Why "Endgame" is a post - apocalyptic drama?

 

Topic: Why "Endgame" is a post - apocalyptic drama?

 

 

The endgame is a post- apocalyptic drama which is very well manifested through the characters, Hamm, Clove, and their supposedly parents Nagg and Nell, and their dialogues like " nearly finished", " put me in my coffin", " nature had forgotten us", " stinky corpses", " one biscuit per day" and so on. Each of their conversation reveals frustration, hopelessness, lamentation, nihilism and trauma. The world they were living was almost dying as the play " Endgame", by Samuel Beckett  was written after the second world war which was becoming the cold war. During this time this drama was put up to show that the world was going to an end by their all possible characteristics, actions, dialogues and imageries. How "Endgame" is a post-apocalyptic drama is discussed below in reference to the text.

 

 

The endgame was put up after the second world war which was slowly turning to cold war. The people who lived in this era were suffocating between life and death - the threat of nuclear catastrophy entrangled their life. That time this drama took place in a room which refers to a shelter reminding us of a bomb shelter:

 

 

“There I’ll be, in the old shelter, alone against the silence and…” (Beckett, 1964).

 

 

Here it is shown that life is only a time limit bubble, it can burst anytime. The world is like a small shelter in which these people are living. Their life and shelter can be anytime destroyed. A small bomb can end their life anytime. Other details like when their food run short, also exemplify the idea of apocalypse, the end of life. “I’ll give you one biscuit per day.” They have no food. With what they will sustain their life, and they think they might all die soon. Life is represnted to them as a burden. According to them all will die even animals as there is no food. “If I don’t kill that rat he’ll die.” it's pathetic. The play is successful in portraying the painful end of the world.

 

 

Samuel Beckett, as an absurdist, begins the play by announcing -'the end'. It's shocking to hear how a play ends even which is not started yet in full fledge! On the stage, Clove as the first character appears and strangely claims:

 

 

“Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.”

 

 

The term ' nearly  finishef' sounds that the play started much early and going to an end when we just started paying attention to it. After the war, people are facing hard life with no food, no water and no means of living. They find no hope for living. They feel their life is nearly finished.

 

 

Discussions in the play make us understand that life as a whole is enough; they can't firm it anymore which is not only their life but the ideas of any life.

 

 

“Hamm: Have you not had enough? Clov: Yes!

 

(Pause.)

 

Of what? Hamm: Of this… this… thing.”

 

 

The two last characters Nagg and Nell, seem to be the parents of Hamm, are seen helpless about the future of their life or the life in general. Life for them is something tough to bear. About life they are as desperate as Clove and Hamm. They converse with each other in a sombre tone: “Nell: Why this farce, day after day?”.

 

 

They always question and complain against life. As it is seen:

 

 

“Hamm: You stink already. The whole place stinks of corpses.

 

Clov: Thew whole universe.”

 

 

Here the play reveals to us the trauma of war or catastrophy that distroyed life of many people as they refer the universe is full of stinky smell of corpses. With the war the world is ended. The world is now full of corpses. So the world is end.

 

 

The play give us a hint that we are experiencing the traumatic life- the war has devastated our life, there are human bodies with no life and full of stink, and there are human bodies with no sense living being. Trauma is dealt with in a nihilistic way, no hope of living, no meaning of life, nothing matters anymore and nothing will begin again. Life is to the end. However they all are still living without knowing why life is still going. In the play at the end, Clove decides to leave Hamm as he realizes that the life has come to an end:

 

 

“Hamm: Put me in my coffin.

 

Clov: There are no more coffins.

 

Hamm: Then let it end!”.

 

 

The fact seems to them that there is no more coffins left for them since they all have been used after the traumatic second world war. However according to Samuel Beckett there is no need of coffins anymore. It is no necessary to bury the dead in a coffin since life has become a trivial matter. And on this note the author ends the "Endgame". There is no need of coffins. The number of the dead bodies is much more than the coffins. People are half dead now. What is the use of making coffins. People are all  almost dead.

The explanation discussed above in the light of the events created by the author absolutely clarify that the drama " Endgame" by Samuel Beckett is a post-apocalyptic piece of writing. Every event, character, and dialogue manifest that the writer intends to show the end of the world by showing the consequences, war, suffering, pain and tensions of cold war between countries.