The End
by Samuel Beckett
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See Also
- Samuel Beckett (Critical Survey of Poetry)
- Samuel Beckett (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Samuel Beckett (Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century)
- Samuel Beckett (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- Samuel Beckett (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
- Theory of Short Fiction (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
- Samuel Beckett (Critical Survey of Drama, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Samuel Beckett
- First Published: 1955
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: The twentieth century
- Setting: Possibly Ireland
- Genres: Realism, Short fiction, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: Death or dying, Survivalism, Loneliness, Life, philosophy of, Old age or elderly people, Elderly abuse
- Locales: Europe, Ireland
The Story
If readers expect the contemporary short story to concentrate on a “slice of life,” it must be said that Samuel Beckett is inclined to take his cut at the far end of the loaf. “The End” is a good example of the subject on which he has concentrated in much of his work: the gritty, sometimes offensive experience of the last days of an old man, struggling to survive and, at the same time, willing to die.
There are no tricks, no sophisticated twists and turns in this story. It is simply the tale of an old, unnamed man, thrown out of some kind of public...
(The entire page is 1466 words.)
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