Samuel Beckett¨s Novel Molloy and Its Particular Style,...

There’s no question Samuel Beckett was deeply influenced by the avant-garde style of fellow Irish novelist James Joyce when writing Molloy. Both Beckett and Joyce allude to the classics (Dante’s Purgatorio and Homer’s Odyssey, respectively) and both extensively employ interior monologue to often similar effect. Even so, Beckett, ever aware of the shadow cast by his former mentor, also attempted to eschew Joycean tendencies in his works, as demonstrated in Molloy. Here, not only does Beckett entirely deny readers the luxury of context, he deconstructs the very fundamentals of novel and narrative. Distinctly metafictional in form, Molloy self-consciously underlines its own artificiality and, on a universal level, that intrinsic to fiction itself. Like the titular allusion of Joyce’s Ulysses, the two protagonists in Molloy also embark on a voyage of sorts, albeit the nature of which is even more so internalized. As a result, there’s not much by way of plot or setting, which remain intentionally hazy. Still, the novel moves, sometimes at a dizzying pace, in part to its frequent digressions and elision of so many vital answers: Are Molloy and Moran the same character? Is it possible Molloy may not even be a person altogether but rather an alter ego of Moran? Is Molloy a state of mind? What exactly does it mean to be â€Å"searching for Molloy†? These questions stem from the novel’s vague definition of physical space and time, leading some readers to interpret the novel’s second