ENGL 3653: English Literature II

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 14: Beckett, Pinter

Corrected 4-22-10

 

From our class Web page, please print and bring to class the topic and instructions for the final essay exam.

Existentialism

Existentialism, a philosophy first identified after World War II, holds that

1.      Extra-credit research: Read about existentialism. An excellent introductory article to this philosophy, “A Primer of Existentialism,” is in the reserve drawer in the NSU-BA library (labeled for my World Literature class [ENGL 3413]).

 

Theatre of the Absurd

The first Absurdist drama (or play of the theatre of the absurd) is Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano (1950).  The best-known Absurdist drama is Samuel Beckett’s first performed play, Waiting for Godot (1953).  Other playwrights influenced by the theatre of the absurd include Harold Pinter and Edward Albee.

Absurdist dramas are also tragicomedies in that they have elements of tragedy (no happy endings) but also contain moments of black comedy, evoking laughter in response to grotesque or painful situations.

 

Samuel Beckett

  1. In what country was Beckett born and raised?
  2. In what country did Beckett choose to live for most of his adult life as a playwright?
  3. What was Beckett’s mother tongue?
  4. In what language did Beckett most frequently choose to write?
  5. In what language did Beckett originally write Endgame?  Who translated it into English?
  6. What is Beckett’s best-known play?  When was it written?  What is the basic situation in that play?

 

Endgame

Setting

The entire play is set inside a gray, bare, claustrophobic room.  On opposite sides of the stage, the room has two high, small windows.  The audience never sees anything outside the windows.

  1. What is supposedly the view from the right window?
  2. What is supposedly the view from the left window?
  3. What stage properties (props) does Clov use to look out the windows?

This stark setting has been symbolically interpreted in various ways.  Use the following questions to evaluate the symbolic interpretations listed in 4-8 below:

a.       To what extent does the setting of the room physically resemble the symbol?

b.      To what extent is the symbol appropriate to the content and meaning of the play?

  1. Could the room symbolize a human skull with two blind eyes?
  2. Could the room symbolize a womb?
  3. Could the room symbolize a tomb?
  4. Could the room symbolize Ante-Purgatory (outside the gate of Purgatory) in Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which the “late penitents” are “between void and being,” a state of suspension.
  5. Could the room and all its characters represent different aspects of one person who is dying, suspended in a womb/tomb?

 

Context of Setting: What’s Outside?

  1. At one point, what Arabic numeral does Clov use to report what he sees outside?
  2. Soon after that, how does he describe the waves?  What has happened to the tides?
  3. What color does Clov see outside?
  4. As far as we know, do any living beings still exist outside the building where Hamm and Clov live?   
  5. What two animals still exist inside the building where Hamm and Clov live?  What connotations do these two creatures carry?
  6. Hamm says he once knew an insane painter who looked out his asylum window and saw what?  Why is this detail mentioned in the play?
  7. The world outside the room has been compared to earth after a nuclear holocaust.  Is this comparison valid?  Why or why not?
  8. It has been suggested that Hamm’s cruelty has contributed to the death of others.  What did he refuse to give to Old Mother Pegg?  Of what did she die?  
  9. Near the end of the play, what human being does Clov report seeing outside?  Does this person actually exist?
  10. At the end of the play, do you think Clov will leave Hamm?  If  he does, what role reversal might occur?

 

Dialogue

  1. Compared to actual human speech, the dialogue in Endgame, and in plays of the theatre of the absurd in general, has been described as “stripped down”?  Is this description of the dialogue appropriate?  Why or why not? 
  2. The dialogue in Endgame has also been described as absurd (meaning “irrational”), reflecting the characters’ failure of communication and alienation from each other.  Find one passage of dialogue that demonstrates this absurdity, lack of communication, and alienation.  Where is the passage? How does the passage demonstrate these characteristics?  
  3. How does the fact that Beckett wrote the play in a foreign language and then translated it into his mother tongue help to create stripped, absurd dialogue?  

 

Characters

  1. Compared to characters in traditional plays (such as, for example, Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession) how fully developed (round or complex) are the main characters in Endgame? How well do we get to know and understand the main characters?  At the end of the play, what unanswered questions remain about the main characters?
  2. It has been said that the relationship of Hamm and Clov reveals a twisted codependence or symbiosis.
    1. What is the definition of “codependence”?  What is the definition of “symbiosis”? To what extent do these terms apply to their relationship?
    2. What are Hamm’s physical disabilities?  What are Clov’s physical disabilities?  How do these disabilities make each man depend on the other? 
    3. How would you rate Hamm’s level of emotional maturity?  Where in the room does he always want to be?  What does this reveal about him?
    4. In what ways has Hamm shown mercy to Clov and Clov’s father?   In what ways has he treated them badly?  
    5. Why has Clov remained with Hamm?  What does he get from Hamm that is apparently not available elsewhere in the world of the play?

