Rhinoceros Fate and Free Will Quotes

Jean believes that the power to change oneself can only come from within. He’s like a motivational speaker or a very serious yoga instructor. He believes that a man’s will dictates what a man does. It’ll take Berenger a while to come around on that idea.

So sometimes Jean can switch pretty quick from the zen-happy yoga instructor to the boot-camp dude who screams at you until you get to 70 pushups. He seems to think that using your free will and tapping into your will power is like an exercise. Who knows, maybe he’s right. It just seems a little silly at the time, like someone yelling, “Come on, be better at math!”

Now that we’re onto how it affects the whole rhinoceroses epidemic and not just whether Berenger orders another drink, this whole fate and free will thing is getting interesting. Jean and Berenger argue about Boeuf’s transformation into a rhinoceros, and for the first time the idea that the transformation might have been a choice comes up. This aspect of the fate/free will argument will come to dominate the play.

This quote is a little bit of a mind-bender if you delve deep enough. Dudard believes that once you’re a rhino you can stop being a rhino just by choosing not to be one anymore. Basically, use your free will and be whatever species you want. But by calling it a “cure,” he implies that turning into a rhinoceros is a disease. Disease often has to do with chance, but there are also things you can do to be more susceptible to disease. So here, being a follower is like the carcinogen of becoming a rhino. Anyway, this one highlights the differences, but also the fine line, between fate and free will.

No, he’s not thinking of catching a live rhino, he’s talking about catching the rhino virus. Like two minutes before this, Berenger was convinced he’d come down with the sickness that would change him into a rhinoceros. Now, he’s quickly coming to the “free will” side of the argument, saying that you have a choice to get the disease or not. It’s all about whether you want it.

On the one hand, seems like Dudard is saying he buys into the free will side of things. But if you go a little deeper, you might find Dudard’s quote a bit chilling. Think about the symbolism: if the rhinoceroses represent the Nazis or the Iron Guard or some other violent dictatorial regime, what is Dudard saying? He’s saying that there is no need to get worked up by watching a few people become part of a totalitarian order, because it was their choice to do so. Hey, it’s none of our business. This is how movements are allowed to start, Ionesco seems to say, with people like Dudard standing by and just watching it happen. Soon it’s too late, and he’s joining in with all the others.

Our boy Berenger is a bit of a waffler (mmmm, waffles). One minute he seems to be on board with the whole free will thing. But then if someone has changed who he never thought would change, it’s got to be involuntary. If it is free will, then everyone around him has gone totally mad, as far as he’s concerned.

Again, think about what Ionesco is tackling on the grand scale. Dudard’s argument then is that the hysteria in places like Nazi Germany is not simply based on passion and emotion. There are some people who approach it intellectually, and decide the “reasonable” choice to make is to join up with the masses, even if the masses are screaming for dictatorship and violence.

Yes, the old “never woulda thunk it” again. Think of it as highlighting how at the beginning of the show, Berenger was the one whose character was in question and whose lack of will power was mocked. And now he’s one of the last ones standing!

This is just a quick look at how weak human will power can be. Daisy is talking about Botard, who earlier was vehemently opposed to all things rhinoceros-related. Now, a little while later, he’s on board with the whole thing and has transformed himself.

Now that’s a slick conspiracy theorist—one who jumps on board with the conspiracy. Even if the conspiracy has a horn.