HAMM in ENDGAME and HIGGINS in PYGMALION

 

     Although there are fewer characters compared to the Pygmalion, written with the Theater of Ideas technique, in the Endgame written with the Absurd Theater technique, little information was given about the characteristics of all the characters. What Samuel Beckett defines as absurd is a life that lacks basic elements such as hope, imagination, love, and belief, such a life is a life that cannot be fully lived. In fact, this is why the features of the characters are uncertain. The situation is quite different in Pygmalion as a critique against authority and in which it presents the complex thoughts of the male-female relations that are bogged down in its own mind. In addition to being distinctive in all its features, George Bernard Shaw, with the Higgins character he created as a phonetic professor, ends the play with a Higgins character that changed completely towards the end of the play. In this article, the two main characters Hamm and Higgins will be examined both physically and psychologically, and their situations will be evaluated.

    As it is known, the time when the plays are written, the conditions of the period, and the places have a great influence on the development of the characters' personalities. Since Endgame reflects the negative situations experienced after the second world war, it shows how the character of Hamm lived and observed in his inner world was affected by the conditions of the period. This situation changes in Pygmalion based on factors such as different events, term conditions, time, and place concepts. From my point of view, perhaps based on the problems he had experienced in his past, George Bernard Shaw worked on the relationship between men and women in his play. As a result, towards the end of the play, he brought Higgins to the audience with many values ​​and honorable behavior he learned from Eliza. It is an undeniable fact that other characters, as well as time and space, have effects on the main characters. So, it is possible to make the following conclusion that before making a character analysis and comparison, understanding the play completely and trying to interpret it is an important factor for better interpretation of the characters.

   Considering their psychological states, Higgins and Hamm, who are emotionally different from each other in their inner worlds, are alike when it comes to the lives of others. What makes them the same is that both have the incentive to control the lives of others. They have absolutely no ability or enthusiasm to control their own world, emotions, and thoughts. While trying to control others, neither can solve the conflicts in their inner worlds. For instance, while Hamm forces Clov to take care of himself, Higgins believes that Eliza cannot be with anyone else but acts as if he has a property. What makes them different from each other emotionally is their belief in emotions, the cornerstones of life. At the beginning of the play,  Higgins is in love with himself. He is the person very Narcissist and selfısh and can't fall in love with anyone. He doesn't think anyone else at all, and he only thinks of himself and his own equipment. But after a while, it is a certain fact that Higgins, who fell in love with the female model she created for a while, now has hope for women, which is an indication that she has emotions that require being human. But Hamm does not have any emotion that is the reason for existence and is at the base of life, it desperately expects only death. Living in a room isolated from all over the world, Hamm has also isolated himself from the outside world.

    Another important point when considering physicality is that Hamm, which has a more limited living space and health conditions than Higgins, does not even want to strive to achieve something. In order for something to achieve something, perhaps it is necessary to protect its belief in life before the conditions of health, but it does not have such a symptom. Higgins and Eliza endeavored to achieve something and motivated themselves, but in the Pygmalion, it is not known what all the characters, goals, and what they want to do, as they repeat the same thing, especially Hamm. Although the action is the most important factor in a game, Endgame does not have this criterion. However, irrational dialogues and repeating thoughts in the center of Hamm try to present a world not only in themes in ideas but in action. Unlike Hamm, who lives in a world of thought without movements and logical dialogues, Higgins, who is a master of speech, is in a moving narrative by his character. And this is actually the most distinctive features that distinguish them both physically and emotionally.

    Based on all the details given above, one can come to the conclusion that Hamm and Higgins differ both physically and psychologically. The existence of certain similarities with these differences prevented them from entering the same patterns, and caused the viewers to have different perspectives.

( Hamm İn Endgame And Hıggıns İn Pygmalıon başlıklı yazı sedateacher tarafından 28.02.2021 tarihinde sitemize eklenmiştir. Sitemizde yayınlanan eserlerin hukuki sorumluluğu , kullanılan materyaller ve yazının içeriği yazarlarına aittir.İzin alınmadan kaynak gösterilse bile sayfamızdaki eserler başka yerde yayınlanamaz. Eserlerin izin alınmadan kopyalanması ve kullanılması 5846 sayılı Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Yasasına göre suçtur. )
Okuduğunuz Yazının Site Kurallarını İhlal Ettiğini Düşünüyorsanız, Site Yönetimine Bildirmek İçin Tıklayınız.