Endgame

by

Samuel Beckett

Themes and Colors
Meaning, Narrative, and Engagement Theme Icon
Time, Progress, and Stasis Theme Icon
Misery and Suffering Theme Icon
Companionship, Dependency, and Compassion Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Endgame, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Misery and Suffering Theme Icon

Although it’s not always entirely clear what the characters in Beckett’s Endgame suffer from, it’s overwhelmingly apparent that they are miserable. Hamm, in particular, considers the nature of his own suffering, wondering at the beginning of the play if other people could possibly suffer as much as he himself suffers, eventually deciding that they must indeed experience misery as acutely as he does. Of course, it’s not hard to discern why he’s in agony—after all, when the audience first sees him, he has a bloody handkerchief covering his face. A blind man unable to move on his own, he sits in a bare room and depends entirely upon Clov, frequently asking for a painkiller that Clov never lets him have. This suggests that Hamm is in a constant state of pain, ostensibly explaining why he thinks of himself as suffering. However, Clov also upholds that he himself miserable, telling Hamm at one point that he has never experienced even a moment of happiness. Unlike Hamm, though, Clov doesn’t suffer from any readily apparent afflictions, though he seems to suffer all the same. This is because the kind of suffering that takes place in Endgame has little to do with physical pain or discomfort. Rather, it has to do with what Beckett sees as the inherent painfulness of the human condition, something Hamm insists cannot be cured. Accordingly, Endgame is a play that frames misery and suffering as integral to the human experience.

Hamm believes that all living beings are inherently miserable, and he yearns to find an end to the suffering that comes with existence. His preoccupation with misery emerges early in the play, when he first wakes up and removes a bloodied handkerchief from his face. Yawning, he asks himself if there could possibly be misery greater than his, wondering if his father, mother, or dog experiences the same amount of suffering as him. Thinking for a moment, he concedes that they must “suffer as much as such creatures can suffer,” going on to add that this must mean their suffering is equal to his own. This illustrates that Hamm thinks all living “creatures” are equally miserable. And since a human and a dog undoubtedly experience life differently, it follows that life itself must be the very thing that causes their suffering, since existence is the only thing that all living “creatures” have in common. This, perhaps, is why Hamm is so eager throughout the play to reach some kind of ending. “Have you not had enough?” he asks Clov, implying that Hamm sees death or change as the only ways to escape misery and suffering.

Whereas Hamm intuits that suffering is part of existence but constantly complains about it, his mother, Nell, also accepts suffering as integral to the human experience, but embraces it. “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness,” she tells her husband, Nagg. This, however, doesn’t mean that she laughs at sorrow. Rather, she registers misery as deeply funny without feeling the need to laugh. “Yes,” she says to Nagg, “it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more.” In this moment, it becomes clear that Nell is perhaps the only person in Endgame who makes peace with suffering, since everybody else rails against it in one way or another: Hamm hopes it will end, Clov thinks he can escape it by striking out on his own, and Nagg seeks comfort in worldly delights. Interestingly enough, Nell is also the only person who manages to unburden herself of life’s miseries by dying. Indeed, Hamm and the other characters are left to continue their struggles with life’s wretchedness. And even though Hamm knows that suffering is unavoidable—at one point exclaiming to no one in particular, “[…] you’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!”—he fails to fully reconcile himself with this unfortunate condition in the pragmatic yet good-humored way that Nell does. Hamm therefore represents one of life’s inherent dilemmas, as he wants his suffering to end but also wants to continue living in order to experience life without suffering—something Beckett intimates is impossible, since misery is unavoidably part of existence. This means, unfortunately, that one can never actually experience the absence of suffering.

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Misery and Suffering ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Misery and Suffering appears in each chapter of Endgame. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Misery and Suffering Quotes in Endgame

Below you will find the important quotes in Endgame related to the theme of Misery and Suffering.
Endgame Quotes

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: Hamm (speaker), Clov
Related Symbols: The Bloody Handkerchief
Page Number: 9
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.

Related Characters: Hamm (speaker), Clov (speaker)
Page Number: 19
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.

Related Characters: Nell (speaker), Hamm, Nagg
Page Number: 26
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: Hamm (speaker), Clov
Page Number: 52
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: Hamm (speaker), Clov
Page Number: 61
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.

Related Characters: Nagg (speaker), Hamm
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis: