The characters of Beckett's plays, from Waiting for Godot to those in the dramatic pieces comprising Ends and Odds, take their places in a playworld in which the atmosphere is permeated with a sense of the absurd. Invariably, Beckett's characters are metaphors for modern—or universal—man, puzzling over his inability to detect an intelligible pattern and suffering the consequent anguish of a futile search for meaning. The characteristic state of mind of a Beckett character is despair. (p. 53)

By virtue of the self-reflective quality of his theater, virtually every play of Beckett's is populated with metafictional characters. The sole physical presence in Krapp's Last Tape (1958), for example, is simultaneously playwright, performer, and audience…. In Happy Days (1961), Winnie, buried in sand first up to her waist and then up to her neck, is both actor and audience in a world in which one's actions, limited though they may...