“Human Nature, Human Weakness”:

Representations of Bereavement in the Works of Samuel Beckett

Masterarbeit/ Master’s Thesis

zur Vorlage am

Lehrstuhl für Englische Literaturwissenschaft

(Fakultät Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften)

der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

bei

Frau Prof. Dr. Anja Müller (Erstgutachterin)

und

Frau Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Müller (Zweitgutachterin)

Verfasserin:

Erica Marie Haas

Joint Master’s Degree of American and English Studies

Table of Contents

Page

Abstract (English) 1

Abstract (Deutsch) 4

Acknowledgements 7

Chapter

1 Introduction 8

2 Defining Grief and Bereavement 12

3 Depictions of Bereavement in the Works of Samuel Beckett 19

4 Characteristics of Alienation 57

5 The Relationship between Alienation and Bereavement 63

Works Cited and Consulted 67

Honesty Statement (Schriftliche Erklärung) 72

1

Abstract (English)

Although Samuel Beckett’s final drama was completed in 1983, his works

seem to include timeless, universal elements. His works have been staged the

world over, in a number of political climates, yet still remain understood. Perhaps

one of the primary reasons for this is Beckett’s depiction of bereavement. Beckett

himself had a number of issues with depression and grief, and frequently included

these themes in his work. This work focuses on the depiction of bereavement in

Beckett’s dramas, with a focus on works where there is a specific loss. (In other

works, especially in Beckett’s later years, Beckett used elements of form similar to

that of bereavement processes, but the works do not list specific grievances and

are therefore not included in this particular analysis.)

The first chapter defines bereavement and outlines characteristics of it. At

its most fundamental, bereavement is the loss of a loved one or an abstract

concept, such as homeland. The earliest studies of bereavement, from the 1910s,

as well as more recent ones, include notes that grieving individuals often suffer

from psychological and physiological ailments. Many patients also become

extremely self-focused and frequently reminisce about the past. However, this is

believed to be part of a typical response to a loss. It is common for grieving

individuals to first deny a loss, prior to suffering immensely from it, and eventually

recovering from the loss. Many grieving individuals also feel the need to

2

repeatedly complete a particular task in order to help them get through their grief,

in a process referred to as Trauerarbeit (literally: “mourning work”).

The following chapter goes on to discuss depictions of loss in selected

dramas by Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, Play, Eh Joe,

Krapp’s Last Tape, Footfalls, Rockabye, Not I, Ohio Impromptu, and The Old Tune.

In these works, elements of bereavement are depicted by the characters’ actions

and dialogue, as well as the forms of the work itself, in certain cases. Many of

Beckett’s characters complain of the lack of a loving relationship or suffer from

physical ailments. In turn, they complain of physical and psychological problems.

Many of them also have a specific act of Trauerarbeit to complete, such as pacing

up and down, completing a task in a repetitive manner, or even reading a book

constantly. In only one example from Beckett’s works do characters ever seem to

have recovered from their tragic situations.

That leads to the question: what role does this depiction of bereavement

play? After examining theories of alienation, pioneered in the west by Bertolt

Brecht from the 1930s through 1950s (i.e., beginning right before Beckett began to

write drama, and ending right before Brecht began to most prolifically write his

drama), it becomes clear that these depictions of bereavement can be used to

most effectively alienate the audiences of the works.

According to Brecht, alienation occurs in a phasic manner, “verstehen –

nicht verstehen – verstehen” (“understanding – not understanding –

understanding”), and there are a number of different elements that contribute to

3

this. Brecht specifically focuses on the use of gestus (an individual action that

depicts the essence of a character, and must exist outside the constraints of space

and time), technology (such as the implementation of films), and music (including

the use of choruses).

Beckett, of course, uses technology and music in his works, but the entire

act of bereavement acts as a gestus, because of the fact that bereavement is an

act that can stand by itself, and can be universally understood, regardless of place

and time. In addition, the processes of bereavement can help with the phasic

manner of verstehen – nicht verstehen – verstehen. It allows Beckett’s characters

to seem immediately sympathetic. Then, the audience members are alienated by

the characters due to their strange behavior and attitudes. Finally, as Beckett’s

works continue, they feel sympathetic towards the characters because they finally

begin to understand what it is that the characters have been going through to

make them act the way that they have.

4

Abstract (Deutsch)

Obwohl Samuel Becketts letztes dramatisches Werk 1983 geschrieben

wurde, besitzen seine Werke viele zeitlose Eigenschaften. Sie werden in mehreren

Ländern, in verschieden politischen Klimata gespielt und werden von allen

geschätzt. Einer der vielen Gründen dafür ist Becketts Darstellung von Trauer.

Beckett selbst litt unter Depressionen und Trauer und stellte diese Themen oft in

seinen Werken dar. In dieser Arbeit geht es um die Darstellung von Trauer in

Becketts Werken, insbesondere den Werken, in denen ein spezifischer Verlust

dargestellt wird. (In anderen Werken, besonders in jenen, die Beckett am Ende

seiner Karriere schrieb, existieren Elemente, die denen des Trauerprozesses

ähneln, aber in diesen Werken werden keine spezifischen Verluste erwähnt. Aus

diesem Grund sind sie in dieser Analyse nicht enthalten.)

Im ersten Kapitel werden der Begriff Trauer definiert sowie die

Eigenschaften des Trauerprozesses genannt. Die Basisdefinition lautet nämlich,

dass Trauer “die Reaktion auf den Verlust einer geliebten Person oder einer an ihre

Stelle gerückten Abstraktion wie Vaterland, Freiheit, ein Ideal usw.“ ist (Freud 33-

34). Die frühsten Studien zum Thema Trauer, welche bereits aus den 1910er

Jahren stammen, sowie aktuellere Studien behaupten, dass trauernde Individuen

häufig an psychischen und physiologischen Erkrankungen leiden. Viele

Trauerndeentwickeln auch ein narzisstisches Verhalten und verlieren sich in

Erinnerungen an Vergangenes. Das ist jedoch eine typische Reaktion auf einen

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Verlust. Trauer verläuft zudem oft in Phasen. Nach einer Phase in der der

Betroffene den Verlust nicht akzeptieren will, fängt er an, zu leiden. In der

Endphase akzeptiert er schließlich den Verlust. Zwischendurch durchläuft der

Trauernde auch häufig eine Phase namens „Trauerarbeit“, in welcher er eine

bestimmte Aufgabe stets wiederholt, um den Schmerz des Verlusts zu verarbeiten.

Im darauffolgenden Kapitel geht es um Darstellungen von Trauer in

ausgewählten Dramen Becketts: Waiting for Godot (Warten auf Godot), Endgame

(Endspiel), Happy Days (Glückliche Tage), Play (Spiel), Eh Joe (He Joe), Krapp’s Last

Tape (Das letzte Band), Footfalls (Footfalls), Rockabye (Rockaby), Not I (Nicht ich),

Ohio Impromptu (Ohio Impromptu) und The Old Tune (The old Tune). In diesen

Werken werden verschiedene Elemente von Trauer durch Dialog und Bewegung

dargestellt, sowie, in manchen Fällen, durch die Form des Stückes. Viele

Protagonisten klagen beispielsweise über fehlende Beziehungen zu anderen

Menschen oder leiden körperlich, weswegen sie auch über ihre psychischen und

physiologischen Probleme klagen. So müssen viele von ihnen Aufgaben der

Trauerarbeit erledigen, wie z.B. auf- und abschreiten, eine bestimmte Handlung

wiederholen oder ständig ein Buch lesen. In nur einem Fall scheint es, als ob die

Protagonisten Becketts den Verlust akzeptiert haben.

Das führt zu der Frage, was für eine Rolle die Darstellung von Trauer spielt.

Nach einer Untersuchung der von Bertolt Brecht in den 1930er – 1950er Jahren im

Westen entwickelten Verfremdungstheorien wird deutlich, dass diese

Darstellungen von Trauer verwendet werden, um die Zuschauer vor den Kopf

stoßen zu können.

6

Nach Brecht besteht der Verfremdungsprozess aus drei Teilen: „verstehen

– nicht verstehen – verstehen“ und es gibt eine Vielzahl verschiedener Elemente,

die dazu beitragen. Brecht konzentriert sich dabei auf den Gestus (eine Geste, die

die Eigenschaften eines Protagonisten zeigt und zeitlos ist sowie universelle

Gülitgkeit besitzt), die Technologie (wie z.B. die Verwendung von Filmen) und die

Musik (wie die Verwendung eines Chores).

In seinen Werken verwendet Beckett häufig Technologie und Musik, aber

auch der gesamte Trauerakt gilt als ein Gestus, weil Trauer die wahren

Eigenschaften des Protagonisten zeigt und universelle Gültigkeit besitzt,

ungeachtet von Zeit und Raum. Der Trauerprozess spielt auch eine Rolle in den

Phasen „verstehen – nicht verstehen – verstehen“. Denn erst erscheinen Becketts

Figuren sympathisch. Dann jedoch legen sie ein für die Zuschauer befremdliches

Verhalten an den Tag, da für sie das Handeln der Trauernden anfangs keinen Sinn

ergibt. Schlussendlich, im weiteren Verlauf des Stückes, erkennen die Zuschauer

allerdings das Leiden der Figuren und beginnen zu verstehen, warum sie sich so

verhalten haben.

7

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Dr. Anja Müller.

Without her help and support, this project could not have come to fruition.

I would also like to thank Attila, for staying up with me on Skype on many

late nights; Claudi, for calling me in the office and for all of the cheerleading over

lunch in the Philomensa; Priya, for all of the Frontera dreams; and Jessica, for

leaving Florida to brave the Alps in the middle of winter, just to visit me. Last, but

certainly not least, I would like to thank Maria, with whom I have shared so many

wonderful moments over the course of the Joint Degree, and who was there on

the first day of this degree program... and the 745th

.

8

Chapter 1

Introduction

Performances of Samuel Beckett’s works, especially his seminal work,

Waiting for Godot, appear to have universal appeal in what journalist Eve Troeh

refers to as “politically-charged environments” (Troeh). Beckett’s work, written in

France from late 1948 to early 1949, focuses on two men, Vladimir and Estragon,

who are sitting around, waiting for the arrival of a man named Godot. As far as

the audience is concerned, Godot never arrives. This play, with its plot echoing the

futile emotional and political state of post-World War II Europe, has been

performed a number of times since its 1953 debut. Waiting for G

More recently, in 2006 and 2007, Christopher McElroen produced two

different stagings of Waiting for Godot: once in Harlem, and once in New Orleans’s

Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly neighborhoods, areas devastated by the effects of

Hurricane Katrina. Wendell Pierce, a New Orleanian playing the role of Vladimir,

commented that he was surprised that the play still seemed so relevant to modern

life, even though the play had been written more than fifty years prior to the

production (Maloney).

odot has been

performed by inmates at California’s San Quentin Prison twice, once in the 1950s

and later, in the 1980s. In 1976, Waiting for Godot was performed in South Africa,

with the implication that the protagonists were waiting for the end of apartheid.

Sixteen years later, Susan Sontag produced Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo (Troeh).

9

One of the elements that undoubtedly contributes to the timeless nature of

Waiting for Godot (and many other works by Beckett) is Beckett’s portrayal of

bereavement, which is perhaps one of the most universal of all conditions.

Beckett himself was no stranger to bereavement, and, starting in the early 1930s,

after a bout of illness and the death of his father, Beckett began to suffer from

melancholia.1

On the advice of his Dublin physician, Beckett began to attend

psychotherapy sessions in London in late 1933, where he reported to his therapist

that, aside from feeling depressed, he was suffering from a number of health

issues: “a bursting, apparently arrhythmic heart, night sweats, shudders, panic,

breathlessness, and, when his condition was at its most severe, total paralysis”

(Knowlson 169). In his free time there, Beckett also began to attend lectures on

psychology, read up on the topic of psychoanalysis, and write short stories in

which his characters had psychological crises (Knowlson 170-172).

