A man hears a voice in the dark, and I believe that voice is death. The voice changes narratives throughout “Company” to delude the logic of the man on his back as well as the reader.
At first, the man tries to deduce that the voice is not addressing him. “Though now even less than ever given to wonder he cannot but sometimes wonder if it is indeed to and of him the voice is speaking. May not there be another with him in the dark to and of whom the voice is speaking? Is he not perhaps overhearing a communication not intended for him? If he is alone on his back in the dark why does the voice not say so?” (428). The voice currently utilizes the second person narrative, but the man on his back believes himself to be the listener of a conversation not pertaining to him, and he is wrong.
If the voice were not addressing him, the voice would assume the third person narrative.
“Since it speaks in the second person. Were it not of him to whom it is speaking speaking but of another it would not speak in the second person but in the third. For example, He first saw the light on such and such a day and now he is on his back in the dark. It is clear therefore that if it is not to him the voice is speaking but to another it is not of him either but of that other and none other to that other. So with what reason remains he reasons ill” (429).
Now that the man realizes his mistake, his mind starts to deteriorate as he simply accepts the voice as company and imagines it to be entertaining, even though it may be death. The voice resembles death because it constantly recounts the events of the man’s life, in order, addressing the man as “you.”
The voice then transitions to the first person narrative when the man believes the voice is inside his mind. “To confess, Yes I remember. Perhaps even to have a voice. To murmur, Yes I remember. What an addition to company that would be! A voice in the first person singular. Murmuring now and then, Yes I remember” (431). In my opinion, this passage is evidence that the man on his back is accepting his condition, death. The man lies in the dark on his back because he resides in a coffin.
Beckett explains this situation on the last page of the story, when he describes the forever limited space and singularity of the man on his back.
“You now on you back in the dark shall not rise to your arse again to clasp your legs in your arms and bow down your head till it can bow down no further. But with face upturned for good labour in vain at your fable. Till finally you hear how words are coming to an end. With every inane word a little nearer to the last. And how the fable too. The fable of one with you in the dark. The fable of one fabling of one with you in the dark. And how better in the end labour lost and silence. And you as you always were. Alone” (450).
The voice never existed; it was a fable, a fable made up by a man losing his final moments of consciousness.
The man will never rise again because he cannot, because he is dead. And alone. Having imagined he spoke to death. Such company.
ALONE.
