Autonomy and social criticism › Two Examples

Beckett's *Endgame* received a sustained interpretation from Adorno. Its confined setting and recurring exchanges frustrate expectations of progress or redemption. Hamm remains in his chair, Clov attends to him, and Hamm's parents occupy dustbins. Events occur, but they offer little of the development familiar from conventional drama. Adorno's reading asks how this damaged theatrical world registers damaged historical experience. The example illustrates the kind of attention his theory demands: examine what the work does with speech, bodies, space, and repetition before extracting a general message from it. Schoenberg's music provides a second example. His move away from traditional tonality preceded the twelve-tone method, which organized pitches through ordered series. These were related developments, not a single break. The [Arnold Schönberg Center's account of the method](https://schoenberg.at/en/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/composition-with-twelve-tones) explains its relationship to both musical innovation and tradition. For Adorno, breaking with inherited conventions could enable expression while a new organizing system could also constrain it. The point is to investigate that tension in particular compositions, rather than treating unfamiliar sound as valuable simply because it alienates an audience.