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“Nothingness in Words Enclose”: Identity and Absence in Three Early Novels by Samuel Beckett

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“Nothingness in Words Enclose”: Identity and Absence in Three Early Novels by Samuel Beckett “Nothingness in Words Enclose”: Identity and Absence in Three Early Novels by Samuel Beckett. Agnes Scheperkeuter 6145159 MA Thesis Literary Studies: English University of Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. Maria Kager June 30th 2015 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Chapter 1: Forever in Search: On Theories of Identity 6 - 1.1 Mind and Body: Geulincx and Descartes 6 - 1.2 Existentialism: Sartre and the Other 8 - 1.3 Absurdism and Beckett 10 - 1.4 Hegel’s Dialectic 11 - 1.5 Conclusion 13 Chapter 2: The Silent Murphy: A Philosophy of Absence 14 - 2.1 Mind vs. Body: Celia and Murphy 15 - 2.2 The Unseen Indifference of Mr. Endon 17 - 2.3 Murphy’s Triplicity of Mind 19 - 2.4 Conclusion 21 Chapter 3: Watt and the Impossibility of Knowledge 23 - 3.1 Watt’s quest 23 - 3.2 The Negation of the Other: Mr. Knott 25 - 3.3 Watt’s Disillusionment 26 - 3.4 Absurdism in Watt 27 - 3.5 No Escape: Circularity and Time 28 - 3.6 Conclusion 30 Chapter 4: Bicycles and Pseudocouples: Mercier and Camier 32 - 4.1 The Handlebar and The Saddle 32 - 4.2 Circles of Absurdity 35 - 4.3 Others and Mercier and Camier 36 - 4.4 Conclusion 38 Conclusion 39 Bibliography 41 Picture on title page taken from Samuel Beckett’s private notebooks. Source: The Guardian, Tuesday 4 June 2013. <http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/jun/04/samuel- beckett-manuscript-murphy-in-pictures#img-2>. Web. 2 Introduction Although the Irish Samuel Beckett is most well-known for his plays, the author started out his career as a writer of primarily prose. Beckett remains one of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century, as critics have analysed and praised his use of language, black humour and variety of philosophical themes. As such, many studies have been written concerning both Beckett’s plays as well as his novels. Most studies analysing Beckett’s prose have centred around the French trilogy of novels which starts with Molloy, followed by Malone Dies and ends with The Unnameable. However, much less has been written about the relation between Beckett’s early novels – the English Murphy and Watt and the later published French Mercier and Camier, which is the reason why this thesis will focus on these three novels. These early works of Beckett all include themes of absence and questions of identity, the self and search for meaning. In relation to these themes, the central question which this thesis will analyse is: how does the concept of absence play a role in constructing the identities of the titular characters of Murphy, Watt and Mercier and Camier? In this thesis, Beckett’s early novels will be analysed in chronological order, focusing on one novel in each chapter. As such, the different underlying themes and similarities between the novels can be analysed. Although Murphy was not the first novel Beckett had written, it was Beckett’s first novel which was published in 1938. Beckett’s very first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, was only published posthumously in 1992, three years after Beckett’s death. After the Second World War broke out, Beckett, who lived in France for the most part of his life, joined the French resistance in 1940 but had to flee from Paris in 1942. He escaped to the French village Roussillon with his partner Suzanne. Here, in the French countryside, Beckett composed Watt, which would become his last novel in English, published after the war in 1953. After the Second World War, Beckett decided to write only in French. His first French novel was Mercier and Camier, which Beckett wrote in 1946. However, the novel remained unpublished until 1970. McDonald explains: […] Beckett seems to have regarded it as an apprentice work. His refusal to allow it to be published until 1970 may partly be because it still has the “externality” characteristic of some of his earlier prose works. However, treating two characters on a journey, its use of dialogue and verbal play prefigures his theatrical couplings in Waiting for Godot […] (McDonald, 15). Mercier and Camier has themes similar to Murphy and Watt, but also shows components which would become significant in Beckett’s later works, such as the pseudocouple, trapped 3 in conversation. These three early novels all revolve around their titular characters, with each their own journey and troubles to face. Murphy wishes to detach himself from the world and to be free and indifferent, Watt wishes to control his environment and gain knowledge and Mercier and Camier wish to depart on a journey together. However much the characters differ, the four men greatly resemble each other as well – each character is stuck in language, never to fully grasp reality. Additionally, the four men are trapped in linguistic, spatial and temporal circles. Linguistically, the characters