Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Miriam Zbíralová
Time in the Plays of Samuel Beckett Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph. D.
2010
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Author‟s signature
I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D., for his valuable advice during the whole process of writing the thesis.
Table of Contents:
Introduction ...... 5
1 Time and the Performance ...... 6
1.1 The Unity of Time and Fictional versus Performance Time ...... 6
1.2 Tempo ...... 8
2 Time and the Structure of the Plays ...... 11
2.1 Cyclical Development ...... 11
2.2 Suspense ...... 14
3 Time and the Characters ...... 16
3.1 The Past and the Future of the Characters ...... 16
3.2 The Burden of Time ...... 25
3.3 Constant Change or Infinite Sameness? ...... 28
3.4 Objective and Subjective Time Conceptions ...... 34
Conclusion ...... 41
Résumé (English) ...... 43
Resumé (česky) ...... 44
Works Cited and Consulted ...... 45
Introduction
The focus of this thesis is the category of time, as employed by Samuel Beckett in his plays. When analysing time in a dramatic text, there is even more material to analyse than in a narrative text, because “only in drama can presented time always be clearly defined” (Pfister 246), that is that the performance time can also be taken into account in the analysis.
The thesis will focus on time on three levels: the level of the performance, the level of the structure of the plays, and the level of the actual stories. The plays analysed will be Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days, Play, and also to a lesser extent radio plays Embers and All That Fall. By the analysis I will demonstrate some peculiarities in Beckett‟s use of the category of time and deduce the effects these have on the overall interpretation of the plays.
5 1 Time and the Performance
First, I will focus on time on the level of the plays that is closest to the surface, that is the level of the structure of the performance itself. In this chapter, I will discuss two principal topics: the unity of time and the related relationship between fictional and performance time, and tempo.
1.1 The Unity of Time and Fictional versus Performance Time
The notion of the unity of time (or closed time structure) and the relationship between performance and fictional time are closely related, because “the distinction between open and closed time structures is actually governed by [the relationship between performance and fictional time]” (Pfister 283).
As defined by Pfister, performance time is “the period of time it takes to perform the play” (283), and fictional time is the time covered by the action. Regarding the relationship between fictional and performance time, it is common in drama that the performance is accelerated in relation to the fictional time covered, either by omitting something, or by the fact that “although the text announces that particular events will take a certain amount of time, the time they do take up in performance is noticeably shorter” (Pfister 285). However, this is uncommon in Beckett‟s plays. These often contain pauses and silence, as may be observed from stage directions of plays like
Waiting for Godot, Happy Days, and Endgame. As Radke points out in her analysis of
Waiting for Godot, “there are gaps in conversation and activity when the silence they try to cover over is revealed” (62-63). Due to the inclusion of gaps, Beckett‟s plays may often seem to be even slowed down, but as Pfister claims,
long pauses in a dialogue, or scenes in which the action is reduced to a
series of insignificant or irrelevant activities, may create the impression
6 that time is being drawn out, but . . . this impression is derived from the
comparison with the conventionalised compression techniques in plays
which tend to abbreviate. (286)
The seemingly slowed down performance time in relation to the fictional time is therefore only an illusion, caused by the commonness of the acceleration.
However, when speaking of slowing down and speeding up the performance, it is necessary to mention, that the fictional time of Beckett‟s plays is often unspecified
(see also chapter 3.4), and therefore every comparison of performance and fictional time is based rather on what is suggested, not on clear data. Nevertheless, it is obvious that no significant acceleration takes place and that the time of performance and the fictional time are close to each other. In other words, the unity of time, defined as an “exclusion of all chronological discontinuity” (Pfister 249), is observed. An exception are the gaps between the acts in the two-act plays. Here again the time that passes between the acts is either unspecified (like for example in Happy Days) or uncertain (like in Waiting for
Godot, where Vladimir‟s perception of the time that passed contradicts other indications), but it is clear, that some time has been omitted.
Apart from the gaps between the acts, it is suggested that the performance and fictional time are very close, which has the effect that, as Cohn states, the boundaries between role and reality in Beckett‟s plays “are considerably more fluid” (Currents in
Contemporary Drama 224). Apart from the closeness of the fictional time and the performance time, the blurring of the boundaries between fiction and reality is further supported by the fact that in many plays the characters seem to be aware of their performing a play.
This is clearly the case in Waiting for Godot, and to an even greater degree in
Endgame. In both plays the characters often allude to the performance itself, like when
7 Vladimir in Waiting for Godot shouts “Imbecile! There‟s no way out there” (74) when
Estragon tries to escape from the stage. Something similar can be seen in the following dialogue from Endgame:
HAMM. . . . And me? Did anyone ever have pity on me?
CLOV. (lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm) What? (Pause.)
Is it me you‟re referring to?
HAMM. (angrily) An aside, ape! Did you never hear an aside before?
(Pause.) I‟m warming up for my last soliloquy. (49)
In the dialogue, two words that are used refer to the performance: an aside and a soliloquy. Hamm‟s awareness of performing a play is therefore clearly visible.
Generally, there is no certainty concerning the relationship between performance and fictional time in Beckett‟s plays, but it is highly probable from the comparison with conventional plays that there is hardly any acceleration of the action, suggesting that the fictional and the performance time are very close, or even coinciding, which creates the feeling of fusing the fiction with the reality.
1.2 Tempo
When taking into account the tempo of a play, Pfister proposes to operate on two levels: a deep structure level and a surface structure level (292). On the level of surface structure the tempo is “determined by the speed of the movement, frequency of changes of speaker, configuration and locale” (Pfister 292), whereas on the level of deep structure by “the frequency with which the situation changes in the story itself” (Pfister
292).
As Beckett‟s plays can be defined as static, in the meaning that “the situation presented at the end of the text does not differ in any drastic way from the situation presented at the beginning” (Pfister 289), it is clear, that the tempo on the level of deep
8 structure is very slow, or even zero, because there is no actual change of the situation.
However, the tempo on the level of surface structure does not always have to correspond to that of the deep structure. As Pfister claims, “Beckett‟s plays . . . are full of scenes in which the verbal utterances are delivered at high speed with the figures constantly engaged in some sort of activity whilst at the same time the situation remains completely unchanged” (292). The discrepancy between the surface and deep structure is present in every play, where the characters try to invent activities to pass the time.
Out of Beckett‟s plays such discrepancy is most apparent in Waiting for Godot. The surface tempo of the play oscillates between two poles: that of total stasis, where the characters are unsuccessful in finding any activity, which then results in silence; and that of often fast movements and probably also quick speech of the characters when they are engaged in a kind of activity, for example when they abuse each other:
VLADIMIR. Moron!
ESTRAGON. Vermin!
VLADIMIR. Abortion!
ESTRAGON. Morpion!
VLADIMIR. Sewer-rat!
ESTRAGON. Curate!
VLADIMIR. Cretin!
ESTRAGON. (with finality) Crritic! (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 75)
The words in this dialogue are probably uttered quickly and there are no pauses between them, or definitely not long. Nevertheless, the passages with high surface tempo never last for very long, because the activity is exhausted, and the tempo then immediately slows down to zero.
