Rhinoceros Fate and Free Will Quotes

This quote is a little bit of a mind-bender if you delve deep enough. Dudard believes that once you’re a rhino you can stop being a rhino just by choosing not to be one anymore. Basically, use your free will and be whatever species you want. But by calling it a “cure,” he implies that turning into a rhinoceros is a disease. Disease often has to do with chance, but there are also things you can do to be more susceptible to disease. So here, being a follower is like the carcinogen of becoming a rhino. Anyway, this one highlights the differences, but also the fine line, between fate and free will.

No, he’s not thinking of catching a live rhino, he’s talking about catching the rhino virus. Like two minutes before this, Berenger was convinced he’d come down with the sickness that would change him into a rhinoceros. Now, he’s quickly coming to the “free will” side of the argument, saying that you have a choice to get the disease or not. It’s all about whether you want it.

On the one hand, seems like Dudard is saying he buys into the free will side of things. But if you go a little deeper, you might find Dudard’s quote a bit chilling. Think about the symbolism: if the rhinoceroses represent the Nazis or the Iron Guard or some other violent dictatorial regime, what is Dudard saying? He’s saying that there is no need to get worked up by watching a few people become part of a totalitarian order, because it was their choice to do so. Hey, it’s none of our business. This is how movements are allowed to start, Ionesco seems to say, with people like Dudard standing by and just watching it happen. Soon it’s too late, and he’s joining in with all the others.