Dramatic Technique in Endgame

Samuel Beckett profoundly uses the technique of minimalist in his well known drama Endgame. As minimal is the principal device to stage his drama, everything in it is minimal. Action, number of characters, syntax, and even setting are minimal.


Samuel Beckett

The action of Endgame is almost actionless. The few actions in the play are also based on the theory of minimalism. The main protagonist Hamm is in a wheel chair and he himself can’t move that chair. To have an action or movement he needs Clov. Throughout the play, he rarely makes any motion. Hamm’s parents Nagg and Nell are in the ashbins, whose work is just to cry, ask for food and sometime keep on trying to kiss but never get success. Clove is the character of the action in this play who is the symbol of hope and redemption. In the whole play, he performs all the actions, though the actions are limited.

The number of characters is also minimal. Hamm, Clov, Nagg and Nell are only four characters portraying in Endgame. Among four characters, Nagg and Nell are presented in the form of actionless and no motion is on their part. Remaining Hamm and Clov are shown as the main characters in action. The technique of showing very few characters in the play carries the theme of meaningless, nothingness and absurdism. In a sense, we can safely say that, Samuel Beckett has used the principle of hyper minimalism.

Except action and the number of characters, Beckett has also used the theory of minimalism in language too. The syntactic structures of sentences spoken by Hamm and Clov throughout the play are minimal and monosyllabic words. They do not communicate in detail, but in brief. The brief communication is presented in the minimal syntax. Many words used by them refer to the lack of mobility, endings, death, pain and etc. The linguistic minimalism is one of the strongest ways to deliver the meaning of meaninglessness of life and dialogue.

In the same manner, the setting and stage are kept minimal. The setting is bare and a closed room signifying the inability of modern man to move freely. In addition to this, Beckett has used the mini- dramatic technique which is a technique of not dividing the action in acts and scenes. The action of Endgame is not interrupted and has smooth coherence. It has no clear-cut beginning, middle and end, unlike the conventional concept of plot. At the end of the play, everything is where they were before. This technique suggests lack of progression of the modern people. Beckett is of the avant-gardist playwright and Endgame is his best example of experimental and avant-gardist notion. He detached his play from the conventional notion of drama and experimented with language, setting, character and even in theme.