In a 1933 letter to his best friend, Tom McGreevy, Beckett wrote:

After my father’s death I had trouble psychologically. The bad years were

between when I had to crawl home in 1932 and after my father’s death in

1933. I’ll tell you how it was. I was walking down Dawson Street. And I felt

I couldn’t go on. It was a strange experience I can’t really describe. I found

I couldn’t go on moving…. And I felt I needed help (qtd. in Knowlson 167).

1 Knowlson describes Beckett’s condition as “melancholia” (175) but it is unclear if this is Knowlson’s assessment or that of Beckett’s psychoanalyst.

10

Even after Beckett’s treatment, he continued to write a number of works

revolving around the theme of bereavement. This theme became even more

prominent in the mid-to-late 1960s. Aside from suffering from a lung abscess,

Beckett lost both McGreevy and his mother over a short period of time (Knowlson

487-493). Later, Beckett began to prematurely grieve the loss of his wife, Suzanne.

Despite the fact that Samuel and Suzanne Beckett had spent most of their

forty-year relationship apart, in what Suzanne referred to as a “marriage of

bachelors,” Beckett nevertheless found the idea of life without Suzanne to be

unbearable, and began to grieve her death even while she was still alive (Knowlson

585). In an interview, he admitted, “I’ve imagined her dead so many times. I’ve

even imagined myself trudging out to her grave” (Knowlson 585). In the same

interview, he stated that this grief for Suzanne had played a significant role in the

creation of one of his final works, 1980’s Ohio Impromptu.

The unnamed protagonist of Ohio Impromptu, a man grieving the loss of a

“dear face,” spends his nights reading about the loss of the “dear face” time and

time again. According to Beckett, this “dear face” was meant to be Suzanne, and

in writing about her loss, Beckett hoped to express his regrets about the state of

their relationship (Knowlson 585-586).

In writing Ohio Impromptu and mentally working through his relationship

with Suzanne as well as her impending death, Beckett was completing an act of

Trauerarbeit, reflecting exactly what Jeanette Malkin insists that the protagonist of

Ohio Impromptu is doing. Malkin points out that in the case of the protagonist of

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Ohio Impromptu, “the ego is totally tied up with the lost object, invested in what

Freud terms Trauerarbeit – ‘mourning-work’ – that is, the act of ‘working through’

the trauma of loss by remembering and repeating the loss and the memories of

everything connected with the lost one” (65).

Furthermore, Malkin writes that the presence of elements indicating

trauma is one of the defining characteristics of postmodern memory-theater, a

genre with which Beckett is frequently connected (29). In memory-theater, as in

the Freudian response to the trauma of loss, there is “the need to return and

‘rehearse’ past moments or images, to repeat, quote, and recycle” (Malkin 32).

It is these observations by Malkin that have influenced this work. Malkin

only discusses Trauerarbeit in Ohio Impromptu, but upon readings of other Beckett

works, it is clear that many of Beckett’s other protagonists are grieving as well.

The protagonists’ actions, as well as the repetitive forms of the plays, show that

the protagonists, just like Beckett, are completing acts of Trauerarbeit.

After initially examining characteristics of grief and Trauerarbeit, I will

analyze selected works by Beckett that depict the topic of bereavement,

specifically dealing with works that discuss more concrete losses.2

2 Although many of Beckett’s works include elements of Trauerarbeit, including the repetition of dialogue and/ or action (including Act Without Words I and II, Come and Go, and What Where), these works have been excluded from the analysis because it is unclear what the protagonists of these works have lost.

Then, I will

define the role that alienation plays with regard to audience reactions to a work.

Finally, I will examine the specific role that grief plays in alienating viewers of

Beckett’s works.

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Chapter 2

Defining Grief and Bereavement

Before examining the role of grief and the bereavement process in

Beckett’s works, it is first important to discuss what grief, melancholy, and the

associated Trauerarbeit is. Since about 1960, bereavement has been a major topic

of interest in the field of psychology; however, psychologists first began to study it

long before that. The first major work on bereavement was Sigmund Freud’s

“Trauer and Melancholie” (“Mourning and Melancholia”), initially published in

1915 and still considered to be a classic reference on the topic (Spiegel 11).3 In

this essay, Freud writes that at its most fundamental, grief is “die Reaktion auf den

Verlust einer geliebten Person oder einer an ihre Stelle gerückten Abstraktion wie

Vaterland, Freiheit, ein Ideal usw.“ (33-34).4

In order to help work through this grief, grieving patients repeatedly

complete what Freud calls Trauerarbeit (literally: “mourning work”). Jeanette

Malkin summarizes this idea by describing it as “‘working through’ the trauma of

loss by remembering and repeating the loss and the memories of everything

connected with the ‘lost one’” (65). This is important because in the bereavement

3 In the footnotes of this essay, Freud writes that he was influenced by Karl Abraham’s 1912 article “Ansätze zur psychoanalytischen Erforschung und Behandlung des manisch-depressiven Irreseins und verwandter Zustände“ (“Basic Approaches to Psychoanalytical Research and the Treatment of Manic-Depressive Patients and Related Conditions”) (33). It is still Freud’s work that is considered the first major work on the topic (Spiegel 11). As will be discussed later, Abraham wrote additional articles on the topics of grief, but used Freud’s 1915 work as the basis for his own ideas. 4 “The reaction to the loss of a beloved person, or, in place of a person, an abstract concept such as a native country, freedom, an ideal, etc.” (own translation)

13

process, a mourner’s libido frequently regresses, leading to a conflict between the

ego and the sense of loss, often leading the mourner to feel ambivalent about his

life (Freud 50). In repetition of the loss, the mourner is able to reconstruct the

past and, in turn, rebuild his identity (Malkin 65). In doing so, the ego is freed and

the mourner is finally able to begin to move on with life (Freud 51).

However, Freud points out that some individuals suffering from grief may

also need medical treatment, for they also suffer from a condition known as

melancholia, which is more intense than “normal” grief (Freud 49). Freud

differentiates between the two by saying that melancholic patients have

eine tief schmerzliche Verstimmung, eine Aufhebung des Interesses für die

Außenwelt, durch den Verlust der Liebesfähigkeit, durch die Hemmung

jeder Leistung und die Herabsetzung des Selbstgefühls, die sich in

Selbstvorwürfen und Selbstbeschimpfungen äußert und bis zur wahnhaften

Erwartung von Strafe steigert (34).5

The melancholic patient spends a significant amount of time reflecting on the past.

Moreover, the melancholic patient does so in a narcissistic manner. When the

melancholic patient looks back on the past, he primarily focuses on himself, and

5 “Through the loss of ability to love, there is a deep, painful malaise, a withdrawal of interest in the outside world. Inhibition and the reduced amount of self assurance, reduced by self reproach, is expressed until it reaches the point of the unrealistic expectation of punishment.” (own translation)

14

not necessarily the person or thing that has been lost (Malkin 66).6

6 Yorick Spiegel believes that this internalization is possibly due to the Oedipus complex. For many patients, the thing being grieved is an “aggressor.” Spiegel mentions that in Totem and Tabu (Totem and Taboo), Freud argues that the most frequent cause of problems in a person’s life is generally their father figure, and that the ability to identify with the aggressor can be important for the grieving process (Spiegel 36).

Due to the

narcissistic element of melancholia, there is a further distinction between

mourning and melancholia: “In mourning it is the world which has become poor

and empty; in melancholia it is the ego itself” (qtd. in Malkin 66).

These topics have been further discussed in later works. Among them are

Karl Abraham’s 1924 Versuch einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Libido auf Grund

der Psychoanalyse seelischer Störungen (English title: A Short Story of the

Development of the Libido, Viewed in the Light of Mental Disorders), which uses

Freud’s ideas as the basis for a psychoanalytic approach to grief. Abraham,

however, views grief not just as a fixation but also as a regression (Spiegel 37).

More recently, the works of John Bowlby, Bernadine Kreis, Alice Pattie, D. M.

Fulcomer, and W. Oates have taken a look at the bereavement process. They also

view grief as a series of phases that need to be worked through, but view grief as a

more linear process than Freud does. Whereas Freud discusses general

characteristics of individuals suffering from grief, these researchers see grief as a

series of phases that need to be gradually overcome. However, different theorists

have different approaches to their own multi-phasic models of grief, including the

number of phases that a grieving individual goes through as well as the names of

these phases.

15

Bowlby and Kreis and Pattie, for example, see the process of grief as

occurring in three phases. For Bowlby, these phases are protest, disorganization,

and reorganization, but Kreis and Pattie consider them to be shock, suffering, and

recovery (Spiegel 57). In contrast, Fulcomer sees grief as a four-phase process: an

initial phase of shock, followed by a controlled “post-immediate stage,” followed

by an emotionally fragile “transitional state” and an adaptive “repattering stage,”

in which the griever has re-adapted to life (Spiegel 58). Others, like Oates (a

theologian and not a psychiatrist), view the grieving process as a six-phase process,

involving periods of shock, numbness, conflict between fantasy and reality, and,

finally, recovery (Spiegel 57-58).

Despite the differences between these models, virtually every model

includes a phase in which the mourner initially denies the loss, followed by

intermediate periods of recovery in which the grieving individual frequently feels

that he will never recover, followed by an end stage in which the mourner has

recovered from the loss. It is also important to point out the perspective of

sociologist and gerontologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Like the other researchers,

Kübler-Ross believes that grieving individuals go through a number of phases in

their grief, but does not believe that all phases in a model have to occur in the

same order that a particular theorist hopes that they will. In Kübler-Ross’s

opinion, certain phases can be skipped over at a particular point in time, but these

16

phases are almost always repeated later on in the grieving process (Kübler-Ross

101).7

Although grief is often seen as a psychological ailment, or even a mental

disorder (as argued by Stephen Wilkinson), physical ailments are often manifested

in the grieving process as well. Descriptions of the manifestation of both physical

and psychological illnesses are present in both the early works of Freud as well as

later research. One early example can be found in Freud’s own session notes from

1895, where he mentions treating a woman named Emmy v. N. (Spiegel 47). After

the death of her husband, Emmy v. N. suffered from a number of physical

ailments, which Freud later deemed to be psychosomatic.

8

Symptoms such as these were examined in a quantitative manner in later

studies, in which researchers looked at the medical records of widows who had

sought medical treatment after the death of their husbands. Yorick Spiegel

summarizes a number of these studies, which conclude that widows are shown to

be significantly more likely to suffer from psychological disturbances, including

Emmy v. N. slept very

little, was having difficulties eating, due to stomach pains, and also reported pain

in her right arm (Spiegel 47).

7 Despite the theologians‘ strong emphasis on the importance of the role of religion and religious officials in the grieving process, Spiegel mentions that the grieving process is often repressed when a mourner takes too strong of a religious stance and suppresses their feelings because of this (for example, Christians should not mourn the loss of a person because the person is sure to be having a wonderful afterlife in heaven) (81-82). Colin Murray-Parkes writes that some patients may even need to be encouraged to grieve and show their emotions (Coping 856). 8 See Freud’s 1905 essay “Psychische Behandlung” (“Psychological Treatment“) for more information on the psychological, physiological, and psychosomatic ailments of Freud’s grieving patients.

17

feelings of panic and fear and the presence of nightmares and other sleep

disturbances (46).9

However, it is a different study that has remained one of the best-known

studies of psychosomatic symptoms of individuals suffering from grief. This 1964

study led by Colin Murray Parkes examines the physician-going habits of widows.

