Rhinoceroses analysis of the work. E. Ionesco is a representative of the French “theater of the absurd.” Depiction of the spiritual and intellectual emptiness of modern society in the play "Rhinoceros". Rhinoceros. Workshop of P. Fomenko. Press about the performance

They write on the Internet that Eugene Ionesco is similar to Franz Kafka, but they do not explain why, except that Franz Kafka was also an absurdist and also saw the world in an absurd way. This is understandable! So you can lump everyone into one pile - and there will be no originality. But I'm lucky that she exists. And no matter what they write. The name of this originality seems to be on everyone’s lips: of course, with the exception of conformists and philistines who are far from spiritual life. Eugene Ionesco himself experienced the most terrible oblivion, his plays make this known, they breathe with the impulses of a wounded heart, suffering, contradictions and pain for humanity. One of his main plays is called “Rhinoceros”, you can think a lot about it, reason about it, understand it one way or another, but it remains a mystery. But this is absurd! And the absurd is mysterious. Imagine: two friends meet - Beranger and Jean. Jean shames Beranger for his sloppiness and unkempt appearance. Then a rhinoceros runs down the street. People run away in panic and chaos ensues. Then everything calms down. Jean again shames Beranger. He complains that he can’t help but drink: his work exhausts him, it’s hard for him to live, and so on. At the same time, Logic talks with the Old Master, telling him that all cats have four paws. The old gentleman says that his dog also has four legs. The logician logically concludes that the Old Master's dog is a cat. Thus, a brilliant mockery of logic as dogmatism arises here. Meanwhile, Jean calls on Beranger to gather his will and start a good life. The dialogues are conducted by Beranger with Jean and Logic with the Old Master; The dialogues are absolutely the same and standard. It is shown that officials cannot think independently and correctly, since they have little free time. True and accurate! Beranger promises Jean to start new life. Then the rhinoceros runs down the street again. Chaos again. A rhinoceros crushed a housewife's cat. Everyone present begins to argue how many horns - one or two - the rhinoceros had. Bérenger ends up quarreling with Jean. And he continues to drink again...

Act two of the play begins with a newspaper article being read in the office of a company. It says that yesterday “a pachyderm trampled a cat.” Daisy and Dudar do not doubt what is “clearly written.” But Botar says that you can’t trust the newspapers, they lie, you can only believe what you see with your own eyes. An argument ensues, Botard criticizes racism first, then the church. At this time, the rhinoceros breaks through to the office and breaks the stairs, and then circles with a roar in the street. And suddenly he begins to roar in a voice that is not his own. Madame Beuf discovers that this voice is her husband, which means the rhinoceros is her husband! Madame Beuf faints. Then she walks away and says that she cannot leave her husband. She jumps down onto the rhinoceros's back. Beranger unsuccessfully tries to detain her, but only her skirt remains in his hands. Madame Beuf rides off on the back of her rhinoceros husband. People are discussing reports that the number of rhinoceroses in the city is increasing. At first there were seven of them, then seventeen, and now there are already thirty-two! Finally the firefighters arrive and take all the people out of the office.

The action continues. Bérenger comes to Jean's house. They make peace. Beranger says that rhinoceroses with one and two horns have appeared in the city. Jean is terribly annoyed, he rushes around the apartment and says that he can only feel disgust for people. Beranger notices that Jean is sick, that a lump has appeared on his forehead, and his skin has become rough. Jean insults different people, says that morality is not needed, that one must be above morality, offers nature in return, that is, the laws of the jungle. He says that everything created by man must be destroyed, then “everyone will be better off.” He says that he wants to turn into a rhinoceros, and soon he actually turns into one. Beranger rushes to help, but discovers with horror that the entire house is already filled with rhinoceroses. Beranger runs out into the street. But there are already crowds of rhinoceroses there...

The third act begins with Beranger's torment. He has his head bandaged, has nightmares about rhinoceroses, and shouts in his sleep, “watch out for the horns!” Finally he wakes up and pours himself some cognac. What happened to Jean is a transformation from a humanist into a beast... Dudar comes to visit Bérenger. Beranger notes that he feels responsible for what is happening. In response, Dudar says completely inappropriately: “Judge not, lest you be judged...” Beranger says that he wants to stop evil, but Dudar does not distinguish between where the evil is and where the good is. Bérenger is intolerant of rhinoceroses, but Dudard does not see any vice in them. Indeed, what vice is there in what is natural? Outside, there is a terrible noise coming from the street - rhinoceroses are running around there. Daisy comes to visit Beranger and offers him breakfast. Dudar obeys the call of duty, he becomes a rhinoceros. Daisy is Beranger's lover, she promises to be with him all the time, but soon she also becomes a rhinoceros. A roar is heard on the radio; on the phone too... In the end Beranger remains the only person. He feels abnormal, a freak, a monster. He no longer wants originality, but still decides to remain human.

