The Waiting Game: The Human Condition of Being in Time in the Theatre of Samuel Beckett Abstract

He who has been waiting long enough will wait forever. And there comes the hour when nothing more can happen and nobody can come and all is ended but the waiting that knows itself in vain. - Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies. On Sunday, 4 January 1953, at the thtre de Babylone in Paris, a play was about to change the entire conception of contemporary theatre. This play was none other than Samuel Becketts En Attendant Godot, a play which will later be referred to as a play in which nothing happens twice. At first, this total spectacle was to make us laugh, however, with reflexion, we were to feel a peculiar malaise, that of the human condition of being in time. Heir of Alfred Jarry and the surrealists, and despite always denying being part of the movement, Martin Esslin has placed Becketts theatrical style within the Theatre of the Absurd, noting both the absurdity of the situations of Becketts protagonists, representative of mankind and, often reduced to mere puppets surrounded by a colourless and barren decor, as well as the destruction of language seen in his works, where gestures and words appear derisory, expressing nothing more than vocal rhythms with the only aim of preventing the silence. However, there is something much more fundamental to be taken from Becketts works which is the idea that his theatre explores the torture, for consciousness, of being in time; that his characters are forced to inhabit de-narrativised time, their panic generated in large part by the sense that there will not be an ending. Becketts most discussed play, En Attendant Godot illustrates the problem of having to wait endlessly for the end of existence to begin and, Fin de Partie presents the problem of having to wait endlessly for the end of existence to end. It is the vision of an irrational and unrationalisable process - sheer waiting without end or outcome, pure decay without the possibility of death. These are the stories of vagabonds, cripples and mimes who desperately plunge into this futile pattern: waiting. These are the stories of humanity, man trapped in an hourglass, the endless quest for an ending; dramatic illustrations of the plight of modern man, of his purgatorial state of being in time, of his confusion and his anguish. Looking at Becketts earlier prose works, his essay on Proust, the works and discourse of his contemporaries, his critics and his admirers, those both before and after his era, this dissertation analyses the human condition of being in time in Becketts theatre, in his trilogy of waiting plays. It shows us that his works have much more to say than that of a simple spectacle created uniquely to make us laugh, for, given his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969, his writing, which in new forms for the novel and drama in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation.

The Waiting Game: The Human Condition of Being in Time in the Theatre of Samuel Beckett
Rien nest si insupportable lhomme que dtre dans un plein repos, sans passions, sans affaire, sans divertissement, sans application. Il sent alors son nant, son abandon, son insuffisance, sa dpendance, son impuissance, son vide. Incontinent il sortira du fond de son me lennui, la noirceur, la tristesse, le chagrin, le dpit, le dsespoir.1 Blaise Pascal, Penses et Opuscules.

Writing in the seventeenth century, Blaise Pascal confronted his readers with a bothersome thought, an exploration of the torture, for consciousness, of being in time, an idea which would go on to influence numerous philosophical and literary figures, most notably Beckett, as Jean Anouilh noted when he likened the first production of Becketts En Attendant Godot to a music-hall sketch of Pascals Penses performed by the Fratelini clowns. 2 However, for Pascal, the nant 3 of man is balanced by the toute-puissance of God and, as Colin Duckworth notes, one side of the equation has disappeared for Beckett, leaving only Nothing and to quote Becketts favourite saying from Democritus: Nothing is more real than nothing. As a writer, Becketts task was then to render by very different means the nothingness of man seen sub specie ternitatis, in relation to infinity. 4 In this essay, I will explore how Beckett deals with this notion, while taking into account the contribution critics, academics and literary figures have made in dealing with this human condition, being in time, represented in the Theatre of Absurd. The post-war period, having witnessed banality shot through with atrocity, questioned the meaning of being.5 Antonin Artaud believed the theatre is the place to remind us of the true meaning of life: Nous ne sommes pas libres. Et le ciel peut encore tomber sur la tte. Et le thtre est fait pour nous apprendre dabord cela.6 Beckett was to create the apoge of this notion; the dividing line [between old and new theatre] is 1955, Waiting for Godot is the play. 7 Time had long been a recurring subject for Beckett. In 1930, he won the Hours Press prize for his poem Whoroscope which presented the philosopher Descartes meditating on time, hens eggs, and evanescence. His penetrating interpretation of Prousts work analyses Time creative and destructive and concludes that habit and routine are the cancer of time,8 which
1

