Rhinocerous Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Rhinocerous Essay, Research Paper # 8220 ; Oh, a rhinoceros! # 8221 ; cries Jean, the smug and slightly shallow friend to the chief character, Berenger, in the twentieth century Gallic drama, Rhinoceros. Jean # 8217 ; s response to the noisy invasion of the two rhinoceroses running past the coffeehouse is followed by a figure of similar senseless responses from Jean # 8217 ; s colleagues and familiarities. Eugene Ionesco, the Romanian-born French playwright, uses the absurd impression of rhinoceroses taking over a little provincial town in France to research life # 8217 ; s changeless battle between keeping one # 8217 ; s individualism and yielding to the # 8220 ; mass-mind # 8221 ; of conformance. The three-act drama is basically a metaphor for people abandoning their ain beliefs to fall in the mass herd bulk. In fact, Ionesco describes it as an # 8220 ; anti-Nazi # 8221 ; drama. It besides reflects a position that holds the existence to be finally irrational, meaningless, and absurd ; a impression normall y upheld in the # 8220 ; Theater of the Absurd, # 8221 ; a mid-20th century theatre motion. Tragedy and comedy collide in this illustration of the absurdness of the human status. The drama centres on Berenger, a immature adult male confused by life # 8217 ; s many struggles. His battles with life reflect those of Ionesco himself. Berenger is the one character who sees the world of life and is determined non to yield to the # 8220 ; disease # 8221 ; of conformance. However clear the jobs of humanity are to him, his ultimate confusion is obvious when he says, # 8220 ; Sometimes I wonder if I exist myself # 8221 ; . These existentialist concerns reflect Ionesco # 8217 ; s philosophical inquiries of his ain being. In fact, this drama causes its audience to contemplate such issues within themselves. Except for Berenger, the characters in the drama show their inanity and single-mindedness in the first and 2nd Acts of the Apostless by their reactions to the rhinoceroses. The Old Gentleman barely notices them at all. He is more interested in winning the fondnesss of the Housewife by assisting her gather her things that she drops when startled by the beasts. It becomes clear that none of them see the rhinoceroses as possible precursors of the hereafter or understand the significance behind their visual aspect in their little town. When one of the rhinoceroses runs over the Housewife # 8217 ; s cat, all of the citizens say at the same time, # 8220 ; What a calamity, hapless small thing! # 8221 ; A few of the citizens so continue stating one-by-one, # 8220 ; Poor small thing! # 8221 ; . Ionesco shows this # 8220 ; canned mawkishness # 8221 ; from the characters to bode the affects of conformance I n the society. He uses this technique all throughout the drama. When one character reacts to something with a response, the others follow with the exact same response. This deficiency of idea on the portion of the citizens throughout the first two Acts of the Apostless assures their eventual transmutation into rhinoceroses. The image of a â€Å"mass mind† becomes clearer as the drama progresses. The topics depicted in this drama are serious, yet the audience can non assist but titter a small at the thoughts and images portrayed, for they are genuinely absurd. However, one should besides see the implicit in subject behind Ionesco # 8217 ; s herd of rhinoceroses. This # 8220 ; tragic-comedy # 8221 ; brings to mind Nazi Germany and the Serbs in Bosnia. There is ever an internal battle traveling on about whether you # 8217 ; re traveling to be your ain individual # 8211 ; which is hard # 8211 ; or whether you # 8217 ; re merely traveling to travel with the flow of the crowd. Most people tend to yield to the # 8220 ; disease # 8221 ; merely because they can non bear being different from the bulk. Ionesco # 8217 ; s plants are similar to those of Samuel Beckett, an Irish novelist and dramatist from the twentieth century. Beckett # 8217 ; s dramas, such as Waiting for Godot and Endgame, besides concern the issues of human agony, endurance, and fighting with nonsense and unreason in a universe of the truly Absurd. However, most of Ionesco # 8217 ; s work is more amusing, more verbal, and less despairing than the work of Beckett. Of class, by stating that Ionesco # 8217 ; s dramas are more amusing, the earnestness of the chief subjects found in his work are non meant to be downplayed. In fact, the thoughts about the human status that he depicts are really efficaciously presented and are enhanced with the usage of absurdnesss. The characters engage in pointless and insistent actions that emphasize the nonsense of their being and the unlogical manner in which they live. The secret plan of this drama opens the eyes of its audience by the use of many non-traditional dramatic techniques. The most obvious is Ionesco # 8217 ; s usage of the rhinoceros as a poetic metaphor of the # 8220 ; indispensable savageness # 8221 ; of human existences and besides of the pettiness of the existence. The rhinoceros contrasts wholly with the images of beauty and aristocracy which characterized dramas of earlier epochs. The arrant pandemonium and preposterousness of this # 8220 ; tragic-comedy # 8221 ; is adequate to do it memorable to all who read it or acquire the opportunity to watch the production. To those who can look past the comedy and see the true significance behind the absurdness, it is perchance life-changing.