Endgame Summary

Endgame is a play that premiered on April 3, 1957, belonging to the Modernist and Existentialist literary movements. It falls under the genres of drama, Theatre of the Absurd, and tragicomedy. The setting is a small room with two high windows, possibly the last place where any form of life exists. The play resists traditional meaning and structure, making it difficult to identify a clear climax. However, some might consider Nell’s sudden death the most significant event, while others argue that the real turning point is Clov’s inability to leave Hamm at the end, despite being dressed and ready to go. Ultimately, the play’s central struggle is against the misery and suffering of existence itself.

Summary

Clov moves stiffly around a small room with two high windows on opposite walls. In the center of the room sits Hamm, a blind man in a wheelchair. Clov walks between the windows, climbing a ladder to look outside. After a quick look, he laughs sharply and then goes silent. He walks to two trashcans near Hamm’s chair, opens them, and laughs again. Then, he removes a large sheet covering Hamm. Hamm is asleep, with a bloody handkerchief over his face. Clov laughs once more and then, without emotion, says, “Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.” After saying this, he leaves for the kitchen, waiting for Hamm to call him with a whistle.

Once Clov is gone, Hamm wakes up. He takes off the bloody handkerchief, wipes his glasses with it, and puts them on. He wonders if anyone in the world suffers more than he does. After thinking for a moment, he decides that his mother, father, and dog must all feel the same pain. He also thinks it’s time for things—though he doesn’t say what exactly—to end. But he admits that he hesitates to bring an end to anything.

Hamm calls for Clov, saying he wants to be put to bed. Clov comes back and reminds him that he just woke him up. He can’t spend all his time waking Hamm up and then putting him back to bed. He has other things to do. But Hamm doesn’t care. He asks Clov what time it is. “The same as usual,” Clov replies. Hamm asks if he looked out the window. Clov says he did. When Hamm asks what he saw, Clov simply answers, “Nothing.”

As they continue talking, Hamm and Clov agree that they’ve had enough. Suddenly, Hamm threatens to starve Clov, but Clov reminds him that if he dies, Hamm will die too. Thinking about this, Hamm decides to give Clov just one biscuit a day—enough to keep him alive but always hungry. Clov doesn’t seem to mind. He goes to get the sheet to cover Hamm, but before he does, Hamm asks why he stays. Clov replies by asking why Hamm lets him stay. “There’s no one else,” Hamm says. “There’s nowhere else,” Clov adds.

Still, Hamm points out that Clov plans to leave, and Clov admits he’s trying to.

At one point, Hamm asks if he can take his painkiller, but Clov says it’s not time yet. Hamm then asks why Clov won’t just kill him, but Clov says he doesn’t know the combination to the cupboard—though he never explains what’s inside. Finally, Hamm lets Clov return to the kitchen and remarks that outside this room, there is only death.

Just before Clov goes into the kitchen, one of the trash cans next to Hamm opens, and Nagg’s head appears. He listens for a moment, then asks for pap (soft food for babies). “Accursed progenitor!” Hamm swears and blows his whistle for Clov, who tells him there’s no more pap. Nagg complains, so Hamm tells Clov to give him a biscuit. But when Nagg gets it, he says it’s too hard to eat. Frustrated, Hamm orders Clov to close the lid of Nagg’s trash can. Then he tells Clov to sit on the lid, but Clov reminds him that he can’t sit.

“True,” Hamm says. “And I can’t stand.”

They reflect on the state of nature, saying that nature has forgotten them. But then Hamm reconsiders, pointing out that they are still aging and decaying, meaning nature hasn’t truly abandoned them.

Clov says he has things to do—like going back to the kitchen to stare at the wall. Meanwhile, Nagg pops up again, now sucking on the biscuit. Hamm complains that he’s not having any fun, though he admits that’s always the case, especially at the end of the day. Then, suddenly, he asks Clov what’s happening.

“Something is taking its course,” Clov replies.

Hamm agrees and tells Clov to leave. Clov says he’s been trying to for a long time.

Nagg knocks on the trashcan next to him, and a woman named Nell pops up. She asks what he wants and wonders if it’s “time for love.” They try to kiss, but their heads can’t reach each other. Nagg then recalls how they lost their legs in a tandem bike accident.

He offers Nell half of his biscuit, but she isn’t interested. Meanwhile, Hamm tells them to be quiet, saying their chatter is keeping him from falling asleep and dreaming about running through the woods. He also claims there’s a heart inside his head that is dripping. Nagg laughs at this, but Nell scolds him, saying it’s not something to laugh about. Still, she remarks that there’s nothing funnier than misery—though she doesn’t see the point in laughing at it anymore, since it’s as familiar as an old joke that has been told too many times.

