I think this is a harder question but here we go... I think that through the play the issue of time is very subtle but also very significant through the whole play. The clock chiming could be said a realistic symbol, however with contradictions from the characters (“Goodness! Nine o’clock”, although the clock has only struck 3 times) and random changing of times it is not normal, but rather, illogical and absurd. Apart from the fact that this could seem to me like our old grandfather clock which does a similar thing because it’s so old, I think the clock chiming has more important meaning. Many of us decided in class that the random number of chimes represented the time flying by without people noticing, and that time doesn’t matter. Also that meaningless chat is used to fill silences and pass the time, avoiding awkward silences and the clock could be representing this. However, thinking again, I believe perhaps Ionesco had another idea that perhaps the clock is like some kind of time warp, and as the number of chimes are all out of order, perhaps so is time, and so when the Martins realise they know each other, maybe they are finally coming back to the present and realising their situation. Anyway, what I’m saying is perhaps this is a way for Ionesco to express his feelings towards possible time travel in the future. Maybe a representation of future human experiences in relation to time?
But back to the question, before I get carried away again, another way Ionesco has used a symbol is when Mrs Smith gets cross at her husband and suddenly rises a knife to stab her husband. This is a very sudden burst of anger from nothing and it could represent a very common human experience like when someone gets angry and even raises a fist, or resorts to some other violence. When this happens, I’m sure people feel guilty afterwards and realise their mistake but at that moment they can’t help but find a vent for their anger and frustration. Just because Mrs Smith had a knife handy, she used it instead of a hand; but then again, how many people do you know that would go to stab their husband because he said something so insignificant? Every human gets angry at times, it is really quite normal, it's just that we should have learnt how to control this as a child.
Well you see...because this is an absurdist play Ionesco does not address the issues it is dealing with directly because that would make the play become much more realistic. Instead he decided to confront his desired issues through symbolism in an indirect manner. One of the main issues he is trying to convey is that a large majority of the time we spend each day talking is just talking for the sake of saying something. Most of the time our conversations are completely pointless and after we have had them we will not have found out anything interesting or expanded our knowledge at all. Another issue relating to this is that we focus on some of the most pointless and meaningless things in our lives rather than the things that truly matter. For example, in the play some of the simplest stories the Martins share fascinate the Smiths and vice-versa. This relates to today’s world in that we focus a lot on ourselves but very few of us focus on the major problems in our world today, such as the environment or wars. Both of these issues are addressed through the many conversations between Mr and Mrs Smith and also with the Martins. The train at the end of the play, I believe, symbolises the childish moments all adults experience from time to time. It is saying that we should never lose the fun side of ourselves even through stresses we deal with in life. The very extraordinary conversation between Mr and Mrs Martin shows that some people have lost the love in their relationship and to an extent don’t even know who their partner is. It is trying to say that we need to care more about the people around us and listen to what they have to say instead of just tune out like many people do. The end of the play being the same as the beginning symbolises that life is a journey and each day we will usually end up where we began. We should enjoy the journey and have as much fun as possible, have more meaningful conversations and truly care about the people around us because before you know it... Well you see... because this is an absurdist play... p.s. i hate trying to remember passwords!! it took me forever and i only made it up like a week ago!! I had to go into the whole 'forgot your password?' thing!! it was ABSURD!!
I agree with Laura about the clock, cause I noticed that too. It adds another dimension of absurdism to the play, its not enough to have the dialogue and the movements being absurd but he needed to add another absurdist dimension and the clock chiming incorrectly was a great way of symbolising the lack of importance of time.
He also shows through the clock how irregular time can be and so how irregular human existance and human emotion is as a result of this. The clock seems so absurd because it chimes all different numbers and doesn't progress in a chronological order, but if you think about it neither do we. One day we are happy then the next minute we could be angry or distraught. And so the clock represents this illogical and unpredictable side of ourselves.
I also think that there is a lot of symbolism in the scene with Mr and Mrs Martin talking about the train. We talked about this a bit in class as a group in our class performed this scene last lesson. This scene demonstrates the yerning that people get to be a part of a group or to belong somewhere and even just a yerning to be loved. We saw this through the amount of excitment Mr and Mrs Martin had about finding out where they knew each other from, as neither could remember the other one each of them started assuming that they were related before proper proof was given. But then once they realised that they were in fact husband and wife (or so they think) they are quite disappointed and go back to being the boring unexcitable people that they were when the conversation started. Well that is how this group performed it anyway..
You girls are amazing. I'm really impressed at some of the insights that are coming out on this blog. Loved your interpretation of the train as a symbol, Georgina. Hopefully this unit of work is reminding all of us not to lose sight of the fun in our lives as well.
Keep up the great work! I look forward to reading more responses.
Ionesco uses alot of imagery in the Bald Primma Donna.he uses alot of literal and visual metaphors to portray meanings.
The scene where the martin couple are realising they are very similar with their living arrangements is metaphorical for the fact that no matter how well you think u know someone, you don't know or realise everything about them.
the usage of the clock chimes is symbolic for how fast and random time can be in life.
The bobby watson scene is relevant to how there are so many people out there and somehow people know or are related to each other.
No. i will not answer the door. there is nobody there.
ding. ding. (doorbell rings)
yes, but there must be somebody there.
what makes you think there will be somebody there. when the doorbell rings there is never any body there.
no, you are quite wrong, there is always somebody there.
ding. ding. ding. (doorbell rings)
all right, then. i will go and look, i wont have you saying i'm being pigheaded; but you'll see. there'll be nobody there.
what did i tell you? nobody. ...................................
I am not going to repeat any previous points made about this weeks question, as i think that everyone has already done a really, really good job. However, i have just realised something that has not yet been brought up and i find it really interesting and relevant to real life.
In "The Bald Prima Donna", there is a large section that is centred simply on the subject of whether to or not to answer the door when the doorbell rings. The men say that when the doorbell rings, there is always someone there, and that the door should be answered, and the women argue that there is never anybody there so there's no point. Quite a large waste of time if you ask me, but i suppose it's absurd theatre so theres no real point in me questioning it.
Looking into it a bit further, however, i can relate it to real life. Opportunities are constantly knocking on our "doors", ringing our "doorbells" and waiting to see if we answer. The unanswered doorbell can, in my mind, be a symbol of those unanswered opportunities, and the attitudes of the characters in this situation symbolise those around me.
The men who think that there is always someone at the door can be the optimists, who believe in taking each and every opportunity like it will never come again. They dont leave anything unanswered. The women are those people who are too afraid to step outside their small box that is their life to take the chance to see who and what is at the door. They will never know what they have missed out on and who they might have met.
This isnt exactly the first perception of a symbol in the play, but i think its really interesting... not sure about anyone else... hmmm...
I suppose that Ionesco, if he thought about this, is encouraging the readers and/or viewers to think about where they stand and as to if they would answer the door, even if it doesn't mean much to them in the long run. I've noticed that one of the main aims of absurdist theatre is to make the audience question themselves, and i suppose when we think of things this way, we do.
would you answer the doorbell of the door of opportunity?
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Geez Lauren! how mcuh time do you have???? hahaha great tho
Ok well I think...... That yes, Ionesco does use symbolism and imagery in his play, BUT, in an absudist way. By this I mean that the symbols and images, like the text, don't fit together in a 'sensible' order, or fit together at all really! i'm sorry, i have an entire answer in my head, but everytime i try to type it it sounds absurder than absurd and doesn't really seem to make sense! so i think i have to leave it at that. although i do agree with whoever said the thing about the train... how it might represent the 'child within'. But i think we remember that we are dealing with the French here! :S and apart from the wierd Frenchies, it is a play that was written in 1948 (?)in france.( which is in another time zone, country, continent and hemisphere!) hope i made a little bit of sense at least! xx
Wow that’s a much harder question but I'll give it a try… I agree with Laura in thinking that throughout the play Ionesco uses both sublte and very obvious forms of imagery and symbolism. I'm not going to say anything else about the clock because everyone else has already pretty much summed up what I wanted to say. What I did find really interesting and one of the more sublte forms of imagery that Ionesco uses was the ringing of the doorbell. I'm taking the word image in its most literal meaning here and relating it to seeing and eyesight. "Listen! Theres a ring at the door."
"There must be some one there. I'll go and see."
"Nobody"
Mrs Smith goes to answer the door three times and after the fourth ring mr smith goes to get the door, just to prove mrs smith wrong, which he does by bringing in the fire chief. Its obvious that mrs smith simply could not see the fireman standing in front of her, which prompts the audience to ask, Why? As with most things in this play, it relates back to us and the lives that we lead everyday. Don't know about you guys…but have you ever been looking at some one or something and just seen straight through it, as if it isn't there? Its directly in front of you and you are looking straight at it but for some reason you just cannot see it. It happens to me all the time, for lots of different reasons. And then there are also the times when you don't see something because you don't WANT to see it; maybe its something that you never believed you'd see or its something that you don't want to know about, but somehow your mind rules your vision so much that you can completely miss something that you know you don't want to see. This is the point that I'm making. Our sight (literal and metaphysical) can be really strongly governed by our minds. This isn't a good thing. and it makes us question ourselves… what of what we see is real and what do we make up? That’s the thing I want to get across and its really strange once you start thinking about it because trust me, if you do, I think you'll find that you see what you want a lot of the time. I believe that this I one of the main things that Ionesco is symbolising with the ringing of the door and its amazing how much just one little segment of a play can make us think about how our minds work and how our mind governs us a person. Easy to get off the topic…sorry if I lost anyone
I love your idea of having Mrs Smith answer the door and for the fire chief to be standing there but for her not to see him. In my mind it's always played out with the fire chief NOT there so it seems Mrs Smith is losing her marbles a little, as I do so love seeing her played as completely flustered at that point. However, I like your idea far better because it's much more absurd!
What other symbols can we identify in the play? We've had clocks, trains and doors thus far. Are there any others? Would anyone care to tackle the imagery of the 'typical English' setting? I think it has some significance...
Damn u guys are good! you have basically said everything there is to say :P I have loved all your ideas so far! especially the idea about the clock as a symbol of passing time and the dagger as a symbol of violence. I also loved the train as a symbol of our childish moments and the door bell as a symbol of opportunity! But from my perspective… i believe that the Bald Prima Donna is a symbol in itself! the whole play is a symbol of our lives and just how meaningless our lives can be. It also symbolises the everyday feelings we experience and how they may be created from “nothing.” For example in the play, Mrs. Smith randomly pulls out a dagger on her husband- Mr. Smith: “I don’t like that kind of joke, you know perfectly well I don’t. Mrs Smith: (She hurls the socks away, shows her teeth, rises, and takes a dagger from her corsage, her hair standing on end).
In life our feelings can change in an instant- first we’re angry, then sad, then moody, then happy then bored then excited then angry again! In a way our own life’s can be considered cyclical because we go around and around in circles! Sometimes we even do the same things over and over again….if you think about it this way, each day is cyclical because we wake up, go to school, come home, and go to bed. Sounds kind of boring doesn’t it! But maybe this was Ionesco’s aim…to show that life is basically nothing and why should we have to go through all these feelings if there is “nothing” to worry about!
The other symbol I noticed was the symbol of the newspaper. Mr. Smith is constantly reading the newspaper and whilst he is doing this is, he is completely oblivious to everything else around him! This may symbolize that in today’s society we are so caught up in the world that we don’t have time for the more important things.
Ionesco cleverly uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences.
The inclusion of the train may be to symbolise journey. However, Ionesco may be stating the fact that at the end of journeys we possibly get the same outcome that we stated with. Although Mr and Mrs Martin take the Smith’s place, at the end of the play, they in fact start at the very beginning, revealing a cyclical journey.
Ionesco exaggerates and heightens the human emotions felt by his characters. One of the ways he does this is by including random acts of violence. For example, when Mrs Smith feels offended, she produces a knife, in the direction of Mr Smith.
I think Bec made a really good point about the symbol of the newspaper, and how this could symbolise that we are so caught up in the world that we don’t have time for the more important things. This seems very true. I think the newspaper can reveal a lot of things about human experiences. Ionesco’s inclusion of a newspaper in the Bald Prima Donna creates a link to the outside world.
In the scene where the newspaper is used, Mr Smith seems far more engaged in what is happening in the outside world, than his world. Mrs Smith is forced to fill in the silence of his anti social behaviour with pointless talk about her – their- world that he is clearly not interested in. Mr Smith’s character possibly reveals that humans wish to experience things that aren’t immediately available to us, and focus on living on what is to come, rather than living at the moment.
