... but the clouds ...: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:57, 10 July 2023

Latest revision as of 08:43, 9 June 2025

(4 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)

Line 4:

==Synopsis==

The play opens in darkness. Itand fadesgradually up to a shot from behind ofreveals M, a "man sitting on [an] invisible stool and bowed over [an] invisible table.".<ref name="multiref4">{{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Beckett |date=1984 |title=Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett |___location=London |publisher=Faber & Faber |page=257 |isbn=978-0-5711-3040-5}}</ref> He is wearingdressed hisin a [[nightshirt|gown]] and [[Nightcap (garment)|nightcap]]., Thisand this is the only way we ever seehe himappears in the present, bowedthroughout overthe his tableplay. The camera returns torevisits this image fifteen times throughout the play.

WeAs the play unfolds, we hear a voice andthat we assume it belongs to the man we are looking atM, at leastas it isreflects his thoughts we hear. He isrecalls rememberingpast theencounters circumstanceswith under which he has seen thea woman inand thesimultaneously past.visualizes Whilehis heremembered remembersor we see M1, his remembered/imagined self, goreferred throughto theas motions describedM1, atacting leastout whatthe littledescribed actuallymotions takes place inwithin the circle of light. He changes his mindM aboutcontemplates what causestriggers herthe towoman's appearappearance. At first he says, "When I thought of her..."<ref>{{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Beckett |date=1984 |title=Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett |___location=London |publisher=Faber & Faber |page=259 |isbn=978-0-5711-3040-5}}</ref> but helater realisesrealizes that is inaccurate; the womanshe simply ''appears''manifests to him, and always at night. He goesreflects overon his routine, carefully starting fromwith his return home after walking the roads since daybreak:.<ref>BothIn in his biography of Beckett (''"Damned to Fame''" (p.634 364) and in a chapter within his book ''"Frescoes of the Skull''" (p. 261), James Knowlson draws a parallel with thisBeckett's manprotagonist and the type of characters written by [[John Millington Synge|Synge]].</ref> heHe enters,changes goesinto tonight the closet and swaps his [[greatcoat]] and hat for a nightgown and capattire, then he enters his sanctum, and triesattempts to summon her,the alwayswoman without joysuccess, whereuponand at dawn, he dresses once again and headssets out on the road.

In summary, the play begins with M in darkness, seen in a recurring pose at his invisible table. We hear M's thoughts as he reminisces about encountering the woman, while M1 acts out these recollections in the circle of light. M reflects on the cause of her appearance, his routine, and his continuous cycle of summoning her at night and leaving at dawn.

The voice lists the three instances listed above where the woman has appeared to him in the past. When he reaches the third one the camera cuts to the woman's face, "reduced as far as possible to eyes and a mouth",<ref name="multiref4"/> which mouths silently along with the voice, "...clouds...but the clouds...of the sky..."<ref name="ShorterPlays261">{{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Beckett |date=1984 |title=Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett |___location=London |publisher=Faber & Faber |page=261 |isbn=978-0-5711-3040-5}}</ref> The man then realises there is a fourth case, but not really a fourth ''{{linktext|per se}}'' because so much of the time, by far the greatest amount of the time, nothing happens, the woman never even appears.

The voice lists the three instances listed above where the woman has appeared to him in the past. When he reaches the third one the camera cuts to the woman's face, "reduced as far as possible to eyes and a mouth",<ref name="multiref4"/> which mouths silently along with the voice, "...clouds...but the clouds...of the sky..."<ref name="ShorterPlays261">{{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Beckett |date=1984 |title=Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett |___location=London |publisher=Faber & Faber |page=261 |isbn=978-0-5711-3040-5}}</ref> The man then realises there is a fourth case, but not really a fourth ''{{linktext|per se}}'' because so much of the time, byand farin fact, the greatest amountmajority of the time, when nothing happens, the woman never evenmakes an appearance at appearsall.

Although from the opening scene it seems like he spends every night willing the woman to appear, this isn't the case. Sometimes he grows weary and occupies himself with other things that are "more ... rewarding, such as ... [[cube root]]s"<ref name="ShorterPlays261" /> or sits absorbed with nothing – which he describes as a mine – like the man in ''[[Film (film)|Film]]''.

AlthoughDespite fromthe impression created by the opening scene, it seemsis likenot the case that he spends every night willingsolely focused on summoning the woman to appear,. thisThere isn'tare theinstances case. Sometimeswhen he growsbecomes weary and occupiesengages himself within other thingsactivities that arehe finds "more ... rewarding, such as ... [[cube root]]s"<ref name="ShorterPlays261" /> or sits absorbed with nothing – which he describes as a mine – like the man in ''[[Film (film)|Film]]''.

