Play Literary Elements

Dramatic play

English (first preformed in German)

Unclear. Beckett intended for the play to have no exact setting or time. The setting appears to only be the stage the three urns are displayed on it. The way the three characters can not hear each other suggests a purgatory of some sort, but it is unknown.

Due to being a play, the play has no exact narrator. The three characters deliver their own versions of the main monologue as narrators. Thus, as narrators, the three characters (M, W1, and W2) act as narrators to the audience, but their is no main narrator. It is only what the audience is able to hear.

The major tone of the play is dark, foreboding, and discordant. Beckett intended for the performance to be confusing. Their is an element of eeriness to it as well as the three characters are meant to deliver their lines in a monotone voice most of the time. The performance itself is almost mechanical as the three react to the light that shines on them.

Their is no clear Protagonist or Antagonist. It appears M is suppose to be the main character as he cheated on his wife W1 with W2. The entire play revolves around his affair and how W1 punished him for it by burning his belongings.

The affair between M and W2 which was discovered by W1. While not clearly shown or stated, W1 took revenge on M and W2 after they continued to cheat on her. She burned her husbands belongings and is implied to have killed them (though this is only alluded to). The rest of the play is dedicated to the three characters inability to fix or rectify their mistakes. They are stuck in the looping repetition of the performance.

The play has no obvious climax. It appears to be in the second half of the play which repeats the first in a different order. It suggests the three characters are unable to escape the limbo they exist it. As the light continues to force them to talk, they begin to repeat again and again what they have already stated. There is no escape from it.

M's statement of "We were not long together" foreshadows both his own story and end of the play. His relationship with W2 was not long, but he refused to end it so it angered W1 (his wife). The phrase "We were not long together" is also repeated at the end of the play implying the entire scenario is a loop. M, W1, and W2 are eternally stuck repeating the same things again and again. Just as they were "not long together", this one act play is not long, but it keeps repeating like their situation.

Much of the "humor" of the play is based on understatement. The situation the three characters are describing is not uncommon, but their situation (stuck in urns on a stage) makes it very odd. None of the characters directly acknowledge the urns, the stage, or each other. The only thing they can see is the stage light. The absolutely bizarre situation is suppose to be simply accepted by the audience.

While no direct allusions, the play shares many qualities with other Samuel Beckett plays: short, few characters, odd situation, repetition, and only the vague sense of a plot. Beckett's style is very distinctive throughout it.

The major imagery of the play is the three urns in which M, W1, and W2 are contained. While never directly addressed, the urns (with their faces covered in ash) imply many things about their conditions and mistakes. The urns allow only their heads to be seen and prevent them from moving about the stage. This means they can only tell their story/monologue when the light strikes them. The urns (as containers of ash) also relate back to how W1 burned M's belongings. While fire never directly appears in the play, this does link the urns to burning and perhaps hell.

While there are no paradoxes in the dialogue, the play itself engages in Paradox. The play is a play without much acting or motion. The characters are set in urns and deliver their lines in a monotone voice. The play attempts to defy the stereotypical setup and ideas of theater. Beckett's intent is to make the audience question the concept of a play or performance itself.

The dialogue of M, W1, and W2 all parallel each other. As they never directly interact, the three stories (or three versions of one story) are all parallel to the audience. Though these three versions of the story are not exactly the same as it is being told from three different perspectives.

The stage light is considered a "fourth character" in the play. While it has no dialogue, the light is what forces M, W1, and W2 to talk and tell their story. It goads them into admitting their mistakes to the audience they can not see. As it interacts with the story itself, the light begins to move the play's "plot" along.

Dramatic monologue is a major element of the play. Nearly all the play is three separate dramatic monologues being delivered at the same time. Often, the three monologues run over each other as the light switches between characters or makes them speak at the same time. When all three speak at the same time, M, W!, and W2 become the play's chorus. They often echo or repeat statements are made earlier in the play. The only thing the three can see is the stage light which cues them to talk. As the stage light acts as an element or character in the plot, it breaks the fourth wall.