I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - (pause) - after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. (Pause. Low) Let me in.
Samuel BeckettRead
Let me go to hell, that's all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and hear me, that might take some of the shine off their bliss.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The desire to express pain and resentment even in misery highlights the need for recognition and validation of suffering.
In this quote, Samuel Beckett expresses a deep sense of anguish and the wish for his tormentors to suffer seeing him in hell, cursing them. It encapsulates the human condition of wanting to have one's struggles acknowledged, even if it means enduring eternal suffering, as symbolic of the fight against the indifference of others towards one's pain.
Themes
SufferingPainRecognitionResentmentBliss
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary discussion about existentialism, this quote can emphasize the importance of recognizing human suffering.
More from Samuel Beckett
All quotes →Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful.
Samuel BeckettRead
I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.
Samuel BeckettRead
And what I have, what I am, is enough, was always enough for me, and as far as my dear little sweet little future is concerned I have no qualms, I have a good time coming.
Samuel BeckettRead
I love order. It's my dream. A world where all would be silent and still, and each thing in its last place, under the last dust.
Samuel BeckettRead
We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom, our ideals.
Samuel BeckettRead
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