We see M1 prepare for the road again and leave. The voice says, "Right," then the woman's face appears once more and the voice repeats the final four lines of Yeats's poem. This time, however, the woman does not mouth the words. Her face dissolves, we are left with the man sitting at his invisible table where we began and everything fades to black.

We see M1 prepare for the road again and leave. The voice says, "Right," then the woman's face appears once more and the voice repeats the final four lines of Yeats's poem. This time, however, the woman does not mouth the words. Her face dissolves, we are left with the man sitting at his invisible table where we began and everythingall fades to black.

==Title==

Line 69 ⟶ 71:

* The woman can appear and then vanish immediately.

* The woman can appear and linger.

* The woman can appear and 'speak' to him, i.e. inspire him. He uses the example where she mouths the words, "but the clouds,", and then vanishes.

* The woman can fail to appear at all, the most common scenario.

Line 84 ⟶ 86:

Not all of Krapp's actions take place at his table, we hear him pouring drinks and attempting to sing in the darkness surrounding his stage as a means of distracting himself from the task in hand; in ''Quad'', the players' only reality is within the lighted square as is the case with the women of ''[[Come and Go]]'' but in ''... but the clouds ...'' all the real action takes place in the darkness, the central circle of light is a place of transition only.

The fact that the woman may well have been real, rather than some [[Stereotype|stereotypical]] projection of M's ideal woman, is suggested by the line, "With those unseeing eyes I so begged ''when alive'' to look at me."<ref>{{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Beckett |date=1984 |title=Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett |___location=London |publisher=Faber & Faber |page=260 |isbn=978-0-5711-3040-5}}</ref> The camera focuses on the woman's face while these lines are spoken. Enoch Brater argues that "what he longs for is not the beloved but the image of his beloved, the evocative [[metaphor]] he has made of her. His is an exquisite despair. In his secret ceremony Beckett's male figure all but revels in it."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Enoch |last=Brater |title=Billie Whitelaw's TV Beckett |date=2003 |journal=Assaph: Studies in the Theatre (Samuel Beckett Issue) |number=17 |editor1-last=Ben-Zvi |editor1-first=Linda |publisher=Tel Aviv University |page=193 |issn=0334-5963}}</ref> Because the old man realises he cannot physically recall his beloved, he makes do with [[simulation]]; he torments himself with memories of what it was like when she came before. M is not only trying to remember, he is trying "to remember the way in which he used to remember.".<ref name="multiref1"/>

"For Beckett and for Yeats, there is a difference between remembering and not remembering, but both writers remind us that not remembering does not necessarily equal forgetting. That which is not consciously 'remembered' by an individual can still return to impose itself is a variety of ways, one of which both Yeats and Beckett qualify as a kind of haunting."<ref name="multiref1"/> This makes one viewer's comment as to the nature of W all the more interesting when they call her "the character who appears but isn't really there – she only gives the appearance of an appearance."<ref name="multiref2"/>

Line 103 ⟶ 105:

[[John Calder]] in his review of the three plays shown on BBC2 had this to say about ''... but the clouds ...'':

: "The man would appear ... to be immersed in guilt towards a missed opportunity, a dead love, a regretted course of action, as in ''[[Eh Joe]]'', but with a flatter style. [[Irony]] is subdued, [[stoicism]] more matter of fact, [[self-pity]] almost entirely absent, illusion excluded. The man is concerned with concentration, a [[Merlin]] conjuring up a ghost in his memory."<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.english.fsu.edu/jobs/num02/Num2Calder.htm |first=John |last=Calder |date=Summer 1977 |title=Review: "The lively arts": three plays by Samuel Beckett on BBC 2, 17 April 1977 |journal=[[Journal of Beckett Studies]] |number=2 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070416100908/http://www.english.fsu.edu/jobs/num02/Num2Calder.htm |archive-date=2007-04-16}}</ref>

Clearly the process in this play is open to interpretation. Is the process wholly internal, the man remembering someone real from his past or is he trying to conjure up some external manifestation of her, her ghost? And what is his motive for trying to evoke her? Is it simply to satisfy memory, to wallow in the moment awhile as Krapp does, or is she in some way his muse, an enabling force that makes the words come? Either way it is clear that he cannot control events directly, by the power of his [[Will (philosophy)|will]], things take place at best, as a byproduct almost of his actions, but more likely they are entirely out of his control and all he can do is wait on them.