The Green caldron - University Library

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The Green Caldron
a profoundly human yet intensely nihilistic and pessimistic comment on the
empty condition of the world.
Often, this structural irony is enhanced by a lack of awareness on the
part of the characters. Thus, in some of the crudest lines in the play (art
of this type—social criticism—must be cruel to be heard) the characters are
unaware of the horror they are speaking:
Hamm:
Sit on him!
Clov
:
Hamm
:
I can't sit.
True. And I can't stand.
Qov:
So it is.
Hamm:
Every man his speciality.-^^
Hamm is proud of the hideous condition he is in, and speaks in a platitude
that has tremendous ironic impact in this "Age of Specialization." Again, in
another line, a common platitude—nature hasn't forgotten us—is inverted
and becomes (without the character's knowing it) ironically deformed:
Hamm:
Clov
Clov!
Yes.
Hamm:
Nature has forgotten us.
Clov:
There's no more nature.
Hamm:
No more nature ! You
Clov:
exaggerate.
In the vicinity.
Hamm:
But we breathe, we change! We lose our hair, our teeth! Our
bloom! Our ideals!
Clov:
Then she hasn't forgotten us.^^
The irony of the play arises not only in the structure and development
of phrases, but also in the choice of words—the structural bricks from which
the play is made. Clov, in looking out of one of the two windows, thinks
he sees a boy. This is, of course, impossible, since the people on stage are
the only humans left, yet Clov believes it was not his imagination. Fearing