Absurdity

As a philosophical term, absurdity describes the lack of reasonableness and coherence in human existence. As a literary term, absurdity seems to have been coined especially for Pere Ubu. Throughout the play, Pere Ubu appears to be unaware of what is happening around him. Murder, dismemberment, the trampling of a townsperson when Pere Ubu distributes gold none of these atrocities faze Ubu. The character of Pere Ubu is absurd in another way: his reason for living seems to be to kill everyone; his actions that lead up to these killings can be described as "irrefutably logical." Logic equals killing everyone.

Art and Experience

Alfred Jarry's view of a new theater centered on two conditions: the need to "create new life" in the theater by creating a new type of character and the need to transcend the "things that happen all the time to the common man."

Pere Ubu...