9 Another play worth discussing when speaking about tempo is Play. Here again the play is static on the level of deep structure, but the tempo on surface level is very specific. There is no oscillation of the surface tempo like in Waiting for Godot, but quite on the contrary, the tempo of the characters‟ speech (and there are no movements in this play) is steadily rapid throughout the whole play (Beckett, Play). Play has therefore a constant tempo, which is quite uncommon in other plays, either by Beckett himself or other playwrights.
Overall, although Beckett‟s plays are static, the category of tempo is of great importance, because a specific pattern of tempo used supports the whole character of the particular play. It can underline the meaninglessness of the invented activities of the characters, because although they pass the time, they result in no actual change, which is the case in the discussed play Waiting for Godot, as well as, for example, in Happy
Days. And in Play the uncommon steady and regular tempo of the speech has the effect that the speech does not sound spontaneous, but rather seems to be the words that the characters are constrained to repeat in their exact form for eternity.
10 2 Time and the Structure of the Plays
In this chapter I will focus on time on the level of the structure of the plays, by which I mean the arrangement of the plot and its development. The most important characteristic of Beckett‟s plays in this aspect is cyclical character of most of the plays, and apart from this topic I will also include a short chapter on suspense in Beckett‟s plays.
2.1 Cyclical Development
According to Pfister, plays that follow cyclical pattern of plot development have
“a certain idea of progression in this concept, [but] it is not the sort of linear progression moving from point A to point B, but a cyclical movement which starts from point A and moves through a number of other positions before returning either to A or to a corresponding position point A'” (290). Out of Beckett‟s plays, the cyclical character of the plot is most apparent in his two-act plays Waiting for Godot, Happy Days and Play.
In the former two, one cycle (that is one act) corresponds to a natural cycle: one day
(see also Pfister 290).
In Waiting for Godot, not only is the situation at the beginning of each act similar to the situation at the end, but also the events of the two acts are similar. As
Radke states, “The events . . . of Act II are those of Act I: the arrival of Pozzo and
Lucky, the message from Godot that he will come tomorrow. We must infer that the ungiven Acts Three, Four and Five would be the same” (58). And apart from the main events of the acts, there are also less significant ones that are repeated as well, like
Estragon being beaten up before the beginning of each act, the idea to hang themselves, wondering over what species the tree is and others. These repetitions suggest that the
11 cycle goes into infinity with hardly any change. It is also clear, that Act I is not the first evening when the characters wait for Godot:
VLADIMIR. We‟re waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON. (despairingly) Ah! (Pause.) You‟re sure it was here?
(Beckett, Waiting for Godot 14)
Obviously, Estragon is not sure, whether they are at the same spot as the day before when they had probably also been waiting. It is also suggested, that the Boy with the message from Godot does not come for the first time in Act I because Vladimir seems to recognize him:
VLADIMIR. I‟ve seen you before, haven‟t I?
BOY. No, sir.
VLADIMIR. You don‟t know me?
BOY. No, sir.
VLADIMIR. It wasn‟t you came yesterday?
BOY. No, sir. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 50)
Even if it was another boy, who came the day before, it is clear that the same message came the day before as well. This even emphasizes the idea of an infinite cycle, with no clue to know when it started and when it may end, if ever.
In Happy Days the similarity between the acts is not so great as in Waiting for
Godot, because the deterioration of Winnie‟s situation that happened between the acts altered to a great degree the range of things that she can do. However, due to Winnie‟s inability to move, which is present throughout the whole play, there can hardly be any activity from her part, and therefore hardly any development, which suggests that her days are also only cycles, with no difference between the beginning of the day (and of the act) and its end. Kennedy compares the cycles of the plot of Happy Days to “the
12 narrowing turns of a wheel” (77), the second cycle being “narrowed” by the change in
Winnie‟s situation. As in Waiting for Godot it is suggested that the cycles have already kept repeating for some time at the beginning of the first act, even by Winnie‟s first words: “Another heavenly day” (Beckett, Happy Days 9), or by the memory of
Mr. Shower (or Cooker), who passed by some time in the past, when Winnie had already been imprisoned in the heap. However, it is questionable, whether the repeating cycles continue even after the end of the play, as it is in Waiting for Godot, or whether, to use Kennedy‟s terminology, the turn of the wheel has narrowed to the minimum and the cycles are going to end. Willie‟s approach to Winnie, while he is “dressed to kill”
(Beckett, Happy Days 45), and the revolver lying next to the mound (Beckett, Happy
Days 37) suggest that death may finally end Winnie‟s days consisting only in repetitions. However, the play ends before anything happens, and therefore it remains only a suggestion.
In the preceding plays, there always was a difference between the two acts, even though insignificant. In Play, however, the second act is an exact repetition of the first one, which “reinforces the overall impression of infinite rotation” (Kennedy 100). The infinity here is unquestionable, as Esslin points out, “When the third time round is reached the play fades from our view, but we remain aware that it will go on, ever faster, ever more softly, forever and forever” (59). The suggestion of infinity together with the exact repetition create an extreme example of a cyclical development of a play.
Another Beckett‟s play with a kind of cyclical plot development is Endgame.
Although there is only one act and therefore much less space for repetitions and suggestions of infinite rotation, a cyclical pattern is suggested in this play as well. There is no repetition in the play to be actually seen, but it may be inferred from what the characters themselves say that some repetition is taking place. For example Nell asks
13 “Why this farce, day after day?” (Beckett, Endgame 18), which suggests, that the days are alike each other. Similar suggestion of repetition is expressed by Hamm: “It‟s the end of the day like any other day, isn‟t it, Clov?” (Beckett, Endgame 17). Apart from the suggestions of repetitions, the cyclical pattern is present in the structure of the play itself, because the beginning and the ending of the play are very similar to each other.
The stage directions of the beginning say “Centre, in an armchair on castors, covered with an old sheet, Hamm. Motionless by the door, his eyes fixed on Hamm, Clov”
(Beckett, Endgame 11). Then at the end of the play “[Clov] halts by the door and stands there, impassive and motionless, his eyes fixed on Hamm, till the end” (Beckett,
Endgame 51-52). The similarity between the beginning and the ending suggests that the play is one closed cycle.
As can be seen, the cyclical plot development is frequent in Beckett‟s plays and it has an important effect because it underlines the impossibility to change the character‟s situation. The characters seem to be trapped by time in cycles that have to be repeated into infinity. Such time trap can be either physical, as in Play and Happy Days, where the characters have no physical way to escape, or more abstract, as in Waiting for
Godot, where the characters are not trapped physically, but are unable to leave the trap.
2.2 Suspense
I include a short chapter on suspense because it is often created in Beckett‟s plays by using temporal devices, most importantly allusions to some future event, which is then expected to happen, like the coming of Godot or the ending of Endgame.
