SOURCE: Boxall, Peter. “Freedom and Cultural Location in Beckett's Eleuthéria.” Samuel Beckett Today 7 (1998): 245-58.

In the following essay, Boxall examines the recurrent themes of boundaries, limits, and freedom in Eleuthéria, Beckett's often overlooked first full-length play.

An anomaly in the oeuvre, Eleuthéria, Beckett's first full-length play, is largely disregarded by his critics. In many of the critical anthologies and monograph studies that appear on Beckett every year, Eleuthéria does not even appear in the index. This neglect could be attributed to a number of factors, not least of which is the general perception that it is not a very good play. When it is mentioned or discussed, it is most often dismissed as dramatic juvenilia, as Beckett's inchoate bash at a mélange of theatrical styles before he settles down to write Waiting for Godot, where he finds his feet as a dramatist. Beckett's...