33 pages • 1 hour read
Alfred JarryUbu Roi
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Absurdism
Ubu Roi is recognized as the first absurdist play and a precursor to the mid-20th century movement the Theatre of the Absurd, which eschewed traditional theatrical conventions to convey the essential absurdism and purposelessness of human existence. The play’s casual lack of morality—as shown through its frequent murder and violence—captures this absurdity, as Papa Turd is driven only by base desires for wealth and food, rather than a higher purpose. Its absurdity is furthered by its location, Poland—“that is to say, nowhere,” the text specifies (11)—which was not actually a country at the time. The original production also shocked audiences by doing away with many theatrical conventions of naturalistic theatre, such as realistic sets, and through Jarry’s stipulation that the actors are “pretending to be puppets” (2). Though there is a plot (unlike some later absurdist plays), Ubu Roi does not hew to a traditional dramatic structure or character arcs; Jarry notes in the Preface that the final draft cuts passages “indispensable to the meaning and equilibrium of the play” (2). Jarry’s language also frequently defies traditional convention in theatre, relying heavily on crude and vulgar language and slang phrases, rather than proper dialogue.
The Desire for and Abuse of Power
Ubu Roi is marked by its characters’ quests for power, most notably Papa Turd’s ascension to the throne and subsequent abuse of power by imposing crippling taxes and killing his underlings and constituents. Yet he is not the only one who desires power: Mama Turd inspires Papa Turd to overthrow Wenceslaus so she can become Queen of Poland, while Buggerlaus seeks to avenge Papa Turd so that he can become king and reclaim the throne for his family. The play makes clear that the desire for power outweighs the knowledge of its consequences: even after Papa Turd is beaten in battle and driven out of Poland to France, he still wants power once again, speaking of his plans to become the Master of Phynance in Paris.
The play also shows the blinding influence of power, as both King Wenceslaus and Papa Turd commit the same mistake in failing to heed warnings from their wives about the men who will ultimately bring about their downfall. Ubu Roi depicts power as being something that emboldens those who have it, allowing them to disregard dissenting opinions and inspiring a misguided belief in their own infallibility.
The Corrupting Influence of Greed
Ubu Roi paints a scathing portrait of greed and how it can corrupt people, which was meant to reflect the greed and corruption of the bourgeois French audience attending Jarry’s play. Papa Turd, who starts the play saying, “I’d rather be poor as a thin honest rat than rich like a wicked fat cat” (12), is quickly overcome with greed, which leads him to wide-scale murder, war, and ultimately, fleeing his homeland. Meant to encapsulate the darker side of human nature, Papa Turd’s excessive greed characterizes humans’ own quest for their personal gain, despite the societal cost.
Political Satire
In addition to power more broadly, Ubu Roi’s excesses also satirize politics with an over-the-top depiction of how political officials are corrupted by power that they use for their own gain. Upon gaining power, Papa Turd becomes an authoritarian dictator who does not have the intellect to effectively lead, and instead imposes unrealistically high taxes, kills magistrates who disagree with his attempts to change the law, and quickly rushes to war. Papa Turd’s coterie of political underlings is also quick to glorify war; when a messenger informs Papa Turd of Bordure and the Russian army’s alliance, Mama Turd proposes going to war, and the supporters cheer, “Praise God! That’s the honorable thing to do!” (41). Jarry’s late-19th-century play presciently foreshadowed European politics in the first half of the 20th century, which was marked by the deadly rise of authoritarian dictators and widespread war.
