Beckett's Absurd Characters

Beckett did not view and express the problem of Absurdity in any form of philosophical theory (he never wrote any philosophical essays, as Camus or Sartre did), his expression is exclusively the artistic language of theatre. In this chapter, I analyse the life situation of Beckett's characters finding and pointing at the parallels between the philosophical background of the Absurdity and Beckett's artistic view.
As I have already mentioned in the biography chapter, Beckett read various philosophical treatises; he was mostly interested in Descartes, Schopenhauer, and Geulincx. These thinkers are the main sources which influenced and formed Beckett's view of the world as well as his literary writings.
Beckett's major and the only theme appearing and recurring in all his works, is exclusively the theme of man. Beckett is interested in man as an individual, in his subjective attitude to the world, in confrontation of individual subject with the objective reality.
According to Descartes, human being is composed of two different substances: body (res extensa) and mind (res cogitas). The body is a part of a mechanical nature, a material substance independent from spirit; and the mind, a pure thinking substance. This distinction of the two qualitative different substances is called subject-object "Cartesian dualism", and it gave rise to number of philosophical problems, the essence of which is Their mutual connection.
Beckett's characters are such subjective thinking substances surrounded by mechanical material nature; and as the subject-object connection was the most problematic part of Descartes' concept, it is one of the major motifs Beckett deals with. He uses dramatic symbols, to express the barriers and the walls between the worlds "in" and "out" as to demonstrate their incompatibility. His characters are physically isolated from what is happening "outside" and the space they are imprisoned in, is their inner subjective world. "A Beckett hero is always in conflict with objects around him... he is divided from the rest of the world, a stranger to its desires and needs. The dichotomy between his own mind and body finds an analogy in the outside world in the dichotomy between people and objects. ...tension is created between mind and body, on one hand, and people and objects, on the other. ..."
Hamm and Clov are closed in a small room separated from the external reality by the walls.

Hamm:

Nature has forgotten us.

Clov:

There's no more nature.
 

(End 97)

 

Nell and Nagg, the human fragments vegetate in two ashbins, their space is reduced ad absurdum, as though they are constantly getting closer to death. In addition, all of the characters are immobile; Hamm cannot stand up and walk, and although Clove can, he can even see the world out of the windows giving onto the sea, he is unable to escape from the room, unable to open the door and run away.

 

Clov:

So you all want me to leave you.

Hamm:

Naturally.

Clov:

Then I leave you.

Hamm:

You can't leave us.

Clov:

Then I shan't leave you.
 

(End 110)

 

Vladimir and Estragon are in the same situation. They are in an open empty road surrounded by the natural world, but unable to move on.

 

Estragon:

It's not worth while now. (Silence.)

Vladimir:

No, it's not worth while now. (Silence.)

Estragon:

Well, shall we go?

Vladimir:

Yes, let's go. (They do not move.)
 

(Godot 52)

 

Although they are not limited by any barriers waiting in an open space, surrounded by nature (tree), they are indifferent to this world as it is indifferent to them. Their time passes in a very different way from the world around them.

 

Pozzo:

What time is it?

Estragon:

That depends what time of year it is.

Pozzo:

It is evening? (Silence. Vladimir and Estragon scrutinise the sunset.

Estragon:

It's rising.

Vladimir:

Impossible.

Estragon:

Perhaps it's the dawn.

Vladimir:

Don't be a fool. It's the west over there.

Estragon:

How do you know?
 

(Godot 79)

 

A similar symbol illustrates the situation of Winnie, who is anchored up to her waist, later up to her neck in the ground in centre of a stage. Though she is not isolated in a small claustrophobic space, as Hamm and Clov are, the physical position to which she is sentenced, forces her into static existence.

 

Winnie:

I speak of when I was not yet caught - in this way - and had my legs and had the use of my legs, and could seek out a shady place, like you, when I was tired of the sun, or a sunny place, when I was tired of the shade, like you, and they are all empty words. ...
 

(Happy 154)

 

Krapp's situation is analogous to Hamm's and Clov's. He is sealed off in his room, surrounded by his voice and memories, closed up in his own world, his own mind.

 

Krapp's tape

The new light above my table is a great improvement. With all this darkness round me I feel less alone. (Pause.) In a way. (Pause.) I love to get up and move about in it, then back here to...(hesitates)...me. (Pause.) Krapp.
 

(Krapp 217)

 

The limitation and isolation of man from the world, having its roots in Descartes' dualism, is, at the same time, the foundation of the Sisyphusean feeling of the absurdity as it is described by Camus. They are one of the feelings, that "...admit of the absurd. Still, the enumeration finished, the absurd has nevertheless not been exhausted. ...strangeness creeps in: perceiving that the world is 'dense', sensing to what a degree a stone is foreign and irreducible to us, with what intensity nature or a landscape can negate us."
The world, at which Clov and Hamm is looking through the windows is empty, dead, deprived of everything which could make it familiar, intimate, or intelligible. Beckett gives this voided world, an image of inanimate country with the horizon of the dead sea. Its alienation, strangeness, and remoteness is also exaggerated by Hamm's blindness and inability to move.

