Keeping Beckett's Company

Abstract

Samuel Beckett’s writing is not one that builds up toward some dramatic climax - the first paragraph of Company says it all: “A voice comes to one in the dark. Imagine.’’(5)1 There is, however, a dose of formal dexterity in these two simple sentences, because what they describe seems to be anterior to the very act of description: the scene of writing itself. They also present us with some problems concerning the identities involved in the text. Apparently, there is the voice, therefore the speaker; also “one on his back in the dark,” that is to say, the hearer. These are the patent presences but, since they are obviously narrated, there is the third identity, the narrator, whose narration is directed towards yet another presence, some addressee - hence the injunction: “Imagine.” These nine words already seem to bring to life quite a company.