Quotes From La Leçon

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Recommended: Introduction the absurdity of the absurd

Rachel Barkley
Dr. Teresa Durbin-Ames
Script Analysis
16 April 2018
URCA Extra Credit Assignment
During my time spent at URCA, I listened to Tasha Arnold’s presentation. Tasha presented a piece on Exploring the Relationship between Men and Women in Eugène Ionesco’s La Leçon. Ionesco wrote this play in 1951. Tasha’s presentation focused on the advantages and disadvantages of gender roles within the play. I believe that Tasha accurately portrayed the struggles of gender roles within this play. La Leçon is an absurdist play which has three characters: the professor, the young female pupil, and the professor’s maid. Tasha explained how these three characters are linked together to form a cycle of abuse, which can only be broken if one of the characters were to break free from this cycle. The professor is the main abuser in this cycle. He often downgrades his female pupil and asks her ridiculous questions without answers. Also, within this nonsensical lesson, the abuse continues when the female pupil develops a toothache. However, the professor will not stop the lesson for her toothache and continues to bombard her with questions that she will never be able to answer correctly. On the other hand, the pupil’s part in the cycle of abuse is the victim. As the professor …show more content…

The professor acts in a way that seems to suggest that he does not believe a female could reach the education level that he himself possesses. He patronizes the pupil by ‘testing her intelligence’ through ridiculous questions such as “what is 1+1? 2+2?” and commending her in a condescending manner when she answers correctly. Eventually, the professor’s attempts to diminish the pupil’s self confidence works because she becomes increasingly shyer and

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