Our human experiences are often shaped by what others in the world have done before us. With the idea of Bobby Watson being all of us, Ionesco may by trying to explain that the human experiences that happen to us have happened to people before us, and will happen to people after us. To a certain level, we all live by routine.
In terms of symbols, think about why the Smiths and the Martins become a train. Is Ionesco saying that we all end up moving 'as a train' metaphorically along the same track through our lives, destined to journey but never to arrive? Or could the train also represent the human need to stay 'on track' never deviating from the norm? A train track is designed to take you in one direction - what might Ionesco be saying about that? Think about the dialogue of 'it's not that way, it's this way' in the same scene..
Yep everyone has said a lot of the stuff i believe this play represents too. I definetly think that The Bald Prima Donna is identical to life in itself. Everything in the play; the meaningless conversations, the altered moods, questions of opportunity and really questioning whether we actually know one another, is in fact so realistic. Ever since we started reading and performing the play, and the whole topic of Theatre of the Absurd i've stepped back in conversations and just really listened to what people are saying and the fact that these words don't even make sense at all! And when i tell my friends what they just said they actually don't believe it yet somehow as humans we understand each other. Also when I talk to someone or even sit next to my friends I think how do I even know you and do we really even know one another..haha. The topic has really got me thinking in everything i do each day, especially the small things that concern us which don't even mean anything at all. Ionesco uses the symbols and 'english' furniture really well to display how meaningless and confusing life really is. Every simple, english object has a much deeper meaning in his play which he has created out of what is taught as the English lifestyle. Although I definetly think the train is a symbol of life and how everybody is searching in such an effort to find something, to reach an age and succeed...yet what are we even looking for? This is life, the future, and the past right now! We're all searching for something that doesn't exist and then we die, and the circle of life begins again. Anyway, that's all I have to say! xxx
I agree with the other's this is a rather hard question. I think that Lonesco successfully uses the 'Bobby Watson' in symbolising that we are all a Bobby Watson and that we have gotten to the point as a society that at times we do all appear to be the same as each generation seems to carry out the exact same life as the one the preceeded it. Personally i really like the whole Bobby Watson Concept, because its just so true.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
Ionesco uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences throughout the play by contrasting our lives and daily routines as meaningless. Ionesco uses the English setting as imagery to represent the most typical culture known to be plain ordinary and boring which has only been stereotyped in society as being the English. As we have discussed in class, Ionesco was not English and therefore didn’t really know the English culture but used the English setting because the world has always been stereotypical of the English ‘believing’ them and their culture to be dull (whether its true or not). I think when he created the play he lastly connected the story to that of the English because the culture has been stereotyped a particular way, therefore it ties with the theme of absurdism and represents well the particular human experiences portrayed in this play about how illogical and meaningless our lives can actually be. The play criticizes the culture and values of the middle class English who stereotypically attempt to create an exciting life and believe that their lives are interesting when their lives are dull and extremely dreary.
As stated numerously before, the clock symbolizes the significant issue of time, which seems to be a very important basis in the play. The time has been used as a foundation in all the absurdist ideas created such as the clock chiming at different and sometimes random times and the illogical changing of times and the characters not really knowing what times it is and contradicting themselves. The story often changes from the present to the past to even the future, which the characters seemed to be lost in. It is almost like time is forever lost and the characters are left in a never-ending cycle of the repetition of life which has already occurred, as understood in the Bobby Watson incident where at one minute Bobby Watson is dead to that of Bobby Watson marrying-extremely illogical and absurd! The clock also symbolizes the flying time and how sometimes life seems to overload to the point where we do not realise and often miss some of life’s wonders because we are so busy with getting through our overloaded schedules that we do not notice time passing. I agree with Laura Lynch about the meaningless conversations, which appear between the characters in the play to pass the time, which doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
And off coarse the train incident, which I believe, symbolizes the characters lack of knowledge about the time, so therefore they perform childish acts (which I believe could be more drunken acts) to pass the time. I also think it could symbolize the idea of alcohol (drunkenness) becoming very ‘important’ in society to the point that it has become a daily act by some people who we may notice as wanting to pass time (waste time) in their lives and forget everything that has happened to them. I believe that metaphorically the train incident refers to the track that we are destined to travel on, the journey we take but also staying on the track refers to our lives being ordinary and sometimes incomprehensible because we stay on that track and never move away or change.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
I think there are lots of times where Ionesco uses the clock represent time flying by fast with out us noticing. I also think the whole English bit at the start gives you the impression that these people are completely normal but as the play progresses it's quite the opposite.
I pretty much agree with what everybody else said.
I agree with everyone else's ideas and thoughts about this topic/question. There are some obvious parts of the play where symbol and imagery are used to represent human experiences. One of these is the pointless and frustrating dialogue between Mr and Mrs Martin, when they are trying to work out where they know each other from. This represents human experiences as we are often saying "where have i seen you before?" etc, but Ionesco takes this and exaggerates it to make clear that often things we say are pointless and amount to nothing. Another part of the play where symbol is used is the clock. The clock chimes at random times which are never in sequence. It might chime three times but then next chime will be 7 times. also Mrs Smith says "Goodness, 9:00" when the clock has chimed only 3 times. This may be used to show how time can be meaningless and how "time can fly". Another thing that could be seen as a symbol of human experience is the reptition of the word English in the beginning of the play,("that's because we are English, because we live in a suburb of London and because our name is Smith"). This is making fun of the human experience of England and the English language.
hahaha emma mcrobie i wouldnt say they are completely normal who says, "one walks on one's feet, but one keeps warm with the aid of coal and electricity" let alone following it with "sell a pig today, eat an egg tomorrow" well i guess some people sell pigs one day and eat eggs the next.
yeah the clock, the point less conversations, the contradictory actions, the have we met before seen, the random acts of violece..
we all experience these things; time flys when your having fun, outbursts of emotions, getting muddled up with what you say and do, uhh memory blanks? haha and saying "i hate you" when we dont mean it is kind of like a ranomd act of violence, yet not so violent
he is eggadurating mundane things each and everyone of us do
very clever ionesco
its all been said and i'm not very good at english so i wont try to show up these girls
I agreed with Laura about the clock being a significant symbol. as although you only heard it a few times through he play. it made an important impression. The clock symbolised the irregularity in our everyday lives, and how msot things revolve around time.
Because we are studying theatre of the absurb and the bald prima donna is absurd to say the least. Ionesco didn't directly deal with the subjects in the play. He uses alot of imagery to depict the meanings.
I think that the bobby watson scene represents human experience well as it shows how in some way or another alot of the people in today's society are related in some way or another. Most of the symbols and imagery in this play are there, an have to be obseved carefully to find.
We seem to get comfortable in our lives and follow the path straigth down, not willing to turn off and see where lifes takes us.
I think that the symbol of the clock in the play is very reflective of time in our own lives. the clock strikes at erratic times during the play and the characters do not appear to notice how random it is. this is reflective of human experiences; time flies and when you think about it, it should not actually matter so much. time is random and life shouldn't be measured by that, but by your experiences. for example, why is it that our school bell rings at weird times like 12.54 and 3.21. that really is absurd. why cant we round it off to like 3.20 and 12.55? time makes things too precise and formal and i guess in the bald prima donna, ionesco wants to explore the idea that life can be more carefree if we dont take so much notice of the time. also, the clock just made it more absurd! i think some of the imagery in the play is made up when the characters say random lines like "describe a circle, storke its back and it turns viscious." its so hard to imagine something like this but everyone forms a picture in their mind of it, maybe jst without realising it.
I agree with Laura about the clock that is is a symbol and is mocking the intelligece of the people in the play when they say the time is something else that waht we hear. He also uses and english living room setting as well as getting mrs smith to say that she lives in and english house etc.
There is also alot of symbolism in the diologe when they use metaphors, repetion and say things we already know.
Another way they use symbolism to make the characters in a way be percived as stupid is by the door bell ringing over and over again but when someone goes to answer it there is no body there. As well as the firemans storys that make no sence whatso ever.
All these symbols make the play an absurd one! xxx
I agree with all of the great ideas that have been mentioned already. There were many good points brought up, like the point Lauren made about the unanswered doorbell is a symbol of unanswered opportunities. I agree with this and about how the men in the play were being optimistic when saying that when the bell rings there is always someone at the door.
Ionesco uses the clock as a symbol. For example when the clock strikes three times and Mrs Smith says, “Goodness! Nine o’clock!” This could be Ionesco’s way of saying that time doesn’t really matter, because the time is mentioned all throughout the play, and it is pointless, there is no reason for it to be mentioned. It does not affect anything at all.
I also agree with what Bec said about how when Mrs Smith pulls out a dagger on Mr Smith that this can show how people’s feelings can change very quickly, and about how our life can be considered cyclical. Also when the dagger is used in the play, it is used as symbolism because it was unpredictable and a random act of violence. I think that Ionesco is also using this to say that this couple has lost their love in their relationship and they really don’t know each other. This is also shown with Mr and Mrs Martin in the scene about their daughter/s.
everyone has answered this question so well and i completly agree with the comments people have made.
firstly, Ionesco has used symballison throughout his play to represent human experiences in many ways. laura Linch and other girls have mentioned about the use of the knife that Mrs. Smith uses when she gets angry at MR.Smith. you can look at this in 2 ways. fristly its symballising the gestures people use when they get angry etc. fist, rude figer, and also how they can snap so qucikly into an agressive mood which in many cases in reality turn to violence. I also see it as symbalising the issue of sterotypes of women. When Mrs. Smith gets angry and holds a knife to her husbands head he mearly doesnt even recognise it and ignores it. i think this also could symbolise how women arnt noticed as much to men and how they are seen more in a housewife bubble. The bald prima donna starts and ends the same. I think this symbolises how life is repeated and how when all the drama and events happen in our lives, at the end of the day it all comes back to where we started from. The clock has been a favourite choise of symbollism in week 2 focus question. the clock i reackon symbollises how humans dont take notice of the time they are wasting and also how much is happening in our world today. IT also could symbollise how much we reley on time. THe bald Prima donna also represents the stereoptypes of traditional english people like Mr and mrs smith. Using clishe Ionesco formed a typical English couple which symbollises how in our world there are many stereotypical people and groups. Mr and mrs smith fall under the catagory of a posh english family. the absurd thing though is that ionesco in a way mocks this and states the obvious by saying lines like " we drank english tea because were english" " the children drank english water" here he has created an image of the typical english family. thats the best i can do, i must say our grade has done a great job answering this and i think its so interesting peoples perspective of the bald prima donna.
i agree with people when they mention the aspect of the clock chiming, which is obviously a symbol representing human experiences which is following time, but when you think about it, why should we follow time? i agree with emma fletcher when she states how our school bell goes at absurd times such as 3:21, why should that last mintue make a difference?
ionesco really attempts to make us think very hard about the way we live our lifes and talk to each other, and act around people without us really noticining it, we all expressed how random we thought it was when mrs smith threatens her husband with a knife and then he almost seductively or just nicely talks her out of attacking him violently, this scence could represent fights with parents or sisters or friends, the strange fights that occur for no apparent reason or a stupid reason like a singlet or something, when you yell or scream for nothing that is really that important and you say things that you dont mean just to intimidate them such 'i hate you' or 'your a terrible mother' when you dont even mean it, and then eventually one of you will appologise and its over. we most likely wont think about it but it literally has no point to it what so ever. i think through symbols and imagery ionesco is trying to make us realise that we alot of the times have stupid human experiences and when you really think about it, its very true.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
I think that the main and most obvious symbol in this play is the entire play itself. The Bald Prima Donna is a symbol of everyday life, our lives, and how truley pointless the majority of it is. Other then that i think a main symbol is the clock. The clock chims regularly throughout the whole play. Each time the clock being imprecise and the times seeming impossible. The symbol of the clock is there because of the pointlessness of time itself. Would it make a difference if it was 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock if all we are doing is reading the newspaper? Or talking about which mayonase is best in town? Which leads me to agress with Emma F and all who agreed wth her when saying the school bells at are school are irregular and pointless. Making every minute count, when really waht difference is 60 seconds goign to wait, why not end at 3.20 rather then 3.21? I believe Ionesco make us think long and hard to see why we do the thing we do in everyday life. Why we make an effort to talk about things we couldnt really cae less about. Why time matters so much, when life seems so pointless. Ionesco Is trying making us think, which really he has greatly suceeded in.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
I agree with most who are saying they are with laura about the clock. i think it is a major symbol used throughout to play to represent many things. And it has been really enfasised due to the fact that it is continuosly being repeated throughout the play. The clocks random chimes are symbolic because they have no meaning and the characters take no notice of it. a meaning could be that time has no point, it's not necessary and has no meaning. The plot of the play doesnt relate to the play at all and is just there for the comic relief of the audience and to prove the point that people use time to rule and organise their lives, maybe they like living to a plan but in life it isnt really necessary and people take it too seriosly. we need to relax and not worry about a scedule. we should be more spontanious.