Pascal, Blaise, Penses (n.131), Penses et opuscules, ed. Lon Brunschving (Paris: Classiques Hachette, 1959), p.388. See also p.72 where Pascal presents a majestic visionary expression of infinity, cited in Beckett, Samuel, En Attendant Godot: Piece en Deux Actes, ed. Colin Duckworth (London: Harrap, 1966), [hereinafter Duckworth], p. xlii. 2 Arts, 27 January 1953. Quoted by Kern, Edith, Drama stripped for Inaction, Yale French Studies, no.14, p.41. 3 A term defined by Sartre, Jean-Paul, Ltre et le Nant: Essai dOntologie Phnomnologique (Paris: Gallimard, 1943). 4 Duckworth, supra note 1, p. xliii. 5 See Frankl, Viktor, Mans Search for Meaning, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1959), and Metman, Eva, Reflections on Samuel Becketts Plays, Journal of Analytical Psychology, January 1960. 6 Artaud, Antonin, En Finir Avec Les Chefs-duvre, Le Thatre et Son Double, (Paris : Gallimard, 1938), p.123. 7 Alec Clunes cited in Bradby, David, Beckett: Waiting for Godot, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p.76. 8 Beckett, Samuel, Proust, (London: Chatto and Windus, 1931).

was later seen in En Attendant Godot, a play in which nothing happens twice,9 with Vladimirs comment lhabitude est une grande sourdine.10 Mercier et Camier presents an illuminating disquisition on the tyranny and meaninglessness of time. In Becketts Trilogy, we see the seeds of the two plays written in French, the carrying over of timelessness and absence of activity.11 His 1931 Le Kid mocks time with two stage alarm clocks, and clocks are a recurrent prop in later plays Pozzos grandfather gave him a watch, and on losing it he confuses its tic tac with his heartbeat, Clov and Hamm listen to an alarm-clock, B schedules activities by his watch in Acte Sans Paroles II, Krapp has a silver watch, even the bells of Oh Les Beaux Jours are linked with time, the shadow protagonist of his plays.12 Herbert Blaus 1957 production of En Attendant Godot, a play which had bewildered its audience in the Thtre de Babylone,13 in San Quentin penitentiary highlighted the human experience of waiting the play exposed, the empty kind of waiting where nothing to think about is a permanent threat, and every happening offers both a promise and a disillusioning repetition of the daily round.14 From the second the light shone on Wagners limbo-like set, the audience of prisoners were enthralled in a situation analogous to their own.15 For them, Godot was society, the outside.16 Were still waiting for Godot, and shall continue to wait. When the scenery gets too drab and the action too slow, well call each other names and swear to part forever but then, theres no place to go! 17 This sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition is found consistently in Becketts work, including Le Calmant where the hero says tout est dit, tout sera recommencer, and can be likened to Camuss Le Mythe de Sisyphe where the figure of Greek mythology, condemned to repeat the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain only to see it roll down again, is related to mans futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God, eternal truths and values.18 Becketts characters are in greater despair than Camuss lhomme absurde or rvolts. Physically and psychologically disproportionate, they are less distinguishable as individuals, thus enhancing their ability to express the struggle of our common human condition. Like Kafkas Josef K. in Der Process and K. in Das Schloss, they show an inability to cope with the exterior world, yet their only concrete wrong is dtre n. In Fin de Partie, Hamm cannot walk and Clov cannot sit. In Godot, Vladimir cannot laugh as it forces him to urinate and Estragons feet hurt. Oh Les Beaux Jours sees Winnie trapped neck-high in a mound of sand. Pas Moi is just a
9

