Author: Samuel Beckett
-Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French
-Born: April 13, 1906, Foxrock, Republic of Ireland
-Stabbed by a pimp in 1937
-The play opens on a bare stage in gray light. It is a room of Hamm's house. (He's also blind.) The first character to appear is Hamm's servant, Clov, who goes through a long routine – he opens the curtains on the windows and pulls the sheets off of all the other characters. He then goes to his kitchen.
-When Hamm awakens, he calls for Clov, and the two of them discuss the possibility of things ending.
-Hamm calls again for Clov so that Clov can take him for a tour around the room in Hamm's wheelchair. As Clov returns Hamm to his original spot, Hamm becomes obsessed with being in the exact center of the room.
-Hamm then demands that Clov look out the window and report what he sees, which is nothing. Clov says that he is sick of their farce, day after day. Hamm, for his part, worries that the two of them are beginning to mean something. Clov discovers that he has a flea. Both of them worry that the flea might have babies and start up the world from scratch again. Clov kills it dramatically with a can of insecticide.
-Later, Hamm asks Clov to kill him, but Clov says that he can't.
-Clov wonders why he never refuses Hamm's orders, and Hamm says that it is because Clov is unable to. Hamm recalls a madman that he knew, who thought that the entire world was ashes.
-Once again, Clov threatens to leave. Hamm and Clov get into a long debate about how Hamm would know if Clov left or if Clov died in the kitchen.
-Hamm has Clov awaken Nagg, so that Nagg will listen to his story. Hamm recounts what is probably the story of how he obtained Clov from Clov's father, who was one of Hamm's subjects before the end of the world. At the end of the story, Hamm tells Nagg that there are no more sugarplums. Nagg curses him at length, and returns to his bin.
-Hamm makes Clov bring him his dog again. After he does so, Clov begins to tidy things up around the room. When Hamm asks what he is doing, Clov says that he is trying to put things in order, because order is his dream. Hamm demands that Clov check on his parents, and they learn that his mother, Nell, is dead, and Nagg is in his trash bin crying. Neither Hamm nor Clov show any sign of sympathy for Nagg.
-Hamm asks Clov if he has ever been happy. Clov says no. Hamm makes Clov bring him under the window because he wants to feel the light, but he realizes that there is none. When he gets back to the center of the room, Hamm asks Clov to kiss him, but Clov refuses. Hamm makes a speech in which he talks about how the end happened right in the beginning and yet they continued on. Hamm forces Clov to check the windows again for action outside. Clov becomes extremely frustrated with him, and when Hamm again asks for his stuffed dog, Clov rushes over and hits him with it.
-Clov, looking out the window, thinks that he sees a boy, and decides to go find him. Hamm says that he doesn't need Clov anymore, but asks him for a few parting words for Hamm to hold in his heart. Clov recalls all the promises of happiness people made to him when he was growing up, and then thinks how happy he will be when he finally falls. Clov goes to the kitchen. Hamm calls for him, but he does not respond. Hamm calls for his father, but he does not respond either. Hamm decides that this is good, and casts away his few possessions. He makes a short speech on the nature of ending and then covers his face with his handkerchief. Clov stands in the doorway the entire time, dressed to go, but unmoving.
Theme:
Died: December 22, 1989, Paris, France
-Met his wife in a hospital
-Plays are related to dark humor
-Plays focus on human despair and the will to survive in a world that offers no help in understanding
-Awarded nobel prize for literature
-Died soon after his wife
Plot:
-Endgame is set after some sort of apocalyptic disaster (though we never learn the details). Hamm, his servant Clov, his father Nagg, and his mother Nell are trapped together in Hamm's home.
-Language and communication
-Compassion and forgiveness
-isolation
-defeat
-suffering
-pride
-existence
Theatre:
-Minimalism
-Absurdism
-Not a lot of furniture
-Dark lighting
-Dark walls and floor
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