Shakespeare Hamlet complete analysis of the work. W. Shakespeare "Hamlet": description, characters, analysis of the work. Analysis of the tragedy “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”

Prototype Hamlet was served by Prince Amlet, the son of the ruler of Jutland, Gorvendil, and the daughter of the Danish king Rerik, Geruta. At the time of the murder of his father by his brother Fengon, who later became the husband of Geruta, the Jutlandic hero was at a young age, but, having matured, was forced to hide his intelligence and cunning under the guise of madness. Fengon's first attempt to bring Amleth to clean water was a girl sent to him (who was in love with the prince and warned him about treason). The second time the Jutland ruler tried to take off the prince’s mask by arranging for him to have a frank conversation with his mother. The conversation ended with the murder of the king's adviser hiding under the blanket and Geruta's repentance.

In the literary treatment of the historical plot, Shakespeare periodically departs from the original source: the relationship between Geruta and Fengon begins from the moment of their wedding (in the play they partially serve as the reason for the murder of old Hamlet), Amlet, sent to England, changes his uncle’s order to kill the courtiers accompanying him and betroth himself to the daughter of the English king (in the play, Hamlet, captured by pirates, does not even reach England). The ending of the story of the Jutland prince is truly dramatic: he returns to the country for his own funeral feast, during the feast he gets the royal couple and courtiers drunk, then covers them with a carpet, nails the latter to the floor and sets the palace on fire. Shakespeare's denouement is less predatory in nature: every death in it is natural and associated with the resolution of one or another moral, ethical or philosophical problem.

The murder of the King of Jutland by Fengon was carried out openly, the murder of old Hamlet takes place secretly. The appearance of a ghost entrusting his son with the task of revenge, the presence of an obstacle to take revenge, a love motive, the introduction of a “scene within a scene” into the plot (the play “The Murder of Gonzago” performed by metropolitan tragedians), the machinations of the main villain aimed at the “avenger” and turning against him , are classic features genre"tragedy of bloody revenge", the creator of which is Shakespeare's predecessor Thomas Kyd.

Hamlet waits, Hamlet prepares his revenge, breaking his mother’s heart with cruel but truthful words about her betrayal of not only the memory, but also the life of the king, the accidental murder of the royal adviser - the cunning rogue Polonius, and the sending to death of the “friends” assigned to him - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern . Laertes, in whose fate the Danish prince sees "reflection of one's destiny", does not expect anything: he is ready to put to death his father’s killer the very moment he sees him, even if he is in the chapel. The understanding that the true culprit of the tragedy is Claudius comes to the son of Polonius only on his deathbed.

The image of Hamlet's faithful friend - Horatio in the play he is contrasted with his childhood “friends”, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who follow the king’s lead. The Danish prince feels good with the first one - he can have a heart-to-heart talk with him, ask for any, even the craziest favor (for example, follow Claudius’s facial expressions during a performance), trust his life (by summoning him with a letter and telling him about Claudius’s plan to kill him ); Hamlet perceives the latter as guards assigned to him, unworthy not only of trust, but even of ordinary serious conversation. Annoyed by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's attempts to understand the movements of his soul, Hamlet angrily compares himself to "worthless thing"- an instrument that courtiers can torment, but are unable to play.

Symbolism The tragedy is simple and understandable. If a person is a tool, then death is a skull, the identity of which can only be established through human memory. The bones of the royal jester Yorick are no different from the remains of the great commander Alexander the Great. Decay is the result of physical life, and what is its spiritual continuation is unknown to Hamlet. Hence his famous question "to be or not to be?". Submit to fate or fight it? Die to get rid of "natural torment"? And will it work? Which "dreams" will a person dream about it beyond the threshold of the grave? Is death worth death and life worth life? It is ignorance that gives people the strength to live: to put up with brutal violence and untruth, contempt and rejected love - all those misfortunes that end when a person dies. But do they end? The absence of an exact answer to a question is the only possible answer that gives meaning to human life. Until it is received, while a person doubts, reflects, suffers, tries to understand what surrounds him, he lives.

Introduction Shakespeare character plot Hamlet

The tragedy "Hamlet - Prince of Denmark" was written by William Shakespeare in 1600-1601. In those same years, this play was staged at the Globus Theater. The play consists of five acts and is the longest play written by Shakespeare. The tragedy is based on the legend of the Prince of Denmark, where the prince seeks revenge for the death of his father. The play is relevant to this day, this can happen in any country at any time, in the book “My Friend Sergei Dovlatov.” The student returned home after graduating from college, and his father died under strange circumstances, and his mother lives with his brother.

I chose this play not only because of my love for William Shakespeare. But because this is one of the author’s greatest works, although it is obscured in modern times, films have already been made, plays have been staged in theaters, with their own additions and modifications. People's opinions about this work differ. Therefore, I decided to analyze this play and perhaps see what others will not write or say. Express your opinion. Before analyzing this play, I had one opinion, subjective, philistine, now having at least some skills, I looked at the tragedy from the other side. And this is what I got.

The play "Hamlet - Prince of Denmark" consists of five acts; The action takes place in Elsinore.

Brief retelling of the plot:

Hamlet cannot come to terms with his father's death; he believes that his father's death was not accidental, but a malicious murder. Later, Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, who talks about the regicide, and here Hamlet also doubts the veracity of the ghost’s words. Hiding behind a mask of madness, Hamlet finds a way to verify what his father’s ghost told him. Hamlet wants to restore justice, that is, take revenge. And it leads to a series of tragic events, almost everyone dies.

Here we see several parallel plot lines: the murder of Hamlet’s father and Hamlet’s revenge, the death of Polonius and Laertes’ revenge, Ophelia’s love story, Fortinbras’s line, the development of the episode with the actors, Hamlet’s trip to England. Based on all of the above, we can say that the plot is complex - woven (multi-level).

Peripeteia. The first twist, or rather a dramatic situation. This is the appearance of the ghost and conversation with Hamlet. In the conversation, Hamlet learns about the regicide, the ghost demands revenge. Hamlet becomes infected with the idea of ​​revenge for his father. Hamlet puts on a mask of madness in order to make sure that the ghost’s words are correct. Hamlet's internal state changes, his ideals have collapsed. In order to verify the veracity of the ghost’s words, Hamlet asks the visiting actors to play a scene, the so-called “mousetrap” scene. Thanks to this scene, Hamlet finds confirmation in the words of the ghost, because Claudius was present at the actors’ performance and could not hide his emotions and, without waiting for the end of the performance, retired to his chambers. Next, Hamlet has a chance to kill Claudius during his prayer, but Hamlet did not allow himself to be killed from behind, since Hamlet did not become like his father’s murderer. Hamlet goes to his mother to reveal the secret of his father's murder. In this scene there is a twist, after which the course of action reaches its climax, after which the action develops rapidly. This is the murder of Polonius. Hamlet, being in the Queen's chambers, realizes that they are being overheard. Hamlet thinks it was Claudius hiding behind the carpet. Without hesitation, Hamlet pierces the carpet with the words “Rat!” Polonius falls and dies. Hamlet made a mistake and said: “Misfortunes have begun, prepare for new ones!”

The role of recognition in the play is great. The first recognition is a meeting with a ghost, the second recognition is in the scene with the “mousetrap”, followed by the fatal recognition - the murder of Polonius, after which Hamlet is sent to England where he is to be executed, he learns this from the letter that Claudius handed to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet flees when their ship is attacked. Upon his return, Hamlet learns of Ophelia's death, at which point Hamlet has already weakened his ardor for revenge.

There are several conflicts in the play, but I chose one, the most important one, which runs through the entire play. This is an internal conflict. Hamlet longs for revenge, but for him revenge is not just murder. He is concerned about the fate of the century, the meaning of life. The main question: to be or not to be? To be for him means to think, to believe in a person, to act in accordance with his convictions, that is, to be on the side of good. Not to be is to die. But Hamlet rejects such a decision.

Hamlet longs not so much for Claudius's death as for his exposure. Hamlet is obliged to fulfill his duty, that is, to take revenge. All this leads him to an internal conflict with himself.

