A Stylistic analysis of repetitions in Samuel Beckett's selected works: Endgame, come and go, the unnamable

Abstract

Repetition as a stylistic device consists of recurrent use of the same words or phrases in a text, and Samuel Beckett is known with his unique style marked with various linguistic devices such as repetition. Beckett, however, employs repetition not as a means of decoration or as a strategy for more spirited manifestation of strong emotion or ideas, rather he adopts the device to represent the tediousness and futility of life. This study aims to analyze 'repetition' in Beckett's Endgame (1957), Come and Go (1965) and The Unnamable (1953) from a stylistic perspective. The study, considering absurdism, explores how repetition indicates 'suffering and loneliness' and 'search for identity and existence', which are the major motives that appear in Beckett's texts. A mixed method approach has been used integrating quantitative and qualitative analyses, thereby incorporating content and corpus analyses with keyword tables of the frequency of repetitions. It is argued that these stylistic features in Beckett's texts represent how life is meaningless and how this meaninglessness arouses suffering and futility. The characters are depicted as trying to keep their connection with language mostly in the mode of recurrence and repetition even though they fail to produce meaning