The title of Beckett's work, 'Act Without Words I', betrays an immediate awareness of its dual status as text on a page and as an object intended to be used performance. The title, without an indefinite article preceding it, could be read either as descriptive: 'An act without words I', or as an imperative command to the reader: 'Act without words!' From the beginning, therefore, there is a self-awareness regarding the unstable or unknown state of the text. On the page, it doesn't look like how a play usually looks; there are no character names, speeches or captions in italics. The page reads like widely spaced prose or even poetry; yet he declares himself in writing as "a mime for a player", and at the end indicates that a "curtain" should fall. At first glance, the game is a set of precise directions that a "player" must imitate. The lack of discourse, or textual elaboration on man's motivations or inner life, makes the text appear both different from a written story and different from a dramatic performance text. Yet it is precisely these qualities that constitute a special relationship between the reader, the text and the potential performance through the act of reading. Beckett uses empty space on the page, punctuation, and repetition to mimic the pace of performance action to the pace of reading to create a highly visual experience; the player "sees" the work in progress as he reads. If they are a "player", they have to repeat actions in the same useless loop for an audience. Where no speech is indicated during the performance, the aforementioned techniques of repetition and suggestive language on the page allow the reader to infer feelings and emotions as they read, effectively interpreting and embodying the character themselves. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayEverything in the text happens in the present tense, which means the reader moves to the rhythm of the action as it happens, as he reads :"He turns, sees a second cube, looks at it, the jug, goes to the second cube, looks at it takes it, carries it and places it under the jug" The position of the reader here is twofold, since he is made to occupy both the usual position of reader at a distance and embody the gaze of man. This is done by "looking" moments in the text. Since, as readers, we are offered no other gaze, nor any other information, we must look where the man looks and embody his gaze. The word "look" is also imperative, and where it appears in the text our attention is drawn and we are forced, by the text, to imagine the object at which the man is looking. In addition to this, Beckett's careful punctuation slows the reader's pace to allow a pause between each action, "look at the jug, go to the second cube", creating a sense of realistic bodily movement over time. His use of white space on the page is also very suggestive, as it forces a pause between each action as you read: "A great cube comes down from the flies, lands. Keep thinking. Whistle from above." As readers, our eyes cannot move quickly between sentences as they normally would in a close-up line of prose or poetry. This has the effect of imposing real time between actions, as it would appear with a body on stage. Therefore, if we consider this as a performance text, the words here not only inform movement, but also presuppose that movement in time. The word "reflect" here also has a special meaning in the text. The white space left after the word in the example cited above has the obvious characteristic of imposing a spatial implication of the time in which the man reflects. But theThe word "reflect" has an additional meaning regarding the reader's experience of the text because of its layered repetition. It is one of the few words in the text that indicates an inner life to the "man" who performs his otherwise mechanical actions, and thus offers the reader the opportunity to embellish or imagine the substance of this "reflection". Reading at the same pace as the man "performing", they are invited to reflect from the same intellectual position as the man, without any indication of the reason behind the events on stage. It is in these moments that the reader ceases to be a spectator of man's actions, and instead becomes a tool for giving him an interior life, interpreting him through reading. It works through repetition. Every time the word 'reflects' is repeated, the reader is invited to reflect on the action that has just occurred. The first time the word is used, it is enclosed by punctuation: "He falls, gets up immediately, dusts himself off, turns sideways, reflects." The moment is given its own integrity, delimited in a visual impression of a -scenic pause. But each time the word is repeated, it takes on a different meaning simply by the nature of having been repeated, each time becoming more desperate, and lacking in understanding: «A little tree comes down from the flies, lands […] Continue to reflect. Whistle from above. He turns, sees the tree, reflects, approaches, sits in its shade, looks at his hands." Although the word itself does not change, each time the man is foiled, the reader necessarily takes the word differently They begin to wonder if the "reflection" is really effective. And the text also guides this understanding, through the repeated gesture of the man looking at his hands, an event that occurs only after a few moments of 'reflection' indicate the text's self-conscious attempt to produce the reader's simultaneous experience of embodying the man (produced by moments of reflection) and of looking at the man from a distance (embodied by looking at his hands). , like man, is unable to make any progress, by will of thought (reflection) or action (hands). The fact that the person reading this text is probably an actor who will literally embody man on the stage heightens the sense of futility and highlights the sense of endless repetition that the text portrays. act, the text states that, after falling, the man "remains lying on his side, with his face turned towards the auditorium, with his gaze fixed in front of him". This is the moment in which the intimacy between the act of reading and the performance crystallizes. The reader has "observed" the man's actions, but now looks towards them, "staring" at him and pushing beyond the boundary between text and performance that the reader has experienced throughout the work. Here they become very aware of being 'watched', a visual gesture that is usually only performed in a theatre. That said, this gesture would also be unusual in a theater, as it would break the fourth wall between actor and audience, an effect that I believe was intended here; co-opt the reader into performing what he reads. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The relationship between the text as an object to be read and an object to interpret is complex here in many ways, but the lack of words means that an intimate and disturbing relationship can exist between the two, as both rely on only one visual experience. The imperative that I suggested could have been read in the title, 'act without words', is in fact a challenge for the reader. Whether they approach the text with the intention only of reading or acting, the experience of reading itself interprets the text by positioning the reader as an audience member, but one.