Rhinoceros

thumb|right|335 pxRhinoceros (French original title Rhinocéros) is a play by Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. The play belongs to the school of drama known as the Theatre of the Absurd. 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, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is criticized throughout the play for his drinking and tardiness. The play is 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.
== Tossup Questions ==
# This play opens with a midday meeting in which a man berates his friend for his alcoholism and lends him a tie and comb. This play's first act sees a grocer obsessively try to win back the business of a housewife, whose cat dies in the ensuing action. In another part of this play, an Old Gentleman hears that his dog must be a cat from a Logician that explains syllogisms. Dudard's professional success worries this play's central character, who suggests to Daisy that they repopulate the human race before she leaves him for not understanding love. For 10 points, name this absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco in which everyone but Berenger grows horns and turns into the title animal.
# One event in this play is foreshadowed by a character's green pajamas. In another scene, a housewife leads several cafe patrons in a funeral procession for her dead cat. A character in this play claims that all cats are dogs because both have four paws, and that Socrates is a cat because he is dead, while attempting to explain syllogisms. In one scene in this play, a staircase's destruction prompts Mrs. Boeuf to leap out a window, after which Mr. (*) Papillon orders Botard and the others to return to work. At this play's end, its protagonist is abandoned first by Dudard, then by his love interest Daisy, before screaming "I'm not capitulating!" For 10 points, identify this Eugene Ionesco play in which Berenger refuses to become one of the title animals.
# After ordering a drink, one character in this play is derided for day-dreaming, to which he responds that "Life is a dream;" that character is kissing his love interest when the telephone rings and they hear only trumpeting, which shows that the radio station has been taken over. Another character in this play keeps lecturing about will power and is one of the highly rational characters along with a man who does a bad job of explaining (*) syllogisms to an Old Gentleman. A woman in this play excuses her husband from work for an illness before that husband crushes a staircase; despite all this, Mrs. Boeuf refuses to abandon him. Near the end of this play, Dudard goes outside which causes his demise, and then Daisy breaks up with the protagonist. For 10 points, name this play in which Berenger doesn't transform into one of the title animals written by Eugene Ionesco.
# One character in this play notes that Socrates is a cat because all cats die and Socrates is dead. The protagonist of this play works at an office with Botard and Dudard and is criticized for his drinking by his friend Jean. That protagonist of this play barricades himself in his room and breaks up with the typist (*) Daisy, vowing to fight against the influx of the title creatures. For 10 points, name this absurdist play in which Berenger watches everyone transform into the title animals, a work of Eugene Ionesco.
# In the first act of this play, some townspeople console a housewife by organizing a funeral procession for her dead cat. In the second act, the office's staircase is destroyed after Mrs. Boeuf announces her husband's disappearance. In the first act, a discussion of whether cats named Isidore and Fricot must have four paws occurs when the Logician tries to explain what a syllogism is to the Old Gentleman. This play's protagonist works at an office with Dudard and Botard, and watches his friend Jean anxiously look at himself in his bathroom mirror while his skin grows gradually greener. The protagonist, who also appears in Exit the King and The Killer, becomes the last human when his love interest Daisy turns into one of the title animals. For 10 points, name this absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco.
Category:Literature
Category:Fine Arts
Category:Absurdism