The Powerful Message of Becketts That Time :: That Time Essays

The aright Message of Becketts That Time Samuel Becketts That Time is a playfulness that delves deep into the adult male beings psyche, exposing the audience to the po hug drugtial effect and consequence of one continually lifetime in the past. Lack of punctuation and fragmented repetition make the play rather challenging to grasp yet effectively mirrors the purpose that Beckett has mean in this work. In That Time Beckett dramatically illustrates several common downfalls to human nature, which ultimately act as plagues against the mind, such as the avoidance of the typify in the continual analysis and obsession of the past, and the uncomforting effect of silence. Through the social function of stream-of-consciousness and three alternating voices which flow almost entirely without a break, Beckett actually taps into the core of human consciousness and one of mans most native fears, the fear of the void, of nothingness, of never being able to recreate that time again. As is common to Becketts work, the stage setting for this play relies very little upon chintzy seatdrops and a multitude of characters, and more so upon the mood that the scene creates. He presents only the bare necessity, achieving a scene that is able to expose barren honesty. Curtains. Stage in darkness. Fade up to listeners face about ten feet above stage level midstage off center. Old white face, retentive flaring white hair as if seen from above outspread. Voices A B C are his own coming to him from both sides and above. They modulate back and forth without any break in general flow shut out when silence indicated (Collected sooner Plays 228) The simplicity of the scene places all of the emphasis upon the voices and those rare moments in which there is silence, thus, pulling the audience directly into the mind of the bodiless head. Beckett has utilize this technique in several of his other plays, such as Krapps brave out Tape in which the setting is merely a small table, the ii drawers of which open towards the audience. Sitting at the table, i.e. across from the drawers, a wearish quondam(a) man (55). This effect is also present in Eh Joe, a telly play by Beckett in which Joes opening movements followed by cameras at constant quantity remove, Joe full length in frame throughout (Casando and Other Short Dramatic Pieces 35).