The play "Rhinoceros" ends with what remains in the world last man. But what does he hope for? Will he be able to cope with the whole world? In this play, all people at first, of course, deny the possibility of turning into rhinoceroses, but gradually they admit it, and actually turn into them. This is an existential problem. The play touches on a lot of things, talks about many problems, perhaps a little superficially, but it talks about racism, for example, and that’s enough. The description in the play of Botard, an “anarchist,” is interesting. In a dispute, he always takes an offensive, but simplified position. He is suspicious, distrustful, skeptic. His hatred of his superiors is explained by an inferiority complex and resentment. However, it is explained by Dudard, and Bérenger says that Botard honest man. Dudard does not deny this, but says that Botard always speaks hackneyed truths. Before becoming a rhinoceros, Botar said: “You need to keep up with the times.” But he was caught being honest. General meaning The play's message is very likely that it is difficult to be human, it is incredibly difficult, and even Bérenger at the end of the play considers himself a freak for not following everyone else. In general, it is difficult to be a loner and an outcast. But we know that we can’t follow everyone. Even if they live better, they are soulless, they are rhinoceroses, they, one might say, do not exist - and we experience non-existence within ourselves, but we - like Beranger - we exist. And this is what Eugene Ionesco's play is about.

Sergey Nikiforov, 2011

The essence of Beranger's resistance (based on the play by E. Ionesco "Rhinoceros")

Play outstanding writer French literature by Eugene Ionesco "Rhinoceros" was written in 1959. This founder of the “drama of the absurd,” a classic in whom critics see “a corrosive observer, a ruthless collector of human deafness,” was a subtle psychologist who called on humanity to come to its senses, to change its spiritual guidelines, so as not to slide into the abyss of lack of spirituality and unbelief. The play "Rhinoceros" is an allegory on human society.

The main character of Beranger's work feels superfluous in this life. He doesn't like the service, but he does his job conscientiously; does not understand to whom and what he owes, but looks at other people’s opinions about his appearance and habits.

Beranger has little vitality, he does not feel a desire for life, he is equally oppressed by loneliness and society. He doesn't understand life position, the logic of someone who has four legs, who can be considered a cat, to live is natural, because everyone lives. Bérenger has low self-esteem because he doesn’t wear ties, has no education, no future, and not a single chance to please a woman.

His friend Jean is the complete opposite of Beranger: “he is dressed very carefully: a chestnut suit, a red tie, a false starched collar.” Beranger feels like a beggar next to him. He has long stopped taking care of himself, walks around unshaven, without a hat, his hair is tousled, his clothes are shabby.”

Jean always says the right things, similar to slogans: “Life is a struggle, whoever does not fight is a coward! You must look for the strength to live within yourself, you must arm yourself with tolerance, culture, intelligence and become the master of the situation. Dress appropriately every day, shave, put on a clean shirt, don’t drink, follow the literary and cultural events of the era, go to museums, read literary magazines, attend lectures.” Beranger agrees with everything, he wants to change his life today. He is ready to buy tickets to the performance and invites Jean to be with him, but at that time his friend is having a siesta, and Jean cannot go to the museum either, because at that time he is meeting with friends in a restaurant. Beranger is amazed. A friend calls him a drunkard, and instead of going to a museum he will go to a restaurant to drink vodka?!

As the play progresses, the stomping of large animals can be heard. The heroes are surprised, but so far no one has thought that it is their neighbors, acquaintances, and friends who are turning into rhinoceroses.

Beranger witnessed Jean's transformation. But it’s not just the friend’s appearance that changes. He can no longer mask his natural essence: lack of morality, desire to live according to the laws of the jungle. He likes to be a rhinoceros, he wants to take off his clothes and climb into the swamp. He does not resist the transformation, but rejoices in the fact that he will finally get rid of those conventions that he had to obey and that were unnatural for him.

The transformation process took over the entire city. And only the loser Beranger remains human and does not submit to the feeling of the “crowd”. He opposes collective hysteria, which neutralizes personality, subjugates a person, turns him into an animal, the masses have only instincts, the desire to live in a herd and fulfill the will of the leader.

Eugene Ionesco in allegorical form depicts human society, where the brutalization of people is a natural result of disrespect for the individual. The hero of the play “Rhinoceros” remains alone among the animals, but it doesn’t even occur to him to become like everyone else, to forget his human nature. He resists transformation even when his beloved Desi leaves him. Without loud slogans, without lofty speculations about human duty in complex life situation he doesn't even give himself a choice. He is human and will remain so until the end.

Subject : E. Ionesco. The play "Rhinoceros" as a drama of the absurd. “Nonbirth” is a phenomenon mass depersonalization society.

Target : deepen and expand students’ knowledge about the diversity of world literature of the twentieth century; introduce the life and work of the French playwright E. Ionesco; continue to form and deepen the concept of “theater of the absurd” using the example of the play “Rhinoceros”; reveal the symbolic meaning of the plot of the drama, help students see its relevance and modernity; to cultivate the desire to preserve individuality, respect for man as the highest value.

Equipment : presentation, projector, explanatory dictionary, texts of the play, portrait of the writer, cards for pair work, fragment from the film “Rhinoceros: Made to Conscience”, feedback sheets.

Lesson type : lesson-research

Planned educational results:

Subject:

On basic level – must know the definition of “theater of the absurd”, the content of the play “Rhinoceros”; be able to analyze and comment on episodes expressing one’s own assessment.

On a productive level – must be able to use the acquired knowledge to formulate the problems raised by the author in the drama, and argue their own opinion in a reasoned and convincing manner.

Personal: must find a connection literary work with history and one’s own life experience, adequately judge the reasons for one’s success/failure in work in the classroom, demonstrate positive attitude To educational activities, express your own judgments on the topic of the lesson and the content of the play.

