The Bald Soprano

Structurally, while the first half of the play primarily focuses on individual relationships—looking at how the Smiths interact as a couple, and how the Martins interact as husband and wife, in their respective marital bubbles—the second half shifts focus to broader social dynamics as the two couples begin to interact as a group. And, in the absurd style of the play, these dynamics are a dismal failure, when read within the context of logical society. As the Smiths and Martins sit down to socialize, the evening begins careening into unbearable awkwardness. They can hardly communicate due to the Martins (particularly Mrs. Martin’s) noticeable embarrassment—perhaps because the Martins have upset their hosts by arriving late, perhaps because the group is struggling to connect and communicate, perhaps for mysterious reasons, or perhaps for no reason at all. The absurd style of the play purposefully leaves the reason for or meaning of language and behavior mysterious, not because there is a mystery to solve, but rather because the meaning is arbitrary and unimportant. In this way, the play follows the theme of Alienation, Identity, and Human Connection to an absurd extreme.

The absurdity continues as even Mr. Smith’s wetting of his pants becomes an accepted topic for the group and the Smiths’ clock strikes repeatedly without signaling any specific time. In this exchange, social conventions are in complete disarray, and even the steady concept of time has gone off-kilter. It’s like the characters are playing at having a “civilized,” social evening, and the clock is playing at keeping time, but neither truly know how the job is done. This draws our attention to the arbitrary and performative nature of social conventions, which results in the collapse of meaning.

The Fire Chief’s appearance saves the day, socially, as he helps mediate the argument about doorbells and enlivens the group’s conversation by sharing stories. The other characters fawn over the Fire Chief, seeing him as a figure of authority, truth, and heroism—even when his moral fables are nothing but nonsense. His presence is the closest we get to a grounded sense of reason, morals, and stability, further highlighting the lack of these qualities in the world of the play, specifically among The Bourgeoisie and their Social Conventions. For example, the Fire Chief is the only character with a seemingly logical sense of time. When he asks for the time, the Smiths admit their clock doesn’t work, revealing that time is meaningless for the Smiths. Additionally, the Fire Chief is the only character who sees Mary the maid as a complete person independent of her social status. When Mary tries to join the group to tell a story, the others are shocked to see Mary trying to step outside her position and join in the bourgeois group in their frivolous evening of storytelling. While the Fire Chief is also surprised that a maid would be so bold, he quickly changes his tune when he realizes he knows Mary and that she “extinguished [his] first fires” (35). It’s suggested that the two are lovers and Mary is only then permitted to share her story, which points to the intersection of the themes of Alienation, Identity, and Human Connection and The Bourgeoisie and Social Conventions.

Once the Fire Chief leaves, the social dynamics between the Smiths and Martins once again devolve into a chaos that disintegrates into complete nonsense. Conversation and connection collapse, and the Smiths and Martins speak in alliterative series of words—“Bizarre, beaux-arts, brassieres” (41)—nonsense rhymes—“The pope elopes! The pope’s got no horoscope. The horoscope’s bespoke” (41)—and even a listing of letters— “B, c, d, f, g, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, x, z!” (41). Despite the silliness of the dialogue, the characters express growing frustration and animosity. Delivered in this way, meaning is disrupted as ostensibly meaningless language seems to actually carry great meaning for the characters.

Meanwhile, the characters aren’t listening to one another and the nonsense swells into a climactic and indecipherable screaming match that explodes into gibberish. This shows the alienation of the characters from one another and from the very concept of meaning. This nonsensical climax encourages the audience to question how language operates and creates meaning in our lives and critique our fixation on social conventions and mindless small talk. For the audience, meaningful language in the beginning of the play has been shown to have no meaning, and nonsense language at the end of the play has been shown to have great meaning.

The play ends in a cyclical fashion, repeating the beginning of the play except replacing the actors who originally played the Smiths with the actors who originally played the Martins, which references back to Mary’s reveal that the characters weren’t who they thought they were. By ending with a repetition of the beginning, Ionesco illustrates how The Bourgeoisie and Social Conventions make individuals interchangeable, which creates Alienation in Identity and Human Connection. Although absurd, the collapse of language and meaning are shown to have real implications for humanity.