Endgame

There is certainly an element of master and servant about Hamm and Clov's relationship, but it's much more complicated than that. For one thing, Hamm relies on Clov in a way that no self-respecting...

Beckett wrote his plays in French and then translated his own work into English; that might partially explain the eccentricity of his dialogue. In attempting to verbalize the Beckett-ian system, or...

In Samuel Beckett's one-act play, Endgame, the dual protagonists, Clov and Hamm, develop a psychological and social dependence on each other that defines their relationship. This relationship is...

"‘‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.’’ Though Endgame is dark, there is humor in the play. Clov’s confusion over which items to fetch first and his antics with the ladder could be directly out...

"Hamm’s parents, Nagg and Nell, having lost their legs many years ago in a bicycle accident, live in ashbins from which they occasionally emerge only to be cursed by their son." Some...

The term, taken of course from chess, refers to how we, as human beings, can use our free will (if it is not an illusion) to go out of this bodily existence, to cease to exist. Just as in chess,...

An "Endgame" in chess is when only two kings are left on the board. Neither can win or lose. All that happen is that they can endlessly move around, and around, and around, never putting each other...

First, “lesson” is not the right word to describe Beckett’s motivation for writing. He had no interest whatsoever in showing the world how things work. Endgame is a stage description, in stage...

Samuel Beckett's four-character, one-act play, Endgame, originally written in French as Fin de partie, was first performed in French in London in 1957. An English translation was later made by...

One theme of the play is how the characters must depend on each other for their survival. Since Hamm is the only one who has the combination to the cupboard, he exercises control over Clov, who...

What makes the use of metaphor in Beckett's works and specifically this one so unique is the way that he uses metaphor to connect his work to his very pessimistic view on life that presents his...

Throughout the course of the play, Hamm asks five times, “Is it not time for my pain-killer?” The first four times he asks, his servant Clov tells him, with increasing anger, that no, it is not...

Endgame is one play of the Theatre of the Absurd in which, at least in my opinion, the themes are made relatively clear. This is not necessarily to say that Beckett's usual message about the...

Beckett found solace in repeating motifs in his work; scholars began collecting them in the Journal of Beckett Studies. In his plays, for example, characters are always paired, one character...

What is key to realise about the work of Beckett is that it is linked to a literary movement entitled the Theatre of the Absurd. This was a literary movement that questioned the value of life...

Several analyses of Endgame as some sort of chess game have been attempted by the large body scholars, but all have been stained by the fallacy known as “argument by analogy.” The title refers, of...

My first reaction to your question is that Beckett characters do not “pretend” or “imitate” or even “choose” actions. It is a mistake to treat his characters as psychological creatures–they are...

Beckett is famous for the existialistic themes of his most famous work, includeing Endgame and Waiting for Godot. In other words, his characters' actions demonstrate the belief that human beings...