often repeat the same words and sentences. Spatially, they often depart and return to the same place and finally, time is organized in a cyclical manner in the novels as well. As such, the novels have overlapping themes and concepts of circularity, absence, futility of language, loneliness, alienation and disillusionment. These concepts all shape the universe in which Beckett’s characters reside – they are doomed to be alone, repeating the same words and cycles. In the Addenda to Watt, this paradox is epitomized in a poem: who may tell the tale of the old man? weigh absence in a scale? mete want with a span? the sum assess of the world’s woes? nothingness in words enclose? (Beckett, 205). Beckett’s characters struggle with the all-encompassing paradox of living a life devoid of meaning. The Murphy’s, Watt’s and Mercier’s and Camier’s of the Beckettian universe continually search for meaning and truth in their lives. The chapters analysing the identities of these characters will focus solely on the protagonists of each novel, for although these three texts feature other supporting characters as well, Beckett’s novels always revolve around their titular character, which is why this thesis will analyse the identity of Murphy, Watt, Mercier and Camier. Neither one of these four characters can find meaning in their life and the Beckett anti-hero remains stuck in a circle from which there is no escape. “Nothingness” or absence acts as the double layer beneath the surface of the novels, which constructs the identities, words and actions of each character. Although Beckett’s work has been placed within a vast range of philosophical traditions, the author never labelled himself as a philosophical writer. Nevertheless, his early 4 work offers allusions to many different philosophies and ideologies such as absurdism, dualism and existentialism. The first chapter of this thesis will focus primarily on examining these different literary and philosophical perspectives in relation to identity. This chapter will not ascribe one ‘ism’ to the works of Beckett, but rather, analyse how these concepts are presented and negated in Beckett’s work. The first chapter will examine theories such as Cartesian and Geulincxian dualism, existentialism and Sartre’s concept of the Other, absurdism and Hegel’s dialectic and dichotomy of the master and slave. These concepts which will support the arguments in Chapter Two, Three and Four. Murphy will be analysed in Chapter 2, Watt in Chapter 3 and Mercier and Camier in Chapter 4. Ultimately, this thesis will analyse how absence shapes and informs identity in these three early novels by Samuel Beckett. 5 Chapter 1: Forever in Search: On Theories of Identity Although Beckett’s prose works have been placed within a vast range of ‘isms’ – from dualism to existentialism to absurdism – Beckett himself never fully identified with one of these perspectives. As Edith Kern explains in her chapter on Beckett: “Beckett defies any philosophical pigeonholing, for the simple reason that he neither developed a specific philosophical system of his own nor identified himself with that of another” (Kern, 167). While his novels perhaps allude to certain perspectives better than others, this chapter will not ascribe one ‘ism’ to Beckett’s fiction, as even his early work encompasses many philosophical and intellectual layers. Rather, this chapter will explore different philosophical and literary perspectives which will help in analysing how identity is constructed in three of Beckett’s early novels; Murphy, Watt and Mercier and Camier. As such, this chapter will serve as the theoretical backbone for the discussions of Beckett’s early literature to come. 1.1 Mind and Body: Geulincx and Descartes. One of the most well-known interpretations of Beckett’s work comes from the Cartesian philosophy of dualism. René Descartes, the seventeenth century French philosopher, analysed in his Discourse on Method and The Meditations the dualism of human nature. According to Descartes, body and mind are inherently split from one another, but also intrinsically connected. This split between mind and body has been coined the “Cartesian split” after its original author and his dualism greatly influenced philosophical ideas of man’s existence. For Descartes, the “link” between these two separate entities is the conarium or “pineal gland”; the point where the body and the mind meet. Beckett was familiar with Descartes, and his early works seem to incorporate many Cartesian allusions. Published in 1961, Hugh Kenner’s Samuel Beckett: A Critical Study was amongst the first to analyse the author’s work from a predominantly Cartesian perspective, analysing, among other elements, how the bicycle in Beckett’s work can be interpreted as a Cartesian element: “The Cartesian Centaur is a man riding a bicycle […]. This being rises clear of the middle in which Descartes leaves the mind- body relationship. The intelligence guides, the mobile wonder obeys, and there is no mysterious interpenetration of function” (Kenner, 121).
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