Celebrity Death Match Special: Endgame versus Secrets of Pawnless Endings

[The stage is almost bare, with only an armchair, a table, and two garbage cans. The armchair is covered in a heavy drape. CLOV enters from the right, carrying a bag, and limps slowly towards the table. As he reaches it, he pulls out a chessboard and set. He carefully places the board on the table and painstakingly arranges a few pieces on it, examining the position from different angles and adjusting the pieces accordingly. Finally, he moves to the armchair and removes the drape, revealing HAMM, an elderly man wearing dark glasses.]

HAMM: Well?

CLOV: I've set them up. We can continue. Rook and bishop against rook.

HAMM: What do you mean?

CLOV: It's an endgame, right?

HAMM: You idiot! You don't understand anything, do you?

CLOV: [Defensively] I understand as much as you do. Samuel Beckett was a keen chessplayer. I can well believe he had this one in mind.

HAMM: Moron! This is a universal metaphor for the human condition, not some piece of games trivia!

CLOV: Look. The position is theoretically drawn in almost all practical cases, but White can torture Black for 50 moves...

NAGG: [Poking his head out of the garbage can] 75 moves!

NELL: [Muffled voice from the other garbage can] No, FIDE changed it back to 50 moves in 1992!

CLOV: [Ignoring them]... though as long as Black knows one of the standard defensive setups, he has nothing to fear. Personally, I favor Cochrane's method. Though the second rank defense also has many supporters.

NAGG: If Black dies before reaching the fiftieth move, he forfeits.

NELL: Yes, death ends the game. It's important in correspondence matches.

HAMM: But what has this got to do with Beckett?

CLOV: [Shrugging his shoulders] I admit it: nothing.

NAGG: Nothing!

NELL: [With a hysterical little laugh] Nothing! Nothing!!

CLOV: So shall we play? It'll pass the time.

HAMM: Why not?

[The curtain falls, leaving the stage in darkness. The absurdity of existence lingers in the air, as no winner is announced. The characters are left in a state of limbo, much like the chess pieces on the board, waiting for something that may never come. Their banter about the endgame seems to mirror the futility and meaninglessness of life itself. The stage remains empty, a silent witness to this strange and thought-provoking encounter.]

No winner announced due to absurdity of existence

Endgame is a masterfully crafted play that artfully oscillates between concise minimalism and strange musings on existence. Consider this example:

HAMM: I feel a little queer. [Pause.] Clov!
CLOV: Yes.
HAMM: Have you not had enough?
CLOV: Yes! [Pause.] Of what?
HAMM: Of this … this … thing.
CLOV: I always had. [Pause.] Not you?
HAMM: [Gloomily.] Then there’s no reason for it to change.
CLOV: It may end. [Pause.] All life long the same questions, the same answers.

A few aspects I noticed in this play are as follows:

1) Despite exuding an unyielding sense of desolation, the play cleverly conceals an element of suspense and uncertainty. Will Clov depart? Will he kill Hamm? Does Hamm truly desire death despite goading Clov for it?

2) We are inclined to feel pity and a tinge of contempt for the characters, yet Beckett skillfully makes us empathize. He presents an objective truth - nothing makes much sense, 'as time passes, we either ripen or rot' but we won't last. At some point, it becomes an excuse for our behavior.

3) A sense of loneliness pervades the play. Nell and Nagg love each other as much as they can while being aware of life's, or more precisely, the relationship's element of 'farce'. Interestingly, Nagg is content to continue the charade.

4) Ultimately, Beckett描绘s a gray 'zero' world with unfinished stories and finished relief, namely 'painkillers'. Hamm and Clov will still wake up the next day to resent the futility of never reaching the end yet hardly choosing a different fate.

It would be incomplete to discuss this play without including some of the brilliant dialogues such as:

NELL: Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that.

HAMM: Nature has forgotten us.
CLOV: There's no more nature.
HAMM: No more nature! You exaggerate.
CLOV: In the vicinity.
HAMM: But we breathe, we change! We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom! Our ideals!
CLOV: Then she hasn't forgotten us.
HAMM: But you say there is none.
CLOV [sadly]: No one that ever lived ever thought so crooked as we.

