Blindness in the Beckettland of Malfunctioning

Jadwiga Uchman

doi:10.1515/texmat-2018-0008

Authors

Jadwiga Uchman PWSZ Płock

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/texmat-2018-0008

Keywords:

Beckett, drama, blindness

Abstract

Many of Beckett characters suffer from different kinds of disabilities and impairments, this being one of the ways of punishing them for “the eternal sin of having been born.” The article discusses blindness in Waiting for Godot, Endgame and All That Fall. In the first of these plays blindness afflicts Pozzo during the interval between the two acts, that is during a single night. Combined with the loss of his watch it is indicative of his entering the subjective realm of timelessness. The blindness of Hamm in Endgame and his inability to walk make him dependant on Clov who is unable to sit, which recalls Pozzo’s dependence on Lucky in the second act. Similarly, the blind Mr Rooney also must get help from other people to be able to move around. In the case of all three plays blindness must be perceived on a literal, as well as metaphorical level.

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Author Biography

Jadwiga Uchman, PWSZ Płock

Jadwiga Uchman (Prof. dr hab.) specializes in modern English Drama, especially poetic drama, the Theatre of the Absurd, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard. She is the author of numerous articles and three books: The Problem of Time in the Plays of Samuel Beckett (Łódź, 1987), Reality, Illusion, Theatricality: A Study of Tom Stoppard (Łódź, 1998) and Playwrights and Directors: Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter (Łódź, 2011).

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