The conflict ends when Hamlet returns. This can be seen in the scene in the cemetery. When Hamlet picks up Yorick's skull and asks the question “To be or not to be?” The monologue “To be or not to be” is the highest point of the hero’s thoughts and doubts. The point is, did Hamlet stop at these reflections or are they a transitional step to further things? The action of the play clearly shows that, no matter how important the monologue is, no matter how deep its thoughts, Hamlet’s spiritual development did not stop there. Although important, it is just a moment. Yes, he reveals to us the soul of the hero, who finds it extremely difficult in the world of lies, evil, deception, and villainy, but who nevertheless has not lost the ability to act.

The initial conflict is that the country is in martial law, Fontibrass’s army is marching on Denmark to establish its own law. It turns out that Hamlet is mad and cannot lead the army, the country remains defenseless.

The plot is set up by all five scenes of the first act, and it is clear that the moment of highest excitement is Hamlet's meeting with the Ghost. When Hamlet learns the secret of his father's death and the task of revenge is entrusted to him, then the plot of the tragedy is clearly defined.

Starting from the first scene of the second act, the action develops, arising from the plot: Hamlet’s strange behavior, causing the king’s fears, Ophelia’s grief, and the bewilderment of the others. The king takes measures to find out the reason for Hamlet's unusual behavior. This part of the action can be defined as complication, “increase”, in a word, the development of a dramatic conflict.

The second stage of the action includes the monologue “To be or not to be?”, and Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia, and the presentation of the “mousetrap”. The turning point is the third scene of the third act, when all this has already happened and the king decides to get rid of Hamlet. Is this too much for a punchline? Of course, you can limit yourself to one thing, for example, exposing the king: the king guesses that Hamlet knows his secret, and from here everything else follows. Hamlet finally gained confidence that he had reasons for action, but at the same time he gave away his secret. His attempt to act resulted in him killing the wrong person. Before he can strike again, he will be sent to England.

It has already been said that the tragedy reveals in the course of the action the relationship between all the main characters: Hamlet - Claudius, Hamlet the queen, Hamlet - Ophelia, Hamlet - Polonius, Hamlet - Laertes, Hamlet - Horatio, Hamlet - Fortinbras, Hamlet - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; Claudius - Gertrude, Claudius - Polonius, Claudius - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Claudius - Laertes; Queen - Ophelia; Polonius - Ophelia, Polonius - Laertes; Laertes - Ophelia.

Hamlet is a man of philosophical thought. The ability to think delays his actions in the fight. The events that take place at court lead Hamlet to general conclusions about man and the world in general. If such evil is possible in the world, if honesty, love, friendship, human dignity perish in it. Hamlet is distinguished by his nobility. He is capable of great and faithful friendship. He values ​​people for their personal qualities, and not for the position they occupy. His only close friend turns out to be student Horatio. Hamlet is loved by the people, as the king speaks with alarm about.

Polonius is a resourceful courtier with the guise of a sage. Intrigue, hypocrisy, and cunning became the norm of his behavior in the palace and in his own home. Everything with him is subject to calculation. His distrust of people even extends to his own children. He sends a servant to spy on his son, makes his daughter Ophelia an accomplice in spying on Hamlet, without worrying at all about how this hurts her soul and how it humiliates her dignity. He will never understand Hamlet's sincere feelings for Ophelia, and he ruins him with his vulgar interference.

Gertrude is a weak-willed, although not stupid, woman. Behind her majesty and external charm, you cannot immediately determine that the queen has neither marital fidelity nor maternal sensitivity. Hamlet's biting, frank reproaches addressed to the Queen Mother are fair. And although at the end of the tragedy her attitude towards Hamlet warms up, the accidental death of the queen does not evoke sympathy among readers, since they see in her an indirect accomplice of Claudius, who herself turned out to be an unwitting victim of his next atrocity. Then, obeying her father, she dutifully helps carry out the “experiment” over the supposedly insane prince, which deeply hurts his feelings and causes disrespect for himself.

Laertes is straightforward, energetic, brave, loves his sister tenderly in his own way, wishes her well and happiness. But judging by how, burdened by home care, Laertes strives to leave Elsinore, it is difficult to believe that he is very attached to his father. However, having heard about his death, Laertes is ready to execute the culprit, be it the king himself, to whom he took the oath of allegiance. He is not interested in the circumstances under which his father died, and whether he was right or wrong. The main thing for him is to take revenge. The viewer understands the state of Laertes the son, but until he enters into an agreement with the king, and completely does not accept Laertes when he goes out to compete with the prince, having a poisoned weapon: Laertes neglected knightly honor, dignity and generosity, because before With the competition, Hamlet explained to him and Laertes extended his hand to him. Only the proximity of his own death, the consciousness that he himself was a victim of Claudius’s treachery, forces him to tell the truth.

The image of Claudius captures the type of bloody usurper monarch so hated by humanists. While maintaining the mask of a respectable person, a caring ruler, a gentle spouse, this “smiling scoundrel” does not bind himself to any moral standards. He breaks his oath, seduces the queen, kills his brother, and carries out insidious plans against the rightful heir. At court, he revives old feudal customs, indulges in espionage and denunciations. Claudius is shrewd and careful: he cleverly prevents Fortinbras from attacking Denmark, quickly extinguishes the anger of Laertes, turning him into an instrument of reprisal against Hamlet.

Conclusion

Hamlet has attracted many generations of people. Life changes, new interests and concepts arise, and each new generation finds in tragedy something close to itself. The power of tragedy is confirmed not only by its popularity among readers, but also by the fact that for almost four centuries it has occupied one of the first, if not the very first place in the repertoire of theaters in Western countries, and is now conquering the stages of theaters of other cultures. Productions of the tragedy invariably attract spectators. The popularity of Hamlet in recent decades has been greatly facilitated by its film adaptation and television showings. Two films received especially wide recognition: one directed by English actor Laurence Olivier, the other created by Soviet director Grigory Kozintsev. To understand Hamlet and sympathize with him, you don’t need to find yourself in his life situation - to find out that his father was villainously killed, and his mother betrayed her husband’s memory and married someone else. Of course, those whose fate is at least partly similar to Hamlet’s will more vividly and acutely feel everything that the hero experiences. But even with the dissimilarity of life situations, Hamlet turns out to be close to readers, especially if they have spiritual qualities similar to those inherent in Hamlet, a tendency to peer into themselves, immerse themselves in their inner world, painfully perceive injustice and evil, feel other people’s pain and suffering as their own own.

Bibliography

1. “Hamlet - Prince of Denmark: Tragedy” / Trans. from English B. Pasternak. - St. Petersburg.

Publishing house ABC 2012

William Shakespeare's tragedy “Hamlet” is popular and known all over the world today. The image of Hamlet remains close to his contemporaries, and the problems raised in the work are still important today.

What is the central problem of the tragedy?

The prince is faced with the question of restoring justice, but not personal, but general. Hamlet's father was killed, his uncle illegally seized the throne.

Hamlet's question is not just a question of personal revenge, but a problem of honor, without which life is unthinkable. What should Hamlet do? How to take revenge? Or how to restore the true order of things in the world?

It is difficult for Hamlet to make a choice, because not only his fate depends on his decisions. He is the prince of Denmark, and a prince cannot be free in his actions, as Laertes wisely notes.

From the very first acquaintance with Hamlet, it becomes clear that he is smart, quick-tempered and straightforward. Without hesitation, he rushes to meet the Phantom. But why does Hamlet hesitate with retribution?

Just revenge, ordinary murder in response to murder, does not suit the prince. He makes it clear to the king that he knows about his crime, which instills fear in Claudius, forcing him to remember every hour what he has done, and this is the beginning of punishment, and not a personal settling of scores.

Hamlet decides to first expose the king in order to verify the truthfulness of the Ghost's words. This fact only says that the hero wants to be fair in his decisions and actions. He feigns madness, turning everyone against him except his old friend Horatio. But Polonius and the king realize that madness is just a mask hiding something from others.

Hamlet, pretending to be crazy, gains the right to be frank, to express what he, as a prince, and simply as a person, could not express. He calls Polonius as honest as a fishmonger. These are not the words of a madman, but in that world such straightforwardness was impossible, so it is perceived by others as a disorder of reason.

