Jerry’s suicidal plan in the zoo story: An option to face the human feeling of absurdity

• Autores: Luis Fernando Gómez Rodríguez
• Localización: Lingüística y Literatura, ISSN-e 0120-5587, Nº. 72, 2017, págs. 135-155
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.17533/udea.lyl.n72a06
• Títulos paralelos:
  • El plan suicida de Jerry en la historia del zoológico: Una opción para enfrentar el sentimiento humano del absurdo
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Este artículo explora la mente suicida de Jerry en la obra teatral La historia del zoológico del célebre dramaturgo Edward Albee, una producción que contiene rasgos del teatro del absurdo escrita en 1958. Se argumenta que la alienación social de Jerry en una sociedad capitalista sin sentido lo conduce a un suicidio premeditado. Se examina el deseo progresivo que tiene Jerry de morir por medio del suicidio a la luz de la teoría psicológica interpersonal del comportamiento suicida, y de la noción filosófica que Camus hace sobre el suicidio. Desde estos enfoques se logra determinar que Jerry actúa bajo el control de tresestados mentales interdependientes: el sentido de pertenencia frustrada, la percepción de ser una molestia para los demás, y la capacidad adquirida para suicidarse. Estos estados llevan a Jerry, finalmente, a la auto-inmolación como respuesta a su existencia absurda.Palabras clave: alienación social, el teatro del absurdo, la teoría psicológica interpersonal del comportamiento suicida, el sentido de pertenencia frustrada, la capacidad adquirida para suicidarse, el mito de Sísifo.

  • English

    This article describes Jerry’s suicidal mind in Edward Albee’s most celebrated play The Zoo Story, a work having features of the theater of the absurd written in 1958. The article argues that Jerry’s social alienation in a meaningless capitalistic society leads him to plan his own suicide cautiously. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior and Camus’s philosophical notion of suicide were implemented to examine Jerry’s gradual desire to die by suicide. It can be observed that Jerry creates three interdependent states of mind: a sense of thwarted belongingness, a sense of burdensomeness, and the acquired capacity to commit suicide. These states allowed Jerry to accomplish self-destruction successfully in response to his absurd existence

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