Trapped in the Echoes of the Void: Deconstructing Meaning through Kowzan’s Signs and Grice’s Maxims in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame

Abstract

This paper examines Samuel Beckett’s Endgame (1958) as a key work of Absurd theatre, which has its own conventions in depicting the world and the lives of people. It also has its own way of representing that world. Through language and other elements that find their place on the stage, Absurd dramatists like Samuel Beckett present plays that are characterised by this manner. His play, Endgame, is considered as the most pessimistic of his literary productions. Through an analysis that includes a textual and visual inspection, this paper employs a multimodal approach. The aim is to show how Endgame is, in fact, a play of the Absurd theatre, as it embodies themes of decay, isolation, and futility. Therefore, by applying Tadeusz Kowzan’s framework of the system of signs, adapted for this analysis, and Grice’s conversational maxims, the research investigates how Beckett deconstructs both meaning and communication. This analysis, therefore, unfolds over two stages: the first, a visual analysis focusing on the four systems of sound, decoration, design, and kinetics, followed by a second stage of text-level analysis that inspects the intrinsic features of the text. This paper demonstrates how the characters find themselves in a trapped world, with repetitive existence where life’s meanings are trivialised and reduced to "the itch of a fly" as epitomised by Hamm’s reference. Therefore, this study highlights how Beckett is actually critiquing the human communication and meaning-making process in an absurd universe, presenting Endgame as a reflective exploration of existential despair.