The ideological and artistic originality of the dramaturgy of Schwarz. The originality of rethinking traditional structures in dramaturgy E
I.L. Tarangula
The article highlights the forms of interaction between traditional plot-like material and the original author’s re-interpretation. The research is carried out on the materials of E.’s creativity. Schwartz ("The Naked King") and the literary decline of G.-H. Andersen. The problems of genre transformation of the followed work are examined. It is concluded that as a result of the interaction of both plots, in a universal context, the problems of dramatic processes of the era of the 30-40s are raised on par with the subtext. XX century
Key words: drama, traditional plots and images, genre transformation, subtext.
The article covers the problem of the forms of interaction of traditional plots and images and their author's original reinterpretation. The author investigated Eu. Shwarts's work "The Naked King" and H. Ch. Andersen literary heritage. The article focuses on genre transformations and the author considers the thought that as a result of plots interaction in the universal context on the sub-text level various questions of the dramatic processes of the period 1930-1940 have been raised.
Key words: traditional plots and images, genre transformations, drama.
In the literature of the twentieth century, replete with turning point historical cataclysms, the problem of moral self-esteem of the individual, the choice of a hero placed in an extreme situation, is actualized. To understand this problem, writers turn to the cultural heritage of the past, to classical examples containing universal moral guidelines. Transforming cultural heritage other peoples, writers strive through the prism of understanding the causes of the tragic processes of modernity to feel the deep connections of eras distant from each other.
The appeal to centuries-old cultural traditions provoked the appearance in Russian drama of the twentieth century of many works that significantly transform well-known plots and are updated with new problems (G. Gorin “That Same Munchausen”, “The Plague on Both Your Houses”; S. Aleshin “Mephistopheles”, “ Then in Seville"; V. Voinovich "Again about the Naked King"; E. Radzinsky "Continuation of Don Juan"; B. Akunin "Hamlet. Version"; A. Volodin "Dulcinea of Toboso"; L. Razumovskaya "My Sister the Little Mermaid", "Medea"; L. Filatov "Lysistrata", "Hamlet", "The New Decameron, or Tales of the Plague City", "Once More About the Naked King", etc.).
One of the writers who created original versions of traditional plot-shaped material was E. Schwartz (“The Shadow”, “An Ordinary Miracle”, “The Naked King”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “ The Snow Queen", "Cinderella", etc.).
The playwright argued that “every writer who is passionate about fairy tales has the opportunity either to go into the archaic, to the origins of fairy tales, or to bring the fairy tale to our days.” It seems that this phrase quite succinctly formulates the main ways of rethinking traditional fairy-tale structures in national literatures, which have not lost their formal and content significance in modern literature. Understanding his contemporary reality, E. Schwartz sought support for rejecting her existential hopelessness in universal humanistic codes created and interpreted by folk poetry. That is why he turns to the genre of fairy tales, which provided a wide scope for analyzing the tragic contradictions of the era.
All the most significant fairy tales and plays by E. Schwartz are “twice literary fairy tales.” The playwright, as a rule, uses fairy tales that have already been processed by literature (Andersen, Chamisso, Hoffmann, etc.). “Someone else’s plot seemed to enter my blood and flesh, I recreated it and only then released it into the world.” Schwartz took these words of the Danish writer as the epigraph to his “Shadow” - a play in which Andersen’s plot is reworked. This is exactly how both writers declared the peculiarity of their work: the creation of independent, original works based on borrowed plots.
At the heart of Schwartz's play is a conflict that is traditional for the genre of romantic fairy tales and characteristic of many of Andersen's works. This is a conflict between a fairytale dream and everyday reality. But the fairy-tale world and reality in the play by the Russian playwright are fundamentally special, since their formal meaningful interaction is carried out taking into account the multi-layered genre of the play, which is complicated by the “provocative” associative-symbolic subtext.
Based on the philosophical orientation of Schwartz's plays, researchers classify his works as the genre of intellectual drama, highlighting the following distinctive features: 1) philosophical analysis of the state of the world; 2) increasing the role of the subjective principle; 3) attraction to convention; 4) artistic proof of the idea, appealing not so much to feelings, but to reason. Combination in a play genre features magical folk tales, artistic forms of romantic fairy tales and the principles of artistic modeling of the world in intellectual drama provokes a genre synthesis in which fairy tales and reality, the conventional world and modernity come as close as possible. Through such a synthesis, those moral values that help an individual (hero) survive the tragic circumstances of modern reality are “isolated” from the fairy tale. Thanks to the fairytale conventions of depicting reality, the world of “The Naked King” turns out to be quite real at the same time.
According to M.N. Lipovetsky, “passing through literature, a fairy tale, which embodies the dream of truly human values, must be imbued with the experience of history in order to really help a person survive and not break in the full of tragic trials and cataclysms of our time.”
The central conflict of the play "The Naked King", as well as a number of his other plays, is a person under the rule of tyranny, a person opposing dictatorship, defending his spiritual freedom and the right to happiness. Being aware of the monstrous moral illogicalism of the totalitarian regime, when the individual is subjected to dehumanization, Schwartz proclaims in the play the concept of “basic life”, characteristic of a fairy tale, in which the main thing is a strong sense of moral norm. It is in “The Naked King” that the concept of “main” and “false” life, their complex relationship, is revealed with particular force. To convey these thoughts to the reader (viewer), Schwartz uses motifs from famous Andersen fairy tales in his plays. The traditional, well-known fairy-tale situation in E. Schwartz's plays somewhat reduces the reader's interest in the basis of the plot; allegory becomes the main source of entertainment.
Contaminating the motifs of fairy tales by G.-H. Andersen ("The Princess and the Swineherd", "The Princess and the Pea", "The King's New Clothes"), E Schwartz places his heroes in fundamentally new conditions, in tune with his era. The beginning of the play is quite recognizable, the main characters are a princess and a swineherd, but the functional characteristics of both differ significantly from their fairy-tale prototypes. Schwartz ignores the problem of social inequality in the relationships between the main characters. At the same time, the image of Princess Henrietta undergoes a greater transformation. Unlike Andersen's heroine, Schwartz's princess is devoid of prejudices. However, for Schwartz the relationship between the characters is not particularly important; the meeting of two young people in the play serves as the beginning of the main action. The union of lovers is opposed by the will of the king-father, who is going to marry his daughter to a neighboring ruler. Henry decides to fight for his happiness and this desire sets up the main conflict of the play.
The second scene of the first act introduces us to the rules of government of the neighboring state. With the arrival of the princess, the main question of interest to the king becomes the question of her origin. The nobility of the princess's origin is tested with the help of a pea placed under twenty-four feather beds. Thus, the motif of Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea" is introduced into the play. But here, too, Schwartz rethinks the proto-plot, including in the plot development the motive of a contemptuous attitude towards social inequality. main character capable of neglecting her high origin if it interferes with her love for Henry.
The question of “purity of blood” in the play becomes a kind of response of the writer to modern events at the time the play was written. Evidence of this is the many replicas of the characters in the play: “... our nation is the highest in the world..." ; "Valet: Are you Aryans? Heinrich: A long time ago. Valet: That's good to hear" ; "King: What a horror! Jewish Princess" ; "...they started burning books in the squares. In the first three days, they burned all the really dangerous books. Then they started burning the rest of the books indiscriminately". The orders of the “highest state in the world” are reminiscent of the fascist regime. But at the same time, the play cannot be considered a straightforward anti-fascist response to the events in Germany. The king is a despot and tyrant, but one cannot see the features of Hitler in him. The king of Schwartz once " He attacked his neighbors all the time and fought... now he has no worries. His neighbors took all the land that could be taken from him". The content of the play is much broader, "Schwartz's mind and imagination were absorbed not in private issues of life, but in fundamental and most important problems, problems of the destinies of peoples and humanity, the nature of society and human nature." The fairy-tale world of this state becomes a very real world of despotism. Schwartz creates in the play, an artistically convincing universal model of tyranny. The writer comprehended the tragic conditions public life of his country in the 30s and 40s, treating the problem of fascism only as another “evidence of the repetition of many bitter patterns of life.” An acute awareness of the contradictions and conflicts of his contemporary era forces the playwright to put forward as the main theme the preservation of personality in man, concentrating attention on the ontological dominants of well-known material. That is why the world of a “militarized state” is alien to Henrietta, which she refuses to accept: “ Everything here is to the drum. The trees in the garden are lined up in platoon columns. Birds fly by battalion... And all this cannot be destroyed - otherwise the state will perish..."The militarized order in the kingdom has been brought to the point of absurdity; even nature must submit to the military regulations. In the "highest state in the world" people, on command, tremble with reverence before him and turn to each other." uplink", flattery and hypocrisy flourish (compare, for example, the dystopian world created by Shchedrin's Ugryum-Burcheev).
