Symmetry in Molloy Novel by Samuel Beckett - Essay Example

Symmetry in Literary Student ID: Unit: Tutor: Institution: Date: Introduction Symmetry is a language in which several perspectives of arts and science can be appreciated, expressed and eventually better explained and understood. Frequently, the authors employ a number of convenient symmetric statures, either as an underlying core or as a descriptive means around which their stories unfold1. Literary work structure may also be interpreted as asymmetric or/and symmetric objects. Occasionally a graphic shape of a work, mostly poems have symmetry. The literary work content my equally be connected to some asymmetric or symmetric configuration2. The Samuel Beckett novel has a character that is known by the name Molloy, who is currently living in his mother’s house and speaks by writing things “his goodbyes” that are left. Molloy describes the journey he has travelled some time back, before he went to his mother to find her. Molloy in this novel spends much of his time riding his bicycle and from this he is arrested after being found resting on it in a lewd way, but was later released unceremoniously3. From one town to unknown town Molloy traveling across anonymous countryside encounters a series of strange characters. In this novel we are told that Molloy firstly met an elderly man having a stick, secondly he met a policeman, and thirdly he met a charity worker, followed by a woman whom he killed her dog by running over him with his bicycle and someone he felt in love with4. This kind of love made Molloy leave his bike with confusion, seen as he walks in no certain direction, meeting "a young old man"; who is a charcoal-burner living in the forest, whom he assassinates by blowing him hard on the head and at last a character who takes him in, to the house. Jacques Moran is the second one who is a private detective, a task is given to Jacques Moran by his boss that concerns the Youdi mystery, thus tracking down of Molloy. He takes his recalcitrant son who is also known as Jacques, and set outs. They roam about the countryside, bogged down by increasingly by the weather, reducing food supply and Moran’s body failing suddenly. Moran sends out his son to buy or rather purchase bicycle Moran encounter a strange man while his son is gone. The strange man appears before him Moran kills him in way comparable to that of Molloy’s and goes on to hide the body in a forest5. The son eventually disappears and struggles home. At work in this point, Moran starts posing a number of theological odd questions, that bring him or rather make him to appear going mad. Having gone back at his home, disuse and shambles is the state he is in now, Moran switches and discusses his state presently. Just as Molloy uses crutches in beginning of the novel so does he. Throughout the text part of him the voice that has intermittently appeared, begins to inform of his actions. The voice told Moran to write a report the novel ends at that point6. Molly’s most obvious features are division into two parts or rather into two chapters. First person narrative is contained in both chapters, first is an individual who we later learn or rather come to know him as Molloy, the second one goes by the name Jacques Moran, given a Christian name among the few Beckettian7. Moran’s employment task as told is that of tracking given individuals, like in this one given instance a man by the name Yerk, and also in dealing with them in accordance to given instructions, and sometimes his asked for a report. Moran is familiar with a number of Beckettian predecessors, he even goes ahead to ask himself later on if they will whether meet again one day in heaven. Moran is not certain of what to do with his quarry once he gets him, as he can’t recall what was said by Gaber on this particular point8. He never gets to find out. Since it’s been a while been on his journey before his knee is stroke by pain again, paralyzing the leg. He sends out his son to buy a bicycle in the nearest town in order for them to proceed unhindered. The boy for three days is way. Relationship of Molly and Moran characteristics Molloy is currently bedridden, vagrant; it seems that he is a veteran of season or rather seasoned in vagrancy, showing that “To him who has nothing it is forbidden not to relish filth”. Surprisingly his well educated having studied a number of things among them geography, and appears to know something about “old Geulincx”. Among the various bizarre habits he has include that of sucking of pebbles as explained by Beckett in an infamous passage and enormous, another one is that of morbid or rather odd attachment to his mother9. Moran is a detective a private having a housekeeper, Jacques, Martha and son whom he treats both with scorn. He is extremely ordered and pedantic, carrying out the task logically set him. To a given point of absurdity showing fear of his son catching him while masturbating and been extreme discipliner. He shows also insincere reverence and deference for the church and the local priest, maybe indicative perception of Ireland attitude of Beckett’s10. With the progress of the novel the body starts to fail for no particular visible reason, something that surprises him. His mind starts to decline to insanity point. Bodily and mental decline makes the readers believe that Moran and Molloy are as a matter of fact two facets of similar personality, or rather the narrated section by Molloy is that written by Moran11. Similarities and differences between Molloy and Moran Indeed at a point Molloy makes it clearer that his reincarnated hero who had dreamt drifting out to sea and sinking in an oar boat slowly. For Molloy telling his adjoined region by the sea, adds that he once went forth on it, of oar sort less skiff, but paddled with a driftwood old one. Sometimes wonder if I ever returned from such voyage. For I view myself putting to sea and long hours without the landfall I don’t see the return … and