The Chess Metaphor in Samuel Beckett's Endgame

Abstract

Samuel Beckett's drama depicts a relentless search for the central self or the ultimate being which remains unidentified, unseen and unattainable. Time makes this search an unending process by presenting the seeker with the illusion of being static and at the same. time creating a flux, making the distinction between illusion and reality blurred. The central self which eschews the seeker is often presented in Beckett's works as a non-existent entity. In Waiting for Godot the central self that the tramps could never get at is presented as the enigmatic Godot. Alain Robbe-Grillet observes that "Godot is the inaccessible self. " In Watt this non-existent central reality takes the form of Mr. Knott, who never makes his appearance and who is continuously sought out.4 In the course of this futile search, man is caught within the infinity of Time, and bewilderment at the nature of Time finds its expression in such telling phrases as Vladimir's "Time has stopped" or Hamm's "time was never and time is over." Thus an "Infinite emptiness" binds their lives, as Hamm says in Endgame.