The socially “low” Henry’s struggle for his love leads him to rivalry with the king-groom. Thus, the plot of the play includes the motif of another Andersen fairy tale, “The King’s New Clothes.” As in the borrowed plot, the heroes dress up as weavers and in a certain situation “reveal” the true essence of their ruler and his retinue. A kingdom in which it is beneficial for the king to know only the pleasant truth rests on the ability of his subjects to reject the obvious and recognize the non-existent. They are so used to lying and being hypocrites that they are afraid to tell the truth." tongue won't turn". At the intersection of the fairy-tale image of the “highest state in the world” and the realistically conventional model of tyranny and despotism, a special world of the state arises, in which the false, non-existent becomes completely real. Therefore, everyone who looks at the fabrics, and then the “sewn” outfit of the king, is not deceived, but acts in accordance with the “charter” of the kingdom - creates a kind of mystified reality.
In his fairy tale, Andersen examines the problem of the permissibility of a person in power whose personality is limited to one characteristic - a passion for clothes (a similar characteristic is used, for example, by G. Gorin in the play "That Same Munchausen"). The storyteller considers the stupidity and hypocrisy of his subjects primarily from a moral and ethical point of view. Schwartz brings to the fore socio-philosophical issues and in a unique form explores the nature and causes of tyranny. Exposing evil, despotism, stupidity, tyranny, philistinism is the main problem of the work, which forms a system of collisions and their active interaction with each other. One of the characters states: " Our entire national system, all traditions rest on unshakable fools. What will happen if they tremble at the sight of a naked sovereign? The foundations will shake, the walls will crack, smoke will rise over the state! No, you can't let the king out naked. Pomp is the great support of the throne". The plot development gradually clarifies the reasons for the confident reign of the tyrant. They lie in the slavish psychology of the average person, unable and unwilling to critically comprehend reality. The prosperity of evil is ensured due to the passive, philistine attitude of the crowd to the realities of life. In the scene in the square, a crowd of onlookers has gathered once again admire the new dress of their idol. The townspeople are delighted with the outfit, even before the king appears in the square. Having seen their ruler really naked, people refuse to objectively perceive what is happening, their life is based on the habit of total tyranny and a blind conviction in the need for the power of a despot .
Hints of the topical contradictions of modernity can be seen in E. Schwartz at all levels: in figurative characteristics, remarks of characters, and most importantly, in the writer’s desire to portray modernity at the level of associative-symbolic subtext. In the final scene of the play, Henry states that " the power of love has broken all obstacles", but, given the complex symbolism of the play, such a finale is only an external ontological shell. The absolutization of tyranny, the passive philistine attitude of people to life, the desire to replace reality with a mystified reality remain intact. However, it remains obvious that Schwartz was able to rethink Andersen’s plot, which acquired a completely new meaning in the play.
Literature
1. Borev Yu.B. Aesthetics. 2nd ed. – M., 1975. – 314 p.
2. Bushmin A. Continuity in the development of literature: Monograph. – (2nd ed., additional). – L.: Artist. lit., 1978. – 224 p.
3. Golovchiner V.E. On the question of the romanticism of E. Schwartz // Scientific. tr. Tyumen University, 1976. – Sat. 30. – pp. 268-274.
4. Lipovetsky M.N. Poetics literary fairy tale(Based on Russian literature of the 1920-1980s). – Sverdlovsk: Ural Publishing House. Univ., 1992. – 183 p.
5. Neamtsu A.E. Poetics of traditional plots. – Chernivtsi: Ruta, 1999. – 176 p.
6. Schwartz E. Ordinary Miracle: Plays / Comp. and entry article by E. Skorospelova - Chisinau: Lit Artistic, 1988. - 606 p.
7. Schwartz E. Fantasy and reality // Questions of literature. – 1967. – No. 9. – P.158-181.
The article was received by the editorial office on November 16, 2006.
Keywords: Evgeny Schwartz, Evgeny Lvovich Schwartz, criticism, creativity, works, read criticism, online, review, review, poetry, Critical articles, prose, Russian literature, 20th century, analysis, E Schwartz, drama, naked king
Playwright and storyteller. I believed that a fairy tale is one of the oldest genres that helps a sensitive reader and viewer, at least for a while, feel like a child again, understand and accept the world in all its simplicity and complexity.
It was not immediately appreciated by critics. For many years there have been condescending and arrogant intonations, which is a frivolous genre and is only suitable for children's literature. Unpleasant to the Soviet regime, why does the viewer need subtle allusions, transparent associations, wise and crafty advice.
Now he has been returned to the stage, as the viewer expects a confidential, sincere intonation, but at the same time ironic.
"Underwood" is the first play. I thought it was realistic. I don’t understand how I became a storyteller. I heard that he had created a new kind of fairy tale.
Studying at the Moscow University, entering the theater workshop, arriving as part of it in Petrograd, getting acquainted with the literary environment, interest in the Serapion Brothers, working as a literary secretary for Chukovsky, collaborating in the children's magazines "Chizh" and "Hedgehog" and the first plays .
He amazed everyone with his talent for improvisation, an incredible inventor. Meeting with director Akimov (Leningrad Comedy Theater). Akimov said that if there was a position “the soul of the theater,” it would be Schwartz.
1) Naked king. 1934. The playwright's favorite characters appeared for the first time - a power-hungry king, clever ministers, a beautiful princess, swineherds, shepherds and the rest of the population of the fairy-tale city.
The theme is power, which has a deforming influence on the population (Naked King, Shadow, Dragon). Power inspires sacred awe in the people. But a person at the pinnacle of power pays dearly for it, loses friends, loved ones, and is deprived of human warmth. Lies and flattery are always accompanied (in The Naked King there is a grotesque satirical image of the truthful first minister).
The authorities can dress up in any bright clothes, but sincere people, poets, see that the king is naked!
Always a happy ending. In The Naked King, Henry and the princess have a wedding and the king runs away to the palace. But in all these happy endings there is a hint of sadness. You can shame a stupid ruler, but how can you destroy his stupidity? How to convince the crowd that there is no need to make an idol out of a naked king? These questions remain unresolved.
Before us is a new kind of fairy tale. MB is social, satirical or philosophical.
2) Shadow. 1940. Epigraph and “tales of my life” by Andersen. Complex, dialectical relationships between light and darkness, good and evil, friendship and betrayal, love and hatred, i.e. the contradictions that form the basis of life, its development, movement, are interpreted by the playwright wisely and boldly.
The Shadow - Theodore Christian - a vile, disgusting creature, is the creation of the Scientist himself. He himself caused her with careless words. The Shadow, having left the Scientist, goes to power. It's amazing how quickly the dark sides are in demand by society human soul. Such a flexible creature is necessary for ministers, privy councilors, etc. An open ending, since the Scientist still believes that the shadow will return, that is, the struggle between good and evil continues.
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Introduction
Chapter 1. Transformation of the plot-figurative material of Andersen’s fairy tales in the play by E.L. Schwartz "The Naked King"
Chapter 2. Reminiscent layer of the play by E.L. Schwartz "Shadow"
Chapter 3. Allusive and reminiscent contexts of the fairy tale play by E.L. Schwartz "Dragon"
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Evgeniy Lvovich Schwartz was a prominent Soviet playwright, a famous film screenwriter, and one of the creators of Soviet children's literature. It is impossible to understand the full significance of Schwartz’s dramaturgy without knowledge of both the historical conditions of Russia in the 20th century and the biography of the writer himself. His work can rightfully be attributed to the tragic era of our history. Schwartz (1896-1958) is a representative of a generation whose youth coincided with the First World War and revolution, and maturity during the Great Patriotic War and the times of Stalin's rule. Schwartz's path to literature was not simple: it began with children's poems and brilliant performances composed by Schwartz (together with Zoshchenko and Lunts). However, already his first play became the object of attacks by famous teachers of the twenties, who argued that children should be raised on the harsh realities of life, and not on fairy tales: “The play did not pose any serious questions that could excite the young viewer, it focused attention only on negative phenomena and images, and it incorrectly and distortedly depicted Soviet people.”
