Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
The Calm Before the Storm (of Rhinoceroses)
Ionesco tells us, “The scene is a square in a small provincial town.” Then he takes his sweet time stage-directing that small provincial time on the relatively calm and lazy Sunday upon which we find it. Basically, it’s like a French, absurd, somewhat existential Sesame Street.
And so we meet the people in the neighborhood: a lady with a basket of food under one arm and a cat under the other, the grocer, the grocer’s wife, the Logician (like in every town), and of course, the Old Man. A lovely little town where not a whole lot ever happens, is what he seems to be saying.
When our would-be hero Berenger shows up, we still don’t get any sense of what’s about to go down. Berenger and Jean spend the opening of the show chatting about Berenger’s hangover and his sub-par haircut. Basically, it looks like the show’s shaping up to be a self-improvement advertisement or two dudes talking about booze and appropriate hairstyles for two hours. That could be funny and interesting.
Except not as funny and interesting as when all that is thrown topsy-turvy with the entrance of rhino number one.
This seemingly ordinary town is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
By the time the second rhino shows up and kills the lady’s cat, we know it could even get a little dangerous…at least for the local kittehs. Regardless, we now know what we need to know. Rhinoceroses are on the loose in this small French town. Hopefully our protagonist’s messy hair is the secret weapon he needs.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Rhinoceros Is People!
The conflict and complication of this play arises when we (and the characters) come to understand that the rhinoceroses running around are not your average, everyday one and two-horned rhinos. They were once folks just like you and me:
MRS. BOEUF: It’s my husband. Oh Boeuf, my poor Boeuf, what’s happened to you?
DAISY: Are you positive?
MRS. BOEUF: I recognize him! I recognize him! (2.1.451)
It’s bad enough when a co-worker changes into a rhino, but things really start to build when Berenger is confronted with the transformation of his closest friend, Jean. If even Jean, hair adviser extraordinaire, couldn’t hang onto humanity, what’s the world coming to?
Either way, when Jean goes, we know things are only going to get worse for Berenger. If his best friend could turn horny beast, that means it could happen to anyone.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Love in the Time of Rhinoceroses
Berenger may have lost his best friend and style consultant, but at least he still has the woman he loves. In fact, we think he might also have Dudard (not his main dude, but a decent one) at his side. Together, maybe the three of them can fight this thing.
Then again, maybe not. Dudard doesn’t last long before joining the grey-skinned hordes. Still, as long as Berenger and Daisy stay together and love each other, there is hope:
BERENGER: Don’t be frightened, my dear. We’re together—you’re happy with me, aren’t you? It’s enough that I’m with you, isn’t it? I’ll chase your fears away. (3.1.1065-1067)
If you’ve grown up on RomComs or you’re just the sentimental type, you might believe that this is, as Berenger says, “enough.”
If you’re a little more cynical than all that, or know anything about the Theatre of the Absurd (or provincial towns in France for that matter), you probably know how things are going to play out.
Love, it seems, is not all you need (sorry, John Lennon). Like those before her, Daisy grows intrigued by the rhinoceroses and starts to empathize with them. Before long, her decision is made:
DAISY: They’re like gods. (3.1.1195)
And within less than a minute, she’s descending the stairs and joining the rhinoceroses, leaving Berenger alone.
Falling Action
One Horndred Years of Solitude
Once things start to fall, things fall fast. As soon as Daisy leaves, Ionesco drops a single monologue on us to bring things to their conclusion.
If you want to break the monologue down from a structuralist standpoint (admit it, you totally want to do that), the falling action occurs toward the top of Berenger’s final speech (which is a three-page doozy, by the way). At this point, he comes to the realization that Daisy won’t come back and that he is truly alone:
BERENGER: Well, it was obvious we weren’t getting along together. The home was broken up. It just wasn’t working out. But she shouldn’t have left like that with no explanation … She didn’t even leave a message. That’s no way to behave. Now, I’m all on my own. (3.1.1219-1224)
At this point, Berenger still has a decision to make. That decision drives us to the end of the monologue and, with that, the resolution…
Resolution (Denouement)
Berenger vs. The World!
So, that decision Berenger has to make. He knows he’s alone. So does he give in and join all of the other rhinoceroses out there? Or does he cling to his final, messy-haired shreds of humanity? Here’s what he’s got to say:
BERENGER: I’ll put up a fight against the lot of them, the whole lot of them! I’m the last man left, and I’m staying that way until the end. I’m not capitulating! (3.1.1292-1294)
Inspired yet? You should be. The choice is made. He will stand up and fight. Even if it seems absurd to do so, Berenger—who has always been a little bit different than those around him—will never give into the hordes of rhinoceroses out there. He is resolute in his resolution. The end.