Blog Post #4 - Endgame

Beckett uses Endgame to provide his opinion on the meaning of life, except he illustrates that there is no meaning to life. Instead he suggests  that desiring things in life is ludicrous and it done merely for entertainment.

Why do 21st-century readers still read this play? Well, once the audience understands that the play heavily, but abstractly, discusses the topic of life and death, we are intrigued. The meaning of life is such a complex topic where professionals, philosophers, and laymen can all have diverse and valuable input to contribute to discussions. Everyone experiences life, thus the meaning of life makes it a topic that everyone can relate to, has though about, and can form an opinion about. Endgame is just Beckett's opinion of life and since it's just an intriguing and complicated topic, it is still relevant in the 21st century.

Beckett shows to the audience that everything in life is meaningless. Everything we want in life is absurd, and that we (humans) create value. Clov and Hamm demonstrate this by their mundane, cyclic, and routine actions. They play games with one another to pass time.

Lines 1340-1341

CLOV: Let's stop playing!

HAMM: Never.

There cyclic and routine behavior of inquiring about painkillers, leaving one another, and wondering when "this will be finished" keep them in a routine that takes the focus off of death.

CLOV: Is it not time for my pain killer? (Lines 186, 412, 822, 1243)

HAMM: No

CLOV: I'll leave you. (Lines 643, 704, 824, 1372, 1179)

Hamm's responses vary but he generally ignores the declaration.

HAMM: Will this never finish (Line 390)

HAMM: Why won't you finish us (Line 637)

HAMM: It is finished, we're finished. Nearly finished (Lines 854-855)

They break up this repeated acts with stories, stories what could be about the past. The plot of the play is Clov and Hamm trying to occupying themselves while they wait for death. This exhibits that life is meaningless. They acknowledge this, yet they don't try to make meaning of it. They portray the reality of human kind: we are just killing time until we are done. We are born, and from that moment on we are just a ticking time bomb; we are dying from the moment we are born.

What do we have to learn from it? Well the characters demand that the audience realize that life is meaningless but that individuals create value. The plot is all about just surviving in the current predicament, and that is why this play is still relevant to audiences today. The storyline shows us that humans use routine to suppress thoughts of and concern for death. In addition, the events of the story show that everything we want in life is absurd because we are going to die anyway and we won't remember any of it and none of it will matter.

Why does it still matter? Well the play still matters because death is still inevitable and it is always in the back of our mind. With this new phenomenon of "FOMO", or fear of missing out, Endgame definitely matters. With death dominating our thoughts and life having an unknown expiration date, we have started to make hasty demand for things be done as soon as possible for the sake of doing. Hamm does this when he asks Clov to take him the window, to bring him the dog, and if it's time to take his pills or not. This notion suggests that life is a sequence of moments. But in the 21st century, we believe the moments create one big picture (like the "Facebook Year in Review") when death comes. At this time, it is decided whether your life had meaning or not. Endgame suggests that this isn't the case, and that life, after death, does not matter. Instead, it suggests that everything in life is meaningless because we can't take anything out of this life with us.