In the 30s, Evgeniy Lvovich Schwartz wrote his first plays. Playwright Evgeny Schwartz had a rare gift as a storyteller. The Russian author's dramatic fairy tale dates back to the 19th century, when “The Firebird” by N. M. Yazykov (1836) and “The Snow Maiden” by A. N. Ostrovsky (1873) were written. This genre received its further development in the 20th century. In the first years of Soviet power, so-called agitations were widespread, where the plot, motives and images of famous fairy tales were used, converted into satirical comedies in which the enemies of the revolution were denounced. Already in the 20s, activity began Soviet theaters young viewers, whose repertoire is based on classic literary and folk tales. Thus, the theater takes on the role of interpreter of the fairy tale, and the playwright is engaged in the staging of famous fairy tale plots. The next stage is the creation of fairy-tale dramaturgy, which set new challenges for the theater.
The heyday of the dramatic fairy tale began in the thirties, when “Underwood” (1928) and “Little Red Riding Hood” (1936) by E. Schwartz, “Three Fat Men” (1928) by Y. Olesha were written. The dramatic tale owes its further development to such masters as T. Gabbe, S. Marshak, M. Svetlov, E. Schwartz and others. The heyday of the genre is the period 1930 - 1960, when the generally recognized masterpieces of fairy-tale dramaturgy by S. Marshak were created: “Twelve Months” (1943), “Fear Grief - No Happiness” (1954), “Smart Things” (1964); T. Gabbe: “City of Masters” (1944) and “Tin Rings” (1953), as well as dramatic tales by E. Schwartz.
With the help of a fairy tale, Schwartz touched upon the moral fundamental principles of existence, the simple and indisputable laws of humanity. The main thing in his work were philosophical fairy tales for adults, which remained almost unknown to the playwright’s contemporaries. But the truth, which was absent in the literature of those years, lived in Schwartz’s wonderful triptych, written based on Andersen’s fairy tales. “The Naked King” (1934), “Shadow” (1940), “Dragon” (1943) are significant works of our literature. In the plots of the playwright’s plays, based on traditional images, there is clearly a very tangible subtext, which allows us to understand that we have touched some wisdom, kindness, high and simple purpose of life, that just a little more, and we ourselves will become wiser and better. Each of the acting characters has a whole trail of historical, literary, and mythological associations.
The main distinguishing feature of his works is morality, which reflects the basic concepts of good and injustice, honor and cowardice, love and sycophancy, and the right of an individual to manipulate the consciousness of people. The legacy of Evgeny Lvovich Schwartz is part of the artistic self-knowledge of the century, which has become especially obvious now, after its passing.
The heyday of Schwartz's work is the heyday of Soviet fairy-tale drama, starting in the 20s and later, in the 40s and 50s. Of course, fairy-tale dramaturgy largely owes this flourishing to Schwartz, although his contemporaries at that time were such luminaries of Russian fairy-tale dramaturgy as Y. Olesha, A. Tolstoy, T. Gabbe, S. Marshak.
For researchers of Schwartz's work, both the playwright's early plays were of interest - "Underwood" (1929), "The Adventures of Hohenstaufen" (1934) and "The Naked King" (1934), as well as works of a later period: "Shadow" (1940), "Dragon" "(1944), "An Ordinary Miracle (1956).
Reminiscences and allusions were the most frequently used methods of dialogue between the writer and the reader, because they were based on the commonality of their associations. This is especially true for the use of folklore, in particular fairy tale, motifs.
Thus, the fairy-tale chronotope, that is, the signs of the place and time of action that we see in the plays of E.L. Schwartz, instantly designate the artistic language in which the author intends to speak to the reader (viewer).
“An allusion is an allusion to a well-known literary or historical fact. A common type of allusion is a hint at modern socio-political realities in works about the historical past. An allusion to literary works is called reminiscence."
Writers and poets have correctly appreciated the possibilities of the poetics of allusions: with the help of subtext one can say much more in a smaller volume, and much more artistically, and much more convincingly, than to express it directly.
The problem of using allusions and reminiscences in various kinds literary works studied in literary studies and literary history to a considerable extent. T. G. Sverbilova, V. E. Khalizev, G. V. Shelogurova and others paid tribute to this topic.
However, studies of Schwartz’s work in Russian literary history are scientific works of a “small genre”: introductory articles for collections, and individual descriptions of a biographical nature, most often - memoirs of contemporaries.
Therefore, among modern researchers, Yu. S. Podlubnova deserves special mention, who directly dealt with the problem of meta-genres in Soviet literature, in particular, the use of features of the European fairy tale-allegory in the dramaturgy of E. L. Schwartz.
The poetics of allusions and reminiscences in the work of each individual author should be studied in a special way. And from this point of view, there are practically no studies of the poetics of E. L. Schwartz’s dramaturgy in this aspect in modern literary criticism.
All that has been said determines the relevance of the topic of this work: consideration of the poetics of works of the mid-twentieth century can no longer occur without considering the role of reminiscences and allusions in this poetics.
The object of this work is the problem of the reminiscent and allusive nature of the dramaturgy of E. L. Schwartz, and the subject of the study is the functioning of allusions and reminiscences in his plays.
Thus, the purpose of this work is to systematize and further consider the use of plot motifs, themes and images of folklore and previous literature in Schwartz’s fairy-tale dramaturgy. To achieve this goal we need to solve the following tasks:
By using literary dictionaries and encyclopedias to outline the boundaries and scope of the concepts of “allusion” and “reminiscence”;
Understand the specifics of the organization of dramatic material in fairy tale plays;
Analyze literary parallels found in the fairy-tale dramaturgy of E. L. Schwartz.
The methodological basis of the study was a descriptive method, as well as methods of contextual and comparative analysis.
The structure of the work includes an introduction, two chapters divided into paragraphs, the content of which corresponds to the objectives, a conclusion and a list of references.
Glava1. Transformation of the plot-figurative material of Andersen’s fairy tales in the play “The Naked King” by E. L. Schwartz
The multifaceted conflict in “The Naked King” is closer to a fairy tale than in Schwartz’s previous plays (a play in 3 acts “Underwood” - 1928, a play for puppet theater“Trifles,” - 1932), and is also more universal, since there is no such obvious projection onto social reality (the manifestation of social reality is present only in some of the characters’ reservations). The play “The Naked King” has a genre defined by the author: it is a fairy tale play.
I would like to talk about one important feature of Shvartsev’s dramaturgy - his desire to actualize and make visible the meaning of the work. It is no coincidence that Schwartz uses the form dramatic work when the action takes place directly in front of the audience. This allows you to make the events of the characters’ lives more visible and tangible and experience them in real time.
However, the traditional fairy-tale conflict in “The Naked King” is significantly modernized due to the inclusion in the artistic fabric of the work of numerous allusions and reminiscences to Schwartz’s contemporary reality. A researcher of Schwartz’s work, E. Sh. Isaeva, draws attention to this, noting that “in the plays of Evgeny Schwartz, this conflict, conditioned by genre traditions, is rethought from the point of view of modern social and literary consciousness.”
In this play, for the first time, Schwartz's love line comes to the fore. The conflict in The Naked King is not just a struggle for power or wealth. Here the heroes fight for personal happiness and their freedom in spite of certain stereotypical standards, overcoming these stereotypes with the power of love. The heroes of the play can rely on their intelligence, ingenuity and skillful hands.
In the fairy tale there are not as many magical effects as in other stories; there is a minimum of magic, more often only the cunning and ingenuity of the swineherds and the princess are used. Thanks to these qualities, Henry and Christian achieve success: they easily deceive everyone - from courtiers to ministers, from gendarmes to kings. That is, in some way there is a social fairy-tale conflict: the traditional confrontation between the poor and humble hero and the rich and noble. It is interesting that in this work the princess, on the side of the swineherd, opposes the ladies of the court, the ministers and the king.
The peculiarity of this play is that to create it, Schwartz turned to European fairy-tale literature, borrowing several plots from Andersen, expanding the plot and semantic space of the fairy tale about the king’s new dress using plot material from fairy tales: “The Swineherd” and “The Princess and the Pea.”
Andersen's fairy tales: “The King's New Clothes”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “The Swineherd” - and form a reminiscent layer of the fairy tale play “The Naked King”. The first plot used by Schwartz was the fairy tale “The Swineherd.” The main difference between Schwartz’s text is that Andersen’s hero of the fairy tale is a prince, albeit poor, but with his own kingdom: “Once upon a time there was a poor prince. His kingdom was small, very small, but it was still possible to get married, but the prince wanted to get married.” In Schwartz, the hero is an ordinary swineherd who loves the princess, and does not just intend to get married, as described by Andersen:
"Henry. I looked up, ah! and there is the princess. So pretty, so cute that my heart turned over. And I decided to marry her."
