Responsibility The Meaning of the Chairs

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3. Responsibility

The Responsibility human being takes is not responsibility for him. Satre adds that responsibility human being takes is responsibility for all human being. Subjectivity, which makes human being come to his mind and then to understand who he is, is the root of responsibility. It means that human being is subject who chooses which one is better. In his consciousness, he is not responsible for him, but also for all human being. In the other hand, what he does or chooses is also good for the others who do the same thing. The play The Chairs is a play which tells about absurdity; if world does not have a reason to answer how man is so that life does not have meaning. Ionesco puts the old man in the absurd world. He searches on the meaning of life so that he suffers. He regrets when he let his mom pass away and when he let his son go and never come back. In the previous analysis, the old man is not responsible because he leaves and let his mom pass away and let his son go. In deeper meaning, the action of him about those two is good for him as long as he can take the responsibility of it. The action is his choice. The choice is a process. He is a subject which comes to his own mind and then understands who he is. Then, he gets the choice to leave his mom. Although his mom passes away, the choice he takes is good. The every choice he takes is always good for him. Good choice comes to him because after the accident, he suffers. However, the suffering is the pure and humble suffering. In the other hand, the suffering of him shows that he is responsible toward what he does. As Sartre says human being who faces the anxiety and suffering is 43 human being who can be responsible toward what he has chosen. Therefore, if the old man does not suffer about what he does, it means that he is covering his suffering. It means that he does not take the responsibility. However, the old man is responsible for he himself; he does not take the responsibility for the others. As Sartre says that the responsibility human being takes is not responsibility for him; moreover, the responsibility human being takes is responsibility for all human being. It does not match toward what the old man does. Although the choice of him is good for he himself; but it is not good for the others. In this case, the others are his wife, his mom, his son, his guests, and his orator. Furthermore, the old man’s choice to leave his mom is not good for his mom. It can be seen when the old man comes back, his mom has passed away. He does not accompany her when she is dying. Hence, the old man comes back with his regret because he does not accompany her. It shows that the old man has a good choice for he himself; but it is not good for his mom when she is dying. The same thing the old man does is when his son goes from the house. When the son is angry about the death birds and he shouts that he wants to leave, the old man does not do anything. He seems to let his son go. Yet, his wife tries to hold the son go. What the old man does is his choice. Hence, the choice is good toward his subjectivity. The old man is sad because of it. It shows that he suffers. He is responsible. However, it affects the others. The son goes. His wife is really sad because her son goes. It shows that the old man is not responsible for the others. 44 The irresponsibility of the old man can be also seen through the action of the old man to the guests and the orator. The message, which the old man promises to the guests, is not clear because the orator, who becomes the old man’s representative to tell the message, is deaf and dumb person. He cannot talk. If he forces to talk, the voice is not clear. It can be seen in Act 25 after the double suicide. He only utters the guttural sounds of mute. The message is still unclear, although he writes the message on the blackboard. Based on the story, the old man is not responsible toward the guests and the orator. Yet, the old man is responsible in the beginning because he suffers. The old man’s suffering is shown when he decides to suicide, as a realization to encounter the absurd. However, his suffering affect to the others. The unclear message to the guests is the evidence. The guests should have got the message after coming to the old man’s guests. However, they get nothing. What they see is only very unclear words “ANGELFOOD” and “NNAA NNM NWNWNW V”. Furthermore, the burden moves to the orator. The burden should belong to the old man; but, because the old man cannot tell the message, so that he is called irresponsible. Therefore, chair means the balance of the life which human being suffers. The human being will be born and will die. Life and death is fate wich all human beings suffer. There is no human being living thousand years. He must die some time. That is what the old man suffers in the play. He lives. Then, he must die through all the choices he chooses. 45 What the old man chooses and does in the play can be concluded in the chairs. Chairs may not be the important thing in the play because there are many chairs, but the real characters are only three. However, chairs are used to the place to all invisible guests sit. The invisible guests are the poor man until the emperor. They all sit on the same chairs. Each thing has a meaning and relation. The invisible guests show the experiences of the old man. As the old man says that the message is all about his experiences. Therefore, the chairs show the mind of the old man. All of the experiences are saved in the mind. However, the chairs are sit by the invisible guests. In the other words, the experiences are invisible. Hence, it all means that all of things which the old man experiences in his whole life is all about the emptiness of life. 46

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATION

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with the conclusions of the analysis which answer two problems formulated in the Chapter One. The second part, the writer offers some suggestions for the future writers.

A. Conclusions

Eugene Ionesco is successful in presenting his character, the old man, with his ideas and experiences of life through his work The Chairs. Through his work, he shares his ideas about how people question their lives through the existence of the old man. Ionesco emphasizes how the old man lives in the absurd world through the old man’s characterization. The absurdity leads him to be conscious toward his freedom, suffering, and responsibility. In The Chairs, the old man is portrayed as a man who is infantile. It is showed when the old man weeps, moans, and sobs like a child to his wife. He also runs away from the problem, which he should have told to the guests. Then, he is a man who is irresponsible. He leaves his mom pass away when he is asked to accompany her; he lets his son go after the accident of death birds; and he hires the orator to tell the message. The last, he is man who feels the absurd. He realizes that his routine of his life is boring. He feels he is trapped in the unexplainable between his life and the world.