Metasubject:

educational – general education : must formulate questions and answers on the topic being studied; listen carefully, construct speech statements;

logical : demonstrate independent thinking, the ability to analyze, generalize, and draw conclusions on the issues of drama;

regulatory – shouldcorrectly perceive and understand the educational task, plan your actions in accordance with it, exercise mutual control, adequately evaluate your own activities and the activities of classmates in the lesson;

communicative – must be able to interact constructively in pair work, learn to listen and understand each other, and adequately perceive praise and comments.

I am amazed by the success of this play. Do people understand it as they should? Will they recognize in it the monstrous phenomenon of massification...? And most importantly, are they all individuals with a soul, one and only?

E.Ionesco

Progress of the lesson.

1. Organizational moment

Greeting, creating a positive emotional mood(filling out self-assessment and feedback sheets)

2. Immersion in the topic

Before we move on to the topic of our lesson, I suggest watching a few frames from a film about one of the most beautiful animals living on earth. They have a very beautiful appearance, pleasant skin tone, gentle voices.

View a fragment from the film “Rhinoceros: made to last.”

3. Motivation for learning activities

Is this the animal you imagined? (...) But the heroes of the work that we will consider today thought exactly so.

It is no coincidence that we began our work with a fragment of a film about rhinoceroses. This film will help us see the direction of all our work. So why rhinos? (Because that’s what the play is called: “Rhinoceros”)

What is the attitude of the characters in the play towards rhinoceroses? (they admire them, call them beautiful, they themselves want to become rhinoceroses).

Isn't this desire absurd from the point of view of a thinking person? What does Ionesco himself say about his play? (working with epigraph)

Problematic question

If I lived in this city, would I become a rhinoceros? (write in notebook)

4. Formulating the topic of the lesson

Let's formulate the first part of our topic:E. Ionesco. The play "Rhinoceros" as a drama of the absurd.

Read the second part of our topic. What is the mass depersonalization of society, as this process is called in the play? (“Onbearance”) What will the second part of our topic sound like?“Onbearance” is a phenomenon of mass depersonalization of society.

4. Goal setting

Let's each determine the goals of the lesson and write them down on the feedback sheet (learn, learn, understand, remember ). In your entry, use the words “theater of the absurd”, “mass depersonalization”, “onoration”.

(recording and reading goals)

5. Work on the topic of the lesson

Who is Eugene Ionesco? Let's listen to our “biographers”.

( Student performance )

Eugene Ionesco - French playwright Romanian origin, writer, thinker, classic of the avant-garde theater. Born in 1909 in Romania. A few years later, his parents moved to France, first to the village of La Chapelle-Anthenaise and then to Paris. In 1922, Ionesco returned to Romania, where he began to write his first poems in Romanian and French. Having entered the university in Bucharest, he studied French language and literature, and in 1929 he began teaching. In the same year he moved to Paris. In 1938 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne. In 1970 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Ionesco lived in France until the end of his days, creating many plays, prose works, biographical memoirs. The most famous are his novel “Lonely”, plays “The Bald Singer”, “The Lesson” and, of course, “Rhinoceros”.

Eugene Ionesco entered world literature as a theorist and practitioner of the “theater of the absurd”. What works began to be called this way, what signs do the plays of the “theater of the absurd” have? Let's listen to our literary critics.

( Student performance )

The term "theater of the absurd" was coined by Martin Esslin in 1962. This is how plays with an illogical, meaningless plot began to be called, presenting to the viewer a combination of incompatible things, promoting unsystematic behavior, denial of aesthetic ideals, and destroying theatrical canons. Theater of the Absurd challenged cultural traditions, political and social system. The events of absurdist plays are far from reality; the incredible and unimaginable are manifested in the characters and the surrounding reality. It is difficult to determine the place and time; the order and logic of action may not be followed. The authors create absurd, frightening, amazing, and sometimes amusing pictures with their incongruity. The theater of the absurd is irrationality that defies explanation and logic.

Using the text of this speech, write down the definition of the theater of the absurd in one sentence(work in pairs)

Can the drama “Rhinoceros” be called a drama of the absurd? Give reasons for your opinion (fantastic plot, transformation of people into rhinoceroses, incomprehensible and inexplicable reasons for action)

Ionesco's drama is one of the most interesting plays in modern world literature. Written in 1959, it reflected the most complex social problems of the time: the phenomenon of mass depersonalization, the clash of personality and individuality with the ideology of collectivism, which kills this individuality. What is this play about?

(The play consists of three acts. Brief story about the content of each action)

Characteristics of the main characters - Beranger and Jean (appearance, age, occupation, character traits). Who makes a favorable impression and who loses in comparison? Which friend turns into a rhinoceros, how does this happen? What character traits are manifested in Jean? (Working with text, expressive reading of dialogues (no. 1 scene in the cafe, no. 2 Jean’s transformation))

Work in pairs. Filling out the table. Argumentation with text.

Each person who turned into a rhinoceros had their own reasons for “rhinoceros”. Let's define them (distribution)

Why was it only Beranger who was able to resist the epidemic of “conception”? (conclusion: he valued his individuality and human essence)

What is the climax of the play? (Her ending) Why does Ionesco leave open ending: we don’t see Beranger’s struggle, we don’t know whether he will emerge victorious? (it is important to show not the fight against ideology, but the “tools” of influence on each person in order to depersonalize him: arousing interest, propaganda, the desire to be like everyone else, fear of loneliness and difference, changing moral and social values,gradual change).

