Unit 5 Samuel Beckett & Murphy

1. Unit 5 Samuel Beckett & Murphy

3. Samuel Beckett 贝克特 An Irish playwright A novelist A poet

4. 1. Beckett’s background 1906~Samuel Barclay Beckett ． Born in Dublin, on April 13, 1906. ． Solitude and loneliness. 1923-1927 French, Italian and English at Trinity College(三一学院） 1928-1936 ． In Paris, Beckett was introduced to James Joyce. ． Ireland, France, England and Germany.

5. 1937 settled down in Paris. 1947~ Beckett began to write in French. 1961 married Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil. 1969 Nobel Prize for literature. 1989 Becket died in Paris on December 22.

6. Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for his “writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”. 他那具有新奇形式的小说和戏剧作品使现代人从精神贫困中得到振奋。

7. 2. Career: as a novelist first novel, Murphy (1938 ) Watt (1944) a trilogy in French Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (1951-1953) How It Is (1961)

8. As a dramatist • Waiting for Godot • production in Paris in 1953 and in London in 1955 • End Game (1958) • Krapp’s Last Tape (1959) • Happy Days (1962) • The Last Ones (1972)

9. 3. Beckett’s concern Beckett is preoccupied with rendering the human impotence and nihilistic vacuum of life.

10. Murphy《莫菲》 Published in 1938

11. Samuel Beckett’s Murphy is an absurdist novel which depicts absurd, meaningless, nostalgic, ennui condition of its protagonist (Murphy) questioning to the truth, certainty and happiness of modern life. 

12. Murphy was a former Irish student, who lived in London for next to nothing, and helped his landlady to cheat while paying for his living to the owner of the apartment. Love towards prostitute Celia made him look for new means of subsistence, and he found a job as nurse at the Magdalen Mental Mercyseat (called the MMM). Later this hospital became the place of his death as a result of an accident. All his life Murphy tried to escape from any kind of action. The Story：

13. Brief analysis of Murphy Setting (背景） Character （人物） Plot （情节） Point of view （视角） Theme （主题） Style （风格） Symbolism （象征）

14. 1. Setting (背景） Location: a mew in West Brompton (an area of South West London) Time:between 1930s & 1940s

15. Context: When Beckett wrote Murphythe whole world had faced the destructive World War I.As a result the contextual situation of contemporary period was filled with uncertain of the future, uncertain of life, nothingness, meaninglessness of life, drawing of death, lack of communication of understanding among one another, unpredictability of life etc. Contextual alienated environmental situation is depicted by the characterization of Murphy. Murphy is representative character of contextualalienatedworld of 1930s and early 40s.

16. 2. Character（人物） Murphy: the protagonist of story Celia, Murphy’s girl friend, prostitute Neary, Murphy’s friend

17. He sat naked in his rocking-chairof undressed teak, guaranteed not to crack, warp, shrink, corrode, or creak at night……Seven scarves held him in position. Two fastened his shins to the rockers, one his thighs to the seat, two his breastand belly to the back, one his wrists to the strut behind…… P96

18. He sat in his chair in this way because it gave himpleasure! First it gave his body pleasure, it appeased his body. Then it set him free in his mind. For it was not until his body was appeased that he could come alive in his mind…… P 96

19. The eyes, cold as unwavering as a gull’s, stared up at an iridescence splashed over the cornice moulding, shrinking and fading. 那双眼睛，像水鸟的眼睛一样冷漠而坚定，凝视着一道彩虹洒落在线条清晰的“飞檐”上，渐渐变小，渐渐消失。 P.97

20. The part of him that he hated craved for Celia, the part that he loved shriveled up at the thought of her. 他所厌恶的自己的那个部分渴望见到西莉亚，而他所喜爱的自己的那个部分一想到她就变得枯萎了。

21. “Murphy, all life is figure and ground.” “But a wandering to find home,” said Murphy. P97 Neary 认为生活都是图形和背景，而Murphy则认为生活是寻找家园的漫游，这家园就是指他的精神追求。

22. …… • “That is not possible,” said Murphy. “I expect a friend.” • “You have no friends,” said Celia. • …… P.100

23. Please answer: • Who is Murphy? What is he like? • seedy solipsist • alienated • absurd • Preferring rest to work, contemplation to sexual love, the insane to the sane.