The whole BObby watson scene has its own symbolism and meaning. I think Ionesco is trying to say sometimes in society we do all seem the same and even if we llok different we all do the same things. Too many people follow the crowd and take a unique approach. Everyone gets too obsessed with the way "they should be" and the way the media portray people their age, and we forget we are all different for a reason and thats what makes us who we are.
wow miss mac u really made me think about the "train" as humans needing to stay on the tracks of life routine and in the end of the play they all go crazy and their "train" went off the tracks. the symbolism and imagery that Ionesco uses in this play shows us how they relate to our realy lives. um i guess what i'm trying to say is... silly symbols like the clock showing how time passes in such a strange and meaningless way it could possibly mean that time really doesnt pass or doesnt pass in an orderly way. it could stand still or even go back in time. arrhhh it hurts my head to think about these questions. make an eaier one. im so confused, so many possibilities... haahhahah
i must say i do agree with everyone on this question in saying yes it is quite an absure question. i think Ionesco has used symblism quite effectivly in this play, whether it may be the clock stricking or the dagger scene. As you can see it is quite strange with Mrs Smith all of a sudden snap and pull a dagger out of knowwhere. i like the idea of what Laura Linch has mentioned in which she says that the ranom clock chimes could symbolise time flying by.
some of the images and symbols that Ionesco uses are things like the clock. It chimes in odd places and chimes very weird times. This makes us see how time is sometimes out of whack or fast or slow paced it can be. It also portrays the message that many things in life can be random or unexpected.
wow what a hard question .. i think ionesco uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences, so that he could explain to his audience that not only dose our ordinary life and actions have no real purpose, also that there are feelings that go completely unnoticed in our society. I personally love the way that he describes raw emotion through showing mrs smith talking normally, and then she pulls out a sword and tries to stab her husband. (not that I condone stabbing your husband.) but it is the raw emmotion that just errupts out of nowhere and then just subsides again. He uses immagery to create the atmosphere that the Smiths are a perfectly normal emglish family, yet throughout the play we see that they are not perfect and are not normal. He is making fun of the way that every one in there own way wants to fit into society, even if they dont fit into the 'normal' mould on the inside, they will fake a normal family for society ( as we see the Smiths do.)
well, i believe that lonesco used quite a lot of symbols and imagery to represent life. The clock that rings at random times of the day symbolises how life passes by so quickly and how we really dont take any notice of it. The martin scene also symbolises how we think we know someone when really we dont. Like in life today people use myspace and think they know who someone when really the could be the complete opposite. The ring at the door bell i would say gives us an image of life. Through life there is always a que to do something. Like a ring a the door cues us to go answer it and the school bell ringing and someone calling your name etc. Lonesco has tried to symbolises life and how life is so repetitive and meaningless. The many comversations the smiths and the martins had were pointless and had no real point or any excitement! The random acts of violence also symbolises how we get so worked up about things which most of the time dont really matter. We are all very simple and sensitive beings, but this is who we are. We all live an absurd life.
well well this is my point of view...... throughout the play in some subtle but understandable the play depicts (symbolises)... life! Dose life have a introduction, middle and a conclusion? Take the example of the silences... yes as unbelievable and unadmittable (if that’s a word) that this dose happen. Those awkward silences have meanings, that as people we have feelings of nothingness... dead.
I was thinking the play actually has many symbols of life, how many time do we have chats about nothingness, the fact the time just flows past to fast to describe and that me do "talk about food'(bec f)!!
I could be described as crazy but its true... life is absurd!
I think Ionesco is very clever in the way he uses imagery and symbolism in the play to represent human experiences. he does it in a way most people wouldnt think about.
the main symbol in the play is the clock. it is symbolising the fact that time is always ticking by, and most of the time us humans dont even really think about it. sure we rush to catch a bus thats leaving in about 40 seconds, but we dont think about how many hours we sit actually doing nothing. And when i say nothing i mean activities of not much or even no point, like watching a movie we have seen a few times before.
the clock is ticking by and sure the characters notice the time, but do they really take it in? do they think to themselves 'time is going by, and i havent done anything of importance or anything memorable'?
I think Ionesco uses symbols and imagery to represent human experiences by using everyday objects to represent bigger things in life. for example, the clock. i think Ionesco ment for s to realise this and maybe start noticing the smaller things in life. i agree with Laura on the meaningless chat filling silences and definitley agree about the random violence. good thinking.
Ionesco was very cleaver at provoking unusual and strange thoughts and conversation topics by using the different symbols and imagery in the Bald Prima Donna.
not sure if a answered the question correctly but thats what i think anyway.
I think that Ionesco was trying to convey the message of "absurdism", life without meaning and the characteristics and moods of humans through his uses of symbols and imagery. He uses these techniques to represent human experience very effectively. An example of this would be the door bell ringing. I think that this symbolises the naivety of some people as Mr Smith believed that whenever there was a ring at the door, there was always someone there. Another part in the bald prima donna that used symbols and imagery was the clock chiming. This told the responders how time really had no meaning to anyone in the play and how their lives seemed to be cyclical. As many of you have mentioned, the awkward silences are a strong symbol used in this play. I didn't think this is as absurd as some of Ionesco's other parts in the play, but it shows us how people react to different situations in life i.e. breaking an awkward silence by coughing which, embarrassingly i have done many times. ^ Is that even a word?!?!?!
I think that Ionesco uses symbols like the clock and the doorbell, and imagery such as the daggar, to represent certain human experiences.
The clock symbolises time, but in this case, it symbolises how time can seem like the most important thing in some people's lives, when really it is quite irrelevant if you take it away or change it in some way. This is showm by how the clock strikes irregulary throughout the whole play.
Another symbol is the doorbell. I really liked Lauren Tyler's response about when a doorbell rings it symbolises opportunities that may come about, and that sometimes they will be there and sometimes they wont,just like the doorbell scene with Mrs Smith.
An example of imagery is when Mrs Smith pulls out the daggar on Mr Smith. I think that this is trying to communicate how people are often confused or angry about something but they keep it locked up inside themselves, until they can't keep it in anymore. When this happens it seems like they explode with anger and rage and we might not have seen it coming, so the other person is generally shocked. I think Ionesco was trying to shock and confront the audience at this particular moment.
Well that's all I can get out of that one, seeing as everyone has covered pretty much everything else.
Ding Ding Ding goodness! nine o'clock! time for me to go bye byes.
Ionesco uses fantastic imagery in this play. As we have read, this play is extremely simpl yet totally relevent in todays society. i know that i have experienced (in differnt ways) some of the situations that the characters do in day to day life. For example the clock chimes many times throughout the play, this shows how time is ticking by at an alarming rate. to me us as humans waste precious time in our life doing meaningless things when we could be filling up our time with fun filled activities, things that we love.
Ioneaso uses symbol and imagery throughout the play in many different ways.
Although the play is absurd we can easily distinguish the relationship to human experiences. For example in the doorbell scene, Mrs Smith makes the point that when you hear a ring at the door, it means that there is nobody there. how can there be nobody there? Who is ringing the doorbell then? This absurd scene gave me the idea that it was a parody of how people have the stupidest fights these days and they don't even realise. People are so focused on being right and being the person the its smarter or better or whatever that if someone is hurt sometines we don't see.
Ionesco also uses the clocks chimes to represent how time is meaningless. As Laura has said, it is illogical for te clock to chime 3 times and then say "Goodness 9 o'clock".
Hannah makes a good point saying how the clock brings another dimension into the play. I had never thought about the chimes as another dimension but this really opened my eyes. When she said how irregular time can be and so how irregular human existance and human emotion is as a result of this I have to agree.
The scene where Mrs Smith randomly pulls out a dagger and goes to stab Mr Smith symbolises how these days people don't always think about their actions and do things that are not necessary. Just like Mrs Smith, these days a number of violences occur but usually the person has not thought about it and the consequences of it. If Mrs Smith was to actually stab her husband we would think that it symbolises what I have said above. However, even without stabbing her husband, just bringing out the dagger is still showing this because the wierdness of her actions makes people stop and think about it.
Emma Edbrooke also made a significant point saying how Ionesco was very clever at provoking unusual and strange thoughts and conversation topics by using the different symbols and imagery in the Bald Prima Donna. It was his wierd and random scenes that brought the symbolism and imagery through the little unimportant things in our life.
the use of time, and the random chimes of the clock are symbolic of the way time flies by and that this play has not been written to flow in a cronological order. I also agree with many of the other girls that the door bell scene is a significant scene in terms of symbol to represent human experiences. In class we came to the conclusion that everyone has become acustom to reacting in certain ways to different sounds and gestures and when the expected does not occur then we become completey thrown off and disorrientated and begin to question why it has occured. When mrs smith answers the door and does not see anybody we later come to think that the fire chief was there the entire time. Which makes us wonder whether mrs smith is slightlty mad. Miss mac i read your comment and i completely agree..the train runs in a straight line, the only choice is backwards or forewards...yet the characters are following each other saying "its not that way, its this way". They feel that they still have a choices hat they can meke in life although they are unaware that their life follows a pattern (train tracks) that is the same as their neighbours- birth, life, then death. i know that i have only just expanded on other girls' ideas but you guys have pretty much covered it all.. ta ta..xo
Throughout the bald prima donna, ionesco uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences.
i think the terms "symbol" and "imagery" dont really correspond in the play to the concept of the representation of human experiences. i think this is because what happens in the play is EXACTLY who we are. The characters are played at face value, and because of this, i beleive how we are represented as humans and our reactions to certain experiences, holds true at face value. what you see is what you get. For eg. at the beginning of the play, mrs smith has an outrage of anger towards mr smith for saying something quiete minor and in our view, polite (i cant remember exactly what he says!). This can be interpreted as symbolic, or it can be taken at face value. if we take it at face value and believe that some people do have outburts of anger at the most random and insignificant things, it gives us a different understanding into that individual. Because by taking it at face value, we are acknowledging and accepting of that person as an individual as of what we can sometimes stereotype ourselves to be. this can be shown in today's events. say if my friend borrowed my pen for the day and used up all the ink and i went insane at her. if we interpret it symbolically, there may be more to why i would get so angry over a pen, but maybe im just VERY particular, and it may not always be because ive had a traumatic experience and pens are symbolic to be, it just may be part of my personality.
in view of that, i have just realised one negative aspect (which i thought was quiet impossible) about absurdism. it is that it tends to represent society and human nature rather than an individual's thoughts and personality. but thats kinda off the topic........
BUT the play as a whole, (its concepts, ideas and themes) needs to interpreted in the same way as you would interpret, say, a poem, which uses imagery and symbolsim. for eg, if we interpret that same incident of the outburts of mrs smith as symbolic, it will have a different meaning to if it was interpreted at face value. Mrs smith's rage could be symbolic of her build up of emotions, or ridiculing how us human beings get angry at the most unimportant things, like your boyf forgetting to call you on your birthday at 8 hours, 31 minutes and 22 seconds in the morning because that was the EXACT moment you were born.
in conclusion, ionesco uses symbolsim and imagery to represent human experiences throughout the play however, we can gain just as much understanding and knowledge as interpreting something at face value and or as a metaphor or symbol. :-)
i felt as if that Eugene Ionesco was mocking the way we live our lives. He was writting about the typical English family/husband/wife as if he was from the outside and had just been let in. In the play he had just highlighted the absurd behaviour in mainly the western culture, that we couldn't. The types of symbols he used was the pointless conversations, Mrs Smith pointing out everything she did that day no matter how dull it was, even the imaginy stories told by the firecheif and the bobby watson. It created such questions as -Do we only listen because were waiting until it's our time to talk? -Do we only talk to fill in the silences? -Who is Bobby Watson?
Ionesco uses many symbols in his play and one that is subtle but persistent is the clock. It is accompanied by the meaningless statement "goodness! nine o' clock!" when it is obviously 3 o' clock. I believe it is hinting at how people waste time constantly every single day, by doing the same things over and over again. It shows that our life-time is running out and we are sitting around having pointless conversations about what we had for dinner, or what we did on the weekend, all in past tense. He doesn't directly state that we are wasting time, but his clock and Mrs Smith remind us time and time again throughout the play. The Martins, whilst in the Smiths living room discover that they have a lot in commen, including the bed they sleep in. it shows that no matter how well you think you know someone, theres always something that you could learn, as people change and alter.
lonesco presents his plays with symbol to show the audience that it can represent the meaning which is then represented in the play for us to understand it.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Ionesco uses symblos such as the clock chiming and imaginay such as Mrs smith going to stab her husband, mr smith.
