Berenger resists the pull to become a rhinoceros because he has an individuality that Jean lacks. What is left to make each one unique? It is a fundamental, existential question to consider where general human nature ends and where an individual can claim something of his own. Jeanīerenger and Jean are clearly opposites in the sense of being foils. Boeuf trump the demands of rhinocerosness? Or is her love blind, making her perfectly fitted to being a rhinocerous who puts something else above her own individuality? Berenger vs. Will she ever fully be a rhinoceros, or will her love for Mr. Boeuf decides to join her husband as an animal. The contrasting romantic couple in the play consists of Mr. But she turns out to be completely different from and incompatible with Berenger, for she decides to become a rhinoceros and he does not. Loveīerenger seems to be madly in love with Daisy, and eventually she claims to be in love with him as well. Too often, people cannot separate their individual thoughts from those of the people in more powerful positions. Such problematic authority figures intensify the complex situation pressuring ordinary characters not to think for themselves. Papillon, the boss whom the workers respect, capitulates willingly to become a rhinoceros. The Logician proves himself to be irrational and false, undercutting his own authority. The role of authority in society is to keep order, but this role is problematic when that order is unjust or inhuman. Berenger remains the only character to fully see through the cloud of confusion, and for that reason, he withstands the false arguments and remains human. Those who use false logic tend to admit only the evidence that supports the arguments they want to prove, and those who are persuaded are shamefully duped. The unnerving aspect of these arguments becomes clear as other characters believe the illogical reasoning. Later, Dudard argues that all journals are propaganda.
In the first scene, the Logician argues that all things with four paws are cats. False LogicĬharacters throughout the play argue using false logic to convince others. That is, any lasting sense of human self-worth arises from what makes us most human: our reasoned courage to follow through on our ethical principles in the face of changing circumstances. Is it from appearances, as Jean would convince Berenger? Or is it from something greater, something more complex and courageous, something that Berenger finally discovers? In his final line-"I will not capitulate!"-Berenger comes fully into his own and accepts that what matters most is not on the outside but what lies within. Self-Worthįrom the opening scene, Ionesco asks how humans determine (or ought to determine) our self-worth. Taking only a microcosm of this phenomenon, Ionesco abstracts the issues through a metaphor about rhinoceroses in order to reflect on how Nazism came to power and how it came to control individuals.
This may be the most mysterious aspect of the Holocaust: how an entire nation of ordinary people allowed such a horrific government system to take more and more abusive power. At the heart of this play, we see regular, everyday people turn into something monstrous. Ionesco's play is a grand metaphor for the Nazi takeover of Germany. These marks of individuality, Ionesco suggests, are essential to humanity. In watching Jean, Dudard, and Daisy join the rhinoceroses, the audience can perceive specific moments when they change attitude and lose their sense of moral responsibility and individual thought.
He is unkempt from the beginning, which suggests that he follows his own rules. The essential difference between Berenger and everyone else is that he refuses to join the others he is not afraid to stand alone and continue fighting for what he believes is right. Perhaps the most important theme of the play, individuality drives the central anti-rhinoceros metaphor.
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