CLOV: [Fixed gaze, tonelessly.] Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished. [Pause.] Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there’s a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.

HAMM: “Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn’t fill it, and there you’ll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe.”

HAMM: Use your head, can't you, use your head, you're on earth, there's no cure for that!

HAMM: You weep, and weep, for nothing, so as not to laugh, and little by little... you begin to grieve.

HAMM: You cried for night; it falls: now cry in darkness.

CLOV: [As before.] I say to myself – sometimes, Clov, you must learn to suffer better than that if you want them to weary of punishing you – one day. I say to myself – sometimes, Clov, you must be there better than that if you want them to let you go – one day. But I feel too old, and too far, to form new habits. Good, it’ll never end, I’ll never go. [Pause.] Then one day, suddenly, it ends, it changes, I don’t understand, it dies, or it’s me, I don’t understand that either. I ask the words that remain – sleeping, waking, morning, evening. They have nothing to say. [Pause.] I open the door of the cell and go. I am so bowed I only see my feet, if I open my eyes, and between my legs a little trail of black dust. I say to myself that the earth is extinguished, though I never saw it lit. [Pause.] It’s easy going. [Pause.] When I fall I’ll weep for happiness.

Light shines for a moment and then it is night again.

Surely, it has come to all of us that at some point in our lives, we have doubted everything possible and known the foundation and basis of everything to be nothing. In other words, we have said to ourselves: "Well, so what? The abyss is nothing" and have reached the conclusion with despair that all our efforts, hopes, and aspirations have been doomed to failure in advance. This conclusion is called absurdism, and it is defined as "the conflict between the eternal human tendency to search for inner value and meaning in life, which ends in human impotence in finding it." Absurdism has made its way into the world of literature in recent decades, and writers such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Eugène Ionesco, and Samuel Beckett are commonly called absurd writers.

Beckett and the Economic Use of Words

The final performance of the play in 1957 by Samuel Beckett, a Nobel Prize winner and prominent Irish writer, was held. It has been on stage many times around the world and is still being shown. The absurdity and the sense of strangeness and displacement that "Endgame" injects into its audience is reminiscent of Beckett's other famous work, "Waiting for Godot." Beckett gives the reader the least details in this play and leaves him with only those limited information to imagine, and by using the element of imagination, digest the story, reach a correct estimate about the characters, and understand the essence of the subject.

The Only Point of Existence? Maybe...

The scene of the story takes place in a room; an empty room with only two windows, one of which opens onto a wasteland and the other onto the sea. But there is hardly any more decoration, and life never flows there. And the only point of existence is that room. Where Hamm is sitting in the center with his wheelchair and dictating the orders he gives to Clov. And Beckett seems to be successful in depicting this system of master and slave. And he beautifully portrays the command and obedience. Two people with completely different personality characteristics. One is the commander and the other is the executor.

Has the Game Ended?

Some critics believe that the phrase "Endgame" is used when the result of the game is known in advance and the winner is determined. However, the loser is in a desperate struggle for victory. And some also believed that the world of "Endgame" is post-apocalyptic, but Beckett rejected this attractive hypothesis in an interview with a non-committal person.

What can be clearly understood is that the writer is trying to present a chess game. The waiting for the characters to die can be regarded as a sign of the end of the game and its conclusion.

Hamm: Hasn't it come time to be silent?

Clov: Why?

Hamm: Ah! At last it's over! Damn it! Quickly!

Clov: There's no more silence. There will never be any more silence.

A more comprehensive article titled "Endgame, a Screen to Emptiness" has been prepared for you to study in the magazine Ketabchi.

A one-act play that Beckett masters with a high degree of skill.

The setting: a bare stage with a gray light. It contains only a chair, two hat boxes, two high windows, and a wall facing it. And everything outside this room is filled with death and nothingness. As if it is shooting at the fact that empty life is more like a prison.

