Endgame

(Sorry this is so late. I just realized that I never published it.)

          After watching Endgame in class I was filled with ideas, so I'm sorry if this post is a bit scattered. However, I find that this feeling is common after I watch a Beckett play. 

          One of my favorite passages from Endgame can be found on page 96:

                              Hamm: Sit on him

                       Clov: I can't sit

                       Hamm: True. And I can't stand.

                       Clov: So it is.

                       Hamm: Every man his speciality.

          What I love about this passage is that Beckett takes a situation that really isn't that funny, and he plays up the humor of it. If you look at the situation closely, you see two men living in a horrible situation. They live in a small space in a post-apocalyptic world. The elderly are kept in garbage cans, and the descriptions we hear of the world outside seem pretty grim. It is definitely not a world that I would want to live in. The two men also have physical disabilities that would surely make their lives even more difficult than they already are. However, this passage makes you momentarily forget how terrible this life would be by making the situation actually seem comical. Instead of lamenting about how horrible it is that they have these disabilities the two men make light of it. Hamm says. "Every man his speciality," as if sitting and standing are skills that only a few people possess. This section also reminded me of a quote about life:

"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."

-Charles Chaplin

          One of the other parts that stood out to me starts on page 99:

                          Nagg: Can you see me?

                    Nell: Hardly. And You?

                    Nagg: What?

                    Nell: Can you see me?

                    Nagg: Hardly.

                    Nell: So much the better, so much the better.

                    Nagg: Don't say that. 

                          [Pause.]

                          Our sight has failed.

                    Nell: Yes.

          This passage stood out to me for two reasons. The first is that I noticed the same type of repetition that was common in Waiting for Godot. One character would say something, and then the other character would repeat it word for word a few lines later. It also stood out to me, because it reminded me of a sketch done by one of my favorite comedians. The comedian is Hal Sparks, and I will leave you with a video of it: 

(The bit that I am talking about begins at about 2:20)