Analyse the evidence to suggest that Rhinoc ros is not only a commentary on the Second
We find it very easy to interpret the developments in Rhinocéros as a historical allegory depicting the sweep of Fascism through Europe. ... Ionesco himself said “Rhinocéros est sans doute un pièce antinazie”, and it is very easy to see why, especially considering how prominent fascist ideas were at the time. ... Ionesco is not satisfied with simply portraying how people were able to accept and even justify fascist ideas. ... This is where the view of Rhinocéros as a depiction of Fascism in Europe fails. We make the assumption that “rhinocérite” is an image of Fascism solely due to the context in which the play was written. We are given no substantial evidence to enforce this idea. Although it is easy to see that Jean holds fascist virtues and use this to predict he will inevitably become a rhinoceros, other characters do not hold these virtues. The first rhinoceroses appear and we are given no explanation as to why, it is most definitely not clear that their characters had previously held fascist ideas.