servant, master
and innamorata (Katritzky 104), which reminiscent of many stock characters in
Beckett, Pinter and Stoppards plays. Similarly to the theatre of the absurd, in
commedia dellarte the characters themselves are often referred to as "masks", which
according to John Rudlin, cannot be separated from the character. In other words the
characteristics of the character and the characteristics of the mask are the same (34).
The characters of the theatre of the absurd also tend to exemplify a type of an
individual, rather than a singular individual, but at the same time cannot be separated
from its mask. Commedia dellarte made use of different types of humour, including
prepared jokes, physical gags, as well as improvised, practical jokes, which is still
another parallel to the theatre of the absurd.
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Absurdist elements also abound in Shakespeares tragicomedies, in which
tragic elements are fused with comical ones in such a way, that they often bring about
an ambiguous effect. Shakespeares devotion to meaningful names, when a name
serves as a label of a persons character, is also typical for the theatre of the absurd.
These plays brought about the low and mad characters typified of quaint humour,
ranging from bastards to fools, which later became illustrative of the drama of the
absurd. Tom Stoppards reference to Shakespeare notes the absurdist potential of
Shakespearian characters as well. Plays by Shakespeare and other Jacobean
playwrights often, like plays of the absurd, are illogical and lack realism.
Major philosophical influences come from the writings of existentialists,
mostly of Camus and Sartres interpretations. Camus makes an elaborate description of
the absurd in his work The Myth of Sisyphus.
Camuss starting point is a dichotomical all or nothing: life has mea ning,
or to go on living is pointless. This formulation of the question grows
from existence, characterized by a deep sense of despair and an inability
to find purpose in lifes everyday moments. (Sagi 48)
According to Camus the absurdity of life lies not only in the alienation caused by living
in a hostile and inhuman world, but also in language, which does not mean what it is
supposed to mean: When things have a label, arent they lost already? (155). For
Camus there are two options in response to human anxiety cause by absurdity, either to
find the answer to existence or to commit a philosophical suicide. Sartre seems to go
even further in his pessimism: For Sartre, absurdity is a state of affairs. Existence is
absurd because it lacks any inherent design, meaning, or end point. In Being and
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Nothingness and elsewhere, Sartre links the notion of absurdity to the notion of
contingency (Conard 110). Sartres solution is not in looking for a non-contingent
answer to our existence, but in realization of its contingency: I do not have nor can I
have recourse to any value against the fact that it is I who sustain values in being... In
anguish I apprehend myself... as not being able to derive the meaning of the world
except as coming from myself (Sartre 40). Whereas for Camus the absurd is
contextual and usually lies in the dichotomy between the inner and the outer worlds for
Sartre it is ubiquitous, thus including our innate selves. Although they have a different
perception of absurd, they agree upon the expository potential of absurdity. Sartre and
Camus are alike in an important respect. Specifically, in their literary works, both
illustrate how susceptible individuals are to the menace of absurdity and how powerful
the revelation of absurdity can be (Conard 111). In this respect, they also agree with
many authors associated with the theatre of the absurd.
Still more non-literary influences can be found in vaudeville comedy style,
particularly as it transitioned from stage into the silent film era by Charlie Chaplin and
Buster Keaton; frequently associated props, including the derby hat, walking stick, and
baggy trousers, are also very often encountered in theatre of the absurd. There is also a
noticeable relation between silent movies and the use of silence by many authors
writing absurdist plays. Samuel Becketts desire to see Chaplin as an actor ofFilm is an
example of such relations. Another similarity, originating from Commedia dellarte,
and popularized by Chaplin and Keaton, is usually referred to as slip stick and
describes a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence and, often,
irrational acts.
Ever since the first edition ofThe Theatre of the Absurdwith which Martin
Esslin coined the name, invoking the meaningless of life as thematically consistent with
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Esslinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Esslinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Esslinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Esslin -
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the plays of Beckett, Adamov, Genet and Ionesco, Becketts name has been forever
linked. Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost;
all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless (Esslin 23). Absurdist theatre echoes
all other genres, literary techniques and philosophical schools, which stand in
opposition to realism. It explores Bertold Brechts alienation effect, the aim being to
distance the audience from the reality of the stage, and to perform a study in the
philosophy of existentialism, the key concepts of which were dread and
nothingness. One of the most important features of this theatre was a denia l of the
communicative function of language.
The Theatre of the Absurd constituted first and foremost an onslaught on
language, showing it as a very unreliable and insufficient tool of
communication. Absurd drama uses conventionalized speech, clichs,
slogans and technical jargon, which it distorts, parodies and breaks
down. By ridiculing conventionalized and stereotyped speech patterns,
the Theatre of the Absurd tries to make people aware of the possibility
of going beyond everyday speech conventions and communicating more
authentically. (Culk 2000: http://www.samuel-beckett.net)
Samuel Beckett uses this unconventional language thusly, in order to create the specific
atmosphere of his plays, which consist of numerous misunderstandings and endless
misinterpretations based on language defect structure. Camus concluded that: our
situation is absurd because our longing for clarity and certainty is met with, and forever
thwarted by, the irrationality of the universe into which we have been thrown; we can
neither rid ourselves of the desire for order nor overcome the irrationality that stands in
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the way of order (Camus, cited by Brockett 1988: 226). Thereof Beckett not only
denies definiteness, but he also questions the reality of human life.
In Becketts plays, the absurdity of life does not end with death. Death does
not reveal the rationality of peoples lives or give any sort of solace, but rather makes
ridicule of any preconceptions of any function, such as in Christianity: death, in
which one will come to oneself and meaning will arise (Butler 112). Beckett
agrees with Sartre on this issue:
Thus, for Sartre, death, far from being an end that gives a meaning to
life, is absurd. We are like the condemned man who is preparing to give
a meaning to his life, to close the account satisfactorily, by making a
good showing on the scaffold and who is then carried off by a flu
epidemic. (Sartre, cited by Butler 112)
For Beckett, however, unlike for some existentialists, death, though meaningless, is not
a matter of dread, and it is not a final destination, by no means. Becketts characters are
preoccupied with waiting for death, not by death itself, which serves completely
different aims:
Thus death becomes the main subject of the Trilogy, but not in any
ordinary sense. Not one of Becketts people is afraid of death. Some
long for it (Hamm, for instance), but all, without exception, are
desperately puzzled about its meaning and its mechanism. (Coe 59)
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Death is neither the end to existence nor a transitory state. Becketts usage of death is to
mark the absence of real life: All [characters] think of life as an exile, a punishment
for some unknown crime, perhaps the crime of being born, as Estragon suggests an
exile in time from the reality of themselves, which reality is, and must be, timeless
(Coe 59). Hence, his characters think rather in terms of life, than in terms of death.