 

Hamm:

And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon?

Clov:

(Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated.) What in God's name could there be on the horizon? (Pause.)

Hamm:

The waves, how are the waves?

Clov:

The waves? (He turns the telescope on the waves.) Lead.

Hamm:

And the sun?

Clov::

(Looking.) Zero.

Hamm:

But it should be sinking. Look again.

Clov::

(Looking.)Damn the sun.

Hamm:

Is it night already then?

Clov:

(Looking.) No.

Hamm:

Then what is it?

Clov:

(Looking.) Grey. (Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder.) Grey! (Pause. Still louder.) GRREY! ...
 

(End 107)

 

The world surrounding Estragon and Vladimir, as I have already sketched, is alienated through its indifference. They have a possibility to walk away, but cannot take such an opportunity being seemingly "deaf" to what the nature offers them. They are physically free in the open country, but still infinitely remote - homeless strangers. They could return, go away, but never make a move tied up by the false hopes and belief in the coming of Godot, who will solve this deadlock. Thus, Godot, infinitely remote, fuses with an infinitely alien world.

 

Estragon:

...Let's go.

Vladimir:

We can't.

Estragon:

Why not?

Vladimir:

We're waiting for Godot.
 

(Godot 15)

 

Krapp is lonely with his tapes in his "den"(Krapp 217), nothing exists for him but his voice and memories. Nothing is "outside" which is not inside of him. It seems that Beckett demonstrates here the alienation of the world in the most radical way, giving no signs about anything existing outside of Krapp's room.
Substantial dualism corresponds with the concept and theory of Arthur Schopenhauer, whose philosophy later became one of the important foundations of Beckett's plays and novels. Schopenhauer's main thesis is that it is impossible to get to the essence of the thing from the outside; it is impossible to achieve knowledge, in the case it is postulated beyond all human being's disposition. 25 He understood the human being as an object between objects, as something that appears to a perceiving mind (phenomena) in time and space. Time, space, and causality are the forms of knowledge, they are necessary conditions of knowledge of the world as it is perceived. However, on the other hand, a human being's experience assures himself, that he is something more than only an object among other objects. Man is also aware of himself as a self-moving, active being, and this inner consciousness is a consciousness of will. The awareness we have of ourselves as will is quite different from the awareness we have of ourselves as body; and it is, in fact, the awareness of philosophical truth itself; of the thing which is not mediated through our sense organs, through the forms of time, space, and causality, but it is the thing itself (noumena). The will is the ultimate and the simplest foundation of being all together, it is the source of all phenomenas, a breeder, which is present in every particularity and individuality.
It seems that Beckett's characters are aware of nothing but the will they have inside, which impels them to live. It is an unsurpassable instinct, a blind, and groundless power, operating in them, out of time, space, and causality. They are propelled to life by unmotivated power - the will to live - which always wants to go on - to transform itself into the living or being objects. Human intellect and reason are the will's servants and that is why it cannot stop this strong inclination towards being. Consciousness is only a surface of our being, because the real essence lies in the depths of human personality.
The will is, in its core something fundamentally woeful, it is a discomposure, never-ending struggle for something, need, desire, greediness, lust, it is suffering, and the world of will can be nothing but the world of pain.
Clov and Hamm are suffering, persisting in their existence. They long for an end, a death, but cannot kill themselves, being driven by their nature - the will to life.

 

Hamm:

Why don't you finish us? (Pause.) I'll tell you the combination of the larder if you promise to finish me.

Clov:

I couldn't finish you.

Hamm:

Then you shan't finish me. (Pause.)
 

(End 110)

 

Even Hamm's parents Nell and Negg, can never die, although they are half-existing fragments of human beings "living buried" in their ashbins. Their suffering is their desire to die. Clov wants to leave, but cannot; Hamm is blind and wants to see ("... my eyes would see the sky, the earth. I'd run..."(End 100)), but cannot; and all of them them want to die but cannot.
Winnie also does not die, although she is not given anything which would keep her living on. As the play passes, death is closer and closer, climbing from her waist up to her neck, but never close enough to kill her. The will keeps her breathing, even though physically she is already buried in the ground.

 

Winnie:

...I can do no more. (Pause.) Say no more. (Pause.) But I must say more. (Pause.) Problem here. (Pause.) No, something must move, in the world, I can't anymore. (Pause.) A zephyr. (Pause.)A breath. (Pause.) What are those immortal lines? (Pause.) It might be the eternal dark. (Pause.) Black night without end. ...
 

