Beckett is known for creating in the drama genre called 'theatre of the absurd,' which means that the content focuses on the negative and fatalistic side of life. Appropriately bleak staging in a grey room supports the futile plot line of this play with grey light filtering through two small windows. The exact location is not defined, but the four characters appear to be the last of a dying universe. Beckett's flair for the absurd places Nagg and Nell in trashcans while the blind Hamm cruelly torments his devoted servant, Clov, and plays with a three-legged toy dog.

Beckett provides foreshadowing in the first words uttered in the play when Clov says, "Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished." By the end of the play, the reader understands that the universe has ended, earth is destroyed, and these four characters cling...