These symbols and imagery represent human experiences in an absurd way! like bec said,' the idea about the clock as a symbol of passing time and the dagger as a symbol of violence'! these random symbols and random imagery represents the randomness of our lives and how we experience things. xx
Well Ionesco most certainly uses alot of symbolism and imagery to create many meanings throughout this absurdist play...
Well i would definetly say the clock is a use of symbol, realistic symbol. It symbolises that time means absolutely nothing in the eyes of the "Bald Prima Donna" characters. I think it also symbolises how time flies by in our society and we dont take note of what is going on around us. I think it also helps drag out the time where conversation is even more meaningless than usual. I think that the clock not only shows the how time can fly by and drag out but also how sometimes people just talk or or do silly meaningless things to fill in time. I think the climbing clocks shows this.
I think that the Martins are in some way symbolising some of the relationships that are around today. Many people can live together or be related but really not know each other at all. I think the Martins recolection scene symbolises how life is so busy in today's that sometimes we dont make time for those who are closest to us.
I think in some way the Bobby Watson scene represents what a small world we live in and how we can run into someone who knows someone else all the time.
Because imagery and symbolism are so heavily involved in this play...i think all these scenarios i have analysed can have another 100 different meanings. I think however that this is Ionesco using imagery and symbolism again to convey many different meanings
In The Bald Prima Donna there are many different techniques used to create comedy. The different symbols each make us laugh, because they criticise and mock the everyday way of life.
When there is a ring at the door, most "everyday" people would answer it. However in The Bald Prima Donna they question this. What is the point in opening a door, when it's just the ring that we hear- we can't see the person?
Also, a fireman is called in an emergency. In the Bald Prima Donna the fire chief turns up, bored, looking for a fire.
These different symbols and representations correspond to our everyday random way of life.
Ionesco uses heaps of symbols throughout the play to represent human experiences. One of the most important of these is probably the clock. The clock is a constant symbol always in the background of the play. It keeps chiming randomly at random times as if it has a mind of its own and does not want to be governed by the regularity of time. I think the clock in a way is breaking free from its own boundaries, telling it when to chime and how many times, which in a sense is what Ionesco is trying to do with his absurdist play. Because the characters in the play have no control over time, the time seems to have no control over them. It just seems to chime whenever it feels like it and they just carry on with life as if time is of no significance to them.
Another symbol Ionesco uses is the doorbell. I know this has already been said but to me the doorbell represents when opportunity comes a knocking. We decide whether or not to see this opportunity. Every time Mrs Smith goes to answer the door she comes back saying there is nobody there. But is it actually that there is nobody there or did she just not see the person standing right in front of her? After all, the fire chief did say he had been standing there for 45 minutes. Why did it take Mr Martin finally answering the door to see the fire chief standing there? Maybe Ionesco is suggesting that it takes a second person in a situation to see what the first could not. Like not being able to see the answer in front of you until someone else points it out.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences? The play is a symbol of our lives being meaningless sometimes as some symbols are the clock which shows time just going by and how much time we waste by doing nothing. The characters say the time wrong and its really absurd. I agree with Golnoush as “Ionesco uses the English setting as imagery to represent the most typical culture known to be plain ordinary and boring which has only been stereotyped in society as being the English.” And as we know that the Bold Prima Donna was inspired by Ionesco’s attempts to learn English. He then stereotyped simple sentences and made them absurd by uses them over and over again. The play I find is quite strange and hard to get a grasp of first but it has some really deep underlying meaning if you think really hard about the play. Which I find quite hard but reading everyone’s helps and it gets your brain going and to feed off other peoples ideas, so thanks.
okay so sorry for the REALLLLY late reply but yeah ok here i go... well, this question is a little harder, requires a little more thinking, which is a bit hard to do on a sunday morning when your mind is set on other things like events that have occured on the weekend, but ill do the best i can... Ionesco, who is the writer of The Bald Prima Donna uses symbol and immagery in many different, and clever ways. my first example is the clock, which, as we know, chimes randomly throughout the play, and in incorrect order (e.g. 9pm then 4pm then 6pm or whatever...) I think he does this to symbolize and represent how in our daily lives, time does not matter. It does not matter whether it is 9 o' clock, or 3, our pointless babble (as Mrs Smith shows) just continues on. Another example is also the anger between the characters, and how they get so angry over pointless things. Don't you think he's trying to say something about us? It seems in this day and age we will just pick out anything someone says to start a fight. Or what about the "stories" they tell, you know, the absolutley AMAZING stories, when really they are so average... Don't you think he's trying to hint maybe the "amazing" stories we tell are really pointless?
Well there are some things that I feel Ionesco is using to symbolize the "human experience"
I think that Ionesco uses symbols such as the clock chimes to make another point about how people use their time, that time can pass you by and you don't even notice. After discussing this in class as well, we also thought that the randon clock chimes could be representive of the different times of the day that these events happened, and not in order as well, but i suppose it is absurd theatre so nothing needs to make sense which means both of these could be possible. Although i think Ionesco is also trying to point out that humans don't make sense as well, as when the clock chimes 3 times, Mrs. Smith says "goodness. nine o'clock" that also suggests to me that Ionesco is trying to say that humans don't pay attention to what is going on around them, or are just inside their own world bubble. i think that through the random acts of violence Ionesco is using imagery to suggest how absurd life really is, that Mrs Smith would pull out a knife to her 'husband' suggests a very random act, coming out of no argument or anything, so it is not even an overreaction, just a random act.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
There are so many symbols and imagery used to represent human experiences throughout the play. I think all the ideas people have come up with are brilliant and have deepened my understanding of The Bald Prima Donna. Throughout the play there is a theme of wasted time, symbolised by many things, such as dialogue in the How Extraordinary scene. In this scene Ionesco uses the repetition and emphasis of dialogue to symbolise meaningless conversation. The line “How very extraordinary” is used 23 times throughout one scene. To me this is extraordinary! I think Ionesco is sending the message that we as humans can’t bear to be in company of each other without talking. The conversations that we do have, most of the time are meaningless and time consuming. Ionesco also uses other symbols like the clock to represent wasted time, or the pointless stories the Martins and Smith’s exchange. These elements, combined together represent human experiences.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
There are so many symbols and imagery used to represent human experiences throughout the play. I think all the ideas people have come up with are brilliant and have deepened my understanding of The Bald Prima Donna. Throughout the play there is a theme of wasted time, symbolised by many things, such as dialogue in the How Extraordinary scene. In this scene Ionesco uses the repetition and emphasis of dialogue to symbolise meaningless conversation. The line “How very extraordinary” is used 23 times throughout one scene. To me this is extraordinary! I think Ionesco is sending the message that we as humans can’t bear to be in company of each other without talking. The conversations that we do have, most of the time are meaningless and time consuming. Ionesco also uses other symbols like the clock to represent wasted time, or the pointless stories the Martins and Smith’s exchange. These elements, combined together represent human experiences.
I love your answer lauren, it was a very good analysis. And i do think that this question is hard, and that laura and georgie you guys covered a lot of the main points and the obvious ones. Thats the hard thing about going last...... however, i do think that possible the Fire Chief is overlooked as a significant symbol. Take it like this- human experiences is everything that occurrs in life, and often strange things do happen, but often things happen that aren't good or very bad in cases, but we get warning as to what they are, so often they are prevented. I dont know if i am diving too deep pyschologically into this but the fire chief could symbolically and as an image represent turmoil and bad times in human existance. A fire can be a devastating thing, it destroys belongings and lives at times, as well as anything in its path. So it could be said that a fire is like the bad things that happen in life, anything from fighting with a friend to a death or someone close. If you take it as this, then the fire chief represents the times in life, when we get a warning as to something bad that could happen and it is prevented by listening to the advice of something else. Quite far-fetched i understand in a way, but when you think clearly about it, it does make sense, and while its hard to write down. I can think of examples everything from luck to medical tests that the fire chief is representative of. Hope you can understand that.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Ionesco uses symbolism and imagery in a range of ways to represent human experiences, such as his use of the clock, the train, the scene with the Martins, and the typical English setting.
The clock symbolises time, (duh!) and is used to show that time is going bye meaninglessly, do we even realise it ticking away? While we waste our lives doing pointless things... hmm, seems a little absurd to me.
The train symbolises the journey that is life. How we are travelling down a certain road, and sometimes we may not realise it, but we are still moving along down the path. The play is a cyclical journey; eventually they end up back where they started, although slightly different, in that the Martins are now the Smiths. This is repetition, demonstrating how in life we are trapped in a loop, doing the same thing over and over again. For example, everyday you wake up, have breakfast, get dressed, go to school, learn some stuff, and then come home, you have dinner, and go to bed; then the next day, you usually wake up and do the same thing, (unless it’s a weekend).
The scene with the Martins is use of imagery. Mr. & Mrs. Martin don’t realise that they are in fact married, and have a child, until after they have a looooong conversation about their lives, finally finding out that they are married. Then Mary the Maid reveals to us, as the audience, that they are not actually married, they just believe they are. This is demonstrating to us that sometimes when you think you know a person, you may not actually know them at all. We don’t know people as well as we sometimes think we do.
The typical English setting shows us how stereotyped and borings life has become. It shows how it is standard for English couples to have homes like this, how everything is the same, how we are the same. It demonstrates how our lives have become materialistic, in our need to have the newest coolest things, that nothing is individual anymore, as the things you have, your neighbours are likely to have, and your friends are likely to have.
This use of symbolism and imagery is definitely a headscratcher, and it was used in this play to show the things that you sometimes are unable to portray with words.
i also think that the 'bobby watson' scene is symbolising that we are all the same. we, today, have gotten to the point where we carry out the same life. get up, get ready for school, go to.chool, come home, get ready for bed, go to bed. its the same for everyone. personaly, i beleive Eugene is a very smart person, he makes people really think about life and how nothing and no body changes in society. the clock is another example. it symbolisis how fast time goes. every time the clock rings it shows howoes forward without even noticing.
i think Corrinne made a great point in saying that the fire cheif is also symbolic in The Bald Prima Donna.
I think the way the Martin's and Smith's encourage his telling of another story and then change suddenly and do not really want to hear it is symbolising how we in society always have to fill in our moments with meaningless conversations, even if the silences could possibly be more interesting to ourselves. It is seen as polite and correct in society to always encourage this conversation but in truth the conversations that follow can be extremely boring and absolutely worthless.
I think the fire chief can also simply symbolise the many interruptions that we face during the everyday running of our lives. these interruptions can be interesting and fascinating aswell as providing as with new ideas and lines of thought. in the case of the fire chief his interruption into the scene brought with it a rather interesting conversation about answering a door aswell as many stories.
i think everyone has had such great ideas as there was a lot of symbolism that could be found in The Bald Prima Donna, including the symbolism of the Fire Chief
wow ok a much harder question and reallly great comments by everyone to compete with. So ill just say that i agree with pretty much everything thats been said although some people have taken it deeper than others and myself, and some responses have changed my own views on the interpretations.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Well the main issues ive picked up on have been the "bobby watsons" section. I believe "bobby watsons" have been used to symbolise how similar everyone is and how you surround yourself with the same type of people with the same interests and people that have things in common with you.
I also agree with the train thing and that because we are all so similar we are all riding the same train on the same tracks, taking us on the same journey to the same place where we may infact never arrive at.
I also LOOVE the idea of the door bell, seeing straight through someone because this is common in everyday life. People are often fake and easily transparent and the fact that some people dont often know anything at all about the person they share a close realtionship or title with for example Mr. and Mrs Martin.
anyway thats pretty much all and like i said earlier i agree with everything everyone else has said and its so hard to compete! seee yaa.
58 comments:
I think this is a harder question but here we go...
I think that through the play the issue of time is very subtle but also very significant through the whole play. The clock chiming could be said a realistic symbol, however with contradictions from the characters (“Goodness! Nine o’clock”, although the clock has only struck 3 times) and random changing of times it is not normal, but rather, illogical and absurd.