In the eighteen-month bereavement period following the death of their respective

husbands, the 44 participants went to the doctor a combined total of 406 times, as

opposed to 292 times during the 18 months prior to the death of the women’s

husbands. Following the death of their husbands, the study participants were

more than twice as likely to seek psychiatric help or claim to have issues with

rheumatism and osteoarthritis. The women were almost twice as likely to go to

the doctor because of a gastrointestinal problem and slightly more likely to see a

doctor because of problems with hypertension. (With regard to other health

issues, there was no significant increase in the number of times a woman went to

see a doctor because of upper-respiratory infections of skin rash. It is also

interesting to note that in Parkes’s study, widows were significantly less likely to go

to a doctor because of non-respiratory infections in the eighteen months following

their husbands’ deaths: there were 21 instances of this in the non-bereavement

period but only six during the bereavement period.)

10

9 Of the studies mentioned in Spiegel, I was only able to obtain an original copy of the 1965 study by Parkes. Interestingly enough, it is not this but rather another study by Parkes, referred to in the following paragraph, that has become a benchmark study on the topic. 10 While it was quite easy to find studies written about women and bereavement, I could not find any studies written exclusively about men and bereavement. In addition, virtually all studies that I found that dealt with the topic of psychological and physiological ailments focus on participants who have recently lost their partner, even though the definition of bereavement extends beyond that.

18

These issues, both psychological and physical, are depicted in a number of

ways in Beckett’s works dealing with loss, and are depicted using dialogue, motion,

and form. Although Beckett’s works most frequently depict the loss of a partner,

Beckett’s characters also examine the loss of health, youth, and other positive

relationships, as detailed in the following chapter.

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Chapter 3

Depictions of Bereavement in the Works of Samuel Beckett

Within the body of Beckett’s works, with few exceptions, his dramas fit one

of two plot structures. The first structure focuses on the relationship between two

grieving individuals, who have a symbiotic relationship with each other and

function outside normal constraints of society. The second revolves around a

(typically older) grieving individual who often interacts with an alternate form of

himself. Beckett generally ends his works with the implication that after the piece

ends, the plot will continue endlessly.

This chapter will first examine depictions of bereavement in Beckett’s

couples’ relationships (Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, and Play) before

looking at Beckett’s individual characters (Eh Joe, Krapp’s Last Tape, Footfalls,

Rockabye, Not I, and Ohio Impromptu). Finally, there will be an analysis of The Old

Tune, which, although it focuses on a meeting between two old friends, is

generally an exception to the rule that Beckett’s characters endlessly grieve: the

protagonists of this work actually seem to have achieved the final phase of the

grieving process.

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Waiting for Godot (written in 1948-1949, premiered in 1953)

In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, dialogue is centered around two

men, Vladimir and Estragon, who are sitting on the road, waiting for the arrival of

“a… kind of acquaintance,” Godot (24). While waiting for Godot, Vladimir and

Estragon also meet the elderly Pozzo and his human “pig,” Lucky, as well as two of

Godot’s messenger boys. Virtually all of these characters depict bereavement in

some manner, although in some cases, what is being grieved is more apparent

than in other cases.

For example, it is implied that Estragon has never really fit in anywhere,

and he has lost contact with most other individuals. It seems that his most

meaningful relationship to date has been with Vladimir. At one point, Estragon

was badly beaten by a group of 10 men (55), although he does not give a reason as

to why he was attacked, and when Vladimir asks Estragon about who beat him,

Estragon ignores the question (54).

Estragon is very clear about the fact that he is unhappy, and when Vladimir

asks him how long he has felt unhappy, Estragon says that he cannot remember

how long he has felt that way (39). As with many other individuals suffering from

grief, he has difficulties sleeping through the night (65), and even then, it is only in

dreams that Estragon feels happy (83). Estragon is also extremely afraid of

abandonment. When he hears Vladimir singing, he thinks, “That finished me. I

said to myself, he’s all alone, he thinks I’m gone for ever, and he sings [sic]” (55).

21

Given his tumultuous relationship with Vladimir, this could be an instead of

mourning either a loved one (a protective figure) or an aggressor (as mentioned in

Totem und Tabu).

Vladimir initially appears to be more of a caregiver to Estragon as opposed

to an enemy. It is, however, clear that Vladimir exhibits signs of bereavement,

although he seems to be less affected by these problems than Estragon is.

Vladimir does not explicitly state what the causes of his problems are, but he, too,

has sleep disturbances, frequently gets up in the middle of the night, and tells

Estragon that there are outside influences affecting how he feels: “One isn’t

master of one’s moods” (55).

Despite these problems, in many ways, Vladimir appears to be the

protective superego, complementing Estragon’s ego. After Lucky hurts Estragon’s

leg, Vladimir promises to carry Estragon “if necessary” (33). When Estragon

describes being beaten, Vladimir says that if he had been there, he would have

protected Estragon. He also encourages Estragon to view more optimistically,

telling him, “You must be happy, too, deep down, if you only knew it” (55).11

That is not to say that Vladimir and Estragon’s relationship is entirely

positive. For example, when Estragon tells Vladimir that he feels worse when he is

with Vladimir, and even feels better alone than when he is with Vladimir,

Vladimir’s response is not to apologize, but rather assert the importance of his role

in Estragon’s life:

11 Despite this apparent optimism, Vladimir and Estragon still discuss the possibility of hanging themselves twice (18, 87).

22

VLADIMIR: Then why do you always come crawling back [to me]?

ESTRAGON: I don’t know.

VLADIMIR: No, but I do. It’s because you don’t know how to defend

yourself (55).

In this dialogue, Vladimir is able to assert his physical and intellectual

superiority over Estragon: he claims to know exactly what Estragon needs, even if

Estragon does not. Additionally, in saying that Estragon is unable to defend

himself, Vladimir once again implies that Estragon is unable to live an independent

life, thus increasing Estragon’s independence on him.12

In turn, both Vladimir and Estragon are both dependent on Godot. The

significance of Godot is unknown,

13 but he is assumed to have violent tendencies14

12 Despite this promise to protect Estragon, prior to the point in the work where Vladimir makes this promise, Pozzo calls Estragon a “pig,” and Vladimir does not confront Pozzo about it (28). It is unclear if this promise to protect Estragon is a serious one. 13 One common interpretation of the play is that Godot is symbolic of god. However, Beckett told Roger Blin, the director of the first production of Waiting for Godot, that this is not the case. Beckett also told Blin that the words “god” and “Godot” are only coincidentally similar. Beckett said that he derived the word Godot from the word “godillot,” or “boot,” due to Vladimir and Estragon’s frequent references to their feet (Bair 405). 14 Godot’s messenger boy/ goat herder states that Godot beats his brother, who minds Godot’s sheep (49). When Vladimir asks the messenger boy how well he eats, the boy hesitates before answering. The boy is also unsure if he is happy working for Godot. Vladimir almost forces the boy into believing that he is happy, saying, “You’re not unhappy: do you hear me?” (50). Because of Godot’s apparently abusive nature, it seems possible that it is Godot who arranged for Estragon to be attached.

and is important enough to wait for. When he does not arrive, Vladimir and

Estragon continue to wait for him. The actual process of waiting functions as a

sort of Trauerarbeit for Vladimir and Estragon, as both sit and frequently discuss

how unhappy they are, showing a narcissistic tendency in line with melancholia.

23

Their discussions about how miserable they are and how they have been suffering

from sleep disturbances also closely parallel the middle phases of many models of

bereavement.

Potentially making matters worse is the fact that, as far as the audience is

concerned, there is no end in sight to Vladimir and Estragon’s Trauerarbeit. As

soon as the audience is introduced to Vladimir and Estragon in the first act of the

play, they have already been waiting for an undisclosed amount of time, and by

the time the play ends at the end of the second act (supposedly taking place the

day after the first act), it is still unclear as to when Godot will finally come for

Vladimir and Estragon. 15

15 This endless act of waiting may be some sort of a game that Beckett is playing with the audience. In many ways, Vladimir and Estragon’s process of waiting parallels that of the audience’s viewing experience. Just as Vladimir and Estragon’s process of waiting seems to be endless, and they expect that their experiences will improve once Godot arrives, early audiences waited for the actors to begin performing a play with a conventional plot, hoping that at some point, more action was going to take place. During one production, viewers staged a walk out at the beginning of the second act, once they realized that the rest of the play was going to consist of Vladimir and Estragon waiting around some more (Knowlson 350).

With regard to the process of waiting, Estragon even

says, “All I know is that the hours are long, under these conditions, and constrain

us to beguile them with proceedings which – how shall I say – may at first seem

reasonable, until they become a habit” (75). This makes their wait sound even

more similar to the intermediate phase of the grieving process, in which an

individual often thinks that he will never recover from a loss.

24

Yet another individual to be feared is Pozzo. From the moment that Pozzo

appears in Act I, he appears to show a number of symptoms of an individual

suffering from both melancholia and narcissism.16

From the first time he encounters Vladimir, Pozzo points out that it is a

“disgrace” that the road where Vladimir and Estragon are sitting is open to the

public, even though, as he pointed out to them, “You are human beings none the

less. As far as one can see. Of the same species as myself. Of the same species as

Pozzo! Made in God’s image!” (24) No other character seems to be able to equal

Pozzo’s level of superiority and self-absorption, though. When Pozzo prepares

Lucky to speak, he rudely asks, “Is everybody ready? Is everybody looking at me?

This is shown both through his

frequent references to life as the way it was as well as the language that he uses

when dealing with Lucky and, to a lesser extent, Vladimir and Estragon.

Pozzo believes that his beliefs are not out of the ordinary, but in fact, he

shows one of the primary symptoms of a narcissistic patient: pessimism about the

future. He thinks that his whole generation is unhappy, and is so embittered, he

says that he “is not particularly human, but who cares? […] I mean, who has your

future in his hands… at least your immediate future” (29).

In addition, from the very instant that Pozzo is introduced, he seems to look

down on other individuals and present himself as being exclusively self-absorbed,

another common trait of narcissists. He is so cold that when Pozzo discusses his

heart, Estragon simply says, “Perhaps it has stopped” (45).

16 Beckett does not, however, give any indicators as to what Pozzo is grieving.

25

Will you look at me, pig! Good. I am ready. Is everybody listening? Is everybody

ready? Hog! I don’t like talking in a vacuum” (30-31).

The matter of Lucky is another one altogether. Although Lucky is another

human, at least as far as the audience is aware, Pozzo leads him around on a rope

and controls him with a whip (29).17

17 Pozzo and Lucky’s relationship later turns into a game for Vladimir and Estragon, with Estragon in the role of Pozzo and Vladimir in the role of Lucky. This game also depicts the only instance in the play in which Estragon takes the leading role in their relationship. Even in this instance, Estragon does not do a good job of asserting himself. Partway through the game, Estragon apologizes for being so assertive, and at that moment, there is a role reversal in the game, and Vladimir once again takes charge (69).

Lucky has such a low social status, even

Vladimir and Estragon feel comfortable calling him “effeminate,” a “half-wit,” and

a “cretin” (26). Lucky is forced to sing and dance for the amusement of others

(39), and for additional amusement, he is forced to follow others’ commands (41).

Lucky appears to be incredibly old, and rather than support Lucky in his old

age, Pozzo says that “Instead of driving him away as I might have done, I mean

instead of simply kicking him out on his arse, in the goodness of my heart I am

bringing him to the fair, where I hope to get a good price for him. The truth is you

can’t drive such characters away. The best thing would be to kill them. […] Old

dogs have more dignity” (32).

