SOURCE: “Escape and Fulfillment in the Theatre of Eugène Ionesco,” in The Southern Quarterly, Vol. X, No. 1, October 1971, pp. 15-22.

In the following essay, Craddock argues that a major concern in Ionesco’s work is the breaking out of confining social structures and awakening of the individual to the full potentialities of existence. According to Ionesco this can be done through exercising the imagination and creativity, those innate capacities that are best developed in solitude, which is where humans find their true selves.

In Ionesco’s theatre two major themes stand out: alienation and fulfillment. The first of these is one which Ionesco has in common with the other major playwrights of the theatre of the absurd. The theme of fulfillment, however, is less typical of the works of the other contemporary playwrights, but it is a vital part of Ionesco’s theatre.

Ionesco’s major concern...