Endgame Essay

The nature of the relationship between Hamm and Clov is a mixture of confused friendship and underlying cruelty from Hamm to Clov. Hamm appears to be in the final stages of his life, confined to a wheelchair due to legs that will no longer properly support him. He also is blind, as he uses his faithful servant Clov as his eyes. Hamm is the dominant figure in the relationship between the two. The relationship is a strange mixture of friendship and an exercise of power. Hamm alternates between moments of rage in which he treats Clov as nothing more than a mere manservant; however, in his more lucid moments, seems to crave the affection and friendship of Clov. His disenchantment with life and his physical ailments have turned what may have once been an almost fatherly compassion to Clov into something almos...