The history of its writing will help us fully understand the depth of this play. Let's listen to the speech of our “historians”.

(Students' speech)

E. Ionesco noted that the impetus for writing the play was the impressions French writer Denis de Rougemont. He was at the Nazi demonstration led by Hitler in Nuremberg in 1936. This crowd, according to the writer, was gradually captured by some kind of hysteria. From afar, people in the crowd shouted Hitler's name like crazy. As he approached, the wave of this hysteria grew, capturing more and more new people.

In addition, there was an episode from the life of the author himself. He witnessed mass hysteria in the city stadium during Hitler's speech and almost suffered it himself. What he saw caused the playwright to think. After all, not all of these people were Nazis, many were simply influenced by the crowd. According to Ionesco himself, he, as a witness to the emergence of fascism in Romania in the 30s, really sought to describe this process.

In which episode of the play did Ionesco reflect his impressions of what he saw? Give reasons for your opinion (Beranger’s final monologue). What is “conception”? Why can the play "Rhinoceros" be called anti-Nazi?

6. Lesson summary

Reflection

Let's repeat the steps of the lesson and remember what we did and why.

(we got acquainted with the biography of E. Ionesco, found signs of absurd drama in the play, examined the text, found out the reasons for the “conception”)

Let's return to our problematic issue. What did he help you figure out?

How would you rate your work? Which classmate could you praise? Go back to your self-assessment sheets and tell me if you achieved the goals you set at the beginning of the lesson?

Homework

1) Write down in your notebooks a mini-discussion about whether the drama “Rhinoceros” can be considered modern.

2) Eugene Ionesco said: “The theater of the absurd will always live.” Do you agree with his forecast? Write a short essay about this.

Municipal budget educational institution

Batalnenskaya average secondary school

E. Ionesco. The play "Rhinoceros"

like a drama of the absurd. “Nonbirth” is a phenomenon

mass depersonalization

society

Open lesson literature in 11th grade

Teacher:Chernaya Evgenia Viktorovna

2014 – 2015 academic year

Analytical table

Genevieve Serreau and Dr. T. Fraenkel

Series "Exclusive Classics"

Translation from French E.D. Bogatyrenko

Reprinted with permission from GALLIMARD Publishing House, France.

The exclusive rights to publish the book in Russian belong to AST Publishers.

Characters

Housewife.

Shopkeeper.

Waitress.

Shopkeeper.

Old gentleman.

The owner of the cafe.

Monsieur Papillon.

Madame Beth.

Firefighter.

Monsieur Jean.

Monsieur Jean's wife.

Numerous rhinoceros heads.

Act one

Square in a provincial town. In the background is a two-story house. On the ground floor there is a shop window. You can enter the shop through the glass door by going up two or three steps. Above the window there is a large “Grocery” sign. On the second floor of the house there are two windows, apparently from the shop owners’ apartment. Thus, the bench is located at the back of the stage, but at the same time to the left, not far from the wings. Above the roof of the house where the shop is located, a bell tower can be seen in the distance. Between the shop and the right side of the stage there is a street stretching into the distance. On the right, slightly diagonally, is a cafe window. Above the cafe is a floor of a house with one window. In front of the cafe there is a terrace with tables and chairs, reaching almost to the middle of the stage. Dusty tree branches hang over the terrace. Blue sky bright light, white walls. It happens on a Sunday around noon in the summer. Jean and Beranger sit down at a table on the terrace.

Before the curtain rises, a bell is heard ringing. It will stop a few seconds before the curtain goes up. As the curtain rises, a woman silently walks across the stage, from right to left, carrying under her arm, on one side, an empty shopping basket, and on the other, a cat. The shopkeeper opens the door of her shop and watches her.

Shopkeeper. Ah, here she is! ( Addressing her husband, who is in the shop.) Oh, well, I’m so arrogant! He doesn't want to buy from us anymore.

The shopkeeper leaves, the stage is empty for a few seconds.

Jean appears on the right, and on the left, simultaneously with him, Beranger. Jean is dressed very neatly: a brown suit, a red tie, a starched patch collar, a brown hat. His face is reddish. The yellow boots are well polished. Bérenger is unshaven, without a headdress, unkempt, wearing shabby clothes; everything about him speaks of negligence, he looks tired and sleep-deprived; yawns from time to time.

Jean ( approaching from the right). Beranger, you have come after all.

Beranger ( approaching from the left). Greetings, Jean.

Jean. Of course, as always, you are late! ( Looks at his wristwatch.) We agreed to meet at eleven thirty. It's almost noon now.

Beranger. Sorry. Have you been waiting for me for a long time?

Jean. No. You see, I just arrived.

They head to the tables on the terrace.

Beranger. Well, then I don’t feel too guilty, since... you yourself...

Jean. It's different with me. I don't like to wait, I can't waste time. Since you are always late, I deliberately came late, at the time when I thought I would have a chance to see you.

Beranger. You're right... you're right, but...

Jean. You will not claim that you arrived at the appointed time!

Beranger. Of course... I can't say that.

Jean and Beranger sit down.

Jean. Well, you understand.

Beranger. What will you drink?

Jean. Are you already thirsty in the morning?

Beranger. It's so hot, so stuffy.

Jean. As popular wisdom says, the more you drink, the more you want to drink...

Beranger. If these wise men had been able to force clouds into the sky, it would not have been so stuffy and I would have been less thirsty.

