Endgame (play) - Analysis and Interpretation

Analysis and Interpretation

The English title is taken from the last part of a chess game, when there are very few pieces left (the French title applies to games besides chess and Beckett lamented the fact that there was no precise English equivalent); Beckett himself was an avid chess player.

It has also been suggested that Hamm relates to "ham actor" and Ham, son of Noah, while Clov is a truncated version of "clown," as well as suggesting cloven hoof (of the devil) and glove (a distant echo of hand and glove, perhaps). Nagg suggests nagging and the German nagen (to gnaw), while Nell recalls Dickens' Little Nell. Equally Hamm could be short for Hammer and Clov be "clove", hammer and nail representing one aspect of their relationship. In this light, Nagg and Nell, taken together, may suggest the German Nagel (nail); vague references in the text to Hamm's neighbor, Mother Pegg, are also relevant. In the Paris Review article "Exorcising Beckett", Lawrence Shainberg claims that according to Beckett the characters' names signify the following: Hamm for Hammer, Clov for clou (the French for nail), Nagg for nagel (the German for nail), and Nell because of its resemblance to the English word nail.

Ruby Cohn, in her book Back to Beckett, writes that "Beckett's favorite line in the play is Hamm's deduction from Clov's observation that Nagg is crying: Then he's living." But in Berlin he felt that the most important sentence is Nell's: "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness." and he directed his play to show the fun of unhappiness.