Who is The Lesson - The Professor from Four Plays and what is their importance?

The Professor is male, middle aged, an academic, and apparently a killer. He is the embodiment of one of the collection's central thematic premises - that adhering too rigidly to the rules of language is essentially destructive, of the self and of others. Maleness is often stereotypically associated with control and power. Middle aged is, again perhaps stereotypically, associated with the rigidness of ideas, and being an academic is relevant in a similar fashion, as academia has a reputation for being rigid and unforgiving in terms of its perspectives on language and its use. Finally, the fact that the Professor's passion about language leads him to kill suggest that rigidity in general and rigidity about language in particular is ultimately destructive of what is valuable about existence - not only life itself, but the spirit of investigation, curiosity, and expansion of intellect.