Mercier, Vivian, The Irish Times, 18 February 1956, p. 6. Beckett, Samuel, En Attendant Godot, (Paris: Gallimard, 1952), [hereinafter Godot], p. 119. 11 Friedman, Melvin J., The Achievements of Samuel Beckett, Books Abroad, Vol.33, No.3, (Summer, 1959), p. 280. 12 Cohn, Ruby, Just Play: Becketts Theatre, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), [hereinafter Cohn], p. 34. 13 Cronin, Anthony, A Play in Which Nothing Happens, Twice, The Irish Independent, Sunday January 5 2003. See also Esslin, pp.11 and 19. 14 Kennedy, Andrew K., Action and Theatricality in Waiting for Godot, Waiting for Godot and Endgame, ed. Steven Connor, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992), p.16. 15 San Quentin News, San Quentin, Calif., 28 November 1957. 16 Theatre Arts, New York, July 1958. 17 San Quentin News, 28 November 1957. 18 Camus, Albert, Le Mythe de Sisyphe, (Paris : Gallimard, 1942). See also Nietzsche, Friedrich, Thus Spoke Zarathrustra, ed. Robert Pippin, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). The work deals with ideas such as the "eternal recurrence of the same" and the parable on the "death of God.
10

mouth. Tous Ceux Qui Tombent sees Maddy Roony plagued with rheumatism and childlessness, estranged from those whom she passes. Becketts famous precision even makes sure the actors are in pain, as we see in Comdie where the actors face the physical pain of kneeling for more than 20 minutes and the torture of a strong light flashing on and off; unable to show expression in the face or voice during the performance, what is transferred to the audience is repressed feelings. The characters appear to be close to death, yet we never see them die. The dead go fast, 19 but the protagonists are living a last million last moments.20 Just like Pinters characters at the extreme edge of their living, where they are living pretty much alone,21 where they are back in their rooms, confronted with the basic problem of being. Beckett has broken the classical rules of tragedy by showing his characters in a long battle without a harmonic resolution, similar to Dantes Purgatorio, the eternal unchanging sameness. Like the narrator in Comment Cest who continues crawling through the endless mire, even though he knows this to be useless, Becketts characters always possess the hope to go on, to keep their rendez-vous, whatever their condition, and it is this alone that distinguishes them as humans, making them both ridiculous and beautiful at the same time. In Becketts own production of Godot, Vladimir fingers a leaf at the start of Act II, a symbol of hope.22 Il faut continuer, je ne peux pas continuer, je vais continuer. 23 For the tragicomedy En Attendant Godot, the title itself implies duration, but it also indicates a reason for the wait, hinting something more than the play fulfils. The stretching of time not measurable by clock or calendar, unlike Becketts other plays is used to cast doubt on the arrival of Godot. The specifics of Godot, who is nowhere and everywhere, are blurred by the vaguely designated time and place. The audience face a country road and a tree, a vast landscape, an expanse of space which harmonises with a concomitant expanse of time. 24 Vladimir states, dans cette immense confusion, une seule chose est claire : nous attendons que Godot vienne.25 This contrasts with the gristre shelter in Fin de Partie, a spatial metaphor for a box in time.26 The light never changes during the acts, wayfarers are minimal, and pauses are numerous. Lifes pressures are low, concerning mainly Freuds primitive bodily drives. Time clichs such as Et aprs? and soyez long, ce sera moins long sprinkle the dialogue, further adding to the feeling of lengthy waiting. Ce qui est certain, cest que le temps est long, dans ces conditions, et nous pousse le meubler dagissements qui, comment dire, qui peuvent premire vue paratre raisonnables, mais dont nous avons lhabitude.27 The pseudocouple, finite beings in an infinite universe, find themselves trapped in circular time, an endless continua, an unending present, just like Vladimirs performance of the German drinking song Ein Hund kam in Die Kuche,28 his Do do do do and their disyllabic nicknames, Gogo and Didi, which is all the more
19 20

Beckett, Samuel, Endgame, (New York: Grove Press, 1958), p.66. Cohn, supra note 12, p. 44. 21 Harold Pinter interview with Kenneth Tynan, cited in Esslin, Martin, Theatre of the Absurd, (London: Methuen, 2001), p. 262. 22 Cohn, supra note 12, p. 38. 23 Beckett, Samuel, LInnommable, (Paris : Les ditions de Minuit, 1953), p.213. 24 Cohn, supra note 12, p. 36. This vastness is comparable to Camus Les Muets where he presents leau profonde et claire , a symbol of the aimlessness and absurdity of daily life, whose vastness makes men insignificant, but also offers a prospect of some fleeting happiness. 25 Godot, supra note 10, p.103. 26 Cohn, supra note 12, p. 42. 27 Godot, supra note 10, p. 104.

