| Pub. Date | : Dec, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of English Studies |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJES011223 |
| Author Name | : Preeti and Sharanpal Singh |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Arts & Humanities |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 12 |
Samuel Barclay Beckett was the foremost intellectual of the 20th century. Part of the reason for the profundity of Beckett's works is his reading of Western philosophy. He read Arthur Schopenhauer's works and was particularly influenced by the philosopher's treatise The World as Will and Representation. This determined his understanding of relations between human beings and art and literature. Scholars have traced biographical evidence of Beckett having read Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer comprehended human actions as objectification of will, since human body directs will to perform, but there is always need, a lack, resulting in consequent pain. Also, as Schopenhauer put it in The World as Will and Representation, there is endless flux of unlimited desires, along with the basal acts of engendering and preserving. Schopenhauer explained human will as unstable and human beings as incessantly struggling to achieve goals that are unreachable, since when reached they turn into illusions. The philosopher also highlighted the fall and misery of just and innocent. Beckett derived his understanding of existence from such ideas of Schopenhauer.