SOURCE: “Scenic Metaphors: A Study of Ionesco’s Geometrical Vision of Human Relationships in the Bérenger Plays,” in Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring 1987, pp. 175-91.

In the following essay, Tener treats the use of d&eacaute;cor and other visual and aural theatrical metaphors as the dramatic expression of internal and external forces that surround the protagonist in Ionesco’s Bérenger plays.

An important characteristic of drama closely related to characters and plot is the scenic space wherein the actions take place. For Anne Ubersfeld, “l’espace scénique peut aussi apparaître comme un vaste champ psychique où s’affrontent des forces qui sont les forces psychiques du moi. La scène est alors assimilable à un champ clos où s’affrontent les éléments du moi divisé, clivé” [the scenic space may also appear like a broad, psychic field where forces...