According to Kennedy, such “recurrent allusions to some pending event . . . create a tension in terms of stage time” (23). This would be true for any play. However, in
Beckett‟s plays the tension is never relieved, because the expected event does not
14 happen. Godot does not come in Waiting for Godot and neither does the expected end in
Endgame.
In relation to this, Radke uses a term “dénouement-renouement” (59) to indicate
“an abandonment and immediate rebirth of hope and activity which forces the actors to stay on the stage” (Radke 59). Applied to suspense, it is the point where it is relieved, but the next instant it is reborn. This is the case in Waiting for Godot, where with the coming night the situation of the two characters is going to be resolved: either by coming of Godot, or by coming of the night without coming of Godot, which would make further waiting useless. However, the coming of the Boy, who assures the characters that Godot is going to come the next day, re-establishes the suspense.
Similarly, Hamm‟s final soliloquy in Endgame is the point of dénouement, when it seems, that the ultimate end is at hand. But then, the end does not come, and the similarity between the beginning and the ending of the play suggests that the ending is only another beginning, a “renouement.”
Apart from Waiting for Godot and Endgame, there is often hardly any suspense in Beckett‟s plays, due to their static character. Only the ending of Happy Days may be taken for an exception, because when Willie comes crawling towards Winnie, it is the first moment of the play, when something actually happens. The question of “what is he going to do” remains however unresolved and the suspense unrelieved.
It is clear from the preceding examples that if there is any suspense in Beckett‟s plays, it is not used in conventional ways, because there is either no dénouement that would relieve it, or it is immediately followed by a “renouement” which renews it.
To sum up, both cyclical plot development and the unrelieved suspense contribute to the static character of Beckett‟s plays, underlining the lack of activity from the part of the characters and the absence of any significant change.
15 3 Time and the Characters
Time is naturally also an integral part of the stories performed, and this kind of time is presented predominantly by characters, or through them. In this chapter, I will therefore focus on the relationship between time and the characters, exploring the various ways in which it is presented in Beckett‟s plays: the allusions to the past and the future of the characters, time as characters‟ burden, the effect (or its absence) of the flow of the time resulting in change of the characters, and finally characters‟ subjective perception of time contrasted to the objective time specifications.
3.1 The Past and the Future of the Characters
In plays where there is a plot the past and the future of the characters are very significant, because they tell the audience what has led to the situation performed and what aim the actions of the characters have. In Beckett‟s plays, which lack a plot, the information given about the past of the characters and their aims is sparser. As
Robinson claims, “In Beckett's theatre past and future . . . give way before the eternal present of perception” (243), therefore the lack of the past and the future of the characters depicted only underlines the importance of their present state.
However, although they are sparse, the past and the future of the characters are presented in the plays. The past is presented either in the form of characters‟ memories, or by particular characters telling stories, which are possibly autobiographic for the characters. The allusions to the future usually take the form of hopes, longings and expectations.
As far as the memories are concerned, if they occur at all, they are often shadowy (Kennedy 22). This can be caused by the inability of the characters to recall their past, which is the case especially in Waiting for Godot, the most forgetful
16 character being Estragon. He seems to forget even recent events, as demonstrated for example at the beginning of the second act:
VLADIMIR. The tree, look at the tree.
Estragon looks at the tree.
ESTRAGON. Was it not there yesterday?
VLADIMIR. Yes of course it was there. Do you not remember? We
nearly hanged ourselves on it. But you wouldn‟t. Do you not
remember?
ESTRAGON. You dreamt it. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 60-61)
Estragon is, however, aware of the deficiency of his memory:
VLADIMIR. Is it possible that you‟ve forgotten already?
ESTRAGON. That‟s the way I am. Either I forget immediately or I never
forget. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 61)
Due to Estragon‟s forgetfulness, neither Vladimir can be certain about what he remembers, having nobody to confirm his memories as real. He asks himself “Was I sleeping while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today?” (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 90). Therefore, neither what Vladimir says about the past can be taken as the objective truth. Other two characters from Waiting for Godot, Pozzo and the Boy, are significant, because neither of them in Act II remembers meeting Vladimir and Estragon the day before:
VLADIMIR. We met yesterday. (Silence.) Do you not remember?
POZZO. I don‟t remember having met anyone yesterday. (Beckett,
Waiting for Godot 88)
The dialogue with the Boy is similar:
VLADIMIR. It wasn‟t you came yesterday.
17 BOY. No, sir. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 91)
The effect of their inability to remember is a total uncertainty about whose memory is actually failing: whether Pozzo‟s and Boy‟s, or Vladimir‟s. This further emphasizes
Vladimir‟s uncertainty about his memories.
A similar uncertainty occurs when the past is presented in the form of story- telling. The characters tell stories, which may be either invented, or their own memories.
In the radio play Embers Henry recalls his father and his wife Ada and these memories are mixed with a story about men called Bolton and Holloway, whom he invents in his monologue. As Ruby Cohn argues, “Henry invents stories . . . lapsing into memories of father, wife and daughter” (Cohn, “Plays and Players” 47). He manages to recall Ada and have a conversation with her. This conversation is not real because Ada is dead at the time. It is questionable, however, whether the conversation is completely invented by Henry in his imagination, or whether it is a memory of conversations they used to have.
In Endgame Hamm also tells stories, or rather one story of a man begging for some food for his son. It is specifically referred to as an invented story:
CLOV. Do you see how it goes on?
HAMM. More or less.
CLOV. Will it soon be the end?
HAMM. I‟m afraid it will.
CLOV. Pah! You‟ll make up another. (Beckett, Endgame 41)
However, it is strongly suggested that it is a memory retelling Hamm‟s life, the little son of the man being Clov. Hamm also refers to the story as “my chronicle” (Beckett,
Endgame 41), which further suggests that it is his autobiography. Moreover, the above-
18 mentioned allusion to a close end of the story corresponds with the whole character of the play, which is also expected to end soon (although it never truly does). The story that is told by Hamm could therefore be the same as the one that is being performed.
However, the suggestion that the story concerns Hamm‟s own past is never acknowledged by Hamm, which can mean that even if it is the story of his own past, he wants to dissociate himself from it.
A similar situation occurs also in Happy Days, where Winnie spends most of her time telling her memories and stories, which, as Cohn states, “are scarcely separate in
Winnie‟s mind” (“Plays and Players”, 47). A good example is a story/memory of a girl called Mildred who was scared by a mouse (Beckett, Happy Days 41). As it was with
Hamm, it is referred to as a story, but it could as well be a memory of Winnie‟s own childhood. Another case where it is unclear whether it is a story or memory concerns
Mr. Shower (or Cooker) and his wife, who walked by Winnnie‟s heap. Winnie presents this one as a memory of something that happened in reality, but it remains uncertain, and Winnie‟s own inability to recall their names even emphasizes the uncertainty.
Apart from the inability to remember and the mixing of stories and memories, there is yet another way in which the representation of the past is blurred. The events of the past are sometimes interpreted as extremely remote by the characters, especially if they happened out of the stereotype of the characters‟ present state. This can be the case of the memory of the Eiffel Tower in Waiting for Godot. According to Vladimir, it happened “a million years ago, in the nineties” (10). It refers to some time before they were trapped in the cycle of waiting, therefore the memory seems extremely remote.
