Living in Felicity or in the Shadow of Death: A Kierkegaardian Existentialistic Reading of Ionesco’s The Killer

Abstract

Eugène Ionesco in his play, The killer (1960) depicts a true reflection of the human condition; he depicts the images of life and death, being and non-being, and the reality of man’s reduction into the cypher of non-being. He wants man to come to grips with his true situation; hence, man's existence is fundamentally a conflict between the infinite extensions of the human urge as opposed to the necessary and limited state of being. The aim of this paper is to examine Ionesco's ideas on the loneliness of man in this alienated universe, his hidden anxieties and his struggle for survival within an Existential framework of Søren Kierkegaard; examples are drawn from The killer (1960) in order to fully examine Ionesco’s particular vision of life. Such a study aims at bringing about a realization and understanding of the conditions man is exposed to in the universe. It is too hard for Bérenger to believe that nothingness precedes, envelops, and conditions all being. He faces the two coexistent side of living: in felicity and in the shadow of death.

Keywords

• existence
• survival
• anxiety
• being unto death
• reason
• subjectivity