Beckett and Existentialism
“All essential knowledge relates to existence, or only such knowledge as has an essential relationship to existence is essential knowledge”.
-Soren Kierkegaard
My first impression of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” was this is postmodern meaninglessness. It seems a denial of everything with value and what value is placed on things in the play is not that important. After finishing the play my thoughts changed as I realized he wanted us to think about what we are doing here on earth and to realize that we will not be here forever. This is not a play to entertain, in the sense that the reader is rejoicing or weeping throughout, but rather Beckett wants the reader to contemplate death, the end – what matters?
The play’s setting is a mystery. Not only is a year or country not given, but even the room where the play takes place is not clarified. Is it a bomb shelter? I’m not sure, but perhaps this is meant to implore the reader to apply this absurd situation to his own place and time.
Although the play overall seems anti-religious, there are a number of biblical references, ie “what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene?” (12) (A reference to Beltashazzar’s party found in the book of Daniel). I am not sure I understood the story of the tailor on pages 22-23. In comparing the trousers and the world I would interpret it as a critique of the world made by God which apparently has gone to pot.
An Act without Words also seems a critique of God, or some higher power outside of man, who continually taunts man. What man is offered in life is only temporary and often out of reach. Man seems only to notice what others have called to his attention.
The article on existentialism was helpful in understanding the technique of absurd writing. The aim of “existentialists,” was to expose the illusions of everyday
life and recall men to a more serious view of their responsibilities. This is what I found in Beckett.
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OK, I left a long comment on the modernista post and it looks like it disappeared…
Postmodernism vs. modernism. I’m glad you worked through that issue as you read Beckett.
The content of postmodernism is not a message but a technique, a question or a form that leads to the questioning of a message. That’s the message of postmodernism: themes are constructed and contingent. In a super boiled down manner. Criminally boiled down.