Although such memories may be remembered well (sometimes even better than those from yesterday), the characters assume that it is no use remembering them, as the following extract demonstrates:
19 ESTRAGON. Do you remember the day I threw myself into the Rhone?
VLADIMIR. We were grape harvesting.
ESTRAGON. You fished me out.
VLADIMIR. That‟s all dead and buried.
ESTRAGON. My clothes dried in the sun.
VLADIMIR. There‟s no good harking back on that. Come on. (Beckett,
Waiting for Godot 53)
Up to now, I have focused on the plays where memories are only shadowy.
However, in the plays Krapp’s Last Tape and Play the representations of the past are on the contrary significant. In Krapp’s Last Tape, the past is represented by the tapes recorded by Krapp. This means that the memory employed here is a specific type – a
“mechanically fixed memory” (Kennedy 67). This kind of memory is specific mainly in two aspects. First, the memories are not really remembered by the old Krapp. As
Kennedy states, he is actually unable “to remember what must have been key experiences of his life” (68) when he reads the headings of his tapes, such as “the black ball” and “memorable equinox” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic
Pieces 13) and he has to listen to the tape so that he recalls. Second, there is no self- reflection on the past event by the old Krapp. We do not hear how he interprets the events now, but how he saw them then. Therefore, the past in the form of mechanically fixed memories is more objective.
As far as Krapp‟s own attitude to his past is concerned, it can be described as ambivalent. When recording the last tape, he refers to his thirty-nine-year-old self as
“that stupid bastard I took myself for” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic
Pieces 24), which suggests that he dissociates himself from the person he used to be.
However, there is a paradox in the critical view of his earlier self and the fact that he
20 keeps replaying the old tapes – he seems to denounce the past and at the same time revel in it, especially in “the one memory worth seeking out and re-playing” (Kennedy 71), which is the memory of his love. The attempt to dissociate from the past may be caused by the fact that it is impossible to live it again, due to the change that happened to Krapp during all the years, as expressed by Krapp‟s final words of the last recording: “Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn‟t want them back. Not in the fire in me now. No, I wouldn‟t want them back” (Beckett,
Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 28). Krapp is therefore caught in the state where, although he knows the futility of “harking back” to the past that cannot be returned, as well as Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot, he cannot stop doing so.
In Play, the situation is yet different. The three characters, two women and a man are “condemned to repeat for ever the fragments of their shared past” (Robinson
295), that is of a love affair. They retell their memories over and over, each from their own subjective point of view, which is the biggest difference from Krapp’s Last Tape where the past represented is quite objective. Here, although the objective past described by the characters was only one, there are actually three different stories that retell it, as can be seen even from a short extract:
W1. I said to him, Give her up. I swore by all I held most sacred
Spot from W1 to W2.
W2. One morning as I was sitting stitching by the open window she burst
in and flew at me. Give me up, she screamed, he‟s mine. Her
photographs were kind to her. Seeing her now for the first time full
length in the flesh I understood why he preferred me.
Spot from W2 to M.
21 M. We were not long together when she smelled the rat. Give up that
whore, she said . . . (Beckett, Play)
The characters‟ view of the past is therefore purely subjective. It is also important, that retelling the past is the only activity of the characters of Play. Their present state therefore consists in nothing else but in the past.
Generally, the representation of the past of the characters in Beckett‟s plays has various effects: underlining the present by lack of information on the characters‟ past
(or its remoteness), the impossibility to tell apart what is real and what is not in the fusing memories and stories, and finally implementing the past in the present state of the characters as in Krapp’s Last Tape and Play.
As far as the future of the characters is concerned, any allusions to it are even more underused than those to the past. Goals are virtually absent. Radke illustrates the situation of Vladimir and Estragon saying that “the activity of the lifetime of these men is without forseeable end and therefore without definitive purpose. In fact, they not only do not have definite long range life goals, but they are without even temporary ends which they can hope to achieve” (58).
However, although they do not have any high goals to achieve, the characters do sometimes make resolutions or decisions for the future, particularly Vladimir and
Estragon in Waiting for Godot and Clov and Hamm in Endgame. However, they never fulfil the resolutions. An example could be the closing of both acts of Waiting for
Godot:
ESTRAGON. Well, shall we go?
VLADIMIR. Yes, let‟s go.
They do not move. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 54)
22 The resolution is not followed by any action. Similar cases can be found throughout the whole play, such as the characters‟ inability to part:
ESTRAGON. It‟d be better if we parted.
VLADIMIR. You always say that, and then you always come crawling
back. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 62)
Similarly, in Endgame Clov repeatedly decides to leave Hamm, but is unable to do so:
HAMM. You‟re leaving me all the same.
CLOV. I‟m trying. (Beckett, Endgame 14)
Clov is unable to take any step that would change the situation in any dramatic way, and so does also Hamm, who once decides to leave the refuge, but abandons the idea soon afterwards:
HAMM. Alone, I‟ll embark alone! Get working on the raft immediately.
Tomorrow I‟ll be gone for ever.
CLOV. (hastening towards door). I‟ll start straight away.
HAMM. Wait! (Clov halts.) Will there be sharks, do you think? (Beckett,
Endgame 28)
The characters who make resolutions that would change their situations thus express their desire the escape the stereotype, but on the other hand the inability to follow the resolution by an action suggests that they fear the unknown, and therefore they rather say to themselves, to use Estragon‟s words, “Don‟t let‟s do anything. It‟s safer” (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 18).
Apart from the resolutions there are certain future events, such as the coming of
Godot and the end of the world in Endgame, which are alluded to. Both of these are events that are expected to end the present situation of the characters, like the
23 resolutions made, but these do not include any necessary activity, only waiting. But, alike the resolutions, the mentioned future events never happen. In Waiting for Godot the characters keep on waiting also because the assurance that Godot is actually going to come is renewed by the Boy, when he says “Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won‟t come this evening but surely tomorrow” (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 50) in the first act and similarly in the second act:
VLADIMIR. You have a message from Mr. Godot.
BOY. Yes, sir.
VLADIMIR. He won‟t come this evening.
BOY. No, sir.
VLADIMIR. But he‟ll come tomorrow.
BOY. Yes, sir. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 91)
Thus, the repeated allusions to the event that is supposed to happen “tomorrow” make the characters remain waiting. In Endgame, the end is expected to come very soon, as expressed by Hamm, “Enough, it‟s time it ended, in the refuge too” (12). It is clear that the longer the characters have been waiting for the end, the more are they sure that it must be close. However, the end does never come, it is only getting closer and closer, like “a curve that approximates but never reaches base, an asymptotic curve” (Kennedy
63). The characters are thus, similarly as in Waiting for Godot, waiting for something, that seem to be at hand, but it never happens.
