Breath (1969) by Samuel Beckett (Key Facts)

 

Breath (1969)

by Samuel Beckett

(Key Facts) 

Key Facts

 

Full Title: Breath

 

Author: Samuel Beckett

 

Type of Work: Play (Experimental, One-Act, Micro-Performance)

 

Genre: Absurdist / Avant-Garde / Minimalist Theatre

 

Language: English

 

Time and Place Written: 1969, Paris, France

 

Date of First Publication: 1969

 

Publisher: Grove Press (NY) / Les Éditions de Minuit (Paris)

 

Tone: Minimalist, Absurd, Existential, Contemplative

 

Setting (Time): Timeless; represents the brief span of a life

 

Setting (Place): Abstract stage; no specific location

 

Protagonist: None (conceptual focus on “breath” as life itself)

 

Major Conflict: The play embodies the existential conflict of life’s brevity and human absurdity, rather than a traditional plot conflict

 

Rising Action: The stage is illuminated briefly, revealing scattered debris; a faint inhalation sound begins, signaling life’s presence

 

Climax: The peak of the inhalation, representing the moment of full awareness or life’s apex

 

Falling Action: The exhalation, as life recedes and presence fades; objects and light disappear

 

Resolution / Falling Action: Complete silence and darkness, symbolizing death and the cessation of existence

 

Themes:

Transience of life

Absurdity and meaninglessness

Mortality and the cycle of life

Silence and perception

Minimalism as reflection of existence

 

Motifs:

Breathing (inhale/exhale)

Silence and emptiness

Light and shadow

Scattered debris

Cycles (beginning and end of life)

 

Symbols:

Breath → Life and consciousness

Debris → Chaos and accumulation of human experience

Light → Ephemeral presence, awareness

Silence → Void, reflection, perception

 

Foreshadowing: The initial inhalation foreshadows the brevity and inevitability of death, as the stage experience mirrors life’s fleeting arc.