Character Analysis: The Tricycle (Le Tricycle) — 1953 by Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal’s The
Tricycle is built around a small group of characters whose lives are shaped
by poverty, imagination, friendship, and social marginalization. The principal
characters—Climando, Apal, and Mita—exist on the margins of conventional
society and create a small world of their own. Their behaviour is often
childish and playful, but their circumstances are serious and increasingly
tragic. Through these characters, Arrabal presents people who try to find
companionship, happiness, and security despite having very little control over
their lives.
Climando
Climando is
one of the central figures of the play and one of the two young men whose lives
revolve around the tricycle. He is poor and socially marginalized, but he
possesses a strong imaginative quality. Like Apal, he does not approach life
according to conventional adult behaviour. He participates enthusiastically in
games and imaginative conversations, using play as a way of making his
difficult existence more bearable.
Climando’s relationship with
Apal is an important part of his character. Their friendship gives him
companionship and a sense of belonging in a world in which they have little
social or economic security. He shares Apal’s dreams of improving their situation,
but his dreams exist in tension with the harshness of reality. His inability to
escape poverty gradually contributes to the darker direction of the story.
Climando also represents the
vulnerability of people who live outside the protection of established social
structures. He wants a better life but has few legitimate opportunities to
achieve it. His character therefore combines innocence, imagination,
desperation, and helplessness. His childish approach to life makes him
sympathetic, while his circumstances reveal the tragic limitations placed upon
him.
Apal
Apal is
Climando’s close companion and forms the other half of the central male
relationship in the play. He shares Climando’s poverty and his tendency to turn
ordinary circumstances into games. His friendship with Climando is based on
their shared experiences and their need for companionship.
Apal’s character is
particularly important because he helps establish the unusual atmosphere of the
play. His conversations and behaviour often have a childlike quality, and he
participates in the imaginative world that he and Climando have created. Yet beneath
this apparent simplicity lies the constant pressure of poverty. Like Climando,
he dreams of money and a better existence, but his possibilities are extremely
limited.
Apal can therefore be
understood as another representation of the socially excluded individual. He is
not a powerful or heroic figure who controls his destiny. Instead, he is
someone attempting to survive with the few resources available to him. His dependence
upon friendship and imagination demonstrates the importance of human
companionship when material security is absent.
Mita
Mita is
the principal female character and becomes an important part of the unusual
world shared by Climando and Apal. Her arrival changes the dynamics between the
two men and introduces emotional and relational tensions into their already
fragile existence.
Like the two men, Mita
belongs to a world of poverty and insecurity. She does not represent a
conventional romantic heroine living in a stable social environment. Instead,
she becomes part of the same marginalised community. Her relationship with the
men is shaped by affection, companionship, and the complicated circumstances in
which they live.
Mita also contributes to the
play’s contrast between innocence and reality. The characters may create
a playful and imaginative world together, but their circumstances continually
threaten that world. Her presence makes their small community appear more
complete, while at the same time exposing its fragility. Through Mita, Arrabal
also explores the need for emotional connection among people who have been
isolated from wider society.
The Policeman
The Policeman
represents the outside social world and stands in contrast to the three central
characters. While Climando, Apal, and Mita create their own unconventional
little world, the Policeman belongs to the established social order. His
presence introduces authority and reminds the audience that the characters
cannot completely escape the rules and consequences of the society around them.
The Policeman is therefore
less important as an individual personality than as a representative figure. He
symbolizes law, authority, social control, and the return of external
reality. His involvement contributes to the movement of the play from
childish fantasy toward serious consequences.
Relationship among the
Characters
The relationships among Climando,
Apal, and Mita are central to understanding the play. They form a small
community in which companionship temporarily replaces the security that society
has failed to provide. Their shared games and dreams allow them to create a
private world where they can experience some degree of happiness.
However, this community is
fragile. Poverty, emotional tensions, and the pressure of external
circumstances gradually weaken the security they have created. Their
relationships demonstrate that friendship and affection can provide comfort but
cannot always overcome the material conditions surrounding them.
Overall Characterisation
Arrabal deliberately avoids
presenting his characters as conventional heroes and villains. They are ordinary,
vulnerable, socially marginalised individuals whose behaviour often
combines childish innocence with adult desperation. Their unusual conduct
reflects the strange circumstances in which they exist. Rather than developing
through traditional psychological realism, they are presented through their actions,
games, conversations, relationships, and responses to poverty.
The characters consequently
become representatives of a larger human condition. They are people searching
for happiness in circumstances that offer very little hope. Their dreams are
simple, their resources are limited, and their imaginative world provides only
temporary protection from reality.
Conclusion
The characters of The
Tricycle are central to the play’s distinctive mixture of innocence,
humour, poverty, imagination, and tragedy. Climando and Apal represent two
young men attempting to survive through friendship and fantasy, while Mita
becomes an essential part of their fragile community. The Policeman represents
the external world of authority and social consequences. Together, these
characters create a small but deeply troubled world in which people attempt to
find companionship and meaning while remaining trapped by circumstances beyond
their control. Their vulnerability and childlike imagination give the play its
unusual emotional quality and prepare the ground for its tragic conclusion.
Comments