However, a reader familiar with Andersen's fairy tales cannot part with the stereotypes embedded in the mind: everyone expects cruelty and coldness from the princess, an attraction to everything artificial and false. But these questions are not important to Schwartz: the conflict of his play is not at all connected with the heartless princess and the poor swineherd prince. The conflict in Schwartz's play unfolds between a swineherd and two kings, one of whom is the groom and the other the father. The princess not only immediately and completely sided with the swineherd, but also fell in love with him as sincerely as Henry did. The princess is driven solely by feelings, and not by calculation; she is not even interested in the pot around which the ladies of the court are huddled. Thus, the pot is the only magical object in Schwartz’s fairy tale, but its function is only to attract the ladies of the court and give time and opportunity to the swineherd to kiss the princess.
Schwartz's play, of course, contains elements of Andersen's fairy tale - the presence of a magic pot, a kiss, and the work of the protagonist as a swineherd. However, the princess is attracted to Henry himself, and not to the pot. Thus, the magic object simply has an auxiliary role, and, moreover, there is only one this object, although in Andersen’s fairy tale there was a rose, a nightingale, and a magic rattle. The effect of disappointed expectations has been achieved, which means that another conflict is realized in the playwright’s original fairy tale: the conflict between the reader’s assumptions and what is actually happening. Andersen's princess is greedy, greedy for beautiful toys, Schwartz's princess sincerely loves her Henry. They even have similar names (Henry and Henrietta), this similarity seems to indicate their destiny for each other, hinting at the will of fate.
Schwartz next used the plot of the fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea.” Only if Andersen's princess is unaware of her test, then Henry warns Henrietta and even instructs her to pass the test as lovers should. And when, thanks to her sensitivity, the princess in Andersen’s fairy tale “felt a pea through forty mattresses and down jackets - only a real princess could be such a delicate person” - married a prince, Henrietta behaves completely differently. She is ready (according to Henry’s plan) to lie to the king-groom, saying that she slept well. But for Evgeny Schwartz, many elements of Andersen’s fairy tales are not important, since he has other plans. However, the image of the magic pot plays an important role. The pot passed from Andersen's fairy tale to Schwartz's fairy tale “The pot is simple in appearance - copper, smooth, covered with donkey skin on top, decorated with bells around the edges. But this is deceptive simplicity. Behind those copper sides lies the most musical soul in the world. This brass musician can play one hundred and forty dances and sing one song, ringing his silver bells.” Besides, this pot could smell what was cooking in any kitchen in the city. When the princess's retinue found out about it, everyone except Henrietta became very interested in this pot. And only the princess was interested in Henry himself.
The pot could play music, so after traveling through the kitchens everyone began to dance. Henry, while dancing with the princess, started talking about a kiss as payment for the pot. He was afraid that his request would be rejected, but the princess in love offered her price - 80 kisses. Thus, the magic pot from Schwartz’s play was proof of Henrietta’s true love for Henry. And in Andersen’s fairy tale, the pot was a means of proving the stupidity and corruption of the princess, who preferred pathetic toys to true love, for the sake of which she did not disdain to kiss a dirty swineherd.
In Schwartz's play, the king-groom is very much in love with Henrietta, because it is love that is the driving force of the conflict of the work. The play depicts, in addition to the love of Henry and Henrietta, also the love of the king-groom for Henrietta.
And finally, Schwartz’s play uses the plot of the Danish storyteller’s tale “The King’s New Clothes”; The name of the play is connected precisely with this fairy tale by Andersen. If for Andersen this is an independent plot of a fairy tale about a stupid king, then for Schwartz it is only the final episode of the play. The naked king-groom appears only in the second part of the play.
The title of the play echoes Andersen's fairy tale, and at the same time differs from what the Danish storyteller wrote. Andersen still retains some intrigue in the title - it is not immediately clear what kind of outfit we are talking about; in Schwartz, such characteristics of the king as stupidity and vanity are brought immediately to the fore through the title of the play. In Andersen's work, the weavers wanted to cash in on the king's love for clothes, to mock him, they were driven by a thirst for money and others material values fraudulently without doing anything. The evil joke of Henry and Christian is revenge-exposure of the king, naked not only physically, but also morally.
The main conflict of the play is the struggle of the heroes for their happiness, and therefore for love. And young, strong, witty heroes win this fight. Christian speaks about this in the play:
"Christian. The young girl finally met her dear Heinrich! They wanted to give her to the old man, but the power of love smashed all obstacles. We welcome your righteous anger against these dark walls. Welcome us too, welcome love, friendship, laughter, joy!”
In addition to the reminiscent, there is a well-developed allusion layer in the play, and these allusions mainly relate to the time when the fairy tale “The Naked King” was written. The play contains a number of allusions to the life of the 30s - this is precisely the reality that Schwartz showed: tough military drills in the state of the king-groom with the latter's complete lack of will and stupidity. The mayor is ready to pretend so as not to participate in some dubious assignment and not to put a pea in the princess’s bed. The king-groom is very worried whether the princess belongs to a pure race: “The main thing for me is that the princess be of pure blood”; we learn that in his country it is fashionable to burn books in squares; even his ladies-in-waiting are trained in a military manner and have military ranks. Henrietta speaks sadly about this country: “Here everything is... what’s his name... miles... militarized... Everything is to the drum. The trees in the garden are lined up in platoon columns. Birds fly in battalions. And, besides, these terrible, time-honored traditions, from which it is absolutely impossible to live.”
Of course, it looks somewhat fake. And yet, all such details still do not answer with one hundred percent certainty, whose regime Schwartz showed - there are similarities with the fascist one - there are more of them, and there are similarities with Stalin’s, of course, much more insignificant. But in our opinion, such an unambiguous reference of Schwartz’s play to some real historical conditions is not necessary, since these details can be attributed to any despotic, tyrannical regime. Hints and phrases, invented with a condescending grin by the brilliant storyteller, only emphasize Henry’s conflict with stupidity, with the stereotypes of the old way of thinking of the king-groom. It is worth noting that when this play was first staged at the Sovremennik Theater in the sixties of the last century, it was perceived as a thing written on the topic of the day. Spectators saw Soviet reality in the events shown on stage, and recognized high-ranking Soviet officials in the king and his entourage.
The play, although implicitly, still shows the relationship between the government and the people, although the masses are still passive. The only thing that the people allow themselves so far is to repeat the words of the child about the naked king. Certain non-fairytale elements refer us to the reality in which Schwartz lived, through some remarks and reservations of the characters in the play. So, the minister of tender feelings says: “My mother is a blacksmith, my father is a laundress! Down with autocracy!” . This is a social phenomenon that took place in the country at that time: the descendants of the nobles, trying to adapt to the new reality, were forced to hide their origin. Thanks to this reservation, the satirical effect of the work is achieved.
IN last scenes In the play, when the king-father and the king-groom are running from an angry crowd, Schwartz makes a subtle hint about the possibility of changes in society in the event of a “revolutionary” situation, at least in moral terms. Undoubtedly, the crowd of people is still far from a decent society: open satire in every replica of the townspeople: “You crushed my watch!”, “You sat on my neck!”, “You can ride in your own carriages, if you are cramped here,” “And also wearing a helmet!”, “And also wearing glasses!” . The same thing could be heard on the streets, in transport, in queues of the Soviet country. This typical sketch made by Schwartz characterizes the contemporary reality of the playwright.
The combination of cruelty and stupidity is the most terrible thing that a ruler can offer to his subjects. And these are precisely the character qualities of the Naked King, who in the play is the main opponent of the swineherd. He addresses those close to him in the language of threats: “I’ll kill you like a dog,” “I’ll burn you,” “Yes, I’ll send you to the dungeon!” etc. Thus we can conclude that the central conflict in the play is a social conflict of status, as well as a property one. The heroes fight for freedom from the despotism of the unrighteous old government. The main conflict imperceptibly turns into the psychological subtext of the play: not only Henry and Christian are fighting with the Naked King for the princess, also in the souls of ordinary people, the inhabitants of this kingdom, there is a struggle between stupid slave psychology and obedience to the ruler and an irresistible desire to say what you think, feeling yourself free. And the loud cry of the little boy came in handy: the child shouted that the King was naked after all, and the people took up this cry.
In “The Naked King,” the opposition of good and evil receives socio-historical concretization due to the introduction of realities into the work, giving it a timeless fairy tale world recognizable features of a particular era and circumstances. In this play by Schwartz, the love story of two young hearts and the story of the tyranny of an obscurantist king are contrasted. The ending of the play “The Naked King” speaks more about the victory of the young and energetic heroes, but it is still an open ending, forcing the reader to think out the tale. It is this ending that makes the reader think about what he read.
