Words and Music (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Samuel Beckett
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: Unspecified
- Principal Characters: Words, Music, Croak
- Genres: Existential literature, Drama, Absurdist literature, Autobiographical drama
- Subjects: Language or languages, Communication, Creative process, Existentialism, Radio or radio broadcasting
The Play
The plot of Samuel Beckett’s radio play Words and Music is at once dismayingly simple in its minimalist reductiveness and disturbingly complex in the ways in which the play’s basic components are combined. The play opens with only two of its three characters present. While Music (comprising a small orchestra) tunes up, Words breaks in rather peremptorily to rehearse his speech on one of Beckett’s favorite subjects, Sloth. As soon becomes clear, the relationship between Words and Music is antagonistic; each implores, loathes, interrupts, and seeks to gain...
[The entire page is 3011 words long]
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