Narrative Momentum; Helpless Movement and Stasis for Samuel Beckett
“Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in
that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.”
Newton’s First Law of Motion, Isaac Newton
The works of Samuel Beckett reflect a strange sort of human momentum. Born in stasis, Beckett’s characters find themselves traumatically thrust into a world of filth and little purpose. The expelled figures conduct themselves with a terrible energy-in-decay, wandering not with direction, but only so far as their legs must take them. Compelled strangely from point to point, Beckett’s characters struggle against any sense of destination, aiming to achieve only a jaded peace brought about through enforced isolation. This isolation, however, must not be taken in a purely social sense, as Beckett’s characters attempt to divest themselves not only of physical human companionship, but of burdensome memory and active thought as well. Though they do conclude, Beckett’s aim seems far less to generate a solid sense of a closed narrative, but rather, the men wandering through his short stories pursue the resolution of the void. This progression of narrative voice, clear in many of Beckett’s works, is particularly evident in his 1946 short story The Expelled.
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