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Hamm is an old blind man who is unable to move from his wheeled armchair, which sits at the center of a room with two high windows. A cantankerous man whose mind rarely settles on one topic for very long, Hamm lives with his caretaker, Clov, and his two elderly parents, Nagg and Nell, both of whom he keeps in trashcans next to his chair. The first time the audience sees Hamm, he’s covered in a large sheet, which Clov removes, revealing that Hamm is asleep with a bloody handkerchief draped over his face. Throughout the play, Hamm talks about waiting for an “end” of sorts, perhaps thinking that this end—whatever it is—will stop his suffering and misery, which he recognizes as inherent to life itself. Despite his wish for finality, though, Hamm never finds himself capable of fully embracing his own end (or, for that matter, any kind of end). He sometimes asks Clov to kill him, but this never transpires. In general, he mainly focuses on talking to Clov about whether or not the young man will finally leave him. He also often asks questions about what the world outside looks like, conversing with Clov about the fact that everything outside of his room is “death.” At one point, he tells a story, saying that a man came to him once and asked for his help, explaining that he and his ailing son needed shelter and food. Hamm decided to take them in, and this, it seems, is how Clov came to be his caretaker. In this capacity, Clov obeys Hamm’s orders, though he never gives him painkillers, which Hamm asks for multiple times. By the end of the play, Hamm’s mother, Nell, has died, but he hardly pays attention to the matter, too preoccupied with his odd and halting monologues about suffering and time. The play ends with Hamm putting the bloody handkerchief back on his face, returning to the state of rest he was in at the very beginning of the piece.
Hamm Quotes in Endgame
The Endgame quotes below are all either spoken by Hamm or refer to Hamm. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Endgame
Quotes
CLOV: [fixed gaze, tonelessly] Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.
[Pause.]
Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there’s a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.
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Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Can there be misery—
[he yawns]
—loftier than mine? No doubt. Formerly. But now?
[Pause.]
My father?
[Pause.]
My mother?
[Pause.]
My…dog?
[Pause.]
Oh I am willing to believe they suffer as much as such creatures can suffer. But does that mean their sufferings equal mine? No doubt.
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HAMM: […] Enough, it’s time it ended, in the shelter too.
[Pause.]
And yet I hesitate, I hesitate to…to end. Yes, there it is, it’s time it ended and yet I hesitate to—
[he yawns]
—to end.
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CLOV: Yes!
[Pause.]
Of what?
HAMM: Of this…this…thing.
CLOV: I always had.
[Pause.]
Not you?
HAMM: [gloomily] Then there’s no reason for it to change.
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HAMM: […] Why do you stay with me?
CLOV: Why do you keep me?
HAMM: There’s no one else.
CLOV: There’s nowhere else.
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CLOV: […] I’ll leave you, I have things to do.
HAMM: In your kitchen?
CLOV: Yes.
HAMM: What, I’d like to know.
CLOV: I look at the wall.
HAMM: The wall! And what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene? Naked bodies?
CLOV: I see my light dying.
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HAMM: [anguished] What’s happening, what’s happening?
CLOV: Something is taking its course.
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NELL: Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more.
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CLOV: […] [He gets down, picks up the telescope, turns it on auditorium.] I see…a multitude…in transports…of joy.
[Pause.]
That’s what I call a magnifier.
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HAMM: We’re not beginning to…to…meaning something?
CLOV: Mean something! You and I, mean something!
[Brief laugh.]
Ah that’s a good one!
HAMM: I wonder.
[Pause.]
Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn’t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough.
[Voice of rational being.]
Ah, good, now I see what it is, yes, now I understand what they’re at!
[Clov starts, drops the telescope and begins to scratch his belly with both hands. Normal voice.]
And without going so far as that, we ourselves…
[with emotion]
…we ourselves…at certain moments…
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HAMM: I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter—and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I’d take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising com! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness!
[Pause.]
He’d snatch away his hand and go back into his comer. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes.
[Pause.]
He alone had been spared.
[Pause.]
Forgotten.
[Pause.]
It appears the case is…was not so…so unusual.
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HAMM: […] Use your head, can’t you, use your head, you’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!
[…]
But what in God’s name do you imagine? That the earth will awake in spring? That the rivers and seas will run with fish again? That there’s manna in heaven still for imbeciles like you?
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NAGG: […] Yes, I hope I’ll live till then, to hear you calling me like when you were a tiny boy, and were frightened, in the dark, and I was your only hope.
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HAMM: […] Did you never hear an aside before?
[Pause.]
I’m warming up for my last soliloquy.
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HAMM: […] Moments for nothing, now as always, time was never and time is over, reckoning closed and story ended.
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Get the entire Endgame LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hamm Quotes in Endgame
The Endgame quotes below are all either spoken by Hamm or refer to Hamm. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Endgame
Quotes
CLOV: [fixed gaze, tonelessly] Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.
[Pause.]
Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there’s a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Can there be misery—
[he yawns]
—loftier than mine? No doubt. Formerly. But now?
[Pause.]
My father?
[Pause.]
My mother?
[Pause.]
My…dog?
[Pause.]
Oh I am willing to believe they suffer as much as such creatures can suffer. But does that mean their sufferings equal mine? No doubt.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Enough, it’s time it ended, in the shelter too.
[Pause.]
And yet I hesitate, I hesitate to…to end. Yes, there it is, it’s time it ended and yet I hesitate to—
[he yawns]
—to end.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
CLOV: Yes!
[Pause.]
Of what?
HAMM: Of this…this…thing.
CLOV: I always had.
[Pause.]
Not you?
HAMM: [gloomily] Then there’s no reason for it to change.
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Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Why do you stay with me?
CLOV: Why do you keep me?
HAMM: There’s no one else.
CLOV: There’s nowhere else.
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Explanation and Analysis:
CLOV: […] I’ll leave you, I have things to do.
HAMM: In your kitchen?
CLOV: Yes.
HAMM: What, I’d like to know.
CLOV: I look at the wall.
HAMM: The wall! And what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene? Naked bodies?
CLOV: I see my light dying.
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Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: [anguished] What’s happening, what’s happening?
CLOV: Something is taking its course.
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Explanation and Analysis:
NELL: Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
CLOV: […] [He gets down, picks up the telescope, turns it on auditorium.] I see…a multitude…in transports…of joy.
[Pause.]
That’s what I call a magnifier.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: We’re not beginning to…to…meaning something?
CLOV: Mean something! You and I, mean something!
[Brief laugh.]
Ah that’s a good one!
HAMM: I wonder.
[Pause.]
Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn’t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough.
[Voice of rational being.]
Ah, good, now I see what it is, yes, now I understand what they’re at!
[Clov starts, drops the telescope and begins to scratch his belly with both hands. Normal voice.]
And without going so far as that, we ourselves…
[with emotion]
…we ourselves…at certain moments…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter—and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I’d take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising com! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness!
[Pause.]
He’d snatch away his hand and go back into his comer. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes.
[Pause.]
He alone had been spared.
[Pause.]
Forgotten.
[Pause.]
It appears the case is…was not so…so unusual.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Use your head, can’t you, use your head, you’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!
[…]
But what in God’s name do you imagine? That the earth will awake in spring? That the rivers and seas will run with fish again? That there’s manna in heaven still for imbeciles like you?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
NAGG: […] Yes, I hope I’ll live till then, to hear you calling me like when you were a tiny boy, and were frightened, in the dark, and I was your only hope.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Did you never hear an aside before?
[Pause.]
I’m warming up for my last soliloquy.
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Explanation and Analysis:
HAMM: […] Moments for nothing, now as always, time was never and time is over, reckoning closed and story ended.
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