Estragon and Vladimir are able to commit neither a real nor a philosophical suicide, in
terms described by Camus. Death is never that which gives life its meanings; it is, on
the contrary, that which on principle removes all meaning from life (Heidegger, cited
by Butler 112). Here, Beckett is closer to Sartre who says: Since the for-itself is the
being which always lays claim to an after, there is no place for death in the being
which is for-itself (Sartre, cited by Butler 112). Therefore, Beckett focuses on the
process of waiting, but not on the object of waiting: if Godot came there would not
be a joyous revelation of the meaning of the waiting (i.e. of suffering, life). On the
contrary, it would only confirm the absurdity of existence (Butler 113). Becketts
characters hope is in what is ahead of them, not behind.
Another difference between Becketts and the existentialists attitudes toward
absurdity is brought about by Adorno:
Becketts oeuvre has many things in common with Parisian
existentialism But whereas in Sartre the form that of the pice
theseis somewhat traditional, by no means daring, and aimed at effect,
the form overtakes what is expressed and changes it For Beckett
absurdity is no longer an existential situation diluted to an idea and
then illustrated. (Adorno, cited by Lane 131)
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Hence, Becketts preoccupation with form and themes, like absurdity, is somewhat
different from the existentialists approach and illustration.
While Sartre and Camus express the new content in the old convention,
the Theatre of the Absurd goes a step further in trying to achieve a unity
between its basic assumptions and the form in which these are
expressed. In some sense, the theatre of Sartre and Camus is less
adequate as an expression of the philosophy of Sartre and Camus in
artistic, as distinct from philosophic, terms than the Theatre of the
Absurd. (Esslin 24)
As such, the difference between the authors lies not only in their approach to reason
and absurdity, but is also evident in their forms of expression. Becketts absurd
works deny meaning and protect themselves against interpretation, but provoke and
entice interpretation (Buning and Engelberts 317). Potential literary expression is less
confined in its formal representation than philosophical works on the absurd.
Tragicomedy is another link between Samuel Beckett and the theatre of the
absurd. Tragicomedy is not only a compound word in lexical terms, but it also carries a
twofold semantic meaning. It is popularly understood as a combination of tragedy and
comedy. Sometimes, when the combination is not so obvious, balanced or visible, it can
be defined as neither a pure tragedy nor a classical comedy. Ristine explains this
mixture as follows:
What we consider as tragic and comical have a way of shading into one
another by imperceptible advances, until the juncture is lost; or what
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may appeal as tragic to one will be comic to another. Many a serious
event has its humorous side; that the pathetic is akin to the comical and
laughter neighbour to tears are truisms of long-standing acceptance;
while the comparison of life to a tragicomedy is almost as old as the
world itself. (Ristine ix)
In his terms, both tragic and comic have more than one effect or meaning. Neither
laughter, nor tears should be taken for granted, as they are peoples reactions, which are
highly subjective and individual in every case. Although the heyday of tragicomedy is
considered to have been in XVII c., Beckett revived and substantially refreshed the
genre in the fifties of XX c. Whereas, classical tragicomedy moves towards catastrophe,
but results in a happy ending, brought by some fortunate events, Becketts tragicomedy
has rather a reversed nature:
He would allow the dark into his work, the chaos, pain, and painful
comedy of existence as he experienced it, and thereby make a new kind
of art, one that depended not on Joycean richness and playfulness, but on
deliberate shrinkage of material and elimination of literary ornament, an
art that sought its apotheosis in failure an art shot through in equal
measure with unassuageable anguish and bleak humour. (Banville 1996:
http://www.samuel-beckett.net/banville.html)
In contrast to classical tragicomedy, Becketts plays depict comic events with a rather
tragic result or ending. Beckett makes the combination between funny and sad even
more intensive and the boundaries between the two yet more blurred. Since the
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publication ofWaiting for Godot(A Tragicomedy in Two Acts) critics often cite Samuel
Becket as having provided its definitive, updated form.
In many works by Beckett, this blur between laughter and crying ascends
beyond its threshold, where it is virtually impossible to say which is which, and is best
described as crying with laughter.
The dislocations of language that follow are serious but, given the
playfulness of the Anglo-Irish tradition, hardly ever solemn. Humour
runs across almost every episode or scene in Becketts novels and plays.
Even when it is no laughing matter, a tragicomic language is created
that is constantly at play, as if acting out the mutilated Nells response to
Naggs laughter: Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you
that. But (Kennedy 6)
The reason for which Beckett is popularly perceived as a gloomy and pessimistic writer
grows from the fact that his plays tend to overshadow his prose, in which he often
appears almost a comic writer.
There are books Proust, More Pricks Than Kicks, and various
collections of poems in which he is not clear whether he is a comic
writer or simply a bitter one, and his first comic book, Murphy, achieves
its daft freedom in a kind of air pocket, while simultaneously poems
precipitate into three or four hundred words his mounting nausea with
the human state. (Kenner 35)
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This confusion lies in the nature of tragicomedy, as well as in the usage of various
comic tools, ranging from clowning, through slip stick, to farce.
Act Without WordsIandIIare perfect clowning: in the second, the two
clowns come out of their sacks, go through the days work and back into
the sacks, in possibly ten minutes Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting
for Godot seem to be outside any definition of clowning; perhaps we
should be content with calling them clownish actors, but they do an act
rather than play a part. In fact, Beckett has been careful to insert enough
farce to discourage pathos in spite of the pathetic elements in the text.
Thus the pulling off of a stubborn boot, the horse-play with Lucky, and
the kicks and howls and the tumbling of all the characters in a heap, and
the juggling interlude involving two heads and three hats, are
carefully inserted with a dual purpose (Mayoux 29)
As suggests Mayoux, all such applications have twofold purpose: reduction of
tragic pathos and elimination of unwanted realism: Moreover, aesthetically
speaking, clownish clothes and clownish acting are part of the rejection of all
realism (30). Moreover, Beckett does not avoid dirty humour. The examples of
this could be Hamms pee without catheter, Lousses eloquent parrot, and
Murphys taste for Glimigrim, Gullivers diuretic wine (Tindall 36). According to
Tindall another purpose of such combinations is the analgesic or aggravating
effect: A guaranteed painkiller, humour makes horror bearable or, as Yeats has
it, transfigures dread. Yet humour also intensifies what it guarantees relief from
(Tindall 32). In these terms, Beckett can be described not only as the successor of
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a great legacy of tragicomedy but also as a contributor to its development and a
precursor of a sort.