The characters: Hamm, immobile and disabled.

Clov, the servant, the son (not specifically defined in his character) the only person capable of moving on the stage, and unable to sit.

Nagg and Nell: Hamm's parents, living in hat boxes and with amputated legs.

The time: a time that does not move, fixed at zero.

Hamm: What time is it?

Clov: As always.

Hamm: Did you look?

Clov: Yes.

Hamm: And what did you find?

Clov: Zero.

The dramatic structure or events take a linear, uneven form symbolizing order, boredom, and the lack of a purpose in life.

The dialogues are presented in an innovative way and filled with sarcasm and mockery. If it is the appropriate reaction to the suffering, lack of sincerity, and order in which they live, then nothing calls for more laughter than sadness.

Also, it mocks religion and God whenever they are mentioned, through presenting a joke on the lips of Nagg about a person who needs a patched pair of trousers for New Year's celebrations. The tailor aims to sew his trousers, but the tailor is three months late in making the trousers, so the customer comes angry: God damn you. This is a lack of manners. In six days, do you hear me, in six days God created the world. Yes, sir. And you couldn't make me a pair of trousers in three months...

The tailor replies: But dear sir, look, look (points with contempt and irony) look at the world (silence) and look (points with pride and love) at the trousers that I made.

Beckett did not specify the time and place of the play. If there will be no difference, then whenever and wherever it is found, one will not escape from suffering, as if it is a play about all times and places. And in the case of Hamm and his suffering from the end of the sleeping pills, he can no longer find anything to relieve his pain and his feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction with reality; this is because he was not given or did not create a meaning for his life, since he had no belief in God and did not experience the love that he kept imagining, and he remained standing on his father because he raised him.

In my opinion, it is not possible for a single review to discuss all the ideas that were mentioned in the play. If every sentence needs a special review... and this is what makes it a great and eternal play because it is difficult to interpret and understand directly and it engages the mind and imagination.

Hamm: I will not give you food anymore.

Clov: Then we will die.

Hamm: I will give you only enough to prevent you from dying. You will remain hungry all the time.

Weird.

This simple word holds a world of mystery and intrigue. It describes something that is strange, unusual, or out of the ordinary.

When we encounter something weird, it often catches our attention and makes us question what we thought we knew.

Weird things can happen in our daily lives, from strange noises in the night to unexpected coincidences.

They can also be found in nature, such as strange animals or phenomena.

Sometimes, weird things can even lead to new discoveries or insights.

Whether we find them fascinating or a little bit scary, weird things are an inevitable part of our world.

They remind us that there is still so much we don't know and that the unknown can be both exciting and intimidating.

So the next time you come across something weird, don't be too quick to dismiss it.

Take a closer look and see if there's something more to discover.

Beckett directs Beckett - Endgame (Finale di partita)

The play presents a rather unusual and somewhat dystopian scenario. Hamm, who is unable to stand and is blind, is in a position of power. His servant, Clov, on the other hand, is unable to sit. Then there are Nagg and Nell, Hamm's father and mother respectively. They have no legs and live in dustbins, with Nell's dustbin next to Nagg's.

The relationships and interactions between these characters are complex and often filled with a sense of absurdity. The lack of mobility and the confined spaces in which they exist add to the overall atmosphere of desolation and stagnation. As the story unfolds, we witness their attempts to make sense of their existence and find some glimmer of hope or meaning in their otherwise bleak lives.

whahahahaha

This is the first book that I have read by Beckett.

I understood the plot of the story, but I couldn't quite grasp the connection.

The vast space and the people in it bothered me a bit.

Perhaps I need someone who knows Beckett's works and writings to come and tell me about this play so that I can have a better understanding.

Anyway, I'm happy to have read it because in my opinion, Beckett's works should be read.

I hope you enjoy reading it too and please, anyone who can have a good analysis of this work, leave a comment for me so that I can also understand this work.

Thank you.

___________

Several days after reading the book:

I found and watched the theater version of this play.