emphasised by the linear time, seen in the second act, of the tree which now porte quelques feuilles and the degradation of Pozzo and Lucky, now aveugle and muet respectively, both decrepit. Pozzo, previously concerned with the time on his watch, now states: Les aveugles nont pas la notion du temps. (Un temps.) Les choses du temps, ils ne les voient pas non plus. 29 The two couples represent antithetical theories to infinity wait or wander. Like Clov and Hamm in Fin de Partie, Vladimir believes Le temps sest arrt.30 Only existing in the present moment, with the haziest past and haziest future tied to Godot,31 in a state of perpetual anxiety about what they are doing there, whether they are in the right place, on the right day, and what may come of their long wait,32 the pseudocouple have now got to consider all aspects to pass the time, to fight what Baudelaire would call une oasis dhorreur dans un desert dennui. 33 They need to keep talking to evade thoughts, toutes les voix mortes, which would lead to them feeling the absurdity of their situation. Words give thoughts their existence, and are therefore the only defence against le nant and le vide of silence and timelessness, perilous zones.34 Il faut dire des mots, tant quil y en a, il faut les dire. 35 The repetition a passerait le temps signifies the plays theme. Civilisation, in the form of hats and shoes, the props of the clown, helps pass time. More inventive than Hamm and Clov, stories, the telling of dreams, questions about time and place, thoughts, Luckys danse du filet, are all swift divertissements, routines, from which the clochards 36 return to the slow continuum. On trouve toujours quelque chose, hein, Didi, pour nous donner limpression dexister ? 37 Like Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe had to draw a face on a rock, les clochards desperately need each other to feel they exist. This can also be seen in Oh Les Beaux Jours, a monologue set by the opening line Encore une journe divine,38 where Winnie occupies herself by singing Die Lustige Witwe song and by observing the objects around her. Beckett makes use of Brechts alienation theory here as the audience feel the eager wait for Winnie to finish reading the writing on her toothbrush, however like Godot and Fin de Partie what we wait for is never achieved. In fact, the play itself is a metaphor for life; the actors are stuck on stage until they have finished what they have to say. The idea of suicide, although posing no reasonableness, as in the didascalique Acte Sans Paroles I where the mime is prevented from using mans inventions to commit suicide, is repeated in both acts like many other actions and gestures, adding to the sense of long duration. Allons-nous-en both begins and ends each act. In Fin de Partie, Clov repeats Fini four times in the first sentence, and time repetitively enters conversation.

28

Calderwood, James L., Ways of Waiting in Waiting for Godot, Waiting for Godot and Endgame, ed. by Steven Connor, (London: Macmillan Press, 1992), p. 31. 29 Godot, supra note 10, p. 113. 30 Ibid, p. 47. 31 Robbe-Grillet, Alain, Samuel Beckett, or Presence in the Theatre, Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays, (London: Prentice Hall, 1965), p. 112. 32 Bradby, David, Beckett: Waiting for Godot, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 24. 33 Baudelaire, Charles, Le Voyage, Les Fleurs du Mal, (1861), VII. 34 Duckworth, supra note 1, p. xxxiv. 35 Beckett, Samuel, LInnommable, (Paris : Les ditions de Minuit, 1953), p. 213. 36 Alvarez, A., Beckett, (London: Woburn Press, 1973), p. 84. 37 Godot, supra note 10, p. 90. 38 Beckett, Samuel, Oh les Beaux Jours, (Paris : d. De Minuit, 1963), p.12, [emphasis added].