Still another feature that serves as a common platform for Beckett and
the theatre of the absurd is symbolism. This kind of symbolism says that truth
cannot be logically grounded, but should be sought with the help of intuition.
Different symbols can be indirect hints in the quest for the ultimate truth.
Symbolism in the theatre changed the view of many traditional aspects in this
genre.
The Symbolists believed that scenery should be confined to draperies or
undefined forms which evoke a sense of infinite space and time.
Historical detail was avoided because it tied plays to specific periods and
places rather than bringing out their timeless qualities. Dcor was
reduced to elements giving a generalized impression appropriate to the
ideas and feelings of a play. Similarly, costumes were usually simple,
draped garments of no particular period o place; colours were dictated
by the plays mood. (Brockett 1969: 318)
That is why sceneries of Becketts plays are usually either undefined or limited to some
symbolic elements, like a bare tree or trash scattered over the scene. Similarly,
language in the dialogues of his heroes is more metaphorical and vague than literary.
Maeterlinck referred to this in the following way:
Side by side with the necessary dialogue you will almost always find
another dialogue that seems superfluous; but examine it carefully, and it
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will be borne home to you that this is the only one that the soul can
listen to profoundly, for here alone is the soul that is being addressed.
(Brockett 1969: 310)
Becketts dramas abound in symbolic meanings and exploration of suggestiveness. All
the elements that appear in them are motivated by the writers intentions. No symbol
where none intended (Alvarez 86). Becketts works are so symbolic that sometimes it
makes all interpretations virtually impossible or erroneous.
This is why the many and elaborate interpretations that have been foisted
on Godotseem particularly superfluous. Pozzo and Lucky may be Body
and intellect, Master and Slave, Capitalist and Proletarian, Colonizer and
Colonized, Cain and Abel, Sadist and Masochist, even Joyce and
Beckett. But essentially and more simply, they embody one way of
getting through life with someone else, just as Vladimir and Estragon
more sympathetically embody another. (Alvarez 86)
Becketts symbolism is particularly hard to discern, as it is multilayered and often
simultaneously expressed through many different media, such as language, gesture,
sound and visual signs. Therefore, Becketts works give endless opportunities for
varied, sometimes contrastive, readings.
On the other hand, Becketts attitude towards symbolism is not passive and
merely derivative, but also critical: Symbolism was an art movement originally
designed to resist the discursive, the prosaic, to edge toward silence, but Beckett finds
that the symbolic method hinders the symbolists from attaining their goal (Albright
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13). Long before Beckett wrote the majority of his pieces, he became not only
captivated by the potential of symbolism, but also quite cautious about its traps, which
is conspicuous in his essay on Proust. The symbol, he says, must be reduced to
autosymbolism (Becketts own term). A fiction purged of mimesis and symbol alike
would seem to deny itself every resource Becketts chief mode of self-entertainment
was to refine the procedures through which a text can reflect its lack of content, the
central absence (Albright 13). Therefore, symbolism in Becketts realization has a dual
function, in a traditional and figurative, self-deniable senses. Consequently, Beckett is
one of the most over-interpreted authors ever.
A final important correlation between Beckett and the theatre of the absurd
that is considered here is the avant-garde element. The nature of avant-garde art is to
criticize established canons and replacing them with new alternatives. Although the
term is applied to many different artistic acts and forms, it can be described as follows:
Avant garde has become a ubiquitous label, eclectically applied to any
type of art that is anti-traditional in form. At its simplest, the term is
sometimes taken to describe what is new at any given time: the leading
edge of artistic experiment, which is continually outdated by the next
step forward. (Innes 1993: 1)
Avant-garde usually bears on provocative message, which aims to evoke repugnancy,
bewilderment and anger. In these terms, Becketts writing can be labelled as avant-
garde. Throughout his entire career, experimentation remained the most important
catalyst of his art. In each play he has successively pushed out the limits of
abstraction His work has continually extended the frontiers of modernism, to the
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point that his later plays barely belong in the theatre at all (Innes 1995: 428). Although
there are no stylistic features, which would describe an avant-garde drama, it does
manifest in the desire for transformation of every genre as well as in the revolt against
the status quo of mainstream culture. The outlines of his concerns must have been
obvious We need not expect any Victorian three-deckers, any engage
pamphleteering, any autobiography or any bourgeois melodramas from Paris this year;
yet the uncompromisingly experimental products of Becketts ontospeleology have
become, with time, entirely unpredictable (Pilling 184). Becket would not comply
with any, even his own conventions in his art.
However, as with absurd, tragicomedy and symbolism, Becketts avant-garde
is not univocal either. First, although avant-garde is a pretty fuzzy notion, Beckett is
rather not a typical representative of avant-garde movement:
Part of Becketts importance as a cultural figure is that he blurs ordinary
distinctions between mainstream and avant-garde. Because he was
embraced so readily as a classic he was able, in effect, to smuggle
certain progressive ideas across the border of mainstream culture, and
that achievement is, rightfully, his most celebrated: he has actually
changed many peoples expectations about what can happen, what is
supposed to happen, when they enter a theatre. Not surprisingly, then,
many avant-gardists, true to the bohemian habit in mind that considers
any work compromised as soon as it attracts a wide audience, perceive
this achievement as already ancient history and assume that their own
work represents a radical departure from Becketts. (Kalb 157, 158)
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Second, in distinction from his balancing on the edge of avant-garde and non-
ideological innovativeness, intrinsic to many ambitious writers -
Perhaps the most significant assumption he does not share with the
avant-garde is that artistic goals must be pursued in a spirit of aggression
and panic, which is really part of Artauds legacy: the conviction that the
world and the theatre have deteriorated to such a state that the only
appropriate response is to scream. Beckett inner calm, his unceasing
effort to pare down, to weed out every inessential syllable, discarding all
technical gimmicks, stand diametrically opposed to the ethic of
eclecticism and entropy in what is sometimes called pluralistic
performance (Wilson, Squat Theater). The avant-garde had in fact
ceased to search for the icon, as does Beckett in his late works, since that
search represents a quest for unity, and unity is antithetical to the model
of a radiating action that explodes from a center. (Foreman, in Kalb
159)
With these arguments in mind, Beckett can be regarded as an avant-garde writer only to
some extent. A more precise statement would be to say that he was a consistent and
inherent practitioner of avant-garde art, but not its typical representative or artistic
ideologist.
