THE OBSESSION WITH DEATH IN IONESCO’S THEATER
THE OBSESSION WITH DEATH IN IONESCO’S THEATER

Summary/Abstract: Béranger is a "unitary" character of Ionesco’s theater, an alter-ego of the playwright, in the sense that he goes through, as a protagonist, several plays, from "Rhinoceros" to "Piéton de l’air", "Le roi se meurt" or "Tueur sans gages". Beranger is a kind of reasoner of the playwright, the typical Ionesco idiot a mixture of devastating lucidity and candor, an idealist who nevertheless has a feeling for the tragic. Read as a symbol, the coin represents the death of a Man, or rather the death of humanity. The king surrenders to the power of intelligence only through an ultimate illusion; until the end, he will believe in his eternity, blinded by his faith in a rational solution to his condition.

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