Nagg Character Analysis

An elderly man who lost his legs years ago in a tandem bike-riding accident with his wife, Nell, Nagg lives in a trashcan that remains stationed next to Hamm’s chair. He periodically pops his head out of this trashcan to listen to and converse with Hamm and Clov, depending on them to feed him pap (a kind of mush) or biscuits. It eventually emerges that Nagg is Hamm’s father, a fact that Hamm holds against him, cursing him for giving him life. Unlike Hamm and Clov, though, Nagg is somewhat good-spirited, even if he often complains about hunger. When he converses with Nell, he reminisces about their old life before launching into a joke about a tailor. He is the only person to find this joke funny, but this doesn’t deter him from having a hearty laugh. Throughout the play, Hamm orders Clov to shut Nagg back in his garbage bin, and Nagg eventually says that he hopes he grows old enough to see Hamm regress to his childlike ways, when he used to call out for his father in the night—a sentiment that seems endearing at first but ultimately suggests that Nagg wants to witness his son become helpless and frightened. After Nagg does go back into his trashcan, Nell falls into a sort of delirium and passes away. At the end of the play, Nagg remains shut inside his trashcan, weeping because Nell has died.