Memory Plays: The Theater of Samuel Beckett by Katherine H. Vellis A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida April1992 © Copyright by Katherine H. Vellis 1992 ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Edith H. Malanos (Graw) and to the loving example set by my mother, Margaret M. Vellis Memory Plays: The Theater of Samuel Beckett by Katherine H. Vellis This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Carol McGuirk, Department of English and Comparative Literature, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Thesis Advisor ~Chairpersons, Departrllet~ of~ English and Comparative Literature ~Ql~~~~ iii ABSTRACT Author: Katherine H. Vellis Title : Memory Plays: The Theater of Samuel Beckett Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Carol McGuirk Degree: Master of Arts Year: 1992 Samuel Beckett's plays reverberate with a recurring memory motif. Recollections offer hope, rejuvenation , or in some cases simply the strength to carry on through what Beckett calls the "mess of life ." The memories of Beckett's characters help them to transcend or to at least deal with the past. Close study of the plays points out this glimmer of hope in reminiscent memories, sensory memories, and creative memories. Even the bleakest recollections offer the possibility of future memories. In the ten plays examined, the use of memory varies. An exploration of the plays in terms of Proustian memory, autobiographical documentation, and psychological research offers insight into the often hopeful memories of Beckett's characters. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: lntroduction ......... ........ ................. ......... ... .............. .. ..... ...... .. .. ..... .. ....... 1 Chapter II : Nostalgia and Reminiscence .. ............ .. .. .. ....... ..... ..... ... .. .... ..... .... ... ..? Chapter Ill: Sense Memory: Visual, Aural, and Beyond ..... ... ... ... ..... ..... .... ... .. 17 Chapter IV : Memory, Creativity, and lmagination .. ... .. ... ..... ... ....... .... ... ....... ....... 28 Chapter V: The Amnesia Factor ........................................ .. ... ..... ....... ..... ... .. ..... ... 37 Chapter VI: Conclusion ........... .. ... .......... .. .. ... .. ...... ..... .. .. .... ....... .... ..... ............. .. .... .44 Notes ....... .. .... ... ....... .... ... ... .. ....................... .. .. ....... .. ............ .. .. .... ..... .... ... .. ..... .. ...... ...... 48 lllustration .. .... ... .. .... ... ........ .... ...... .... .... ........ ............................ .. .... ... .... ..... ... .. .. ... ....... .49 Works Cited ............ ....... ..... ....... ............... .. .... ... .. .................. ...... ..... .... ... ....... .... ..... .... 50 v Chapter I INTRODUCTION Samuel Beckett's plays resonate with a recurring memory motif. Through the use of elderly reminiscences, sensory memories, creative and imaginative memories, and the antithesis of memory--amnesia, Beckett illustrates the powerful force of memory. As A. Alvarez once noted, Beckett's Master's thesis, "Proust" (1931) is "a blueprint for everything he has done since" (83). This is certainly true in terms of the memory motif, in which Beckett defines two types of Proustian memory: voluntary and involuntary. According to Beckett, voluntary memory "presents the past in monochrome" (18). It is memory by rote, the memory of habit. Nicholas Zurbrugg explains, "voluntary memory is a rational casual process, or to use Beckett's terms 'the uniform memory of intelligence"' (Proust 121 ). In "Proust," Beckett clarifies his distaste for voluntary memory: "It ignores the mysterious and registers only those impressions of the past that were consciously and intelligently formed" (32). Voluntary memory, habit, and time are in Beckett's view a devilish trini.ty that usurp man's ability to create art, understand reality, and cope with life. On the other hand, involuntary memory is characterized as the great emancipator: "Involuntary memory is an unruly magician and will not be importuned. It chooses its own time and place for the performance of its miracle" ("Proust" 33-34). Involuntary memory comes from a deep source: This brief eternity of remembrance is said to free us from ''the darkness of time and habit" and to reveal"the brightness of art" (57). The characters in 1 2 Beckett's plays reveal aspects of voluntary and involuntary memory in what they remember and what they forget. Furthermore, some characters are creatures of ritualized habit in their efforts to pass time, escape