Apart from the fact that this could seem to me like our old grandfather clock which does a similar thing because it’s so old, I think the clock chiming has more important meaning. Many of us decided in class that the random number of chimes represented the time flying by without people noticing, and that time doesn’t matter. Also that meaningless chat is used to fill silences and pass the time, avoiding awkward silences and the clock could be representing this. However, thinking again, I believe perhaps Ionesco had another idea that perhaps the clock is like some kind of time warp, and as the number of chimes are all out of order, perhaps so is time, and so when the Martins realise they know each other, maybe they are finally coming back to the present and realising their situation. Anyway, what I’m saying is perhaps this is a way for Ionesco to express his feelings towards possible time travel in the future. Maybe a representation of future human experiences in relation to time?
But back to the question, before I get carried away again, another way Ionesco has used a symbol is when Mrs Smith gets cross at her husband and suddenly rises a knife to stab her husband. This is a very sudden burst of anger from nothing and it could represent a very common human experience like when someone gets angry and even raises a fist, or resorts to some other violence. When this happens, I’m sure people feel guilty afterwards and realise their mistake but at that moment they can’t help but find a vent for their anger and frustration. Just because Mrs Smith had a knife handy, she used it instead of a hand; but then again, how many people do you know that would go to stab their husband because he said something so insignificant?
Every human gets angry at times, it is really quite normal, it's just that we should have learnt how to control this as a child.
Well you see...because this is an absurdist play Ionesco does not address the issues it is dealing with directly because that would make the play become much more realistic. Instead he decided to confront his desired issues through symbolism in an indirect manner. One of the main issues he is trying to convey is that a large majority of the time we spend each day talking is just talking for the sake of saying something. Most of the time our conversations are completely pointless and after we have had them we will not have found out anything interesting or expanded our knowledge at all. Another issue relating to this is that we focus on some of the most pointless and meaningless things in our lives rather than the things that truly matter. For example, in the play some of the simplest stories the Martins share fascinate the Smiths and vice-versa. This relates to today’s world in that we focus a lot on ourselves but very few of us focus on the major problems in our world today, such as the environment or wars. Both of these issues are addressed through the many conversations between Mr and Mrs Smith and also with the Martins. The train at the end of the play, I believe, symbolises the childish moments all adults experience from time to time. It is saying that we should never lose the fun side of ourselves even through stresses we deal with in life. The very extraordinary conversation between Mr and Mrs Martin shows that some people have lost the love in their relationship and to an extent don’t even know who their partner is. It is trying to say that we need to care more about the people around us and listen to what they have to say instead of just tune out like many people do. The end of the play being the same as the beginning symbolises that life is a journey and each day we will usually end up where we began. We should enjoy the journey and have as much fun as possible, have more meaningful conversations and truly care about the people around us because before you know it... Well you see... because this is an absurdist play...
p.s. i hate trying to remember passwords!! it took me forever and i only made it up like a week ago!! I had to go into the whole 'forgot your password?' thing!! it was ABSURD!!
I agree with Laura about the clock, cause I noticed that too. It adds another dimension of absurdism to the play, its not enough to have the dialogue and the movements being absurd but he needed to add another absurdist dimension and the clock chiming incorrectly was a great way of symbolising the lack of importance of time.
He also shows through the clock how irregular time can be and so how irregular human existance and human emotion is as a result of this. The clock seems so absurd because it chimes all different numbers and doesn't progress in a chronological order, but if you think about it neither do we. One day we are happy then the next minute we could be angry or distraught. And so the clock represents this illogical and unpredictable side of ourselves.
I also think that there is a lot of symbolism in the scene with Mr and Mrs Martin talking about the train. We talked about this a bit in class as a group in our class performed this scene last lesson. This scene demonstrates the yerning that people get to be a part of a group or to belong somewhere and even just a yerning to be loved. We saw this through the amount of excitment Mr and Mrs Martin had about finding out where they knew each other from, as neither could remember the other one each of them started assuming that they were related before proper proof was given. But then once they realised that they were in fact husband and wife (or so they think) they are quite disappointed and go back to being the boring unexcitable people that they were when the conversation started. Well that is how this group performed it anyway..
thanks
You girls are amazing. I'm really impressed at some of the insights that are coming out on this blog. Loved your interpretation of the train as a symbol, Georgina. Hopefully this unit of work is reminding all of us not to lose sight of the fun in our lives as well.
Keep up the great work! I look forward to reading more responses.
Cold tea and pistletoe...
Mr R.
he makes it easy for people to picture the way the play would be set.
i founf it goo that we set up the stage as if it was real beacause it make me understand each different character.
having people act it out was helpful and more involving then sitting there just reading it.
Ionesco uses alot of imagery in the Bald Primma Donna.he uses alot of literal and visual metaphors to portray meanings.
The scene where the martin couple are realising they are very similar with their living arrangements is metaphorical for the fact that no matter how well you think u know someone, you don't know or realise everything about them.
the usage of the clock chimes is symbolic for how fast and random time can be in life.
The bobby watson scene is relevant to how there are so many people out there and somehow people know or are related to each other.
this play has many uses of symbols and images.
ciaoo
ding. (doorbell rings)
are you going to answer the door?
No. i will not answer the door. there is nobody there.
ding. ding. (doorbell rings)
yes, but there must be somebody there.
what makes you think there will be somebody there. when the doorbell rings there is never any body there.
no, you are quite wrong, there is always somebody there.
ding. ding. ding. (doorbell rings)
all right, then. i will go and look, i wont have you saying i'm being pigheaded; but you'll see. there'll be nobody there.
what did i tell you? nobody.
...................................
I am not going to repeat any previous points made about this weeks question, as i think that everyone has already done a really, really good job. However, i have just realised something that has not yet been brought up and i find it really interesting and relevant to real life.
In "The Bald Prima Donna", there is a large section that is centred simply on the subject of whether to or not to answer the door when the doorbell rings. The men say that when the doorbell rings, there is always someone there, and that the door should be answered, and the women argue that there is never anybody there so there's no point. Quite a large waste of time if you ask me, but i suppose it's absurd theatre so theres no real point in me questioning it.
Looking into it a bit further, however, i can relate it to real life. Opportunities are constantly knocking on our "doors", ringing our "doorbells" and waiting to see if we answer. The unanswered doorbell can, in my mind, be a symbol of those unanswered opportunities, and the attitudes of the characters in this situation symbolise those around me.
The men who think that there is always someone at the door can be the optimists, who believe in taking each and every opportunity like it will never come again. They dont leave anything unanswered.
The women are those people who are too afraid to step outside their small box that is their life to take the chance to see who and what is at the door. They will never know what they have missed out on and who they might have met.
This isnt exactly the first perception of a symbol in the play, but i think its really interesting... not sure about anyone else... hmmm...
I suppose that Ionesco, if he thought about this, is encouraging the readers and/or viewers to think about where they stand and as to if they would answer the door, even if it doesn't mean much to them in the long run. I've noticed that one of the main aims of absurdist theatre is to make the audience question themselves, and i suppose when we think of things this way, we do.
would you answer the doorbell of the door of opportunity?
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Geez Lauren! how mcuh time do you have???? hahaha great tho
Ok well I think......
That yes, Ionesco does use symbolism and imagery in his play, BUT, in an absudist way. By this I mean that the symbols and images, like the text, don't fit together in a 'sensible' order, or fit together at all really! i'm sorry, i have an entire answer in my head, but everytime i try to type it it sounds absurder than absurd and doesn't really seem to make sense! so i think i have to leave it at that.
although i do agree with whoever said the thing about the train... how it might represent the 'child within'. But i think we remember that we are dealing with the French here! :S and apart from the wierd Frenchies, it is a play that was written in 1948 (?)in france.( which is in another time zone, country, continent and hemisphere!)
hope i made a little bit of sense at least!
xx
Wow that’s a much harder question but I'll give it a try…
I agree with Laura in thinking that throughout the play Ionesco uses both sublte and very obvious forms of imagery and symbolism. I'm not going to say anything else about the clock because everyone else has already pretty much summed up what I wanted to say. What I did find really interesting and one of the more sublte forms of imagery that Ionesco uses was the ringing of the doorbell. I'm taking the word image in its most literal meaning here and relating it to seeing and eyesight.
"Listen! Theres a ring at the door."
"There must be some one there. I'll go and see."
"Nobody"
Mrs Smith goes to answer the door three times and after the fourth ring mr smith goes to get the door, just to prove mrs smith wrong, which he does by bringing in the fire chief. Its obvious that mrs smith simply could not see the fireman standing in front of her, which prompts the audience to ask, Why? As with most things in this play, it relates back to us and the lives that we lead everyday. Don't know about you guys…but have you ever been looking at some one or something and just seen straight through it, as if it isn't there? Its directly in front of you and you are looking straight at it but for some reason you just cannot see it. It happens to me all the time, for lots of different reasons. And then there are also the times when you don't see something because you don't WANT to see it; maybe its something that you never believed you'd see or its something that you don't want to know about, but somehow your mind rules your vision so much that you can completely miss something that you know you don't want to see. This is the point that I'm making. Our sight (literal and metaphysical) can be really strongly governed by our minds. This isn't a good thing. and it makes us question ourselves… what of what we see is real and what do we make up? That’s the thing I want to get across and its really strange once you start thinking about it because trust me, if you do, I think you'll find that you see what you want a lot of the time. I believe that this I one of the main things that Ionesco is symbolising with the ringing of the door and its amazing how much just one little segment of a play can make us think about how our minds work and how our mind governs us a person. Easy to get off the topic…sorry if I lost anyone
Tess,
I love your idea of having Mrs Smith answer the door and for the fire chief to be standing there but for her not to see him. In my mind it's always played out with the fire chief NOT there so it seems Mrs Smith is losing her marbles a little, as I do so love seeing her played as completely flustered at that point. However, I like your idea far better because it's much more absurd!
What other symbols can we identify in the play? We've had clocks, trains and doors thus far. Are there any others? Would anyone care to tackle the imagery of the 'typical English' setting? I think it has some significance...
(cue the dramatic music)
Mr R.
Dramatians....
Damn u guys are good! you have basically said everything there is to say :P
I have loved all your ideas so far! especially the idea about the clock as a symbol of passing time and the dagger as a symbol of violence. I also loved the train as a symbol of our childish moments and the door bell as a symbol of opportunity!
But from my perspective… i believe that the Bald Prima Donna is a symbol in itself! the whole play is a symbol of our lives and just how meaningless our lives can be. It also symbolises the everyday feelings we experience and how they may be created from “nothing.” For example in the play, Mrs. Smith randomly pulls out a dagger on her husband- Mr. Smith: “I don’t like that kind of joke, you know perfectly well I don’t. Mrs Smith: (She hurls the socks away, shows her teeth, rises, and takes a dagger from her corsage, her hair standing on end).
In life our feelings can change in an instant- first we’re angry, then sad, then moody, then happy then bored then excited then angry again! In a way our own life’s can be considered cyclical because we go around and around in circles! Sometimes we even do the same things over and over again….if you think about it this way, each day is cyclical because we wake up, go to school, come home, and go to bed. Sounds kind of boring doesn’t it! But maybe this was Ionesco’s aim…to show that life is basically nothing and why should we have to go through all these feelings if there is “nothing” to worry about!
The other symbol I noticed was the symbol of the newspaper. Mr. Smith is constantly reading the newspaper and whilst he is doing this is, he is completely oblivious to everything else around him! This may symbolize that in today’s society we are so caught up in the world that we don’t have time for the more important things.
Well…that’s all I have to say for now!
Xx bec
Ionesco cleverly uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences.
The inclusion of the train may be to symbolise journey. However, Ionesco may be stating the fact that at the end of journeys we possibly get the same outcome that we stated with. Although Mr and Mrs Martin take the Smith’s place, at the end of the play, they in fact start at the very beginning, revealing a cyclical journey.
Ionesco exaggerates and heightens the human emotions felt by his characters. One of the ways he does this is by including random acts of violence. For example, when Mrs Smith feels offended, she produces a knife, in the direction of Mr Smith.
I think Bec made a really good point about the symbol of the newspaper, and how this could symbolise that we are so caught up in the world that we don’t have time for the more important things. This seems very true. I think the newspaper can reveal a lot of things about human experiences. Ionesco’s inclusion of a newspaper in the Bald Prima Donna creates a link to the outside world.
In the scene where the newspaper is used, Mr Smith seems far more engaged in what is happening in the outside world, than his world. Mrs Smith is forced to fill in the silence of his anti social behaviour with pointless talk about her – their- world that he is clearly not interested in. Mr Smith’s character possibly reveals that humans wish to experience things that aren’t immediately available to us, and focus on living on what is to come, rather than living at the moment.
Our human experiences are often shaped by what others in the world have done before us. With the idea of Bobby Watson being all of us, Ionesco may by trying to explain that the human experiences that happen to us have happened to people before us, and will happen to people after us. To a certain level, we all live by routine.
