The Connection between Absurdity, Isolation and Suicide in Ionesco's Play The Chairs

Abstract

The very nature of modern drama makes its relationship to psychoanalysis via mimesis, character / actor delusion, catharsis and the dream analogy. As the play is written to be performed on the stage, it often gives many allusions to real existence where pyscho-criticism is likely to play a great role due to the gestures acted and the verbal actions performed. Secondly, there is also the polarity between the acted parts and the actors who claim it. Then, there is the audience mechanism via their expectancy and reactions of the allegorized actions of the play. Operating these aspects of psychoanalysis, this paper attempts at revealing the contradictory absurdity of modern life through portraying man’s tendency to find pleasures in life that causes his/her depression, isolation and finally tragic death. In other words, there is a conflict between man's propensity to find meaning in life and the inability to find it.