In the play “The Naked King” by E. L. Schwartz, there is a clear division of characters into “positive” and “negative”. Since the characters in Schwartz's dramaturgy are borrowed from already well-known fairy tales by Andersen, Schwartz uses recognizable images to show them from other sides, to involve the reader in controversy, destroying the stereotypes that exist in his mind. Schwartz completely painlessly brings together fairy-tale plots with new life problems; he does not replace some character traits with others, but, as it were, expands or clarifies them, adding new features to them.
Each of Schwartz's characters is a typical and at the same time original hero. In “The Naked King,” the plot motifs of three such Andersen fairy tales as “The Swineherd,” “The King’s New Clothes,” and “The Princess and the Pea” sounded in a new way. To the main characters of the Danish storyteller: the swineherd, the princess, the king, the ladies of the court, ordinary people- new ones have been added.
The characters in the play are Henry and his friend Christian, Princess Henrietta, the king-father, the king, ladies-in-waiting and court ladies, ministers, gendarmes and soldiers. And, of course, the common public - ordinary people- townspeople of the fairy-tale kingdom where the events described in the play take place.
Henry is a young swineherd who falls in love with a princess. He is ready to talk about his beloved day and night. Despite his romantic attitude, Heinrich is a man of action. To invite the princess on a date, he came up with a magic cauldron with bells. Henry fell in love with the princess not for selfish reasons, but at the behest of his heart and was ready to do anything for the sake of his beloved: “There is no one braver than me. “I kissed your daughter and now I’m not afraid of anything,” this is what the young man says to the King, who intends to separate the lovers, because it is indecent for a princess to marry a swineherd.” The young man really loves the princess: he trusts her, takes care of her, knows how to support her and do something pleasant with his attentive attitude. This is his first love - real, faithful, for life. He had paid attention to girls before, but he hadn't fallen in love like that.
Heinrich is young, handsome, has a kind soul and is happy with his friends. His best friend is Christian, a weaver by profession - a jack of all trades. Christian supports his friend and helps him not only with advice, but also with deeds. Together these two young men are capable of much. They set off to accompany the princess on the journey her father has sent her on. All along the way they accompanied Henrietta, invisibly present where she was. They appeared before her eyes at the most necessary moments and gave her confidence that everything would be fine and that they would not harm the princess.
So, they first played the role of gendarmes, then skilled weavers. The young people manage, by playing on the stupidity of the representatives of the nobility, to force both the king-groom and his entourage to play by the rules beneficial to Henry and Christian. They cleverly convinced the king that he simply needed a new outfit. Two friends managed to show the true face of a stupid king with the habits of a tyrant. And thanks to their resourcefulness, the friends also received money for their services and the best silk for Henrietta’s wedding dress.
The most unpleasant character is, of course, the king who wants to marry Henrietta. A tyrant, a tyrant, a fool - this is hardly a good match for a beautiful princess. The king is obsessed with his delusional ideas, he is not entirely adequate in his desire to be a great ruler, because for this he started the fashion of burning books and ordered his ladies-in-waiting to engage in military training. In order to appear more formidable and warlike, the king put everything in the kingdom on a military footing: “Everything is to the drum. The trees in the garden are lined up in platoon columns. Birds fly in battalions. And, besides, these terrible, time-honored traditions, from which it is absolutely impossible to live.” This is the opinion of a princess who finds herself in a foreign country, and his royal stupidity does not allow him to be critical of those around him, and of himself, first of all. The king loves the flat and stupid jokes of his jester. And the jester makes just such jokes, far from wit and wordplay, because he has well learned the rude habits and needs of his master and knows how to please him.
The king loves flattery. When the first minister calls the king a great man, a giant, etc., the king says: “Let me kiss you. And never be afraid to tell me the truth to my face. I'm not like other kings. I love the truth, even when it is unpleasant." It is clear that we are not talking about any truth, the minister just knows how to please his master. The maids of honor are also happy to please the king, so they allow various liberties to His Majesty. The king does not want the princess because he has been told that, despite her impeccable morals, she is not of pure blood. The king is preparing to send Henrietta back to her father.
But his plans quickly change radically, because he fell in love with the princess at first sight, because the king had never seen such a beauty before. Under the influence of his feelings, the king no longer remembers the purity of Henrietta’s blood and is ready to sign any decree confirming this very purity. Wanting to look the best way, the king orders his outfit from two skilled weavers. This outfit, according to the weavers, can only be seen by those who are smart and take their place. Otherwise you won't be able to see the fabric. Since the king is subject to delusions of grandeur, he is confident that he will see the amazing fabric of the suit: “Of course, I have nothing to worry about. First of all, I'm smart. Secondly, I am completely unfit for any other position other than the royal one.” It does not even occur to the king that even if the fabric were real, it would still not be worth sewing an outfit from it, because many would still be able to see him naked due to the declared properties of the material. However, the immense stupidity of the pompous king does not allow him to build a simple logical chain.
The king is rude, he is easily irritated, and does not tolerate objections. His conceit, fueled by the courtiers, knows no bounds. He does not see the absurdity of his rule, the complete lack of common sense. He doesn't want to notice the obvious: the princess doesn't love him. The fear of being branded stupid and occupying the wrong place forces the king to go naked into the square.
The king fell in love with Henrietta as soon as he saw her. And this is not surprising. The princess is very beautiful. Heinrich also notes her extraordinary charm: “The main thing is that she is very white. Give me a sip from the flask. And pretty. And cute. You walk through the yard, and she flaunts herself in the window like a flower... And I’m like a pillar, in the yard, with my hands pressed to my heart...” But she is not only good in appearance, her soul is also good, tender, loving and pure. Henrietta will trust her Henry, she is sure that he will not hurt her and will certainly save her from a terrible marriage. She never doubted her beloved for a minute, even when it seemed to her that Henry was far away. The princess is smart, resourceful, and brave: she managed to pull the beards of almost all the bearded men in the kingdom. She does not become despondent when she thinks that Henry is far away. She is, of course, scared, but she can overcome her fear and is even ready to kill the king if there is no other way to get rid of her hated marriage.
All these heroes are recognizable and modern at all times. Their characters and actions differ from Andersen's heroes. There is a social status conflict in the play. The love line is superimposed on political and property conflicts.
Thus, the plot of Schwartz’s play “The Naked King” was modernized by including numerous reminiscences and allusions to Schwartz’s contemporary reality in the artistic fabric of the work. Schwartz wrote a modern play with recognizable political and social conflicts. Dangerous allusions very easily conveyed similarities with real prototypes. Exactly this main reason the long silence of The Naked King.
Chapter 2.Reminiscent layer of the play by E.L. Schwartz "Shadow"
“Shadow” is a fairy tale play by Evgeniy Schwartz, written in 1938-1940. Has the same name as Andersen's fairy tale, which is invisibly present in Schwartz's play. This is evidenced, firstly, by the epigraphs, and secondly, by the off-stage presence of the Danish storyteller in the play. So, it turns out that Andersen is a friend of the scientist who ended up in a southern country. Quotes from Andersen's fairy tale and autobiography are taken as an epigraph. Using epigraphs: “...And the scientist became angry not so much because the shadow left him, but because he remembered famous story about a man without a shadow, which everyone in his homeland knew. If he now returned home and told his story, everyone would say that he set out to imitate others ...” and “Someone else’s plot seemed to enter my flesh and blood, I recreated it and then only released it into the world,” Schwartz explains that he In no case did he copy a well-known fairy tale, but on the contrary, he completely rethought it, let it pass through himself, and only then presented it to the readers.
Indeed, the difference between the two works is enormous. It is not only in such detail that the events in the drama unfold over several days, while in the fairy tale - over several years, or in the fact that in the play the scene of action is a southern country, and in the fairy tale the scientist leaves it, but also in the irreconcilable clash of different life philosophies, different life ideals, various life values.
“The fairy-tale drama “The Shadow” carries within itself the main conflict of time, the conflict of good and evil, the struggle between fascism and the forces opposing it.” Reinterpreting the famous fairy tale allows the playwright to reflect on such problems as the relationship between true life and false life, show the mechanism of human suppression, explore the spiritual nature of a “normal” person, his ability to succumb to such influences as manipulation. Schwartz emphasizes the most important qualities of the heroes, among which the priority is energetic spirituality, courage, strength, and a sense of humor.
