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Sickness in Samuel Beckett's Fiction Jean

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Sickness in Samuel Beckett's Fiction Jean The Literature of Dissolution: Sickness in Samuel Beckett's Fiction ty Jean Schultz Herbert Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Bedford College, University of London, I9SI Supervised by Dr. Richard Cave ProQuest Number: 10098439 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10098439 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Beckett's art is predicated on his understanding and use of sickness in both its literal and figurative forms. In this thesis I deal critically with all of Beckett's major fiction, as well as with several lesser-known works. In the first chapter I cite evidence of Beckett's early preoccupation with physical illness and suggest a correlation between this preoccupation and his use of religious language and imagery. In Chapter Two I discuss the major women characters, who are portrayed as healthy and robust and are contrasted with the moribund heroes. In the next chapters, on Murphy and Watt, the subject of mental illness is examined. In these and the later chapters, Beckett's sense of play and his use of humour are explored within the context of the theme of sickness and dissolution. The theme of dissolution is reiterated in the structure of the trilogy and the transformation of Moran into the Unnamable. The dissolution of the physical self is related to the dissolution of the material world and in Chapter Thirteen I explore Beckett's use of ruins to this purpose. The disintegration of the body and of the world finds its correlative in Beckett's rendering of language. Beckett's style exposes the process of the search for silence as a search for health and a disintegration of syntax. Sickness is seen as chaos and health as "the silence of which the universe is made." (Molloy p. 122) Table of Contents Preface iv Acknowledgments v Notes vi. I. Sickness 7 II. Women and Beckett's Sick Men 27 III. Murphy and the Alien Reality 64 IV. Watt 88 V. Mercier and Camier VI. "The Expelled", "The Calmative" and "The End" 130 VII. The House of Mirrors 145 VIII. The Dissolution of a Patriarch 163 IX. Reconquering the Self 182 X. A New No; The Celebration of the Negative Texts for Nothing 200 XI. How It Is 219 XII. Company 245 XIII. Ruins and Magic: The Short Fiction ^86 XIV. The Voice of Silence 293 Bibliography 306 Bibliography of Works by Samuel Beckett 312 Preface To mention that Beckett's characters suffer invariably from a variety of abrasions, contusions, deformities, handi­ caps, diseases end discomforts is to state the obvious, but it is an observation which previously has been given only slight attention in regard to the method of Beckett's art, or which has been over-simplified to a degree that renders the observation insignificant. Beckett's use of sickness, however, is an important aspect of his writing and must be given closer critical attention before we are able fully to appreciate the dynamics of his imeigination and his art. The following is a work of criticism which examines Beckett's use of sickness to this end. Sickness gives form to Beckett's fiction. Not only does sickness help shape the individual works, but it helps shape the ceinon as well. The dissolution of the physical self is correlated to the disintegration of langueige. Thus, sickness is not only a metaphor and vehicle for Beckett's ideas, but, more importantly, becomes a function of his form and style as well. Acknowledgements I would like first to thank my supervisor. Dr. Richard Cave, whose patient advice was always sound and pertinent, I owe the greatest debt of thanks to Mr. Beckett, not only for his inexhaustibly interesting work, but also for his kindness in consenting to meet with me in October, 1979- Thanks are also due to Mr. Christopher Ricks who so kindly sent me his lecture on Beckett which I would not otherwise have been able to refer to. The people responsible for the Beckett Archives at Reading University are also deserving recipients of my appreciation. Without exception, they were friendly, interested and helpful. Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Acheson, the headmaster at the Portora Royal School, who was very hospitable to me during my visit there in 1978, and willingly supplied me with information from Beckett's school file. Notes The following abbreviations will be used throughout this paper: Fiction A "Assumption" C Company DB "Dante...Bruno.Vico..Joyce" FL First Love Fz Fizzles H goW~TT"Is LO The Lost Ones M Molloy MC Mercier and Camier MD Malone Dies MP More Pricks Than Kicks My Murphy NK Mo's Knife P Proust U taie Ünnamable W w n ----------- Miscellaneous RU Reading University Library Archives Z Confessions of Zeno Chapter One Sickness The images and language of sickness appear throughout the Beckett canon. Sickness is an early preoccupation with Beckett which later helped to give form to his most impor­ tant works. Richard Coe expresses a common assumption when he writes that in Beckett's view physical suffering is temporal and therefore irrelevant, that the life of the mind consequently takes all precedence over the life of the body.l However, not only is the mind dependent on the body in many ways, as we shall see in this chapter, but also, physical suffering in Beckett's work helps shape the images and- language we find there. Webster's New World Dictionary defines sickness as a condition of being incapacitated by ill health. Health is defined as physical and mental well-being, freedom from defect, pain and disease, normality of physical and mental functions. However, these definitions are self-contradic- torj’’, for surely it is not "normal" to be free from defect, pain or disease if by normal we are meant to understand that condition experienced by the majority, or indeed by virtually ^ Richard N. Coe, Samuel Beckett (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1968), p. 6 3 . all members of the population. Such defects as pigeon-toes, short- or far-sightedness, bunions and other such imperfections at least must affect those who are fortunate enough to be free from more serious afflictions. Perhaps we should refer, in speaking of health, to the ideal condition of physical and mental functions, rather than to the merely normal; or say that health is a state of well-being in spite of whatever malfunc­ tions exist, as exist they do. In his book. Blueprint for Health, D. Stark Murray states: [T)o recognize a state of complete well­ being is nearly as rare as to achieve it, for man's imperfect use of his environment, his imperfect use of his own body and his imperfect resistance to many diseases all conspire to keep many people below their optimum condition.2 Murray is here elaborating on a definition given by Rene Dubos, who describes health as "a modus vivendi enabling imperfect men to achieve a rewarding and not too painful existence while they cope with an imperfect w o r l d . "3 This is a more realistic definition than Webster's and is the one I will adopt for this paper, as it concurs with what we find in Beckett. In Watt, for example, Beckett demonstrates his idea of health during the examination of Louit and his unique 2 D. Stark Murray, Blueprint for Health (London George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1973), p. 19* ibid. 9 specimen. Mr. Fitzwein asks: But the man is in t-t-tolerable health? Can direct his steps unaided? Can sit down, sit, stand up, stand, eat, drink, go to bed, sleep, rise and attend his duties, without assistance? (W p. 179) This state of tolerable health, however, includes an afflic­ tion: "a diffuse ano-scrotal prurit ... of sixty-four years standing." (W p. l8l) Ironically, it is the satisfaction which Mr. Nackybal, whose name Beckett has chosen with his characteristic sense of humour and suitability, receives from the scratching of this pruritis which causes the com­ mittee members to exclaim, "What vitality I At his age I The open-air life! The single lifel" mistaking for supreme well-being the momentary relief of a life-long torment. Beckett suggests here that we commonly and mistakenly define as good health mere independent action; that no matter how much a person may suffer, we count him healthy as long as he does not make a nuisance of himself to those around him. In Malone Dies Beckett further explores the complexi­ ties of health. Malone describes Macmarm's attempt to stay well and unafflicted by a rainstorm by deciding to lie supine rather than prone on the ground in the pelting rain: [H]e fancied that the nape of the neck and the back right down to the loins were more vulnerable than the chest and belly, not realizing, any more than if he had been a crate of tomatoes, that all these parts are intimately and even indissolubly bound up together, ... and that a drop of water out of season on the coccyx for example may 10 lead to spasms of the risorius lasting for years as when, having waded through a bog, you merely die of pneumonia and your legs none the worse for the wetting, but if anything better, thanks perhaps to the action of the bog-water.
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