Quantum Theory and Samuel Beckett’s Endgame

Abstract

ABSTRACT:With an especial focus on Endgame, the author demonstrates how a number of Beckett’s works exhibit a strong affinity with ideas put forth by quantum physicists in the early twentieth century. Many of Beckett’s novels present a failure of ontology and depict elements of discontinuity that appear to be in direct conversation with discoveries in the subatomic universe, and these ideas culminate in his later play. The author argues that parody becomes a key component in Beckett’s conception of new form, and that he uses it to undermine traditional ways of ordering the universe, including humanist, religious, and empirical conceptions and beliefs. In their place, Beckett creates a world for his characters that embodies Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Niels Bohr’s theory of complementarity.