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Paper Abstract: (Samuel Beckett). Use of four characters to portray post-modern drama & reality. Paper Introduction: THE "NEW SENSIBILITY" OF "ENDGAME" Samuel Beckett's Endgame has been described as a drama that presents "the death of the stock props of Western civilization---family cohesion, filial, parental, and connubial love, faith in God, artistic appreciation and creation." It is the THESIS of this paper that Beckett is able to use only four characters--- Hamm, Nagg, Nell, and Clov--- to portray the fact that modern theater has to address itself to a new sensibility that today might be termed "postmodern." Beckett gets his title from the final stage of chess, when only a few pieces remain on the board and checkmate is near. This is the "endgame," and Beckett's play demonstrates that the mechanics of the theater (as they mirror "life") are near the checkmate stage. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. This is exactly what John Pilling is getting at when he writes of thedifference between "Endgame" and "Waiting For Godot." There is theconsensus that "many have felt that the situation is in some way lessdramatic than that of 'Godot.1 It is much more obviously a 'mind-drama'than the earlier play" (Pilling 77). Pilling, John.Samuel Beckett. Endgame. His words make a mockery ofphilosophy. The older characters talk in a variety ofsentimental and stupid phrases until they disintegrate. If Beckett had usedtraditional means to convey this message, he would have in essence beensaying: but I guess not all convention is dead, since I'm using it in myplay. Beckett is constantly dealing with paradox in the play:this is his new sensibility. Clov, who is tiedto Hamm in a sort of son-slave relationship, is lame, though he repeatedlyannounces his departure. He needs to, in Ben-Zvi's words, "finish," and this is thetableau that he presents to the audience at the end when Hamm and Clovstand off with Nagg. And if Beckettdoesn't clarify, but only shows, he is in the same tradition as Bob Dylan,who sang in his "Ballad of the Thin Man" that: something is happening, butyou don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? Works CitedBeckett, Samuel. This is the fine line that Beckett treads throughout his play.Most drama aesthetes would agree that theater has to involve the viewerwith some level of character. Just because Beckett sees a big sore within his breast(in his heart) does not mean that he has to abandon characters who comefrom the heart, and situate his theater purely in a mental state. Beckett does not see his function as a playwrightto "please" and "flatter" those who watch his work. There was a big sore" (Beckett 32), he can be takenon two different levels. This is Beckett speaking tothe audience through Hamm. Therefore, "Endgame" sets itself up as a definitive work, similar toa Jackson Pollock canvas or Ornette Coleman's "Shape of Jazz to Come." The bottom line is that someone is taking its course, and that ismessage enough. Boston: Twayne, 1986.Burkman, K. This is theleap of faith that Beckett asks the viewer to take when he experiences"Endgame." If the principle that theatrical art has reached an "endgame" isgranted, then the characters of Hamm and Clov have to be taken on adifferent plane, i.e., they have to be allowed their function as "types" inBeckett's statement. It is not enough to say that Beckett's view is that hope ispointless, because that leaves out what we can only call "the power ofart." And here is yet another paradox that Beckett is dealing in: he hascreated a triumphant play that says that all ends in stalemate, that hopeis pointless. This question could be best answered byseeing it interpreted through a performance, but it does seem clear thatBeckett wants to constantly drive home the point that the theater is inneed of artistic renovation, and that "Endgame" is his way of bringingabout a successful revision. An interpretation of this sort will persuade the audience at"Endgame" to watch the way Beckett places Hamm and Nagg in opposition.Even if the drama ends in the stalemate of father and son, there are manyopportunities for the father (i.e., traditional theater) to scold the son(i.e., Beckett's revolutionary "new sensibility") and challenge his radicalapproach. This play does have to be viewed inlight of Beckett's earlier work, as it shows that the playwright had cometo feel that his only option in terms of expression was the mind-drama.Yet, he has very willfully created his characters in order to present thebreaking down of filial bonds: it is no accident that it is Nell who dies,leaving, in Tynan's observation, a stalemate at the endgame. Therefore, when Hamm says that "last night Isaw inside my breast. Beckett wants Hamm and Clov to represent andbe symbolic of a certain artistic "death," yet he has to bring thisviewpoint off with characters that have a degree of