End-Game
When I read End-Game, it was hard to visualize exactly what was happening on stage. Watching the video in class helped a lot. I also did not catch the reference to a chess game in the title, but it makes a bit more sense after having that reference.
Although I don’t think Beckett intended for us to understand all of the situation in his play, the feeling of hopelessness comes through clearly. The characters exude a lack of purpose, meaning, and dissatisfaction with their lives. Hamm remarks that “this is not much fun . . .but that’s always the way at the end of the day.” There is no purpose to their lives. Hamm even asks why he was born, as if implying that he should not have been.
The characters try to pray, but end up saying that God doesn’t exist. He couldn’t in such a messed up world. Ironically, Nagg’s story of the tailor also suggests that it is God’s fault that the world is in such a state, since he threw everything together in only six days.
The only meaning that seems to be found in the story is the daily routine in which the characters interact with each other. Every day is the same. Hamm says to Clov, ” We’re not beginning to . . .to . . .mean something?” Clov, of course, rejects this idea, but in a sense it is true. Hamm needs Clov because he can’t walk or see. Clov must find some purpose in being with Hamm, or why else would he stay for so long?
