4/
HAMM: Get me ready. [CLOV does not move.] Go and get the sheet. [CLOV does not move.] Clov!
CLOV: Yes.
HAMM: I’ll give you nothing more to eat.
CLOV: Then we’ll die.
HAMM: I’ll give you just enough to keep you from dying. You’ll be hungry all the time.
CLOV: Then we shan’t die. [Pause.] I’ll go for the sheet. [He goes towards the door.]
5/
HAMM: No! [CLOV halts.] I’ll give you one biscuit per day. [Pause.] One and a half. [Pause.] Why do you stay with me?
CLOV: Why do you keep me?
HAMM: There’s no one else.
CLOV: There’s nowhere else.
[Pause.]
HAMM: You’re leaving me all the same.
CLOV: I’m trying.
HAMM: You don’t love me.
CLOV. No.
(Beckett 1964, [1958], pp. 13–14)
Source:
Ylva Gustafsson: The Tragedy of Alzheimer’s Disease
Contextual Ethics, 2025
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