Hamlet himself, throwing off the mask of madness, says to his mother:

My pulse, like yours, keeps time

And just as cheerful. No violations of meaning

In my words. Ask again -

I will repeat them, but the patient could not.

In the name of God, throw away your balm!

Don't console yourself with the idea that everything is a disaster

Not in your behavior, but in me.

Everyone who doesn’t like Hamlet’s words and his revelations considers the prince sick. This makes it easier to deal with your conscience. Hamlet plays the role of a sick man, he is a talented actor, it is not for nothing that the visiting theater helped him so much in exposing the king.

Everything hidden and secret in the theater can be exposed to the public. Let us remember what Hamlet says to the actors.

“Each violation of the measure deviates from the purpose of the theater, the purpose of which was and will be: to hold, so to speak, a mirror in front of nature, to show valor its true face and its true baseness, and to each age of history its unvarnished appearance.”

The desire for justice in the world shown by Shakespeare is only possible in a hidden way. Hamlet plays the role of a mentally ill person in order to have the right to tell the truth under the guise of madness.

“All the world is a stage,” said Shakespeare. And only under the cover of play can people become truthful.

Hamlet is straightforward, but is in no hurry to demonstrate his feelings. He loves, believes, without showing off his soul. Only Hamlet hates openly. The prince was outraged by Laertes’ desire to publicly kill himself and suffer over the loss of his sister. Here Hamlet seems to repeat the words of one of Shakespeare’s own sonnets:

I love you, but I talk about it less often

I love more tenderly, but not for many eyes.

The one who is in front of the light sells feelings

He puts his whole soul on display.

(Sonnet 102)

Such straightforwardness in expressing feelings and at the same time restraint in manifestations of love are uncharacteristic of the role of a prince, who has no control over his life, and therefore has no right to personal frankness at all.

And the longer Hamlet is tormented by the need for revenge, the more he understands its uselessness and meaninglessness.

The image of Hamlet in this situation is contrasted with Laertes, who found himself in a similar situation: Laertes’ father was killed by Hamlet, Ophelia died, having gone mad due to the death of her father. But Laertes will also be satisfied with personal revenge. He is ready to secretly kill Hamlet with a poisoned blade; blood vengeance is enough for him.

Laertes is not as highly moral a person as Hamlet, who worries about general justice; it is enough for him that his personal justice triumphs. Laertes is punished: he dies by chance, exchanging swords with Hamlet.

Laertes: I deftly laid out my nets, Osric.

And he ended up in them for his cunning.

But Hamlet is not like that. Even while dying, he asks Horatio to tell the whole truth about what happened, otherwise there is no point in what he did. If the king's deeds were not known, why were there all these deaths?

Hamlet understands the pointlessness of personal revenge, understands what the secret murder of the king, Claudius’s marriage to the widow queen, illegal possession of the crown is - all this is possible only in a split, changed and unjust world. Hamlet strives for justice, understanding his destiny, therefore he says:

The connecting thread broke for days.

How can I connect their scraps!

The prince was burdened with an unbearable burden of restoring balance in the world. There is no place for honesty and truth among the selfish and cunning servants of the throne, and Hamlet understood this.

What could he alone change? How can one avoid descending into simply settling personal scores and fighting for the crown?

To be or not to be, that is the question. Is it worthy

Resign yourself to the blows of fate,

Or must we resist

And in mortal combat with a whole sea of ​​troubles

End them? Die. Forget yourself.

But Hamlet considers death a shameful flight. He must do something. The prince will not decide to kill, he understands that it will not solve anything, and he does not know how else to do it, and at that time there were no other methods of punishment for such terrible crimes that King Claudius committed. That is why Prince Hamlet suffers, waits, listening to the call of his heart, asking his mind to give advice, but his mind tells him that there is no way out.

Hamlet is presented to us not only as an avenger and a man with insulted honor. The tragedy talks a lot about his love for Ophelia. The prince himself admits more than once that he loved Polonius’ daughter.

What kind of love is this? Ophelia, being an obedient daughter, actually agrees to betrayal: she allows her conversation with Hamlet to be overheard.

What was the reason for such treacherous behavior of the young girl? It is difficult to answer this question unequivocally. Perhaps Ophelia was too young, that is, she simply was not a person and did not understand that she was committing betrayal towards her loved one. Maybe she was just flattered at the time that the prince was courting her, and she had no feelings for Hamlet himself. How could a loving woman not understand that Hamlet is not mad at all? Or was she too young for such insight?

How could Hamlet himself, if he loved Ophelia, play madness in front of her, and then calmly enough endure the murder of her father?

There are many questions, and all the answers to them are ambiguous, because love in this tragedy did not become the driving force and did not save anyone.

The theme of love in Hamlet is in second place, and most importantly - duty, honor, justice.

Marina Tsvetaeva in her poem “Hamlet’s Dialogue with Conscience” shows us Hamlet, who, blinded by his grief and thirst for revenge, forgot about true love, and made his beloved one of the puppets of his performance.

Ophelia could not bear the burden of misfortune that fell upon her and died. With It turned out that it was Hamlet who caused the death of his beloved, because he killed her father. Could this happen in a world where there is a place for true love? No.

There is another interpretation of this topic. Hamlet may simply be a truly loving person who understands perfectly well that if he opens up to Ophelia, she will betray him. He loves her, knowing that the girl is not yet capable of high feelings, he loves her as she is. This is the very case when the object of love is not worth the feelings you have for it. Hamlet, from this point of view, is a man betrayed by everyone except his old friend Horatio.

The image of Hamlet was understood by playwrights in different ways. The Prince of Denmark was also presented as a straightforward, intelligent person, in a state of complete despair because he was forced to take revenge, fully understanding the futility and meaninglessness of revenge, which would not change the world around him. In this situation, the monologue “To be or not to be...” sounds like a cry of despair. A wonderful interpretation of Hamlet’s tragedy is given in the poem “My Hamlet” by Vladimir Vysotsky.

Hamlet was also presented as a soft, calm person, who did not find the strength within himself for revenge, which was the only correct way out. Then the monologue “To be or not to be...” sounds like an attempt to understand the situation, in oneself, to force oneself to commit an act, to gain courage. The peace-loving Hamlet suffers, but does not take revenge.

However, in any interpretation, the essence of the tragedy is presented clearly: a person who wants to live his life with dignity, in harmony with his conscience, has no place in this world. That is why Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, dies.

Dante's Inferno - analysis

(For more details, see the separate article by Dante “Hell” - description)

“I think for your own good you should follow me. I will show the way and lead you through the lands of eternity, where you will hear cries of despair, see mournful shadows that lived on earth before you, calling for the death of the soul after the death of the body. Then you will also see others rejoicing in the midst of the purifying flame, because they hope to gain access to the dwelling of the blessed. If you wish to ascend to this dwelling, then a soul that is more worthy than mine will lead you there. It will remain with you when I leave. By the will of the supreme ruler, I, who never knew his laws, was not allowed to show the way to his city. The whole universe obeys him, even his kingdom is there. There is his chosen city (sua citt?), there stands his throne above the clouds. Oh, blessed are those who are sought by him!

According to Virgil, Dante will have to experience in “Hell”, not in words, but in deeds, all the misery of a person who has fallen away from God, and see all the futility of earthly greatness and ambition. To do this, the poet depicts in the “Divine Comedy” an underground kingdom, where he combines everything he knows from mythology, history and his own experience about man’s violation of the moral law. Dante populates this kingdom with people who have never strived to achieve through labor and struggle a pure and spiritual existence, and divides them into circles, showing by their relative distance from each other the different degrees of sins. These circles of Hell, as he himself says in the eleventh canto, personify Aristotle’s moral teaching (ethics) about man’s evasion from the divine law.

Map of Hell (Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration by Sandro Botticelli for Dante's Divine Comedy. 1480s

Evasion from the divine law, according to the Divine Comedy, begins with wild sensuality and ends with deliberate evil, a crime against God, the fatherland and benefactors. The degrees of sins of the same kind are determined, according to Dante, by the distance between concentric and at the same time constantly deepening circles. The various kinds of sins are distinguished in turn to indicate their origin. Swamps, coffins, walls, gates, the horrors of Medusa and the Furies separate inquisitive philosophers in the kingdom of Pluto from the place of execution of those who indulged the flesh and sacrificed the mind to sensuality (al talento). The vast gorge along which the monster of the underworld, the hippogriff, a symbol of lies, flies, separates those who deliberately abused their reason from those who sinned as a result of daring courage. Virgil and Dante are brought to the underworld by one of the giants who once besieged Olympus and fought with the gods.

