Citation

Giles JM. Samuel Beckett Today - Aujourd'hui 2009; 20: 175-188.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009)

DOI

10.1163/18757405-020001015

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article explores the notion of Beckett as an ecocritical writer by considering Lawrence Buell's criteria for an environmentally-centered work in terms of Beckett's short prose piece "The End." As the nameless narrator moves from a monastic to a hermetic to a mendicant existence and then to death by suicide, he cycles between city and country, growing increasingly anonymous. Beckett casts doubt on the ethics of the "social contract," formed in human culture, and suggests that the "natural contract" between humans and their environment may be the viable one, although it may lead to relinquishment and death.

Language: en