Having seen how different elements of the theatre of the absurd are altered in
Becketts realization it is necessary to look at how various critics perceived his
contribution to this theatre from the very introduction of the label. Dan Rebellato, for
instance, says that In their early days, there was felt to be some overlap between the
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work of Beckett and Ionesco and the movement inspired by Look Back in Anger
(Rebellato 145). However, as the critic admits the authors associated with new drama
were too antagonistic in the terms of what is fictional and real in their writings:
Vaughan Williams, in this sense, is simple by contrast with the liturgical Beckett,
the discordant wilfulness of Ionesco, and the peremptory sourness of Brecht
(Osborne, cited by Rebellato 145). OHara draws attention to discrepancy between
Beckett and other associated authors:
The universe of Samuel Beckett is certainly as complex as that of any
other living writer. Yet it is not a dream universe, like that of Jarry or
Ionesco. It is a metaphysical vision of ultimate reality, constructed out
of innumerable threads of logic tightly interwoven, out of fragmented
arguments... (OHara, cited by Butler195, 196)
OHaras point, that Beckett is much more preoccupied with real than unreal, is
confirmed by another critic Kenneth Allsop, who says that [Beckett] is in his
technique an obsolete writer... ...his standpoint is a surprisingly orthodox one in the
environment of the fifties (Allsop 37). Tindall, on the other hand, emphasized the fact
that any tendency to group writers into a movement is a relative endeavour, based on
peoples preferences:
Occasional resemblances to Ionesco have led critics to place Beckett in
the school of the absurd. This is worth looking into; for if there is such a
school-indeed, if schools, such as those of the metaphysical or symbolist
poets are more than academic conveniences for ignoring peculiarity-
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Beckett might belong to this school. The critical mind, amorous of
categories, wants to put him there. Amorous of individuality, Beckett
rejects membership: I dont think I deserve a place in this school.
(Tindall 12)
Richard Coe agrees with Tindall, saying that the term despair, which is closely
connected with another term, absurd, is a sweeping statement, when applied to
Beckett:
...but to class Beckett himself as the simple incarnation of despair is a
drastic over-simplification. To begin with, the concept of despair
implies the existence of a related concept hope, and hope implies a
certain predictable continuity in time-which continuity Beckett would
seriously question. Despair, with all its inherent moral overtones, is a
term which is wholly inadequate to describe Becketts attitude towards
the human condition; nor is this condition, in the most current sense of
the definition, absurd. It is literally and logically impossible. (Coe 1)
According to both critics, Beckett was a follower of Euclidean reason, which stands in
opposition to absurd, the latter being dependent on the presence of a judging mind
(Tindall 13). In Coes opinion, Becketts method is rationalistic, before mystic:
This is one of the factors [validity as a method] which sets Beckett apart
from the writers of the Absurd. For the Absurd is a method which
proceeds, by means of the annihilation of rational concepts, to a point
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where ultimate reality, irrational by definition, may be glimpsed through
the wreckage. But Beckett, by contrast, cherishes rationality above all
things, but drives it to the point at which just as moving particles are
transformed as they approach the speed of light reason itself is
transmuted into the still vaster reality of the irrational. (Coe 20)
The inconsistency of including Beckett into the theatre of the absurd reveals itself in the
abundance of various illusive terms referring to his writing: ...there was also a theatrical
movement [associated with Beckett] that went by various names, including a-theatre,
anti-theatre, theatre of the absurd, experimental theatre, method theatre or the theatre of
ridicule (Cronin 424). All of these names besides being self-inclusive are equally
misleading as the analyzed term. This is also visible in Anthony Cronins account of
Becketts attitude towards such clichs, and the absurd in private.
The passive characters of Godot, as well as the music-hall and circus
associations and the fact that there was no action in the ordinary sense of
dramatic action, gave plenty of excuse to critics to make Beckett part of
a movement. ...Beckett would assent to and even encourage the
association of his name with the nouvelle vague in the novel and would
become friendly with other members of the movement, the public
association with Ionesco, Adamov and theatre of the absurd would
always annoy him and he would discourage it in every way possible
short of public dissociation. (Cronin 424, 425)
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Samuel Becketts biographer, also attaches such categorization of Beckett to some facts
of his life; one being a conversation between Samuel Beckett, trying to find a reason for
an attack, and his assailant: The reply, according to these later stories, was I dont
know, a rejoinder on which a great deal of criticism about the theatre of the absurd and
the meaninglessness of all action has been founded (Cronin 290). Such, almost
anecdotal associations do not speak in favour of any labels of this sort. Not without
certain reason is the authors opinion on his belonging to the theatre of the absurd. It is
a rare case when an author, regardless of his unequivocal and persistent repudiations, is
enduringly attached to this label.
One can not define them [moral values]. To define them it would be
necessary to produce a judgement of value and that can not be done. It is
why I have never been in agreement with this notion of theatre of the
absurd, because there, that is a value judgement. One can not even speak
of the truth that is part of the distress. Paradoxically it is in form that the
artist can find a sort of solution. In giving form to the unformed. It is
only at this level that there could be a kind of underlying affirmation.
(Becket, cited by Cronin 512)
The reasons for Samuel Becketts rejection of the concept might have varied from those
connected with his striving for ultimate originality as an author to ones of more vague
importance, like the danger of misinterpretation.
Every literary classification bears in itself the potential for constrained
interpretations of the classified authors or their works. The theatre of the absurd is no
exception. Before going into an analysis of the characteristics, which are beyond the
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context of the theatre of the absurd, it is necessary to show in what ways the ascription
of Samuel Beckett to this theatre might lead to misinterpretations of his writing. Here
Beckett, again, was very cautious and taciturn. When an American director, Alan
Schneider, asked Beckett a questions about Godots nature, the answer was: If I knew I
would have said so in the play. Beckett seemed perfectly willing to answer questions
specific meaning or reference but would not go into questions of larger or symbolic
meaning, preferring his work to speak for itself and letting the supposed meanings fall
where they may (Cronin 454). The wave of misinterpretations started with the reaction
to Waiting for Godot
...at once an elaborate nothing and a possible something, were various,
as a series of letters to the Times Literary Supplement in 1956 makes
clear. Each correspondent, trying to make sense of what he saw or read,
came up with his hypothesis. One thought the play deeply Christian.
