Samuel Beckett – Life and Works
Samuel Barclay Beckett, a famous 20th-century Irish novelist, playwright, and poet and an awardee of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born on April 13, 1906, in Dublin, Ireland. He was known first for writing novels and short stories. Later on, he was able to write poems, short story collections, and novellas.
The depression he underwent during his childhood affected his way of writing. Beckett stated that he had little talent for happiness. It was because of the early onset of depression to him. He became a student of a prominent author as well who was James Joyce, known for his work entitled, Ulysses.
He traveled to Britain, France, and Germany. During his travels, the experiences and stories shared with him by some individuals were put to use as his inspiration for his characters. Some of his notable works are Eleutheria, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, the novels Malloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, and Mercier et Camier.
One famous quote from his work Waiting for Godot is “The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stop. The same is true of the laugh.” The quote suggests that the world does not stop weeping. When a person stops weeping, it marks the start of another person’s cries.
It can also be associated with the adversities in our lives. While we recover from our struggles, there are some people who start to face new obstacles in their life. It goes the same way for happiness. The quote also suggests that the emotions in this world are like a continuous cycle.
This is why it is important for us to understand other people and know that they have their own struggles to face. Not because we are happy right now, it will be the same for others. It is not always like rays of sunshine and rainbows for others and it will not always be rainstorms for us as well. It is a never-ending process that we just need to know how to handle.
