Beckett & Aristotle
At first glimpse, Samuel Beckett's Endgame has absolutely nothing in common with the model provided in Aristotle's Poetics. Where Aristotle claims the most important element of any tragedy is plot, Endgame seems to have no plot. Where Aristotle discusses the importance of speech(es) conveying moral purpose and character, Endgame has characters that speak metalanguage (language that talks about language), and only speak in order to pass time. Where Aristotle discusses action being a movement of spirit, Endgame seems to be totally devoid of characters that go through a movement of spirit. But after observing the structure of the play, Martin Esslin's essay The Theatre of the Absurd, and, most importantly, Endgame in context with the time period that it was written in, Endgame appears to have several points of contact with the model provided in Poetics and can be called a tragedy for the post World War II era. Endgame, written in French, was first produced in 1957. Esslin explains that the movement of absurdism emerged in France after World War II as a rebellion against the traditional values and beliefs of Western culture and literature (878). Absurdist drama creates an environment where people are isolated and the characters make
Esslin discusses many writers that wrote about the senselessness of life before the absurdists, but they differ from the absurdists in that their plays contain logical and rational characters talking and reasoning about their meaningless lives. The "reversal of fortune" that occurs is that they both realize that it will never end, that Clov will never leave. poetry tends to express the universal. This is illustrated in the scene where Hamm asks, "Why do you stay with me?" to which Clov asks, "Why do you keep me?" and Hamm responds, " There's no one else" while Clov responds "There's nowhere else. This movement of spirit will evoke a catharsis from the audience (as previously discussed). Hamm also realizes Clov will not leave him. It is clear that in Endgame there is a focus on the incomprehensibility of the world, and each of the characters manifests this theme. Oedipus Rex was a true tragedy of its time, and Endgame is too; one presents a world in which there is a belief in multiple Gods, the other a world in which the existence of a god is questionable. Oedipus is a hero of his time; he presents the spectators with the truth of their existence- they are ultimately under the control of fate and multiple gods. Yet, there remains a struggling to understand death, to give it some meaning so that life has meaning - once again coinciding with the ideas running rampant during the time it was written. Hamm's reluctance to die follows shortly after when he says, "And yet I hesitate, I hesitate to. Watching these characters, the spectator can't help but notice how pitiful they are. However, for the time period it is representing, imitating, and commenting on, Endgame is actually highly rational, and harmony and rhythm is only one place that this can be seen in.
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Acceptance Essays
