‘to hesitate to die to death’: Reading Augustine and the After-life in Echo’s Bones

Abstract

Echo's Bones was Beckett's first attempt at delineating a post-mortem scenario and the allusive presence of St. Augustine's Confessions played a pivotal role in that endeavour. This article examines the various methodological difficulties of analysing Beckett's notetaking from Augustine and subsequent use in the story. It is argued that two key notions emerge from Beckett's allusions to Augustine in the text: a conception of death as dependent on relations with God (one is only fully alive within the grace of God) and the need for God's help to remain continent and to turn away from the demands of desire. As such, the article gives an early indication of Beckett's later concerns with ontological questions of death-in-life and life-in-death.