neither here the hear grating on shore by the frail keel12. Evidence available indicates that Molloy was at first convinced of the nouvelles in part one written in more same vein as before. On the other hand part two follows closely from Mercier et Gamier, Moran’s possessions essential ones are the similar like those of pseudo couple, that is umbrella, haversack, raincoat and also bicycle just similar as Gamier, Moran is more of a private detective who leaves the profession. Like the earlier two men in the novel Moran and his son interestingly are part two’s twin heroes13. Making through the forest is Molloy’s other bigger problem. In part three the second maxim of Descartes of Méthode appears helpful, his firm determination and resolute to be in action, shows a lost traveler in the forest finding a way out by heading in a straight line. Molloy having his head filled with useful knowledge, is aware of this fallacy, of one lost in woods with the hope of going on a straight line ends up rotating circular14. His approach is thus going in a circular manner with the hope of going in a straight line, a strategy with limited success in that he didn’t trace any circle “and that was something”. “The method is refined, by altering course with every three or four jerks, which permits him to describe “if not a circle, at least a great polygon, perfection is not of this world”, whether by exhaustion or chance the day comes, reaching limit, or perhaps a tangent at end of the forests ditch15. Life of Moran is one that is more structured than that one of Molloy, as he embarks on his quarry resembling, grasp of matters mathematically appears less secure. He is not sure of how much he has given to his son in terms of money. He encounters a man with a club strangely, but can’t link or rather connect with the earlier series as observed by Molloy16. He could have calculated a fortnight before a series of menus approaching asymptotically nutritional zero, a metaphor that’s later taken up in Endgame, but now content of a death soon from inanition. Even though able to differentiate at the limit of plain a sum of point of lights countless, he comments nothing upon Youdis’ address, 8 Acacia Square, inscribed within a polygon a simple one for the rotated infinity symbol17. The bees dance now delights him as figures complicated which his able to study all of his life and yet never understand, this isn’t unlike admission Nearby’s that life rather irregular. Two things of importance happened to Moran during this period; the designated man by Molloy approaches Moran and asks for a piece of bread in the woods. A club or rather a massive stick, the man carries and also wears greatcoat that’s heavy, and a cold thrust from his stare the type I have never saw more so his face was one noble and pale, one that I could have done with. His snow white hair had a shock a huge one, He had a dirty, hairy, noble, pale face, his ascent was like that of a foreigner or that of one’s lost speech habit. From the description the man sounds like Mercier maybe it is he18. The man is given the piece of bread by Moran, who in turn asks for permission to feel the man’s stick weight. I wish was there standing looking after him at a standstill time. I wish I was in the midst of a desert under midday sun, just to stare at him until he was just a dot on the horizon. I looked out for a long time in the air. The next day Moran breaks off a stick like C club for himself and uses it to poke the fire when a man very different accosts him. He was on the side smaller even though thick set. Wearing a navy blue thick suit double breasted of hideous cut and outrageously black shoes wide in size19. All this was nothing as compared to the face that I regret to point out vaguely resembles that of mine, with similar little ferrety eyes, similar abortive little moustache, similar paraphimosis nose and a mouth thin and red. Do you have a tongue in that head of yours? He said. I do not know you, I said as I laughed, but not with intention of been witty. Moran is asked by the man the old men if he saw him with the stick pass by20. Trembling Moran replies negatively and goes to order the short man out of his way to no reaction. He later clubs deaths latter. Moran says with evident relief that he no longer resembled him, with his stiff legs, at least for a short while, again he can bend normally. He tells his son nothing of the events that took place, when his son returns with the bicycle and finally the son with the father on the carrier rides the bicycle until they reach region of Molloys’. Jacques on one night abandons the father after a quarrel that was violent and later on Gaber comes with Moran’s order to return home. Naturally the latter is worried whether or not Youdi their employ is angry with him, but that’s not the case, it appears chuckling to himself. Life is a thing of beauty and a forever joy that’s what he tells Gaber. 5 ask Moran if meant human life? But Gaber knows where to be seen21. Assailed by decrepitude growing, Moran starts his return even though a painful one. In the pouring rains one evening, Moran is ordered by a farmer menacingly off his land, and violence is escaped by the latter by just pretending to have accomplished a vow in straight line making for Madonna of Turdy, after he lost his son he preserved his wife, not that I miss Ninette he adds blandly. Moran in this way arrives home safely; His house is deserted, with his hens running wild and his bees dead22. He arrives during spring 5 he spends June and May in the garden, he determines in August, after having written his report to leave again and try to be free, to deny his manhood and live close to earth. The report is mentioned in both beginning and end and also circular. Story setting is now familiar a town Molloy’s place of birth, with vaulted and ramparts entrances, traversed like the Dublin of two canals and a hilly countryside plain, sea and woodland. Ireland is the country certainly, called the island