The Symbolic Structure of Samuel Beckett's All That Fall

THE SYMBOLIC STRUCTURE OF SAMUEL BECKETT'S ALL THAT FALL THE PLOT OF SAMUEL BECKETT'S RADIO PLAY All That Fall may seem to be scanty. In a little Irish village, Mrs. Maddy Rooney works her way painfully to the Boghill Station to meet her husband Dan, who is returning from work on his birthday. The train is fifteen minutes late. After its arrival, Dan and Maddy work their tortuous way home. When Maddy asks him why the train was late, Dan answers with an evasive discourse on the horror of living. In the closing minutes of the play, Jerry, a small boy, overtakes the Rooneys. He has been sent by the station-master to return a mysterious ball which Mr. Rooney left behind at the station. Maddy asks why the train was late, and Jerry explains that a little child fell out of the carriage, under the wheels. This plot may seem simple, but, considered in the light of other Beckett plays, it is unusually complex. Waiting and leaving suffice as plots in Waiting for Godot and Endgame, stage plays in which burlesque and pantomime are employed to hold the audience's attention . Something more is needed where continuity must be provided solely through auditory means; Beckett holds his characters and themes together with a simple but unmistakable plot. Despite the shift to an everyday world and a definite plot, Beckett explores the problems and themes of his earlier plays. Again he examines a world where God and absolute value systems have become obsolete. Beckett's characters live in a fragmented society, haunted by the past yet unable to create a future. Man's problem is that as he evolves, he is fettered by outworn modes of existence. Hearing a donkey bray, Mrs. Rooney observes, "That was a true donkey. Its father and mother were donkeys." Behind Mrs. Rooney's comment lies a question concerning the nature of man: "That was a true donkey," but is man true man? Or are the differences between modern man and his ancestors too great for such blanket classification? Perhaps man is more like the hybrid hinny that Christy rides. "So hinnies whinny," notes Mrs. Rooney. "Well, it is not surprising," she adds, answering the paradox in her observation. It is natural that this hybrid animal should whinny like a true horse. Man is also a hybrid and, like the hinny, continues to use expressive modes of the past. Maddy Rooney struggles with such an outworn mode. She tries to 324 1966 SYMBOLIC STRUCTURE OF All Tkat Fall 325 use language for self-expression, but she realizes that her attempt is unsuccessful: "I use none but the simplest words, I hope, and yet I sometimes find my way of speaking very . . . bizarre." Her words are bizarre in that at times they are startling or incongruous. Her quest for self-expression is reflected in unusual phrases such as "you startled the life out of me" or "safe to haven" and in rare words such as "ramdam." Her language contrasts with that of the men she meets on her way to the station. Christy speaks purely by formula, commenting on the weather ("Nice day for the races, Ma'am.") and trying to transact business ("I suppose you wouldn't be in need of a small load of dung?"). Christy does not use language to express inner feelings. The old stock cliches work well enough for his purposes; he is ruled by language. Ironically, Mrs. Rooney's attempt to communicate results in ill feelings between her and the other characters. Christy is embarrassed by her poetic sense of humor. The playful Mr. Tyler, on the other hand, can take her jokes and even return them; but Tyler is embarrassed by Mrs. Rooney's emotional side. When she recalls her lost daughter, Minnie, he tries to subvert her touching reminiscence: "Come, Mrs. Rooney, come, the mail-." Like Christy, Mr. Tyler speaks by formula; his sense of humor is a social habit. He is unable to face Mrs. Rooney's serious side. At one point Dan Rooney observes that Maddy is "struggling with a dead language," and Maddy calls her effort "unspeakably excruciating ." The prospect that the English...