Neuroses in the plays Waste Land by Eliot and Endgame by Samuel Beckett

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Neuroses in the plays ‘Waste Land’ by Eliot and ‘Endgame’ by Samuel Beckett
Thesis Statement
Neurosis is defined as a functional disorder in which a person develops a feeling of anxiety; obsess ional thoughts, compulsive acts and physical complaints without substantive evidence of the disease. This disorder goes ahead to dominate the personality of a person. The person thus becomes unable to adjust to the conditions which require him to adjust.
A neurotic person may show signs of anxiety, fear, suspecting that someone will do something strange to them.
In the plays ‘Waste Land’ and ‘Endgame’, there are various types of neuroses. For instance, in the play ‘Waste land’ some of the neuroses include lack of faith, lack of communication and fear of death. In the play ‘Endgame’ some of the neuroses covered includes existentialism and lack of unwillingness to know.
This article tries to examine the themes of ‘Lack of faith’ in the play ‘Waste Land’ and ‘Existentialism’ in the play ‘Endgame’. The article gives an insight into how the characters in the plays exhibited these themes and gives an explanation of the behavior of the characters.
Discussion
In the play ‘Endgame’, existentialism is seen as neurosis on the behavior of the characters in the play. Existentialism is a mental attitude where a person does not want to examine more about what is taking place around him. This is neurosis because the person is afraid of what will happen if he goes deeper and knew what he is supposed to know. The characters in the play are therefore considered to be neurotic. The main theme that invokes neurosis in the behavior of characters in the play is existentialism. The recurrent nature of characters in the play is reflective of the endgame of a chess match, where players are just relaxed waiting for the end – which can be end of life (Cole, p. 56). The characters are simply going through a routine which repeats itself. It is the repetition of the routines of characters that contributes to the theme of existentialism in the play. The characters live in a confined place where there is less exposure to the outside world. This is an indication that they are afraid to go to the outside world and explore the contents of the world and the people who live there. They have allowed everything to be the way they are.
The actions of characters in the play reveal boredom, absurd, alienation, nothingness and death. These themes are revealed in the actions of characters ad their dialogue.
Hamm is a character who is unable to see and cannot stand and is affected by ailments resulting from old age. He keeps asking Clov if the time for his painkiller has reached. Clov walks uncomfortably around the small room waiting for Hamm to call him. The two characters are also isolated. This makes us believe that for these characters, everyday is just like any other day, nothing new comes into existence and everything is bleak. They are therefore exhibiting the neurosis of unwillingness to question how life goes on. This is due to neurosis of existentialism. They assume that everything is just the way they are and nothing can be changed.
Several occasions, every character talks about the sameness of life, everything being the same on daily basis. Clove says that all lifelong the same questions and the same answers. Later, Hamm asks Clov, ‘It is the end of the day like any other day, isn’t it, Clov?’ It further seems that both characters know the answer to this question, but they do not tell it to the audience. This is a case of neurosis because the characters are unwilling to accept tat changes are taking place in their surrounding. Due to neurosis of existentialism, they assume that everything is the way it has always been which is not true. The audience is left to think about these questions that the characters do not provide answers to (Chevigny, p. 45).
In the play ‘Endgame’ only four characters are involved: Hamm, Clov, Nag and Nell. In addition, there is no sign of meaningful life outside where these characters live.
Hamm asks Clov what time it is but Clov answers that the time is zero. The minimalist environment and the fact that time is not running, or is non-existent is isolating both for the characters in the play and the audience. This is neurosis of unwillingness to accept the changes that are taking place, including the changes in time. Hamm also claims that outside where they live is death. He also relies on Clov to tell him what the world looks like from a small window in their house. Hamm also asks Clov what is in the horizon but he is told nothing is there. This is neurosis of unwillingness to know what is happening in the outside world. If Hamm was not neurotic, he could have asked Clov to take him out so that he could see the world for himself. However, he has neurosis of unwillingness to know more about the world and relies on Clov’s observation.
Hamm also shows neurosis in the qu...