I'm not the last man left, and I'm staying that way until the end. He eventually snaps from this to declare that he will "fight against the lot of them. He then for the first time in the text recognizes beauty in the rhinoceroses. He begins lamenting Daisy's departure and then begins asking existentialist questions such as "What is my language?" and "What do I look like?". Berenger becomes neurotic, lamenting, insecure and frustrated as everyone around him as turned into a rhinoceros. The final pages of Act Three, Berenger, age range 20-50. In 2007 the play was revived with Benedict Cumberbatch as Berenger. Cast included Lawrence Olivier as Berenger. Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Berenger, a flustered everyman figure who is criticized for his drinking and tardiness.įirst staged in April 1960, directed by Orson Welles. The text not only criticizes the horrors of the Nazi regime but explores the mentality of the characters for conformed to Nazism. The rhinoceroses serve as an allegory for the uprising of Nazism and Fascism. This play is often read as a response to the sudden increase of Fascism, Nazism and Communism during the events preceding World Ward II. The world of Rhinoceros defies the realistic world as world of nonsense. His evolution from an apathetic drunkard into a pure human illustrtes the major existential struggle: "one must commit oneself to a significant cause in order to give life meaning".Ĭonsidering Botard's conspiracy accusation in Act Two, The Logicians flawed attempts to uncover the number of rhinoceroses in Act One and Jean's self-proclaimed rationality, Ionesco turns logic's limitations into absurdity.
The main theme of Rhinoceros is established as will and responsibility through the transformation of Berenger. Often read as a response and criticism to the sudden upsurge of Communism, Fascism and Nazism during the events preceding World War II, and explores the themes of conformity, culture, mass movements, philosophy and morality.