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A Note on Beckett's Realism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2021

Jan Kott
Translated by
Boleslaw Taborski
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Extract

Winnie is buried up to her waist. Happy Days opens with the terrifying sound of a bell. A moment later the bell rings once again. Winnie wakes up, raises her head, opens her eyes. What does this bell mean? Winnie talks about it often, and throughout the entire first act she waits for it to ring. The bell rings when it is time to get up and when it is time to go to sleep. When I was in the hospital, there was no bell; the nurses woke us up and turned out the lights at night. But there was a bell when I stayed in a nursing home. The bell had a horrifying sound and woke us up every morning. The bell rang also at night, and when it had rung, we were not allowed to have the light on.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tulane Drama Review , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , Spring 1966 , pp. 156 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Tulane Drama Review 1966

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References

1 Samuel Beckett, Happy Days (New York: Grove Press, 1961), pp. 59-60.

2 Ibid., p. 9.

3 Ibid., p. 39.

4 Ibid., p. 28.

5 Ibid., p. 15.

6 Ibid., p. 17.

7 Ibid., pp. 16, 48.