In Schwartz's play, we meet a young scientist who came to a southern country. To a young man twenty-six years old, and he is a romantic and a dreamer who is glad that in a southern country the fairy tale is true. However, Annunziata warns him that some fairy tales may have a sad ending and asks him to be careful. Annunziata is the daughter of the innkeeper. She is a very kind and sweet girl. She is always ready to help others. The girl grew up without a mother, but this did not stop her from becoming a good person. She has a wonderful character - easy-going and friendly. This black-haired girl with large, lively black eyes does not sit idle. This is Annunziata - a real fairy-tale princess, whose kind heart must be rewarded. She immediately realized that the scientist was a very good person, and it is a good person who always gets into more trouble than others. When trouble happened to the scientist, she alone did not abandon him, but remained faithful to the end.
The scientist is truly a very good person. No wonder Annunziata fell in love with him at first sight. He personifies goodness. In the play, he is contrasted with such heroes as the Shadow, the first minister, the minister of finance and others. In Schwartz's play, the Scientist is a selfless and honest person who dreams of making all people happy. Love and trust are not empty words for him.
The scientist dreams of saving the whole world, but has not yet figured out how to do it. At the beginning of events, the young man is distinguished by his naive simplicity; all people seem good to him. He never expected that his Shadow would be so treacherous and vile. Gradually, in the fight against the Shadow, the Scientist becomes a more mature and courageous person.
Julia Julie, who happened to be in his room, also immediately notes that the young guest has the kind and nice face of a real person. Julia Julie, like Annunziata, notes his manner of speaking - calmly and beautifully, with respect for the interlocutor. Julia Julie herself smiles all the time and pretends to be short-sighted, because she is afraid for her position in society and does not trust anyone. She is a famous singer with whom the Minister of Finance is in love. Her duality gives her a touch of drama: she betrays the scientist so as not to lose her glory, and at the same time tries to help him.
And a random acquaintance talks about the tenant from room 15. In her opinion, “he is a terribly restless person. He wants to please everyone in the world. He is a slave to fashion. For example, when sunbathing was in fashion, he tanned to the point that he became black as a black man. And then tanning suddenly went out of fashion. And he decided to have the operation. The doctors transplanted the skin from under his underpants - it was the only white place on his body - onto his face." He has now become completely shameless, but he works for a newspaper, which means he is part of a circle of real people who are artists, writers, courtiers and are distinguished by elegance, lack of prejudice and understanding of everything in the world. By the way, Julia herself is not a model of virtue: her behavior is an allusion to Andersen’s fairy tale about a girl who pissed on bread so as not to get her new shoes dirty. She has grown up since then and “again steps on good people, on her best friends, even on herself - and all this in order to keep her new shoes, stockings and dresses.” She likes the scientist and Annunziata, because they are very different from her usual social circle. She tries to maintain friendly relations with them. However, like a real princess, she is faced with a choice. Julia has to choose either to betray the person she likes, or to disobey the order of the Minister of Finance. And when the minister threatens to expose her privacy newspapermen, the famous singer surrenders. She, also smiling, betrays Christian Theodore. Julia confirmed that the Shadow was Christian Theodore, although the scientist trusted her. However, until the end of the play, a struggle takes place in the soul of Julia Julie, but a comfortable, familiar life is more valuable to her. But Annunziata considered Julia a true friend of the scientist.
Julia is drawn to the scientist. She understands how good and decent a person he is. But she is forced to maintain a relationship with another hotel resident because he is doing everything possible to be among the chosen few.
A scientist is not famous and therefore cannot enter the circle of real people with whom he can and should communicate. Julia understands that the scientist is much better than many from this circle, and is ready to forgive him for his lack of fame. As the plot develops, the scientist personally meets the tenant from room 15, who dreams of power, honor and money. Having learned that his name is Caesar Borgia and that he also works in a pawnshop, the scientist was amazed at the number of cannibals in this city. In this case, one cannot help but notice the allusion to a well-known historical fact: Cesare Borgia is a famous Italian nobleman in the 15th century, famous for his boundless ambition, as well as for his treachery and bloodthirsty cruelty. Caesar Borgia craves success and money and is ready to do anything for this. It was he who discovered a convenient way to get rid of unwanted people: “It is easiest to eat a person when he is sick or has gone on vacation. After all, then he himself does not know who ate him, and you can maintain the most wonderful relationship with him.” He wants to please everyone in the world: “I want power, honor, and I’m terribly short of money. After all, I, Caesar Borgia, whose name is known throughout the country, must also serve as a simple appraiser in the city pawnshop.”
The beginning of the intrigue of the action is a conversation with Annunziata, during which the scientist learns about the details of the last reign and about the mysterious will of Louis the Ninth the Dreamy. He was completely disappointed with his surroundings and his activities and therefore bequeathed to the princess to find herself “a kind, honest, educated and intelligent husband. Let it be an ignorant person." Annunziata asks the scientist not to think about the princess for two reasons. The first is that he cannot cope with the competition, because there are too many people in the state who want to marry the princess. And the second is that Annunziata fell in love with the scientist.
Having met a girl from the opposite balcony who lives in a neighboring house, the scientist is fascinated by her. But the girl does not believe anyone or anything, which, in general, is not surprising in such a country. Christian Theodore, that is the name of the scientist, declares his love to the girl and is sure that she is the princess. A significant dialogue takes place between them:
"Young woman
Well, let it be. You have a very strange face.
When you speak, it seems as if you are not lying.
I'm really not lying.
All people are liars.
Not true.
No, really. Maybe they don’t lie to you - you only have one room - but they always lie to me. I feel sorry for myself.
What are you saying? Are you being bullied? Who?
You pretend to be attentive and kind so cleverly that I want to complain to you.
Are you that unhappy?
Don't know. Yes.
So. All people are scoundrels.
Do not say that. This is what those who have chosen the most terrible path in life say. They mercilessly strangle, crush, rob, slander: who should you feel sorry for - after all, all people are scoundrels! .
He is ready to save her from malignant anemia, which makes the princess’s life seem like death. He jokingly turns to his Shadow and invites her to entertain the princess. But Christian Theodore does not even suspect that the Shadow will literally take advantage of his offer and leave his master. When this happened, the scientist felt an inexplicable malaise.
In Andersen's fairy tale, the Shadow, having left its owner, ended up in the house of Poetry, while in Schwartz it went straight to the princess. Andersen's shadow was able to live without its owner; Moreover, she completely subjugated the good scientist. And the Shadow in Schwartz’s play is dependent on a person. If something happens to Christian Theodore, then the same will happen to the Shadow. When talking with a scientist, the Shadow is forced to feint, pretend, and adapt, while the Shadow of Andersen’s fairy tale immediately took a dominant position.
After his Shadow disappeared, his attitude towards the scientist changed. Pietro considers him a fool and does not want this story to become public. He and Borgia conspired to find the Shadow in order to destroy the master. And only Annunziata is sincerely saddened by this event, because she knows that “a man without a shadow is one of the saddest fairy tales in the world.” She also understands that those around her will not forgive Christian Theodore for the fact that he is a very good person. And this is not surprising, because there are a huge number of cannibals and simply dishonest people in the country.
The two ministers also say that the scientist is a good person, simple, honest and smart. These ministers represent their country in the best possible way: they are suspicious, unprincipled, corrupt. And everyone is measured by themselves. The Minister of Finance was poisoned with poisons, which he himself sold to the poisoner, knowing why he was buying them. But the Minister of Finance made a huge profit:
"Majordomo
No, for Mr. Minister of Finance. He is seriously ill.
Assistant
And what happened to him?
Majordomo
He is the richest businessman in the country. His rivals hate him terribly. And so one of them committed a crime last year. He decided to poison Mr. Minister of Finance.
Assistant
Horrible!
Majordomo
Don't be upset ahead of time. Mr. Minister of Finance found out about this in time and bought all the poisons that were in the country.
Assistant
What happiness!
Majordomo
Don't rejoice ahead of time. Then the criminal came to Mr. Minister of Finance and gave an unusually high price for the poisons. And Mr. Minister acted quite naturally. The minister is a real politician. He calculated the profit and sold the scoundrel his entire stock of potions. And the scoundrel poisoned the minister. His Excellency's entire family deigned to die in terrible agony. And he himself has been barely alive since then, but he earned two hundred percent net from this. Business is business. Understood?" .
The doctor says that in a country where people suffer from acute satiety, the scientist will continue to get sick “until he learns to look at the world through his fingers, until he gives up on everything, until he masters the art of shrugging his shoulders.” . All these phraseological units, which the doctor so conveniently uses to cover himself up, mean indifference to everything, teach to show indifference. But the scientist refuses to look at the world this way even in the most difficult times.