Hopefully that made sense!
laters
Hi absurdist Year 10 Bobbies
In terms of symbols, think about why the Smiths and the Martins become a train. Is Ionesco saying that we all end up moving 'as a train' metaphorically along the same track through our lives, destined to journey but never to arrive? Or could the train also represent the human need to stay 'on track' never deviating from the norm? A train track is designed to take you in one direction - what might Ionesco be saying about that? Think about the dialogue of 'it's not that way, it's this way' in the same scene..
Happy absurding :)
miss mac
Yep everyone has said a lot of the stuff i believe this play represents too. I definetly think that The Bald Prima Donna is identical to life in itself. Everything in the play; the meaningless conversations, the altered moods, questions of opportunity and really questioning whether we actually know one another, is in fact so realistic. Ever since we started reading and performing the play, and the whole topic of Theatre of the Absurd i've stepped back in conversations and just really listened to what people are saying and the fact that these words don't even make sense at all! And when i tell my friends what they just said they actually don't believe it yet somehow as humans we understand each other. Also when I talk to someone or even sit next to my friends I think how do I even know you and do we really even know one another..haha. The topic has really got me thinking in everything i do each day, especially the small things that concern us which don't even mean anything at all. Ionesco uses the symbols and 'english' furniture really well to display how meaningless and confusing life really is. Every simple, english object has a much deeper meaning in his play which he has created out of what is taught as the English lifestyle. Although I definetly think the train is a symbol of life and how everybody is searching in such an effort to find something, to reach an age and succeed...yet what are we even looking for? This is life, the future, and the past right now! We're all searching for something that doesn't exist and then we die, and the circle of life begins again.
Anyway, that's all I have to say!
xxx
I agree with the other's this is a rather hard question.
I think that Lonesco successfully uses the 'Bobby Watson' in symbolising that we are all a Bobby Watson and that we have gotten to the point as a society that at times we do all appear to be the same as each generation seems to carry out the exact same life as the one the preceeded it. Personally i really like the whole Bobby Watson Concept, because its just so true.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
Ionesco uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences throughout the play by contrasting our lives and daily routines as meaningless. Ionesco uses the English setting as imagery to represent the most typical culture known to be plain ordinary and boring which has only been stereotyped in society as being the English. As we have discussed in class, Ionesco was not English and therefore didn’t really know the English culture but used the English setting because the world has always been stereotypical of the English ‘believing’ them and their culture to be dull (whether its true or not). I think when he created the play he lastly connected the story to that of the English because the culture has been stereotyped a particular way, therefore it ties with the theme of absurdism and represents well the particular human experiences portrayed in this play about how illogical and meaningless our lives can actually be. The play criticizes the culture and values of the middle class English who stereotypically attempt to create an exciting life and believe that their lives are interesting when their lives are dull and extremely dreary.
As stated numerously before, the clock symbolizes the significant issue of time, which seems to be a very important basis in the play. The time has been used as a foundation in all the absurdist ideas created such as the clock chiming at different and sometimes random times and the illogical changing of times and the characters not really knowing what times it is and contradicting themselves. The story often changes from the present to the past to even the future, which the characters seemed to be lost in. It is almost like time is forever lost and the characters are left in a never-ending cycle of the repetition of life which has already occurred, as understood in the Bobby Watson incident where at one minute Bobby Watson is dead to that of Bobby Watson marrying-extremely illogical and absurd! The clock also symbolizes the flying time and how sometimes life seems to overload to the point where we do not realise and often miss some of life’s wonders because we are so busy with getting through our overloaded schedules that we do not notice time passing. I agree with Laura Lynch about the meaningless conversations, which appear between the characters in the play to pass the time, which doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
And off coarse the train incident, which I believe, symbolizes the characters lack of knowledge about the time, so therefore they perform childish acts (which I believe could be more drunken acts) to pass the time. I also think it could symbolize the idea of alcohol (drunkenness) becoming very ‘important’ in society to the point that it has become a daily act by some people who we may notice as wanting to pass time (waste time) in their lives and forget everything that has happened to them. I believe that metaphorically the train incident refers to the track that we are destined to travel on, the journey we take but also staying on the track refers to our lives being ordinary and sometimes incomprehensible because we stay on that track and never move away or change.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
I think there are lots of times where Ionesco uses the clock represent time flying by fast with out us noticing. I also think the whole English bit at the start gives you the impression that these people are completely normal but as the play progresses it's quite the opposite.
I pretty much agree with what everybody else said.
vovo and out
ln
I agree with everyone else's ideas and thoughts about this topic/question.
There are some obvious parts of the play where symbol and imagery are used to represent human experiences. One of these is the pointless and frustrating dialogue between Mr and Mrs Martin, when they are trying to work out where they know each other from. This represents human experiences as we are often saying "where have i seen you before?" etc, but Ionesco takes this and exaggerates it to make clear that often things we say are pointless and amount to nothing. Another part of the play where symbol is used is the clock. The clock chimes at random times which are never in sequence. It might chime three times but then next chime will be 7 times. also Mrs Smith says "Goodness, 9:00" when the clock has chimed only 3 times. This may be used to show how time can be meaningless and how "time can fly". Another thing that could be seen as a symbol of human experience is the reptition of the word English in the beginning of the play,("that's because we are English, because we live in a suburb of London and because our name is Smith"). This is making fun of the human experience of England and the English language.
hahaha emma mcrobie i wouldnt say they are completely normal
who says, "one walks on one's feet, but one keeps warm with the aid of coal and electricity" let alone following it with "sell a pig today, eat an egg tomorrow" well i guess some people sell pigs one day and eat eggs the next.
yeah the clock, the point less conversations, the contradictory actions, the have we met before seen, the random acts of violece..
we all experience these things; time flys when your having fun, outbursts of emotions, getting muddled up with what you say and do, uhh memory blanks? haha and saying "i hate you" when we dont mean it is kind of like a ranomd act of violence, yet not so violent
he is eggadurating mundane things each and everyone of us do
very clever ionesco
its all been said and i'm not very good at english so i wont try to show up these girls
byeee
and i like the english moustache touch, its genious
I agreed with Laura about the clock being a significant symbol. as although you only heard it a few times through he play. it made an important impression. The clock symbolised the irregularity in our everyday lives, and how msot things revolve around time.
Because we are studying theatre of the absurb and the bald prima donna is absurd to say the least. Ionesco didn't directly deal with the subjects in the play. He uses alot of imagery to depict the meanings.
I think that the bobby watson scene represents human experience well as it shows how in some way or another alot of the people in today's society are related in some way or another. Most of the symbols and imagery in this play are there, an have to be obseved carefully to find.
We seem to get comfortable in our lives and follow the path straigth down, not willing to turn off and see where lifes takes us.
I think that the symbol of the clock in the play is very reflective of time in our own lives. the clock strikes at erratic times during the play and the characters do not appear to notice how random it is.
this is reflective of human experiences; time flies and when you think about it, it should not actually matter so much. time is random and life shouldn't be measured by that, but by your experiences. for example, why is it that our school bell rings at weird times like 12.54 and 3.21. that really is absurd. why cant we round it off to like 3.20 and 12.55? time makes things too precise and formal and i guess in the bald prima donna, ionesco wants to explore the idea that life can be more carefree if we dont take so much notice of the time. also, the clock just made it more absurd!
i think some of the imagery in the play is made up when the characters say random lines like "describe a circle, storke its back and it turns viscious." its so hard to imagine something like this but everyone forms a picture in their mind of it, maybe jst without realising it.
thats all i got for now!
over and out
I agree with Laura about the clock that is is a symbol and is mocking the intelligece of the people in the play when they say the time is something else that waht we hear. He also uses and english living room setting as well as getting mrs smith to say that she lives in and english house etc.
There is also alot of symbolism in the diologe when they use metaphors, repetion and say things we already know.
Another way they use symbolism to make the characters in a way be percived as stupid is by the door bell ringing over and over again but when someone goes to answer it there is no body there. As well as the firemans storys that make no sence whatso ever.
All these symbols make the play an absurd one!
xxx
I agree with all of the great ideas that have been mentioned already. There were many good points brought up, like the point Lauren made about the unanswered doorbell is a symbol of unanswered opportunities. I agree with this and about how the men in the play were being optimistic when saying that when the bell rings there is always someone at the door.
Ionesco uses the clock as a symbol. For example when the clock strikes three times and Mrs Smith says, “Goodness! Nine o’clock!” This could be Ionesco’s way of saying that time doesn’t really matter, because the time is mentioned all throughout the play, and it is pointless, there is no reason for it to be mentioned. It does not affect anything at all.
I also agree with what Bec said about how when Mrs Smith pulls out a dagger on Mr Smith that this can show how people’s feelings can change very quickly, and about how our life can be considered cyclical.
Also when the dagger is used in the play, it is used as symbolism because it was unpredictable and a random act of violence. I think that Ionesco is also using this to say that this couple has lost their love in their relationship and they really don’t know each other. This is also shown with Mr and Mrs Martin in the scene about their daughter/s.
everyone has answered this question so well and i completly agree with the comments people have made.
firstly, Ionesco has used symballison throughout his play to represent human experiences in many ways. laura Linch and other girls have mentioned about the use of the knife that Mrs. Smith uses when she gets angry at MR.Smith. you can look at this in 2 ways. fristly its symballising the gestures people use when they get angry etc. fist, rude figer, and also how they can snap so qucikly into an agressive mood which in many cases in reality turn to violence. I also see it as symbalising the issue of sterotypes of women. When Mrs. Smith gets angry and holds a knife to her husbands head he mearly doesnt even recognise it and ignores it. i think this also could symbolise how women arnt noticed as much to men and how they are seen more in a housewife bubble.
The bald prima donna starts and ends the same. I think this symbolises how life is repeated and how when all the drama and events happen in our lives, at the end of the day it all comes back to where we started from.
The clock has been a favourite choise of symbollism in week 2 focus question. the clock i reackon symbollises how humans dont take notice of the time they are wasting and also how much is happening in our world today. IT also could symbollise how much we reley on time.
THe bald Prima donna also represents the stereoptypes of traditional english people like Mr and mrs smith. Using clishe Ionesco formed a typical English couple which symbollises how in our world there are many stereotypical people and groups. Mr and mrs smith fall under the catagory of a posh english family. the absurd thing though is that ionesco in a way mocks this and states the obvious by saying lines like
" we drank english tea because were english"
" the children drank english water"
here he has created an image of the typical english family.
thats the best i can do, i must say our grade has done a great job answering this and i think its so interesting peoples perspective of the bald prima donna.
i agree with people when they mention the aspect of the clock chiming, which is obviously a symbol representing human experiences which is following time, but when you think about it, why should we follow time? i agree with emma fletcher when she states how our school bell goes at absurd times such as 3:21, why should that last mintue make a difference?
ionesco really attempts to make us think very hard about the way we live our lifes and talk to each other, and act around people without us really noticining it, we all expressed how random we thought it was when mrs smith threatens her husband with a knife and then he almost seductively or just nicely talks her out of attacking him violently, this scence could represent fights with parents or sisters or friends, the strange fights that occur for no apparent reason or a stupid reason like a singlet or something, when you yell or scream for nothing that is really that important and you say things that you dont mean just to intimidate them such 'i hate you' or 'your a terrible mother' when you dont even mean it, and then eventually one of you will appologise and its over. we most likely wont think about it but it literally has no point to it what so ever. i think through symbols and imagery ionesco is trying to make us realise that we alot of the times have stupid human experiences and when you really think about it, its very true.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
I think that the main and most obvious symbol in this play is the entire play itself. The Bald Prima Donna is a symbol of everyday life, our lives, and how truley pointless the majority of it is.
Other then that i think a main symbol is the clock. The clock chims regularly throughout the whole play. Each time the clock being imprecise and the times seeming impossible. The symbol of the clock is there because of the pointlessness of time itself. Would it make a difference if it was 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock if all we are doing is reading the newspaper? Or talking about which mayonase is best in town? Which leads me to agress with Emma F and all who agreed wth her when saying the school bells at are school are irregular and pointless. Making every minute count, when really waht difference is 60 seconds goign to wait, why not end at 3.20 rather then 3.21?
I believe Ionesco make us think long and hard to see why we do the thing we do in everyday life. Why we make an effort to talk about things we couldnt really cae less about. Why time matters so much, when life seems so pointless. Ionesco Is trying making us think, which really he has greatly suceeded in.
seeeeeeeee yaaaa suckkkkkkers
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
I agree with most who are saying they are with laura about the clock.
i think it is a major symbol used throughout to play to represent many things. And it has been really enfasised due to the fact that it is continuosly being repeated throughout the play.