Sandro Botticelli. Hell. Illustration for Dante's "Divine Comedy". 1480s

The space of hell is further divided by rivers, symbolically depicting all degrees of secret remorse that tear apart the soul upon awakening of the consciousness that the false goal of life was chosen. Those who, through no fault of their own, have never known the highest human purpose, are separated from real sinners by a river, which the ancients called joyless (Acheron). The space where those who, relying on their own reason, despised moral teaching, are imprisoned is surrounded by a river of hatred and horror (Styx); the gods themselves tremble before her. In the river of fire (Phlegethon) the lawless are languishing, who allowed themselves violence, instead of chivalrously defending the right - retribution for evil with equal evil, for violent self-satisfaction - with the eternal unquenchable fire of passionate desires. In the lower sphere of hell, Cocytus flows in drops, muffledly murmuring; humanity freezes in its ice. In the depths of the ice, next to an angel deprived of heaven for selfishness, the poet finds traitors to the fatherland and between them Carlino, who betrayed Piano to the Pisans, and Bocca degli Abbati, who was responsible for the defeat of the “whites” in 1304. The symbol of the selfish sinner, Lucifer, who abused the divine mind against God , forms the deepest point of hell. From her the path of repentance goes upward, since the sight of Lucifer and everything around him awakens feelings of deep repentance in the soul.

Analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet

William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet" depicts a new type of hero at that time - the humanist hero. As the work progresses, Hamlet tries to solve complex moral and ethical problems and find the truth. He performs his actions on the basis of philosophical reflections.

One of the main moral and philosophical issues that concerns Hamlet is the problem of revenge. To take revenge on the murderer of your father, to punish evil and thereby prolong the chain of atrocities? Or reconcile, endure and forgive? Is it worth defending against the blows of fate? At the end of the work, Hamlet comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to endure evil endlessly. But humanity still does not have a clear answer to this eternal question.

The motives of the mystery of life and the riddle of death also excite Hamlet. "To be or not to be?" - he asks himself this famous question in a monologue. What is life, and what awaits people outside of it? Dream? Or something different? How is it that one blow of a dagger can forever erase a person’s entire world with his feelings and experiences? Or is this impossible? At the grave of the jester Yorick, Hamlet ponders where earthly glory goes: the arrogance of the courtiers, the fussy servility of the servants, the military valor of the generals, the beauty of society ladies.

Another moral and philosophical motif of the work is reflections on loyalty and devotion. Hamlet reflects on his devotion to his father. He is deeply struck by the imminent wedding of his mother with the brother of her late husband: “the redness from tears has not yet left the eyelids, the boots in which she accompanied her father’s coffin are still intact”: “Oh, women, your name is treachery!” Hamlet reflects on how people in society are “worthless, flat and stupid” in their desires for crude gain.

The tragedy "Hamlet" was written by Shakespeare during the Renaissance. The main idea of ​​the Renaissance was the idea of ​​humanism, humanity, that is, the value of every person, every human life in itself. The Renaissance (Renaissance) first established the idea that a person has the right to personal choice and personal free will. After all, previously only the will of God was recognized. Another very important idea of ​​the Renaissance was the belief in the great capabilities of the human mind.

Art and literature in the Renaissance emerge from the unlimited power of the church, its dogmas and censorship, and begin to reflect on the “eternal themes of existence”: on the mysteries of life and death. For the first time, the problem of choice arises: how to behave in certain situations, what is correct from the point of view of the human mind and morality? After all, people are no longer content with ready-made answers from religion.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, became a literary hero of a new generation during the Renaissance. In his person, Shakespeare affirms the Renaissance ideal of a man of powerful mind and strong will. Hamlet is able to go out alone to fight evil. The Renaissance hero strives to change the world, influence it, and feels the strength to do this. Before Shakespeare, heroes of this magnitude did not exist in literature. Therefore, the story of Hamlet became a “breakthrough” in the ideological content of European literature.

"Romeo and Juliet", an artistic analysis of William Shakespeare's tragedy

The history of the creation of Shakespeare's world-famous tragedy is rooted in folk tales about two Italian lovers and their artistic adaptations that appeared in the literature of Italy (Luigi de Porto, “The Newly Discovered History of Two Noble Lovers and Their Sad Death, Which Occurred in Verona in the Time of Signor Bartolomeo della Scalo” , 1524; Matteo Bandello “Four Books of Novels”, 1554; Luigi Groto “Adriana”, 1578) throughout the 16th century. The plot of the play was developed by an English playwright based on Arthur Brooke's poem “The Tragic History of Romeus and Juliet”, 1562). The original title of the work, dating from 1593-1596 (the exact time of the play’s birth cannot be determined), was listed as “The Most Excellent and Sad Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.”

The genre of the work - tragedy - is established in accordance with the literary traditions of the Renaissance and is determined by an unhappy ending (the death of the main characters). Consisting of five acts, the play opens with a prologue that briefly summarizes the plot of Romeo and Juliet.

The composition of the tragedy at the plot level has a symmetrical structure. In the first act there is a clash between the servants of the Capulets and the Montagues, then between the nephews of the latter - Tybalt and Benvolio, then the heads of the warring families, the Prince of Verona and Romeo, appear on the stage. In the third act, the clash between the Capulets and the Montagues is repeated: this time the prince's relative and friend Romeo - Mercutio and Tybalt and Tybalt and Romeo - are involved in the fight. The outcome of the first duel is the death of Mercutio, the outcome of the second is the death of Tybalt. The clash ends with the Capulet and Montague spouses appearing on stage, and then the prince making a decision that would be fatal for Romeo to expel him from Verona. The fifth act again returns the plot to the usual dueling course: this time the battle takes place between Paris (a relative of the prince, Juliet's supposed husband, that is, a potential Capulet) and Romeo. Paris dies at the hands of Romeo, Romeo kills himself with poison under the influence of insurmountable circumstances imposed on him by the will of Juliet's father. The fifth act and the whole tragedy ends with the appearance of the Capulet spouses, Montagues and the prince, the reconciliation of families and the posthumous reunion of Romeo and Juliet - in the form of golden statues standing next to each other.

The second and fourth acts of the play are devoted to the development of the love line: in the second act, Romeo and Juliet are explained and prepared for the wedding, in the fourth, Juliet, trying to avoid remarriage, takes the terrible path of reunification with her beloved husband. The death of the girl at the end of the work looks natural both from the point of view of historical norms and from the position of the passion that was inherent in the young heroes of the tragedy: Juliet could not live without Romeo, if Romeo was gone, Juliet was gone.

The death of children (Romeo and Juliet) - successors of the family traditions of the Montagues and Capulets - puts a decisive point in the conflict of the warring Verona families, both on the plot and moral level.

The main idea of ​​the play is to affirm the new moral values ​​inherent in Renaissance man. The heroes, guided in their feelings by passion, go beyond the usual framework of traditions: Romeo decides on a secret marriage, Juliet does not pretend to be a bashful lady, and both of them are ready to go against the will of their parents and society in order to be together. The love of Romeo and Juliet has no barriers: they are not afraid of either life with its sensual side or death.

The artistic image of Juliet is evolutionarily more changeable than the image of her lover. Unlike twenty-year-old Romeo, who has already known passion in the person of the unapproachable Rosaline and goes ahead in his relationship with the young Capulet, fourteen-year-old Juliet moves forward in her feelings almost by touch, guided only by what her heart tells her. The girl is afraid of the expressed love confession, the wedding night, the gloomy family tomb. Having learned about the death of her cousin Tybalt, she first of all blames Romeo for this, but quickly pulls herself together, is ashamed of her instant betrayal and takes her husband’s side in this conflict. Juliet's hesitations are due to her young age, lack of life experience, and gentle feminine nature. Romeo's violent passion and masculine essence do not allow him to doubt any of his actions.

