The Interaction Between the Familiar and the Eerie: The Representation of Freud’s Uncanny in Beckett’s Endgame

This article examines the interaction between the familiar and the eerie, as theorized by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in his essay “The Uncanny” (1919), and to what extent such an interaction may have been represented in the barren and post-apocalyptic setting of Samuel Beckett’s (1906-1989) Endgame (1957). Freud’s concept of the uncanny reveals it as a phenomenon that arises from the unsettling revival of what was once familiar, now transformed into something strangely unfamiliar. By conducting an analysis of Freud’s uncanny and its representation in Beckett’s play, this research aims to explain the existence of the eerie in human consciousness and its influence on the existential challenges represented by the actions and dialogues of the characters, the setting and the repetitive, seemingly pointless exchanges between Hamm and Clov. The play’s representation of reliance, isolation, and the ongoing struggle because of the inescapable nature of death puts forth the idea of the uncanny. Therefore, the play has parallels with Freud’s concept of the uncanny since it represents the uncanny as an element of the human experience, marked by an ongoing struggle that takes place between existence and nonexistence, actuality and deception.