The clocks random chimes are symbolic because they have no meaning and the characters take no notice of it. a meaning could be that time has no point, it's not necessary and has no meaning. The plot of the play doesnt relate to the play at all and is just there for the comic relief of the audience and to prove the point that people use time to rule and organise their lives, maybe they like living to a plan but in life it isnt really necessary and people take it too seriosly. we need to relax and not worry about a scedule. we should be more spontanious.
The whole BObby watson scene has its own symbolism and meaning. I think Ionesco is trying to say sometimes in society we do all seem the same and even if we llok different we all do the same things. Too many people follow the crowd and take a unique approach.
Everyone gets too obsessed with the way "they should be" and the way the media portray people their age, and we forget we are all different for a reason and thats what makes us who we are.
wow miss mac u really made me think about the "train" as humans needing to stay on the tracks of life routine and in the end of the play they all go crazy and their "train" went off the tracks. the symbolism and imagery that Ionesco uses in this play shows us how they relate to our realy lives. um i guess what i'm trying to say is... silly symbols like the clock showing how time passes in such a strange and meaningless way it could possibly mean that time really doesnt pass or doesnt pass in an orderly way. it could stand still or even go back in time. arrhhh it hurts my head to think about these questions. make an eaier one. im so confused, so many possibilities... haahhahah
arivour
i must say i do agree with everyone on this question in saying yes it is quite an absure question.
i think Ionesco has used symblism quite effectivly in this play, whether it may be the clock stricking or the dagger scene. As you can see it is quite strange with Mrs Smith all of a sudden snap and pull a dagger out of knowwhere.
i like the idea of what Laura Linch has mentioned in which she says that the ranom clock chimes could symbolise time flying by.
some of the images and symbols that Ionesco uses are things like the clock.
It chimes in odd places and chimes very weird times. This makes us see how time is sometimes out of whack or fast or slow paced it can be. It also portrays the message that many things in life can be random or unexpected.
anna.
wow what a hard question ..
i think ionesco uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences, so that he could explain to his audience that not only dose our ordinary life and actions have no real purpose, also that there are feelings that go completely unnoticed in our society. I personally love the way that he describes raw emotion through showing mrs smith talking normally, and then she pulls out a sword and tries to stab her husband. (not that I condone stabbing your husband.) but it is the raw emmotion that just errupts out of nowhere and then just subsides again. He uses immagery to create the atmosphere that the Smiths are a perfectly normal emglish family, yet throughout the play we see that they are not perfect and are not normal. He is making fun of the way that every one in there own way wants to fit into society, even if they dont fit into the 'normal' mould on the inside, they will fake a normal family for society ( as we see the Smiths do.)
well, i believe that lonesco used quite a lot of symbols and imagery to represent life.
The clock that rings at random times of the day symbolises how life passes by so quickly and how we really dont take any notice of it.
The martin scene also symbolises how we think we know someone when really we dont. Like in life today people use myspace and think they know who someone when really the could be the complete opposite.
The ring at the door bell i would say gives us an image of life. Through life there is always a que to do something. Like a ring a the door cues us to go answer it and the school bell ringing and someone calling your name etc.
Lonesco has tried to symbolises life and how life is so repetitive and meaningless.
The many comversations the smiths and the martins had were pointless and had no real point or any excitement!
The random acts of violence also symbolises how we get so worked up about things which most of the time dont really matter. We are all very simple and sensitive beings, but this is who we are. We all live an absurd life.
well well this is my point of view...... throughout the play in some subtle but understandable the play depicts (symbolises)... life! Dose life have a introduction, middle and a conclusion? Take the example of the silences... yes as unbelievable and unadmittable (if that’s a word) that this dose happen. Those awkward silences have meanings, that as people we have feelings of nothingness... dead.
I was thinking the play actually has many symbols of life, how many time do we have chats about nothingness, the fact the time just flows past to fast to describe and that me do "talk about food'(bec f)!!
I could be described as crazy but its true... life is absurd!
This is a hard one Mr. Rutherford.
I think Ionesco is very clever in the way he uses imagery and symbolism in the play to represent human experiences. he does it in a way most people wouldnt think about.
the main symbol in the play is the clock. it is symbolising the fact that time is always ticking by, and most of the time us humans dont even really think about it. sure we rush to catch a bus thats leaving in about 40 seconds, but we dont think about how many hours we sit actually doing nothing. And when i say nothing i mean activities of not much or even no point, like watching a movie we have seen a few times before.
the clock is ticking by and sure the characters notice the time, but do they really take it in? do they think to themselves 'time is going by, and i havent done anything of importance or anything memorable'?
I think Ionesco uses symbols and imagery to represent human experiences by using everyday objects to represent bigger things in life. for example, the clock. i think Ionesco ment for s to realise this and maybe start noticing the smaller things in life. i agree with Laura on the meaningless chat filling silences and definitley agree about the random violence. good thinking.
Ionesco was very cleaver at provoking unusual and strange thoughts and conversation topics by using the different symbols and imagery in the Bald Prima Donna.
not sure if a answered the question correctly but thats what i think anyway.
I think that Ionesco was trying to convey the message of "absurdism", life without meaning and the characteristics and moods of humans through his uses of symbols and imagery. He uses these techniques to represent human experience very effectively. An example of this would be the door bell ringing. I think that this symbolises the naivety of some people as Mr Smith believed that whenever there was a ring at the door, there was always someone there. Another part in the bald prima donna that used symbols and imagery was the clock chiming. This told the responders how time really had no meaning to anyone in the play and how their lives seemed to be cyclical.
As many of you have mentioned, the awkward silences are a strong symbol used in this play. I didn't think this is as absurd as some of Ionesco's other parts in the play, but it shows us how people react to different situations in life i.e. breaking an awkward silence by coughing which, embarrassingly i have done many times. ^ Is that even a word?!?!?!
I think that Ionesco uses symbols like the clock and the doorbell, and imagery such as the daggar, to represent certain human experiences.
The clock symbolises time, but in this case, it symbolises how time can seem like the most important thing in some people's lives, when really it is quite irrelevant if you take it away or change it in some way. This is showm by how the clock strikes irregulary throughout the whole play.
Another symbol is the doorbell. I really liked Lauren Tyler's response about when a doorbell rings it symbolises opportunities that may come about, and that sometimes they will be there and sometimes they wont,just like the doorbell scene with Mrs Smith.
An example of imagery is when Mrs Smith pulls out the daggar on Mr Smith. I think that this is trying to communicate how people are often confused or angry about something but they keep it locked up inside themselves, until they can't keep it in anymore. When this happens it seems like they explode with anger and rage and we might not have seen it coming, so the other person is generally shocked. I think Ionesco was trying to shock and confront the audience at this particular moment.
Well that's all I can get out of that one, seeing as everyone has covered pretty much everything else.
Ding Ding Ding goodness! nine o'clock! time for me to go bye byes.
Ionesco uses fantastic imagery in this play. As we have read, this play is extremely simpl yet totally relevent in todays society. i know that i have experienced (in differnt ways) some of the situations that the characters do in day to day life. For example the clock chimes many times throughout the play, this shows how time is ticking by at an alarming rate. to me us as humans waste precious time in our life doing meaningless things when we could be filling up our time with fun filled activities, things that we love.
Ioneaso uses symbol and imagery throughout the play in many different ways.
Although the play is absurd we can easily distinguish the relationship to human experiences. For example in the doorbell scene, Mrs Smith makes the point that when you hear a ring at the door, it means that there is nobody there. how can there be nobody there? Who is ringing the doorbell then? This absurd scene gave me the idea that it was a parody of how people have the stupidest fights these days and they don't even realise. People are so focused on being right and being the person the its smarter or better or whatever that if someone is hurt sometines we don't see.
Ionesco also uses the clocks chimes to represent how time is meaningless. As Laura has said, it is illogical for te clock to chime 3 times and then say "Goodness 9 o'clock".
Hannah makes a good point saying how the clock brings another dimension into the play. I had never thought about the chimes as another dimension but this really opened my eyes. When she said how irregular time can be and so how irregular human existance and human emotion is as a result of this I have to agree.
The scene where Mrs Smith randomly pulls out a dagger and goes to stab Mr Smith symbolises how these days people don't always think about their actions and do things that are not necessary. Just like Mrs Smith, these days a number of violences occur but usually the person has not thought about it and the consequences of it. If Mrs Smith was to actually stab her husband we would think that it symbolises what I have said above. However, even without stabbing her husband, just bringing out the dagger is still showing this because the wierdness of her actions makes people stop and think about it.
Emma Edbrooke also made a significant point saying how Ionesco was very clever at provoking unusual and strange thoughts and conversation topics by using the different symbols and imagery in the Bald Prima Donna.
It was his wierd and random scenes that brought the symbolism and imagery through the little unimportant things in our life.
the use of time, and the random chimes of the clock are symbolic of the way time flies by and that this play has not been written to flow in a cronological order.
I also agree with many of the other girls that the door bell scene is a significant scene in terms of symbol to represent human experiences. In class we came to the conclusion that everyone has become acustom to reacting in certain ways to different sounds and gestures and when the expected does not occur then we become completey thrown off and disorrientated and begin to question why it has occured. When mrs smith answers the door and does not see anybody we later come to think that the fire chief was there the entire time. Which makes us wonder whether mrs smith is slightlty mad.
Miss mac i read your comment and i completely agree..the train runs in a straight line, the only choice is backwards or forewards...yet the characters are following each other saying "its not that way, its this way". They feel that they still have a choices hat they can meke in life although they are unaware that their life follows a pattern (train tracks) that is the same as their neighbours- birth, life, then death.
i know that i have only just expanded on other girls' ideas but you guys have pretty much covered it all..
ta ta..xo
Throughout the bald prima donna, ionesco uses symbol and imagery to represent human experiences.
i think the terms "symbol" and "imagery" dont really correspond in the play to the concept of the representation of human experiences. i think this is because what happens in the play is EXACTLY who we are. The characters are played at face value, and because of this, i beleive how we are represented as humans and our reactions to certain experiences, holds true at face value. what you see is what you get. For eg.
at the beginning of the play, mrs smith has an outrage of anger towards mr smith for saying something quiete minor and in our view, polite (i cant remember exactly what he says!). This can be interpreted as symbolic, or it can be taken at face value. if we take it at face value and believe that some people do have outburts of anger at the most random and insignificant things, it gives us a different understanding into that individual. Because by taking it at face value, we are acknowledging and accepting of that person as an individual as of what we can sometimes stereotype ourselves to be. this can be shown in today's events. say if my friend borrowed my pen for the day and used up all the ink and i went insane at her. if we interpret it symbolically, there may be more to why i would get so angry over a pen, but maybe im just VERY particular, and it may not always be because ive had a traumatic experience and pens are symbolic to be, it just may be part of my personality.
in view of that, i have just realised one negative aspect (which i thought was quiet impossible) about absurdism. it is that it tends to represent society and human nature rather than an individual's thoughts and personality. but thats kinda off the topic........
BUT the play as a whole, (its concepts, ideas and themes) needs to interpreted in the same way as you would interpret, say, a poem, which uses imagery and symbolsim. for eg,
if we interpret that same incident of the outburts of mrs smith as symbolic, it will have a different meaning to if it was interpreted at face value. Mrs smith's rage could be symbolic of her build up of emotions, or ridiculing how us human beings get angry at the most unimportant things, like your boyf forgetting to call you on your birthday at 8 hours, 31 minutes and 22 seconds in the morning because that was the EXACT moment you were born.
in conclusion, ionesco uses symbolsim and imagery to represent human experiences throughout the play however, we can gain just as much understanding and knowledge as interpreting something at face value and or as a metaphor or symbol. :-)
i felt as if that Eugene Ionesco was mocking the way we live our lives. He was writting about the typical English family/husband/wife as if he was from the outside and had just been let in. In the play he had just highlighted the absurd behaviour in mainly the western culture, that we couldn't.
The types of symbols he used was the pointless conversations, Mrs Smith pointing out everything she did that day no matter how dull it was, even the imaginy stories told by the firecheif and the bobby watson.
It created such questions as
-Do we only listen because were waiting until it's our time to talk?
-Do we only talk to fill in the silences?
