One of the most unusual parts of the play is,
not surprisingly, one of the most important parts. This is Lucky's "speech", which is
given near the middle of the play. It's
importance is signalled not only by its content, but by its style and structure
as well. While any other line in the
play is important, if for no other reason, just for being there, Lucky's speech
is utterly significant. In general, the
other lines are short, limiting themselves to a sentence or just a few curt
words. While Lucky's speech is also one
sentence, it can be considered so only becuase it has one period. It takes up nearly three pages of the play in
itself.
Though the sheer length of the speech is
peculiar alone, the actual text is exceptionally bizarre. It is a seemingly senseless arabesque
thoughts, nonsense and symbols; reminiscent of 'train-of-thought'-like style,
associated largely with Beckett's contemporary James Joyce, and perhaps even
more so with the style of a later author and thinker, the somtimes surreal
William S. Burroughs and the "cut-up" method he employed. This deconstructed style could be argued to
be either inferior to traditional language structure in its confusion, or
superior in its sense of purity, creating images and sensations, not
restriciting the reader to mere words.
Lucky's speech is preceded by Vladimir
reqesting Pozzo make Lucky speak. Pozzo
insits that Lucky needs his hat to do so.
After Lucky has his hat placed upon his head, Pozzo orders him to
"Think!" Lucky begins, while
the others create a sense confusion: Pozzo becomes increasingly appalled by
Lucky's words, while Vladimir and Estragon waiver between attentiveness and
disgusted pain.
The speech is reflective of the rest of the
play (and transitively, life itself), and therefore open to
interpretation. In fact, Beckett himself
stated the great importance of the passage, suggesting that one note the
"ups and downs" of the speech; here, he said, one could find "hope".
The passage becomes something of a Rorschach
image with its layers of symbols and tones, perhaps paradoxical. Potential allusions, sometimes masked or
bastardized, litter the prose, as well as sophistric names and words. Phrases are repeated in a sort of non-patter
adding to a tone that sometimes creates the feeling of a prayer, though strange
and mocking. The interpretations are
endless, but a few interesting notes will be made.
There are a number of reoccuring phrases within
the passage, all of which offer a bit of insight. These subject the reader or audience as it
may be to different feelings while the passage is being read or spoken. At the start of the speech, words like
"divine" are repeated; images of God are juxtaposed with a Dante-esque
piece: "...plunged in torment in fire...flames". Other very significant phrases include:
"...reasons unknown but time will tell...", "...I resume...", and "...left unfinished...", which,
incidentally, ends the speech.
Other interesting phrases include "Fartov
and Belcher", seemingly important names, but ammusingly degrading at the
same time, also the presence of the words "defecation" and
"wastes". Another similar
phrase is "the Acacacacademy of Anthropopopometry", note the presence
of "caca"
("anthropometry" is the study of human body measure for use in
anthropological classification).
"Essy and Possy" most likely is a
play on the Latin words esse: to be, and posse: to be able. "Miranda" is the name of a
character in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
"Connemara" is a region in western Ireland, as well as a type
of Irish pony. "Aphasia" is an
interesting word to have appeared in the text, being a mental condition which
causes impairment of an individual's ability to comprehend language. "Apathia" is probably a play on the
word apathy.
Some sentences appear only once:
"...so calm with a calm which even though is intermittent is better than
nothing", "...I resume for reasons unknown...", "...time
will tell...", are among others.
Other images created are those of a beautiful
nature and uiversality, contrasted by those of sports (perhaps sgnifying a
game's elevation in aggressiveness), and
darker ones of death, close to the end of the speech ("...abode of
stones...", "...the skulls..."), nostalgic of a possible
Biblical interpretation.
Clearly, there is more than meets the eye for
Lucky's speech. However, it is up to
oneself to interpret the images as they fit, for the meaning of life and
oneself can be found within it.
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