Ionesco chose to stay in Romania to fight against the "rhinocerisation" of the "intelligentsia", despite the fact that one by one his friends all become members of the Legion, or refused to talk him out of cowardice until the regime of General Ion Antonescu passed a law in 1940 that forbade all Jews (defined in racial terms) from participating in the arts in Romania in any way or form. Quinney argued that Ionesco's "théâtre de l'absurde" plays were a form of "lashing out" against his friends who in his youth had abandoned him for the Legion, and reflected his dual identity as both Romanian and French. Quinney maintained that terror felt by Bérenger at being the last human left in the world reflected Ionesco's own terror as saw his friends caught up in youthful idealism all become Legionaries while the rest were either too cynical or cowardly to resist the Legion. Quinney further argued that the "Rhinoceros" was an allegory of and attack on the Legion of the Archangel Michael has been ignored by literary scholars who have seen Ionesco only as a French playwright and neglected the fact that Ionesco saw himself as both Romanian and French.