The only time Lucky is truly able to express himself is when he is forced to

give his own monologue (42-43). Even then, Lucky’s tirade is caused by and met

with negative reactions. According to Beckett’s stage directions,

26

(1) VLADIMIR and ESTRAGON all attention, POZZO dejected and disgusted.

(2) VLADIMIR AND ESTRAGON begin to protest, POZZO’S sufferings

increase. (3) VLADIMIR and ESTRAGON attentive again, POZZO more and

more agitated and groaning. (4) VLADIMIR and ESTRAGON protest

violently. POZZO jumps up, pulls on rope. General outcry. LUCKY pulls on

the rope, staggers, shouts his text. All three throw themselves on LUCKY,

who struggles and shouts his text (41-42).

When Lucky and Pozzo appear again in Act II, Vladimir kicks Lucky, and

Lucky’s only response is to stir (82). In this case, Lucky’s responses are actually

similar to the phases of grief. When the viewer is first introduced to Lucky, Lucky

attempts to rebel against his situation. However, when the viewer is later

introduced to him, Lucky seems to have adjusted to his role.18

18 It is unclear if the viewer has merely been absent for the middle part of his bereavement process, or if he has simply skipped between phases.

27

Endgame (written from 1954-1956, premiered in 1957)

Like Waiting for Godot, Endgame focuses on the themes of abandonment

and codependency. However, the reasons for these problems become apparent

from the very beginning of the work: the characters of Endgame have these

problems with abandonment and codependency because they are grieving the loss

of their physical mobility.

Endgame is centered around the life of a blind, legless man named Hamm,

as well as his legless parents, Nagg and Nell, and their servant, Clov. Beckett

symbolically shows their exclusion from society by placing Hamm, Nagg, and Nell

in a home located in a hole in the ground. In addition, Nagg and Nell live in trash

cans, further highlighting their role as individuals that have been discarded by

society. Furthermore, this home is so dark and gloomy that that the seeds that

Clov has planted have absolutely no chance of sprouting, a sign that this home is

not meant to sustain life (98). The setting is so far removed from society that

Hamm points out that even “nature has forgotten us” (97).

In this world, even small pleasures cannot be afforded to Nag and Nell.

Due to their back of mobility, they cannot even enjoy basic physical contact. For

example, when Nag and Nell try to kiss, “their heads strain towards each other, fail

to meet, fall apart again” (99). Aside from their mobility issues, both Nag and Nell

are going deaf, further complicating their lives (99). Nell even asks, “Why this

farce, day after day?” (99) As an act of Trauerarbeit and an attempt to recapture

28

the joy of years past (also a symptom of melancholia), Nagg repeatedly tells Nell

the story of their engagement. Although Nell was once cheered up by reliving the

events of the past, she is no longer consoled by this story (102).

Nag and Nell’s son, Hamm, also finds his life to be unsatisfactory (94). He

even explicitly states that in a condition like his, “you begin to grieve” (125). Given

his fixation on his illness, it seems that he has not yet begun to accept his

condition, although it appears that he has never been able to walk, indicated by

the fact that he asks Clov what it is like to be able to walk (109). Making matters

worse, Hamm, like many other grieving individuals, is evidently in a lot of pain. He

is dependent on pain killers and frequently asks when it will be time to take them

again (95). He is so depressed and disillusioned with his life that he even asks to

be put in his coffin and let life end (130). Hamm has become so withdrawn from

others that he does not even know what month it is (124). Most of Hamm’s

interaction with others is through his relationship with Clov, who serves as a

contrast and complement to Hamm.

In contrast to Hamm’s inability to move, Clov seems to constantly be in

motion. When the audience is first introduced to Clov, he is repeatedly climbing

up and down a ladder (92). However, as much as Hamm envies Clov for his

mobility, Clov, too, is in bad health. Among other things, his eyes are bad, his legs

are bad (95), and he says that he sees his “light dying,” which is likely a reference

to his mental health (98). Clov also feels that his life is full of “inanities” (114).

Clov has a number of personal problems as well. Just as Vladimir had a controlling

29

role in his relationship with Estragon, Hamm holds the power in his relationship

with Clov.

Clov frequently tries to leave Hamm, but constantly fails at this, despite

emotional manipulation and blackmail from Hamm. For example, at one point,

Hamm asks,

HAMM: Why do you stay with me?

CLOV: Why do you keep me?

HAMM: There’s no one else.

CLOV: There’s nowhere else.

HAMM: You’re leaving me all the same.

CLOV: I’m trying.

HAMM: You don’t love me (95).

Hamm also tells Clov that if Clov were to leave, he would not even kiss Clov

goodbye, despite the fact that Clov has spent so much time supporting Hamm.

However, in trying to support Hamm, Clov has lost his own personal identity and

independence. Clov even asks Hamm,

30

CLOV: There’s one thing I’ll never understand. Why I always obey you. Can

you explain that to me?

HAMM: No… Perhaps it’s compassion. A kind of great compassion. Oh you

won’t find it easy, you won’t find it easy (129).

Despite the abuse from Hamm, Hamm and Clov’s relation appears to be

symbiotic. At one point, Hamm insists, “Gone from me you’d be dead.” Clov

retorts, “and vice versa” (emphasis Beckett’s) (126). Clov also tries to take control

over the relationship whenever he is able to. For example, he threatens to starve

Hamm to death (94). At another point, he is supposed to stand up Hamm’s three-

legged dog. Even the dog falls over when Clov stands it up, Hamm asks if the dog

is still standing. Clov answers that the dog is, in fact, still standing, and there is no

way for Hamm to know that Clov has lied to him (111-112). In addition, when

Hamm asks if Clov will bury him after he dies, Clov responds, “No, I shan’t bury

you” (112).

At the very end of the piece, Clov actually does begin the process of leaving

Hamm. It is unclear if Clov actually does leave Hamm, though. Clov’s very last

stage direction is that he is “dressed for the road. Panama hat, tweed coat,

raincoat over his arm, umbrella, bag. He halts by the door and stands there,

impassive and motionless, his eyes fixed on Hamm, till the end” (132-133). This

action may be viewed as a transition between the intermediate and final stages of

bereavement.

31

Throughout the work, Clov repeats a number of his actions, and if he does

not repeat an action, the action instead has a counter move or responsive move

(Bair 467).19

From the very beginning of Happy Days, it is easy to draw similarities

between this work and Endgame. Both works primarily focus on the symbiotic

relationship between two individuals who live in a desolate environment, one of

whom lacks physical mobility. However, in Happy Days, Beckett is perhaps at his

most explicit about loss as the means to an end.

This repetition of action is similar to the repetition of an action when

an individual is completing Trauerarbeit. In terms of dialogue, Clov frequently

mentions that he is hoping to move on and experience a life away from Hamm,

just as a grieving person may state that he, too, hopes to move on to a life in which

he has recovered from loss. The fact that he stands in the door frame watching

Hamm is also significant. Doors are frequently used as symbols of hope and

movement to new phases of life. In observing Hamm as opposed to interacting

with him, Clov views his life from a new perspective, just as an individual in the

final stage of grief also sees life from a new perspective.

Happy Days (written in 1960-1961, premiere in 1961)

19 Beckett was hoping to create a chess analogy with the title of the play. Dierdre Bair mentions that in an endgame in chess, there is “an attempt to nullify the disadvantage incurred… also in search of the win” (466). To a certain extent, this is also what Clov is doing. Although Clov initially seems to be the disadvantaged person in his relationship with Hamm, it is Clov that is able to take steps towards leaving the hole, whereas Hamm is stuck there and, without Clov, would have no way to leave.

32

As in Waiting for Godot and Endgame, the protagonists of Happy Days,

Winnie and Willie, live in a desolate environment. The pair is located in an

“expanse of scorched grass rising center to low mound” (138) and both are dealing

with significant health problems.

Like Clov in Endgame, Winnie is unable to move; she, too, has no legs,

although she says that she was once able to move (154). At some point, she

became embedded in the mound. When the viewer is first introduced to Winnie

at the beginning of Act I, she is “embedded up to her waist” (138). By the

beginning of Act II, her situation has significantly worsened. When she is

introduced to the audience at the beginning of Act II, she is “embedded up to [her]

neck” and the burial is so restrictive that she “can no longer turn, nor bow, nor

raise” (160).

As Willie is a man of few words, almost everything that the audience knows

about his problems has been reported by Winnie. According to Winnie, Willie’s is

suffering from an illness that “just can’t be cured” (139). At another point, Willie is

shown with blood trickling down the back of his bald head (141). It initially seems

that Winnie is healthier than Willie and has more control over her illness, but as

the work progresses, it becomes clear that Winnie has been more strongly

affected by her medical condition.

Winnie, for example, exhibits one primary symptom of narcissism: a focus

on the past. She particularly enjoys reminiscing about her youth, including her first

ball, her second ball, her first kiss (142), and her youthful good looks (161). As her

33

condition worsens between Act I and Act II, she begins to show other signs of

physical and psychological problems.

In Act I, Winnie says that “there is so much to be thankful for – no pain –

hardly any – wonderful thing that” (140). By Act II, when she is further embedded

in the mound, she begins to complain of pains in her neck, have sleep

disturbances, and says that she hears cries, even though she and Willie are in such

a remote location (165-167).

Willie has also developed additional problems between Act I and Act II. In

Act II, he has a new, massive growth on his neck (166). Although Willie never

complains of any psychological ailments, Winnie asks him, “Have you gone off your

head, Willie? Out of your poor old wits, Willie?” (167) Willie eventually acts in an

ambiguous manner and, depending on interpretation, either finds solace through

murder or if both continue to suffer.

In the notes at the beginning of Act II, Beckett indicates that a revolver is

lying next to Winnie on the mound (160). At the very end of the work, Willie,

described as being “dressed to kill” (166), moves upwards towards Winnie. It is

unclear if he intends to kiss her or, in an act of mercy, to kill her in order to end her

suffering (167). Regardless of what Willie’s intentions are, Winnie still says, “Oh,

this is a happy day, this will have been another happy day!” (168) before singing

34

part of Franz Lehár’s operetta Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow): “It’s true, it’s

true / You love me so!” before turning to look at Willie (168). 20

Play continues the theme of death, but rather than using it as the means to

an end, Beckett depicts what is presumably the afterlife as a time for individuals to

obsess about their losses from life.

Beckett told Kay Boyle that the ending of Happy Days was intentionally left

ambiguous and refused to answer exactly what he envisaged as being the proper

ending to the work (Knowlson 433-434). It is ultimately the director’s choice as to

whether to depict Winnie as continuing to suffer from her problem or to show a

prescribed ending to the problem.

Play (written in 1962-1963, premiered in 1963)

21

20 Originally, Beckett had used lyrics from “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” but opted for the Lehár text not because of similarities in plot, but because he believed that it was more poignant, and also preferred to use a text that did not reference a specific geographic location (Knowlson 433). 21 What is arguably the most common interpretation of this work is that all of the individuals in the love triangle are dead. This is especially clear in Anthony Minghella’s 2000 film of Play. In Minghella’s Play, the characters are placed within a sea of other urns, all of which have talking heads sticking out, and Minghella exclusively uses a gray color palette. This truly evokes the feeling that the characters are dead and in a cemetery.

In particular, this play deals with the loss of

loving, trusting relationships in life, spurred by a man’s extramarital affair. The

story is recounted by the man, his wife, and the man’s paramour. Throughout the

work, the characters each recount their role in the love triangle, seemingly

unaware that the others are present on stage, despite the ironic line that “perhaps

sorrow has brought them together” (313). Each character tells a small snippet of

35

their perspective of the relationship, highlighted by a spotlight, before the

spotlight quickly moves on to another character – “speech is provoked by a

spotlight on faces alone” (307).

