The Green caldron - University Library

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The Green Caldron
SO immersed in self that Endgame becomes simply a compilation of private
symbols : a Finnegan's Wake following a more public-symboled Ulysses.
Endgame is less happy, less active than Waiting for Godot. It is uglier,
more bitter, and crueler. Godot had much more humor, much more oppor-
tunity for Bert Lahr-esque (he played in the original U.S. production)
burlesque. The stage was open, and even supported a tree (dead, of course).
The two bums were lovable, pitiable—real. Only the entrance of Pozzo
and Lucky, the tyrant and the slave, aroused our disgust. In following his
conception of the world to its logical outcome, Beckett has made Pozzo and
Lucky the main characters of Endgame, put them in a bleak brick room, and
removed the tree. Pozzo the tyrant, rechristenend Hamm, is blind and
crippled. He sits pettishly in his wheelchair, wrapped in blood-soaked rags,
and attended by the moronic Lucky, here called Gov. Besides the wheelchair,
the only objects on stage are two ash cans in which, legless, resting on sand
and refuse, reside Hamm's parents. Two windows, one on each side of the
back wall, are the only contacts with the outside world. The room is referred
to as "the shelter," ^ and we are told that "Outside of here it's death." "^ The
four on stage are the last humans on earth. Beckett has framed the bleakest,
crudest situation possible.
Only the lines save the play from being a bleak cry of despair. Tinged
with irony, sarcams, and even human compassion, they are masterpieces of
savage dialogue. The play, though written in prose, has the same effect, the
same immediacy, as poetry. "Beckett's prose comes from the same imagi-
native fount that his early poems do; the later prose is far better than the
poems, but it is prose written as poems are written, conveying emotion
directly to the reader." ^
The prose of Endgame could not be called beautiful ; it has no lyricism,
no pronounced cadence. Yet the reader immediately feels a strong emotion,
a mixture of pity, disgust, and compassion. The prose is clear, simple
English—there are no striking images— yet the poetic efifect of the lines is
very immediate. Here are the first three lines of the play
Clov (fixed gaze, tonelessly) :
Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.
(Pause.)
Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a
little heap, the impossible heap.
(Pause)
I can't be punished any more.^
These lines are representative of a technique Beckett uses all through the
play, so a detailed analysis of them will reveal the development of many
scenes. The play in its entirety is both a commentary on, and an approxima-
tion of, the modern world condition. Thus the dialogue resembles the con-
fused language of modern man and, in doing so, comments on his condition.
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