CHARACTERS IN AMEDEE BY IONESCO

INTRODUCTION:Just like a typical absurdist drama, Amedee or ‘How to Get Rid of It’ has only a
few characters and share the common characteristics that make them ideally fit characters with their
sheer absurdity, lack of communication, sense of estrangement, nonconformist life and nonsense
dialogues which most of the times look senseless, cliché and repetitive. Amédée, or How to Get Rid
of It (French: Amédée ou comment s'en débarrasser) is a play written by Eugène Ionesco in 1954
based on his earlier short story entitled "Oriflamme". We can discuss its characters as under:

1. AMEDEE:The word AMEDEE is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Amedee is

"God's love".The protagonist of the play is AMEDEE, an unsuccessful playwright who has
not been able to compose a good drama all his life. He claims, like Davies in the Caretaker
that he is renowned dramatist with infinite imaginative powers but the reality is that he has
written nothing worth reading. Sometimes he seems extremely depressed and pessimistic
about life. He acutely lacks confidence and cannot do anything after his own choice. There is
a gulf of difference between his sayings and doings. Amedee is dominated by his
authoritarian wife who leads him by the nose. At times he seems a henpecked husband and is
keeping his body and soul under his wife’s commands. He is a talkative person but his words
lack meaning like all the major characters in theatre of the absurd plays. He cannot explain
why his life is so meaningless and devoid of purpose. The audience is given no clear reason
whyhe kept a corpse in his home for long 15 years. It means he is too lazy and lethargic that
he cannot make up his mind to get rid of a dead body in his room for many years. We see that
the corpse is there. Still he keeps on gossiping and averting the topic of getting rid of it.
Madeleine suggests that he the dead man was her lover whom Amedee murdered. Amedee
gives several alternative explanations. At the end of the play, Amedee attempts to drag the
corpse away to dump it in the river. He is seen by many passers-by; one of the witnesses is
referred to as "Eugene" and is likely the author himself. When Amedee becomes tangled in
the legs, the corpse floats away with Amedee attached and thus he dies a tragic death.
Symbolically, the dramatist has presented his protagonist who is obsessed not by living
human beings but by a corpse. This fact shows his sheer absurdity of existence. Secondly he
remains indecisive all his life about the major decisions of his life and home. Both he and his
wife have no confidence in each other. For example, the couple's interaction is similar in
many ways to the interaction between the Old Man and the Old Woman in The Chairs; the
conflicting background story of the corpse parallels the old couple's conflicting stories about
their children. Amedee is also in many ways the prototype of Bérenger, one of Ionesco's most
commonly used characters; specifically, many of the actions and themes presage A Stroll in
the Air (1963), Ionesco's fourth Berenger play: both Amedee and Berenger are frustrated
artists, both take a moment to appreciate the beauty around them, and both fly away leaving
their spouses behind.In the form of Amedee, Forsaking the convenience of rational expression
still relied on by Camus and even Jean-Paul Sartre, Ionesco—in Esslin’s view—presents on
the stage the absurd in its purest form, more true to life. Briefly we can conclude that Amedee
is a fit character for a perfect FARCE of Absurdist Drama.
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 2. MADELEINE: Madeleine is a wife of Amedee in Ionesco’s play “How to
get Rid of It”. She is a domineering wife and leads her husband by the nose. She is a stubborn
and obstinate woman and always insists that she is perfect in wisdom and prudence. She
considers her husband stupid, timid and indolent.She works as the operator of a switchboard
set up in the apartment. The couple lives together with a corpse, symbolic of some kind of
sin, a sense of guilt.She keeps insisting on her husband to do something to get rid of the
corpse that has been lying in the room for 15 years. She discusses with Amedee how to deal
with a continually growing corpse in the other room. She tells her husband that the corpse is
causing mushrooms to sprout all over the apartment and is apparently arousing suspicion
among the neighbours. She and her husband live together with a corpse, symbolic of some
kind of sin, a sense of guilt.
Madeleine is 45 years old, and has not left her rotting apartment for 15 years and her
rotting marital relationship for even longer. She shows confusion regarding her true intentions
in true absurdist fashion. Madeleine leaves us feeling every bit of anxiety, stress and despair
she experiences. The corpse on stage increasing in size as an embodiment of the couple’s
marital problems similarly growing bigger and bigger. Her marriage is never ideal. It has
neither love nor confidence or mutual trust. The ever growing mushrooms and the corpse
show the hatred that is fast increasing between Madeleine and Amedee.
Her rotten and estranged relation with her life partner are an expression of absurdity
of life. She is putting forward a bleak, fatalistic view of romance in a play that must be seen to
be believed. It proves that all marriages are not ideal. Many times people remain in marital
relations for decades with no tinge of love, care or trust. This chaotic relation between
husband and wife leaves a pessimistic view if this sacred bond. Although on the surface it
might be said to be “about” love, marriage, aging, and, above all, the futility of all human
endeavours. The character of Madeleine proves that Ionesco considers human beings just
puppets in the hands of fate and quite tragically they are powerless to change it.

{A note on characters of AMEDEE shared by Prof. Zulfiqar Hussain on 23-03-23 at 7 AM.}