Nagg asks if Nell is going to leave him, and she assures him she will. But before she does, he insists on telling a funny story. Nell doesn’t want to hear it, but Nagg reminds her that she used to love it. He then tells a joke about a man who keeps waiting for his suit from a tailor, who keeps making mistakes and delaying its completion. Nagg laughs at his own story, but Hamm yells at him to be quiet.

Nagg sinks back into his trashcan and closes the lid. Nell starts speaking nonsense about deserts, so Clov checks her pulse. Finding none, he pushes her back into her trashcan and closes the lid, declaring that she has no heartbeat.

Hamm asks again for his painkiller, but Clov refuses to give it to him. Instead, Hamm makes Clov push his wheelchair in a large circle around the room before setting him back in the center.

Casually, Clov remarks that he would be happy if he could kill Hamm. Hamm doesn’t seem to care and instead keeps asking random questions about the outside world. He forces Clov to look out the window with a telescope. Clov reports that he sees “zero”—just an endless grey nothingness.

Hamm asks again what’s happening, and Clov repeats, “Something is taking its course.” Hamm then wonders if the two of them are starting to “mean something,” but Clov scoffs at the idea. Still, Hamm urges him to imagine if a “rational being” came back to Earth and observed them. Maybe, Hamm suggests, this being would try to make sense of what they are doing.

Clov suddenly stops and looks down his pants, announcing that he has a flea. Hamm is shocked—he didn’t think fleas still existed. Worried that life might start all over again from this tiny creature, he orders Clov to sprinkle insecticide down his pants to kill it.

Once that’s taken care of, Hamm tells Clov that one day he’ll end up just like him—deciding to rest, only to realize he can’t move anymore. Clov agrees that this might happen but reminds Hamm that he can’t sit down. Hamm adjusts his prediction, saying that Clov will simply stay on his feet forever, but the effect will be the same.

They talk again about whether Clov will leave. Then Hamm suggests that Clov should “finish” them both, offering to tell him the combination to the cupboard. Clov replies that he couldn’t possibly do that.

As they continue talking, Hamm recalls the time when Clov first arrived, but Clov doesn’t remember—it was too long ago, and he was too young.

Hamm asks for his dog, so Clov brings him a stuffed animal with only three legs. Hamm treats it as if it’s alive, not seeming to realize that it’s just a toy.

As time passes, Hamm and Clov keep talking about whether Clov will leave. Sometimes they seem to want it to happen, and other times they don’t. Hamm wonders how he will know if Clov has left or died when, one day, he calls for him and gets no response.

To solve this, Clov suggests setting an alarm clock before he leaves. If Hamm calls and Clov doesn’t come, but the alarm clock goes off, that means Clov left. If he calls and Clov doesn’t come, but the alarm clock stays silent, that means Clov died in the kitchen.

Suddenly, Hamm announces that it’s time for him to tell a story. He orders Clov to wake up Nagg so he can listen. When Nagg pops up, Hamm curses him and asks why he ever brought him into the world. At this moment, it becomes clear that Nagg and Nell are Hamm’s parents.

Hamm then begins his story, commenting on his own storytelling as he goes. He tells of a man who came to him on Christmas Eve, begging for help. The man said he and his son were starving. He had left his son at home and asked if Hamm would take them both in. After thinking it over, Hamm agreed—but not before mocking the man for believing that anything could improve. “Use your head, can’t you?” he had shouted. “You’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!”

As Hamm finishes the story, it becomes clear that Clov was the young boy whose father had asked Hamm for help.

Hamm and Clov continue talking about how everything is coming to an end. At one point, they realize that Nell has died in her trashcan, but they don’t react much to the news. Instead, they focus on their usual scattered conversations. Clov wonders why he always follows Hamm’s orders, and Hamm suggests that maybe he feels compassion for him.

Looking out the window, Clov thinks he sees a young boy, but neither he nor Hamm thinks it matters, even if it’s real.

At last, Clov decides to leave. Hamm asks him to say something before he goes. Clov speaks in vague terms about friendship, suffering, and time. Hamm thanks him for everything, and Clov thanks Hamm in return. Then Clov stops responding and goes into the kitchen to gather his things.

When he comes back, Hamm is still talking. Clov stands there, coat folded over his arm, watching as if unable to leave. Hamm, unsure whether Clov is still there, turns to his bloody handkerchief, saying that at least it has stayed with him. He drapes it over his face and falls silent.