—Anonymous
Once I read the play “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett I decided that this play will be the text that I am going to write about for the Great Work Pilot paper. I can not stress this enough, but this play is the most mysterious text I have ever read since I started college in 2017. I read it the first time and once I finished, I was completely lost and wondering whether I know what I read or not. I did not know what is the point that the author is trying to convey or what is the story behind choosing these characters that were odd in my point of view. I am not going to lie but this play made me feel uncomfortable for so many reasons. First, as I was reading it, I felt as if I was trapped in the same room with the Clov and the others which were not fun at all. Second, I think that the current situation that we are going through has a lot to do with feeling this way. This play reminded me of the tough situation of the quarantine that the entire world is going through due to the epidemic. It is very similar to what we are facing now and the fact that the story does not tell us what is in the outside world I felt as if the Coronavirus is awaiting Clov once he decides to leave. The unclarity of the situation in the story is very similar to our situation and I believe that everyone who reads this play now will feel the same way and will find no difficulties relating to it. If I have to quote a part of the play that is very relevant to what I have just said is this part:
HAMM:
Nature has forgotten us.
CLOV:
There’s no more nature.
HAMM:
No more nature! You exaggerate.
CLOV:
In the vicinity.
HAMM:
But we breathe, we change! We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom! Our ideals!
CLOV:
Then she hasn’t forgotten us.
This dialog between Clov and Hamm hit differently I will say. The fact that I am trapped inside for more than a month now made me believe that nothing exists outside anymore
However, after feeling uncomfortable from the first reading, I did not stop there. I went to the professor’s note that she provided us with, and I read them carefully. Besides that, I watched her video about this play on YouTube and the video of the play itself. I also read some comments on this play that opened my eyes to points I ignored in the first reading. Finally, I decided to read the play for the second time which helped me to form and gather the main ideas that I believe the author is trying to convey to the audience. After that, it became clear to me that the open-ended approach and the odd characters are what make this play a great work because they allow us to debate about their meaning.