With the translation of Najaf Daryabandari

I really enjoyed it and the space of the story became clearer to me.

I recommend that you also watch its theater version.

You can find it on YouTube.

___________

Many days after reading the book:

The space of this play has remained in my mind to such an extent that I think I have become very interested in it. Now I understand it and also like it.

Living in a millennial society that is rife with self-deprecating memes and suicidal jokes, I often find myself pondering. What could still be relevant about these pessimistic modernism plays that are filled with symbolism, despair, and hopelessness, among other things? In this day and age, at any given moment, I have the option to simply open a tab and amuse myself with a meme that tells me to jump out of the window or else I'll end up dying alone. It makes one question the significance of such dark and brooding art forms in a world that seems to be so quick to embrace and even make light of such serious and potentially dangerous topics. Do these plays still have the power to move us, to make us think, or have they become relics of a bygone era?

\\"The Last Game\\" was like \\"Waiting for Godot\\" and also real life. It was not only that good things didn't happen, but also that nothing happened at all.

In this story, the characters seemed to be stuck in a loop of inaction and anticipation. They waited for something to occur, but time passed and nothing changed.

This could be seen as a metaphor for the human condition, where we often find ourselves waiting for opportunities, for something to make our lives meaningful.

However, like in the story, sometimes we wait in vain and nothing comes. It makes us question the purpose of our waiting and the nature of our existence.

\\"The Last Game\\" thus presents a rather bleak view of life, but perhaps it also serves as a reminder to not just passively wait, but to actively seek out and create our own experiences.

Samuel Beckett’s plays have always been a mystery to me.

When I first delved into them, I loathed them with a passion. They appeared to be a jumble of senselessness and insanity.

However, as I embarked on researching and studying his works, I began to understand that there was a purpose behind the madness. There was an underlying humour and profound themes that could be gleaned from them.

This particular play was no different. I believe I was able to have a greater appreciation for it compared to my initial reading of his other masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, because I had learned how to approach it.

I could clearly see how the symbolism, repetition, and actions all contributed to the overarching themes of emptiness and loneliness.

This play rightfully belongs in the theatre of absurd, and it fits perfectly within that genre. I would be overjoyed to witness it being performed on stage.

All things considered, I did have a liking for it. I don't think it's suitable for those who are reading solely for pleasure or are new to the world of play-reading.

But if you have a penchant for researching what you read and are eager to take on a bit of a challenge, then by all means, give it a go!

This review and others can be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2019/0...

Tearing off my skin. This seemingly drastic act has truly put me through an existential crisis. It's as if I'm being stripped bare, not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually. The pain, both physical and psychological, is indescribable. I find myself questioning who I am without this outer layer that has always been a part of me. Am I still the same person? Do I have any identity left? The act of tearing off my skin has forced me to confront these deep and profound questions. It's a journey into the unknown, a journey that I'm not sure I'm ready for. But here I am, facing this existential crisis head-on, hoping to find some sort of clarity and understanding on the other side.

**Title: The Unexpected Humor in Unhappiness**

Unhappiness is often seen as a negative emotion that we try to avoid at all costs. However, there is a certain irony and humor that can be found within it.

"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness." This statement may seem counterintuitive at first, but upon closer examination, it holds some truth.

When we experience unhappiness, we often find ourselves in absurd or ridiculous situations. These situations can sometimes be so extreme that they become comical. For example, imagine getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way to an important meeting and realizing that you left your presentation materials at home. This series of unfortunate events is enough to make anyone feel frustrated and unhappy, but it can also be seen as a humorous situation in hindsight.

Additionally, unhappiness can bring out the absurdity in our own behavior and thoughts. When we are unhappy, we may do or say things that we would never do or say under normal circumstances. These actions and words can be so out of character that they become a source of amusement for ourselves and those around us.

In conclusion, while unhappiness is not something that we actively seek, it can sometimes provide us with a unique form of humor. By finding the absurdity and irony within our unhappy experiences, we can learn to laugh at ourselves and see the lighter side of life.