One of my favorite things about reading a Beckett novel is that you can always find comedy if you look for it. No matter how melancholy the subject, there is always something hidden in the text that can make you laugh. An example of this can be found on page 13 of Molloy. Molloy is talking about his mother, and if someone in real life were to describe their mother in the same way we would be repulsed. It would be shocking to hear someone describe the situation in such detail, and it would be shocking to learn that someone actually lives like this. However, when Molloy describes the situation it is almost humorous. This is because Beckett is a master of word choice. He knows how to take a serious subject and word it in an unexpected way. For example, “My mother never refused to see me, that is she never refused to receive me, for it was many a long day since she had seen anything at all” (13). When I read this sentence I could not help but laugh. While I still felt bad about the mother, I could also see the humor of the situation. Beckett does this again on page 17 when Molloy is being arrested. “He listened to his subordinate’s report and then began to interrogate me in a tone which, from the point of view of civility, left increasingly to be desired, in my opinion” (17). While Beckett could have said, “The police officer yelled at me,” and had the same meaning, it would not have had the same effect. Here Beckett proves just how important word choice can be for setting the tone of a piece.
I keep coming back to Beckett and the idea of the absurd. His mastery of language proves how absurd he finds life to be, as meaning can be changed with the delicate choice of word. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy and appreciate Beckett much more than any other author I have read recently because of this. His wit and presentation is irresistible. He has a way of making his writing, his characters, extremely dramatic and fun while they remain apathetic and nonchalant at the same instance.
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