The Powerful Message of Becketts That Time :: That Time Essays

The Powerful Message of Becketts That clock time Samuel Becketts That condemnation is a play that delves deep into the homo psyche, exposing the hearing to the potential perfume and consequence of one continually living in the past. Lack of punctuation mark and fragmented repetition make the play rather challenging to win yet effectively mirrors the purpose that Beckett has intended in this work. In That Time Beckett dramatically illustrates some(prenominal) common d witnessfalls to human nature, which ultimately act as plagues against the mind, such as the avoidance of the present in the continual epitome and obsession of the past, and the uncomforting effect of silence. Through the use of stream-of-consciousness and three alternating voices which coalesce almost entirely without a check out, Beckett truly taps into the core of human consciousness and one of mans most extreme fears, the fear of the void, of nothingness, of never existence able to recreate th at time again. As is common to Becketts work, the stage climb for this play relies very little upon flashy backdrops and a multitude of characters, and more than so upon the mood that the film creates. He presents only the bare necessity, achieving a scene that is able to expose stark honesty. Curtains. Stage in darkness. languish up to listeners face about ten feet above stage aim midstage off center. Old white face, long flaring white whisker as if seen from above outspread. Voices A B C are his own coming to him from both sides and above. They modulate back and forth without any break in general flow except when silence indicated (Collected Shorter Plays 228) The simplicity of the scene places all of the emphasis upon the voices and those rare moments in which there is silence, thus, pulling the audience directly into the mind of the bodiless head. Beckett has utilized this technique in several of his other plays, such as Krapps Last Tape in which the posit ion is merely a small table, the two drawers of which open towards the audience. sit down at the table, i.e. across from the drawers, a wearish old man (55). This effect is besides present in Eh Joe, a television play by Beckett in which Joes opening movements followed by cameras at constant remove, Joe full length in frame throughout (Casando and Other Short Dramatic Pieces 35).