A Comparison Of The Family Dynamics Within Six Characters Looking For An Author

Comparison of the Family Dynamics within “Six Characters Looking for an Author” and “Endgame” The characteristics of modernism entail literary works with new perspectives on changing culture and society in reaction to a world experiencing a series of cataclysmic wars in the early 20th century. Modernists challenged societal expectations through their expression in literature, architecture, and art. Notable playwrights like Pirandello and Samuel Beckett expressed their modernist perspectives through the depiction of the absurd in their works. Their plays, though both focusing on the themes of absurdism, are published during different times in the 20th century, with Pirandello's coming out in 1921, following World War I, and Beckett’s coming

During Act II of Six Characters in Search of an Author, the Step-Daughter and Father are describing their encounters with each other to the Manager, the Step-Daughter explains her role as a prostitute to provide for her mother and siblings and goes on to become frustrated with the way that the Father describes their past relationship. The Step-Daughter goes into an outburst explaining “How? How can he act all his “noble remorses,” all his “moral torments”, if you want to spare him the horror of being discovered one day – after he had asked her what he did ask her – in the arms of her, that already fallen woman, that child, sir, that child he used to watch come out of school?” The relationship between Father and Step-Daughter portrayed in Six Characters in Search of an Author is one that highly questions moral character as it suggests a sexual relationship between them. This depiction reduces the relevance of relationships that are not legitimate, or coming from a nuclear unit. Though in contrast, The relationship between Hamm and Clov in Endgame develops the concept of true familial relationships beyond blood ties. Throughout the entirety of the play, Clov is attentive to Hamm, even given his grouchy behavior and comments, in the same way, a son would care for his sickly father. The reader assumes that this familial dynamic, though Hamm makes it clear he is not the biological father to Clov by asking him in the middle of the play “Do you remember your Father” this comment is then followed by Clov expressing that Hamm was a father to him, regardless of their blood relations. In expressing his gratitude for Hamm in the past as a son, the passage exemplifies that though it does not follow the usual mold of a