Happy Days
(Beckett, Samuel)
Beckett was born in Foxrock, Ireland, in 1906, lived an uneventful childhood, and after he graduated from Trinity College, moved to Paris. There he became friends with fellow Irish expatriate James Joyce, and became the venerable author's personal assistant, taking dictation for Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake. He belonged to the ?Theatre of the Absurd.? He developed his work in the successful plays Endgame (1957), Krapp's Last Tape (1958), and Happy Days, which was first performed in 1961. Winnie, a woman in her 50s, is buried waist-deep in a mound of scorched earth, with just a large, black shopping bag and a collapsed parasol. Behind her and hidden from view sleeps Willie. A bell rings and wakes her Winnie. She recites a prayer and goes through several cleaning rituals?brushing her teeth, etc.?with implements from the bag. She laments that "poor Willie" has no interest in life, but concedes that his constant sleeping is a gift she wishes she had. Winnie tries to read something written on the toothbrush handle, but can only make out "genuine pure." She pokes Willie with the parasol to wake him. She drops it, but Willie, still hidden, hands it back. Willie sits up, and Winnie turns to see blood trickling from his baldhead. Willie reads out a headline that announces the death in the bathtub of a priest, and reads about a job opening for youth. Winnie uses a magnifying glass and finally makes out "genuine pure hog's setae," or bristles, on the toothbrush handle. Winnie sees that Willie has a postcard, and asks to look at it. Winnie regrets not letting Willie sleep, and wishes she could tolerate being alone. She says that if Willie died or left her, she would never say another word. She anxiously wonders if she combed her hair and brushed her teeth, and locates the brush and comb in her bag. Winnie is overjoyed that Willie is speaking, and pronounces it a "happy day." She tells Willie to crawl back into his hole to avoid the sun, which he does. Willie says it was eggs, and then says "Formication." Willie breaks into laughter. She joins him, but they alternate who is laughing. She says there is no better way to "magnify the Almighty" then by laughing at his little jokes, then wonders if she and Willie were laughing at different things. Winnie asks Willie if she were ever "lovable," but he does not respond. Winnie says that she is tired of Willie, and she'll leave the revolver out from now on. She discusses her feeling that without being held down she would be sucked upward, and asks Willie if he feels that way. Winnie hoists, with difficulty, her parasol. She ruminates on the danger of long days with little action or conversation. The parasol catches on fire, and Winnie throws it behind her to extinguish it. She reflects that if the earth ever covers her breasts, it will be as if no one has ever seen them. She remarks that the parasol will be back again tomorrow in perfect form. Winnie saddens and takes out a music-box from her bag, and plays the waltz duet from Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta, The Merry Widow, which Willie accompanies without words at the end. She becomes happy again, and when Willie refuses an encore, she discusses the difficulty of singing when one's heart is not in it. Winnie feels she is being watched by someone, and as she files her long nails, she thinks about a man named Shower?or possibly Cooker?with his fiancée and tells Willie her image of them: they hold hands, carrying bags in their free hands, and stare at Winnie while they question Winnie's placement in the ground, fight, argue about Willie's and Winnie's usefulness to each other, contemplate digging Winnie out, then leave. Winnie sees that Willie is trying to crawl out of his whole. Willie tells her, and she becomes happy. He reads the newspaper and reads out the job announcements, which are the same as before. Winnie tells herself to sing, but she does not sing, and then to prayh she also does not do. The next day, Winnie is covered up to her neck in the mound and cannot move her head. A bell rings and she opens her eyes. Pausing continuously, she tries to talk to Willie, who doesn't respond, and surmises that Willie has died, or left her "like the others." She saddens over her current condition, and grows anxious over the absence of her arms, breasts, and Willie. The bell rings, and Winnie asks Willie questions and, getting no response, says it's like him to not have an opinion. She recounts the story of a young girl, Mildred, who was undressing her doll in the middle of the night. Winnie reprimands Willie for not paying attention, then fearfully questions if he may be stuck in the hole. She remarks on the brief sadness she experiences after singing. She imagines Shower/Cooker with his woman, both older, as they discuss Winnie's buried body. Then they fight and leave, still hand in hand and with their bags. Winnie resumes her story about Mildred, who dropped her doll when a mouse ran up her leg. Mildred's whole family came running, but Winnie says it was too late. Winnie sees Willie crawling toward her in a fashionable outfit. It reminds her of the day he proposed to her. They look at each other through a long pause.
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