In Eugene Ionesco's play, Rhinoceros, one of the major themes that he depicts beautifully is of the absurd. Throughout his comedic acts, he illustrates a society of people that are in a condition in which the townsmen exist in an irrational and meaningless universe, and which human life has no ultimate meaning. He uses the all knowledgeable Logician, self-proclaimed rational Botard, and other various characters that demonstrate such illogical society. .
In Act I Scene I, Ionesco introduces the Logician speaking with an old man, paralleling their conversation with Jean and Berenger. Right off, one can tell that this Logician, frankly does not have any logic. All his logic is considered circular reasoning and it simply has no point. Ionesco begins to exploit the artificial Logician when the con explains that the Old Gentleman's dog has four paws, "[therefore] it's a cat" (18). Clearly every sensible human being knows that dogs are canines and are not anything related to cats (felines). He then further informs the old man that all cats die. "Socrates is dead. Therefore Socrates is a cat" (19). Obviously, everyone knows Socrates was a great philosopher in his time, and it is for certain that he is not a cat. The comical thing is that the old man actually believes everything the Logician is teaching him. Lastly, in the end of Act I everyone goes to the "Professional" (notice it is capitalized) Logician, to seek the wise man's opinion whether the African rhinoceros is single horned or double horned (34). With the Logician's incongruous logic, he states that one must figure out whether or not the one that passed was the same rhinoceros or another one, prove if the first one they saw was one horned or two horned, whether or not the rhinos might have lost their horn, and finally concludes that "good logic cannot entertain the possibility that the same creature be born in two places at the same time" (36).