A special worldview characteristic of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, combining Christian and pagan traditions, was reflected in Shakespeare’s tragedy in the artistic images of brother Lorenzo and the rituals he performs (confession, wedding, burial) and Mercutio, who tells Romeo the story of the queen of fairies and elves - Mab. Religious asceticism and pagan exuberance of life were also manifested in the sharp change in mood of the Capulet family - from funeral, due to the death of Tybalt’s nephew, to wedding, in connection with the supposed wedding of Juliet. The girl’s father does not see anything wrong with marrying off his daughter after three days from the death of her cousin: for this period of history, such haste is normal, because it allows you not to grieve too much over the irreparable.

The cultural component of the era was expressed in descriptions of such customs as the arrival of uninvited, but familiar to the host of the holiday, guests under masks (Romeo with friends in the Capulet house), a challenge to a duel through biting a thumbnail (the image of Samson - one of the Capulet servants), the arrival of the groom in the bride's house on the wedding day in order to wake up her betrothed (Paris's entry into the Capulet house), the adoption of the image of a torchbearer by the guest who does not want to dance during the ball (Romeo, in love with Rosaline, who does not want to have fun with his friends).

The tragic basis of “Romeo and Juliet” does not negate the inclusion in the fabric of the narrative of comic elements associated with the prosaic jokes (the main language of the tragedy is poetic) of Mercutio and Juliet’s nurse. The social difference between the characters determines the theme of their jokes: the noble friend Romeo does not stoop to folk humor, while the nanny of young Capulet enthusiastically recalls an anecdotal incident from her pupil’s childhood, which has a frankly intimate nature (Juliet, who hit her face, boldly answers the nurse’s husband that when When she grows up, she will only fall on her back).

Don Quixote: analysis of the work

The hero of the novel “Don Quixote” lives for ideals. These are the knightly ideals of nobility, honor, courage, which he read about in books. Don Quixote becomes a knight errant and on his way strives to protect the weak and oppressed and fight the enemy.

The problem of Cervantes' Don Quixote lies in the contradiction between Don Quixote's knightly ideals and reality, which is not at all ideal. Having read chivalric novels, the main character saddles a horse and goes to fight evil. Don Quixote's imagination turns the nag into the war horse Rocinante, and out of the village girl into the beautiful noble lady Dulcinea, to whom he dedicates his knightly "deeds." Farmer Sancho Panza becomes the knight's squire.

Don Quixote's imagination stubbornly supports his beautiful knightly illusion. He imagines that the lady of his heart lives in a palace, because that’s the only way beautiful ladies should be. Don Quixote believes in the truthfulness of chivalric romances; it would never even occur to him that they are fiction.

But the ideal world in which Don Quixote believes does not exist in reality. But reality demonstrates a global discord with the ideal. The reader sees that reality is not like the knight’s beautiful fairy tale, and the old man himself is, alas, not a mighty hero at all. Don Quixote sees a castle in his imagination, but in reality it is an inn. He rushes to fight the giants, and the reader sees that in fact they are just mills. Hence the catchphrase: “to fight the mills.”

Don Quixote tries to protect the unfortunate, however, it turns out even worse. So, the village boy, for whom Don Quixote stood up, received even more beatings from his owner after that. The boy ends up cursing all the knights errant. The convicts who were freed by Don Quixote, instead of gratitude, threw stones at him and Sancho. Don Quixote imagines that he meets another knight errant and takes away his copper shield, but in fact this man is a barber who covered his head with a copper basin in the rain.

The book world does not talk about money, about everyday problems, about the cold and hunger that await the traveler on his way. But from the very first steps, Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza have to face the harsh material world.

The only place where the ideal world of chivalry is supposedly revived is the ducal castle. But its residents were simply too carried away by pranks, hoaxes and jokes.

The conflict between ideal and reality in the novel “Don Quixote” lies in the fact that the protagonist’s attempts to do good and establish justice are unsuccessful. This romantic “is not a warrior alone in the field.” The lonely knight errant Don Quixote, even with the best intentions, even without sitting idle and trying to do good deeds, cannot change anything for the better in the world around him.

Quixote is a parody of a knight, and Cervantes's novel is a witty and apt parody of knightly novels. The hero is often funny, the reader feels sorry for him. The image of Don Quixote is an “eternal” image. It reflects a person’s selfless desire to defend goodness and justice, to profess noble, high ideals - the so-called “quixoticism”. For the sake of his ideals, the hero shows great courage, he is able to sacrifice himself. This commands real respect.

"Notre-Dame de Paris", an artistic analysis of the novel by Victor Hugo

The idea for the novel “Notre Dame de Paris” arose from Hugo in the early 20s and was finally formed by mid-1828. The prerequisites for the creation of an epoch-making work were natural cultural processes that took place in the first third of the 19th century in France: the popularity of historical themes in literature, the appeal of writers to the romantic atmosphere of the Middle Ages and the public struggle for the protection of ancient architectural monuments, in which Hugo took a direct part. That is why we can say that one of the main characters of the novel, along with the gypsy Esmeralda, the bell ringer Quasimodo, the archdeacon Claude Frollo, the captain of the royal riflemen Phoebus de Chateaupert and the poet Pierre Gringoire, is Notre Dame Cathedral itself - the main scene of action and the invisible witness of key events of the work.

In working on the book, Victor Hugo relied on the literary experience of Walter Scott, a recognized master of historical novels. At the same time, the French classic already understood that society needed something more vibrant than his English colleague, operating with typical characters and historical events, could offer. According to Victor Hugo, it should have been “...at the same time a novel, a drama and an epic, of course, picturesque, but at the same time poetic, real, but at the same time ideal, truthful, but at the same time at the same time majestic" (magazine "French Muse", 1823).

“Notre Dame de Paris” became exactly the novel the French writer dreamed of. He combined the features of a historical epic, a romantic drama and a psychological novel, telling the reader the incredible private lives of different people, taking place against the backdrop of specific historical events of the 15th century.

The chronotope of the novel, organized around the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris - a unique architectural monument that combines the features of Romanesque and Gothic architecture - includes Parisian streets, squares and districts scattering from it in all directions (Cathedral and Grève Square, Cité, University, City, “Courtyard of Miracles”, etc.). Paris in the novel becomes a natural continuation of the Cathedral, towering over the city and protecting its spiritual and social life.

Notre Dame Cathedral, like most ancient architectural monuments, according to Hugo, is the Word embodied in stone - the only restraining force for the rude, uneducated Parisian people. The spiritual authority of the Catholic church is so great that it easily turns into a refuge for Esmeralda, accused of witchcraft. The inviolability of the temple of the Mother of God is violated by the royal archers only on the orders of Louis XI, who asked for prayerful permission for this act from his heavenly patroness and promised to bring her a beautiful silver statue as a gift. The French king has nothing to do with Esmeralda: he is only interested in the revolt of the Parisian mob, who, in the opinion of Louis XI, decided to kidnap the witch from the Cathedral in order to put her to death. The fact that people are striving to free their sister and get rich at the expense of church riches does not occur to either the king or his entourage, which is an excellent illustration of the political isolation of the authorities from the people and lack of understanding of their needs.

The main characters of the novel are closely connected with each other not only by the central love theme, but also by their belonging to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris: Claude Frollo is the archdeacon of the temple, Quasimodo is a bell ringer, Pierre Gringoire is a student of Claude Frollo, Esmeralda is a dancer performing in Cathedral Square, Phoebus de Chateaupert - the groom of Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier, who lives in a house whose windows overlook the Cathedral.

At the level of human relationships, the characters intersect with each other through Esmeralda, whose artistic image is plot-forming for the entire novel. The beautiful gypsy in “Notre Dame Cathedral” attracts everyone’s attention: Parisian townspeople enjoy watching her dances and tricks with the snow-white goat Djali, the local mob (thieves, prostitutes, imaginary beggars and cripples) reveres her no less than the Mother of God, the poet Pierre Gringoire and the captain of the royal riflemen Phoebus experience physical attraction to her, the priest Claude Frollo has a passionate desire, Quasimodo has love.

