A world in uncertainty and fear, isolated from each other. The COVID-19 pandemic can cause a measure of depression or despair to set in. Our lives as we know it have shifted dramatically and are at times almost unrecognizable. Some places appear to be ghosted and a fear for those we love and humanity in general sets an underlying tone for our days. This foreboding that has settled into each of our lives resonates in some ways with that of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. The painting named The Umbrella is to represent some of the more prominent feelings surrounding COVID-19 as well as situate itself similarly to that of Endgame. All three portray a present tenor of anxiety, perhaps frustration – and a level of uncertainty when looking toward the future.
Occasionally we shield ourselves from situations that can cause potential harm or discomfort, and while this can be life-saving (or pain-saving), it can also potentially cause us to miss something extraordinary. The girl in this painting is holding an umbrella, seemingly shielding herself from a downpour of rain. While this umbrella’s job is to keep the girl dry, and hopefully help keep her from catching cold, it also limits her vision as she has it pulled low over her head. The darkness and overall wet feeling of the painting surrounds an explosion of light, blinding and obscuring the path the girl walks on. The girl is solitary in the picture, effectively social distanced if you will. This being alone, shrouded in darkness, can strike a note of fear. There is strength in numbers, but courage is really tested when you must face things alone.
The path the girl walks on is uncertain and obscure to the beholder, much like what we face now with the overhanging threat of the virus, and the feelings of uncertainty as we move further into quarantine and socially distancing ourselves. The rain brings darkness, and the dark shading and colors are to further express the gloom, anxiety, and waiting for everything to pass over. The light is to represent hope and community as we may not be able to be together in person, but we still lean on each other to get through troubling times. As the pandemic is global, we all share the battle with the same illness and conditions enforced to protect society from overwhelming us with something we haven’t found the cure for yet. The umbrella is to represent us shielding ourselves from the rain and the uncertainties imposing in our lives. There can be beauty in the darkness and it’s best to remember that if we do get wet, the rain eventually ceases as it can’t be pouring all the time. Eventually it must stop.
Endgame likewise seems to share similar characteristics with what we are experiencing with COVID-19. While our situations may hopefully not be as hostile as the characters in Endgame, they appear to also be experiencing a type of ‘quarantine.’ While the play is stuck inside this four-walled environment, frustration sets in as the monotonous tasks of living are carried out in a painfully slow manner with multiple interruptions and repetitive actions. This is emphasized at the beginning when Clov tries to look outside the windows using a ladder. He keeps forgetting to adjust the ladder and has to perform these repetitive acts of fixing it multiple times before the play continues to a new scene. The dialogue throughout the play is also very repetitive and seemingly soulless.
Being trapped inside this building appears to have made its inhabitants a little stir-crazy—Clov, with his repeated utterances about leaving, Hamm with longing to see or hear something from outside, and Hamm’s parents, Nagg and Nell, kept inside their bins left to reminisce about old and better days. While Nagg and Nell’s bins appear to already be separated as evident at one point when they reach for each other but cannot touch, it would be a fitting stage direction in accordance with current events to situate their bins exactly six-feet apart—perfectly socially distanced.
Staging it this way, however, might imply that they were taken care of better than they were. The old, unclean sawdust they bedded in and the little food offered to them seems to testify to them not being too well looked after. Neither does their conversations point to any lost affection between them and their son, Hamm, as evident with Hamm’s frequent shushing and ordering them to be ‘bottled up.’ The only real affection we see in the play is between Nagg and Nell, and even then it is possible this is derived primarily from fear of losing their last connection to better days.
Between the painting and Endgame in accordance with COVID-19, there are a few distinct differences, mostly surrounding the key issue of hope. The girl is walking onto a path that is transfused with light. This contrasts with the darkness that Clov only sees when he looks out the window, as well as the darkness that shields the blindman’s eyes. While both pigments of color can be equally ‘blinding’ in a sense, darkness is more apt to symbolize despair and hopelessness while light is a kind of hope and a new start.
During this pandemic, people’s fear has been evident, but there is also a flicker of hope for the future that is lost in Endgame. While these times are cloaked in uncertainty, people have been supportive of one another as they are forced out of their regular routines and can optimistically use this time as an opportunity to stop and appreciate what they have as well as gain a deeper appreciation for what has been taken away. We don’t know for certain when the darkness will lift, and the sky will clear, who will suffer and who will simply pass through, but at some point the pandemic will be over, and we will be allowed to venture outside our homes, no longer confined inside. One day we will be allowed to escape like Clov adamantly claims several times to Hamm (though perhaps for Clov it is an empty vow).
Mariah,
Wow! This painting is so cool! Did you start with a black canvas and use lighter colors or is it the other way around? Either way, it is super interesting to look at and you balanced the dark and light in a really visually engaging way. The dimension that you were able to create throughout the dark parts is especially impressive; the movement of the rain is there but you were also still able to maintain the monochromatic darkness that is representative of the anxiety and uncertainty of this situation. Whatever technique you used really does show that there can be “beauty in the darkness,” as you wrote!
Thank you for sharing this with us! :)
-Giulia
What a beautiful painting, Mariah. I am curious: how big is it, and what’s the medium? It’s hard to tell from pictures, and unfortunately something is lost in digital reproduction. Your discussion of the painting in relation to COVID-19 and Endgame nicely draws out the parallel situations of anxiety, frustration, and monotony.
The symbol of the umbrella is intriguing, for it manages to capture both a way of protecting ourselves (from the virus, from reality, from each other) and a way of blinding ourselves (to what caused this, to what the future might hold). I’m thinking of Hamm’s blood-stained handkerchief as a darker way of expressing similar ideas.
The girl in the painting could be practicing social distancing because she…
Hi Mariah!
I hope you’re doing well! :)
Your paint is absolutely STUNNING!! Before I read what you wrote for it, I was thinking about how the girl was illuminated and seemed to be walking towards some brightness, some hope. I was thrilled to read how even “if we do get wet, the rain eventually ceases as it can’t be pouring all the time. Eventually it must stop.” I think that’s a good outlook to have on this situation we find ourselves in. I also really liked what you said about how people have been supportive of each other during this pandemic. I know there are exceptions to that and I’ve certainly observed some nasty Twitter exchanges, but thinking about…