In addition, the characters remain physically separated from each other

through their placement on stage. Each character is located in a meter-tall urn,

with only, his or her head sticking out. The actors are physically prevented from

moving around and interacting with each other, and are therefore forced to

convey their problems through speech alone. Yet even the characters’ speech is

“toneless” and at a “rapid tempo” (307) and is intended to be repeated (320).22

Their Trauerarbeit, which is to repeat their own story, shows no signs of

ending. Based on Beckett’s direction that the work should repeated, there are no

indications that the actors will stop recounting their story or even have the chance

to move on to the recovery phase of the bereavement process. The fact that the

actors are standing in urns symbolically shows that they are unable to move away

from the situation, either.

While the dialogue mentions the specific losses that the characters have

had, it is really the form of Play that depicts characteristics of bereavement and

Trauerarbeit. In this particular instance, the facts that each character is in a

separate urn, only one character speaks at a time, and that all of the characters

are purely absorbed in their own stories are signs pointing to narcissism.

22 In Beckett’s notes to the play, he writes that “the repeat may be an exact replica of first statement or it may present an element of variation” (320). He also lists variations present in the London and Paris productions of the work (320). While this allows directors some creative freedom in an otherwise restrictive work, Beckett’s point here is that repetition is a key part of the production.

36

Eh Joe (written in 1965, premiered in 1966)

Another frequently recurring theme in Beckett’s works is that of the lonely

older individual, retrospectively examining his or her life. The earliest of these

works is Eh Joe, a short piece intended to be filmed for television (360). This work

focuses on a protagonist named Joe, who is in his late fifties and has had a string of

difficult relationships throughout his life. The words and deeds of his former

partners haunt him; as a matter of fact, Joe does not have a single word of

dialogue in the entire work, and his reflection is not from his own perspective, but

rather that of the voice of a woman.23

The woman reflecting on Joe’s behalf, likely a former lover, has left Joe, and

has moved on. She “found a better…. As I hope you heard…. Preferable in all

respects…. Kinder…. Stronger…. More intelligent…. Better looking…. Cleaner….

Truthful…. Faithful….. Sane… [sic]” (364). In addition to being an inadequate

partner to this woman, another one of Joe’s later relationships ended badly as

Joe’s life has been reduced to spending

time alone in a room, wearing an old dressing gown and slippers, with a

“practically motionless” face, “impassive except in so far as it reflects mounting

tension of listening” (emphasis Beckett’s) (362).

23 There are no specific notes indicating how the actress voicing the former partner should be presented (via recording, via an actress standing off to one side of the stage, etc.); there are only stage directions that indicate that her voice be “low, distinct, remote, little colour, absolutely steady rhythm, slightly lower than normal” (361-362). However, one of the most famous productions of Eh Joe (a 1989 production featuring Claus Herm as Joe and Billie Whitelaw as the Woman’s Voice, directed by Beckett and Walter Asmus), does not depict the actor playing the Woman’s Voice.

37

well. According to the Woman’s Voice, this later girlfriend committed a gruesome

suicide, and recounts specific details, such as that she

Gets out the Gillette…. The make you recommended for her body hair….

Back down the garden and under the viaduct…. Takes the blade from the

holder and lies down at the edge on her side…. Cut another long story

short doesn’t work either…. You know how she always dreaded pain….

Tears a strip from the slip and ties it round the scratch…. Gets up in the

end and walks back up to the house…. […] Gets the tablets and back to the

garden and under the viaduct…. Takes a few on the way. […] Lies down in

the end with her face a few feet from the tide [sic] (366).

Joe cannot even turn to his family for help. He had a difficult relationship

with his parents, and was only able to distance himself from the relationship by

physically threatening them. At the present, his only company is a prostitute. The

Woman’s voice even taunts, “Anything living love you now, Joe? Anyone living

sorry for you now… That slut that comes on Saturday, you pay her, don’t you?

Penny a hoist tuppence as long as you like” (363).

Aside from Joe’s weekly visits from the prostitute, he spends his time

completing processes in a very similar manner. The first of these actions is

“getting up, going to window, opening window, looking out, closing window,

drawing curtain, standing intent,” as if Joe is spending his days looking out for a

38

visitor who never comes, which in itself could be considered his Trauerarbeit (361).

What is more, however, Joe has managed to apply these very specific processes to

other elements of his life. In the stage notes, Beckett continues that

2. Joe do. (= from behind) going from window to door, opening door,

looking out, closing door, locking door, drawing hanging before door,

standing intent.

3. Joe do. Going from door to cupboard, opening cupboard, looking in,

closing cupboard, locking cupboard, drawing hanging before cupboard,

standing intent (361).

In these stage directions, Beckett shows that Joe’s Trauerarbeit has gone beyond

the mere hope of waiting for a guest, but has impermeated all processes of his

life.24

The frequent repetition of the actions is further emphasized by the use of

certain camera angles, noted by Beckett in the notes to the work. The camera

focuses entirely on Joe’s body, and Beckett specifically mentions that “there is no

need to record room as whole” (361). The camera’s only move is to zoom in

slightly closer to Joe’s face (361). The camera’s focus on Joe is a visual indicator

Everything that Joe does must involve getting up, opening something,

examining something, closing something, drawing a hanging, and standing intently.

24 This may also be a sign of a psychological disorder, such as obsessive compulsive disorder. As discussed in Chapter 2, many grieving individuals report having symptoms of psychological problems.

39

that the focus of this work is Joe being narcissistic, wholly focusing on himself and

his own problems. When the camera is also at the point closest to Joe’s face, the

Woman’s Voice poses a series of questions to Joe, which Joe is apparently too self-

absorbed to answer, before the scene fades out (367). This ending implies that

Joe’s narcissism and, by extension, Trauerarbeit, will continue after the piece ends.

Krapp’s Last Tape (written and premiered in 1968)

Krapp’s Last Tape is Beckett’s second work to focus on an older man’s

bereavement, and there are some clear parallels between Eh Joe and Krapp’s Last

Tape. Like Joe, Krapp, the protagonist, is a lonely, “wearish old man” whose

appearance gives the immediate impression that he no longer cares about

impressing anyone. Beckett describes him as having

Rusty black narrow trousers too short for him. Rusty black sleeveless

waistcoat, four capricious pockets. Heavy silver watch and chain. Grimy

white shirt open at neck, no collar. Surprising pair of dirty white boots, size

ten at least, very narrow and pointed. White face. Purple nose.

Disordered grey hair. Unshaven. Very near-sighted (but unspectacled).

Hard of hearing. Cracked voice (215).

40

He does not appear to care about his surroundings, either; one of the very

first things that he does is peel a banana, drop the peel on the floor, and then

nearly slip on the banana peel. Rather than picking the peel up and throwing it

away, Krapp simply kicks it away from himself (215-216).

Therefore, it is incredibly surprising when Krapp pulls out an orderly ledger,

explaining the contents of a number of taped journal entries that he has made

over the years, including an entry entitled “Farewell to Love,” which is the catalyst

to the plot of Krapp’s Last Tape (216-217).25

This new tape continues to detail his isolation and unhappiness. Although

Krapp’s current live appears to be a strong departure from his days of sexual

adventurousness, one thing has not changed: Krapp is still alone. The older Krapp

“crawled out once or twice, before the summer was cold. Sat shivering in the

The voice of a 39-year-old Krapp talks

about a time gone by, when “all [of] Krapp’s dust has settled” (217). Krapp’s losses

are specifically named: Krapp’s father is dead and his mother is dying (219-220). In

a likely attempt to quell some of his pain, the younger Krapp admits he drinks too

much alcohol and has an “engrossing sexual life” (217); the younger Krapp does,

however, acknowledge these problems and sets the goals of not drinking so much

and having a less engrossing sexual life (217). Krapp eventually decides to listen

to part of a story about some of his own sexual adventures before recording his

own tape in the present (221).

25 This situation is in some ways similar to that of the Woman’s Voice in Eh Joe: this voice, coming from a source other than the protagonist, gives the viewer a different, secondary perspective of the narrator. However, the audience of Krapp’s Last Tape are only given the chance to view Krapp’s life from Krapp’s perspective, whereas viewers of Eh Joe really only find out information about Joe from the Woman’s Voice.

41

park, drowned in dreams and burning to be gone. Not a soul” (222). He regrets

not having settled down with a woman named Fanny when he had the chance.

Like Joe in Eh Joe, his only female company is a prostitute. Krapp even comments

that he has been saving up for her for his whole life (222).

Ironically, the tape of Krapp as a younger man has warned, “Perhaps my

best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want

them back” (223). Even at 39, Krapp suffers from a year of “profound gloom and

indigence” (220). Despite the fact that so many years have passed between the

first recording and the present, Krapp has not heeded his own warning and does

not feel satisfied with the way his life has turned out.

Krapp is left alone, suffering from melancholia. One of the primary

characteristics of melancholia is total self absorption, and Beckett emphasizes this

through the use of Krapp’s tapes. As far as the audience knows, Krapp spends his

free time alone with his meticulously documented tapes. Krapp only listens to

himself telling stories about the past. Even when Krapp mentions interactions with

other individuals, these interactions are shown from Krapp’s perspective. There is

no other person to verify the truth of Krapp’s words, or show an alternate version

of the events in Krapp’s life.

However, the recording and cataloging of new tapes, as well as listening to

old tapes, functions as Krapp’s Trauerarbeit. Not only is the repeated recording

and cataloging a task which has obviously kept him busy over the course of years,

but by listening to old tapes, Krapp is able to repeatedly experience life as it was.

42

Despite the frequent repetition of the past, there is unfortunately no sign that

Krapp’s ego has been freed, allowing him to rebuild his identity and move on with

his life.

Footfalls (written in 1975, premiered in 1976)

Beckett also wrote three works focusing on the losses of older women,

Footfalls, Rockabye, and Not I. Just as there are a number of parallels between Eh

Joe and Krapp’s Last Tape, there are also a number of similar elements in Footfalls

and Rockabye, and the actress Billie Whitelaw starred in the original productions of

Footfalls (Knowlson 545) and Rockabye as well (Knowlson 583-584).26

26 Beckett had hoped that Billie Whitelaw would star in the premiere of Not I, but she was unable to perform due to scheduling conflicts. Jessica Tandy starred in the original New York production of Not I, and Billie Whitelaw eventually took over the role for the original production in London (Knowlson 523-528).

The first work, Footfalls, deals with a mentally disturbed older woman,

May. May has had a difficult life and is grieving both the illness of her mother, as

well as the inability to have made many life choices for herself. It is implied that

because May’s mother gave birth to her so late in life, May spent the greater part

of her childhood at home, taking care of her mother (399-400). This stress has

taken such a great toll on May that it appears that she has forgotten to take care

of herself. Even though she is only in her 40s, she has disheveled grey hair. Her

grey dress is also worn. She no longer remembers how old she is, either (399-400).

43

She has spent so much time taking care of her mother, she continues to

interact with the voice of her (presumably) dead mother, asking:

Would you like me to inject you again? […] Would you like me to change

your position again? […] Straighten your pillow? Change your drawsheet?

Pass you the bedpan? The warming-pan? Dress your sores? Sponge you

down? Moisten your poor lips? Pray with you? For you? (400)

Even at an early age, May was showing signs of stress and mental strain

from the situation, indicating that she has been showing symptoms of grief for

some time already. As a young girl, May also began to complete her Trauerarbeit,

pacing. First pacing up and down the hallway at home, later, she would “slip out at

nightfall and into the little church by the north door, always locked at that hour,

and walk, up and down, up and down” (401-402), a task which continues through

the present. By definition, Trauerarbeit is a task that is repeated, but even within

May’s act of Trauerarbeit, there is further repetition, via the manner in which May

paces.

