Endgame

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame Samuel Becket perceives the world as cyclical and absurd. Throughout the play, Endgame, Beckett tries to emphasize the intertwined relationship between conception and demise. He also tries to depict the world as an absurd place through the absurdity of its characters. Using Hamm’s quote, “ the end is in the beginning and yet you go on,” (Byron, 2007) Beckett shows the interconnection between beginnings and endings.
The title of the play “ Endgame” is derived from the game of chess. In chess, endgame implies the last moves one makes while playing the game. The play mirrors this chess approach by comparing it to life. Life is just like endgame in chess where there are few moves left, but the actual end is unknown and unwanted. Hamm talks of how his life is close to the end and he would like to finish it. According to Byron (2007), when Hamm says, “ I hesitate, I hesitate to end. Yes, there it is, its time it ended and yet I hesitate to end,” (Byron, 2007) he talks about how the end is not the simplest choice (p. 2).
To man, the world is seen as a source of suffering. Hamm says that that his mother, father and dog all suffer “ as much as creatures can suffer”. He, however, insists than none of them experience “ suffering that equals” his own. From this illustration, the world is depicted as not being understanding to other people’s pain. Repetition has been used by Beckett to emphasize certain themes and motifs of the play. For instance, the words ‘ finished’ and ‘ end’ have been used repeatedly to emphasize the nature of the end game. While Clov says, “ Finished, its finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished” to show the never-ending nature of his task, Hamm uses it repeatedly to ask if his servant can ‘ finish’ him (Byron, 2007).
Reference
Byron, M. S. (2007). Samuel Becketts Endgame. Amsterdam: Rodopi.