Jean ( looking closely at Beranger). What do you care? You, my dear Beranger, don’t want water...

Beranger. What do you mean, my dear Jean?

Jean. You understand me perfectly. I'm talking about your throat being dry. It's like an insatiable earth.

Beranger. I think your comparison...

Jean ( interrupting him). You, my friend, are in a pitiful state.

Beranger. Do you think I look pathetic?

Jean. I'm not blind. You are collapsed from fatigue, you walked all night once again. You are yawning and really want to sleep...

Beranger. I've been drinking and my head hurts a little...

Jean. You reek of alcohol!

Beranger. It's true, I drank a little!

Jean. And so every Sunday, not to mention the rest of the days of the week!

Beranger. Well, no, not every day, I work...

Jean. Where's your tie? You lost it while you were having fun!

Beranger ( raising your hand to your neck). Well, it really must be funny. Where could I take him?

Jean ( taking a tie out of his jacket pocket). Here, put this one on.

Beranger. Thank you, you are so kind.

Puts on a tie.

Jean ( while Beranger somehow ties his tie). You have absolutely no hair! ( Beranger tries to comb his hair with his fingers.) Here, take a comb!

He takes out a comb from another pocket of his jacket.

Beranger ( taking a comb). Thank you.

Smoothes hair.

Jean. You haven't shaved! Look who you are like.

He takes a mirror out of the inside pocket of his jacket, hands it to Beranger, who looks at it and sticks out his tongue.

Beranger. I have a coating on my tongue.

Jean ( takes the mirror from him and puts it back in his pocket). And no wonder!.. ( He takes the comb that Beranger hands him and also puts it in his pocket..) You are facing cirrhosis, my friend.

Beranger ( anxiously). Do you think so?..

Jean ( addressing Berenger, who is trying to return his tie). Keep the tie, I have enough of them.

Beranger ( with admiration). Well, you're completely fine.

Jean ( continuing to look at Beranger). The clothes are all wrinkled, it’s terrible, the shirt is disgustingly dirty, your shoes... ( Beranger tries to hide his legs under the table.) Your shoes are not cleaned... What sloppiness!.. Your shoulders...

Beranger. What's wrong with the shoulders?..

Jean. Turn around. Well, turn around. You were leaning against the wall... ( Bérenger languidly extends his hand to Jean.) No, I don’t have a brush with me. I don't want to drag my pockets down. ( Bérenger still languidly pats himself on the shoulders to shake off the white dust; Jean turns away.) Oh... Where did this happen to you?

Beranger. I don't remember.

Jean. Bad, bad! I'm ashamed to be friends with you.

Beranger. You are very strict...

Jean. And not without reason!

Beranger. Listen, Jean. I have no entertainment; This city is boring. I'm not cut out for the job I do... eight hours in an office every day, and only three weeks of vacation in the summer! By Saturday evening I’m tired, well, and you know, in order to relax...

Jean. My dear, everyone works, and I work too, I, like everyone else in the world, spend eight hours every day in the office, I also have only twenty-one days of vacation a year, and yet look at me! It's all about willpower, damn it!..

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

ACADEMY OF MARKETING AND SOCIAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Department of English Philology.

COURSE WORK

discipline: History of foreign literature

on the topic: “THE FUNCTION OF THE ABSURD IN THE ANTIDRAMAS OF EUGENE IONESCO”

Work completed:

4th year student

groups 03-зф-01

Dmitrieva M.N.

Scientific supervisor, Ph.D., Associate Professor Blinova Marina Petrovna

Krasnodar, 2006

Introduction……………………………………………………………..……3

1.Chapter. The meaning of the term "absurd". Absurdity and the 20th century…………...…….5

2.Chapter. Manifestation of absurd reality in the plays of E. Ionesco……….12

2.1. Manifestation of absurdity in the means of communication and speech................................12

2.2. Criticism of the education system and political systems..……… 17

2.3.Meaninglessness and ordinariness of life……………... ……….. 24

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………… 28

List of references………………………………………………………30

Introduction.

The twentieth, and now the 21st, century can rightfully be called the century of absurdity, a time when humanity feels the meaninglessness and absurdity of the life they lead. It is impossible to find meaning in it, because old values and traditions have been violated, and if new ones have appeared, they do not satisfy everyone. For example, Eugene Ionesco was an opponent of any ideology, especially in some of his anti-dramas he criticizes fascism, although in the middle of the century, perhaps, Italy, Germany and others firmly believed in the ideas of fascism and lived by them. No matter how strange it may sound, fascism was inevitable.

New era of history - scientific discoveries and technical progress; everyone is running, in a hurry. Where are they running? Why are they in a hurry? While running, grasping the flowing streams of information, we do not have time to realize and think about it all. So it turns out that our life is: “Morning. Legs. Slippers. Tap. Breakfast. Put money in your pocket. Blazer. Door. Job. Transport. Scream. Boss. Noise. Head. Fell. Lie. Legs. Hands. House. Bed. Badly. Night. Dark. Datura. Morning. Legs. Slippers. Crane,” and as a result, a person turns into a robot, living according to a template and speaking in continuous cliches and clichés. Or maybe everything has already been said a long time ago and it’s simply impossible not to repeat it? Or do you still have something to say? All this is sad and absurd, but Ionesco doesn’t think so. In response to the fact that his theater was called the “theater of the absurd,” he said: “I would prefer to call this theater the “theater of ridicule.” Indeed, the characters of this theater, my theater, are neither tragic nor comic, they are funny. They do not have any transcendental or metaphysical roots. They can only be clowns, devoid of psychology, at least psychology in the form in which it has been understood so far. And, nevertheless, they, of course, will become symbolic characters expressing a certain era." And indeed, you read the tragedy of life, and instead of crying, you laugh at, for example, how a decent lady’s arms and legs are torn off, and she leaves the stage so disheveled.

