Beckett's Endgame Samuel Bec

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.

"Endgame" is an unusual play because of its structure, which refuses to take any conventional shape or form. Hamm is a blind and paralyzed man who lives his life in a wheelchair. His parents are Nagg and Nell, and they are stuck in ash bins. The older characters talk in a variety of sentimental and stupid phrases until they disintegrate. Clov, who is tied to Hamm in a sort of son-slave relationship, is lame, though he repeatedly announces his departure. Hamm is a parody of the heroes in plays who are constantly trying to find the meaning of life. His words make a mockery of philosophy. Beckett is skillful in that he does play with ambiguity in Hamm's character: at times Hamm appears to break through his idiotic dialogue to moments of true insight.

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erence between "Endgame" and "Waiting For Godot." There is the consensus that "many have felt that the situation is in some way less dramatic than that of 'Godot.1 It is much more obviously a 'mind-drama' than the earlier play" (Pilling 77). This play does have to be viewed in light of Beckett's earlier work, as it shows that the playwright had come to 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 the breaking down of filial bonds: it is no accident that it is Nell who dies, leaving, in Tynan's observation, a stalemate at the endgame. This leads us back to Pilling's use of the word "dramatic" in his critique. Yes, there is less "drama" in the traditional sense, but there may be more psychological tension in "Endgame" than in a hollow "well-made" play that conforms to outmoded requirements of narrative and character. 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 many opportunities for the father (i.e., traditional theater) to scold the son (i.e., Beckett's revolutionary "new sensib

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