Overall, both the allusions to the characters‟ future and on the other hand their omission have a purpose. The omission of any goals, hopes or plans for future emphasizes the fact that the characters do not have them. And if, on the other hand, they are included, the contrast between a hope (or a resolution) and the reality emphasizes the total inability of the characters to change something in order to improve their state.
24 3.2 The Burden of Time
As in most cases the characters of Beckett‟s plays are caught in a cycle, where each moment is “the same as the moment preceding and the moment following”
(Radke 63), time becomes a burden of the characters, often tormenting them. The burden is even greater because of the lack of action and, if there is any, because of its purposelessness. As a reaction, the characters constantly try to come with some devices to pass the time, which, to use the words of Winnie from Happy Days, “help [them] through the day” (Beckett, Happy Days 40). The inventing of time-passing activities is most common in Waiting for Godot and Happy Days.
In Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon invent numerous activities to pass the time, such as abusing each other and subsequently making it up, playing at Pozzo and Lucky, and they even think of hanging themselves as a pastime activity:
VLADIMIR. . . . What do we do now?
ESTRAGON. Wait.
VLADIMIR. Yes, but while we‟re waiting.
ESTRAGON. What about hanging ourselves? (17)
However, any of such invented activities end quickly. The best way in which they pass the time is “when these two are not left to their own devices” (Radke 62), that is especially when they meet Pozzo and Lucky. And yet, the actual vanity of finding anything to pass the time is expressed by Estragon:
VLADIMIR. That passed the time.
ESTRAGON. It would have passed in any case. (48)
But Vladimir still insists on its usefulness in his reply:
VLADIMIR. Yes, but not so rapidly. (48)
25 For Winnie in Happy Days the activities that help her pass the time are mainly inspecting the objects in her bag, maintaining her appearance, telling stories and singing. As Kennedy states, “her daily ritual is a way of keeping up appearances, but also a way of ordering the otherwise infinite wastes of time” (78). She is well aware that these are the only ways to get her through the day, therefore she is very careful and saves some of the activities in case she needs to do something later during the day; she says to herself “don‟t squander all your words for the day” (Beckett, Happy Days 31).
The importance of sparing the activities is also apparent in the situation when she is not sure whether she has already brushed and combed her hair, and decides to brush and comb them later on. She says: “I shall be thankful for it later on” (Beckett, Happy Days
19). In fact, she uses every opportunity to pass the time: she reads the inscription on her toothbrush, and wonders at every detail, such as what exactly is a hog and whether one refers to one‟s hair as “it” or “them.” Finding out the answer to her questions also fills her with optimism, that every day she learns something new. In the second act, when
Winnie is imprisoned in the mound up to her neck, the array of her pastime activities is suddenly reduced. All she can do is talk and sing her song. Moreover, until the very end, she is not even able to see whether Willie is there, listening to her, and therefore she does not know whether her talking is of any use. Due to the reduction of the possible pastime activities the burden of time is definitely greater for Winnie in the second act.
The primary way of dealing with the burden time in the other plays is not time passing, but there are other ways, depending on what exactly is the essence of the burden of time. In Endgame we witness a “conflict between time, which is indifferently engaged in destruction of the living world, and man, who looks for meaning in this reasonless dissolution” (Robinson 274). However, the process of destruction is very
26 long, because it surely started years before the time we see in the play. The characters are therefore in constant expectation of the ultimate end, assured that it is near, as expressed in Clov‟s first words: “Finished, it‟s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished” (Beckett, Endgame 12). The close end of all things, when everything will be destroyed, is the only hope the characters (and especially Hamm) have. It is true that Clov has another hope in his resolution to leave. The impatient expectation of the end is apparent in the situations where some life is encountered (the flea and the rat).
The characters panic and exterminate the form of life as quickly as possible (see also
Robinson 265), because it is a sign of not-ending: “But humanity might start from there all over again! Catch him, for the love of God!” (Beckett, Endgame 27) is Hamm‟s reaction. Hamm‟s biggest fear is therefore to be stuck in a cycle without end, where the same has to be relived over and over. The way the characters cope with the burden of time is therefore only their belief that it is not going to last much longer. However, the end never actually comes.
A kind of burden caused by time is present also in Beckett‟s radio play All that
Fall – the burden of ageing. The characters Mr. and Mrs. Rooney are both very old,
Mr. Rooney is even blind, and their life consists only in routine “counting the hours – till the next meal” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 72). For them, those who “are given a quick death without the misery of decay” (Robinson 279) are the more fortunate. This is well expressed in Mrs. Rooney‟s reaction when Mr.
Slocum runs over a hen in his car: “What a death! One minute picking happy at the dung, on the road, in the sun, with now and then a dust bath, and then – bang! – all her troubles over” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 47-48). The death reached the hen before it could know the misery of being old, and it also ended its routine. However, death of young people is definitely not seen as positive in the play.
27 There are two such deaths mentioned – the death of the Rooneys‟ daughter Minnie and the death of the boy who fell under the train. These are tragic events for the Rooneys, as proved by the fact that the memory of Minnie‟s death makes Mrs. Rooney burst into tears, and also Mr. Rooney‟s attempt to conceal the boy‟s death from his wife suggests that the event is so tragic that it should not be spoken of. The tragedy of growing too old is therefore accompanied by another tragedy, that of dying too young. The burden of time therefore consists mainly in the fact that people have no means to influence the length of their lifetime.
It can be deduced from the preceding examples that time is in opposition to the characters in different ways, but in neither can the characters overcome the burden imposed on them by time. The time-passing activities offer merely temporary help, and the hope of close end in Endgame is only an illusion. In the confrontation of men against time, therefore, men prove completely powerless.
3.3 Constant Change or Infinite Sameness?
I include the notion of changing of the characters, as it is also a way in which the relation of the characters and time is expressed. In many Beckett‟s plays there is a paradox that the characters are constantly changing, but at the same time there is no significant change in their situation. As Esslin claims, “waiting is to experience the action of time, which is constant change. And yet, as nothing real ever happens, that change is in itself an illusion” (31), and although he refers to Waiting for Godot, the same phenomenon can be traced in other plays as well.
But first I will focus on Waiting for Godot. The two main characters do not seem to change in any significant way in the flow of time, but the uncertainties, for example of whether they were in the same place the day before or not, and Estragon‟s failing memory suggest that the process of being “at no single moment in our lives, identical
28 with ourselves” (Esslin 30) happens to them. A further suggestion of their changing is that when they meet in the second act the same characters as in the previous one, the characters fail to recognize them. This may be caused either by a similar inability to remember as in Estragon‟s case, but it may also mean that Vladimir and Estragon have changed beyond recognition since the previous act. It is therefore uncertain, whether they are changing or not. This is well visible in the dialogue between Vladimir and the
Boy:
VLADIMIR. Off we go again. (Pause.) Do you not recognize me?
BOY. No, sir.
VLADIMIR. It wasn‟t you came yesterday?
BOY. No, sir. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 91)
The Boy‟s answers may suggest either Vladimir‟s change, or Vladimir‟s or the Boy‟s failing memory. As far as the other characters, Pozzo and Lucky, are concerned, their change is certainly more visible and radical, because Pozzo goes blind and Lucky dumb, apparently overnight. And again, Pozzo seems not to remember yesterday:
VLADIMIR. We met yesterday. (Silence.) Do you not remember?
