Englit Guide 96

  The Burial of the Sardine ( L’Enterrement de la sardine ) by Fernando Arrabal - Summary Fernando Arrabal’s The Burial of the Sardine presents a strange and disturbing sequence of events centred on a small, isolated room and the mysterious man who lives inside it. The central figure is Hieronymus , a dwarf who is confined to a bare room. He spends much of his time near a large open window, through which he watches the strange world outside. His confinement is never fully explained, and neither the reason for his imprisonment nor the circumstances that brought him there are clearly revealed. Hieronymus is visited regularly by two women, Altagora and Lis . Their visits become a repeated part of his existence. They talk to him, instruct him, and introduce him to different experiences of life. Their relationship with him is complicated. At times they appear to care for him and educate him; at other moments their behaviour becomes controlling, cruel, and sexually disturbing. Hier...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — KEY FACTS   Full Title: Le Couronnement ( The Coronation ) Author: Fernando Arrabal Type of Work: One-act experimental stage play Genre: Absurdist drama; avant-garde, surrealist, grotesque, and Panique theatre Language: French Time and Place Written: Mid-1960s; associated with Arrabal's Paris period and his developing Panique theatre. The precise date and place of composition are not firmly established in the available bibliographical records. Date of First Publication: 1965 in Théâtre III , published in Paris by René Julliard. A separate edition of Le Couronnement was subsequently published by Christian Bourgois in 1966 . Publisher: René Julliard for the 1965 Théâtre III publication; Christian Bourgois for the separate 1966 edition. Tone: Grotesque, disturbing, dreamlike, violent, absurd, theatrical, mysterious, and occasionally comic. Setting (Time): An unspecified or indeterminate ...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — Character Analysis The characters in The Coronation (Le Couronnement) do not develop like characters in conventional realistic drama. They exist within an unusual, dreamlike world where identity, relationships, and behaviour are constantly changing. Their actions are often exaggerated, irrational, and disturbing, and they frequently function as parts of the play's larger atmosphere of absurdity and uncertainty. Giafar Giafar is the central figure of the play and the character through whose experiences much of the strange action is presented. At the beginning, he appears primarily as a lover who is emotionally attached to Sylda. His affection for her leads him into the mysterious situation that eventually places him in a position of helplessness. Giafar's most important characteristic is his vulnerability . He is repeatedly subjected to imprisonment, humiliation, manipulation, and cruelty. Instead of controlling...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — List of Characters   Giafar is the central character of The Coronation . He is presented as a young man whose love for Sylda draws him into a bizarre and increasingly disturbing series of events. His experiences of imprisonment, humiliation, confusion, and emotional suffering place him at the centre of the play's strange dramatic world. Sylda is the woman whom Giafar loves. Her character is unpredictable and constantly shifting between tenderness, affection, cruelty, and domination. Her apparent death and subsequent return to life establish the play's dreamlike atmosphere. Her connection with Arlys further complicates the question of identity. Arlys is a mysterious female figure whose identity is closely connected with Sylda. Her appearance contributes to the play's atmosphere of transformation and uncertainty. Through her, the distinction between different identities becomes increasingly difficult to main...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — Symbols and Motifs   One of the most important symbols in The Coronation (Le Couronnement) is the coronation itself . A coronation traditionally represents authority, achievement, order, and the beginning of a new stage of life. In the play, however, this idea is transformed into something strange and unsettling. The ceremonial character of the title contrasts with the disturbing events experienced by the characters. The coronation therefore becomes a symbol of the distorted world of the play, where dignity and humiliation, celebration and suffering, and order and disorder exist together. The room is another important symbol. Much of the action takes place within an enclosed and restrictive environment, making the room resemble a psychological prison. It separates the characters from ordinary society and creates an atmosphere of isolation. For Giafar, the enclosed space becomes associated with captivity and loss...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — Themes   One of the central themes of The Coronation (Le Couronnement) is the instability of love and human relationships . Love in the play is never presented as a simple or purely comforting emotion. Giafar's relationship with Sylda moves between affection, dependence, domination, cruelty, and suffering. The emotional bond between the characters becomes difficult to separate from violence and manipulation. In this way, the play presents human relationships as deeply contradictory, capable of containing both tenderness and brutality. Another important theme is the loss of individual identity . The distinction between different characters and identities gradually becomes uncertain, particularly through the relationship between Sylda and Arlys. Characters do not always remain within fixed roles, and their identities appear capable of transformation. This uncertainty makes the individual seem unstable and suggests ...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — Analysis   The Coronation (Le Couronnement) presents a disturbing and dreamlike dramatic world in which ordinary ideas of love, identity, power, and reality are constantly unsettled. The play does not develop its meaning through a conventional realistic story. Instead, it places its characters in strange situations and allows their actions to create an atmosphere of uncertainty, cruelty, absurdity, and psychological disturbance. The unusual events surrounding Giafar and Sylda make the audience question what is real and what belongs to the world of fantasy, nightmare, or ritual. At the centre of the play is the relationship between Giafar and Sylda . Their relationship does not follow the familiar pattern of romantic love. Giafar approaches Sylda through an act of affection, but love soon becomes connected with imprisonment, humiliation, domination, and suffering. The contrast is important because affection and cr...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal — Type of Work   The Coronation (Le Couronnement) is a one-act absurdist and avant-garde play that belongs to the experimental theatre associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. Rather than presenting a conventional plot with a clearly developing sequence of realistic events, the play creates a strange, dreamlike world in which ordinary logic, stable identity, and familiar social relationships are repeatedly disrupted. Its dramatic action develops through unusual situations, sudden transformations, ritualistic behaviour, physical cruelty, and bizarre interactions among the characters. The play is also strongly surreal and grotesque in its theatrical character. Events that would normally appear shocking or tragic are presented alongside childish games, strange ceremonies, and moments of apparent humour. Love and violence, life and death, tenderness and cruelty frequently exist side by side. The result is a theatri...

  The Coronation (Le Couronnement) by Fernando Arrabal —Summary   Fernando Arrabal’s The Coronation unfolds in a strange and dreamlike world where ordinary distinctions between life and death, love and cruelty, tenderness and violence gradually disappear. The story centres on Giafar, a young man who is deeply in love with Sylda. One day, Giafar goes to Sylda’s room and discovers her lying motionless on her bed. She appears to be dead. Shocked and overwhelmed by grief, Giafar approaches her and kisses her. In the strange world of the play, the kiss brings Sylda back to life. What initially seems to be an act of love, however, quickly becomes the beginning of a disturbing ordeal. After Sylda awakens, Giafar finds himself trapped and chained inside the room. He is no longer simply the lover who has come to rescue the woman he loves. He becomes the object of a series of humiliations, commands and cruel games. Sylda herself participates in this treatment, shifting unpredi...