(Happy 166)

 

Winnie's strangest characteristics is her "happiness", her existence does not seem to be a torture for her. The idea that suffering is unbearable is more unbearable that suffering itself. She behaves and feels as though it was all natural and very understandable, and this way defends against her endless despair.

 

Winnie:

...no no...can't complain...no no... mustn't complain... so much to be thankful for...no pain...hardly any...wonderful thing that...slight headache sometimes...occasional mild migraine...it comes...then goes...ah yes...many mercies...greatmercies...
 

(Happy 166)

 

Her suffering also consists of her desires, in the confrontation of her will as longing (she longs for contact with Willie, needs to have somebody to talk to, she is vexed by her memories of what was "the old style" (Happy 143), and what is not anymore) and her physical indisposition. This is a clash of body and mind, the will propelling her to life through never-ending desires and needs; and a physical body which cannot keep pace with it.
In contrast to Winnie's memories, Krapp's ones are vivid and explicitly present through his voice. His real existence is not in his past, but only in his presence. His past time is dead, and it is nothing but a witness about his past will, about what he was longing for and what he could never have.

 

Krapp:

Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hardly believe I was ever as bad as that. Thank God that's all done with anyway. (Pause.) The eyes she had! (...) Everything there, everything on this old muckball, all the night and dark and famine and feasting of ...(hesitates)... the ages!
 

(Krapp 222)

 

He is illuminated by his past, when he had those "aspirations", "resolutions"(Krapp 218), all those plans for a "better life". Now, he realises that all plans for happiness are useless, absurd, and completely unattainable. Happiness would mean quiet, calm, and satisfaction, but it is inaccessible for human being as a subject of permanent absence, fear, and ambition.

 

Krapp's Tape:

...Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back.
 

(Krapp 223)

 

Vladimir and Estragon are flirting with the idea of death too, but they ARE, and this is the only thing they really have - their being to which they are forced by their human nature. They cannot die, although they can intellectually come to the conclusion that this is the only way how to escape from suffering.

 

Estragon:

Let's hang ourselves immediately!

Vladimir:

From a bough? (They go towards the tree.) I wouldn't trust it.

Estragon:

We can always try.

Vladimir:

Go ahead.

Estragon:

After you.

Vladimir:

No, no you first.

Estragon:

Why me?

Vladimir:

You're lighter than I am.

Estragon:

Just so!

Vladimir:

I don't understand.

Estragon:

Use your intelligence, can't you? (Vladimir uses his intelligence.)

Vladimir:

(Finally.) I remain in the dark.

Estragon:

This is how it is. (He reflects.) The bough...the bough...(Angrily.) Use your head, can't you?

Vladimir:

You're my only hope.

Estragon:

(With effort.) Gogo light - bough not break - Gogo dead. Didi heavy - bough break - Didi alone. Whereas - (...)

Estragon:

Don't let's do anything. It's safer.
 

(Godot 18-19)

 

Like Winnie, they are very close to death; to be does not mean to live for them, but to last and continue on. They are human beings existing as the will itself. The ceaseless will to be realises itself through Estragon’s and Vladimir’s expectation, their need to meet with Godot, who should be a solution. Godot is not any person, any event, any thing, it is an embodiment of human wishes, desires, expectations and attempts for at least something "better". Their waiting is blind, because Godot, representing non-existing happiness, fulfilment, satisfaction, will never come, in fact, it does not exist. Their waiting has no motive, as the will has not.
According to Schopenhauer, this is the concept of the basic human situation in the world. All his life man is waiting for something which cannot bring any definite satisfaction to him, any definite peace. (Compare with the fate of Sisyphus.) He is waiting for happiness, not realising that the greatest suffering consists in it. His nature is rooted in lust and trying, which is an unquenchable thirst.
Schopenhauer, as well as Camus, denies suicide as a solution to a distressful human world, and also non of Beckett’s characters dies or commit suicide. As Camus says, to commit suicide means to agree with the absurdity, and according to Schopenhauer suicide is nonsense. Suicide means to destroy the body but never the will itself. In this way - through suicide - the will finds another realisation in a stronger individual, which becomes its stronger "self-realisation".
Thus, Beckett’s characters are persisting between life and death, driven by a Schopenhauerean will to life, though physically they are dying. Their existence is absurd, through the conflict of body and mind; body, which, as a part of mechanical nature, refuses to obey (the bodies of the characters are immobile), and mind, which undetainably keeps on working. Their suffering consists of permanent waiting, they used to "wait for happiness, fulfilment"; now they are waiting for death, occupying themselves with memories of a previous life, when they had, in Krapp’s words, "a chance of happiness"(Krapp 223). Now, they have only one wish - to die, and so to shed the ceaseless will to life.

 

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