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Melville and Beckett: a Legacy of Pessimism

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Melville and Beckett: a Legacy of Pessimism Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1978 Melville and Beckett: A Legacy of Pessimism Jeanette Elaine Bahnke Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Bahnke, Jeanette Elaine, "Melville and Beckett: A Legacy of Pessimism" (1978). Masters Theses. 3229. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/3229 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PAPER CERTIFICATE #2 TO: Graduate Degree Candidates who have written formal theses . SUBJECT: Permission to reproduce theses. ' The University Library is receiving a number of requests from other institutions asking permiss ion to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, we feel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtained from the author before we allow theses to be copied. Please sign ope of the following statements: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings . Daie I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinoi s University not llow my thesis be produ ed b c u a re c e a se Date Author pdm MELVILLE Al�D BECKETT: A LEGACY OF PESSIMISM (TITLE) BY JEANETTE ELAINE BAHNKE THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LRTS IN ENGLISH EDUCATION IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 1978 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE MELVILLE AND BECKETT: A LEGACY OF PESSIMISM BY JEANETTE ELAINE BAHNKE B. s. in Ed., Eastern Illinois University, 1972 ABSTRACT OF A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment.. of the requirements the degree of Master of Arts in English Education at the Graduate School of Eastern Illinois University CHARLESTON, ILLH.'.OIS 1978. 368502 Though separated by nearly a century and by two different cultures, Herman Me lville and Samuel Beckett com plement each ; other's concept of man and his world . This concept is the con- cept of pessimism, which each man adopte d and expanded through ­ out his works. Both authors lament the concept that man must struggle to attempt unachievable goals, yet both also insist that the only way to maintain a type of balance is to "go on." The Beckettian-Melvill ian hero, consequently, is a "thought­ diver." As he strips layers fr om the Self, he simultane ously strips layers from the cosmos. Thus , the stripping of the Self and the fusing of the �elf with the universe become a central th eme in these two authors' works. Man, in his descent through the layers of the Self, conce ives of a tragic vision ; he becomes sorrowful , but paradoxically acquires a "heart ," a richness of spirit wh ich could not be attained in any other manner. The hero is also an orphan in search of the true parentage. He seeks to return to the womb/tomb. It is in the warm, dark , 1 quiet places where he creates his fict ions in order to "go on. 1 He mu st, however, leave the darkness from time to time in order to atte mpt his quests. ·The characters of both authors seek to escape Time, to make an end so th..i t the .Self can be r.e united with the Whole . All their elabor�te fictions are ·attempts to utter a name which will cause a silence , bring an end. Both authors owe a literary debt to William Shakespeare, particularly in regard to the concept of nothingness. Both agree that any attempt to imp ose meaning into the world could only result in destruction. The characters of both Me lvil l e and B e ckett journey a treacherous path bordered on both sides by chasms of suicide and insanity. They must proceed on a solitary quest which ·will render no final answers. The journey will lead them, each one a unique Ulys se s, far across uncharted s�as to an Ithaca that does not exist. That these seas are primarily those of the Self is evident. Time and time again, both authors, through their characters, admit to and lament over a paradox: langua&_e is an extremely inadequate and deceptive tool which one ought to avoid, yet it is the only tool available to link the Self with exte rnal reality. One may cry about it, berate it; but in the end one wil l equip oneself with this frail instrument and 11go on. 11 The language must continue , the fictions must be formed, and the man must endure the "waiting" as he goes on, ever onward , in " the long sonata of the dead," to the grave. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. T. S. Eliot We begin to live when we ha ve conceived life as tragedy. W. B. Yeats 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? Samuel Beckett ,,, Un devoilement sans fin, voile derri�re voile, plan sur plan de transparences imparfaites, un devoilement vers l'indevoil­ able, le rien, la chose a nouveau. Samuel Beckett Though separated by nearly a century and by two different cultures, He�man Melville and Samuel Beckett complement e ach other 's concept of man and his world . T his concept is the con­ cept of �e ssimism , which each man ado pted and expanded through­ out his works. In order to comprehend Beckettian-Melvillian pe ssimism , one must critically examine several contributory elements which, when unified, expose not only the bleaknes s of man 's chances to succeed in the world, but also the desperation of man driven , according to Beckett , to "go on ." The se elements include the motif of man the "thought-diver ," the womb/tomb motif , the motif of man the fiction creator, the nothingness motif, and the que st motif. De spite their construction of an ub iquitous concept of pessimism, both authors celebrate the man who manages to main­ tain a balance in a disconcertingly unbalanced universe . Such a man, armed only with the frail and tre a cherous tool of lan­ guage , is a rare occurrence in the Beckettian-Me lvillian world . Be ckett espec ially further illustrates his uniquene ss by endow- .ing him with exaggerated physical traits. I have limited the s c ope of this paper to the trilogy { Molloy, Malone Die s and The Unnamable ) and Wa iting For Godot by Beckett and Moby-Dick by Melville• I selected the works by Beckett because the trilogy is a lengthy account of the que ster-­ the que ster aging , the que ster dying , and the quester rambling from beyond the grave . Waiting For Godot is a succinct capsu- lization of the multiloquence of the trilogy. In effect, then, these four works of Beckett are not separate and distinct enti- ties, but rather they are extensions of one another. I deter­ mined JvJ.obv-Dick as the representative Melvillian work b ecause this one work com pare s in scope to those of Beckett and it af­ fords a s imilar variety of characters and encounters as do the other four. With this brief preface, one must now explore in depth several of the elements which link these two authors. By ex- amining my comments and those of the authors U1rougL �l1e mouths of their characters, it will become apparent the extent to which these men, though spatially far apart, were conceptually joined in brotherhood. Melville celebrated not individual men, but a way of life w�ich a man might, through considerable effort, attain. The element which distinguished this way of life WdS the descent into the Self. To make this descent was to remove oneself from the possibility of achieving a happy life: to see profoundly was to see mournfully: life in its depths was not a thing of joy but of sorrow.1 Melville accepted Swift'E not i on that to be h a ppy was to exist in a state of deception, to believe that 2 the s�cret s of life could all be ascertained on its surface . Through Beckett's trilogy and his tragicomedy, Waiting For Godot, also runs an obdurate thr&ad of pessimism. For ex- ample, as Molloy struggles to introduce himself, he also states the predicament with whi�h man is faced as he de s cends into his Self in an attempt to define it: And once again I am I will not say alone, no, that's not like me, but, how shall I say, I don't know, restored to myself, no, I never left myself , frse, yes, I don't know what that means but it's the word I mean to U9e, free to do wh�t, to do nothing, to know, but what, the laws of th2 mind perhaps, of my mind, that for example water rises in proportion as it drowns you and that you would do better, at least no worse, to obliterate texts than to blacken margins, to fill in the ho les of words t ill all is blank and fl at and the whole ghastly busine5s looks l �ke whjt is, senseless, speechless, issueless misery.
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