Murphy by Samuel Beckett: Introduction

'Murphy' is the presentation of the Beckettian notion of man without action. 'Murphy' has been claimed as a reader - participation novel. To understand significant thematic clue readers have to take part in the novel. Specific details can only be known after we delete out all unnecessary elements from our imaginative act of learning.


Samuel Beckett

Many important elements for the exact understanding of the novel are hidden beneath the plethora (heap) of abstract facts. Significant clues to plot and character are disguised as seemingly irrelevant and arbitrary bits of Information spilled onto the page as the narrator rushes through the text.

To introduce a pitiable character Beckett includes twenty items concerning her physical appearance from height to calf and knee size. To capture reality about Celia's womanhood and nature of her love for Murphy, it is necessary for readers to participate in the novel and bring into light the core truth from the husk of detail.

Sometime readers are apt to get lost in the heap of passive and uninteresting facts. The chess game between Mr. Endon and Murphy seem to have dubbed no contribution to the hidden subtle theme. But upon serious reflection, we happen to come across its symbolic implication.

When we arrive at the second plot of the novel, we find that the four characters (cooper, Wylie, Neary and Miss Connihan) are involved in a seemingly absurdist. These four people feel their mission executed only when they find that Murphy died a violent death. After they reached the spot of Murpy's death, we (readers) become aware about the relationship between Murphy and them.

Beckett gives unnecessarily a single passage to describe. Slowly climbing the stairs; knowing that Murphy is gone for good. The entire final scene is given to Celial's generous act of saving a wheelchair victim from drawing in a pond. What is the intended purpose behind Beckett's representation of Celia's compassion and generosity? The real purpose is to reveal how a woman who believes in action happens to save someone from self-destruction through inaction.

Beckett represents Murphy deceiving waiter. We can't understand the nature of Murphy's filthy act of deception. To understand the real meaning behind this act of deception readers have to go deeper into the subversive act of Murphy. Thus, it seems pretty pertinent to say that to comprehend the major idea of the novel readers have to participate in the novel. Without participation in the novel, the chance of capturing the core idea of the novel simply dwindles down.

'Murphy' is not about something so much as it is that something itself. In 'Murphy' Characters are moved forward with the illusion of design and purpose. But really they are represented as makers of pointless and directionless action. The so-called journey undertaken by the four characters represent the whirl of action. They know that finding out Murphy does not solve the problem they are faced with. "But with the illusion of purpose they continue to work. Thus the novel embodies an idea about how people in a modernist world happen to work with the illusion of reality.

Murphy has perceived life as a meaningless bundle of facilities. Murphy found it better to retreat to the world of oblivion and nothingness instead of being tortured in this sterile and insipid world. 'Murphy' projects the most frequently exploited seminal ideas:

• Human life leads to no progression.

• We are -entrapped in the stasis of life.

• This entrapment in the, stasis of life invites anguish, anomie, alienation and estrangement.

• Since the world is a living hell and life is sterile, it is better not to be born. Even if we accidentally get born it is better to die soon. If this is also can't be done, it is better to choose the world of nothingness.