But the shadow thrives. Unlike Andersen's fairy tale, the Shadow in the play immediately came to the princess. It was with Andersen that the Shadow first began to succeed, and met the queen only on the waters, where she went with the scientist, her master. The shadow gradually took a dominant position and got rid of the man when the scientist decided to tell everyone - and especially the princess - the truth. Sensing a real threat to her position, the cunning and insidious Shadow presented the matter as if her shadow had gone crazy. The princess proposed, for the sake of humanity, to take the life of the one who was presented to her as the shadow of her chosen one. That’s what was done: the scientist was dealt with, and the Shadow married the princess.
In the play, having gone to the princess at the request of the scientist, the Shadow very quickly gained the girl’s trust. The shadow told her what dreams the princess had and thus bribed her. Gradually, the shadow began to occupy important positions, moving up the career ladder. Then the shadow, whose name was so similar to the name of the scientist, tricked the scientist into signing a false paper, with the help of which she was able to convince the princess of Christian Theodore’s dishonesty:
“Shadow (takes out paper from a folder)
Sign this.
Scientist (reading)
“I, the undersigned, resolutely, irrevocably and finally refuse to marry the crown princess of the kingdom, if in exchange for this I will be provided with fame, honor and wealth.”
Are you seriously asking me to sign this?
Sign if you are not a boy, if you are a real person.
What's wrong with you?
Please understand, we have no other choice. On one side are the three of us, and on the other are the ministers, privy councilors, all the officials of the kingdom, the police and the army. We can't win in a direct fight. Believe me, I have always been closer to the ground than you. Listen to me: this piece of paper will calm them down. Tonight you will hire a carriage; you will not be followed. And in the forest we will sit in your carriage - the Princess and I. And in a few hours we are free. Understand that you are free. Here is a traveling inkwell, here is a pen. Sign it.
OK then. Now the princess will come here, I will consult with her and, if there is no other way out, I will sign it.
You can't wait! The First Minister gave me only twenty minutes. He doesn’t believe that you can be bought, he considers our conversation a mere formality. The killers on duty are already sitting with him and waiting for orders. Sign it.
I really don't want to.
You are a killer too! By refusing to sign this pathetic piece of paper, you are killing me, your best friend, and the poor, helpless princess. Will we survive your death?
Okay, okay. Come on, I'll sign. But just... I will never come so close to palaces again in my life...
signs the paper."
The shadow is going to marry the princess. Everyone supports her, because the courtiers are more accustomed to dealing with a mean and deceitful person: they know how to behave with him, since they themselves are the same. But Christian Theodore is too kind, honest and decent for them. This has no place at court. And you can't buy it. In a conversation with Shadow, the scientist refuses to support her.
“People do not know the shadow side of things, namely, in the shadows, in the twilight, in the depths, that which gives acuteness to our feelings lurks. In the depths of your soul I am,” says the Shadow in Schwartz’s play. The situation of the disappearance of the Shadow was developed not only by Schwartz and Andersen. The Shadow is the hero of several other works of world literature. Thus, the shadow in Chamisso’s work is nothing more than an external attribute accepted in society, a person’s reputation. “The Amazing Story of Peter Schlemiel” is a novel written in 1814. The hero of this amazing story- a poor man named Peter Schlemiel. He, unable to resist the temptation, sells his shadow to the devil for a magic wallet, always full of money. However, this did not bring him happiness.
Those around them resolutely refuse to deal with a person who has no shadow. Shlemil tries to get his shadow back and meets with a mysterious stranger, but he can’t get his shadow back. Various poor people were the first to notice Shlemil's lack of shadow and sympathize with him. Wealthy people, on the contrary, gloated over Shlemil’s inferiority. All this suggests that, having lost his shadow, the hero of the story has lost some very important human qualities that are valuable in social terms. It seems that the shadow of the hero Chamisso is associated with human dignity. After all, it is the shadow that allows a person to appear openly in sunlight, that is, not to be afraid of attention to his person, not to be afraid of being the subject of public viewing. But the loss of the shadow involuntarily forces the victim to be in darkness, to stay in the shadows, because he is ashamed to appear in society. The owners of a good shadow in the story are honest, generous people, not corrupted by the morality of the merchant world. This is, first of all, Peter himself. Before meeting the “man in gray,” he was the owner of a strikingly beautiful shadow, which he cast from himself and did not notice it himself. True human dignity, according to Chamisso, is possessed by modest people with a clear conscience. And it is characteristic that poor people, young girls, children - those who are most sensitive to issues of a moral nature - react especially sharply to Shlemil's lack of shadow. Shlemiel breaks off his alliance with the devil and throws away his wallet. But he is unhappy among people because he lost his love. But he finds happiness in communicating with nature, traveling around the world in the seven-league boots he found. The purpose of his life was to study nature. Depicting the difficult life of his hero, a noble and honest man who finds himself expelled from among officials, merchants and townspeople, Chamisso shows the deep insignificance of this environment. Turning to Chamisso’s work, Andersen reworked the wandering plot; in his tale, the conflict moves into the mental plane.
Andersen's philosophy in his tale is bitter. The reality is that smart people They try solely for the sake of good, but their intelligence and kind heart do not help them. The winners are those who strive for their own benefit, and these, as a rule, are shameless people. They are the ones who win. There are no comforting moments in Andersen's tale. “Such is the light, so it will remain,” says the Shadow.
The shadow from Andersen's fairy tale commits betrayal. In her nature there are such negative qualities as meanness, cynicism, callousness, which are the sources of any evil. Evil is concentrated in the image of the Shadow of Andersen's fairy tale. She wants to ensure that the scientist is done away with.
The shadow in Schwartz’s play could steal from Christian Theodore his name, appearance, his bride, his works; she hates the scientist with the keen hatred of an imitator (“She will never forgive him in his life for having once been his shadow”) - but anyway, she couldn’t do without the Scientist. And Schwartz creates his own version of the end of the conflict between the Scientist and the Shadow. It is fundamentally different than in the fairy tale of the Danish storyteller. If Andersen's Scientist was defeated by his Shadow, which could easily do without a person, then Schwartz's Shadow could not emerge victorious. “The shadow can only win for a while,” the playwright asserted.
In Andersen's fairy tale, psychological evil is embodied in the personality of the pompous and mediocre Shadow; it is in no way connected with the social environment and social relations thanks to which the Shadow manages to triumph over the Scientist. Starting from Andersen's fairy tale, developing and concretizing its complex psychological conflict, Schwartz changed it ideologically philosophical meaning.
Schwartz's play becomes a work where the main motive is the struggle between good and evil. However, this is not a struggle between abstract evil and abstract good. In Schwartz's play there is an allusion to the historical era of the 30s that is clearly felt by the reader. 20th century, when hopes for the rapid destruction of fascism completely dissipated. It spread throughout Europe, there was a war in Spain, Hitler was preparing Germany for war. However, life in our country was not cloudless: everywhere, at first glance, life was in full swing, records were made and achievements were made in the most different areas, in honor of the heroes, bravura music sounded. And if you look closely, you could see how the country lived, hiding, cowering, under the yoke of repression, which was grinding down more and more destinies. The machine of repression was launched and in full swing in our country.
A researcher of Schwartz’s dramaturgy E. M. Taborisskaya writes: “As a side, but very important motive, the play runs through the theme of ideological compromise as the destruction of the individual.” Along with the images of the scientist and Annunziata, Schwartz showed in “The Shadow” a large group of people who, through their weakness or servility, , or they encouraged the shadow through meanness, allowed it to become insolent and unbelted, and opened the path to prosperity for it.
In one of the scenes in The Shadow we see a crowd gathered at night in front of the royal palace; the shadow that succeeds in meanness and trickery becomes the king, and in the short remarks of people, in their indifferent chatter, you can hear the answer to the question of who exactly helped the shadow achieve its goal. These are people who care about nothing except their own well-being - outright people-pleasers, lackeys, liars and pretenders. They make the most noise in the crowd, which is why it seems that they are the majority. But this is a deceptive impression; in fact, most of those gathered do not like the shadow. No wonder the cannibal Pietro, who now works for the police, appeared on the square, contrary to orders, not in a civilian suit and shoes, but in boots with spurs. “I can confess to you,” he explains to the corporal, “I deliberately went out in boots with spurs. Let them know me better, otherwise you’ll hear so much that you won’t sleep for three nights.”
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Servant to the King:
“Let me tell you straight, bluntly, like an old man:
You - great person, sir!
Schwartz E.L., The Naked King / Plays, M.-L., “Soviet Writer”, 1982, p. 87.
