Line #8 Theatre/Endgame


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1001165.jpg]]
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3	->'''Clov''': Do you believe in the life to come?\
4	'''Hamm''': Mine was always that.
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6	An absurdist one-act tragicomedy by Creator/SamuelBeckett, ''Endgame'' is perhaps his best known work that isn't ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot''. Taking place in a desolate post-apocalyptic world, the play is focused on a single household. Hamm is blind and cannot stand, while his servant Clov cannot sit. Hamm's parents Nagg and Nell live with them in a pair of ash bins, and both have lost their legs. They all lead miserable lives and subsist on dog biscuits. Tends to be a confusing read, which is to be expected of something coming from the Theatre of the Absurd.
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8	The play has been adapted into film a couple of times, including the 2000 adaptation for the ''Beckett on Film'' project with Creator/MichaelGambon as Hamm and Creator/DavidThewlis as Clov.
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10	The play has no connection to the television series of the same name, and even less connection to a similarly-named [[Film/AvengersEndgame movie]].
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12	!!Endgame contains the following tropes:
13	* AllTakeAndNoGive: Hamm to Clov, and to everyone he interacts with.
14	** Somewhat subverted in that Hamm's story suggests that years ago, he took a starving man and his child into his home out of pity, and that child was (probably) Clov.
15	* CrapsackWorld: The dingy apartment where the main characters live is surrounded by a post-apocalyptic wasteland where most of humanity and most plant and animal life is gone.
16	* EvilCripple: Hamm is blind, unable to walk, and fully reliant on Clov. He's also extremely verbally abusive both towards his parents and Clov.
17	* EvilOldFolks: Played fairly straight with Hamm, but a bit more ambiguous with Nagg and Nell who, while more sympathetic than their son, certainly aren't the nicest people in history.
18	* ExtremeDoormat: Clov, who acts as caregiver and servant to the tyrannical Hamm.
19	* FatBastard: Hamm is often portrayed this way.
20	* FloweryInsults: Hamm's comments to Clov, Nagg, and Nell.
21	-->'''Hamm:'''[to Nagg ] Accursed progenitor...accursed fornicator, why did you engender me?
22	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Clov to Hamm, mostly because he acts as a passive sounding board for Hamm's rants and rambling stories.
23	* MeaningfulName: Hamm and Clov. Hamm for hammer, while Clov resembles the French ''clou'' for nail.
24	* MinorInjuryOverreaction: Clov having a flea is a big deal. The justification given is that "humanity could start all over again from there!"
25	* MisanthropeSupreme: Hamm, to the point where he hopes that even lower life forms disappear from the Earth so that something resembling humanity doesn't evolve again.
26	* NonSequiturThud: Nell's last line is a repeat of her recurring "so deep" line about Lake Como, but when Hamm asks what she's blathering about, her reply is "desert" before she dies.
27	* NothingIsScarier: It's never stated exactly how humanity came to this dire pass, or what the world outside Hamm's house is like now.
28	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Nagg gives one to Hamm in his last scene.
29	* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Nell seems to die in mid-sentence. She starts reminiscing about her time on Lake Como, says something about a desert to Clov, and then falls silent. Clov checks on Nell and remarks that she's stopped breathing.
30	* UngratefulBastard: Hamm's attitude towards Clov, who waits on him hand and foot, and towards his father Nagg, who calls him on it.

Context Theatre / Endgame