Comparing Synge’s Riders to the Sea and Beckett’s Endgame :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Synges Riders to the Sea and Becketts Endgame1 1 IntroductionRiders to the Sea by prank Millington Synge (1904) and Endgame by Samuel Beckett (1958) show many similarities despite the eventful half a century that passed between their years of publication. The similar elements (the setting, the relation of the characters to the outside world, etc., connect in detail in the next section) seem to create an atmosphere in both works that is fit for the creation of a new mythology.However, by separating the physically present elements from those which are conjured up only by words in the texts (determining the A/B structure of the works), one of theprobablymost authoritative differences can be discovered between the two plays namely, that while in Riders to the Sea, a new myth is actually being created, this act of creation is lacking(p) from Endgamepossibly because newly created myths (and values) are deemed impossible by Beckett in the light of the two World Wars o f the 20th century. During the course of the essay, it will also be suggested that this creation is, in fact, what characters (more specifically, Maurya, Hamm and Clov) are all waiting for and that while the world-view of Synges play reflects, to a certain extent, the views of objective idealism, Beckett not only lowers the level of idealism to the subjective level, denying the existence of a rational, global control, but also goes further to deny the existence of any ordering power in the world at all.1 2 Outside of here its death (Beckett 22475). Environments Fit for MythsIt has been suggested many times (for example, Tokarev 112), that mythology was the main instrument for the so-called archaic cultures to understand the surrounding world. If this is so, then the world, in a pre-mythic or mythless state, must present itself as dangerous and inconceivable, as it actually does in both plays.In both works, the setting is a room Bare interior (22472) in Endgame, and a cottage kitchen (83) in Riders to the Sea, outside which room, in both cases, lies the realm of (literal) death. In Endgame, this is expressed directly, as Hamm declares often Outside of here its death (22475) and Beyond is the other hell (22481), when feeling the wall that separates the two spaces.