The End by Samuel Beckett (Key Facts)

 

The End

by Samuel Beckett

(Key Facts) 

Key Facts: The End by Samuel Beckett

 

Full Title

The End

 

Author

Samuel Beckett

 

Type of Work

Short prose fiction / short story (anti-narrative prose)

 

Genre

Existential literature; Absurdist fiction; Modernist prose

 

Language

Originally written in French (as La Fin), later translated into English by Samuel Beckett himself

 

Time and Place Written

Written in the late 1940s, primarily in France

 

Date of First Publication

First published in 1954 (French version); English version appeared later

 

Publisher

Originally published in literary journals; later collected in Beckett’s prose collections by Les Éditions de Minuit (French) and Grove Press (English)

 

Tone

Bleak, detached, ironic, emotionally flat, pessimistic

 

Setting (Time)

Indeterminate modern period; no specific historical time is given

 

Setting (Place)

An unnamed city and its outskirts; streets, a canal, a stable, temporary shelters—non-specific and universal locations

 

Protagonist

The unnamed narrator, an old, displaced, physically deteriorating man

 

Major Conflict

The narrator’s struggle to continue existing in a world that offers no shelter, meaning, or compassion, while his body and social connections steadily deteriorate.

 

Rising Action

Expulsion from an institution

Wandering through the city

Temporary shelter offered by a man

Brief stability while staying with the carter

 

Climax

The death of the donkey, which destroys the fragile system that allowed the narrator temporary shelter and usefulness.

 

Falling Action

Dismissal by the carter

Purchase of a boat

Withdrawal from society into the canal

 

(Note: Beckett deliberately avoids a conventional climax and resolution.)

 

Themes

Existential isolation

Futility and meaninglessness of existence

Bodily decay and human vulnerability

Indifference of society and institutions

Withdrawal rather than death

Endurance without purpose

 

Motifs

Expulsion and displacement

Failed shelters

Journeys without destination

Physical weakness and fatigue

Silence and emotional detachment

Continuation without progress

 

Symbols

Institution – failed systems of care and order

Shelter – temporary and illusory security

The Canal / Boat – withdrawal, suspension between life and death

The Donkey – silent endurance, disposability, suffering

Walking – futile movement without direction

Money – temporary survival without meaning

 

Foreshadowing

The opening expulsion foreshadows repeated rejection

The narrator’s physical weakness anticipates withdrawal and near-erasure

The donkey’s suffering foreshadows the narrator’s own expendability

Persistent references to fatigue and rest foreshadow the final retreat from action

 

Exam Tip

Beckett intentionally disrupts traditional plot structure—many elements (climax, resolution, conflict) are anti-climactic or symbolic rather than dramatic.