Page "Play (play)" Paragraph 16

In writing to George Devine, who directed the Old Vic production, Beckett suggests that “ the inquirer ( light ) begins to emerge as no less a victim of his inquiry than they and as needing to be free, within narrow limits, literally to act the part, i. e. to vary only slightly his speeds and intensities .” But the role of the light is even more ambiguous, for it has also been seen as “ a metaphor for our attention ( relentless, all-consuming, whimsical )” and a way of “ switching on and switching off speech exactly as a playwright does when he moves from one line of dialogue on his page to the next .” Neither of these analogies conflicts with the more popular views where the spotlight is believed by to represent God, or some other moral agent tasked with assessing, each character's case to be relieved from the binds of the urn by having them relive this relationship, which has ruined all their lives.

This view ascribes a motive to the light beyond mere torture.

That may not be the case.

Just as easily as God, the light could represent the devil.