reality. Beckett is dealing with the"death of stock props," and that is why Hamm proclaims that "nature hasforgotten us" (Beckett 11). Hamm is a parody of the heroes in plays who areconstantly trying to find the meaning of life. New York: Grove, 1983. In conclusion it is instructive to look at what Steven J. It may well be that there was no way to show the"death of stock props" in a conventional sense. Beckett is not unlike jazzmusicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman: he plays the tune thathe hears in his head, and if those in his audience are not interested inhis "tune," then he just asks that they don't bump their behinds on thedoor on their way out. Something is happening, which we are calling "the new sensibility"here, and Beckett knows that he has the duty to render it in the mosteffective way possible. It is a skillful move that Beckett is able toboth anticipate his critics and offer the play as his response. Beckett knows that by presenting the problem he has placed forth astimulating point of departure. This is the "endgame," and Beckett's play demonstrates that the mechanicsof the theater (as they mirror "life") are near the checkmate stage. Charles R. If the play has not quiteformulated something new that is wholly formed to take its place, Beckettdoes not feel responsibility to do so. Samuel Beckett. By paying attention to Tynan'spoints it is possible to see why then all four characters are necessary tothe play's structure. Second, it is the theater itself that needs a soul transplant.These two are difficult to separate, as Beckett's own personality cloudshis perception of the theater and the state that it is in. In Linda Ben-Zvi'scollection of essays, she remarks that Hamm is "Hamlet, desiring to end butunsure of what lies beyond the surety of his cell ... This is made apparent when Hamm says to Clov in the first act that"I've made you suffer too much" (Beckett 6). Samuel Beckett and the Pessimistic Tradition. The best he can hope for is a "draw," or astalemate. As the classical references from "Hamlet" to "Oedipus" pile up, it ismore apparent what Beckett's method is. (Hamm says to Clov: "Use your head, can't you, useyour head, you're on earth, there's no cure for that!" (Beckett 68).) If Beckett's critics were to attack him, they might well take thatline and turn it on Beckett, saying that theater had to engage the heart aswell as the head. Beckett knows that this is all the explanation that heneeds. What Lyons is getting at is the fact that Hamm and Clov have manynuances of role-playing. This.refers to the fact that "Endgame" willnot try to imitate nature in the manner of traditional theater. First, it is Hamm/Beckett who is in spiritualcrisis. When reading the play and thinking about Beckett's aesthetic of a newsensibility, one has to ask oneself: did Beckett want his private fantasyto be accepted as objective truth? H. Samuel Beckett. To thisBeckett probably would have replied that he had no obligation to conform toa predominant mainstream aesthetic, especially if he felt that it wereartistically bankrupt. "Endgame" is an unusual play because of its structure, which refusesto take any conventional shape or form. Samuel Beckett: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.Rosen, Steven J. The playwright is involved in a scheme withthis play that states to his viewers that they must "suffer" by beingdeprived of the typical responses in the theater if they are to break onthrough to a new form of dramatic experience. Rosen saidembodied Beckett's aesthetic: "Values are flattened to indifference, moodsto a uniform calm, and hope is pointless, since a change or exception isall that can be hoped for, and there are no exceptions" (Rosen 65). He is risking the possibility that criticswill call him a fraud to speak out on what seems to be his true instinct ontheater that offers commentary on theater (and life). Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1987.Graver, Lawrence. The notice of the symbolic meaning in Nagg's name turns the reviewerto Hamm himself. Hamm is a blind and paralyzed manwho lives his life in a wheelchair. If Beckett took the time toclarify, he would destroy the form his message has taken: vagueness isintegral in his message. Because this is so, it is hard from theaudience's standpoint to know exactly how these two men are connected,since it is difficult to know if specific references in their dialoguerelate to their basic relationship or to the structure of the games theyshare. Tynan brings up a goodobservation that Beckett is able to use modern techniques in hispresentation, yet he draws on ancient dramatic situations (Sophocles'"Oedipus") in order to make his point. By viewingHamm as though he were a figure from out of a Francis Bacon painting, thereviewer explains his analysis of the ending. 