In fuga sulla sedia a dondolo: Murphy di Samuel Beckett

Abstract

The paper deals with the significance of the rocking chair in Samuel Beckett’s novel Murphy, considered as an item of Beckett’s ‘geometrical symbolism’. I claim that the shape of the rocking chair can be interpreted in connection to Beckett’s interest in irrational numbers used as a means to explain his characters’ relation with the world. Moreover, I hint at how, under this light, the rocking chair can be related to another typical Beckettian prop, the bicycle, and show how the complementary symbolism of these two objects may serve as a paradigm for a typology of Beckett’s characters.