24. Modern-day tragic heroes? In the Modernist era (late 19th and early 20th century), a new kind of tragic hero was created out of a result of the “classical” definition. The modern hero, it seems, does not necessarily have to be of a high estate - but rather an “ordinary person”. The story may not result in an epiphany of awareness or even come to a resolution of catharsis. He or she may not even die! The new tragic hero is also known as the “anti-hero”. p.108

25. Two examples of the modern-day tragic hero, or the “anti-hero”: 《推销员之死》 《了不起的盖茨比》

26. 3. Plot（情节） • Chronological order • Order of events happen on the body of Murphy

27. Conflict Section 1: Man V.S. Man Murphy V.S. Neary Section 6 & 9: Man V.S. Self Murphy’s internal struggle

28. 4. Point of view（视角） Omniscient Point of View P.108

29. 5. Style（风格） • a. Economy of language: • The opening sentence suggests the new sense of economy that characterizes Beckett’s prose style in Murphy: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” (the absence of real change in human life )

30. b. Beckett employspuns, paradox, allusion, repetition, inversion, all in an attempt to disrupt the predictable semantic effects of language. "How can I care what you do?""I am what I do," said Celia."No," said Murphy. "You do what you are..."

31. Murphy is characterized by many of the features of what has since become a recognizable Beckettian world.Love is exile from reality. Birth is a form of death. Sanity is insanity. Activity is non-productive. Philosophy is the consolation of the deluded.Linguistically Beckett achieves similar effects.

32. 4. Theme （主题） The theme of a work is the main message, insight, or observation the writer offers. Analysis of theme involves working the concept, thought, opinion or belief that the author expresses.

33. How to find theme? The theme can be discovered by reading through the work and looking for topics that show up again and again.

34. How to find theme? Think about how the author conveys his ideas. Consider:o Direct statements.o Imagery and symbolism.o A character’s thoughts or statements.o A character who stands for something (e.g. an archetype)o Overall impression/tone/moral of the work

35. Theme reflected in Murphy • Sense of alienation • Absurd

36. Theme 1: Alineation: state of being alienated alienated - caused to be unloved; estranged

37. Marx’s theory of alienationargues that things that naturally belong together are kept separate, or things that are properly in harmony are made to be antagonized. In the concept’s most important use, it refers to thealienationof people from aspects of their “human nature”.

38. Marx’s Theory of Alienation is based upon his observation that in emerging industrial production under capitalism,workers inevitably lose control of their lives and selves, in not having any control of their work. Workers never become autonomous, self-realized human beings in any significant sense, except the way the bourgeois want the worker to be realized.

39. Alienation and Estrangement • Humankind, owing partly to the growing dependence on reason and science, has become increasingly alienated--from God, from nature, from other humans, and from our own selves. We live in a spiritual desert, barren of hope and love.

40. Alienation or Estrangement • From all other humans • From human institutions • From the past • From the future • We only exist right now, right here…

41. Who am I?

42. a. Sense of alienation Physical alienation Mental alienation Social alienation Contextual alienation

43. Physical alienation He moves always alone. There is no any character in the novel who accompanies Murphy throughout the holistic plot development of the novel.Everywhere he is alone. He proves himself that he was born by mistake and his ultimate destination isdyingas quickly as he can, which is completely absurdist idea. He meets so many people during the entire life journey of his life but after all he is all alienated.

44. If there is anything that lies with Murphy ever, it is his loneliness,physical loneliness.

45. Mental alienation Mentally Murphy is completely alienated. He divides himself into three parts:The body, the mind and the soul.His mind thinks to torture his body so that his bodily things, pleasure will be forgotten and the soul will be purified for him. He dies to get the ultimate freedom.

46. “The part of him that he hated craved for Celia, the part that he loved shriveled up at the thought of her”. (P99)

47. His Mind • three zones: Light half light dark Freudian theory: the conscious (意识） preconscious （前意识） unconscious （无意识）

48. He (Murphy) distinguished between theactual andvirtualof his mind……the mind felt its actual part to be above and bright, its virtual beneath and fading into dark…. Actual 真实的存在 Virtual 本质的存在 P 101

49. There were the three zones,light, half light, dark, each with its specialty. P. 103

50. In the first were the forms with parallel, a radiant abstract of the dog’s life, the elements ofphysical experience available or a new arrangement. In the second were the forms without parallel. Here the pleasure wascontemplation. The third, the dark, was a flux of forms…… here there was nothing butcommotionand the pure forms of commotion.