'Endgame is a playabout play, where the participants do not speak of winning, but of merelyfinishing" (Ben-Zvi 147). This leads usback to Pilling's use of the word "dramatic" in his critique. When Kenneth Tynan reviewed the play back in 1957, he also saw thedrama as signalling a new sensibility in modern or post-modern drama. This paradox has to be kept in mind by the audiences who experience"Endgame." Beckett's "message" may be that "hope is pointless," though bywriting and risking he is engaged in one of the most hopeful activitiesthat man can undertake. Yes, thereis less "drama" in the traditional sense, but there may be morepsychological tension in "Endgame" than in a hollow "well-made" play thatconforms to outmoded requirements of narrative and character. Anyone who shows this type ofindebtedness to masterworks of the past is a reluctant iconoclast. And, it is true that by identifyinga "new sensibility," Beckett upped the ante a great deal with his play. New York: Grove, 1958.Ben-Zvi, Linda. When Hamm's mother Nelldies, "the curtain falls on a symbolic stalemate: (King Nagg) versus Kingand Knight (Boss and Clov). Once again, the Hamlet motif proves tocomplement the thesis of this paper. This recalls Melville writing about Ahab's endless quest forthe whale Moby-Dick, when the author himself had attained his quest bywriting the book. Myth and Ritual in the Plays of Samuel Beckett. WhatTynan focused on was Beckett's depiction of the power complex. He wants to be astimulating point of departure for them. When Hamm asks Clov: "What's happening,what's happening?" Clov replies that "Something is taking its course"(Beckett 13). Lyons has suggested in his critique of "Endgame" that thekey to Beckett's removal of "the death of the stock props of Westerncivilization" lies in the relationship between Hamm and Clov. Maughlin gets itexactly right. A paradox of vagueness andrightness, the line is an emphatic statement acknowledging and embodyingthe unnamed: it shows but does not clarify" (Burkman 86). Beckettdoesn't try to kill these "fathers," but he is intent on getting rid of the"stock props" that embody the mainstream theater. "While Clovalways seems to maintain an ironic distance from Hamm's rhetoricaldeclamations, he knows the words to speak to assist his master insustaining the routines the blind man plays" (Lyons 51). This is well-observed, and it asks the viewer to consider Beckett's modus operandi indestroying the illusion of the traditional theater. So, when Nagg (an interesting choice of name, when one think ofthe "nagging that parents often do) says that "I hope the day will comewhen you'll really need to have me listen to you, and need to hear myvoice, any voice" (Beckett 56), it is possible to hear conservative dramacritics explaining to Beckett that he would be wise to pay more attentionto what has come before. The result is of coursea very cerebral drama. As Susan Maughlin says in her essay "Liminality,""although Clov's reply is devoid of specifics and is so vague as to seempointless, it nonetheless smacks true. Beckett is skillful in that he does play with ambiguity inHamm's character: at times Hamm appears to break through his idioticdialogue to moments of true insight. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.Lyons, Charles R. Beckett is forging new ground with"Endgame," and so he has convinced himself that there is no way to "win"within his new sensibility. The boss is imprisoned forever in the womb.He can never escape from his father" (Graver 164). Clearly one's first response is that Hamm is a ham actor,but it is useful to go beyond this to think in terms of Hamm beingassociated with Shakespeare's most famous tragedy. Beckett's drama is frustrating because it spitsout convention and creates a "mind-drama" that is often hard to penetrate.But there are constant moments of clarity where the playwright tips hishand to state: if I didn't have hope in the theater and in man's capacityto respond, I would never attempt to break on through to a new sensibility. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1976.----------------------- 3 Rosenis on the mark with this, and at the same time we can take his ideas onestep further. THE "NEW SENSIBILITY" OF "ENDGAME" Samuel Beckett's Endgame has been described as a drama that presents"the death of the stock props of Western civilization---family cohesion,filial, parental, and connubial love, faith in God, artistic appreciationand creation." It is the THESIS of this paper that Beckett is able to useonly four characters--- Hamm, Nagg, Nell, and Clov--- to portray the factthat modern theater has to address itself to a new sensibility that todaymight be termed "postmodern." Beckett gets his title from the final stageof chess, when only a few pieces remain on the board and checkmate is near. "Endgame" is a revolutionary work and as such itsjob is to tear existing structures down. His parents are Nagg and Nell, andthey are stuck in ash bins. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.