Esmeralda herself - a pure, naive, virgin child - gives her heart to the outwardly beautiful, but internally ugly Phoebus. The girl's love in the novel is born out of gratitude for salvation and freezes in a state of blind faith in her lover. Esmeralda is so blinded by love that she is ready to blame herself for Phoebus’s coldness, having confessed under torture to the murder of the captain.

Young handsome Phoebus de Chateaupert is a noble man only in the company of ladies. Alone with Esmeralda - he is a deceitful seducer, in company with Jehan the Miller (Claude Frollo's younger brother) - he is a fair foul-mouthed man and a drinker. Phoebus himself is an ordinary Don Juan, brave in battle, but cowardly when it comes to his good name. The complete opposite of Phoebus in the novel is Pierre Gringoire. Despite the fact that his feelings for Esmeralda are not particularly sublime, he finds the strength to recognize the girl as a sister rather than a wife, and over time, to fall in love with her not so much as a woman, but as a person.

The unusually terrible bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral sees the personality in Esmeralda. Unlike other heroes, he pays attention to the girl no earlier than she shows concern for him by giving water to Quasimodo standing at the pillory. Only after getting to know the gypsy’s kind soul does the hunched freak begin to notice her physical beauty. Quasimodo experiences the external discrepancy between himself and Esmeralda quite courageously: he loves the girl so much that he is ready to do everything for her - not to be seen, to bring another man, to protect her from an angry crowd.

Archdeacon Claude Frollo is the most tragic character in the novel. The psychological component of “Notre Dame de Paris” is connected with it. A well-educated, fair, God-loving priest, falling in love, turns into a real Devil. He wants to achieve Esmeralda's love at any cost. There is a constant struggle within him between good and evil. The archdeacon either begs the gypsy for love, then tries to take her by force, then saves her from death, then he himself gives her into the hands of the executioner. A passion that finds no outlet ultimately kills Claude himself.

« Madame Bovary", an artistic analysis of the novel by Gustave Flaubert

The novel “Madame Bovary” is based on the real story of the Delamare family, told to Flaubert by his friend, the poet and playwright Louis Bouillet. Eugene Delamare, a mediocre doctor from a remote French province, married first to a widow and then to a young girl, became the prototype of Charles Bovary. His second wife, Delphine Couturier, languishing in bourgeois boredom, spending all her money on expensive clothes and lovers and committing suicide, formed the basis for the artistic image of Emma Rouault/Bovary. At the same time, Flaubert always emphasized that his novel was far from a documentary retelling of the real story and at times he even said that Madame Bovary does not have a prototype, and if she does, then it is the writer himself.

Five long years passed from the birth of the idea to the publication of the work. All this time, Flaubert carefully worked on the text of the novel, which originally had a thousand pages and was trimmed to four hundred. In Madame Bovary, like in no other work of the French classic, his unique artistic style was manifested, consisting of laconicism, clarity of expression of thought and extreme precision of words. Working on the novel was not easy for Flaubert. On the one hand, it was unpleasant for him to write about the vulgar life of the average bourgeois, on the other, he tried to do it as best as possible in order to show the reader all the ins and outs of provincial bourgeois life.

The artistic problems of the novel are closely connected with the image of the main character - Emma Bovary, who embodies the classic romantic conflict, which consists in the pursuit of an ideal and rejection of base reality. The young woman’s mental turmoil, meanwhile, takes place against a purely realistic background and has nothing in common with the exalted positions of the past. She herself, “for all her enthusiasm,” was a “rational” person: “in church she liked flowers most of all, in music - the words of romances, in books the excitement of passions...”. “The sensual pleasure of luxury was identified in her heated imagination with spiritual joys, the elegance of manners with the subtlety of experiences.”

Emma, ​​who received a standard female upbringing in the Ursuline monastery, has been drawn to something unusual all her life, but every time she is faced with the vulgarity of the world around her. The first disappointment overtakes the girl immediately after the wedding, when instead of a romantic holiday in the light of torches she receives a farmer's feast, instead of a honeymoon - everyday worries about arranging a new home, instead of a stately, smart, career-seeking husband - kind, nothing but her an interested person, a person with ugly manners. A chance invitation to a ball at Chateau de Vaubiesard becomes crushing for Emma: she realizes how much she is unhappy with her life, falls into depression and comes to her senses only after moving to Yonville.

Motherhood does not bring joy to the main character. Instead of the long-awaited son, Emma gives birth to a daughter. She cannot buy the desired children's dowry due to lack of funds. The girl, like her father, has an ordinary appearance. Emma names her daughter Bertha - in honor of a woman unknown to her from the Vaubiesard ball - and practically forgets about her. Love for her daughter in Madame Bovary awakens along with the vain attempts to love her husband, which she makes throughout the novel, having been disappointed in one or another of her passions.

Emma's first love for the notary's assistant, the blond young man Leon Dupuis, turns into a platonic relationship full of emotional experiences. Madame Bovary does not immediately realize what is happening between her and the young man, but, having realized this, she struggles to stay in the bosom of family and public morality. In public she “was very sad and very quiet, very gentle and at the same time very reserved. Housewives admired her prudence, patients admired her courtesy, the poor admired her cordiality. And yet she was full of lusts, furious desires and hatred.” At this stage of life, Emma is kept from cheating by Leon’s own “mental lethargy” and inexperience.

After the young man, tormented by unrequited love, leaves for Paris, Madame Bovary again plunges into melancholy, from which she is pulled out by a new, already quite adult passion in the form of her first lover in her life, Rodolphe Boulanger. Emma sees the thirty-four-year-old handsome man as a romantic hero, while the rich landowner perceives the woman as just another mistress. Madame Bovary has enough sublime love for six months, after which her relationship with Rodolphe turns into “family” status. At the same time, Emma perceives the breakup with a man so painfully that, as befits all romantic heroines, she almost dies from a nervous fever.

The last stage of Emma's spiritual decline occurs with her second lover, her first beloved - Leon Dupuis. The heroes, who met several years later, already possess the promiscuity necessary to create a temporary couple and do not feel any remorse about what is happening. On the contrary, both Emma and Leon enjoy their love, but do so until another satiety sets in.

Madame Bovary's love affairs go unnoticed by her husband. Charles idolizes his wife and blindly trusts her in everything. Being happy with Emma, ​​he is not at all interested in how she feels, whether she feels good, whether everything suits her in life? This infuriates Madame Bovary. Perhaps, if Charles had been more attentive, she could have established a good relationship with him, but every time she tries to find something positive in him, he invariably disappoints her - with his spiritual callousness, his medical helplessness, even his grief that has befallen him. him after his father's death.

Confused about feelings, Emma is also confused about money. At the beginning, she buys things for herself - to have fun, calm down, get closer to a beautiful life; then he begins to give gifts to lovers, set up his love nest in Rouen, and squander money on sensual pleasures. Financial collapse leads Emma to spiritual collapse. She feels with all her soul the moral superiority of her husband, and deliberately leaves a life in which she has never found happiness. Charles forgives his wife for betrayal and loss of fortune. He loves her in spite of everything, and dies after her, because he cannot live without her.

"Idiot", analysis of the novel

"Idiot", analysis of the novel

The novel “The Idiot” became the realization of the long-standing creative ideas of F.M. Dostoevsky, his main character, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, according to the author’s judgment is “a truly wonderful person,” he is the embodiment of goodness and Christian morality. And it is precisely because of his selflessness, kindness and honesty, his extraordinary love of humanity in the world of money and hypocrisy that those around him call Myshkin an “idiot.” Prince Myshkin spent most of his life in seclusion; when he went out into the world, he did not know what horrors of inhumanity and cruelty he would have to face. Lev Nikolaevich symbolically fulfills the mission of Jesus Christ and, just like him, perishes loving and forgiving humanity. Just like Christ, the prince, tries to help all the people who surround him, he allegedly tries to cure their souls with his kindness and incredible insight.

The image of Prince Myshkin is the center of the composition of the novel; all the plot lines and characters are connected with it: the family of General Epanchin, the merchant Rogozhin, Nastasya Filippovna, Ganya Ivolgin, etc. And also the center of the novel is the bright contrast between the virtue of Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin and the usual way of life of secular society . Dostoevsky was able to show that even for the heroes themselves this contrast looks terrifying; they did not understand this boundless kindness and therefore were afraid of it.