Be prepared to discuss in class the following chart of the contrasting symbiotic roles of the two main characters:

Hamm                Clov

master                slave

prompter                        speaker

untidy                            neat

mind                              body/senses

               OR                             

            sensual/emotional        rational

3.      Because the young Beckett worked for the writer James Joyce, some critics suggest that on one level Hamm symbolizes Joyce and Clov symbolizes Beckett.   Would this symbolism be a compliment to Joyce?  to Beckett?

 

Meaning of the Names “Hamm” and “Clov”

The following explanations have been suggested for Beckett’s use of the names Hamm and Clov:

Hamm                                                                         Clov

“ham” actor                                                                 clown

Hamlet (divided against himself, unable to act)

ham (the meat)                                                            cloves (accompaniment to ham)

Noah’s son Ham, a survivor of Great Flood                          

hammer                                                                       nail

                       

Hamm=s Parents: Nagg and Nell

  1. Nagg and Nell live in “dustbins,” a term used in British English.  What is our word for “dustbins” in American English? 
  2. What physical disability do Nagg and Nell suffer from?  How did they receive this disability?  Why do they live in dustbins?
  3. What phenomenon in our own society might Nagg and Nell’s living in dustbins symbolize?
  4. How would you describe Nagg and Nell’s speech?  How is it ironic?
  5. What is Hamm’s attitude toward and treatment of his parents?
  6. What do we learn about Hamm’s infancy that might help explain his abusive treatment of others (2412)?
  7. Which character apparently dies?  How does the spouse react?

 

Plot of Endgame

The plot of a traditional play focuses on decisive actions.  In Endgame, however, as Clov repeatedly says, “Something is running its course.”  In other words, the plot of the play is like a mechanism that runs down until it almost stops. Just as Waiting for Godot concerns waiting for an arrival that never comes, Endgame concerns waiting for a departure that never comes.

  1. What is the first line of dialogue spoken in Endgame?  To what is this line an allusion? What is ironic about this line in Endgame?   Where and by whom is this line repeated later in the play?
  2. In his plays, Beckett tends to portray the human condition as a progressive disintegration of physical health and spiritual humanity.  For example, only a few pages into the play, Hamm says, “We lose our hair, our teeth, our bloom, our ideals.” Where and in what context does he say this?
  3. What does Hamm prophesy (“With prophetic relish”) will happen to Clov? 
  4. Hamm’s supplies are progressively being depleted.  What substance does Hamm repeatedly request?  At what point is this substance, according to Clov, completely gone?
  5. What food is consumed on stage?
  6. Throughout the play Hamm continues telling a seemingly endless story, which seems to include an account of how Clov came to live with him.  What do we learn from Hamm’s story?
  7. Clov makes a threat that creates the play’s only dramatic tension.  What is this threat?  Why would the fulfillment of this threat apparently mean the death of both Hamm and Clov?
  8. What exactly does Clov do at the very end of the play?  Does he leave or not?  The play’s final stage direction is “Brief tableau.”  What is the actor playing Clov supposed to do?  (Look up “tableau” in your college dictionary.)  Is the plot open (unresolved) or closed (resolved)?  How is this kind of plot appropriate to the theatre of the absurd and existentialism?

The Title of Endgame

  1. “Endgame” is a term from the game of chess.  What does it mean?  What other relevant definitions does “endgame” have?  Where in the play is this word used?
  2. Where does each of the following quotations appear in the play?  How is each relevant to the title?
    1. “nearly finished” (appears more than once)
    2. “the end is in the beginning”
    3. “In life we are in death” (taken from liturgy for funeral service)
  3. In Endgame, game-playing is a metaphor for life.  Games have no meaning outside themselves (sorry, football fans!) but create their own internal meaning.  Similarly, existentialists believe that life has no objective meaning but that people try to create their own meaning.  Drama in general and this play in particular are a kind of “game.”  The characters in Endgame (and in other plays of the theatre of the absurd) frequently call attention to the fact that they are presenting a play.  Find each of the following quotations that calls attention to the character’s play-acting:
    1. Nell: “Why this farce, day after day?”    
    2. Hamm tells Clov: “The dialogue” of his story is the only thing that keeps Clov here.         
    3. Hamm announces he=s ready to play: “Me to play.”
    4. Clov: “Let=s stop playing.”
    5. Hamm talks about making an “aside” and a “soliloquy.”      
    6. Clov talks about Amaking an exit.@                
  4. Throughout the play, the characters’ use of repeated lines emphasizes that they are merely part of a play. What are some of these repeated lines?
  5. The characters also tell the same stories over and over.
    1. What joke does Nagg repeatedly tell?  Where does he do this in the play?
    2. What story does Hamm continue telling?  Where does he do this in the play? 
  6. What do we learn about Hamm’s pet dog?  How does this information add to the sense that the whole play is just a game?

 

Endgame and Existentialism

“Existence precedes essence”:  In this play, the situation (the world of the play) and characters simply exist; no explanation is given, and no meaning (essence) is attributed to it.

  1. Beckett claims that, just as life has no objective meaning, neither do his plays. He says that his plays have only whatever meaning the audience brings to them.  How does the following quotation from the play relate to Beckett’s contention?

