Absurdity in Beckett’s Endgame

Buckets Endgame explores an existence in an while when the importance of being Is Incessantly ch each(prenominal)enged by mans newfound recognition of the universes fatuousness and lack of observable import, Written In 1957, the context of the macrocosm at the time of this works founding sheds much insight on its themes. In a time of continuous social and technological change scientific observations began yielding a more accurate picture of causality for the field and its phenomena and the concept of god became ever less relevant. The recent universe of discourse wars had go away ruins in not only cities, barely in the concepts driving the temperament of man.With the Implicit dying of deities and sets of traditional rules to govern mans behavior, humanity found Itself at a need to define a different purpose to Its existence. submit existentialism A belief in existence despite both discernible meaning, existence for its make sake heralding with it an implied freedom of c hoice in both perception and action. As with the then contemporary world view, the characters in Buckets Endgame are left to survive in the foment of a crumbled world. Free to devise their own world view, the characters respond by growing life affirming routines mistreating that creation persists even In termination.Destruction, It would seem does not top an object or Idea, but only redefines its form, beginning its existence anew. rather ironically, the playact begins with Cool repeating the world finished. Consequently, this theme of beginnings and endings as interrelated, cyclical, mutually necessary, and conclusively futile comes to prevail over the course of the play. As with the classic case of the chicken and the egg, the cyclical pattern of creation and devastation is eternal In Its supposed disposition.However, to the AOL of Inciting drama or motivation, a grade must begin with destruction a motif with which Endgame is rife. The actually setting of the play Imme diately evokes a sense of catastrophe and destruction. The exanimate bare interior (Endgame, 50) is coupled with the nothing or zero (Endgame, 51) report outside by Cool to Imply at the decay of a once lively outside world while the imagery of the coif as a skull (with the two windows acting as eyes and the characters as the rulings) denote the destruction within.During this unmentioned catastrophe, the characters saw the end f their entire world and way of life thus being forced to redefine their views and behaviors. The destruction of their past worlds leads the characters to abandon their old ideals and ways of life. The bastardly He doesnt exist. exclaimed ham actor when his prayer went unanswered showing that even god had died in the wake of ham it ups personal disaster. However, these new circumstances work to effectively create a new world for the characters to inhabit a world as undetectable as the last.Whether It Is the story about the tailor, which coupled the end of a distributor point of walling he beginning of the world, roleplay and Cloves hideing the flea from which they believe humanity whitethorn choose been reborn (Endgame, 591 or the numerous references to Christ, whose death (and subsequent rebirth) injurious and creative motifs in Buckets Endgame are presented in tandem. Interestingly, the cyclical nature of life and death renders itself generally nonsensical and pointless.Surely, if all is to end to be reborn anew then a personally crafted purpose forgeting ultimately remain as to exemplify this notion of a bank note existence, with many motifs of rebirth such as Cool always returning. In their awareness of death (their own destruction), Buckets characters foster eternally static routines that they entrust will distract them from their imminent demise. They go through the This farce, day later day (Endgame, 54), as Nell puts it, because on that point is nothing else to do but watch the inevitable while they wait.To t hat end, Becket swords use of repetitive language to denote the futility and repetitiveness of the cyclical nature of life. The play systematically notes upon and enunciates the characters minutest movements, and repeats their most casual interests from Hams crush on remaining at the center of the room (Endgame, 57) to how many pauses Ham takes in his speech to how Nell repeats herself to Nag, as in the case of April afternoon (Endgame, 56) . Lets my dream. A world where all would be silent and still, and each thing in its last place, under the last dust. (Endgame, 66) says Cool, expressing a desire for order.Yet Cloves constant tidying seems to do no end in sight especially if he were to discipline his efforts to the destruction outside. This tidy end of which Cool dreams would only yield shame as he would have no cleaning duty to have-to doe with him and upon achieving it, his life would again become meaningless. In such a way, Cloves raft provides meaning to his trudge, w hich would otherwise dissipate upon achieving his goal. This focus on repetitive actions that quell the inevitable prohibits the discernment of meaning from these same actions, since there is never a nett culmination to assess.Still, even the one example of a final product, is by no means fulfilling. Look at the world and date at my TROUSERS. (Endgame, 56) Says the tailor in Knells story, as if to belittle the bounty of the world (tongue in cheek, of ours) in the face the quality of his pants. In this case, as in the case of the characters death delaying routine, no amount of postponement will have made the end result worthy. As such, the play essentially stresses a damned if you do, and damned if you dont scenario by showing how any action will eventually be absolved in futility.The theme of futility ties into the very initial metaphor for ends in beginnings As Cool mutters Finished, its finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished. Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, theres a heap, a little heap, the undoable heap. (Endgame, 50), he effectively questions when individual grains live up to the concept of a heap. From this perspective, the heap is an impossible notion, as any individual grain is not in itself a heap, and a heap is conscionable an accumulation of single grains.This view resurfaces yet again, when Ham considers how individual moments make up a life (Endgame, 70). In this instance the analogy maintains that it is an impossible life, consisting not of a life that can be scrutinized as a goal achieved (or not), but of discrete moments that define it (before death terminates it indefinitely). Thus, any creation of meaning incurred during ones life, is presented as ultimately pointless and only leading to its own destruction with the passing of its believers.While Ham and Cool are in the end game of their ancient lives, with death lurking around the corner, they are also stuck in a perpetual loop that never allows the to achieve closure. Ham claims he wants to be finished, but admits that he hesitates to do so (Endgame, 51). Were not beginning to To call up something? , Ham wonders, only to be ridiculed by Cool in response him deeply aware of its lack of purpose. Since any ending is also a beginning, there is never any finality, and conclusive meaning is impossible.Besides, any meaning derived would be as shallow as the meaning left nookie while only persisting as long as its belabored. The very expression of Hams question exemplifies this very struggle where he delays and repeats words as he attempts to finish the sentence only to have it become a meaningless gesture in the eyes of Cool. Cool, though aware of the worlds giddiness must still subscribe to routine. He adheres to the daily procedures of tending to Ham and thus makes it the purpose of his life.Just as death wont arrive to finish their lives, neither Ham nor Cool can escape existence in catheters presence. Such is the case with Cloves frequent failed attempts to leave the room and Hams insistence on squashing the flea that might herald with it the human race the characters appear to cultism the destruction of their current realm of existence in favor of another for fear of the new world being worse still. It is consequently implied that the characters loathe the thought of reincarnation into this world particularly being personally resurrected after death only to face life again.Thus they make an effort to kill all potential propagators of meaningless life such as the procreators that they seek to kill (Endgame, 73), or the incident with the flea the flea But humanity might start from there all over again Catch him, for the love of God (Endgame, 59) screams Ham, in chase of the flea. In exploring the cyclical nature of destruction and creation, Endgame notes on the futility inherent to the process. The cyclical nature of destruction and creation is rendered meaningless by the very definition of its continuity.Seeing the meaning seep from their previous existence, the characters come to naturalism that any new purpose will be as unfading and mortal as the last. In the process of finding purpose in an existence doomed to meaningless, the characters come to occupy their time with senseless repeating that they both despise, and require. In true existentialist fashion, they deem all actions pointless, but are unwilling to stop making them while they still can. This play goes to show that meaning is what you make of it, and that there are no winners at the end of this absurd game called life.