Rhinoceros Transformation Quotes

Sometimes, the guy who just likes to lie around on the couch all day and watch TV has some of the most insightful things to say. That’s kind of the case with Berenger early on in the play. He’s a drunk, he lacks ambition, and he doesn’t even really get phased by the first rhinoceros. But when it comes to embracing who he is as a human, he’s on top of it. And he’s not willing to change just because other people think it might be cool.

“Hey look at that car that guy is driving. Everyone seems to think it’s the coolest car around. I should probably get a car just like that.” Ah, the birth of a trend. It happens really fast sometimes, and before you know it everyone is driving the same cool car and wearing the same clothes and listening to the same music. That’s what happens with the rhinoceroses. One person does it, someone else joins in, and just like that their numbers start to skyrocket.

Ionesco gives us a nice little laugh here, and he demonstrates how the transformation gives people at least one moment where they are functioning as two things. Jean is not fully a rhinoceros at this point, since he’s still thinking of things like institutionalized medicine, but he’s already thinking of himself as being an animal. Do rhinoceroses have health insurance?