Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros: defiance vs. conformism / Eugene Ionesco'nun Rhinoceros adli eseri: muhalefet konformizme karsi

Interactions, Spring, 2008 by William S. Haney, II

Abstract: In Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, Berenger alone manages to resist rhinoceritis by not conforming to the urge to give up his humanity and become a rhino like each the other characters. Only Berenger has the self-sufficiency to avoid the over-indulgence, gluttony and intemperance that impels the other characters to transmogrify into beasts. Although the play shows the absurdity of defiance as much as the absurdity of conformism, Berenger has the strength of character to remain an individualist by not joining the happy throng of less sensitive people. Through Berenger's taste of the void of conceptions beyond cultural constructs seen in his selfless support of the best interest of others, the audience also glimpses a state of unity beyond duality. The real freedom of a unified, transpersonal self approached by Berenger and the spectators, derives from a sense of the connection between the local field of matter and action and an underlying nonlocal field of consciousness.

Keywords: Pure consciousness (turiya), transpersonal self, aesthetic rapture (rasa), level of language (pashyanti, para), knowledge-by-identity, metamorphosis

Ozet

Eugene Ionesco'nun Rhinoceros adli eserinde, yalnizca Berenger zorla insanligindan vazgecirilmeyi ve diger butun karakterler gibi gergedan olmayi kabul etmeyip gergedanlara direnmeyi basarir. Diger karakterlerin canavarlara donusmesine sebep olan asiri bagimlilik, acgozluluk ve olcusuzlukten kacinabilecek oz yeterlilige sadece Berenger sahiptir. Oyunda muhalefetin absurdlugu kadar konformizmin absurdulugunun de ortaya konulmasina ragmen, Berenger daha az duyarli insanlarin mutlu kalabaligina katilmayarak bireyci karakterini koruyabilecek guce sahiptir. Digerlerinin menfaatleri icin verdigi bencil olmayan mucadelesinde goruldugu gibi, Berenger kulturel yapilandirmalarin otesindeki kavramlari hukumsuz kilar ve bu yolla izleyici, ikililigin otesinde bir birlik durumu oldugunu fark eder. Berenger ve izleyicilerin birlesmis ve benotesi benligin gercek ozgurlugune kavusmalari, madde ve eylemin sinirli alani ve bunun altinda yatan bilincin sinirsiz alani arasindaki bag hissinden dogar.

Anahtar Sozcukler: saf bilinc (turiya), benotesi benlik, estetik cosku (rasa), dil duzeyi (pashyanti, para), kimlik ile edinilen bilgi, metamorfoz

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Consumerism and the Anticipations of Joy

Critics have pointed out that Rhinoceros dramatizes Ionesco's aversion for the Fascist movement in Rumania when he left in 1938 (Esslin 181). From a twenty-first century perspective, however, the play not only demonstrates how public opinion can pressure an individual into conformism, it also suggests how present-day consumer society can transmogrify an individual into a monster with an insatiable appetite. The play sets up a contrast between the necessity to consume in order to sustain biological existence within a certain standard of social decency, and the extravagant desire to consume as a means of wish fulfillment. In this contrast between self-sufficiency and over-indulgence through gluttony and intemperance, the play impels the audience to experience a gap between the basic needs of human existence on the one hand and on the other the desire to gratify the appetites in a bestial, uninhibited manner as symbolized by the rhinoceros.

In terms of conformity to public opinion, as in the case of Fascism, Ionesco says of Rhinoceros,

   As usual, I went back to my personal obsessions. I remembered that
   in the course of my life I have been very much struck by what one
   might call the current of opinion, by its rapid evolution, its
   power of contagion, which is that of a real epidemic. People allow
   themselves suddenly to be invaded by a new religion, a doctrine, a
   fanaticism. ... At such moments we witness a veritable mental
   mutation. I don't know if you have noticed it, but when people no
   longer share your opinions, when you can no longer make yourself
   understood by them, one has the impression of being confronted with
   monsters-rhinos, for example. They have that mixture of candour and
   ferocity. They would kill you with the best of consciences. And
   history has shown us during the last quarter of a century that
   people thus transformed not only resemble rhinos, but really become
   rhinoceroses. (Esslin 181-82; Sarrute 1960 interview)

Esslin notes that the characters in the play choose a pachydermatous existence because "they admire brute force and the simplicity that springs from the suppression of over-tender humanistic feelings" (182). Some conform to the herd of rhinos because they feel it is the only way to learn how rhinos think in order to persuade them to revert back to their humanity, while others like Mlle Daisy conform because they cannot resist conforming to the majority (182). Berenger, a character who appears in several other Ionesco plays, watches as his friend Jean and then his colleague Dudard turn into rhinos, with more and more people converting until he and Daisy, a colleague he is in love with, are the last remaining humans. Everyone but Berenger and Daisy has been infected by rhinoceritis, a mysterious disease that makes them want to abandon their flabby, weak, pale humanity and become vigorous, hardy, thick-skinned pachyderms. As Deborah Gaensbauer says, "Berenger is an anti-hero whose immunity to rhinoceritis, having begun as the cloud of a hangover, is an instinctive resistance to ideology and propaganda for which, according to Ionesco, 'it is probably impossible to give any explanation'" (104; Ionesco 199).