The seatstays (the tubes from under the seat to the rear axle) are only connected to the seat tube with a small weld. When you pedal, you're using the top part of the chain to pull the rear axle toward the pedals. This force is going to break the weld connecting the seatstays to the seat tube.
Note that a chain can't push, only pull, so the bottom part of the chain cannot counterbalance this force.
It's an exaggeration to say it would immediately break. But if you put weight on it, it will tend to spread out (imagine putting weight on a bent piece of metal shaped like a ^). Still, the front fork isn't braced, and bikes exist with quite a large rake angle on the front fork (think a Harley-Davidson style chopper). So maybe you can make this design strong enough to bear a person's weight.
Without them, the back "triangle" of the bike would flex, causing the distance where the chainstay would be to shorten, resulting in the chain popping off the gears, or at least causing it to skip a bunch. The chainstay causes the chain to ... stay.
Though when you start to pedal, the chain would tend to pull in and bend the seatstays, but there should be some level of force that is less than the opposite force caused by the rider's weight, so this bike could work under light pedal pressure.