PASCAL’S INFLUENCE ON IONESCO: EXISTENTIAL ANGUISH AND THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH
PASCAL’S INFLUENCE ON IONESCO: EXISTENTIAL ANGUISH AND THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH

Summary/Abstract: Blaise Pascal’s influence on Eugène Ionesco is particularly visible in Exit the King (Le Roi se meurt), where the playwright explores existential themes reminiscent of Pascal’s Pensées. Both thinkers emphasize the fragility of human existence, the inevitability of death, and the inability of reason to provide ultimate salvation. Pascal viewed life as unstable and chaotic, marked by suffering and uncertainty, a vision that aligns with Ionesco’s absurdist perspective. In Exit the King, the protagonist, King Bérenger, refuses to accept his impending death, embodying humanity’s struggle against mortality. This echoes Pascal’s belief that humans distract themselves to avoid confronting their own finiteness. The play also reflects Pascal’s notion of the gouffre (abyss), symbolizing existential despair. As Bérenger gradually loses control over his kingdom and physical being, his decline illustrates Pascal’s idea that human grandeur is ultimately illusory. Furthermore, Ionesco, like Pascal, underscores the absurdity of life’s transience. The king’s desperate attempts to resist death mirror Pascal’s assertion that human efforts to find stability in a chaotic world are futile. The play serves as a meditation on the inevitability of death and the limits of human power, reinforcing Pascal’s view that reason alone cannot save mankind from existential anguish. In this sense, Ionesco transforms Pascalian thought into a theatrical experience, where the confrontation with mortality becomes an unavoidable and deeply human ordeal.

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