once again. Molloy speaks of it like he knew it well some time back, he talks of the weather and reticence on matters of sex of its people, maybe things have changed since previous times23. The second part is set substantially to that of the first with differences; to start with is atmosphere is distinctly Irish the previous one seems more of French 5, almost as if Beckett was symbolizing this way in his own mind. Irish in substratum and French surface wise, dually his art inspiration wise24. Significant differences in the setting are entailed since the place described by Molloy is a large region of hills, plain, forest, sea and the distant islands. Exist as a small area of pasture, bog, copse, creek and muddy sands at the hub which stands a town fortified which Molloy speaks of even though dismissed by Moran as more of the novel. According to Molloy it’s a figure of myth in a mythical country while Moran is a bit fairly prosaic wage earner who inhabits a world of the suburban farms and villas. Character of Molloy is a strange one not showing any of that of latter’s peculiar indistinctness. In part one the man emerging from soliloquy is a defined person clearly, created by Beckett and least. His appearance details are that of a toothless, scant beard, wears a pair of trousers, greatcoat and boots25. No indication of his height but the hat is of a bowler. A less or rather light eater, one who sleeps little and uncouth, Beckettian heroes like others his intellectual or was at once. Ironically speaks of Times Literary Supplement his is used to read travelers’ tales with attention and tales, he can be able to quote scraps of Latin and Italian, he speaks ironically of the Times Literary Supplement, and he used to read travellers tales with care and attention; he can quote scraps of Italian and Latin, and he is evidently familiar with Leibniz and Geulincx, whose images on occasion he remembers26. He is in fact a self-confessed former student of many varied disciplines: *my head was a store-house of useful knowledge. As to his moral character, he combines nobility with sadistic violence and he can often horrify the reader with his gross indifference to major human preoccupations, such as the will to live and the impulse to procreate, both of which provoke his pithiest ironies. Moran is sensitive to dress and possesses for instance a large collection of hats, from which he selects for his journey only an old straw boater, which he wears with a pepper-and-salt shooting suit, plus-fours and black boots, in order to look as strange as possible, for conspicuousness is the A B C of my profession. About Moran s height we are told nothing, but it seems he is on the short side, since his son aged about thirteen is nearly as tall as he. His turn of mind is towards a dry, rather humourless sort of irony, whereas Molloy s equally sardonic asides are usually much funnier. As he is presented at the beginning of Part II, Moran is thus a petty-minded, precise individual, given to a refined and sadistic cruelty towards his son, whereas Molloy, for all his moral failings, is more humane and sympathetic altogether. It is important for a right comprehension of this novel to thus understand their different characters, without forgetting of course that Moran changes as the book progresses whereas Molloy s personality remains static27. Stylistically, this novel is one of the more complexes that Beckett has written. The nucleus of the book is nonetheless a simple story, very like one of the nouvelles: namely the chronicle of Molloy s wanderings and of his decline. It seems probable that it was from this nucleus that the rest grew, a conclusion borne out by the fact that Part I show several points of resemblance to the nouvelles which preceded it28. In matters of detail, in fact, it often echoes these stories: both Molloy and the hero of the latter possess a sucking-stone and a hat fixed to their buttonhole with string or shoelace both wander aimlessly from town to country, clash with policemen, suffer eviction and expulsion, meet with shepherds or goatherds, run dogs or old ladies down, and not knowing where they are, enquire of strangers the name of their town. These events form as integral a part of the French hero s life as the gags do in a clown s act. The comparison is not in fact farfetched: the various episodes occurring in his history constitute the Beckettian clown s performance, each incident having become an unchanging item in his repertoire. One therefore expects, with the same assured anticipation with which one greets a clown, the Beckettian hero, in every tale, to execute certain ritual gestures, to submit to certain regular happenings. References: Culpeper, J. (1996) Inferring character from texts: Attribution theory and foregrounding theory, Poetics, Vol. 23, no. 5, 335-361. Eugene W, Samuel B, (1970) A Study of His Novels,London: Peter Owen, Gershoni, S., Kobayashi, H. (2008) Symmetry and Complementarity- a Discussion and A Qualitative Demonstration with Computer Generated Infinite Patterns of Natural Scenes, Proceedings of The First International Workshop on Kansei, The Society of Photographic Science and Technology of Japan. Hans J. S, (1973) This Hell of Stories: A Hegalian Approach to the Novels of Samuel Beckett The Hague and Paris: Mouton Marcus, S. (2009) Symmetry as a universal pattern, Symmetry: Culture and Science, Vol. 20, nos. 1-4, 11-22. Victor S. (1975) “Innovation and continuity,” in K. Worth, (ed.), Beckett the Shape Changer London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Kitamura, E.S., Gunji, Y.-P. (2010) Evolving lattices for analyzing behavioral dynamics of characters in literary text, tripleC-Cognition, Communication, Co-operation, [http://triple- c.at/index.php/tripleC], Ivanic, Roz (1997)Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academicwriting. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Swales, John M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. Read More