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Existentialism and Samuel Beckett's Two Plays EXISTENTIALISM AND SAMUEL BECKETT’S TWO PLAYS: ENDGAME AND HAPPY DAYS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY TİJEN TAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE NOVEMBER 2007 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. Wolf König Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. Ahmet İnam Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz Co-Supervisor Supervisor Examining Committee Members (first name belongs to the chairperson of the jury and the second name belongs to supervisor) Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik (METU, FLE) Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut (Ba şkent University, Amer) Dr. Deniz Arslan (METU, FLE) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Tijen Tan Signature : iii ABSTRACT EXISTENTIALISM AND SAMUEL BECKETT’S TWO PLAYS: ENDGAME AND HAPPY DAYS Tan, Tijen MA., Department of English Literature Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz Co-Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ahmet İnam November 2007, 112 pages This thesis carries out an analysis of the plays by Samuel Beckett, Endgame and Happy Days. It achieves this by exploring how the playwright’s characterization, setting and use of language in these plays display his tendency to employ some existentialist concepts such as despair, anxiety and thrownness on the way to authenticity. This study argues that there are some similarities between Beckett’s two plays and Existentialism, and some characters in both plays display the existentialist man who is looking for becoming an authentic man. In other words, although there are some differences, these plays show that Samuel Beckett’s view of Existentialism is quite similar to the Sartrean view. Keywords: Existentialism, Samuel Beckett, authenticity iv ÖZ VAROLU ŞÇULUK VE SAMUEL BECKETT’ İN İKİ OYUNU: OYUN SONU VE MUTLU GÜNLER Tan, Tijen MA., İngiliz Edebiyatı Bölümü Danı şman : Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz Eş Danı şman : Prof. Dr. Ahmet İnam Kasım 2007, 112 sayfa Bu tez Samuel Beckett’in Oyun Sonu ve Mutlu Günler oyunlarının bir analizini yapmaktadır. Bunu, oyun yazarının bu oyunlardaki karakterlerin yaratılması, sahne ve dil kullanımında, nasıl kendi e ğilimini sergilemek için, sahihlik yolunda, umutsuzluk, endi şe ve fırlatılıp atılmı şlık gibi bazı varolu şçu konseptleri kullandı ğını inceleyerek ba şarmaktadır. Bu çalı şma Beckett’in bu iki oyunu ile Varolu şçuluk arasında benzerlikler oldu ğunu, ve her iki oyundaki bazı karakterlerin sahih olmayı arayan varolu şçu insanı sergilediklerini savunmaktadır. Di ğer bir deyi şle, bazı farklılıklar olmasına ra ğmen, bu oyunlar Samuel Beckett’in Varolu şçuluk görü şünün Sartre’ın görü şü ile oldukça benzer oldu ğunu göstermektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Varolu şçuluk, Samuel Beckett, Sahihlik v To My Parents vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz, for her endless support and care, in the whole process of the production of this thesis, and to my co-advisor, Prof. Dr. Ahmet İnam, for his support in the philosophical aspect of the study. The benefits I got from Nursel İçöz’s careful observations, wise decisions and personal experiences played great part in conducting a successful study. I also would like thank Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik, Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut and Dr. Deniz Arslan for their guidance and support during the process of writing this thesis and in the thesis defence. My father, Süleyman Tan, my mother, Ay şe Tan, and my sister Figen have been the most important encouragement for me to overcome all the difficulties in my life. Without my parents’ love, support and motivation, I wouldn’t have completed this thesis. I would especially like to thank Can Gülse. I am indebted to him for his invaluable love, lasting faith in me and patience in the production of this study. I also wish to thank Yeliz Demir and Burcu To ğral, my dearest friends, who showed their kind interest in my study, and gave me friendly support during the process. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM……………………………………………………………………….iii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………iv ÖZ…………………………………………………………………………………….v DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………….vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….…...1 1.1. Background to the study and definitions of terms……………...….…2 2. EXISTENTIALISM AS A PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT…...…….