A Piece of Monologue (1979) by Samuel Beckett (Key Facts)

 

A Piece of Monologue (1979)

by Samuel Beckett

(Key Facts) 

Key Facts: A Piece of Monologue (1979)

 

Full Title:

A Piece of Monologue

 

Author:

Samuel Beckett

 

Type of Work:

One-act dramatic monologue / minimalist play

 

Genre:

Absurd drama; Modernist / Late-Modernist experimental theatre

 

Language:

English

(Beckett later translated the work into French)

 

Time and Place Written:

Late 1970s; written during Beckett’s later years, primarily in France

 

Date of First Publication:

1979

 

Publisher:

Faber and Faber

 

Tone

Bleak, somber, meditative, detached, existential, minimalist

 

Setting (Time):

Indeterminate; suggests late life / old age, outside historical time

 

Setting (Place):

A bare, enclosed room with minimal furnishings (symbolic rather than realistic)

 

Protagonist:

The Speaker / Old Man (Unnamed)

 

Major Conflict:

The internal existential conflict between consciousness and extinction; the struggle to endure existence while confronting memory, isolation, and inevitable death.

 

Rising Action:

The Speaker’s fragmented recollections of birth, rooms, parents, light, and passing time, which intensify his awareness of loss and mortality.

 

Climax:

The Speaker’s return to the idea of birth and light, recognizing life as a brief, painful interruption between two darknesses.

 

Falling Action:

The gradual collapse of language and memory as repetition increases and speech weakens.

 

Resolution / Ending:

No traditional resolution; the monologue ends in exhaustion and silence, reinforcing existential futility.

 

Themes

Meaninglessness of existence

Life as endurance rather than purpose

Inevitability of death

Failure and fragmentation of memory

Isolation and loneliness

Inadequacy of language

Time as decay and repetition

 

Motifs

Light and darkness

Repetition of phrases and images

Rooms and enclosed spaces

Silence and pauses

Birth and death

Speaking versus silence

 

Symbols

Light: Consciousness, life, awareness (temporary)

Darkness: Death, non-being, silence (permanent)

Lamp: Human resistance against extinction

Room: Confinement, psychological isolation

Silence: Death, erasure, the end of language

 

Foreshadowing

Repeated references to fading light foreshadow death

Memories of the dead foreshadow the Speaker’s own extinction

Language breakdown foreshadows final silence

Circular return to birth imagery foreshadows life’s closure in darkness