Ubu Roi (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Alfred Jarry
- First Published: 1896
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: An imaginary Poland
- Genres: Drama, Absurdist literature, Parody
- Subjects: Values, Power, personal or social, Murder or homicide, Class consciousness, Kings, queens, or royalty, Greed, Ambition, Poland or Polish people, Obesity
- Locales: Poland
Characters Discussed
Père Ubu (par EW-bew), the former king of Aragon, captain of the Dragoons, count of Sandomir, and, later, king of Poland. He is an obese, smelly grub, with an enormous paunch, who carries a walking stick in his right- hand pocket and uses a toilet brush as his scepter. As a grotesque parody of a petty official who usurps a position of power, he is vulgar, gluttonous, rapacious, untrustworthy, greedy, sadistic, cowardly, and stupid. His actions are impulsive, and his speech is a mixture of vulgar expressions, oaths, and repetitive phrases. He ruthlessly...
[The entire page is 645 words long]
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