A Study Of The Will To Life In Endgame

The search for the essence of things was a desire resided in the heart of Samuel Beckett since childhood.Besides,it is also one of the reasons why numerous critics believe that Beckett’s work has a philosophical undertone.Beckett’s Endgame promotes the development of the text by describing the will pain suffered by human beings in a desperate situation and explaining the emotional changes and living conditions of the characters in a day.Some foreign scholars have mentioned in their works that Endgame(1958)reflects Schopenhauer’s metaphysical philosophy.However,little attention has been paid by the critics in Endgame of Schopenhauer’s view of the will to life that embodied in the characters’ behaviors.Also,some scholars believed that Beckett is a proponent of nihilism,which are dissent from my point of view,as I argue that Beckett’s works was not advocating nihilism but reflecting reality.Beckett’s work Endgame had profoundly reflected the inner confusion of the generation and Beckett’s reflection life.Taking Schopenhauer’s philosophy of the will to life as the chief theory and Endgame as the research object,this thesis demonstrates the philosophical thoughts in Beckett’s works.Referring to the plot of Endgame and Schopenhauer’s the will to life theory.The text of the thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter discusses the pain of the Endgame characters as their wills or desires are not satisfied.Schopenhauer supposed that “feeling” and “knowledge” are two ways to embody the human will.According to Schopenhauer’s definition,except abstract rational cognition,there is only “feeling” left in the human will and Schopenhauer’s classification of diverse types of “feeling”.The first chapter delves into the characters’ survival pain from three aspects of their cognition,corporeal feeling,and emotional feeling.The second chapter discusses the characters in Endgame,and their blind struggle for survival in spirit and behavior spurred on by will.Some negative behaviors accompanied by the action of the will on the characters are deeply discussed and explained.Human beings’ limited ability determines that the protagonists can only passively fight against the fickle fate blindly.But this kind of struggle is not nihilistic,it actually facilitates the characters to understand their own will and find a way to negate their will.The third chapter demonstrates Beckett’s supplement to the philosophical envisage of negating the will to life reflected in Endgame.In his book The World as Will and Representation,Schopenhauer regards denying the will of life as the solution to pain.However,Schopenhauer’s concept of negating the will to life also has some limitations in its application in real life.In the conclusion section,Beckett profoundly thought and explored the individual’s will to life in his tragicomedy Endgame.Beckett did not create nothingness by describing the absurdity of reality in his productions.As Beckett’s favorite drama work,Endgame has a peculiar conception and a bold style that displays Beckett’s innovative vitality in art and conveys his bountiful philosophical thinking about life.