Another found it an existential parable. Others found it a social and
economic allegory, a tract on spiritual awareness, something too deep
for words, and a hoax upon the highbrows. There was no better
agreement among professional critics. To each his guess, the less certain,
the more dogmatically propounded. (Tindall 6)
Supposedly, most of these misinterpretations could have given basis for a term like the
theatre of the absurd but, what is more likely, is that the term itself attended an
affirmative rooting of misinterpretations of all sorts. Such interpretations, within a
certain constraint, are usually prone to preconceived and erroneous statements. The
new situation has brought with it the risk of over-interpretation: it is possible that in
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Beckett criticism more is less, while the inner law of Becketts work is less is more
(Kennedy 1). More examples of such misconceptions will be analyzed in further
chapters.
Considering Samuel Becketts affiliation with the theatre of the absurd and its
outstanding elements aside from him, regarding both his inspiration and contribution to
it, it should be said, there is no indication of his being an exemplary agent of any of
these elements. On the contrary, in each of its instances, including absurd, tragicomedy,
symbolism and avant-garde he rather remained a sufficiently outstanding and peculiar
associate, but not greater than that. Furthermore, the authors own resentment of his
affiliation with the theatre of the absurd, was supported by many renowned critics.
Becketts involvement should be farther perceived as that of a highly sovereign author,
whose attachment to any particular current, school or movement would be
counterproductive to his attributable originality. Besides his evident interests for
potential variations of a range of aspects and elements of existing modes of theatre,
Becketts input is by and large corollary to his qualities of a stand-alone author.
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The critical mind, amorous of
categories, wants to put him
there. Amorous of individuality,
Beckett rejects membership
Beckett wants to be alone.
William York Tindall
The drama of Samuel Beckett
The aim of this chapter is to consider Becketts cultural asset through the prism o f
certain semi-literary domains, such as philosophy, art, and religion, as well as through
some literary and dramatic aspects, like time, language, light etc. Each of these
concerns featured here go beyond the notion of the theatre of the absurd in order to
avoid, what is sometimes taken as a schematic reading or statement, inspired by the
dogmatic nature of categorization. That is why, for example, this chapter discusses only
those relations of Beckett to philosophy, which do not overlap with ones covered in the
context of the theatre of the absurd.
Becketts relation to philosophy as to many other arts, is not categorically
expressed, neither by the author himself nor by the scholars studying his oeuvre. Their
positions, often radically, depart from those considering Beckett a philosophical
thinker, who expressed his ideas in literary genres, as they strongly deny any
philosophic influences and contributions. John Butler in his bookSamuel Beckett and
the Meaning of Beingsays: However close the parallels are we must remember that
Beckett has disclaimed any philosophical achievement (Butler 4). Butler cites two of
Becketts own statements regarding his attitude towards philosophy, one of them with
Tom Driver, an American theologian, and critic: I am not a philosopher. One can only
speak of what is in front of him, and that is simply a mess. (Beckett, cited by Bishop
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and Federman 219). Another of his disclaimers of philosophical interest comes from an
interview in 1961, conducted by Gabriel dAubarde, for the French journal Les
Nouvelles Littraires,: I never read philosophers... I never understand anything they
write... I wouldnt have had any reason to write my novels if I could have expressed
their subject in philosophic terms (Beckett, cited by Bishop and Federman 240).
Cronin seems to confirm Becketts words by saying: In general too much has been
made of Becketts interest in philosophy and too little of his impatience with it
(Cronin 231). However, Cronin acknowledges: Yet he did take some interest in the
pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, Zeno the Eleatic, Parmenides, Democritus of Abdera
(Cronin 232). At the same time, Cronin undermines these interest and citations
claiming that Beckett was more interested in the shapeliness of ideas, rather than in
their philosophic inclinations. Mary OHara, in a thesis from 1974, says something very
contradictive to Beckett and Cronin: So close is Heideggers thinking to Becketts that
the latters work could almost be seen as a literary explorat ion of Heideggerian
metaphysics (OHara, cited by Butler 4). Finally, Butler seems to express the most
negotiable position towards Becketts affiliation with philosophy: I do not see that
Becketts dismissal of philosophy need deter us unless we think the I ntentional Fallacy
unfallacious (Butler 5). Still another point of view could be summarized by Michle
Le Doeuffs words from The Philosophical Imaginary: Imagery and knowledge form,
dialectically, a common system. Between these two terms there is a play of feedbacks.
Literature and philosophy could be as inseparable from each other as the language they
use from the thoughts signified. That is why it is difficult not to perceive Becketts
heritage in both literary as well as in philosophical terms.
Arthur Schopenhauer is considered to have influenced Samuel Beckett the most.
Schopenhauer was an important discovery for him, perhaps indeed the most important
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literary discovery of his life (Cronin 120). Beckett admired his intellectual
justification of unhappiness the greatest that has ever been attempted (Cronin 121).
This philosopher appealed to Beckett for many different reasons, but the strongest
influence or similarity, as Cronin claims, is to be observed in their attitude towards
suffering.
Suffering is for the German philosopher the principal fact of human
existence, and he attacks as absurd the idea which underlies almost all
metaphysical systems... Suffering, he says, is the positive thing, the
norm. Pleasure is the purgative: usually the mere abolition of a desire or
cessation of a pain. We are for the most part hardly aware of happiness
or satisfaction, but we are acutely aware of pain and deprivation,
dissatisfaction and desire, which are with us nearly all time. (Cronin
121)
Maybe that is why Becketts characters are the most suffering creatures in the world,
though they are still able to take their fate in a Schopenhauerian way, as something
given to human existence. Many of Schopenhauers ideas came to Beckett via another
associate Marcel Proust and revealed themselves in Beckett through one of his first
written works Proust: Here the artists role is considered in terms primarily derived
from Schopenhauer, with Prousts romanticism, relativism, and impressionism having
their roots in the doctrine of pessimism (Ackerley and Gontarski 512). It is a general
agreement between scholars that Schopenhauers philosophy was more attractive to
writers than professional philosophers, and that is in keeping with Becketts being
influenced not only by his ideas but also by artistic expression of those ideas:
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Schopenhauer suggests that limited transcendence may be attained through aesthetic
contemplation. Some of SBs [Samuel Becketts] dramatic moments are rooted in this
paradox, in his acceptance of the experience... but also his distrust of its value
(Ackerley and Gontarski 512). Although Beckett equally acknowledged his interest in
Schopenhauer: I always knew he was one of the ones that mattered most to me
(Knowlson 248); he [Beckett] was not reading philosophy and had no interest in
whether Schopenhauer was right or wrong as a metaphysician (Cronin 121); still, there
is a clear, possibly coincidental, connection between Schopenhauers doctrine of the
lack of ultimate purpose and most of Becketts characters.
Another early discovery for Beckett was the Dutch philosopher Arnold
Geulincx and his maxim Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis1echoing with Becketts own
Nothing to be done.