suffering, and avoid reality-­ the essence of truth. Beckettian characters also engage in nostalgic reminiscence, and since many of Beckett's characters are elderly--50 or more--this impulse is not surprising. These characters' memories could be called "remember whens?" and are both voluntary and involuntary in the Proustian sense. When the memories are involuntary, they can become very much like Wordsworthian "recollections in tranquility." For example, consider Winni.e's ''tone of fervent reminiscence" when she recalls bucolic evenings with her lover, Charlie Hunter (Happy~ 15). On the other hand, as Herbert Blau has noted, the memories of the elderly may result in a sort of alienation: "The elderly can be doubly impaired, self-deprived and twice distanced" (26). So the nostalgic memories of the elderly may reveal a double-edged blade : pleasant recollections can result in peaceful bliss, but sometimes nostalgia leads to the conclusion that the "double headed monster of damnation and salvation--time" has led to a path of no return (Beckett "Proust" 30). Beckett's characters also remember sensory experiences. Sight and sound are the primary sources of sense memory: colors, light and dark imagery, and noises evoke vivid memories. Beckett also delves into the sensory deprivation effects of silence. Characters of all ages engage in acts of sensory memory. Many sense memories are drawn from Beckett's life. In some of Beckett's plays, memory is linked with imagination and creativity: characters use imagination to visualize how others feel or to ferret out the truth or falsehood of memories. The finest memories evoke creative thoughts. For instance, Speaker's recollection of missing photographs in A 3 Piece Qf Monologue involves creativity and imagination in conjunction with memory (266). Finally, Beckett's characters--notably Estragon in Waiting fQL Godot--lapse into periods of amnesia in order to escape reality and suffering. Ironically, it is the marginal character, Pozzo, who enjoys the brief respite of involuntary memory in Godot. In Chapter Two, I will consider the nostalgic memories of elderly characters in five plays: Endgame, Krapp's !..as!~ Eh J..Q.e., N.Q1!. and I.b..ill Time.1 In Endgame, Nagg and Nell are the parents of the protagonist, Hamm; they live in ashbins on the stage and are at their son 's beck and call. Their only refuge is their memories, especially of the tandem crash in which they lost their legs. Michael Robinson notes that Nagg and Nell "linger on only in the extent of their memories" (270). Among their other memories are an April afternoon on Lake Como and an engagement--memories that temporarily rejuvenate them. Memories also rejuvenate in Krapp's !..as!~ in which "a wearish old man" named Krapp engages in a tape recorded sifting process to evaluate the important memories of his life. As the play opens, Krapp is celebrating his 69th birthday by listening to a tape made thirty years earlier that recalls a memorable equinox, a dark young nurse, a woman named Bianca, a woman on a boat, his mother. According to Katharine Worth, the significance of this sifting process is that "memory is an active force , not just a passive reverie" ("Past" 18). Further, the play's operative words are "Be again ," underscoring Krapp's continuing desire for future memories. Eh J..Q.e., a television play , has been called Krapp's !..as!~ from a woman's perspective. In ten increasingly tight camera shots, a woman's voice taunts Joe with his own memories. The opening lines "Thought of everything? ... Forgotten nothing?" set the tone. Joe recalls his parents and 4 an affair that ended with the woman's suicide. These reminiscences are definitely not rejuvenating: he is tormented by them. Joe is an example of one who is trying to hide from his memories. N.Qll is one of Beckett's most daring one act-plays; it is the monologue of a seventy-something woman represented only as "Mouth." Like .E.h .J..Q,a, N.Qll considers a character who refuses to accept her own memories. With a barrage of words that serve to "drag up the past," Mouth comes to terms with painful memories. Ruby Cohn points out that Mouth moves "forward from pale past events" (El.ay 71 ). This moving forward can be interpreted as a form of rejuvenation. In I..b.a1 Time , Beckett presents an old man disconnected from his body. He is "Listener." "Voices A, B, and C are his own coming at him from both sides and above," the voices representing his life as a child, a lover, and an old man. In the end the listener masters his memories and accepts his mortality with the words