Beckett meticulously describes the manner in which May paces. In the

notes to the play, he has diagrammed the exact manner in which May should pace,

and gives specific details about how she should do this:

44

Pacing: starting with right foot (r), from right (R) to left (L), with left foot (l)

from L to R.

Turn: rightabout at L, leftabout at R.

Steps: clearly audible rhythmic tread (399).

Beckett even indicates the location in which she paces and the number of steps

that she should take: “downstage, parallel with front, length nine steps, width one

metre, a little off centre audience right” (399). There is no indication that May will

ever complete this act of Trauerarbeit, either, especially since she has been pacing

so much, for so long.

Further complicating matters is May’s psychological state. As with many

grieving individuals, she is suffering from mental disturbances.27

As previously

mentioned, throughout the work, she hears and interacts with the voice of her

mother. In addition, May seems to be confused about her own identity: despite

the fact that she is introduced to the audience as “May,” she later begins to refer

to herself as “Amy.”

27 Beckett specifically mentioned that the play is based on an agoraphobic friend who suffered from “disturbances” and spent her days pacing up and down, but did not mention if this individual suffered from schizophrenia, sleep disturbances, etc. At another point, he stated that the play was based on psychologist Carl Jung’s observations of a patient. (Knowlson 544).

45

Rockabye (written in 1980, premiered in 1981)

At least in terms of basic appearances, the protagonist of Rockabye, a

woman sitting in a rocking chair, appears to be similar to May of Footfalls. Like

May, she is “prematurely old. Unkempt grey hair. Huge eyes in white

expressionless face. White hands holding ends of armrests” (433). However, in

contrast to May , pacing up and down the hallway in a worn dress, she spends the

entire work sitting in a (mechanically-controlled, so as to keep an even tempo)

rocking chair, and when she rocks, the jet sequins of her fancy black evening gown

glitter in the stage lights (434-435).

The woman in Rockabye also faces a problem more similar to that of

Krapp’s or Joe’s. Like Krapp and Joe, she is at the very end of her life and is lonely.

She openly describes the loss of friends, stating that she has spent hours looking

for some sort of companionship (438). In her old age, she derives some comfort by

sitting in her rocking chair, which has “rounded inward curving arms to suggest

embrace” (436). Otherwise, she remarks that she spends a lot of time talking “to

herself / whom else” as she sits and rocks.

The repetitive rocking serves as a physical form of Trauerarbeit for her to

complete, and expresses the sadness she feels at being left alone. In addition,

dialogue is used as another form of Trauerarbeit. Aside from repetitive physical

motions, certain phrases are frequently repeated. The protagonist uses the phrase

“for another” five times, “to and fro” five times, “high and low” seven times, “in

46

the end” eight times, “close of a long day” 10 times, and “time she stopped” (16

times.) The line “time she stopped” is further emphasized through the use of pre-

made recordings of the actress playing the woman. These recordings, also

capturing the actress saying “time she stopped,” are played during the production,

just after the actress says “time she stops,” creating the effect that the woman is

suffering from auditory hallucinations.28

While auditory hallucinations are frequently linked with hallucinations, one further

interpretation of the duality in text might be that of an interaction between the

woman’s ego, representative of reality, and her id, which is subconsciously alerting

the woman to a problem. According to Freud, the ego and id are often

The presence of hallucinatons can also be a sign of further psychological

disorders. The protagonist makes it clear that she has had problems with them in

the past, mentioning that

off her head they said

gone off her head

but harmless

no harm in her (440).

28 Jeanette Malkin also points out that depictions of duality of an individual are fairly common in postmodern theater. Although she does not examine this duality in Rockabye, she does point out a connection between the ego and the id in Ohio Impromptu.

47

instinctually connected, so as to allow an individual to become aware of a

particular problem. His is often manifested in hallucinations (Freud 62). In this

particular case, she is alerting herself to a secondary loss: her own death.

Although the woman does not directly address the issue of her own loss

through dialogue, it is apparent that she will soon die (yet another loss within the

work). Throughout the piece, the woman’s face is “swaying in and out of light,”

and there is an opening fade in and closing fade out (433). Her last piece of

dialogue is

no

done with that

[…]

rock her off

stop her eyes

fuck life

stop her eyes

rock her off

rock her off (442).

48

Not I (written and premiered in 1972)

Not I is the third work to focus on the losses of an older woman (the

“Voice”), and deals with themes similar to those in Footfalls and Rockabye, but is

presented in an entirely different manner than Footfalls or Rockabye.

The Voice has had a difficult childhood, born “out… into this world… this

world… tiny little thing… before its time” and later, did not experience “love of any

kind… at any subsequent stage” (376). She never learned how to be independent

or speak up for herself either, and eventually discovered that she had lived a life

not just devoid of love, but, like May, also had a life devoid of personal

independence (379). It is first as an older woman that she recognizes that she has

had these losses, and is surprised that her life seems even worse than it had in her

youth:

imagine… not suffering.. indeed could not remember… off-hand… when

she had suffered less… […] just as the odd time… in her life… when clearly

intended to be having pleasure… she was in fact… having none… not the

slightest…” (377)

As a result of these difficult years, she suffers from a number of

psychological disturbances, as is common with grieving individuals. For example,

49

the Voice claims that she suffers from flashbacks (“oh long after… sudden flash…

even more awful if possible… that feeling was coming back” (379)) and that she

feels emotionally numb (377). She also has auditory hallucinations. 29

When Beckett refers to the protagonist as “Mouth,” he genuinely means

that the focus of the protagonist is on her mouth. She should be “faintly lit” and

hidden in shadow, except for her mouth (376). She is also supposed to move her

arms in “helpless compassion” (375). In many productions of the work, the actress

playing Mouth has also been dressed all in black, so as to further emphasize her

mouth and not her physical appearance (Knowlson 524, Knowlson 529).

Most

notably, she complains about a buzzing noise twelve times. Unfortunately, there is

no indicator in the work that the woman’s condition will end any time soon.

In the last stage notes to the work, Beckett writes that even after the

curtain falls at the end of the play, the Voice continues to speak, unintelligibly,

until the house lights in the theater come on (383). The visual representation of

the Mouth includes a number of indicators that she is still grieving, but that there

is still a small amount of hope that she will recover.

30

29 Interestingly enough, during this production, Whitelaw’s son was incredibly ill, and Whitelaw was having psychological problems herself, and Whitelaw’s own performance was lauded as “hypnotic, almost hallucinatory” (Knowlson 528-529). 30 In two filmed versions of Not I from 1975 and 2000, the work has been reduced to the simple presentation of the mouth on screen. The rest of the actress’s body is not shown at all. The Auditor was also eliminated from these productions as well.

This

appearance is significant for a number of reasons. First, the de-emphasized body

of the Voice indicates how easy it is for people to blend in to the background, and

not be noticed, even if they need help. Second, black is a color associated with

bereavement, and indicates that the Voice is still experiencing grief. Finally, the

50

fact that the mouth is emphasized and not the body is a sign that the Voice is

gaining strength and self confidence. Earlier in the work she mentions, “her lips

moving.. as of course till then she had not… [sic]” (379). The fact that the Voice

was able to make this step, even after so many years of problems, shows that she

may be able to overcome her problems after all.

Finally, it is important to briefly discuss the role of the auditor, which seems

to be an optional character in the work, as it was completely left out of both filmic

versions that were consulted. The auditor is a tall, sexless figure wearing a black

djellaba with hood, stands downstage left and watches the Mouth (375). At four

particular points during the work, the auditor moves, but in the notes, it is not

indicated where the auditor moves to. There are also no indicators such as

transitions explaining why the auditor moves when it does.31

It seems most likely that the auditor is representative of a psychiatrist.

First, the name alone alludes to psychiatry. In addition, a psychiatrist’s focus at

work is on the patient and not on himself, and he could be dressed in the black

djellaba so as to fade into the background and place more of an emphasis on the

Mouth as opposed to himself. The auditor’s movement on stage could also be

representative of a psychologist’s acknowledgements of a patient’s problems.

31 Beckett did not explain the symbolic nature of the auditor, but did mention that it was initially influenced by Caravaggio’s painting of the beheading of St. John. Later, he saw a woman in a djellaba crouched on the street in Morocco, whom he described as “crouched in an attitude of intense waiting” (qtd. in Bair 622), who would occasionally flap her arms up and down. It turned out that she was waiting to collect a child from a school bus (Bair 622). It is interesting that Beckett indirectly included the theme of waiting (although there was closure for this woman) and claimed that this woman was the influence for the auditor, although her actions are much more similar to those of the Voice.

51

Ohio Impromptu (written in 1980, premiered in 1981)

Ohio Impromptu, like Rockabye, also depicts multiple versions of the self,

but in an entirely different manner: through the use of mise en abyme.

At the very beginning of the work, the audience is introduced to both a

“Reader” and a “Listener,” sitting across from each other at a plain white table.

Both are identically dressed in long black coats, with long white hair. A black hat

rests between them on the center of the table (445).32

There is also a book

propped open on the table, from which the Reader reads a story about a person

who has recently lost someone close to him.

Although it is unclear who this person is, as this person is only referred to

as “dear name” or “dear face,” it is clear that their lives had been closely

interconnected and that the protagonist is having a difficult time dealing with the

loss. Recently, “in a last attempt to obtain relief he moved from where they had

been so long together to a single room on the far bank. […] Relief he had hoped

would flow from unfamiliarity” (445). The protagonist of the story has also been

spending a significant amount of time pacing back and forth, always wearing a long

black coat and an old-fashioned black hat, much like the one described as sitting

on the table in front of the reader. The protagonist is also having an extremely

difficult time sleeping (446). The story also explains that

32 James Knowlson mentions that Beckett’s close friend James Joyce used to wear a hat similar to that lying on the table (585).

52

One night as [the protagonist] sat trembling in hands from head to foot a

man appeared to him and said, I have been sent by – and here he named

the dear name – to comfort you. Then drawing a worn volume from the

pocket of his long black coat he sat and read till dawn. Then disappeared

without a word. Some time later he appeared again at the same hour with

the same volume and this time without preamble sat and read it through

again the long night through. Then disappeared without a word. So from

time to time unheralded he would appear to read the sad tale again and

the long night away. Then disappear without a word. With never a word

exchanged they grew to be as one. Till the night came at last when having

closed the book and dawn at hand he did not disappear but sat on without

a word. Finally he said, I have word from – and here he named the dear

name – that I shall not come again (447).

Through the use of the meta story, the viewer is able to draw the

conclusion that the Reader, Listener, and the protagonist are likely one and the

same individual: the protagonist in the story is met by a man in a long black coat,

and spends his evenings listening to a story about loss. Assuming that this is the

case, the individual depicted in Ohio Impromptu exhibits a number of typical

symptoms associated with bereavement.

Like a melancholic, this individual suffers from malaise and shows a lack of

interest in the outside world. He has even pulled away from his former life in

53

order to create a new life elsewhere, where he is not so easily reminded of his

dear face. Jeanette Malkin mentions that this man’s efforts to distance himself

from others is a sign of narcissism (66). Even the Reader’s interaction with the

Listener is narcissistic, because he is not actually interacting with another

individual, but rather himself.

The grieving man further distances himself from reality through his

Trauerarbeit. One instance of Trauerarbeit, his pacing, is only briefly mentioned.

However, his main act of Trauerarbeit, that of repeatedly reading the story of the

loss of the dear face, further adds to his problems. His extreme focus on this act is

leading him to have sleep disturbances, a problem also frequently associated with

bereavement. The protagonist is so wrapped up in this work and so affected by his

sleep disturbances that he is no longer able to distinguish between day and night

(447-448).