Geulincx said that this injunction was the highest principle of ethics
from which easily follows each and every obligation, for if nothing
ought to be done in vain, one ought to accept both death and life, not
struggling against death when God called one away, nor against life
when it was given one. And if nothing ought to be done in vain, one
ought to accept both death and life... (Geulincx, cited by Cronin 239)
Becketts man seems to follow this ethical obligation in a very exact way. Geulincxes
influence is also traceable in what is considered to be an improvement on Descartes,
regarding the split of a man into two separate parts: mind and body (Cronin 231). This
duality, in Becketts works, is visible not only in the inner world of his characters, but
1Where you can do nothing, there wish nothing as translated by Ronald Begley.
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also manifested in their outer duality, represented by complementing, and often
seemingly inseparable pairs. Like with Schopenhauer, Geulincxes influence cannot be
claimed as unequivocally apart from the maxim Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis, which
was deeply in tune with his own quietism and seems to have struck him with great
force, though it is difficult to register how much he was really influenced by Geulincx
(Cronin 230). Nevertheless, Beckett read, enjoyed, and to certain extent shared
Geulincxes philosophy.
Becketts later interests shift towards Heidegger, whose philosophy often very
closely intertwines with Becketts middle and especially late oeuvre. One of these
interconnections is present in the being-there quality of Becketts characters, described
by Heidegger in the concept of Dasein: ...Didi and Gogo in Godot are not going
anywhere and not doing anything they are just there with a vengeance (Butler 10).
This is how in depriving them of noticeable motion and visible aspirations Beckett
brings them closer to the real existence symbolized by Heideggers notions described in
German as Selbstein (being onself), Das Man (they) and Existenz (existence).
Dasein, being based on the given quality of facticity and limited possibilities of free
choice is well represented by the concern of Becketts people with their past, as well as
by the physical limitation of their presence: The factical situation is usually illustrated
by physical limitation amputation, paralysis, blindness. On this level Beckett is a
pessimist if it is optimism to minimize facticity and maximise possibility in ones
account of man (Butler 15). Doomed to disabilities of all kinds, together with mental
incapability and general impotence of their will, Becketts characters have to
compensate their Dasein with verbal existence, which takes the form of the story-
telling and fantasizing that makes up so much of the novels and a good part of the
plays (Butler 15). This is the point where mockery of existence, symbolized by
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pointless dialogues meets with another alternative - being silent. The call does not
report events; it calls without uttering anything (Heidegger, cited by Ronell 37) is
what can be described as the Heideggerian call of conscience so often symbolized
through meaningful silence in Becketts writing. It calls even, though it gives the
concernfully curious ear nothing to hear which might be passed along in further
retelling and talked about in public... The call discourses in the uncanny mode of
keeping silent (Heidegger, cited by Ronell 37). Realizing this, Beckett arrived at what
became a widely quoted idea of his, an alternative to the plane of the feasible, which
comes from Three Dialogues of Samuel Beckett with Georges Duthuit: ...there is
nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no
power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express
(Beckett, cited by Harrison, Wood 617). This, as Butler claims:
...is similar to Wittgensteins point of view... speech, language, words
are the only way we have of capturing Being, they are certainly all that
an author or narrator has to use, and at the same time they are exactly
what separates us from Being whence the simultaneous talking and
yearning after silence. (Butler 62)
The masterful combination of talk and silence will become a recurring motif regarding
not only the inner qualities of Becketts writing, but also his attitude towards it. In
Becketts case the obligation to express, or putting it more precisely, the obligation to
repeat to express, leads to the habitual quality of the lives created by him, probably best
illustrated by Act Without Words I and II. In these mimes the characters silently
undergo a series of routines, in one play induced by a mysterious whistle, in the other
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by a goad coming from an unknown source. In both pieces, with every act and deed, the
characters seem to escape from routine, only to be thrown back into it at the end of
every endeavour. Here, the central focus is neither on utterance, nor on silence, but on
repetition, which will be discussed in detail in the last chapter.
There are additional parallels between Samuel Beckett and such thinkers as
Ren Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Leibniz, and others; however, none of their
impacts should be overrated. William Tindall puts this concern in the following way:
The trouble with Beckett, for those intent on affinities or influences, is
that he seems to have read everythingall the novels, plays, and poems
and that, whatever the echoes, his work is like nothing else. All
philosophy seems his province, from the pre-Socratic fragments to
Heidegger and Sartre; all psychology from William James to Freud and
the Gestalt. References to these, improving the pedantic air of novels
and plays, have led some to think Beckett more of a thinker than he is.
Whatever the air, he is first of all an artist... Not ideas but particulars are
his concern, not systems but arrangements... Concept and logic, says
Beckett, are helpless in a confusion that the artist must order without
them. (Tindall 4)
Yet, a mere shift of Becketts oeuvre from the domain of philosophy into the domain of
art does not answer many a crucial questions about the nature of his art.
Becketts art seems to be even more difficult to classify than his philosophical
views. Beckett caught the fever of innovation from various avant-garde movements of
the interwar period the expressionists, surrealists and dadaists without becoming a
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devotee of any one ism (Kennedy 21) observes Andrew Kennedy. Anthony Cronin
as well is prone to believe, that Beckett is more an artist than a philosopher, and says
that Becketts answer to suffering is: through art; but it is an art of a special kind, open
to, and reverent before, the operations of involuntary memory, those moments of
evocation of the past when the veil of habit is pierced... and almost unbearable nature of
reality is perceived (Cronin 145). Butler, in his turn, notices that Becketts art aspires
to the nature of existence or being as such: The overall impression gained is that
Beckett is asking here for an art that will confront ultimate reality, and art that will
correspond not to the socialogical ornatural structure of the world, but to its ultimate
structure, its ontology (Butler 161). On the other hand, Beckett himself is very
conscious of arts inabilities and flaws: The artist is driven by the very fact of being
an artist to realise, to create in art, that which is not, which cannot be, because, as
soon as it is realised in concrete terms (paint or words) it ceases to be itself.
Consequently, it must fail (Beckett, cited by Coe 4). However, even assuming that
Becketts writing is an essentially artistic prerogative, it is still quite impossible to stay
away from a nondescript quality and multi-referential nature of his writing.
Perhaps another difficulty, connected with literary and formal classifications
is the blur of the borders between literary genres in some pieces by Beckett. A good
example is Whoroscope, a poem, which concerns a philosopher, is a dramatic
monologue in free verse, with footnotes more grotesquely pedantic than Eliots
(Tindall 4). Therefore, Whoroscope could be considered by critics as a free verse poem,
a monodrama, an informative article in prose on Descartes or a mixture of all of these.
