The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Fernando Arrabal
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Surrealism
- Time of Work: The second half of the twentieth century
- Setting: A desert island
- Genres: Drama, Surrealist literature
- Subjects: 1960’s, Mothers, Parents and children, Religion, Emotions, Islands, Rites or ceremonies, Intellect, Cannibalism
- Locales: Islands
Characters Discussed
The Emperor, the only survivor of an airplane crash on a small, almost deserted island. During the first act, the Emperor re-creates some of the principal characters of his former, “civilized” society; he plays a dictator, priest, nun, fiancée, soldier at war, doctor, and woman giving birth. In successive roles, he frenetically mimes the ceremony, pomp, and ritual that define these characters. Exhausted by his own theatricality, the Emperor suffers an apparent heart attack. Shortly after this, in a long self-reflective monologue, he says that he...
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