The novel is filled with symbols, here Prince Myshkin symbolizes Christian love, Nastasya Filippovna - beauty. The painting “Dead Christ” has a symbolic character, from the contemplation of which, according to Prince Myshkin, one can lose faith.

Lack of faith and spirituality become the reasons for the tragedy that happened at the end of the novel, the meaning of which is assessed differently. The author focuses on the fact that physical and mental beauty will perish in a world that places only self-interest and profit in the absolute.

The writer astutely noticed the growth of individualism and the ideology of “Napoleonism.” Adhering to the ideas of individual freedom, he at the same time believed that unlimited self-will leads to inhumane actions. Dostoevsky viewed crime as the most typical manifestation of individualistic self-affirmation. He saw the revolutionary movement of his time as an anarchist rebellion. In his novel, he created not only an image of impeccable goodness equal to the biblical one, but also showed the development of the characters of all the heroes of the novel who interacted with Myshkin for the better.

Analysis of the novel "Shagreen Skin"

Illustration for the novel "Shagreen Skin"

In 1831, the novel “Shagreen Skin” was published, which brought Honore de Balzac real fame. Shagreen - the fantastic skin of an onager donkey - has become the same symbol in the imagination of readers as fairy-tale images of living and dead water. Fantastic elements were intertwined with a realistic story about the young scientist Raphael, who tried to conduct experiments, overcoming his shortcomings. Driven into a dead end, the young man decides to commit suicide, but he is saved by a mysterious antique dealer who gives him shagreen leather. The inscription on the magical skin was made in Sanskrit, which explained that all the wishes of its owner would be fulfilled, but with each wish fulfilled, the skin would decrease, as would the life of that person. Raphael is amazingly enriched, but at the same time the size of his skin is rapidly decreasing. Realizing the threat of imminent death, Raphael tries to get rid of the skin or stretch it, but all his attempts are useless. Finally, he falls ill. Neither doctors nor his beloved wife can help him. Raphael runs away from the city away from the attraction of temptations, but he cannot get rid of all desires, so the skin becomes smaller and smaller, and when it completely disappears, its owner dies.

This philosophical novel by Balzac gained enormous popularity, because it attracted readers because the traditional romantic plot was intertwined with the modern plot of the rich social life of Paris. Although it was not a simple combination of realism and romanticism. Romantic fiction in a work can always have a real interpretation, so the story with the skin can be considered the delusion of the hero. After all, his desires are actually fulfilled, as if without the influence of the magic of the skin. He wanted to have fun at a feast - then his friends immediately invite him to a party to celebrate the opening of a new newspaper. Rafael wished for money - and he unexpectedly receives a huge inheritance from his relatives. But the size of the skin also decreases.

The philosophical meaning of the novel lies in the oppositions “to desire” and “to be able.” Their confrontation is revealed to Raphael at the beginning of the novel by an old antique dealer. He himself chooses the third opportunity to “know”. Having abandoned the passions that shorten a person’s life, the antiquarian has long pacified any emotions within himself, lives and rejoices in the fact that he has learned the truth. Raphael, having taken possession of the skin, wants the old man to fall in love with the dancer. The wish comes true, and in the finale we see a funny grandfather in love. Balzac ridicules self-confident philosophers who believe that they have understood the meaning of life.

Only the only time the skin did not shrink after the expressed desire: when Rafael passionately dreamed of Polina's love. But she had loved him before, and the skin did not have to interfere with their feelings. That is, the only thing that is not subject to the laws of life is a sincere feeling of love, which is able to withstand death. Raphael's last wish - to die in the arms of his beloved - is also fulfilled. Polina is contrasted in the novel by the cold and cruel Fyodor, who for the sake of his own peace of mind refuses love and children.

Balzac exposes the main shortcoming of his contemporary - egoism. The development of this negative trait was facilitated by the Napoleonic era, when it was not origin, but, above all, the individual qualities of a person that decided his fate and career. The downside of individualism as personal initiative was egoism. “Raphael could do everything, but accomplished nothing,” because he wanted happiness and wealth only for himself.

The image of Raphael Valentin begins the gallery of Balzac's young ambitious people who, losing illusions in a cruel world, gradually change their moral guidelines and turn into selfish careerists (Rastignac) or die (Lucien de Rubempre).

In "Shagreen Skin" Balzac touched on many themes that he later developed in "The Human Comedy". This theme of criminal wealth is artistically embodied in the story of the banker Taillefer (the story "The Red Inn"). This is the theme of “the splendor and poverty of courtesans,” which I will also reveal in the story of Aniline. This is the topic of corrupt Parisian journalism and much more. The novel features scientists and doctors, Parisian nobles and rural workers, who repeatedly appear on the pages of The Human Comedy.

The novel “Shagreen Skin” opened the doors of literary and aristocratic salons for Balzac and allowed him to live in grand style.

The writer received a lot of reader mail. A mysterious foreign woman wrote to him from Poland. She analyzed the novel “Shagreen Skin” no worse than a literary critic. Her thoughts about art interested the writer, and a correspondence began that lasted for many years. The foreigner turned out to be a wealthy Polish aristocrat, Evelina Ganskaya, who lived with her husband not far from Berdichev on the Verkhivnya estate. Her husband was a wealthy landowner, noble, but very sick and much older than his wife. Evelina did not receive family happiness. Balzac first met her abroad, and after the death of her husband he came to Verkhovnya, Kyiv, and St. Petersburg. Shortly before Balzac's death, Ganskaya agreed to become his wife, although the writer was already terminally ill and had huge debts, which Evelina had to pay from her own funds.

"Transformation", analysis of the work

Analysis of the work “Metamorphosis”

The main character of the novel, Gregor Samsa, is the breadwinner of his family, consisting of his father, a completely bankrupt Prague inhabitant, his mother, who suffers from asthma, and his sister, Greta. In order to save his family from beggary, Gregor works for one of his father’s creditors as a traveling salesman, a cloth merchant. He is constantly traveling, but one day, during a break between such trips, he spent the night at home, and in the morning when he woke up, an incident occurred that was beyond human understanding. Gregor turned into a beetle.

“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from a restless sleep, he found himself transformed in his bed into a terrible insect. Lying on his armour-hard back, he saw, as soon as he raised his head, his brown, convex belly, divided by arched scales, on the top of which a blanket was barely holding on, ready to finally slide off. His numerous legs, pitifully thin compared to the size of the rest of his body, swarmed helplessly before his eyes.

“What happened to me?” - he thought. It wasn't a dream."

The short story begins with these words.

But this was only the beginning of all the troubles. Further, worse. As a result of Gregor's unusual transformation into a beetle, he was fired from his job, naturally, he could no longer work, provide his family with money and pay off his father's debt.

Each family member reacted differently to Gregor's transformation. This angered the father; he could not understand how his son could be in the beetle’s body. The mother was very scared and upset, but still did not lose her maternal feelings, and understood that her son was in this body. Sister Greta considered the beetle disgusting, but despite this she took on the burden of caring for it. It is impossible to say whether it was out of family feelings, or out of a desire to show her parents her independence, or maybe out of gratitude that Greta took care of the beetle, but most likely, the second option is closest to the truth.

Gregor's exit into the living room, when all the family members and the boss from his work were there, should in no case be regarded as a challenge to society. From Gregor's words and thoughts, one can understand that he is a person with a heightened sense of responsibility. The hero left the room to the people in his current state, only because, due to a sense of duty and understanding of the importance of his responsibilities to his family and employer, he completely forgot about his poor health and unusual transformation.

Gregor's decision to die was influenced by many factors of his existence as a beetle...

Firstly, he was very lonely; his consciousness could not withstand life in a bug body. Secondly, he could no longer help his family make ends meet financially. Thirdly, and most importantly, Gregor Samsa loved his family very much and spent his entire life making self-sacrifice for them, and now he could no longer do this, instead he became a burden to his parents. On the last day of his life, he heard his sister say that if he had been reasonable and loved his family, he would have left them and not interfered, Greta pressed on his conscience, and Gregor could not stand it.

