Biography of Samuel Beckett

Escape cancer of time

13 April 1906 22 December 1989 Samuel Beckett was born on April 13, 1906 in Ireland, Foxrock, a small town near Dublin, where he spent a childhood quiet, not marked by special events. Like all kids her age attended high school but has the good fortune to enter the Port Royal School, the same school that housed a few decades ago by none other than Oscar Wilde. The character of Samuel, however, differs sharply from that of the average of peers. As a teenager, in fact, shows signs of an exasperated inwardness, marked by an obsessive pursuit of loneliness, then highlighted so well in the first novel-writer's masterpiece, the wild-eyed "Murphy". It is not to be believed, however, that Beckett was a lousy student: far from it. Moreover, contrary to what you might think of an intellectual (though at grass), is very worn for sports in General, in which he excels. He devoted himself so intensively to sport, at least in college years but does not neglect the study of Dante, which deepens obsessively until becoming a real expert (which is very rare in Anglo-Saxon area). But the deep malaise inner dig relentlessly and mercilessly. It is hypersensitive and hypercritical, not only for others, but also and above all to himself. Are recognizable signs of unease that will accompany him throughout his life. Begins to isolate themselves more and more, up to lead a life of a true hermit as far as you can in a modern society. It doesn't come out, close the House and "snubs" completely those around him. Probably, it is a syndrome that today we would call, with knowing and language forged by psychoanalysis "depression". This evil corrosive forces him to read full days: often fails to get up until late afternoon, so feels threatened and vulnerable to external reality. During this rough period, his love of literature and poetry grows more and more. The first major shift takes place in 1928, when he decided to move to Paris following the award of a scholarship from the Trinity College, where he studied French and Italian. The transfer has undergone positive effects: not long because the guy see in the new city a sort of his second home. In addition, begins to take an interest in actively participating in Parisian literary circles where he met attends literature: James Joyce, from master. Another important landing place is the discovery that, somehow, the exercise of writing has a beneficial effect on his State, managing to distract him by obsessive thoughts and providing a creative channel in which vent his feelings on, as well as the imagination. In a few years, thanks to intense rhythms that you submit it, and especially to the intuition which is extremely circumspect in his texts, it is stated as an important writer. He won a literary prize for a poem entitled "Whoroscope", centred on the theme of transitoriness of life. Begins at the same time a study of Proust, beloved author. Reflection on the French writer (which resulted in a famous essay), the light about the reality of life and existence, concluding that the routine and habit, "are not the cancer of time". A sudden awareness that will allow him to make a decisive impact on his life. In fact, filled with renewed enthusiasm, start traveling aimlessly for Europe, drawn from countries such as France, England and Germany, not to mention a full tour of his homeland, Ireland. Life, the awakening of the senses seem to overwhelm him in full: drinking, frequents prostitutes and leads a life of excess and debauchery. It is for him to respect pulsing, glowing, energy flow that allows him to compose poems but also short stories. After this long wandering, in 1937 he decided to move permanently to Paris. There, he met Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, a woman several years his senior, who becomes his lover and only several years later, his wife. In parallel, more or less transient upheavals that mark his private life, there are those generated by the machine in history, that little care of individuals. Then World War II broke out and Beckett opts for interventionism, taking an active part in the conflict and offering himself as an expert translator to the fringes of the resistance. Soon, however, is forced to leave to avoid the danger looming over the city and moves to the countryside with Suzanne. Here he worked as a farmer and briefly in a hospital, finally returned to Paris in ' 45, after the war, where he found waiting for him considerable economic hardship. In the period between the ' 45 and ' 50 composed various works, including the novels "Malloy," "Malone Dies" and "the Unnamable", "Mercier et Camier", and some plays, a novelty in its catalog. Are the same in practice that the donated undying fame and so it is also known to the general public. In them, for example, the famous play "waiting for Godot", widely hailed as his masterpiece. It's the opening, in the same period in which Ionesco (another prominent exponent of this "genre"), the so-called of the absurd. The work, in fact, sees the two protagonists, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for a mysterious employer, Mr. Godot. The story we don't know anything else, nor where exactly the two hikers. The viewer knows only that next to them there is a weeping willow, symbolic image which condenses itself on everything and anything. Where do the two characters and especially from what are they waiting for? The text does not say so but mostly don't know themselves, who are reliving the same situations, the same dialogue, gestures, ad infinitum, without being able to give answers even the most obvious questions. The other (few), characters of the story are just as enigmatic. Dates back to 1957 the premiere of "endgame" at the Royal Court Theatre in London. All of Beckett are extremely innovative and differ profoundly from the shape and the stereotypes of traditional drama, both for what concerns the style both for themes. They are bandits plots, suspense, plot and basically everything that usually reward the audience to focus on the theme of loneliness of modern man or on the issue of so-called "lack of communication" that makes the conscience of humans in an exasperated as inevitable individualism, in the sense of an inability to bring its unfathomable conscience "in the face" to the other. All these rich themes is intertwined even the reason for the loss of God, of his nihilistic annihilation at the hands of reason and history, anthropological consciousness that throws the man in a State of hopelessness and helplessness. The style of the great author here is characterized by dry sentences, sparse, moulded on trends and needs of the dialogue, often acrid and crossed by a swing irony. Descriptions of characters and environments are reduced to the essentials. Are technical and poetic that will awaken the interest of the world of music, attracted by the numerous consonance with sound research carried out so far. Over all, it is important to highlight the work carried out on and around the writing of American beckettina Morton Feldman (estimated by the same Beckett). In 1969 the Irish writer's greatness is "institutionalised" through the award of the Nobel Prize for literature. Afterwards, he continued to write until his death on 22 December 1989.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.