I'm assigned to speak in class about the second half of Endgame, so I'm going to build the structure for that discussion here.
Throughout the play, Hamm wants "this" or "it" to end. Presumably, his existence. His caretaker, Clov, is in general agreement with him and also wants to leave him, but can't. Clov constantly drops lines that suggest his imminent departure.
On page 46, Hamm and Clov are discussing how Hamm will know that Clov has actually left him. Clov suggests that, when Hamm whistles for him and he doesn't come, it means Clov has gone. "But you might be merely dead in your kitchen," Hamm objects, which leads to this exchange.
CLOV: Well… sooner or later I'd start to stink.
HAMM: You stink already. The whole place stinks of corpses.
CLOV: The whole universe.
Hamm and Clov are living in a grave. The only question is whether the death they're concerned about is physical death or some other kind. Death of the mind? Death of the soul? Death of hope? Death of meaning? And is Beckett suggesting that, even absent these things, we go on existing. But the question becomes, what's the point? I think Beckett's stories and plays struggle with that very question.
Insistent that Clov find a way to let Hamm determine if he is either dead or gone. "An idea," he demands. "Have an idea," echoing Pozzo's demand of Lucky to "Think, pig! Think!" as if ordering someone to come up with an idea will produce it. Clov paces for a while, thinking, and complains that his legs hurt and,"Soon I won't be able to think any more." Hamm replies, "You won't be able to leave me." Apparently this is incentive enough because Clov resumes pacing and eventually comes up with (a totally ineffective) idea that Hamm eventually accepts.
The thing that struck me about this set of lines, besides the obvious parallels between Hamm/Clov and Pozzo/Lucky, was the implication that Clov is not eternally incapable of leaving Hamm, just isn't able to leave yet. In some ways, I wonder if Hamm, here and throughout the play, isn't pushing Clov towards a level of "maturity" that will allow him to leave. Maybe the thing Hamm wants to end is his relationship with Clov. Maybe the thing he wants is solitude – perhaps so he can end (which will surely happen without Clov), or perhaps just solitude.
On page 50, just before he starts the story (which he calls an "audition" and for which he requires an audience), Hamm says, "Something dripping in my head, ever since the fontanelles." The "something dripping" refers to page 18 where Hamm says he has a heart dripping in his head – not beating, dripping, meaning it is dead and bleeding.
Initially we might think this means Hamm is having or has had a stroke or some other kind of brain bleed. But here he says the dripping has been going on "ever since the fontanelles." The fontanelles are the soft spots in an infant's skull that eventually close as the child matures (though, it may be worth noting that there is a congenital defect that causes some children's anterior fontanelle to close late or never). This suggests that the dripping has been going on in Hamm's head since he was an infant, so a traditional stroke seems unlikely. Instead, it suggests that this problem, this bleeding of whatever sort (Blood? Ideas? Thought? Something else?) has been a permanent feature of Hamm's life.
Hamm tells the story of a man who came to him wanting food for his son and, in the course of it, says, "It was an extra-ordinarily bitter day… But considering it was Christmas Eve there was nothing… extra-ordinary about that. Seasonable weather, for once in a way." This mirrors a line from "First Love" where the narrator says, "It was December already, if not January, and the cold was seasonable…". Eventually , we suspect this might be the story of how he came to have Clov as he suggests that, instead of giving the man food, the man work for him. The man asks him to "take in the child."
Hamm stops the story, but resumes it later in the play on page 83, where the stage direction says, "Narrative tone." Hamm tells the man he should abandon the child. "You want him to bloom while you are withering?" Hamm asks, as if it is wrong. "Be there to solace your last million last moments?" Selfishness is the only motive he can imagine. "He doesn't realize, all he knows is hunger, and cold, and death to crown it all. But you! You ought to know what the earth is like, nowadays." Hamm suggests that watching his father's decline is worse that hunger, cold and death. Or maybe it's the hint of hope the man hopes Hamm will offer his son that is, in Hamm's mind, so terrible. Is he saying, "The evils of Pandora's jar have free reign, let us not also loose hope upon your son." Is he saying he prefers hopelessness?
Throughout this final monologue, Clov is standing silent, dressed to leave, watching Hamm. The play ends with Hamm thinking he is alone except for the bloody handkerchief he places over his face, but with Clov still watching him. In the end, Clov is prepared to leave, but hasn't.
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