Genre
Absurd Theater
Language
English (translated from French)
Setting and Context
A room in a tower filled with chairs
Narrator and Point of View
The play is seen from the third-person perspective of an audience
Tone and Mood
The tone is absurd and comedic. The mood is existential and anxious.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the play is the old man. There is no antagonist.
Major Conflict
The primary conflict of the play is the old man's struggle to convey his message and earn the respect of his peers.
Climax
The climax of the play is the orator's failed delivery of the message.
Foreshadowing
The old woman's warning to the old man not to stand too close to the window foreshadows their deaths from leaping out of it at the end of the play.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The man calling his wife Semiramis is a reference to a figure from Assyrian myth.
The comedian Stan Laurel is referenced early in the play.
Imagery
N/A
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
N/A
Personification
The line "Time has left the marks of his wheels upon our skin," personifies time as a physical being who has caused the man and his wife physical harm.
Use of Dramatic Devices
N/A