As it had been said in Chapter One Beckett was equally avant-garde and to some
extent, also traditional. He was writing modernist literature in post-modernist times,
though some scholars disagree about these epochal classifications. Debuting with
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literary criticism, Beckett continued as a poet and later a novelist, to end up as a
playwright. However, his last novel How It Is, was written after he had received
worldwide recognition for his best plays. His final work, a year before his death was a
poem again What Is the Word. Coe argues that Whereas much of his prose is superb
poetry, most of his poetry is a second-rate verse (Coe 14). Talking about his plays,
they underwent a continuous evolution. And, paradoxically, the later plays tend to
become more theatrical, though less substantially flesh and blood. The plays get
nearer to pure theatre, in the sense that they could not function in any other genre or
medium... (Kennedy 23). Having in mind Becketts passion for painting and music, it
can be said without exaggeration that he was more of a multiple-vector artist than just a
playwright.
Similar classificatory problems arouse concerning religious motifs in his
oeuvre. Here the opinions of scholars are more or less unified, but often differ with
audiences responses, especially from his first and early performances, which often
varied very radically, from those regarding Beckett as a deeply atheist writer to those
ascribing him multiple Christian symbols. However, having received a strictly
protestant upbringing from his mother, a well known as a devotee, and living among a
Catholic majority, first in Ireland, then in France, it would be hard to isolate himself
from Christian symbolism. Butler argues Beckett is not devoid of an interest in
religion, but he is certainly not an orthodox Christian (Butler 56). In Waiting for
Godot, Tindall notices a variety of theological analogies, suggesting, however, that do
not have to be religiously bound:
Lucky speaks of a personal God... with a white beard. The messenger
boyand angels are messengers thinks Mr. Godot has a white beard.
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What is more, separating the sheep from goats, he punishes the
shepherd, capriciously. Cain, Abel, Adam, Christ, tree, prayer, and
repenting the original sin of being born thicken the holy atmosphere.
But these hints, proving nothing about Godot, may be there to reveal
Vladimirs state of mind, to tease the audience, or to indicate mans
hopeless hope. All we know for sure is that waiting for Godot is like
waiting for God, that Godot is a kind of nothing. (Tindall 9)
Cronin links these references to Becketts biography: Becketts Christian upbringing
and his familiarity with the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity is evident and is
used in all his work... (Cronin 391, 392). Nevertheless, Christianity and Judaism are
not the only sources for Becketts religious overtones and go much further beyond these
religions. Something else that escaped everybodys notice until much later is the use
made of Manichaean ideas in the construction of the work [Krapps Last Tape]
(Cronin 485). Cronin draws attention to Becketts use of the three prohibitions of
Manichaeanism, one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, which is preoccupied with
the symbolism of light and darkness: ...Krapp is in violation of the three seals or
prohibitions of Manichaeanism for the elect: the seal of the hands, forbidding
engagement in a profession, the seal of the breast against sexual desire, and the seal of
the mouth, which forbids the drinking of wine (Cronin 485, 486). Mayoux seems to be
sceptical about any theological implications in Becketts works, perceiving them more
like literary myths:
Much has been said of the theological implication of the play, which are
almost too obvious. Their purport is another matter. There is nothing
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here except the authors images, cosa mentale. So we can only speak of
theological images, and pass on from one more mythology. (Mayoux
31)
The presence of religious connotations is here undeniable, but it is also quite evident
that the connotations are reduced by Beckett to laic symbols, which do not have their
converting purpose. Becketts religious quests go beyond the scope of traditional
beliefs and cults.
There are interesting implications on other realms which received a great deal
of attention from scholars and resulted in numerous publications: Beckett and politics,
Beckett and aesthetics, Beckett and music, Beckett and love, Beckett and myth, Beckett
and mathematics, Beckett and Joyce, and even Beckett versus Beckett, and many other
contextual studies. It is not the aim of this chapter to present the majority of the studied
frameworks of Becketts oeuvre, but rather to show the omnitude of his works, and to
underline the variety of nearly endless connotations, references and links. As it has
been presented in brief on the basis of Becketts treatment of philosophy, art and
religion, he is an author who expands any existing confines of perception and
experience. In order not to get lost in the studies of Beckett it seems to be necessary to
engage a close reading of his texts, with a focus on certain aspects and tools only.
Finally, before proceeding towards a discussion of the tool of repetition, it is necessary
to give some consideration of some aspects of his dramatic craft which override the
theater of the absurd, such time in opposition to timelessness, language in opposition to
silence, and light in opposition to darkness.
Becketts use of time is probably the most mesmerizing application in his
writing of all. Referring to Becketts lecturing experience Cronin says:
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His [Becketts] lectures contained a good deal of reference to the
philosopher Henri Bergson and his distinction between spatial time,
which could be measure by clocks, and duration time as it is really
experienced by human beings. Bergsons ideas had an immense
influence on all the French writers of the early twentieth century... They
seem to have remained with Beckett and it is impossible to see later
works likeHappy Days,Play, andHow It Is as being set not in any sort
of eternal after-life, as some critics have assumed, but simply as
reflecting Bergsonian ideas about time. In the Bergson/Beckett view, the
intensities of an experience transcended time. (Cronin 127)
Therefore, time for Beckett is unlikely not linear. Nor are his characters simply reduced
to the time experienced by them. Beckett often marks this duality by pointing at two
dimensions of time, inner and outer, marking them in different ways. In Waiting for
Godotreal time is marked by the day and night cycle. Another dimension, the time of
nature, is marked by the cycle of a tree and its leaves. All of these are complicated by
the characters vague perceptions of time: Estragons reduction to short memory. This
is very reminiscent of Schopenhauers doctrine of the eternity of the present: As the
ideal limit which separates the past from the future the present is as unreal for the
senses as a point in mathematics. But if it is inaccessible to empirical consciousness it
can be seen as the superior reality for the metaphysician (McQueeny, 133). Becketts
characters seem to exist in such an eternity of the present, where their past and future
are often symbolized by their quasi progression in time. Another of Becketts interests
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in time was a philosophical notion the heap of millet, studied by a Greek philosopher
Zeno.
