Home Beckett Camus Dostoevsky Ionesco Sartre Stoppard Links Quotes
Father of the Theater of the Absurd
Eugene Ionesco is often thought of as the father of the Theater of the Absurd. Ionesco was born November 26, 1912 in Slatina, Romania. His father, Ionesco Ionesco, was Romanian, and his mother, Therese Ipcar, was French. Ionesco spend much of his childhood in Paris with his mother and sister. Meanwhile his father remained in Romania. Ionesco's mother struggled to support her two children. After the end of World War I, Therese, his mother, learned that her husband had secretly divorced her and obtained custody of the children. She was forced to turn the children over to her husband; therefore, the children returned to Romania.
Ionesco's father had complete faith in the government. He fully supported whatever group happened to be in power at any given time. As a result of his support of the government, he obtained a post as an inspector of safety for the Bucharest police. This is also what enabled him to have the divorce from his wife granted. Ionesco disagreed with nearly everything his father supported. One day, after an argument with his father, Ionesco left and never spoke to his father again. Later, when he was talking about his father, Ionesco simply said, "He respected the State, I hated the State." The last words he ever said to his father were "It is better to be on the side of the Jews than to be a stupid idiot. My regards to you, sir." The violent arguments that frequently occurred between Ionesco and his father showed the differences in their political beliefs. Ionesco soon married Rodica Burileano. Two years later, he received a government grant to return to France and write his doctoral thesis. Before long, Ionesco permanently settled in Paris and received a job as a proofreader. Ionesco Ionesco did not write his first play until 1950. He was inspired to write a play after studying English. After being "struck by the emptiness of the cliches of daily conversation that appeared in his phrase book," Ionesco wrote his first play "out of such nonsensical sentences" (Grolier). Shortly after he finished his first play, Ionesco left proofreading to become an author. His works include:
The Bald Soprano 1950
The Lesson 1951
The Chairs 1952
The Killer 1958
Rhinoceros 1959
Exit the King 1962
A Stroll in the Air 1963
Hunger and Thirst 1964
Le Solitaire 1973 (novel)
Journeys Among the Dead 1980
Ionesco's writing was influenced by the sharp contrast of his political views and his father's political views, as well as by memories of his mother struggling to support Ionesco and his sister while his father was in Romania. Ionesco, unlike his father was strongly opposed to the State and the military. He also questions the existence of God and believed that women were often treated cruelly by men. These beliefs resulted in the techniques that defined Ionesco's plays. Examples of Ionesco's existentialist ideas and the Theater of the Absurd are found throughout his plays. The Bald Soprano, Ionesco's first play, plays with language to create the feeling a foreigner might have in another country. In this play, the characters talk as if they were reading phrases out of a foreign dictionary. This creates a sense of pointlessness and confusion in the play. In Rhinoceros, another of Ionesco's plays, each character becomes a rhinoceros. One character, Daisy, wants only to be happy. All the rhinoceroses appear happy while the human, Berenger, does not; therefore, Daisy becomes a rhinoceros. Basing her decision to become a Rhinoceros simply on this fact seems absurd. Yet, it seems clear and completely sensible to Daisy. These, and other characteristics of Ionesco's works can be related to Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Daisy's reasoning is similar to that of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern often make assumptions based on what seems like irrelevant information. For example, one morning Rosencrantz says, "That's west unless we're off course, in which case it's night." This statement is not logical. The direction they are traveling has nothing to do with whether it is night or day. Statements similar to the confusing statements found in Ionesco's plays, such as The Bald Soprano are also evident in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. One conversation between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern goes like this:
Guildenstern:
Why? Rosencrantz:Exactly. Guildenstern:Exactly what? Rosencrantz:Exactly why. Guildenstern:Exactly why what? Rosencrantz:What? Guildenstern:Why? Rosencrantz:Why what, exactly? Guildenstern:Why is he mad?! Rosencrantz:I don't know! This conversation twists everyday words around to make a conversation that is confusing and frustrating. This is similar to what Ionesco frequently practiced in his writing. On March 28, 1994, at age 81, Ionesco Ionesco died. He left behind the beginning of the Theater of the Absurd and many works that included existentialist ideas. After his death many authors, including Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, N.F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter, expanded on his ideas.