He studied, but did not graduate from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, because he became interested in the theater, where he played as an actor. Despite the positive assessments of his roles, E.L. Schwartz left the stage and from the early 1920s worked as a literary secretary K.I. Chukovsky, later – a journalist.
Since 1924 he worked in the children's editorial office of Gosizdat under the leadership S.Ya. Marshak in Leningrad.
“Now it’s hard to imagine how fun we were. Panteleev recalled how in 26, for the first time in his life, he came to the children's department of the State Publishing House and asked our neighbors in the scientific department how he could find Oleynikova or Schwartz. At this time, the next door opened and from there he was on all fours shouting: “I am a camel!” a young curly-haired man jumped out and, without noticing the spectators, disappeared back. “This is Oleinikov,” said the editor of the scientific department, expressing no feelings - neither surprise nor condemnation, apparently accustomed to the behavior of his neighbors.”
Schwartz E.L., I live restlessly... (from diaries), L., “Soviet Writer”, 1990, p. 241.
In 1948 Evgeny Schwartz wrote the play “An Ordinary Miracle”, where the king easily justifies his atrocities:
“King: I am a terrible person! [...] Despot. And besides, I am cunning, vindictive, capricious. [...]
And the most offensive thing is that it’s not my fault...
Owner: And who?
Hostess: Isn’t it possible to resist?
King. Where there! Along with the family jewels, I inherited all the vile family traits. Can you imagine the pleasure? If you do something nasty, everyone grumbles, and no one wants to understand that it’s your aunt’s fault. [...]
Uncle! He’ll start talking the same way, sometimes, with whomever he has to, he’ll tell three stories about himself, and then he’ll feel ashamed. And his soul was subtle, delicate, easily vulnerable. And in order not to suffer later, he would even poison his interlocutor. [...] Uncle, uncle, uncle! There's nothing to smile about! I am a well-read and conscientious person. Another would have blamed his meanness on his comrades, on his superiors, on his neighbors, on his wife. And I blame my ancestors as if they were dead. They don't care, but it's easier for me. [...] Answer yourself, without blaming
neighbors, for all their meanness and stupidity - beyond human strength!
I'm not some kind of genius. Just a king, like a dime a dozen.”
The first collection of plays was published in 1956 E.L. Schwartz. Previously, several plays had been banned by the authorities after their premiere.
“The main stylistic device that ensured the originality of Shvartsev’s dramaturgy and glorified it was the method of stylistic contrast, an unexpected combination of different stylistic layers. That’s why they became so etched in my memory, they turned into winged quotes and all these famous phrases of Schwartz were included in the idiom of the Russian intelligentsia: The brute does not want to understand that the main thing in our journey is subtle feelings.(A rude curse is inserted into a statement stylized in the spirit of sentimental prose.) I can provide you with a complete list of his crimes, which are still [...] are just scheduled for execution.(The fabulous crime is narrated in the language of bureaucratic negotiations.) Have pity on the heir killers...(The word “murderers” is inserted into the infantile-sentimental formula.) ...What kind of life was this without a king! We are simply yearning!(Official patriotic exclamations are complemented by phrases in the style of “ cruel romances».) Give me a pose of extreme nonchalance.(A purely descriptive phrase is used in direct speech, and even addressed to the speaker himself.) Mom, shoot him!(In an emphatically everyday tone, it is proposed to kill a person.) Actually, the same principle of stylistic paradox underlies all the characters in Schwartz’s dramaturgy: stupid kings, businesslike robbers, infantile ministers, Baba Yaga, tenderly lisping to herself, a poet who also works as an executioner ( sic!), etc. It was a deliberate exposure of the technique.”
Losev L.V., Me (moires) E.L. Schwartz / Solzhenitsyn and Brodsky as neighbors, St. Petersburg, Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2010, p. 237.
“The fact of the influence of creativity Hans Christian Andersen for dramaturgy Evgeniy Shvarts obvious. Three of his plays - “The Naked King”, “The Snow Queen” and “Shadow” are written on Andersen’s plots, and one of them - “Shadows” - is preceded by Andersen’s famous words from “The Tale of My Life”: “Someone else’s plot, as it were, entered my flesh and blood, I recreated it and then only released it into the world.” This could not help but attract the attention of researchers, although the problem, of course, is not exhausted, especially since when first addressing it, the emphasis was placed on the actual ideological and substantive points of similarity or difference between storytellers - which was natural for the era of weakening ideological prohibitions.”
Isaeva E.I., Hans Christian Andersen and Evgeniy Schwartz, in Sat.: Along the celestial rainbow beyond the world: on the 200th anniversary of H.K. Andersen / Rep. editors N.A. Vishnevskaya et al., M., “Science”, 2008, p. 134.
“There are people who work talentedly in the traditions of Schwartz - say, Gorin with his “That Same Munchausen”, “Herostratus”, “The House That Swift Built”..."
Zarubina T., About Schwartz, Neva magazine, 1991, N 10, p. 207.
Only concreteness and historically accurate coverage of life facts in the works of a true artist can serve as a springboard to the broadest generalizations. In world literature of various eras, frankly topical pamphlets reached, as is known, the heights of poetic generalization and at the same time lost nothing in their immediate political acuteness. It can even be argued that political acuity did not so much hinder their universal human content as enhance it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that psychological analysis in Schwartz’s fairy tales is, in most cases, social analysis. For, from the point of view of the storyteller, the human personality flourishes only where it knows how to coordinate its interests with the interests of others, and where its energy, its spiritual strength serve the good of society. These motives can be heard in the most different fairy tales Schwartz.
The objective historicism of thinking did not kill the storyteller in Schwartz, but gave his fantasies high irrefutability and philosophical depth. Historical specificity and even objectivity have never in any way prevented works of art from rising above time. The more accurately, subtly and deeply Evgeniy Schwartz fulfilled his historically specific mission as a pamphleteer, the naturally wider artistic significance his creations acquired both for his time and for all future times. There is, of course, nothing new or paradoxical in this. The distance between today and the eternal is reduced by the depth of thinking and the talent of the artist, and it would be naive to think that they can be opposed to each other within one artistic biography. The greatness of artistic insight and understanding raises the present to the heights of the eternal, just as the pettiness of the artist’s intentions and his ideological and moral myopia reduce the eternal to the level of the instantly transient.
All this, perhaps, would not be worth talking about if the attempt to contrast Schwartz, “an angry pamphleteer, a passionate, irreconcilable son of his century, with some fictitious “universal” storyteller, did not carry within itself the poison of a very ambiguous aesthetic demagoguery. If you succumb to this demagoguery, you will not have time "look back and see before you an ideologically emasculated and benevolent Santa Claus, obviously separated from the dominant social conflicts in life and deeply alien to the everyday life of our historical development. Such an interpretation of Schwartz's work does not help, but hinders the wonderful storyteller from confidently moving into the future."
Already during the war, in 1943, Schwartz returned to this idea in the play “Dragon”, the anti-fascist and anti-war orientation of which was realized in a pamphlet full of anger and indignation, humanistic passion and inspiration. The writer had the idea for this play a long time ago, long before the Nazis attacked our country. Reflecting on the events, the general significance of which no one doubted, the writer turned to their psychological mechanism and the consequences they left in human consciousness. Asking himself the question that worried millions of people for many years - how could it happen that Hitlerism found such mass support in Germany - Schwartz began to peer into the very nature of philistine opportunism and compromise. It was the nature of this opportunism that explained to him much of what happened in Germany over the years following Hitler's rise to power.
The large political and satirical load did not deprive the fairy tale created by Schwartz of its poetic ease, and it was not without reason that Leonid Leonov at one time spoke of this play as a fairy tale that is “very elegant, filled with great lampooning acuity, great wit.” Poetry and political depth, topicality and literary subtlety appeared here hand in hand and in complete agreement with each other.
"Dragon" depicted a country languishing under the rule of an evil and vengeful monster, whose real name was not in doubt. Already in the remark describing the appearance of the Dragon in the house of the archivist Charlemagne, it was said: “And then an elderly, but strong, youthful, blond man with a soldier’s bearing. He has a crew cut. He smiles broadly.” (p. 327) slowly enters the room. “I am the son of war,” he frankly recommends himself. “The blood of the dead Huns flows in my veins, it is cold blood. In battle I am cold, calm and precise” (p. 328). He could not have held out even a day if not for the tactics he had chosen. His tactics are that he attacks suddenly, counting on human disunity and the fact that he has already managed to gradually dislocate, in the words of Lancelot, their souls, poison their blood, kill their dignity.
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