The Chairs | Ionesco’s The Chairs’
Jacobs discusses the nature of absurdity as it
applies to drama. He argues that The Chairs, rather
than being an example of theatre of the absurd, is
actually ‘‘straightforward and obvious good sense.’’
Absurd, absurd, absurd. It’s time to put this silly misrepresentation of avant-garde playwrights to rest. As for Samuel Beckett, he is melancholy, hopeless, pessimistic, pejoristic, and this is not absurd. It’s a conviction of man’s brutality and life’s difficulty. Living through obscene poverty and the ferocity of Hitler’s Germans, Beckett came to conclusions that are intelligent and sensible, not absurd.
But the case most at point is Eugene Ionesco’s brilliant play The Chairs. Rather than absurd, it is— at least for the vast majority of our population—...
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