Student Question
How does Rhinoceros by Ionesco use political symbols?
Quick answer:
Rhinoceros by Ionesco uses the rhinoceros as a political symbol to represent the rise of Nazism and how people were drawn into its ideology. The play allegorizes how individuals gradually accept and justify the loss of their humanity, transforming into rhinoceroses. This symbolizes the societal shift towards destructive ideologies and the struggle to resist conformity, as depicted by the character Berenger.
On the surface, Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco does not appear to be a political play, but when we look deeper, we realize that the author is actually making a strong political statement. Let's look at what that statement is and how it works.
Ionesco wrote this play in 1959, but he is looking back to the rise of Nazism in the years leading up to World War II. He is attempting to find out why people were so easily drawn into Nazi ideas and practices, to the point that they accepted or at least did nothing to stop the horrific violence that resulted from the Nazi rise to power.
Ionesco settles on the rhinoceros as the symbol of this phenomenon. In the play, the rhinoceros represents the acceptance of a particular view of life and the loss of humanity brought about by that acceptance. One by one, the people the...
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of the town change into rhinoceroses. At first, they are shocked by what is happening, but as time goes by, they start to accept the rhinoceroses as part of life. Some try to reason about their arrival and use logic to explain and then justify the rhinoceroses' actions. Others are drawn into the bestial “freedom” of the animals and transform. Soon, fewer and fewer people resist the transformation. Their reason is slipping, and they go along with the crowd.
One by one, the people become rhinoceroses until only Berenger is left human. Even he has trouble answering the arguments of the people who eventually transform and the accusations that he is merely intolerant. Deep down, Berenger knows that the rhinoceroses are destructive, that people have let go of their humanity. Even his girlfriend, Daisy, decides to transform, saying that the rhinoceroses are energetic and happy. Berenger is miserable, but he decides to remain human.
We can see, then, that this play is something of a political allegory to explain how people can get caught up in the ideology around them and be transformed into something they never thought they would become.