The Chairs (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eugene Ionesco
- First Published: 1954
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: Indeterminate
- Setting: An island
- Principal Characters: The Old Man, The Old Woman, The Orator
- Genres: Drama, Absurdist literature, Farce
- Subjects: Memory, France or French people, Suicide, Surrealism, Future, Reality, Islands, Death or dying, Existentialism, Christ figures or saviors, Old age or elderly people, Furniture
- Locales: Islands
The Story:
The Old Man and his wife, the Old Woman, lived in a circular room in a tower in the middle of a circular island surrounded by nothing but a stagnant sea. The Old Man stood on a chair and peered out the window to look at the shadows of ships on the water, apparently waiting for someone, but the Old Woman scolded him to come down because she feared that he might fall and, besides, she told him, it was early morning and thus dark out, so he could not see the ships.
Reluctantly, the Old Man climbed down. The Old Woman begged him to entertain her by imitating the...
[The entire page is 1986 words long]
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