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The Lesson: by Eugene Ionesco

The document provides an analysis of the allegorical representation in Eugene Ionesco's play "The Lesson." It argues that the maid represents the bourgeois class, who worries about the well-being of the upper class professor who employs her, similar to how the modern middle class worries about the fortunes of the wealthy. It also claims the play depicts the complex but exploitative relationship between the upper and lower classes, where the wealthy profit from oppressing and controlling the less privileged.

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Josiah Thomas Turner
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376 views2 pages

The Lesson: by Eugene Ionesco

The document provides an analysis of the allegorical representation in Eugene Ionesco's play "The Lesson." It argues that the maid represents the bourgeois class, who worries about the well-being of the upper class professor who employs her, similar to how the modern middle class worries about the fortunes of the wealthy. It also claims the play depicts the complex but exploitative relationship between the upper and lower classes, where the wealthy profit from oppressing and controlling the less privileged.

Uploaded by

Josiah Thomas Turner
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Josiah Turner

Charles Grover
July 22, y

The Lesson
By Eugene Ionesco

The Lesson is an obvious allegory of the bourgeois vs the common man,


or better than that, the upper class vs the bourgeois vs the common man.
Wile many would claim that the professor represents the middle class, I
would actually claim that the maid represents the bourgeois. This claim
would come from the fact that it has so happened in the past of many kinds
of these situations that the middle class has been used as a tool to oppress
the lower class. In this same way, The Maid in The Lesson worries about the
health of the upper class (The Professor) who is her employer, the same way
that many of the middle class even in todays society worry about the upper
class, such as Wall Street. If Wall Street crashes, the upper class falls, yes,
but they always bounce back. But the middle class fails and falls into the
lower class. In a similar way, if The Professor in The Lesson were to die or be
incapacitated, as The Maid fears, she would be out of work and no better
than The Pupil. What The Lesson also represents is the complex relationship
between the lower class and the upper class. What this is to mean is that the
upper class, those first class celebrities like Donald Trump or Bill Gates will
often release books or hold seminars in order to help those who are in the
THE LESSON

lower class achieve success. They are in no way legitimately teaching


anyone how to grow out of their poverty, but instead their lessons would be
better suited towards the middle class or the upper middle class who have
the opportunities and the resources, the privilege to make it out of their state
of poverty. But as the play progresses and The Pupil is less and less
responsive to the lessons of The Professor, agitating him and forcing him to
take great stakes, eventually ending her life. The same way that once the
upper class cant profit off of the lower class takes advantage of the lower
class in more aggressive ways. And just as a new Pupil was ushered in at the
end, there are always new ways for the upper class to profit and gain from
those below them. In this way, The Lesson is an excellent commentary of the
state of even the todays United States.

THE LESSON

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