…...9 2.1. Major Existentialists…………………………………………..…….10 2.1.1. Søren Kierkegaard.……………………………………….…..…11 2.1.2. Friedrich Nietzsche.………………………………………....…..12 2.1.3. Martin Heidegger…………………………………………..…....13 2.1.4. Albert Camus………………………………………….…….…..15 2.1.5. Jean-Paul Sartre……………………………………………....…15 2.2. Samuel Beckett’s Existentialist Stand………………………………19 3. EXISTENTIALISM AND BECKETT’S TWO PLAYS: ENDGAME AND HAPPY DAYS ………………………………………………………………21 3.1. Endgame ……………………………………………………….……21 viii 3.1.1. Setting, Stage and Context in Endgame ………………………...23 3.1.2. Time Concept in Endgame ………………………………….…..26 3.1.3. Characterization and Language in Endgame ……………………29 3.1.3.1. Characters…………………………………………….…29 3.1.3.2. The use of Language and its Role in Endgame .……..…35 3.2. Happy Days …………………………….…………………………..46 3.2.1. Setting, Stage and Context in Happy Days ……….…………….48 3.2.2. Time Concept in Happy Days ………………….……………….51 3.2.3. Characterization and Language in Happy Days ……….………..54 3.2.3.1. Characters………………………………………………54 3.2.3.2. The Use of Language and its Role in Happy Days ……..60 3.3. Existentialist Themes in Endgame and Happy Days ……….…...…70 3.3.1. ‘Existence precedes essence’ and ‘Man creates himself’….…...70 3.3.2. Pain of existing…………………………………………………73 3.3.3. Anguish…………………………………………………….…...75 3.3.4. Facticity………………………………………………………....79 3.3.5. Choice……………………………………………….……….…82 3.3.6. Death……………………………………………………...…….83 3.3.7. Authenticity…………….……………………………………….86 3.3.8. Forlornness……………………….……………………………..88 3.3.9. Despair………………………………………….………………90 3.3.10. Nothingness or Non-being……………………………….……..92 4. CONCLUSION………………….…………………………………….……95 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………..……...102 ix CHAPTER I 1. INTRODUCTION This thesis will be an attempt to explore how Samuel Beckett’s characterization, setting and use of language in his two plays, Endgame and Happy Days , reveal his tendency to employ some existentialist concepts such as despair, anxiety and thrownness on the way to authenticity. Existentialism is a philosophical movement which focuses on individual existence rejecting the absolute reason. There are some reasons for the appearance of Existentialism in the history of thought. First of all, rational sciences could not prove that they were absolute, and thus, there was no absolute truth. Next, and the most important cause of the emergence of existentialism was that people had lost their belief in the existence of a divine being, that is God, owing to the wars and losses in these wars. Beforehand, God was a reference point. However, with the disappearance of God, the first signified got lost for people. The blurred understanding of the world resulted in a change in the idea that language is transparent; they perceived that words serve only as representations of thoughts or things, and do not have any function beyond that. The modern societies depended on the idea that signifiers always point to signifieds, and that reality resides in signifieds. In postmodernism, however, there are only signifiers. The idea of any stable or permanent reality disappears, and with it, the idea of signifieds that signifiers point to. Therefore, for the existentialist view, there are only surfaces, without depth; only signifiers, with no signifieds. This means that language has no function of conveying meaning to provide communication, and man has no trustable reality, which will provide a basis 1 for the existentialist in his search for being. Existentialism places the individual in the centre and questions his existence in the absence of the first signified. The reason why Samuel Beckett’s works are usually discussed in an existentialist context is that he is one of the ineffable leading playwrights of the twentieth century drama, and the actor of the radical digression from the conventional notions of writing, representing and directing a play. Having adopted Sartre’s existentialism as the philosophical basis for his approach while creating his masterpieces, Beckett has become the founder of the Absurd Drama in British Literature. When his plays were first performed, people who were accustomed to the traditional theatre were hostile to his drama. However, particularly after World War II, their losses and fears have made them feel close to Beckett’s characters. In his plays the playwright wants the theatregoers to perceive the idea of being afraid of being nothing in the world. Consequently, he accentuates such themes as loss of identity, loss of independence, loss of religion, futility of life, isolation, unreliable memory, uncertainty of time, identity,
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