Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It (1954) by Eugène Ionesco (Analysis)

 

Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It (1954)

by Eugène Ionesco

(Analysis) 

Analysis of Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It

Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It by Eugène Ionesco is a profound exploration of guilt, stagnation, and existential anxiety disguised as absurdist comedy. Beneath its grotesque and surreal premise—a corpse that continually grows inside a married couple’s apartment—the play presents a deeply unsettling reflection on the human condition. Through symbolism, circular dialogue, and theatrical exaggeration, Ionesco reveals the paralysis that results when individuals refuse to confront their past.

At the center of the play lies the mysterious corpse. Its origins remain ambiguous, and the couple’s explanations contradict each other. This uncertainty is deliberate. The corpse functions less as a literal body and more as a symbolic burden. It may represent a crime, a failed relationship, creative sterility, or simply accumulated guilt. The more Amédée and Madeleine avoid dealing with it, the larger it becomes. In this way, Ionesco dramatizes a psychological truth: unresolved problems do not disappear; they expand and dominate one’s life.

The apartment setting intensifies this sense of entrapment. The confined space mirrors the couple’s emotional suffocation. Their marriage has deteriorated into mutual accusation and repetitive argument. Communication does not lead to understanding but to further confusion. The dialogue moves in circles, echoing the rhythms of absurdist theatre, where language fails to produce clarity. Words become tools of evasion rather than revelation. The breakdown of communication reflects the broader existential theme that meaning itself is unstable.

Amédée’s character embodies creative paralysis. As a playwright who cannot complete his work, he represents intellectual and artistic stagnation. His inability to finish his play parallels his inability to confront the corpse. Both are manifestations of deferred responsibility. Madeleine, in contrast, appears more practical but equally trapped. Her bitterness and insistence that something must be done expose the tension between action and avoidance. Yet she too has allowed the corpse to remain for fifteen years. Together, they form a portrait of shared complicity.

The tone of the play oscillates between comedy and dread. The absurd image of maneuvering an enormous corpse through a narrow apartment door invites laughter. However, the humor is unsettling. It does not resolve tension but heightens it. This tragicomic blend underscores the absurdist worldview: life is at once ridiculous and terrifying. The audience laughs at the spectacle while sensing the deeper despair beneath it.

The final scene, in which the corpse floats upward and carries Amédée into the sky, introduces a paradoxical image of liberation. Is this an escape from guilt? A descent into madness? A symbolic death? The ambiguity is essential. Ionesco refuses to provide closure. The floating corpse suggests that once finally confronted, the burden may transform—but it does not simply vanish. Instead, it alters reality itself.

Ultimately, Amédée critiques the human tendency toward denial. It suggests that evasion leads to distortion, that silence breeds monstrosity, and that unresolved guilt reshapes both personal relationships and perception of the world. Through exaggerated theatrical imagery, Ionesco dramatizes existential fear not as grand tragedy but as domestic absurdity.

The play leaves the audience with an unsettling realization: what grows in the shadows of avoidance may one day fill the entire room. And when it does, escape may come at a cost no one fully understands.