The purpose of our work is to analyze the plays of the anti-dramatist Eugene Ionesco. And the task is to identify the function of absurdity in his works, as well as ways of creating absurd and comical situations. In the first chapter we will characterize the very concept of “absurd” and get acquainted with the aesthetics of the “theater of the absurd”.

Chapter 1. The meaning of the term “absurd.” Absurdity and the 20th century.

So, before proceeding directly to the analysis of Eugene Ionesco’s antidramas, one should explain the meaning of the term “absurd”, trace the history of the emergence of this concept, and find out how various philosophical movements (existentialists, for example) interpret it.

The term itself comes to European languages from Latin: ab– “from” surdus- "deaf", ab-surdus- “discordant, absurd, bizarre.” This is the world backwards, inside out, anti-world. The concept of “absurdity” arose among the early Greek philosophers and in their constructions meant logical absurdity, when reasoning leads the reasoner to obvious nonsense or contradiction. The absurd was contrasted with Cosmos and Harmony; in principle, ancient philosophers compared the absurd with Chaos. Thus, absurdity was understood as the negation of logic, inconsistency of behavior and speech. Then it migrated to mathematical logic. This concept also related to the field of music and acoustics, and its meaning was associated with incongruous, dissonant, ridiculous or simply barely audible sound. In addition, in Latin the concept of absurdity begins to be conceptualized as a philosophical and religious category.

Thus, the concept of absurdity, since antiquity, has had three meanings. “Firstly, as an aesthetic category expressing the negative properties of the world. Secondly, this word absorbed the concept of logical absurdity as a negation of the central component of rationality - logic, and thirdly - metaphysical absurdity (i.e. going beyond the limits of reason as such). But in every cultural and historical era, attention was focused on one side or another of this category.”

For example, Friedrich Nietzsche, discussing the role of the chorus in ancient Greek tragedy, raises the problem of the absurd. Nietzsche draws a parallel between the Greek chorus and Hamlet and comes to the conclusion that they are united by the ability, through reflection (reflection is “a form of theoretical human activity aimed at understanding one’s own actions and their laws”) to reveal and recognize the true essence in a moment of crisis things. As a result of this knowledge, a person finds himself in a tragic situation of loss of illusions, seeing around him the horror of existence, which Nietzsche compares with the absurdity of existence. The philosopher shows that absurdity gives rise to a special theatrical artistic technique “spectator without spectacle”, “spectator for spectator”, which will become one of the fundamental ones for the aesthetics of the theater of the absurd, while absurdity is not yet considered by him as art. Art itself, according to Nietzsche, is a “true” illusion, the power of which is capable of curbing the horror and, accordingly, the absurdity of existence.

Nevertheless, it was not Nietzsche’s philosophy specifically that had a huge influence on the theater of the absurd in the second half of the twentieth century, but the teachings of the absurdity of the existentialists. Representatives of the anti-theater can be called followers of existentialism, the main representatives of which were Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. In their interpretation of the absurd, they rely on the concepts of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Existentialists talk about the absurdity of human existence, the loss of meaning, the alienation of the individual not only from society and history, but also from himself, from his place in society. According to existentialists, a person strives for harmony with the world, but this world remains either indifferent or hostile. And it turns out that a person who supposedly corresponds to the surrounding reality actually leads an inauthentic existence in it. Thus, absurdity, in the understanding of existentialist philosophers, is a discord between human existence and being. Absurd consciousness is the experience of an individual associated with an acute awareness of this discord and accompanied by a feeling of loneliness, anxiety, melancholy, and fear. The surrounding world strives to depersonalize each specific individual, turning it into a part of the general existence. Therefore, a person feels like an “outsider” in a world of things and people who are indifferent to him.

Of course, Camus sought not only to define the concept of “absurdity,” but to show the results that the war led to and the situation in which Europe found itself. The absurd has become a topic of debate in European intellectual circles. But the word absurd came into regular use not only under the influence of the philosophy of the existentialists, but also thanks to a number of theatrical works that appeared in the early 1950s.

These were representatives of the theater of the absurd Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett, as well as Fernando Arrabal and others. The first theorist of the absurd was Martin Esslin, in 1961. He published the book "Theater of the Absurd." Interpreting the absurd, Esslin says that a person does not deprive reality of meaning, but, on the contrary, in spite of everything, a person tries to give meaning to an absurd reality.

Absurd consciousness appears during a period of cultural and historical crises; such a period was the era of postmodernism. O. Burenina, analyzing the absurd, describes how Ihab Hasan classifies the absurd, it includes several stages: 1) Dadaism (Tristan Tzara) and surrealism; 2) existential or heroic absurdity, which captures the meaninglessness of existence in relation to a reflective personality (Albert Camus); 3) unheroic absurdity: a person here does not rebel, he is powerless and alone. This stage leads to the creation of the theater of the absurd (Samuel Beckett); 4) absurd-agnosticism, in which semantic ambiguity and diversity of interpretation are brought to the fore (Allen Robbe-Grillet); 5) playful absurdity, exposing the claims of language to truth and reliability, revealing the illusory nature of any text organized in accordance with the rules of the “cultural code” (Roland Barthes). According to this paradigm, the concept of absurdity is clearly determined by modernist and postmodern consciousness. The principle that unites all these stages of absurdity is artistic anarchy; the basic principle of organizing texts is the mixing of phenomena and problems of different levels; The most characteristic technique is self-parody.

