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The Killer (

In The Killer, Berenger, Ionesco’s downtrodden everyman, discovers an ideal "radiant city" tucked away in his dingy metropolis, and it awakens in him a consuming joy which he had experienced only once before in a moment of transcendence. The elation Berenger feels, which he had sought ever since that fateful moment of his youth, is cut short upon being confronted by the shocking find of a pool afloat with dead bodies-- the victims, he comes to find, of a serial killer plaguing this seemingly perfect burg. Berenger leaves the radiant city and the pointedly unconcerned Architect (cum-doctor-cum-director of police) after Dany, a woman he had fallen in love with in his elation and whom he believes himself engaged to, is murdered. Berenger takes it upon himself to do what the Architect and police will not and discover the serial killer and stop him.

Act II

At the start of Act II, Berenger has returned to his apartment to find his dour, sickly friend Edouard awaiting him. It is after an uncomfortable, halting conversation that he has his first success in the form of an accident. Edouard's ever-present brief case bursts open just as the man is preparing to leave, spilling forth evidence in regards to the Killer. Energized, Berenger prods his apathetic friend into coming with him back to the radiant quarter to present The Architect with the evidence. However, he is hindered constantly by Eduoard's disinterest, culminating in his discovery that Eduoard had forgotten the suitcase in Berenger's apartment. Realizing how important it is that The Architect receive this information before the sun sets and the office closes for te night, Berenger decides to continue his travel across the city. He is held up near constantly by uninterested police officers and citizens. Throughout his journey in this Act, Berenger passes through a chaotic city cluttered by people who have accepted the Killer as a problem they don't care to put forth the effort to fix.

Act III

It is at the end of the play, as Berenger is walking through the darkened streets intent on informing the Architect of his findings, that he encounters the Killer, who is a small man and by all appearances Berenger’s physical inferior. In a long climactic speech, similar to the speech at the end of Rhinocéros, Berenger attempts to convince the Killer that murdering is wrong. Berenger cycles through multiple arguments and justifications ranging from sympathy to patriotism to Christianity to nihilism, all of which he manages to argue against moments after voicing them. The Killer, save for snickering, listens silently throughout. It is as Berenger reaches the end of his own self-thwarted reasoning that he comes to the realization that there is no hope and that it is useless to try and dissuade the Killer. The play ends as the Killer begins to approach Berenger with knife in hand and the lights fade to black. It is unclear whether Berenger actually dies at the end of the play. He appears in several others of Ionesco's plays, and whether these occur before or after The Killer is uncertain.

Factual contradiction is one of Ionesco's most common themes, and there is some amount of contradiction between Ionesco's different plays and personifications of Berenger (most glaringly perhaps being Exit the King, in which Berenger is a dying king).

Analysis

The Radiant City

The idea of a "radiant city" or a transcendent other world is a common theme in many of Ionesco’s plays. Ionesco reportedly had a transcendent experience in his childhood, similar to the story told by Berenger in the beginning of the play, in which Ionesco felt like he was lifted off the ground and everything around him became radiant. Berenger's learning of the Killer reflects Ionesco’s feeling of disappointment at the end of his transcendent experience.^{[citation needed]}

In an interview with Claude Bonnefoy, Ionesco said of the killer in the "radiant city": "It's the fall, it's original sin, in other words, a slackening of attention, of the strength with which one looks at things; or again in other words, it's losing the faculty of wonderment; oblivion; the paralysis bred by habit." Ionesco goes on to complain about the way critics missed this aspect of the play: "Nobody came close to understanding the play in this way. The critics said that it was not in fact about a radiant city, or rather, that this radiant city was the modern city, industrial and technological ... For me, the 'radiant' city means a city 'shining with light'. Some people also said that this radiant city was not a happy city since a criminal could enter it and flourish in it. That's quite wrong. It was a very happy city that had been entered by a destructive spirit. (The word 'destructive' is more appropriate than 'good' or 'evil' – they're very vague notions.) ”.^[1]

Set

In regards to space and structure in The Killer, Witt approaches Ionesco's use of a open-closed-open scheme through the three acts. She notes specifically that the open set of the first scene, in which the radiant city is represented only through lighting and Berenger's ecstatic exclamations, exists with interesting contrast to the cluttered, low-ceiling apartment that corresponds with Berenger's mind itself and the dreary, heavy state that he has existed in since the failing of his original transcendent realization. It is only with the failing of his second transcendent joy, punctured by the reality of the Killer within the supposed perfect haven, that the lights characterizing the city go grey and objects and set pieces begin to appear on stage. ^[2]

Symbolism

In another reading of the play, Purdy describes a rich system of symbolic meaning and relevance throughout the play, in which characters represent much larger ideas (the Architect being wholly representative of Science, Eduoard of Religion,and Berenger as quite literally the everyman, the singular focal point within the revolution of the play). It is through this understanding that Purdy reinterpreted otherwise absurd or nonsensical happenings towards a greater meaning. For instance, Purdy points to Berenger's embarrassment over wanting to ask for the forgotten key returned from Eduoard, but ultimately being unable to voice this request, as a representation of loss of religion. Perhaps similar to Witt's idea of space and the apartment representing Berenger's mind or heart, Purdy reflects that this moment represents Berenger's loss of faith in religion-- for though he had given the key to Eduoard, he had forgotten, and now heavily rebuffs Eduoard's presence. ^[3]

See also

• Theatre of the Absurd

References