However, the ending of Ohio Impromptu implies that there might be an end

in sight for the protagonist’s grief. For example, it is mentioned that “the sad tale

a last time told” and “nothing is left to tell” (448). Both the Reader and the

Listener make eye contact with each other for the first time at the end of the play,

seeming to acknowledge for the first time that they are two parts of a whole.33

In a 2000 film of Ohio Impromptu, director Charles Sturridge takes the

conclusion a bit farther, choosing to definitively show that the Reader and Listener

are two parts of a whole. Sturridge uses actor Jeremy Irons in both roles, and, as

the sun rises (perhaps further implying that the protagonist’s sleep disturbances

33 Jeanette Malkin suggests that the Listener is the id to the Reader’s ego (66).

54

have been resolved), uses optical effects to blend the bodies of the Reader and

Listener together.

The Old Tune (written and premiered in 1960)

While The Old Tune is not purely a work of Beckett’s – it is an English

adaptation of Robert Pinget’s radio play La Manivelle – there are a number of

themes in this work similar to those in other Beckett plays. For example, the

characters in this play have had a number of difficult issues to work through (336),

and the protagonists are two older men, reflecting back on their lives. However,

these men demonstrate that they have dealt with their grief differently than other

Beckett characters have, and this work is really the only Beckett play that

definitively shows characters that have reached the final phase of the

bereavement process.

At the beginning of the piece, Gorman and Cream meet each other on the

street after not having seen each other for a number of years. Gorman is

operating a barrel organ on the street when Cream suddenly stops Gorman and

says, “Gorman my old friend Gorman, do you remember me Cream father of the

judge, Cream you remember Cream” (337).

The two men reminisce about the past and update each other on what has

happened since the last time they met. Among other things, Cream was living with

55

his daughter until she died of cancer (337-338), Cream first says that his wife is

very ill (338) before later saying that she “is in her coffin these twenty years” (344),

both men have experienced extreme poverty (339-340), both Cream and Gorman

have had relatives with bad cases of rheumatism (342), Gorman’s sister has gone

through a nasty divorce (343), Cream’s grandson died at a young age (343), and

mutual friends have died horrible deaths (347-349).

The Old Tune ends with Gorman saying, “When you think, you think….”

Then, after ten seconds of complete silence, the organ tune begins to play again.

Beckett describes the situation as being one in which “Street noises and tune

together crescendo. Tune finally rises above them triumphant” (349). This is an

incredibly symbolic ending and a radically different depiction of bereavement.

Typically, Beckett’s plays depict characters actively focusing on themselves,

attempting to recover from whatever loss has caused grief. The Old Tune is also

one of the few Beckett works where the characters so explicitly state what

problems have led them to grieve. For example, the situation in Ohio Impromptu

only becomes clear due to the meta story, but in contrast, here, Cream and

Gorman list a specific number of personal challenges that they have had to work

through since the last time they have met. Beckett has placed this in the context

of reminiscing about the past (itself a characteristic of narcissism), yet Cream and

Gorman seem to have moved beyond the earlier phases of the grieving process.

Both seem to have re-adjusted to life without the things that they have lost, and

are continuing to move forward, the music of Gorman’s broken-down organ

56

representing the challenges that they have overcome. Just as Gorman’s organ has

chosen to function again, these individuals have chosen to function again, too.

57

Chapter 4

Characteristics of Alienation

The ultimate significance of Beckett’s (often surreal) depictions of

bereavement is these depictions can be used to alienate viewers of his works.

Before discussing the relationship between bereavement and alienation, however,

alienation first needs to be defined.

Alienation of the audience34

34 In English, this is sometimes alternately referred to as the “estrangement effect.” The German terms “Verfremdung” and “Verfremdungseffekt” (“V-Effekt”) are occasionally used in English as well.

is a concept often associated with modern

forms of theater, and even considered an integral part of modern, so-called non-

Aristotelian models of theater (Brecht VII-36) but in fact, the idea of alienation is

much older than that. The concept, which originated in ancient Chinese theater,

became popular in twentieth-century Europe as playwrights began to move away

from traditional (Aristotelian) models of theater. The concept of alienation has

even been extended to earlier dramatic works, including those of William

Shakespeare (Brecht III-155, Brecht VII-239-264), and even fiction, including the

works of Beckett’s friend James Joyce (Brecht III-200). Bertolt Brecht, who

arguably has written more on the topic than any other modern theorist, described

alienation at its most basic as a form of dialectic between the actor and the

audience (Brecht III-195).

58

Alienation is used to help depict the author’s intended message (Brecht V-

194) and also help draw the audience’s attention to the work at large (Brecht III-

31). In addition, the use of alienation can help the audience to better remember

the message of a particular work (Brecht V-194). For Brecht, this creation of

alienation is a multi-phase process, which he refers to as “verstehen – nicht

verstehen – verstehen” (“understanding – not understanding – understanding”)

(Brecht III-195).

It is the actor’s task to initially help the audience empathize with a

character (Brecht V-195). Then, it is the actor’s responsibility to change these

empathetic qualities to something unexpected (Brecht III-188). The actor must be

secretive, incomprehensible, and uncontrollable (Brecht V-189). These traits (and,

by proxy, alienation) can be achieved through a variety of methods, including

physical appearance and the use of certain dramatic elements and techniques,

although it would be extremely difficult for a single work of theater to include

every possible technique to create alienation.

One of the easiest ways that alienation can be created is through an actor’s

gestus, or any sort of action which shows the essence of a character (Brecht V-

186). When executed properly, a gestus should be understood by any individual,

transcending cultural and temporal boundaries (Brecht III-50).35

35 One example that Brecht uses is that of a mail carrier delivering mail. While most individuals living in the modern era know what a mail carrier is, a person viewing the same play in medieval times or during the Stone Age would be unable to recognize what it is that a mail carrier is doing and would also not be able to understand the importance and significance of the task of delivering the mail. Therefore, the act of delivering the mail could not be considered a gestus (III-50).

In gestus, an

actor presents an emotion, but, more importantly, does not hide the character’s

59

emotions, in whichever form they are presented (Brecht V-186). Although the

gestus is often stylized, it should still be recognizable (Jameson 100).36

In reality, an individual is seldom limited to feeling a singular emotion, such

as anger or sadness. Brecht points out that when a person is feeling distressed, he

is also capable of feeling joy, and when he is furious, he is able to experience

revulsion as well. Until the early twentieth century, western (Aristotelian) theater

typically only portrayed characters that showed one emotion at a time; i.e., there

were “good guys” and “bad guys” but no characters that were both good and bad.

The use of multi-faceted characters can be used to show the audience that the

situations that these characters are in are also multi-faceted (V-186).

37

Use of gestus can also help keep an actor closer to the character that the

playwright envisioned. Although popular twentieth-century theorist Constantin

Stanislavski purposefully tries to get actors to work with their intuition and feelings

while playing a particular role

38

36 Brecht specifically mentions that it is the gestus and not mimicry that is used in non-Aristotelian theater, but does not differentiate between the two (III-20). 37 Martin Esslin mentions the fact that even Brecht did not use multi-faceted characters in his own works. Esslin writes that Mother Courage and The Life of Galileo use entirely negative characters, “so that the positive message might emerge by inference rather than by concrete demonstration – but with the result that the effect on the audience tends to be one of a negative theatre that concentrates on the incurable aspect of things” (123). 38 Brecht had a very tumultuous relationship with Stanislavski’s theoretical perspectives. In the 1930s, Brecht called Stanislavski’s methods weak and naïve, but when called upon to differentiate between his own theories of theater and Stanislavski’s, Brecht’s answer was a (likely ironic) “Ja, vermutlich” (“yes, probably”). Between 1948 and 1956, Brecht managed to complete another set of series on Stanislavski, including an essay titled “Was unter anderem vom Stanislawskis Theater gelernt werden kann” (“What, Among Other Things, Can Be Learned From Stanislavski’s Theater”). In this essay, he admits that Stanislavski’s theories do have some inherent worth (Brecht VII-218-238).

, it was Brecht’s belief that when actors do so, they

60

subconsciously change the characters (V-184).39 In changing the characters, the

actors could ultimately change the message of the work. Brecht pointed out that

even an act as simple as putting a mask on an actor’s face can significantly change

his attitude and posture.40

Brecht also advocated the integration of music and technology into plays in

order to help achieve alienation (V-190). For Brecht, music should be able to

function as a type of gestus, helping to create mood on stage (III-295). Music,

especially popular music, can be used to draw members of the audience in to the

work, both emotionally and as a form of entertainment. Actors can also begin to

Furthermore, Brecht believed that the use of gestus

was beneficial to an actor, instilling in him a sense of ownership of his characters

and his theater company.

In addition to the use of gestus, Brecht also advocated the use of a number

of other techniques in helping to alienate the audience. One technique, referred

to as “breaking down the fourth wall,” has also been adopted from Chinese

theater. In traditional Aristotelian theater, all characters exist within the “four

walls” created by the boundary of the stage, and do not acknowledge or interact

with anything existing outside of those four walls. In the technique of breaking

down the fourth wall, actors are permitted to pretend that the so-called fourth

wall, the invisible wall at the edge of the stage separating the actors from the

audience, does not exist. The actors are permitted to directly address and engage

the audience, or vice versa (Brecht V-184).

39 Brecht’s opinions on this were criticized by his contemporaries as well. Eugene Ionesco, for example, disagreed with Stanislavski’s methods but also wrote that Brechtian acting “made the actor a mere pawn in a chess game” (qtd. in Esslin 141). 40 German: ‘Haltung’

61

create the element of “nicht verstehen” by destroying the mood created by the

music (Brecht III-302-303).

The use of various technologies can be used to create mood and alienation,

too (Jameson 39). The use of screens and short films are perhaps most associated

with the use of technology in the theater, but the use of technology can also be

expanded to include the use of clapboards, treadmills, mechanical stairs,

motorized bridges and stage floors, and lighting from locations other than its

traditional location above the front of the stage (Piscator 77).

While it is Brecht’s former mentor Erwin Piscator and not Brecht that

initially pioneered the use of technology, specifically the use of screens and short

films in alienation, Brecht adopted the technology in his own productions, at least

at the beginning of his career. Like music, use of this technology could be used to

help bring audiences in to the theater, initially because they were curious about

the technology used and later, to present elements from everyday life, but due to

the use of different lenses, editing, and lighting, the everyday can be viewed in an

entirely different manner (Jameson 48). 41

Brecht eventually moved away from the use of these technologies in his

works, condemning their use and claiming that their use may actually lead to anti-

revolutionary activity, due to the fact that film viewing is typically a stationary

activity and other alienation techniques, such as breaking down the fourth wall,

41 It is actually due to these very elements that Walter Benjamin wrote that he believes that the use of film is incredibly Brechtian. Benjamin believed that Freudian slips also played an important role in film, as both reveal “dimensions of depth… which had seemed to be taking its course on the surface” (qtd. In Jameson 48).

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can actively engage members of the audience (Völker 116).

Beckett uses some elements of technology in his works, but his use of

elements creating alienation extends beyond that. Beckett’s works also include

the use of gestus, breaking down the fourth wall, and music. These elements have

been incorporated into his interpretations of grief, and conversely, grief is used as

part of the creation of alienation.

In the late 1950s and

early 1960s, coincidentally at a time when Beckett was beginning to write dramas

more prolifically (Butler 158), there was a general resurgence in popularity in the

use of these technologies (Harjes 49).

