The Chairs Art and Culture Quotes

Some scholars believe the entire play is a comment on the art of the theater. You could see the Old Man as a version of Ionesco himself. Like a playwright, he hopes to use words to communicate meaning to an intended audience.

The fact that the Old Man has hired someone to speak for him makes him even more like a playwright. Instead of standing up and delivering his message himself, he's given the job to someone else. This closely resembles the way playwrights craft plays, to be spoken by actors rather than themselves.

This stage direction seems to be a big hint that the entire play is a comment on the art of the theater. Ionesco says the chairs should be set up "as in a theater" (318). It's like the audience is looking into a mirror of sorts. The audience has come to watch Ionesco's play, while the invisible guests have come to hear the Old Man's infamous message.

Here's another big hint that The Chairs is kind of a play within a play. The Old Woman begins selling programs and concessions just like at the theater. The audience watching the play would be sitting there holding programs in their hands and probably picking caramel out of their teeth. This self-referential moment would probably not go unnoticed.

The Old Man's speech is very much like one that a playwright or director might make before the beginning of a play. When the Old Man speaks this way, standing before the rows of chairs, it makes the audience think again about how in many ways The Chairs is a play within a play.

Some think Ionesco was expressing frustration with actors here. Early on in his career, Ionesco's plays were underappreciated and misunderstood. Perhaps he felt the actors in his plays often misinterpreted their roles. He may have thought they turned his plays into gibberish in the same way the Orator mutilates the Old Man's message. Of course, Ionesco never verified this theory, so that's all it is: a theory.

Even the written word fails to communicate anything at the end of the play. What could this be saying about the art of playwriting as a whole? Is it possible for a playwright to truly communicate with his audience?

Here are the last actual words Ionesco leaves us with. Once again, they are pretty much indecipherable. It's even partly in Greek – Λ, or lambda, is the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet. Whatever the case, it's all Greek to us. Some people think the Orator is trying to write, "Adieu, Adieu, Papa." (542) ("Adieu" means goodbye in French.) Even if this is true, it doesn't exactly tell us the meaning of life.

Here's the final hint that the invisible guests are perhaps meant to represent the audience watching the play. The last thing the audience sees is a row of chairs set up very much like their own. The last thing they hear is the sound of...an audience.