A Study On Beckett’s Endgame From The Perspective Of The Becoming Theory

Endgame is one of the masterpieces by Beckett whose rebellion against thetraditional drama has been profoundly showcased by its abstruse theme, fragmentedtime and space, intertwined plot, abstract and alienated characterization along withthe stage presence of extreme simplicity and absurdity. As the very artistic creationwhich Beckett endears the most, it explores the motif “waiting” which has beenimmensely ruminated in his prior work Waiting for Godot and probes into the veryfidget and emptiness experienced by the individual as an existential entity. Endgamemanifests an intense influence as shown by the existentialist poetics; meanwhile italso manifests a strong philosophical tendency like anti-tradition, anti-centricity, andanti-essentiality. In Endgame, Beckett cultivates a group of distinctive charactersamong whom Clov keeps reinforcing the impression on him as a fluxing haecceityaimed to flee and become something with which Beckettian works never cease toentail. This is quite a correspondence to what Deleuze calls in his becomingphilosophy with the notions like rhizome, deterritorialization, and line of flight and soon. These two great tentative thinkers in existence have all done some contributionsto rebelling against the immanent and dogmatic philosophical traditions since Plato. Itis the uncertainty of the reference that makes Endgame full of potentials. Everythingis unsettled. Everything is fluxing, connecting, becoming, and at the same timeinspiring as the text proceeds. The ambivalent and intricate inferential network caninvoke very complicated but unique aesthetic emotions. The very reality of humanbeing has thus been extremely abstracted and minimalized. In general, the playintroduces us an uncompromising artistic panorama.The main body of the thesis is comprised of three chapters. In the first chapter,the concept of rhizome from Deleuze’s corpus has been borrowed to analyze thecharacterization and the time and space in Endgame. In doing so, the artistic featureslike anti-hierarchy, anti-centricity, anti-genealogy, and anti-system have beenexplored and exposed. In the second chapter, the efforts have mainly been exerted on the dramatic elements of plot and ethnics by applying Deleuzian de-territorialization.The Endgame’s features of being different with traditional dramas and itspost-structuralist connotations have been further exploited. In chapter three, the mostdistinctive concept “becoming” in Deleuze’s philosophy has been utilized ininterpreting the becoming, fluxing and anti-essence qualities inherent in Endgame inwhich the sub-concepts like becoming-animal and becoming-woman are used inminute details to uncover its post-structuralist connotations.This thesis aims to expose Endgame’s imbued post-structuralist implications byapplying Deleuzian highly-creative notions of core importance in his BecomingTheory altogether with the close text analysis and interpretation of certain dramaticelements. This thesis also tries to jump out of the “absurdity” box and bring aboutmore pluralistic perspectives by exploring the time and space, the interrelationship ofthe characters and its language style.