Did I say 'culmination'? No, that lies rather in the future, perhaps with Reichskanzler Hitler and his proposals to regenerate the German people. The climax culminated in Galton's preaching of Eugenics, and his foundation of the Eugenics Professorship. He is, nevertheless, the heir of the romantic hero, and embodies the spirit of negation which an affirmation of man's most precious attribute, his freedom. He lacks the poetic halo of a Byron or Shelley and has not even the messianic posture of a Strindberg. Berenger is a 20th century version of the romantic outcast of the 19th century. Her proper habitat is the jungle along with the rest of the beasts. Daisy can afford her lover only a fleeting glimpse of heaven. He represents humanity among the animals. Though he has a great desire to be like other people, he is incapable of conforming. Berenger is a petit bourgeois without ambition and without any special talent. What they have in common is the herd instinct. Botard is a Communist, Dudard an opportunist, Jean a conformist, Papillion a bureaucrat, and Daisy simply a nice girl.

The others change with the times, following the current fashion, each for his own ends. He has slovenly habits, and gives no signs of unusual intelligence. Ionesco says, 'Originally rhinoceritis was Nazism'. The play ends on a heroic note but the implication is that there is not much hope for a human being in a world of beasts. Le Rhinoceros is the only play by Ionesco that makes an unequivocal statement.

Rhinoceros de eugene ionesco