-Who is Bobby Watson?
x
Ionesco uses many symbols in his play and one that is subtle but persistent is the clock. It is accompanied by the meaningless statement "goodness! nine o' clock!" when it is obviously 3 o' clock. I believe it is hinting at how people waste time constantly every single day, by doing the same things over and over again. It shows that our life-time is running out and we are sitting around having pointless conversations about what we had for dinner, or what we did on the weekend, all in past tense. He doesn't directly state that we are wasting time, but his clock and Mrs Smith remind us time and time again throughout the play. The Martins, whilst in the Smiths living room discover that they have a lot in commen, including the bed they sleep in. it shows that no matter how well you think you know someone, theres always something that you could learn, as people change and alter.
lonesco presents his plays with symbol to show the audience that it can represent the meaning which is then represented in the play for us to understand it.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Ionesco uses symblos such as the clock chiming and imaginay such as Mrs smith going to stab her husband, mr smith.
These symbols and imagery represent human experiences in an absurd way!
like bec said,' the idea about the clock as a symbol of passing time and the dagger as a symbol of violence'!
these random symbols and random imagery represents the randomness of our lives and how we experience things.
xx
ahh this one is a bit harder
Well Ionesco most certainly uses alot of symbolism and imagery to create many meanings throughout this absurdist play...
Well i would definetly say the clock is a use of symbol, realistic symbol. It symbolises that time means absolutely nothing in the eyes of the "Bald Prima Donna" characters. I think it also symbolises how time flies by in our society and we dont take note of what is going on around us. I think it also helps drag out the time where conversation is even more meaningless than usual. I think that the clock not only shows the how time can fly by and drag out but also how sometimes people just talk or or do silly meaningless things to fill in time. I think the climbing clocks shows this.
I think that the Martins are in some way symbolising some of the relationships that are around today. Many people can live together or be related but really not know each other at all. I think the Martins recolection scene symbolises how life is so busy in today's that sometimes we dont make time for those who are closest to us.
I think in some way the Bobby Watson scene represents what a small world we live in and how we can run into someone who knows someone else all the time.
Because imagery and symbolism are so heavily involved in this play...i think all these scenarios i have analysed can have another 100 different meanings. I think however that this is Ionesco using imagery and symbolism again to convey many different meanings
thats all for now =]
In The Bald Prima Donna there are many different techniques used to create comedy. The different symbols each make us laugh, because they criticise and mock the everyday way of life.
When there is a ring at the door, most "everyday" people would answer it. However in The Bald Prima Donna they question this. What is the point in opening a door, when it's just the ring that we hear- we can't see the person?
Also, a fireman is called in an emergency. In the Bald Prima Donna the fire chief turns up, bored, looking for a fire.
These different symbols and representations correspond to our everyday random way of life.
Georgia
Ionesco uses heaps of symbols throughout the play to represent human experiences. One of the most important of these is probably the clock. The clock is a constant symbol always in the background of the play. It keeps chiming randomly at random times as if it has a mind of its own and does not want to be governed by the regularity of time. I think the clock in a way is breaking free from its own boundaries, telling it when to chime and how many times, which in a sense is what Ionesco is trying to do with his absurdist play. Because the characters in the play have no control over time, the time seems to have no control over them. It just seems to chime whenever it feels like it and they just carry on with life as if time is of no significance to them.
Another symbol Ionesco uses is the doorbell. I know this has already been said but to me the doorbell represents when opportunity comes a knocking. We decide whether or not to see this opportunity. Every time Mrs Smith goes to answer the door she comes back saying there is nobody there. But is it actually that there is nobody there or did she just not see the person standing right in front of her? After all, the fire chief did say he had been standing there for 45 minutes. Why did it take Mr Martin finally answering the door to see the fire chief standing there? Maybe Ionesco is suggesting that it takes a second person in a situation to see what the first could not. Like not being able to see the answer in front of you until someone else points it out.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
The play is a symbol of our lives being meaningless sometimes as some symbols are the clock which shows time just going by and how much time we waste by doing nothing. The characters say the time wrong and its really absurd.
I agree with Golnoush as “Ionesco uses the English setting as imagery to represent the most typical culture known to be plain ordinary and boring which has only been stereotyped in society as being the English.” And as we know that the Bold Prima Donna was inspired by Ionesco’s attempts to learn English. He then stereotyped simple sentences and made them absurd by uses them over and over again.
The play I find is quite strange and hard to get a grasp of first but it has some really deep underlying meaning if you think really hard about the play. Which I find quite hard but reading everyone’s helps and it gets your brain going and to feed off other peoples ideas, so thanks.
That’s all I have for now.
okay so sorry for the REALLLLY late reply but yeah ok here i go...
well, this question is a little harder, requires a little more thinking, which is a bit hard to do on a sunday morning when your mind is set on other things like events that have occured on the weekend, but ill do the best i can...
Ionesco, who is the writer of The Bald Prima Donna uses symbol and immagery in many different, and clever ways.
my first example is the clock, which, as we know, chimes randomly throughout the play, and in incorrect order (e.g. 9pm then 4pm then 6pm or whatever...)
I think he does this to symbolize and represent how in our daily lives, time does not matter. It does not matter whether it is 9 o' clock, or 3, our pointless babble (as Mrs Smith shows) just continues on.
Another example is also the anger between the characters, and how they get so angry over pointless things. Don't you think he's trying to say something about us? It seems in this day and age we will just pick out anything someone says to start a fight.
Or what about the "stories" they tell, you know, the absolutley AMAZING stories, when really they are so average...
Don't you think he's trying to hint maybe the "amazing" stories we tell are really pointless?
Well there are some things that I feel Ionesco is using to symbolize the "human experience"
I think that Ionesco uses symbols such as the clock chimes to make another point about how people use their time, that time can pass you by and you don't even notice. After discussing this in class as well, we also thought that the randon clock chimes could be representive of the different times of the day that these events happened, and not in order as well, but i suppose it is absurd theatre so nothing needs to make sense which means both of these could be possible. Although i think Ionesco is also trying to point out that humans don't make sense as well, as when the clock chimes 3 times, Mrs. Smith says "goodness. nine o'clock" that also suggests to me that Ionesco is trying to say that humans don't pay attention to what is going on around them, or are just inside their own world bubble.
i think that through the random acts of violence Ionesco is using imagery to suggest how absurd life really is, that Mrs Smith would pull out a knife to her 'husband' suggests a very random act, coming out of no argument or anything, so it is not even an overreaction, just a random act.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
There are so many symbols and imagery used to represent human experiences throughout the play. I think all the ideas people have come up with are brilliant and have deepened my understanding of The Bald Prima Donna. Throughout the play there is a theme of wasted time, symbolised by many things, such as dialogue in the How Extraordinary scene. In this scene Ionesco uses the repetition and emphasis of dialogue to symbolise meaningless conversation. The line “How very extraordinary” is used 23 times throughout one scene. To me this is extraordinary! I think Ionesco is sending the message that we as humans can’t bear to be in company of each other without talking. The conversations that we do have, most of the time are meaningless and time consuming. Ionesco also uses other symbols like the clock to represent wasted time, or the pointless stories the Martins and Smith’s exchange. These elements, combined together represent human experiences.
“How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?”
There are so many symbols and imagery used to represent human experiences throughout the play. I think all the ideas people have come up with are brilliant and have deepened my understanding of The Bald Prima Donna. Throughout the play there is a theme of wasted time, symbolised by many things, such as dialogue in the How Extraordinary scene. In this scene Ionesco uses the repetition and emphasis of dialogue to symbolise meaningless conversation. The line “How very extraordinary” is used 23 times throughout one scene. To me this is extraordinary! I think Ionesco is sending the message that we as humans can’t bear to be in company of each other without talking. The conversations that we do have, most of the time are meaningless and time consuming. Ionesco also uses other symbols like the clock to represent wasted time, or the pointless stories the Martins and Smith’s exchange. These elements, combined together represent human experiences.
I love your answer lauren, it was a very good analysis. And i do think that this question is hard, and that laura and georgie you guys covered a lot of the main points and the obvious ones. Thats the hard thing about going last...... however, i do think that possible the Fire Chief is overlooked as a significant symbol.
Take it like this-
human experiences is everything that occurrs in life, and often strange things do happen, but often things happen that aren't good or very bad in cases, but we get warning as to what they are, so often they are prevented. I dont know if i am diving too deep pyschologically into this but the fire chief could symbolically and as an image represent turmoil and bad times in human existance. A fire can be a devastating thing, it destroys belongings and lives at times, as well as anything in its path. So it could be said that a fire is like the bad things that happen in life, anything from fighting with a friend to a death or someone close. If you take it as this, then the fire chief represents the times in life, when we get a warning as to something bad that could happen and it is prevented by listening to the advice of something else.
Quite far-fetched i understand in a way, but when you think clearly about it, it does make sense, and while its hard to write down. I can think of examples everything from luck to medical tests that the fire chief is representative of.
Hope you can understand that.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Ionesco uses symbolism and imagery in a range of ways to represent human experiences, such as his use of the clock, the train, the scene with the Martins, and the typical English setting.
The clock symbolises time, (duh!) and is used to show that time is going bye meaninglessly, do we even realise it ticking away? While we waste our lives doing pointless things... hmm, seems a little absurd to me.
The train symbolises the journey that is life. How we are travelling down a certain road, and sometimes we may not realise it, but we are still moving along down the path. The play is a cyclical journey; eventually they end up back where they started, although slightly different, in that the Martins are now the Smiths. This is repetition, demonstrating how in life we are trapped in a loop, doing the same thing over and over again. For example, everyday you wake up, have breakfast, get dressed, go to school, learn some stuff, and then come home, you have dinner, and go to bed; then the next day, you usually wake up and do the same thing, (unless it’s a weekend).
The scene with the Martins is use of imagery. Mr. & Mrs. Martin don’t realise that they are in fact married, and have a child, until after they have a looooong conversation about their lives, finally finding out that they are married. Then Mary the Maid reveals to us, as the audience, that they are not actually married, they just believe they are. This is demonstrating to us that sometimes when you think you know a person, you may not actually know them at all. We don’t know people as well as we sometimes think we do.
The typical English setting shows us how stereotyped and borings life has become. It shows how it is standard for English couples to have homes like this, how everything is the same, how we are the same. It demonstrates how our lives have become materialistic, in our need to have the newest coolest things, that nothing is individual anymore, as the things you have, your neighbours are likely to have, and your friends are likely to have.
This use of symbolism and imagery is definitely a headscratcher, and it was used in this play to show the things that you sometimes are unable to portray with words.
i also think that the 'bobby watson' scene is symbolising that we are all the same. we, today, have gotten to the point where we carry out the same life. get up, get ready for school, go to.chool, come home, get ready for bed, go to bed.
its the same for everyone.
personaly, i beleive Eugene is a very smart person, he makes people really think about life and how nothing and no body changes in society.
the clock is another example. it symbolisis how fast time goes. every time the clock rings it shows howoes forward without even noticing.
i think Corrinne made a great point in saying that the fire cheif is also symbolic in The Bald Prima Donna.
I think the way the Martin's and Smith's encourage his telling of another story and then change suddenly and do not really want to hear it is symbolising how we in society always have to fill in our moments with meaningless conversations, even if the silences could possibly be more interesting to ourselves. It is seen as polite and correct in society to always encourage this conversation but in truth the conversations that follow can be extremely boring and absolutely worthless.
I think the fire chief can also simply symbolise the many interruptions that we face during the everyday running of our lives. these interruptions can be interesting and fascinating aswell as providing as with new ideas and lines of thought. in the case of the fire chief his interruption into the scene brought with it a rather interesting conversation about answering a door aswell as many stories.
i think everyone has had such great ideas as there was a lot of symbolism that could be found in The Bald Prima Donna, including the symbolism of the Fire Chief
wow ok a much harder question and
reallly great comments by everyone to compete with.
So ill just say that i agree with pretty much everything thats been said although some people have taken it deeper than others and myself, and some responses have changed my own views on the interpretations.
How does Ionesco use symbol and imagery to represent human experiences?
Well the main issues ive picked up on have been the "bobby watsons" section. I believe "bobby watsons" have been used to symbolise how similar everyone is and how you surround yourself with the same type of people with the same interests and people that have things in common with you.
I also agree with the train thing and that because we are all so similar we are all riding the same train on the same tracks, taking us on the same journey to the same place where we may infact never arrive at.
I also LOOVE the idea of the door bell, seeing straight through someone because this is common in everyday life.
People are often fake and easily transparent and the fact that some people dont often know anything at all about the person they share a close realtionship or title with
for example Mr. and Mrs Martin.
anyway thats pretty much all and like i said earlier
i agree with everything everyone else has said and its so hard to compete!
seee yaa.
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