Previous
Time
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bald Soprano, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Bald Soprano satirizes the pretensions of the middle class. The first words of the play are the stage directions, “SCENE: A middle-class English interior, with English armchairs.” The play ruthlessly undermines this world of bourgeois comfort—of armchairs, slippers, and pipe-smoking—by presenting its inhabitants as grotesque and clueless fools who nevertheless retain a smug sense of self-importance. At the beginning of the play, Mrs. Smith recounts how she abstained from having wine with desert “because [she] did not wish to set the children a bad example of gluttony. They must learn to be sober and temperate.” By the end of the play, though, she’s frantically shouting, “Such caca, such caca, such caca […].” This total collapse of “sobriety” and middle-class manners in such a short span of time shows the flimsiness of such pretensions. Mary, the maid, is the only halfway sane character in the play, but the Smiths deem her display of affection for the Fire Chief “[a] little too exhibitionistic” and drag her off stage. Ionesco delights in skewering these prim bourgeois standards, revealing their absurdity by having the middle-class characters who uphold them unravel into insanity and degradation.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Societal Expectations and Middle-Class Values ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Societal Expectations and Middle-Class Values appears in each chapter of The Bald Soprano. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
chapter length:
Get the entire The Bald Soprano LitChart as a printable PDF.
Societal Expectations and Middle-Class Values Quotes in The Bald Soprano
Below you will find the important quotes in The Bald Soprano related to the theme of Societal Expectations and Middle-Class Values.
The Bald Soprano
Quotes
MRS. SMITH: There, it’s nine o’clock. We’ve drunk the soup, and eaten the fish and chips, and the English salad. The children have drunk English water. We’ve eaten well this evening. That’s because we live in the suburbs of London and because our name is Smith.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
MR. MARTIN: Don't you feel well? [Silence.]
MRS. SMITH: No, he's wet his pants. [Silence.]
MRS. MARTIN: Oh, sir, at your age, you shouldn't. [Silence.]
MR. SMITH: The heart is ageless. [Silence.]
MR. MARTIN: That's true. [Silence.] MRS. SMITH: So they say. [Silence.]
MRS. MARTIN: They also say the opposite [Silence.]
MR. SMITH: The truth lies somewhere between the two [Silence.]
MR. MARTIN: That’s true. [Silence]
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Well, then! [He coughs again in a voice shaken by emotion:] "The Dog and the Cow," an experimental fable. Once upon a time another cow asked another dog: "Why have you not swallowed your trunk?" "Pardon me," replied the dog, "it is because I thought that I was an elephant."
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
MR. MARTIN: If that is the case...dear friends...these emotions are understandable, human, honorable...
MRS. MARTIN: All that is human is honorable.
MRS. SMITH: Even so, I don't like to see it... here among us...
MR. SMITH: She's not been properly brought up...
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The polypoids were burning in the wood
A stone caught fire
The castle caught fire
The forest caught fire
The men caught fire
The women caught fire
The birds caught fire
The fish caught fire
The water caught fire
The sky caught fire
The ashes caught fire
The smoke caught fire
The fire caught fire
Everything caught fire,
Caught fire, caught fire.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
MRS. MARTIN: Bazaar, Balzac, bazooka!
MR. MARTIN: Bizarre, beaux-arts, brassieres!
MRS. SMITH: A,e,i,o,u, a,e,i,o,u, a,e,i,o,u, i!
MRS. MARTIN: B, c, d, f g, 1, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, x, z!
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