POZZO. I don‟t remember having met anyone yesterday. But tomorrow I
won‟t remember having met anyone today. So don‟t count on me to
enlighten you. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 88)
It cannot be said for certain whether Vladimir and Estragon change; nevertheless, it is clear that their situation has been the same for a long period of time.
They are still waiting for Godot in the same place, they pass the time and they never keep their resolutions. Pozzo and Lucky have changed by going blind and dumb, which has also altered their relationship, making Pozzo dependent on Lucky. However, they pass through the same place as the day before, which also suggests that their days are
29 very similar to each other. Generally, if there are any changes that happen to the characters, they do not release them from the cycle, and they only make them even more uncertain about who they are and what they remember.
The paradox of changing and sameness is even more apparent in Krapp’s Last
Tape. We witness here the changing of the character in the most visible (or audible) way – by listening to old recordings made by the character we see. As Robinson states,
There are three Krapps in the play itself though many more are locked
away on their spools in the drawer . . . On the spools are the selves which
are other through the passing of time, speaking in different voices to the
figure on stage but unquestionably his ancestor. (284)
That means, that although we know for sure that the tapes were recorded by Krapp himself, the recorded voice seems to belong to another self. And also the old Krapp, listening to the tapes, cannot believe to be listening to himself, and he even states he has
“just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hard to believe I was ever that bad” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces
24). The thirty years younger Krapp similarly comments on an even ten or twelve years older tape, saying it is “hard to believe I was ever that young whelp” (Beckett, Krapp’s
Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 16). In both cases the suggestion of different selves is further emphasized by Krapp‟s referring to his younger self in the third person, and thus dissociating himself from his former self.
However, despite the deep abyss between the selves, Krapp‟s situation has not changed in any significant way during the thirty years between the Krapp of the tape and Krapp the listener. The younger Krapp confesses to “have just eaten I regret to say three bananas and only with difficulty refrained from the fourth” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last
Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 14), and it is apparent that the older Krapp still has the
30 same passion for bananas, having eaten nearly two before he started listening to the tape. Also the place where he lives is obviously the same. The younger Krapp talks in the recording of “the new light above my table” and “all this darkness around me”
(Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 14), which corresponds to the stage directions of the play: “Table and immediately adjacent area in strong white light.
Rest of the stage in darkness” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces
10). Kennedy also reveals the similarity of the situations in the inclusion of the reference to the yet older tape, which “reveals, for the first time, the irony of a man taking a superior position towards his younger self while his behaviour, as recorded, has not changed in any significant way” (69). Although the situation of the even younger
Krapp is different, for example he was living in a different place, “with Bianca in Kedar
Street” (Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape and Other Dramatic Pieces 16), the way the thirty- nine-year-old Krapp sees his ten or twelve years younger self corresponds to the way the old Krapp sees his thirty years younger self.
He is relieved that a certain love affair is over (Bianca), he ridicules his
one-time aspirations and resolutions . . . The audience will observe that
Krapp at thirty-nine has recorded experiences that are to recur (and to
serve as mockery) in later life: the failed love affair and the failed
aspirations. (Kennedy 69)
Therefore, although the earliest situation of Krapp is not obviously the same, as it is with his two other selves, its inclusion helps to underline the paradox of constant change and eternal sameness at the same time, because it shows a similarity in Krapp‟s way of treating his younger selves, and thus it reveals the sameness in Krapp‟s inner nature.
As for Winnie in Happy Days, she is well aware of the paradox. She even expresses its essence, saying “Then… now… what difficulties here, for the mind.
31 (Pause.) To have been always what I am – and so changed from what I was. (Pause.) I am the one, I say the one, then the other. (Pause.) Now the one, then the other”
(Beckett, Happy Days 38). The motif of sameness is, however, prevalent. Winnie assumes when inspecting her teeth that they are “no better, no worse” (Beckett, Happy
Days 10), that there has been no change. She is also sure that her parasol, which has just burned, “will be in the bag again tomorrow, without a scratch” (Beckett, Happy Days
30); therefore, she thinks that nothing that happens actually changes the situation.
However, in the second act, when her situation has been changed she is not so sure anymore. She says: “I used to say, Winnie you are changeless, there is never any difference between one fraction of a second and the next” (Beckett, Happy Days 44), which suggests she does not say this anymore. Yet still, no change is real to Winnie, as she stated in the first act, “should one day earth cover my breasts, then I shall have never seen my breasts, no one ever seen my breasts” (Beckett, Happy Days 30). If anything changes, the past state remains something unreal and the present state begins to seem that it has always been so. Winnie‟s point of view is therefore quite the opposite of Krapp‟s. Krapp is sure that he has changed, although no such change can be seen, and Winnie, in spite of going through a visible change, is convinced that everything has been so even before the change. Although she remembers the state before, it becomes unreal to her, as if it concerned some other person.
In Endgame the paradox of change and sameness is not apparent, partly because there is only one act and therefore less material to compare. However, the pattern of changing of the characters is an important theme of this play, and therefore is surely worth discussing. The situation of the characters is constantly changing, but without any serious development. The ongoing change consists mainly in the constant deterioration of the characters‟ situation. The past is viewed as much better than the present, although
32 the overall situation (the place where they live, the daily routine etc.) has not changed significantly. This can be seen for example in the dialogue between Nagg and Nell:
NAGG. I‟ve lost me tooth.
NELL. When?
NAGG. I had it yesterday.
NELL. (elegiac) Ah yesterday! (Beckett, Endgame 18)
Or just several lines later:
NAGG. Has he changed your sawdust?
NELL. It isn‟t sawdust. (Pause. Wearily.) Can you be a little more
accurate, Nagg?
NAGG. Your sand then. It‟s not important.
NELL. It is important.
Pause
NAGG. It was sawdust once.
NELL. Once! (Beckett, Endgame 19)
Arguably the “yesterday” and even the “once” were not too different from “now.” Nagg and Nell were in their dustbins, in the room together with Hamm. However, they consider their past a much better state, where Nagg had his tooth and Nell had her sawdust. And it is only these changes that reassure the characters that there is still some flow of time, that the nature has not forgotten them (Beckett, Endgame 16), “But we breathe, we change! We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom! Our ideals!” (Beckett,
Endgame 16).
Generally, changing of the characters occurs only on a small scale in Beckett‟s plays, partly due to lack of plot, which could make them develop. If any changes occur, they are not caused by the characters‟ own activity, but they rather happen to them in
33 the flow of time. The paradox of change that happens to the characters and at the same time sameness of the situation is then a natural effect, because a significant change of the situation would require some activity from the characters. The effect is actually similar to that of cyclical plot and the burden of time – the characters prove themselves completely powerless against the changes brought about by time, and equally powerless in achieving any change with their own activity.
