SOME POSSIBLE INFLUENCES ON SAMUEL BECKETT AS THE AUTHOR OF MURPHY

Samuel Beckett, an Anglo-Irishman arid a twentieth-century philosophical poet, was never concerned with social, political or religious problems but was always interested in the position of man in the universe, the reason of his existence and the meaning of life. In other words, his interest lay in the metaphysical; Spurred on by this interest, Beckett studied the intellectual background to the twentieth century. He believed that Dante, Descartes and Proust, more than anyone else, were responsible for the way of thinking of western intellectuals, himself included. Although Samuel Beckett once said at an interview that he never read philosophers and that he did not understand them, this does not mean that he was uninfluenced by them. It is true, he can never be classified as belonging to any one particular school of philosophy but it would be far from true to claim that, his works show no trace of influence from various western philosophers. Hie views of several philosophers have had some bearing on some or other of his works, but it is the influence of Descartes which is most noticeable. Among other things Descartes was deeply interested" in the problem of the split between spirit and matter and hence between body and soul. Hie rigid distinction which Descartes draws between body, which is deflrted<a8 purely mechanical and material, and mind, which is purely, spiritual; is at the core of Beckett's Murphy, in which the protagonist tries to achieve the bUasJul life of the mind. However, Beckett and hi* much-admired Descartes differ on one point. AtsfeMffr Dssseariee tsttcodwoed the, idea of cotfiio and stressed duality, he still retained a wi* te-lfcipjmftn'i world a*d being in harmony, for in spite of his distinction between body and latad to* could sot offer any positive explanation for the action of rated on the body. Beckett, for his part, is net deeply interested in the interaction of body and mind aaddoes not seek any explanation of this phenomenon. In this connection Beckett may be considered a disciple of Descartes' now-forgotten follower, the Belgian philosopher Geulincx, who went further than his master and considered spirit and matter, hence body and soul, two parallel but completely unconnected systems: Geulincx claimed that it would ,be absurd to think that mind could act upon body since the two an totally different and tint what may seem interaction is actually a coincidence of two separate actions, each determined by the will of God, who is the "causer of all movement To ffiustzatet&i* point Geulincx used the analogy of 13 docks, one representing matter, the other spirit, both wound and set by the master clock-maker to run perfectly synchronously.1 When this is applied to human body it can be said that when the clock of mind points to the hour, the clock of matter strikes and there is a seeming link between the two but this is only an illusion. By analogy the self has no control over the outside universe but is only capable of controlling the microcosm.2