Beckett's and Heidegger's Corresponding View on the Issue of Death Based on the EndGame Play

Abstract

The matter of death has been and is always one of the greatest and major questions of the man. “What is death and how we can escape from or even having philosopher's stone” have been always one of the important subjects in the literature. The matter of death had and has also certain position in philosophy. Hence, this philosophical issue has been emerged in different forms in literary and artistic works. Samuel Beckett as one of the founders of absurdism in theater literature has coped to this important philosophical matter in his works. This article tries to review Heidegger’s perusal of the death matter in the play of “Endgame” by Beckett. In this research, the content of anguish and its relation with the matter of death in the play of Endgame which is resulted to prolonged ennui and absurdity has been reviewed on the strength of Heidegger’s opinions. Whereas, in this article the point is Endgame play with the theme of death, we should say the Heidegger’s philosophy could make us clear the philosophical sights of Beckett about death in this play. This matter could not just help the audiences of Beckett theater to better understand his hidden philosophy in his theater works, but could be a clear practical example to understand the phenomenological meaning of death from the Heidegger’s opinion. This article has been written by citing to librarian resources and references.

Keywords

• death
• anguish
• endgame
• beckett
• heidegger
• dasein
• ennui and absurdity