INFLUENCE OF SHAKESPEARE IN OUR AGE

Many critics believe that William Shakespeare‟s relevance is due to conveying timeless and universal messages about human nature and condition through his characters. This study analyzes the extent of the reflection of Shakespeare‟s play The Tempest on the play Endgame by Samuel Beckett written in the recent history of literature, and thus attempts to answer the following research question: To what extent are the portrayal of the characters Clov and Hamm, in the play The Endgame by Samuel Beckett, influenced by the characters Prospero, Miranda, Caliban and Ariel in the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare? Through the investigation of the research question, it is aimed to provide the answer whether the characters portrayed in The Tempest are still relevant or not. To enable better comparison of the characters, the study encompasses the analysis of the effect of settings on determining the identities of the characters by shaping the concepts, which are power, dependence, and miscommunication, shared in both of the plays. Aspects that give universal appeal to the characters are also considered in order to reach a conclusion. Throughout the study, it is revealed that both of the protagonists, Hamm and Prospero, have the ability to control all the characters on the stage. Although Clov and Caliban were treated as family members in the past, the predominance of Hamm and Prospero makes it turn into a slave-master relationship which results in hatred towards their roles as „masters‟. Besides, both Prospero and Hamm depend on the characters they control while maintaining their lives, which emphasizes the limitations of their power. In the conclusion part of the study, it is stressed that Endgame includes allusions to the lines of The Tempest uttered by the characters with similar identities, and therefore, the influence of William Shakespeare on Endgame cannot be ignored