Throughout the play Endgame by Samuel Beckett, existentialism is a major theme used. The play begins with the character Hamm covered with a handkerchief; the same stance that he has in the beginning of the play. In addition to this, Clov has not left at all. This state of similarity shows that although they attempt to change thier lives, Hamm and Clov are stuck in this vicious cycle. This is more thoroughly shown through Clov and Hamm's fear of a child. It shows then that life goes in a cycle. People are born, they grow up, they get old and they die. However, the cycle does not end here. Instead, during people's lives they procreate, making the cycle constant as their children go through a nearly similar cycle. This point is gone over constantly in Endgame through existentialism. This leaves me with an eerie feeling. It is almost haunting that this is what life is according to Beckett; a recurrence. Nothing is original.
This is the exact feeling that Beckett wanted to leave with his audience; it is the point of using existentialism. Beckett throws his belief that people are stuck in their routine of life at the audience, to show them what is becoming of our world. People are stuck in their old habits, unable to escape this fate. This haunts the characters within Endgame; although they desire to be freed of their routine, they cannot escape it. Instead, they are trapped in their hopeless fate, destined to live in the same manner forever. With this thought, it can be inferred that even though we wish to change ourselves, we cannot because it is not our fate.
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