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I. Structural Analysis
A. Characteristic of the structure (Hasselbach 26)
1. the fusion of the form and the content
2. episodic characters ( Hamm/ Clov , Nell / Nagg) --pseudo couple
3. episodic variation of scenes ( flexible / shifting topics within)
B. Structural and Thematic features: the static / the progress
1.The parody of tragedy (Ham--Hamlet/ Hammer)
HAMM. . . . Enough, it's time it ended, in the shelter too. [Pause] And yet I
hesitate, I hesitate to . . .to end. Yes, there it is, it's time it ended and yet I
hesitate to--[ he yawns]-- to end. (1932)
# Nell--Nail // Nag--Nail
2."The play presents a static set of circumstances which progressively exalted, more and more intensified recurrences of the same situation." (28)
3." The sameness of all moments and abstract quality of time are reflected in the vagueness and indeterminacy of the recurrent temporal expressions
# HAMM. Moments for nothing, now as always, time was never and time is over,
reckoning closed and story ended (1960)
# Formerly / Once / yesterday / soon /one day.
HAMM. Yesterday! What does that mean? Yesterday!
CLOV. That means that bloody awful day, long ago, before this bloody awful day. I
use the words you taught me. (1946)
II. Antithetic Time principle in Endgame:
A. "The choice of temporal phrases reveals an antithetic principle in the play's time quality, which
points at once forward and backward" (28)-- the dialectic counter-movement of
memory and projection.
B. the opposition between progress and stasis in the dramatic structure.
C. "Stasis is suggested primarily through structural duplications, repetitions of words and sentences, and an intensified mode of playfulness." (29).
D." The motif of temporal progress is introduced to counterbalance the static moments and
imply the beginning of a developmental motion"
III. Endgame--NO ending / NO solutions (30)
A. Beckett's rejections of goal-oriented action and finished plot with absolute consistency.
B. The dialectical structures with an antithetical principle consisting of both closed and open dramatic form. (30)
# closed form: linear movement, unity of action
# open form: an exposition beginning at a time after the actual catastrophe, circular structure
of action, discontinuity in the succession of scenes.
C. Tension between Hamm and Clov. --- "Will Clov leave Hamm?" /
"Will Godot come tomorrow?" -- the expectations / interests of the audiences
D. Clov's undermined attempts in the play.
# the ultimate decision to leave or stay.
# attempt to go back to kitchen
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