Take any finite quantity of millet, and pour half of it into a heap. Then
take half of the remaining quantity, and add that to the heap. Then half
the remaining quantity again... and so on. In an infinite universe, the
heap could be completed; in a finite universe, never, for the nearer it gets
to the totality, the slower it increases. (Coe 89, 90)
The scenery ofHappy Days, as notices Richard Coe, is the heap of time represented
by the heap of sand, which is covering Winnie with the progression of the real time of
the play. Although it accumulates with time, the end of the play will not mark the end
of Winnie and Willies happy suffering. Pretty early in his writing career, Beckett
became fascinated by what Proust called that double-headed monster of damnation
and salvationTime (Proust 17). The French author invoked the aid of involuntary
memory, and, much later, of art. Both, he believed, had the power to enable the subject
to relive instantaneously in the present a total sequence of experience belonging to a
past Self, thus enabling the true and extra-temporal Self to escape... (Coe 17). As Coe
remarks Beckett was not completely satisfied with such an escape. The mortal
microcosm cannot forgive the relative immortality of the macrocosm (Beckett, cited
by Coe 19). Becketts answer to this problem lies in his accommodation of repetition as
a remedy against the oppression of time.
Language is another aspect that distinguishes Beckett from many other
writers, including those associated with theater of the absurd. Cronin writes in
Becketts biography he [Beckett] had, he said, a particular memory of being at the
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dinner table in his mothers womb shortly before birth. There were guests present and
the conversation was, perhaps needless to say, of the utmost banality (Cronin 2). This
banality is what constitutes the body of his literary language. Words are here uttered
for the purpose of killing time, as well as to mark silence. Throughout his writing career
Beckett was striving between these two opposites: talk and silence:
He yearned for silence, the blank white page, the most perfect thing of
all... The principal failing of his earlier work, so knowing but also so
self-revealing in all the wrong ways, is the failure to achieve a form and
a tone of voice which would allow him to express his particular truths.
Perhaps this repeated failure made him feel more acutely than most the
torment of marred utterance, of false utterance, of would-be significant
utterance; and to feel also more intensely than others that the object of
true, achieved and necessary utterance is silence in some sense or
other, a permission to be silent... (Cronin 376)
That is maybe why his late works seem to be progressing from utterance to silence.
However, with Beckett, silence can be more meaningful than talk, and the pauses
between utterances do not always go to represent dumbness. In an intrinsic manner to
himself, Beckett plays with reversions of these two. Whereas in early prose he speaks
to become silent: The analysis of silence in the trilogy shows how the texts tend to
undermine any straightforward signification. There is no shared community of meaning
that Becketts readers can take shelter in (Loevlie 209); in plays he becomes more
silent in order to say more, and to achieve the so-called meaningful silence. The main
character ofThe Unnamablesays: All my life... there were three things, the inability to
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speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude... (Beckett, The Unnamable, 389). In the
constant fight between this binary opposition Beckett once again comes to repetition; if
it is not possible to keep silent, and there is no need to speak, one can repeat what has
been already said.
With regard to the opposition of light and darkness, and as it has been already
hinted earlier, by the mention of the allusion inKrapps Last Tape to Manichaeanism,
Becketts drama, unlike any other, makes an extensive use of darkness and light. In
some plays the hints concerning the use of light during performances occupy the major
part of stage directions. What is more, some of his plays, likeBreath orCatastrophe are
predominantly set in light for the achievement of a dramatic effect. Jean-Jacques
Mayoux suggests that light represents consciousness, so as, to represent outer world.
Desert. Dazzling light: such are the first words ofAct without Words I.
Expanse of scorched grass... Blazing light is the stage direction to
Happy Days. Table and immediately adjacent area in strong white
light, that to Krapps Last Tape. This mime should be played at back
of stage violently lit in its entire length, toAct without Words II, and it
is the obstinate light of consciousness that seems in Play to persist
compellingly after death. (Mayoux 8)
Nonetheless, light rarely, maybe with the exception ofHappy Days and a few shorter
plays, dominates Becketts scene. In most of the plays light is surrounded by darkness,
and as in Leibniz virtual, corresponds to the dark zone of the mind and the actual to the
light one: Krapp and his tape recorder occupy a circle of bright light surrounded by
darkness... For Krapp light means identity and consciousness, but without darkness,
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that he tries to keep under, light would lack all meaning (Tindall 44). Therefore, as
Tindall suggests, for Beckett light and darkness never go in isolation; they never go to
represent black and white, they are usually supposed to complement each other,
forming grey colour. It corresponds well with Becketts famous remarks to the actors
when directing his own plays: Too much colour, meaning the limitation of theatrical
playfulness. Becketts light and darkness are in a constant move, as darkness changes
into light only to be substituted by it in the following round. This repetitive nature of
the usage of light in Becketts plays is best illustrated in stage directions forBreath:
MAXIMUM LIGHT No bright. If 0 = dark and 10 = bright, light should move from
about 3 to 6 and back (Beckett, 371). This also serves to reveal the repetitive nature of
Becketts drama and a use of balance in stage-craft which goes beyond a mere will to
provoke with absurd differences.
All binary oppositions, including time and void, speech and silence, darkness
and light, in Becketts use, seem to be based on the mechanism of repetition. Beckett
rarely uses them in isolation and often only to mark the absence of the opposite. The
utmost of his dramatic effect is, though, achieved by the swinging of these oppositions
into constant rotation, which will be specifically analyzed in the following chapter.
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Estragon: I can't go on like this.
Vladimir: That's what you think.
Repetition as a dramatic tool in Samuel Becketts
writing
The survey of different aspects of Becketts drama to this point has lead to repetition as
the most relied upon dramatic tool and catalyst in the plays of Samuel Beckett. As
indicated in the analysis in the latter part of the previous chapter and what will be set
out and examined in this chapter, are specific examples of repetition in various
dramatic works by the author.
The preliminary, theoretical part of this chapter will be based on a book,
SamuelBeckett: Repetition, Theory, and Text, by Steven Connor, a professor of modern
literature and theory at Birkbeck in London. However, given that this book has been
devoted for the most part to repetition in Samuel Becketts prose, it will be referenced
only for theoretical orientation, and treated rather as a springboard than as the proof for
the following considerations, in the context of Becketts plays. The focus will be given
to repetition as a dramatic tool, and not to repetition as a concept in itself. For that
reason criticism of repetition in the theatre, such as that of Antonin Artaud in his essay
The Theatre of and its Double will be omitted.
SamuelBeckett: Repetition, Theory, and Textwas first published in 1988 and
then republished in 2007. Thus far, it has probably been the only published study to
have argued that: ...Samuel Beckett, the writer who in this century has most single-
mindedly dedicated himself to the exploration of what is meant by such things as being,
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identity and representation, should have at the centre of hs work so strong and
continuous a preoccupation with repet