A study of the protagonists in the plays of Fernando Arrabal

As a young writer Fernando Arrabal was largely unaware of literary movements such as surrealism, absurdism, and the theatre of cruelty, but his plays assimilated certain features associated with such contemporary luminaries as Ionesco, Beckett, Artaud, and Genet. In a manner similar to that of Strindberg, Arrabal's theatre serves as a forum through which he can externalize his innermost psychological traumas.

The first part of the thesis will elaborate on the influences which shaped Arrabal's outlook and his creative talent. Since he, himself, has admitted the autobiographical nature of his work, personal data which has affected his literary output will be given in detail. On a more objective level, his theatre will be linked to certain aspects of the modern French theatre.

In his early plays, which is the second part of the thesis, Arrabal created a special type of character, whom we shall call the adult-child, that establishes the tone for all the plays in the early years of his career. The analysis will deal with the methods the adult-children employ in order to survive in a world they do not understand nor which understands them.

A change in the concept of the protagonists is the subject of the final part of the thesis. The analysis deals with their attempts to find freedom from the stifling and imprisoning memories of childhood.