3.4 Objective and Subjective Time Conceptions
Generally in any play, specific methods have to be used to indicate a historical period, season, time of the day, and even the time between any two points in the play
(Pfister 280). In Beckett‟s plays the time specifications are quite infrequent and the temporal setting remains therefore usually unspecified. The characters generally know very little more (if at all) than the audience about the time in which their actions take place. However, there are some indications of time in the plays, both those that can be defined as objective, and the subjective perception of time by the characters. In this chapter, I will focus on the ways in which the time specifications (of both actual time and duration) are presented, and on the clash between the objective and subjective time conceptions.
In Waiting for Godot we can see the clash between objective and subjective time quite often. The already mentioned memory of the Eiffel Tower, where Vladimir and
Estragon were “a million years ago, in the nineties” (10), contains both subjective and objective time measurements: “nineties” is an objective indication of time and “a million years ago” is subjective feeling of the vast remoteness of the nineties, and it is definitely not an objective amount of time, although it cannot be said how long it has actually been since the nineties. A similar clash between subjective and objective notion of time concerns the period of time between the two acts of Waiting for Godot.
34 Vladimir is sure that one day passed between the acts. However, the tree has budded, which, together with Pozzo‟s going blind and Lucky‟s going dumb, suggest that there was a longer period between the acts:
VLADIMIR. But yesterday evening it was all black and bare. And now
it‟s covered with leaves.
ESTRAGON. Leaves?
VLADIMIR. In a single night.
ESTRAGON. It must be the Spring.
VLADIMIR. But in a single night!
ESTRAGON. I tell you we weren‟t here yesterday. (66)
As can be seen from the dialogue, Vladimir is sure that only one day has passed and he is confused. Estragon, on the other hand, is open to possibilities that a longer period of time has passed, and even that they may be somewhere else. This openness relates to
Estragon‟s memory deficiencies (see chapter 3.1). As Kennedy puts it, “For Vladimir, today is firmly „today,‟ a new day, after the passage of a night spent in solitude . . .
Estragon denies the separateness of today and yesterday, and claims a kind of total amnesia” (28). At any rate, the objective time indications instead of making the characters orientate better in time cause the exact opposite, because they are in contradiction with the subjective perception.
The only other objective time specification Vladimir and Estragon have is the dusk, which suggests it is evening. However, they are not sure about this either, when they are asked by Pozzo in the second act:
POZZO. Is it evening?
Silence. Vladimir and Estragon scrutinize the sunset.
ESTRAGON. It‟s rising.
35 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? (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 85)
Apart from the rare objective time indications Estragon and Vladimir are left to their own judgement when measuring the time, and they are accordingly uncertain.
They cannot tell for sure what season it is, when they are wondering whether the tree is dead or it is only winter:
ESTRAGON. Where are the leaves?
VLADIMIR. It must be dead.
ESTRAGON. No more weeping.
VLADIMIR. Or perhaps it‟s not the season. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot
14)
And they also have no idea what day it is: “And is it Saturday? Is it not rather Sunday?
(Pause) Or Monday? (Pause) Or Friday?” (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 15) asks
Estragon as a reaction to Vladimir‟s statement that Godot is supposed to come on
Saturday.
In the character of Pozzo we can see a complete reversal in his conception of time. In the first act he is concerned about precise time. He has a watch and consults it quite often, once even in an absurd way “That was nearly sixty years ago… (he consults his watch)… yes, nearly sixty” (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 33), but that only emphasizes his need to be precise about time and to “observe [his] schedule” (Becket,
Waiting for Godot 36). Losing track of time is also probably his biggest fear:
VLADIMIR. Time has stopped.
36 POZZO. (cuddling his watch to his ear). Don‟t you believe it, sir, don‟t
you believe it. (He puts his watch back in his pocket.) Whatever you
like, but not that. (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 36)
And it is a fear that actually comes true. It is already suggested at the end of the first act when he loses his watch and it is clear in the second act, when he is blind and, as Pozzo himself says, “the blind have no notion of time” (Beckett, Waiting for Godot 86). He thus becomes isolated from all the indicators of time, but still wants (or even needs) to know what the time is (see also Kennedy 41). Pozzo therefore moves during the play from the state of precise knowledge of the objective time to the state of complete isolation from the objective time specifications and loss of his own subjective notion of time.
In Endgame the uncertainty of the characters about time is even greater than in
Waiting for Godot, because there are virtually no objective time specifications. The characters have no means to measure time. Hamm is blind, Nagg and Nell are apparently unable to leave their dustbins, and even though Clov can move and look out of the windows, neither he has any idea about the time, because there is no sun to be seen from the windows, the sky is always grey (Beckett, Endgame 26), and it cannot even be distinguished between day and night. Due to the lack of the indications of time, the characters do not get confused in the way Vladimir does in Waiting for Godot, because there is no direct clash between the objective time indications and the subjective perception of time. According to Robinson “concepts of time – days, weeks or years – have lost their essential meaning” (268) because the individual days “are only separated by the ritual removal of the dustcovers from the two ashbins and from over
Hamm” (Robinson 263). However, the characters still refer to “days” and are concerned about what the time is, even though the answer may be completely irrelevant:
37 HAMM. . . . What time is it?
CLOV. The same as usual. (Beckett, Endgame 13)
Similarly irrelevant is Hamm‟s repeated asking “Is it not time for my pain-killer?”
(Beckett, Endgame 14), because Clov can answer whatever he pleases. The measuring of time is therefore completely reduced to its subjective perception. This makes it possible for the characters to arrange the time in whatever way they want. For example,
Hamm refers to the “day” that has hardly started as “the end of the day” (Beckett,
Endgame 17). To tell the time is therefore only up to the characters, and their subjective conception of time is the only one present in the play.
The concept of days in Happy Days is similarly meaningless as in Endgame. In this case “the daylight is endless” (Robinson 289), the word “day” is therefore also deprived of its meaning. And Winnie is aware of it, because every time she uses the word day, she adds “to speak in the old style” (Beckett, Happy Days 16), meaning that there are no days any more. However, there is a big difference between the characters of
Endgame and Winnie: she cannot organize her time as she wants. Although there are no days, there is a bell that rings to wake Winnie up and then to tell her when to go to sleep. There is no clue to say whether the ringing of the bell is regular, or not, but
Winnie has to observe it. If she does not react in the morning by opening her eyes, the bell rings once more, even more piercingly than before (Beckett, Happy Days 9). It is impossible to ignore it, although Winnie would certainly like to: “One cannot ignore it.
(Pause.) How often… (pause)… I say how often I have said, Ignore it, Winnie, ignore the bell, pay no heed, just sleep and wake, sleep and wake, as you please, open and close the eyes, as you please, or in the way you find most helpful” (Beckett, Happy
Days 40). Winnie‟s “day” is therefore a fixed and binding time period. However, there is no knowing how much of the “day” is left, because the light is always the same.
38 Therefore, Winnie is careful about her daily activities, often wondering whether it is already time for some activity, or not yet, so that she has enough of them for the whole
“day.” This is well expressed when she says “And yet it is perhaps a little soon for my song. (Pause.) To sing too soon is a great mistake, I find” (Beckett, Happy Days 25).
