The speaker in the play tells a story that begins with the word “Birth” and ends with “gone.” Though the speaker never moves till the end, the narrated man is described as being engaged in many activities. His most important actions are first looking out of a window and then groping his way to light an oil lamp. This action of lighting is depicted five times in total. In the first two descriptions, the speaker uses matches to light the oil lamp. But in the third one, the matches are replaced with a spill. Therefore, it is ambiguous in the fourth reference “Lights lamp as described” whether the narrated action is done with matches or spill. We can’t decide any longer which one he is using the fifth times - match or spill.
There are two kinds of window in the play. The one is referred to several times and always expressed with no articles. The narrated man looks out this window to “get his bearings” then he faces a blank wall. There is no mention as to what direction the window looks. But the other window always looks on to west and expressed with definite or indefinite articles. This window comes up when the speaker says the word “Birth.” He always says it after lighting the lamp and facing the wall. Except for the opening sentence, the word “Birth” is uttered four times. Immediately after the first utterance of the word, “a” window appears, then faint hands using the spill. This scene is quickly followed by the second utterance. The third is closely tied up with the ambiguous scene mentioned above. Fourth time, the word doesn’t have any relationship with the action of lighting but is followed by “window”－with no article. So, the relationship between the two windows and the lighting of the oil lamp becomes more and more obscure through the repetitions of these narrated actions.
Indicating these exact scenes, I would like to search the meaning of the variations of the repeatedly described actions.
International Samuel Beckett Symposium in Tokyo 2006
September 29 – October 1