Nacht und Träume (1982) by Samuel Beckett (Key Facts)

 

Nacht und Träume (1982)

by Samuel Beckett

(Key Facts) 

Key Facts — Nacht und Träume (1982) by Samuel Beckett

 

Full Title:

Nacht und Träume

 

Author:

Samuel Beckett

 

Type of Work:

Television play / dramatic miniature (late Beckett)

 

Genre:

Modernist / Absurdist / Experimental drama

 

Language:

German (title and musical reference); no spoken dialogue in the play

 

Time and Place Written:

Early 1980s; written during Beckett’s late creative period, primarily in Paris

 

Date of First Publication / Broadcast:

1982

 

Publisher / Broadcaster:

Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR), Germany

 

Tone:

Quiet, restrained, elegiac, contemplative, emotionally austere

 

Setting (Time):

Indeterminate; suggests night or a timeless, dream-like interval

 

Setting (Place):

A dark, undefined interior space; minimal furnishings (a table and chair)

 

Protagonist:

The Man (Figure at the Table)

 

Major Conflict:

The inner conflict between exhaustion and the longing for comfort; reality versus imagined consolation

 

Rising Action:

The emergence of music and the dream-image of the Man, signaling entry into the inner world

 

Climax:

The moment of tenderness in the dream: the Hands touching the Dream-Self and offering drink

 

Falling Action:

The withdrawal of the Hands and the fading of the music

 

Resolution:

Return to the original image of the Man bowed at the table; no change or release

 

Themes:

Longing for consolation

Transience of comfort

Isolation and interiority

Failure of language

Dream versus reality

Endurance without redemption

 

Motifs:

Stillness and silence

Repetition and return

Dream imagery

Gentle touch

Fading sound and light

 

Symbols:

The bowed figure: exhaustion and resignation

The dream-self: inner longing and imagined relief

The hands: anonymous compassion and care

The cup/drink: sustenance and temporary relief

Music (Schubert): fleeting beauty and emotional memory

Darkness: existential absence

 

Foreshadowing:

The opening stillness and bowed posture foreshadow the inevitable return to silence and immobility, signaling from the outset that the dream’s comfort cannot endure