Antidrama took an intermediate, transitional position between modernism post-war years and "anti-novel". As we have already mentioned, the most famous “anti-playwrights” were E. Ionesco and S. Beckett, both of them wrote plays in French, not native to them (Ionesco-Romanian, Beckett-Irish). But, as Sartre noted, it was precisely this circumstance that made it possible to bring linguistic constructions to the point of absurdity. That is, a known flaw within the aesthetic direction paradoxically turned into an advantage. The forerunners of the absurdists were the grotesque comedies of the French classic Alfred Jarry, written in turn of the 19th century and XX centuries. However, in order for the absurdist ideas of alienation and horror to manifest themselves throughout the world, humanity needed to gain the tragic experience of disasters and upheavals in the first half of the twentieth century. The Theater of the Absurd did not appear immediately after the end of World War II: first there was shock, and then there was awareness of everything that had happened. Only after this did the artist’s psyche turn the results of the global catastrophe into material for artistic and philosophical analysis.
Numerous plays of the theater of the absurd are defined by an atmosphere of general idiocy and chaos; we can say that this is the main tool for creating a different reality in the theater of the absurd. The plays often take place in small rooms, completely isolated from the outside world.
The term “theater of the absurd” belongs to the American critic Martin Esslin. Many playwrights rejected this definition, arguing that their works were no more absurd than reality. But, despite endless controversy, the genre has gained popularity.

The founders of the “new theater” considered existence irrational and illogical: in this world a person is doomed to loneliness, suffering and death. Representatives of the theater of the absurd did not accept ideological theater, especially the theater of Bertolt Brecht. Ionesco stated that "he doesn't have any ideas before he starts writing a play." His theater is “abstract or non-figurative. The intrigue is of no interest. Anti-thematic, anti-ideological, anti-realistic. The characters are devoid of character. Puppets."

In absurdist plays there is no catharsis, E. Ionesco rejects the political ideology, but the plays were brought to life by concern for the fate of the language and its speakers. The idea of “The Bald Singer” and his subsequent creations is for the viewer to “shake the verbal dirty linen out of the heart” and reject all kinds of stereotypes - poetic, philosophical, political as dangerous means of leveling the personality.

The source of “automatic” speech that paralyzes people’s consciousness were phrases from an English textbook, which consisted of meaningless platitudes and sets of words. Speech cliches and automatic actions, behind which there is automatism of thinking - he saw all this in modern bourgeois society, satirically describing its meager life. The heroes of this play are two married couples, the Smiths and the Martens. They meet for dinner and make small talk, talking nonsense. The heroes of “The Bald Singer” are unusual; they are not people in the usual sense of the word, but puppets. A world inhabited by soulless puppets, devoid of any meaning, is the main metaphor of the theater of the absurd. The anti-play “The Bald Singer” tried to convey the idea of the absurdity of the world not with some lengthy arguments, but with the actions of the characters and their remarks in ordinary communication. Wanting to convince us that people themselves do not know what they want to say and say in order not to say anything, Ionesco wrote a play in which characters They said sheer nonsense; in theory, this cannot be called communication. Consider the nonsense that Mrs. Smith spoke with a serious look about the grocer Popescu Rosenfeld:

“Mrs. Parker has an acquaintance, the Bulgarian grocer Popescu Rosenfeld, who has just arrived from Constantinople. Great yogurt specialist. Graduated from the Institute of Yogurt in Andrinopol. Tomorrow I will need to buy a large pot of Bulgarian folk yogurt from him. You rarely see things like this around London.

Mr. Smith clicks his tongue without looking up from his newspaper.

Yogurt has a wonderful effect on the stomach, kidneys, appendicitis and apotheosis.”

Perhaps, by putting into Mrs. Smith's mouth a tirade about the yogurt institute, Ionesco thereby wanted to ridicule the numerous and mostly useless scientific institutes, which subject to analysis and research everything that exists in this absurd world.

People speak, pronounce beautiful words without knowing their meaning (and here “appendicitis and apotheosis”), all because their consciousness is so clogged with hackneyed expressions and cliches, confused with one another, that they use them unconsciously, just to get something say. The absurdity that sits in the heads of the main characters of the play is very clearly reflected at the very end, in scene 11, when, as if in a state of general hysteria, they begin to pull out from their memory all the words and expressions that they have ever known:

"Mr. Smith. Bread is a tree, but bread is also a tree, and every morning at dawn an oak tree grows from an oak tree.

Mrs. Smith. My uncle lives in the village, but this does not concern the midwife.

Mr Martin. Paper for writing, cat for mouse, cheese for drying.

Mrs. Smith. The car drives very fast, but the cook cooks better.

Mr. Smith. Don't be a fool, better kiss the spy.

Mister Martin. Charity begins at home.

Mrs. Smith. I'm waiting for the aqueduct to come to my mill.

Mr Martin. It can be proven that social progress is better with sugar.

