Endgame

Introduction :

Samuel Beckett was the author, in English and French, of novels and plays that express anguish at the absurdity of the human condition.

He spent the Second World War in France, where he participated in the Resistance. After the war, permanently fixed in Paris, Beckett decides to write in French.

His beginnings as a writer are difficult: nobody wants to publish his work. Murphy is his first novel.

Success came with the theater, and in particular its most famous play today: Waiting for Godot, published in 1953. His works, although more and more spaced in time, will be pushed to the extreme research of void of language, and crowned by a Nobel Prize in 1969, that he does not refuse but that he does not seek himself. Now, I'm going to give you a little summary of Endgame, and talk to you about the characters, and then, talk about the caracteristics of the play, to explain to you all why you should read it.

I- Summary and Characters

The play was premiered during the cold war, in 1957, which explains the fact that Endgame recalls a bizarre bomb shelter in the wake of Hiroshima or other nuclear bomb disasters. In the center of the set , at his own request, sits Hamm, who is blind and immobile, confined to wheelchair that more closely resembles a throne with sorts of little wheels (mounted on casters). Downstage, contained in trash cans, are Hamm’s parents Nagg and Nell, left legless after a tandem-bicycle accident years earlier in the Ardennes. The only character left standing is Clov, who suffers from a sickness that keeps him from sitting down and who may or may not be Hamm’s son. 

Clov takes care of Hamm, Nagg and Nell, since he is the only one who can walk. Hamm gives him orders and converse with him on the apocalyptic aspect of their lives, constantly asking if he can take his painkiller. Nagg tells a funny story to his wife Nell that he has already told several times.

II- Language, message of the play and dialogues = Caracteristics of the play

Endgame, is also the highlighting of the misery of the human condition in all that is more horrible, more useless. Yes, the man is useless, life is a burden as Hamm will say to his father: "Damn, why did you do to me?", and  they are waiting for a death that seems to refuse to show itself : the characters continue to wait, but in vain: the end of the play is an echo to the beginning, and if some elements can make us think that indeed, it will finish, the impression of loop and eternal restart makes us realize that it is not finished. Clov announces it himself, from the first (and sumptuous) replica: "Finished, it's over, it'll finish, it may be over." Endgame tells us a sort of endless end..

Moreover, there are a lot of descriptions for the arrengement of the set. I'd say it's around 50% of the play's writings. It allows you to visualise properly the set and it simplifies your reading. /lire/  The dialogues are really short and in a current to familiar language, which make it really fast to read.

To conclude, personally I loved this play and what it conveys, like the funny moments in the script, or the fact that it pushes you to think about interesting and philosophical stuff when we finished reading it. It is true that it may seem depressing or complicated but it is far from the case and it opens us to readings different from those we are used to, while expanding our panel of personal literary culture.

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