Fini, cest fini, a va finir, a va peut-tre finir. (Un temps.) Les grains sajoutent aux grains, un un, et un jour, soudain, cest un tas, un petit tas, limpossible tas.39 The time lapse between the two acts in Godot is undesignated and incalculable; resulting in an indication of infinite repetition as les clochards remain unchanged. Further stretching the generic time is Pozzos recital which prophesises Vladimir and Estragons own experience of time, referring to lheure entre chien et loup a deceptive voile de douceur et calme suddenly suffused by night. Cest comme a que a se passe sur ce putain de terre. 40 If Dals The Persistence of Memory can be viewed as an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order, 41 Luckys operatic aria,42 a mirror for the whole play, can be read as showing the absurdity of mans desperate attempts to put a logical shape on chaos, on the incomprehensibility of the universe, by using a form of speech a priest would use to deliver a sermon, a judge would use to give a judgment, a student would use to present a paper, the rational discourse of phrases such as tant donn il apparait quesuccdans bref je reprends en meme temps parallelement je reprends. Like how Ionesco and Genet show the grand vide at the heart of the scaffolding of civilisation, Luckys passage shows the meaningless of words, an invention of man, for at the heart of it all is non-sense. Four times in the body of Luckys speech, we hear a viendra or, in the English version, time will tell, however that is what it does not, and time passes without telling, inachev. Beckett makes use of Jarrys idea of communicating dark, difficult, serious subtexts through lhumour noir.43 Estragons trousers fall absently around the ankles 44 which has been interpreted as a postmodernist acknowledgement of a world beyond repair.45 In each of Becketts three waiting plays, a character waits eagerly for an unimaginable end, whether the end is Godot, annihilation, or full burial, the sense of anxiety and panic increasing as the plays goes on. Although, an end may not be certain, 46 resulting in the characters hanging between despair - that we exist only in time, that Godot will not come - and presumption - that there is some form of transcendence and Godot will answer our questions - of his entire existence and salvation: "Do not despair: one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume: one of the thieves was damned." 47 The key word in my plays is perhaps. 48 And as Goethe says in Faust, Whoever aspires unweariedly is not beyond redemption. As human beings, creatures of habit, we spend our lives blathering about nothing in particular in fear of a moments silence. We attend the theatre to be entertained, to distract us from life. Yet, in Becketts plays the curtains are pulled, the
39 40

Beckett, Samuel, Fin de Partie, (Paris: Les ditions de Minuit, 1957), p.16. Godot, supra note 10, p. 49. Like Kafkas Ein Landartz Es ist wirklich so. 41 Ades, Dawn, Dal, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982). 42 Cohn, supra note 12, p. 40. 43 Jarry, Alfred, Questions de Thtre, Textes autour dUbu Roi, (Paris, 1896), p. 345. 44 Letter from Beckett quoted in Bair, Deirdre, Samuel Beckett: A Biography, (London, 1980), p. 362. 45 Conor, Steven, Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot and Endgame, (London: MacMillan Press, 1992), p.5. 46 Pofahl Smith, Stephani,, Between Pozzo and Godot: Existence as a Dilemma,, The French Review,, Vol. XLVII, , No. 5, April, 1974. 47 Beckett quoted in ODriscoll, Robert, Theatre and Nationalism in Twentieth Century Ireland, (Dublin, 1979). 48 Beckett quoted in Reid, Alec, All I Can Manage, More Than I Could: An Approach To The Plays of Samuel Beckett, (New York: Grove Press, 1969).

sheet is removed, the characters are thrown on stage, and we are confronted with real life, with the torture of being in time. In the words of Vladimir, Mais cet endroit, en ce moment, lhumanit cest nous. 49 Godot is life aimless, but always with an element of hope.50 Therefore, it is true to say qui a assez attendu attendra toujours, et pass un certain dlai il ne peut plus rien arriver, ni venir personne, ni y avoir autre chose que lattente se sachant vaine. 51

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49 50

Godot, supra note 10, p.103. Beckett quoted in Whitman, Alden, New York Times, 24 October 1969, p.32. 51 Beckett, Samuel, Malone meurt, (Paris : d. De Minuit, 1951).

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ODriscoll, Robert, Theatre and Nationalism in Twentieth Century Ireland, (Dublin, 1979). Pofahl Smith, Stephani,, Between Pozzo and Godot: Existence as a Dilemma, The French Review, Vol. XLVII,, No. 5, April, 1974. Reid, Alec, All I Can Manage, More Than I Could: An Approach To The Plays of Samuel Beckett, (New York: Grove Press, 1969). Mercier, Vivian, The Irish Times, 18 February 1956, p. 6. Whitman, Alden, New York Times, 24 October 1969, p. 32. San Quentin News, San Quentin, Calif., 28 November 1957. Theatre Arts, New York, July 1958.

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