Unveiling Nonsense in the Theatre of the Absurd: Exploring Eugene Ionesco’s Craft to Incorporate Invisibility as a Theme in “The Chairs'

This paper is a modest attempt to unveil the deliberate deployment of nonsense in The Theatre of the Absurd by means of exploring Eugene Ionesco’s craft of incorporating ‘‘invisible characters’’, as a theme in his Absurdist ‘‘tragic farce’’ play “The Chairs”. The ontological question that might haunt avid readers is "What is the possible interpretation, as well as the relevance of a series of invisible guests in the play?". However, this is the beauty of the Theatre of the Absurd as it leaves so much open to interpretation and makes one wonder and ask questions without giving an answer but, at the same time, helps one find them. As Ionesco himself rightly puts it, “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question”. At first sight, the invisible guests may appear to be useless and nonsensical in the eyes of the audience. They are hardly shown to function throughout the whole play. Rather, they are an assembly of a cross-section of humanity arriving one by one at Old Man’s house who has arranged a seemingly ceremonial gathering in order for his message or meaning of life to be delivered to humanity. The audience comes to the theatre and watches the play, but cannot conquer what they thought they could. Much to everyone’s surprise, the Orator elected by the Old Man to speak on behalf of him could not utter even a single word as he was a deaf-mute. But it is a firmly held belief that everything possesses a meaning, be it a gigantic statue or a small pebble. Hence their potentiality of bearing an underlying significance. As Ionesco himself rightly states, “If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art”.