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Chapter 5

The Relationship between Bereavement and Alienation

Samuel Beckett’s works have a symbiotic relationship with alienation:

Beckett uses certain Brechtian techniques in his works to help create alienation,

but thematic elements such as bereavement are also used as part of the phasic

process of creating alienation as well. As mentioned in the previous chapter, there

are a number of techniques that a playwright can use to help create alienation,

including breaking down the fourth wall, and incorporating the use of music and

technology in plays. Actors can also use gestus to create alienation as well. At

different points in time, Beckett has used all of these techniques to help create

alienation in his works.

This first technique, breaking down the fourth wall, is used in a number of

Beckett’s works. Although use of this technique is typically decided upon by the

director of a particular production, Beckett has made notes in stage directions that

indicate that he wants the actors to make direct eye contact with the audience,

thereby breaking down the fourth wall. These specific stage directions have been

included in Waiting for Godot (15, 16), Endgame (131), Happy Days (138), Play

(307), and Eh Joe (361).

In addition, Beckett has also included a number of musical elements in his

works, both through the use of intra-diegetic music and through notations

included in his stage directions; for Beckett, music was “the art form that came

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closest to pure spirit” (Knowlson 577). In a number of works examined in this

thesis, intra-diegetic music has been used. In Krapp’s Last Tape, Krapp sings an

excerpt from Sabine Baring-Bould’s “Child’s Evening Hymn” when reminiscing

about his childhood (222), and at the end of Happy Days, Winnie sings part of

Franz Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe (168), both in instances which may help the

characters endear themselves to the audience. The use of organ music in The Old

Tune is also used to help drive the plot: at the beginning of the work, the

protagonists meet when one of them has been fighting with his old crank organ,

and the organ begins to function again at the end of the work, coming to

symbolize the problems that the protagonists have overcome.

However, even when Beckett does not specify the use of music in his work,

he frequently uses adjectives related to music to describe his characters’ speech.

As a director, Beckett was known to frequently use musical terminology, such as

“piano,” “fortissimo,” “andante,” “allegro,” “da capo” and “cadenza” (Knowlson

577), but he included a number of these adjectives in his works, too. These occur

most notably in Play, where dialogue should be performed at a “rapid tempo”

(307) and stage directions frequently describes the dialogue in this work as being a

“chorus” (320).

Technology is used in many Beckett works as a plot element and as a

production value as well. For example, the plot of Krapp’s Last Tape is entirely

centered around a man’s relationship with the past, via his tape recorder and

recordings of himself as a young man. As a production value, Beckett has included

such things as a mechanical rocking chair in Rockabye (434).

65

In particular, the use of technology has significantly affected interpretations

of Not I, and certain productions have reduced the entire work to what is

essentially a projection or short film. Both the 1975 film of Not I and the 2000 film,

directed for the Beckett on Film series have done this. Instead of dressing an

actress in black, leaving only her mouth free, and using a spotlight to highlight her

mouth as Beckett has indicated in his notes to the piece (376), these

interpretations of Not I have simply chosen to focus a camera on the actress’s

mouth and project the image of her mouth on a large screen.

However, and perhaps most importantly, Beckett frequently uses the

gestus. Beckett was famously obsessed with an actor’s physical appearance, and

repetitive pace, tone, and physical movement (Knowlson 448). This obsession with

speech and movement has been reflected in Beckett’s characters, and this

repetitive pace, tone, and movement is manifested in the works as the characters’

Trauerarbeit. While this use of gestus (a technique used to alienate) makes up

Trauerarbeit, Trauerarbeit plays a role in a role in alienation as well.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, one of the most fundamental

elements of gestus is that it shows the true essence of the character, and that it

must also exist outside parameters of space and time. Through the obsessive

nature of the Trauerarbeit, it is easy for the audience to identify that the

characters are dealing with some sort of major problem. Additionally, the act of

grieving is something that is universal. Even in almost 100 years of research on the

topic of bereavement, the basic definition of the condition has not changed, and is

not likely to change any time soon.

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One secondary benefit to the depiction of Trauerarbeit is that it contributes

to the basic phasic process of “verstehen – nicht verstehen – verstehen.”

Especially when completing acts of Trauerarbeit, Beckett’s characters are true,

non-Aristotelian, multi-faceted characters. When viewers are first introduced to

Beckett’s characters, it is easy to understand them, simply because the viewers

feel sympathy for them. Beckett’s characters are frequently depicted as being in

miserable situations, such as desolate landscapes and even garbage cans.

Later, as the characters complete bizarre tasks, such as pacing up and down

all day, or spending their nights reading stories about their own lives, or re-telling

gruesome stories about their ex-lovers, the viewer frequently feels repulsed.

Although these tasks of Trauerarbeit make sense to the person completing them,

they frequently do not make sense to outsiders. Finally, after the viewer has

identified the fact that these characters are doing these things in order to help

manifest their feelings of grief as part of the bereavement process, just as the

viewer himself has done at some point in the past, the viewer once again has

begun to understand Beckett’s characters.

It is specifically because of Beckett’s depiction of bereavement, combined

with elements of alienation, that give Beckett’s works a timeless, universal quality.

These qualities have led to productions of Beckett’s works in a number of different

locations throughout the world, and there are no signs of this ending any time

soon.

67

Works Cited and Consulted

Asmus, Walter, dir. Footfalls. Perfs. Susan Fitzgerald and Joan O’Hara. RTÉ /

Channel 4 / The Irish Film Board, 2000. Film.

Asmus, Walter and Samuel Beckett, dirs. Eh Joe. Perfs. Claus Herm and Billie

Whitelaw. SDR / Channel 4 / RTE / La SEPT, 1989. Film.

Bair, Deirdre. Samuel Beckett: A Biography. New York: Summit Books, 1990.

Print.

Becker, Joachim. Nicht-Ich-Identität. Ästhetische Subjektivität in Samuel Becketts

Arbeiten für Theater, Radio, Film und Fernsehen. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer

Verlag, 1998. Print.

Beckett, Samuel. The Complete Dramatic Works. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.,

1986. Print.

Blüher, Karl Alfred, ed. Modernes französisches Theater. Darmstadt:

Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982. Print.

Brecht, Bertolt. Schriften zum Theater (Vols. I-VII). Ed. Werner Hecht. Berlin:

Aufbau Verlag, 1964. Print.

Breuer, Rolf. Die Kunst der Paradoxie. Munich: William Fink Verlag, 1976. Print.

Butler, Lance St. John. Samuel Beckett and the Meaning of Being: A Study in

Ontological Parable. London: Macmillan P, 1984. Print.

Connor, Steven. Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text. Aurora, Colorado:

The Davies Group, 2006. Print.

68

Detloff, Madelyn. The Persistence of Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge U P,

2009. Print.

Drechsler, Ute. Die absurde Farce bei Beckett, Pinter und Ionesco. Eds. Joerg O.

Fichte and Hans-Werner Ludwig. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1988.

Print.

Esslin, Martin. The Theater of the Absurd. 3rd

Print.

Ed. London: Penguin Books, 1991.

Eyre, Richard, dir. Rockabye. Perf. Penelope Wilton. RTÉ / Channel 4 / The Irish

Film Board, 2000. Film.

Freud, Sigmund. Trauer und Melancholie. Berlin: Verlag Volk und Welt, 1982.

Print.

Fries-Dieckmann, Marion. Samuel Beckett und die deutsche Sprache. Eine

Untersuchung der deutschen Übersetzungen des dramatischen Werks.

Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2007. Print.

Gessner, Niklaus. “Der Untergang des sprachlichen Ausdrucks (1957).“ Blüher

132-139.

Harjes, Rainer. Handbuch zur Praxis des freien Theaters. Cologne: Dumont

Buchverlag, 1983. Print.

Heitmann, Klaus. “Die Welt als Wüste: Becketts Endspiel.” Blüher 228-263.

Hinck, Walter. Die Dramaturgie des späten Brecht. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &

Ruprecht, 1966. Print.

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160.

Jameson, Fredric. Brecht and Method. New York: Verso, 1998. Print.

69

Jordan, Neil, dir. Not I. Perf. Julianne Moore. RTÉ / Channel 4 / The Irish Film

Board, 2000. Film.

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Kerz, Leo. “Brecht and Piscator.” Educational Journal 20.3 (Oct. 1968): 363-369.

JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug. 2010.

Knowlson, James. Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett. New York: Simon

& Schuster, 1996. Print.

Krabiel, Klaus-Dieter. Brechts Lehrstücke. Entstehung und Entwicklung eines

Spieltyps. Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag, 1993. Print.

Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. Was können wir noch tun? Stuttgart: Kreuz Verlag, 1975.

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Lindsay-Hogg, Michael, dir. Waiting for Godot. Perfs. Barry McGovern, Johnny

Murphy, Alan Stanford, Stephen Brennan, and Sam McGovern. RTÉ /

Channel 4 / The Irish Film Board, 2000. Film.

Malkin, Jeanette R. Memory-Theater and Postmodern Drama. Ann Arbor: The U

of Michigan Press, 1999. Print.

Maloney, Ann. “Artist Paul Chan Brings His ‘Godot’ to a Waiting City.” NOLA.com.

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com/living/2007/11/artist_paul_chan_brings_his_go.htm>

Minghella, Anthony, dir. Play. Perfs. Alan Rickmann, Kristin Scott Thomas, and

Juliet Stevenson. RTÉ / Channel 4 / The Irish Film Board, 2000. Film.

Not I. Perf. Billie Whitelaw. BBC, 1975. Film.

O’Donnell, Damien, dir. What Where. Perfs. Sean McGinley and Gary Lewis. RTÉ /

Channel 4 / The Irish Film Board, 2000. Film.

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Parkes, Colin Murray. “Effects of Bereavement on Physical and Mental Health: A

Study of the Medical Records of Widows.” British Medical Journal 2.2504

(1 Aug. 1964): 274-279. JSTOR. Web. 24 May 2010.

Parkes, Colin Murray. “Coping with Loss: Bereavement in Adult Life.” British

Medical Journal 316.7134 (14 Mar. 1998): 856-859. JSTOR. Web. 24 May

2010.

Picard, Hans Rudolf. Wie absurd ist das absurde Theater? Ed. Gerhard Hess.

Konstanz: Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1978. Print.

Piscator, Erwin. Das ABC des Theaters. Ed. Rudolf Wolff. Berlin: Nishen Verlag,

1984. Print.

Rozema, Patricia, dir. Happy Days. Perfs. Rosaleen Linehan and Richard Johnson.

RTÉ / Channel 4 / The Irish Film Board, 2000. Film.

Quadflieg, Roswitha, ed. Beckett in Hamburg 1936. Trans. Oliver von Below.

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16 May 2010. <http://www.beckett-in-hamburg-1936.de/>

Schibilsky, Michael. Trauerwege. Beratung für helfende Berufe. 5th

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Spiegel, Yorick. Der Prozeß des Trauerns. Analyse und Beratung. 6th

Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1986. Print.

ed. Munich:

Sturridge, Charles, dir. Ohio Impromptu. Perf. Jeremy Irons. RTÉ / Channel 4 / The

Irish Film Board, 2000. Film.

Troeh, Eve. “Still Waiting on Repairs, New Orleans Hosts ‘Godot.’” National Public

Radio. Natl. Public Radio, 3 Nov. 2007. Web. 20 July 2010.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15855355>

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Völker, Klaus. Brecht: A Biography. Trans. John Nowell. New York: The Seabury

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Honesty Statement (Schriftliche Erklärung)

Ich erkläre hiermit, dass ich die Arbeit selbständig verfasst und keine

anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt hat. Die Stellen

der Arbeit, die anderen Werken dem Wortlaut oder dem Sinne nach

entnommen sind, sind unter Angabe der Quelle als Entlehnung kenntlich

gemacht worden.

Jena, den 27.9.2010 _____________________________________________

Erica Haas