The play also finishes on a self-conscious note designed to make the audience more aware of its status as a play; just as neither Hamm nor Clov can escape, neither should the audience be allowed to escape into the fantasy of the theater. Hamm makes references to his aside, his final soliloquy, and an "underplot," and his replacing the handkerchief creates a final image of a theater curtain closing—one that will only open again tomorrow.