Mechanical Sustenance

Food, Power, and Decay in Beckett’s Dramatic Universe

Abstract

In Beckett's plays, food has lost its agency as nourishment and has become a symbol of decay, stagnation and deterioration. Characters do not eat out of hunger; they eat out of habit, compulsion, or boredom. Food also works as an instrument of control, domination and subjugation, as in Pozzo's control over Lucky and Hamm's control over Clov, Nagg and Nell. This article examines the transformation of food in the dramatic universe of Samuel Beckett, arguing that it undergoes a radical devaluation from a life-sustaining necessity to a marker of decay, repetition, and power. Acts of eating are detached from hunger and instead function as compulsive, mechanical gestures that sustain the illusion of activity within an otherwise stagnant existence. The study demonstrates how food operates as an instrument of domination within hierarchical relationships—most notably between Pozzo and Lucky, and Hamm and Clov—where control over sustenance reinforces structures of dependency and subjugation. Tracing a trajectory from external deprivation to internalized compulsion, the article reveals how nourishment becomes progressively emptied of meaning, culminating in self-destructive habit. Ultimately, Beckett’s use of food exposes a profound existential crisis in which survival is reduced to mere endurance.