Mr. Smith. Down with shoe polish!”

The main thing in the play is that communication becomes impossible, so the question arises: Do we need the means by which communication is carried out, i.e. language? Ionesco's characters are far from seeking new language, become isolated in the silence of their own language, which has become sterile.

By uttering all kinds of nonsense, incoherently and inappropriately responding to the remarks of their interlocutors, the heroes of the anti-play prove that in modern society a person is lonely, others do not hear him, and he does not try to understand his loved ones. For example, at the beginning of the play, Mrs. Smith is “discussing” her evening with her husband. In response to her remarks, Mr. Smith only “clicks his tongue without looking up from the newspaper,” one gets the impression that Mrs. Smith is speaking into space. And they don’t seem to hear themselves, so their speech is contradictory: "Mr. Smith. Her facial features are correct, but she cannot be called beautiful. She's too tall and fat. Her facial features are irregular, but she is very beautiful. She is short and thin. She's a singing teacher." The term " lost generation“Ionesco did not attribute to his heroes, but still they cannot coherently answer the question, describe the event, because everything is lost: values were destroyed by the war, life is illogical and meaningless. They themselves do not know who they are; inside they are empty. Existentialists have two concepts “essence” and “existence”, and so the heroes of this play simply exist, there is no essence or authenticity in them. The play begins with a dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and ends with a dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Martin, although, in general, there is no difference, they are faceless and the same.

The heroes of the anti-play commit incomprehensible and incomprehensible actions. They live in an absurd reality: they graduate from the “yogurt institute,” and an adult girl, the maid Mary, laughing and crying, announces that she bought herself a chamber pot, Bobby Watson’s corpse turns out to be warm four years after his death, and he is buried six months after his death, and Mr. Smith says "it was a most beautiful corpse."

One of the techniques that Ionesco uses is the principle of breaking cause-and-effect relationships. “The Bald Singer” begins with a violation of the causal sequence. Ms. Smith's response:

“Oh, nine o'clock. We ate soup and fish. Potatoes with lard, English salad. The children drank English water. We ate well today. And all because we live near London and bear the surname Smith.”

And later in the play this technique is systematically used. For example, when Mr. Smith states: " Everything is stagnant - trade, agriculture and fires... It’s such a year,” - Mister Martin continues: “No bread, no fire”, thus turning what is a simple comparison into an absurd causal connection. Distortion of the connection between cause and effect, paradox, is one of the sources of comedy. In the seventh scene we observe the following paradox:

Mr. Smith. They're calling.
Mrs. Smith. I won't open it.
Mr. Smith. But maybe someone came after all!
Mrs. Smith. The first time - no one. The second time - no one. And where did you get the idea that someone has come now?
Mr. Smith. But they called!
Mrs. Martin. It doesn't mean anything.

The essence of the paradox lies in the unexpected discrepancy between the conclusion and the premise, in their contradiction, which is observed in Mrs. Smith’s remark - “Experience has shown that when they call, there is never anyone there.”

The absence of cause-and-effect relationships leads to the fact that facts and arguments that should surprise everyone do not cause any reaction from the interlocutor. And vice versa, the most banal fact causes surprise. So, for example, having heard Mrs. Marten’s story that she saw something extraordinary, namely "A gentleman, decently dressed, aged fifty years" who just laced his shoe, the others are delighted with what they heard and discuss this “extraordinary incident” for a long time. In addition, the heroes lose their memory. “Memory is basically a collection of events that make it possible to restore the consequence of any thing. If the world of determinism cannot be understood without memory, which records causal relationships, the world of indeterminism, as Ionesco understands it, excludes general memory.” Mr. and Mrs. Martin recognize their marital relationship only after they have established that they sleep in the same bed and have the same child. Mr. Martin summarizes:

“So, dear madam, there is no doubt that we have met and you are my lawful wife... Elizabeth, I have found you again!”

Throughout the play, the characters in The Bald Singer talk nonsense in unison with the English wall clock, which “strikes seventeen English strokes.” At first this clock struck seven o’clock, then three o’clock, and then it was intriguingly silent, and then it completely “no longer wanted to tell the time.” Clocks lost their ability to measure time because matter disappeared altogether. outside world lost the properties of reality. The bell rings, but no one comes in - this convinces the characters in the play that no one is there when it rings. In other words, reality itself is not capable of making itself known, because it is unknown what it is.

All the actions performed by the characters in “The Bald Singer”, the absurdities, the meaningless aphorisms they repeat - all this reminds us of the era of Dadaism, Dadaist performances of the early twentieth century. However, the difference between them is that if the Dadaists argued about the meaninglessness of the world, then Ionesco still claimed philosophical implications. In the absurdities of his “anti-plays” we see a hint of absurd reality. He admitted that he parodied the theater because he wanted to parody the world.

2.2. Criticism of the education system and political systems.

One of the leading themes of Ionesco’s work was the theme of exposing any form of personal suppression. In the “comic drama” “The Lesson,” the teacher stupefies and morally cripples his students, and, for example, in the “pseudodrama” “Victims of Duty,” a policeman humiliates the playwright, who argued that the “new theater” does not exist - it is typical that the poet saves the unfortunate man, supporter of irrational theater.

8. Ryan Petit “From Beckett to Stoppard: Existentialism, Death and the Absurd”

A look at Nietzsche N. Fedorov. Articles about Nietzsche.