Winnie‟s concern about whether the right time for something has come is therefore meaningful, unlike Hamm‟s in Endgame. As has already been mentioned, there are no indications of the “day” coming to an end. However, Winnie seems to have a kind of intuition for it and makes ready for the night, ordering her things in the bag, before the bell actually rings, because she is “feeling it at hand – the bell for sleep – saying to myself – Winnie – it will not be long now, Winnie – until the bell for sleep” (Beckett,
Happy Days 33-34). She admits that sometimes the intuition fails her, although not often (Beckett, Happy Days 34), and then she is left waiting for the bell for sleep, having no activity left to pass the time. In Winnie‟s circumstances, the bell can be defined as an objective time indicator, although it is not a natural indicator like the dusk in Waiting for Godot and there is no proof of its regularity, but it is the only way of time measuring apart from Winnie‟s feeling and intuition. In Happy Days, therefore, both objective and subjective time conceptions are present, but they do not get into a similar clash as in Waiting for Godot. The reason for this is Winnie‟s acceptance of her situation which cannot be explained rationally: “I suppose this – might seem strange . . . were it not – . . . that all seems strange” (Beckett, Happy Days 34).
As can be seen, the inclusion (or the absence) of certain objective time specifications and subjective conception of time has a different effect in each of the plays discussed. In Waiting for Godot the inclusion of some objective time indicators, which however contradict the subjective perception of time of the characters, has a confusing effect, leaving the question of whether the subjective or the objective
39 conception of time is the right one unanswered. In Endgame we can see a total subjectivity of time measuring due to the complete absence of objective time indicators.
And finally in Happy Days an artificial way of measuring the time is imposed and has to be observed, and the subjective time perception, although it is present, becomes completely inconsequential.
Generally, all the discussed ways in which the relationship of characters and time is presented lead to one conclusion: the powerlessness of the characters against time. The powerlessness can be expressed either by uncertainty about the past, or similarly about what the time is, or by the inability to actively bring about a change or fill the time with a meaningful activity.
40 Conclusion
Generally, the category of time on various levels is often used by Beckett in a particular way, achieving particular effects. One of the effects is a masterly depiction of powerlessness of the characters. The powerlessness consists in their passivity and the inability to achieve any change or significant development. It may be presented either physically, as in Happy Days and Play where the characters are actually imprisoned, or more abstractly as in Waiting for Godot where the powerlessness is more of a psychological nature.
It has been shown by the analyses in this thesis that the ways associated with the category of time that contribute to the theme of powerlessness are numerous. The most concrete way was discussed in the chapter 3.2 where the “opponent” against which the characters are powerless is time itself. Apart from this the characters often fail to achieve any development of their situation in the flow of time. This is expressed by their inability to bring about any change by their own activity, and by failing to fulfil the resolutions for the future. Moreover, on the level of the structure of the plays the cyclical plot, in which the end of a cycle is the same (or nearly) as the beginning, underlines such inability to make the flow of time meaningful for the characters by bringing some development. Similarly the use of “dénouement-renouement”, discussed in chapter 2.1, stresses the infinity of the cycle from which the characters cannot liberate themselves. Yet another way in which the characters are powerless is in making sense of what time it is and what they remember. The inability to tell whether what they remember happened in reality or not, and the inability to remember anything at all, make the characters lost in time, unable to follow the past events with an appropriate
41 activity, and thus achieve a meaningful development. The uncertainty about what the time actually is has a similar effect.
Apart from the theme of powerlessness, Beckett‟s ways of employing time have another effect on the plays as a whole: they contribute to their realism, and it is often an extreme realism. The plays are made similar to reality by observing the unity of time and including pauses in the dialogue. Allusions to some future event which then actually does not come go against the conventions of dramatic pieces, but the more they make the play similar to reality, where it is frequent that something that is expected does not happen.
To sum up, the use of time in Beckett‟s plays has the effect of adding realism to the plays, and it also helps to depict the powerlessness of characters, lost in their world.
This is an important function because Beckett‟s characters are predominantly powerless and tortured by something. The blurring of the boundaries between fiction and reality then suggest allegorical character of the plays. The category of time has therefore a crucial function in the plays.
42 Résumé (English)
The present thesis was dealing with the category of time in the plays of Samuel
Beckett. The main focus was to analyse some of the plays by Beckett in terms of time on various levels – the level of the performance, the level of the structure of the plays, and the level of the story – pointing out some peculiarities which suggest that the way in which time is employed has a strong impact on the overall tone of the plays and supports the theme of powerlessness of people in the world.
This impact is most apparent on the level of the story, where characters themselves express their powerlessness. In each of the ways in which time in relation to the characters is presented, from their relationship to the past and the future to the way they change (or on the contrary do not change) in time, it can be seen that the characters are always passive and unable to govern what is happening. It is actually only time that brings about any change, which therefore merely happens to the characters.
The other levels of the plays also support the idea of powerlessness, most importantly the cyclical structure of most of the plays, because the idea of cycle underlines the inability of the characters to move forward. Yet other properties of the plays, even though they do not contribute directly to the concept of powerlessness, have been shown to play an important role, because they make the plays more realistic by blurring of the boundaries between fiction and reality.
Overall, the analyses of time in Beckett‟s plays have proved its crucial function in presentation of the theme of powerlessness and in adding realism to the plays.
43 Resumé (česky)
Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá kategorií času v dramatech Samuela Becketta, přičemž hlavním cílem bylo analyzovat užití času ve vybraných Beckettových hrách na třech úrovních – úrovni divadelního představení, úrovni struktury hry a úrovni příběhu – a poukázat na některé zvláštnosti, které dokazují, že způsob, jakým je kategorie času prezentována, má velký dopad na celkové vyznění daných dramat a hraje také roli v prezentaci tématu bezmocnosti člověka ve světě.
Tento význam je nejlépe patrný na úrovni příběhu, kde samotné postavy znázorňují lidskou bezmocnost. Z každého způsobu, jakým je vztah postav s časem prezentován, od jejich vztahu k minulosti a budoucnosti po změny postav (nebo naopak jejich absence) v průběhu času, je zřetelná naprostá pasivita postav a neschopnost ovlivnit dění. Ve skutečnosti jakékoliv změny nepřináší postavy, nýbrž čas. Postavám se změny pouze dějí.
Ostatní úrovně vybraných dramat také podporují představu bezmocnosti, zejména pak cyklický děj daných dramat, protože pojem cyklického opakování zdůrazňuje neschopnost postav posouvat děj kupředu. Krom toho mají zkoumaná
Beckettova dramata další zvláštnosti související s časem, které, i když přímo nevypovídají o bezmocnosti, hrají důležitou roli, protože přidávají na realismu tím, že stírají hranice mezi fikcí a realitou.
Rozbor času v Beckettových tak dokázal jeho zásadní funkci ve vystižení tématu bezmocnosti a v tom, že činí dramata realističtějšími.
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