Women in Beckett by Linda Ben-Zvi (review)

Book Reviews 451 scholar focuses increasingly on two aspects of language: words and gestural expression. There is the "Celtic soundscape" (p. 85) of the radio play All That Fall. "Words meet music" (p. 88), and the flfst are rich in puns and allusions since "Beckett's Dubliners are great talkers" (p. 88). Braler tells us that Beckett himself designated that language must' 'come out of the dark" (p. 88). Even when words are spoken under the blinding light of the noon sun, as they are by Winnie in Happy Days, "words move, and move us ... " (p. 102). Image and language coincide in the mouth of Not I. Yet gestural expression, beginning with the vaudeville routines ofGodot. takes over the •'minimalist" sketches. One of the fascinating details in this short yet infinitely rich book is the one describing "Beckett's only known stage appearance" (p. 28). It was in a skit he wrote after his return from Paris to Trinity. A sendup of Comeille's Le Cid, the revue was called "Le Kid," echoing Charlie Chaplin's 1921 The Kid (a still from the movie appears above the text). Beckett played Don Diegue "in period costume. but he wore a bowler hat and used an umbrella instead ofa sword" (p. 28). Later, when the playwright was consulted by Blin about Godo!. he declared: "The only thing I'm sure of is that they 're wearing bowler hats" (p. 62). Thus a new genre was born in which physicality and slapstick were put in the service ofontological meditation: the Metaphysical Farce. A couple of corrections: It was Gogo not Vladimir who was originally called Levy (p. 82), as I can state from reading the Godo! manuscript at the Editions Minuit. Also, Eugene Ionesco would be very offended to find himself on a list of younger writers, framed by David Mamel and Tom Stoppard, who "expressed in various ways their indebtedness to Godo!" (p. 68). Ionesco, whose BaldSoprano opened three years before GOdOl, feels that he is the sole creator of the leading dramaturgic mode of our Post Second World War era: the metaphysical farce. Actu~ly a good case can be made for the precedence ofthe poet-playwright Jean Tardieu.There are also some lacunae in the short bibliography. Although it does not try to be comprehensive, it is a pity that some of the fmest collections ofessays go unmentioned (Samuel Beckett Now; Beckett Translatingl Translating Beckett; Myth and Ritual in the Plays of Samuel Beckett) as well as the fascinating book by Jordan R. Young, The Beckett AClor. Despite these peda~tic corrections, this critic would like to reaffirm her pleasure in reading and absorbing the pictures of this fme book. No one will ever wonder again: 'Why Beckett?" ROSETIE C. LAMONT QUEENS COLLEGE OF CUNY AND THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF CUNY LINDA BEN-ZVJ. Women ill Beckett. Urbana and Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1990. pp. 260, illustrated. $37.50. This is the first systematic and concentrated survey of gender depiction in Beckett. It is based upon the assumption that while the metaphysical condition in Beckett is "not gender specific," Beckett's women exist in an everyday world where identity is •'shaped" by the "societal constructs of gender." Ben-Zvi's intention, as she puts it. is 452 Book Reviews to provide the ' 'richness" ofapproaches regarding gender issues and to "offer new ways of thinking about Beckett," and this she surely accomplishes. She enlists the contributions of some of Beckett's most distinguished actresses and scholars, and the result is a fascinating collection of essays whose diversity of point of view and critical apparatus produces a sizzling potpourri of critical commentary. The actresses praise Beckett's understanding of female psychology and social adaptation; the scholars offer sometimes diametrically opposed assessments. We are told that Beckett is uncommonly empathetic and compassionate to women, but we are also told that he is traditionally ' 'masculine,t. if not misogynous, in orientation. "How is it that everything he writes seems to be about my life?" remarks Billie Whitelaw. "Beckett understands the mind of a woman.... He can see into our little foibles, our fears," echoes Aideen O'Kelly. Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Madeleine Renaud, Delphine...