HAMM: Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn=t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough. [Voice of rational being.] Ah, good, now I see what it is, yet, now I understand what they=re at!  And without going so far as that, we ourselves . . . To think perhaps it won=t all have been for nothing!  (2405)

  1. Contrary to Beckett’s claim, what evidence can you give to show that Beckett has deliberately structured Endgame to depict an existentialist worldview?
  2. Some critics interpret this and other plays by Beckett as making a positive statement about the strength of the human spirit in the face of an indifferent universe.  What evidence can you give to support this interpretation of Endgame?

 

The Dumb Waiter

Extra-credit video: Watch the video of this play (on reserve in the NSU-BA library; also possibly available at video rental stores).  Additional extra credit: If you have a video at class time, please bring it to class cued to a scene to show.

 

Setting

  1. In what country and time period does the play take place?  How can you tell?
  2. What is the stage setting of this play? 
  3. What is the most prominent feature of the set?  What is a “dumb waiter”? 
  4. In what ways are the setting and situation of this play similar to Endgame?  In what ways are they different from Endgame?

Plot

  1. Pinter rejects the use of exposition in his plots.  What is meant by the exposition of a plot?
  2. Pinter claims not to know everything about his characters and their situation; they simply exist.  In what sense is this an existentialist conception of drama?
  3. Ben and Gus refer to someone as “he.”  What is this person’s name?  What is his relationship to Ben and Gus?
  4. The dialogue of the two men, however, reveals their character and situation.  What is their occupation?  Why are they in this room?  What are they waiting for?  In what way is this a stock situation?
  5. One critic asserts that this play is “very funny up to the point when the absurdity of the characters’ predicament becomes frighteningly, horrifyingly pathetic [or even] tragic.”  At what point does the “absurdity [irrationality] of the characters’ predicament” become obvious?
  6. Whereas the plot of Endgame, I would argue, is completely nonrealistic, the plot of The Dumb Waiter mixes realistic and nonrealistic (irrational, absurd) elements.  What are the nonrealistic, absurd, and/or nightmarish aspects of each of the following?  What unanswered questions do you have about each?  In what way could these nonrealistic phenomena be seen as a projection of the characters’ own anxieties?
    1. the lavatory
    2. the dumb waiter
  7. What other nonrealistic events occur in the plot of the play, especially at the very end?  What realistic explanation, if any, can be given for each of the following:
    1. the envelope’s being slipped under the door
    2. Gus’s exiting through one door and reentering through another
  8. What has just happened at the end of the play?  What do you think will happen next?  Is the plot open or closed?  (The ending of the video adaptation of this play is quite different.  Please ask me about this in class.)

 

Characters

Ben and Gus are character foils.  The differences between them, and the tensions these differences create, help us understand both characters better.

  1. Which character questions everything?  Which one takes things at face value?
  2. Which character is “right-brained”?  Which one is “left-brained”?  (If you are not familiar with these terms, try to learn what they mean.)
  3. What other important differences do you see between the two characters?
  4. Which character is concerned about his “creature comforts”—the quality of his tea, sheets, and china?  What is ironic about these concerns?
  5. Which one is upset by newspaper articles describing violent acts?  What particular details (in two different articles) upset him?  What is ironic about these concerns?  
  6. Why is Gus rather than Ben in a vulnerable situation at the end of the play?

 

Dialogue

  1. Is Pinter’s dialogue naturalistic?  That is, does it sound like what these characters might actually say?  Pinter has been called as master of vernacular language.  What does this mean?
  2. What parts of the dialogue do you find most amusing and humorous?  Why?
  3. In what way do the characters’ broken dialogue and heated discussion reflect the alienation of each individual and the difficulty of human communication (both aspects of existentialism)?  What is especially ironic about their disagreement over whether one should say “light the kettle” or “light the gas” (2609)?

 

Themes

  1. In what ways does this play reflect the philosophy of existentialism?
  2. What does this play have to say about the uncertainty, anxiety, and alienation of the human condition, especially in an industrialized, technological society?  What is the primary symbol of this uncertainty and anxiety?
  3. What other themes do you see in this play?

 

Genre of The Dumb Waiter

  1. Is this play a tragicomedy? Why or why not?
  2. Is this an Absurdist drama?  Why or why not?

           

Briticisms (or Britishisms) in The Dumb Waiter

  1. What is the definition of “Briticism” or “Britishism”?
  2. Translate into American English each of the following Briticisms that appear in the play (listed below in no particular order).  In many cases the same term exists in American English but has a different meaning in British English.  
    1. lorry
    2. braces
    3. sago puddings
    4. biscuit
    5. wireless
    6. bloke
    7. bloody
    8. chips
    9. crisps
    10. blimey
    11. mate
    12. bob
    13. pong
    14. football
    15. crockery
    16. scrub round it
    17. get away
    18. to cadge
    19. to kip
  3. Extra credit: Identify and translate any other Briticisms you find in the play.