Ubu Roi

Based on playwright Jarry’s physics teacher, Félix-Frederic Hébert, whom the playwright said “personified for him all the ugliness in the world” (1), Papa Turd is a greedy, power-hungry “puppet” meant to symbolize the uglier and more id-driven side of human nature. As opposed to being depicted as a regular human being, illustrations drawn by Jarry included in the playscript picture Papa Turd as a rotund, cartoon-esque character with a large, pointed head and protruding stomach. 

Though he initially says that he’s “content with his lot” and does not want to be king (11), Papa Turd quickly gives in to his greed and becomes an authoritarian dictator, imposing unnecessarily high taxes and murdering people for his own personal gain. He is selfish and does not consider the feelings of others; when told that his soldiers have no food to eat because he has killed the military’s commissary workers, he happily responds, “Oh yes! I can breathe freely,” before adding, “But still I’ll have to see if there’s anything left to line my belly with […] because I’m hungry” (52). 

Papa Turd is also lazy, cowardly, and pompous, and is quick to claim credit for others’ actions; as Pile and Coccyx kill the bear, for instance, Papa Turd simply climbs onto a rock and prays, yet he then claims the men owe the killing to his “magnanimous virtue, courage, and presence of mind” (58).