Gregor turned into a beetle most likely because even when he was in a human body, his life resembled the life of a beetle more than a human. He worked selflessly not for himself, but for the sake of his family, was not interested in anything and was lonely. Or perhaps this was required so that he could see the ingratitude of his family, it was not noticeable that they were particularly suffering precisely because Gregor was sick, instead they were only concerned about financial problems.

Franz Kafka in his short story “Metamorphosis” touched upon the problems of dedication, workaholism, and family relationships. He showed that due to material difficulties a person can completely lose his humanity.

"Nausea", analysis of Sartre's novel

Nausea was written by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1938, during the writer's stay in Le Havre. In terms of its genre, this work belongs to the philosophical novel. It analyzes the classical problems inherent in existentialism as a literary movement: the subject’s comprehension of the category of existence and the resulting (understanding) provisions of the absurdity of human life, its meaninglessness and heaviness for the thinking consciousness.

In form, Nausea is the diary of the thirty-year-old historian Antoine Roquentin. In it, the hero carefully and in detail describes his discovery of the category of existence of the world around him and himself, as its component part. Living on rent and engaged in historical research, the character is spared by the writer from the need to work, which means to be immersed in society. Antoine Roquentin lives alone. In the past, he had a great love with Annie, an actress obsessed with creating “perfect moments.” In the present, the hero is still only approaching an understanding of what it is. Time for Roquentin is an important aspect of existence. He feels it as a series of moments, each of which leads to the next. He feels the irreversibility of time as a “sense of adventure,” and in such moments he sees himself as “the hero of a novel.” At times, Roquentin perceives time as a capacious substance in which the surrounding reality gets stuck. Looking at the events taking place in the present, the hero understands that there is and cannot be anything other than the current time: the past has long disappeared, and the future is meaningless, because nothing important happens in it. But what scares Roquentin most are the objects around him and his own body. With each new entry, he penetrates deeper into the essence of things and realizes that they are no different from each other: the red bench of the tram could well be a dead donkey, and his hand could be a crab moving its legs. As soon as objects begin to lose their names, the whole burden of knowledge falls on the hero. The Nausea approaching him is a “glaring obviousness” with which he finds it difficult to reconcile.

The composition of the novel is distinguished by the logic of the artistic episodes that are built up, growing towards the finale into classical philosophical discussions about existence. The style of “Nausea” is closely related to the general course of the narrative: at the beginning it resembles the diary entries of an ordinary person, then develops into historical journalism, then acquires the features of an ordinary artistic style (vivid, metaphorical) and ends with clear philosophical positions expressing the main conclusions reached the main character of the work:

he feels superfluous and understands that even death will not change this state, since his dead flesh will be just as superfluous;

existence - the world and man - has no reasons, and therefore is devoid of meaning;

The whole horror of existence is that it already exists - even that which does not want to exist exists in the world, because it simply “cannot help but exist.”

The hero's awareness of these simple truths ends with an understanding of his loneliness, freedom and, as a consequence, spiritual death. Roquentin does not believe in God, does not belong to human society, and love in the person of Annie is forever lost for him, since she has long come to the conclusion that there are no “perfect moments” in the world, and she is the most ordinary “living dead” . Loners like himself can do nothing to help Roquentin. Such people are bored with each other. With loners of the Self-Taught type, the hero is simply not on his way, since he treats people indifferently: he does not love them, but he does not hate them either. For Roquentin, people are just another substance of existence.

The hero finds a way out of the state of Nausea in creativity. Listening throughout the novel to an old record with the song of the Negress, Roquentin seems to rise above time. In his opinion, music does not belong to common existence. She is in herself, as a feeling, as an emotion, as an impulse of the soul. And it is through music that the hero comes to the idea that it is possible to overcome the heaviness of the world around him by writing a book that will show people the beautiful part of existence.

Related information.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. The eternal questions raised in the text concern humanity to this day. Love conflicts, themes related to politics, reflections on religion: this tragedy contains all the basic intentions of the human spirit. Shakespeare's plays are both tragic and realistic, and the images have long become eternal in world literature. Perhaps this is where their greatness lies.

The famous English author was not the first to write the story of Hamlet. Before him there was The Spanish Tragedy, written by Thomas Kyd. Researchers and literary scholars suggest that Shakespeare borrowed the plot from him. However, Thomas Kyd himself probably consulted earlier sources. Most likely, these were short stories from the early Middle Ages.

Saxo Grammaticus, in his book “The History of the Danes,” described the real story of the ruler of Jutland, who had a son named Amlet and a wife Geruta. The ruler had a brother who was jealous of his wealth and decided to kill him, and then married his wife. Amlet did not submit to the new ruler, and, having learned about the bloody murder of his father, decides to take revenge. The stories coincide down to the smallest detail, but Shakespeare interprets the events differently and penetrates deeper into the psychology of each character.

The essence

Hamlet returns to his native castle Elsinore for his father's funeral. From the soldiers who served at the court, he learns about a ghost who comes to them at night and whose outline resembles the late king. Hamlet decides to go to a meeting with an unknown phenomenon, a further meeting horrifies him. The ghost reveals to him the true cause of his death and persuades his son to take revenge. The Danish prince is confused and on the verge of madness. He doesn’t understand whether he really saw his father’s spirit, or was it the devil who visited him from the depths of hell?

The hero reflects on what happened for a long time and ultimately decides to find out on his own whether Claudius is really guilty. To do this, he asks a troupe of actors to perform the play “The Murder of Gonzago” to see the king’s reaction. During a key moment in the play, Claudius becomes ill and leaves, at which point a sinister truth is revealed. All this time, Hamlet pretends to be crazy, and even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were sent to him, could not find out from him the true motives of his behavior. Hamlet intends to talk to the queen in her chambers and accidentally kills Polonius, who hid behind the curtain in order to eavesdrop. He sees in this accident a manifestation of the will of heaven. Claudius understands the criticality of the situation and tries to send Hamlet to England, where he is to be executed. But this does not happen, and the dangerous nephew returns to the castle, where he kills his uncle and himself dies from poison. The kingdom passes into the hands of the Norwegian ruler Fortinbras.

Genre and direction

“Hamlet” is written in the genre of tragedy, but the “theatrical” nature of the work should be taken into account. After all, in Shakespeare’s understanding, the world is a stage, and life is a theater. This is a specific worldview, a creative look at the phenomena surrounding a person.

Shakespeare's dramas are traditionally classified as. She is characterized by pessimism, gloom and aestheticization of death. These features can also be found in the work of the great English playwright.

Conflict

The main conflict in the play is divided into external and internal. Its external manifestation lies in Hamlet’s attitude towards the inhabitants of the Danish court. He considers them all base creatures, devoid of reason, pride and dignity.

The internal conflict is very well expressed in the hero’s emotional experiences, his struggle with himself. Hamlet chooses between two behavioral types: new (Renaissance) and old (feudal). He is formed as a fighter, not wanting to perceive reality as it is. Shocked by the evil that surrounded him on all sides, the prince is going to fight it, despite all the difficulties.

Composition

The main compositional outline of the tragedy consists of a story about the fate of Hamlet. Each individual layer of the play serves to fully reveal his personality and is accompanied by constant changes in the hero’s thoughts and behavior. Events gradually unfold in such a way that the reader begins to feel constant tension, which does not stop even after Hamlet’s death.

The action can be divided into five parts:

1. First part - plot. Here Hamlet meets the ghost of his deceased father, who bequeaths him to take revenge for his death. In this part, the prince for the first time encounters human betrayal and meanness. This is where his mental torment begins, which does not let him go until his death. Life becomes meaningless for him.
2. Second part - action development. The prince decides to pretend to be crazy in order to deceive Claudius and find out the truth about his act. He also accidentally kills the royal advisor, Polonius. At this moment, the realization comes to him that he is the executor of the highest will of heaven.
3. The third part - climax. Here Hamlet, using the trick of showing the play, is finally convinced of the guilt of the ruling king. Claudius realizes how dangerous his nephew is and decides to get rid of him.
4. Part four - The Prince is sent to England to be executed there. At the same moment, Ophelia goes crazy and tragically dies.
5. Fifth part - denouement. Hamlet escapes execution, but is forced to fight Laertes. In this part, all the main participants in the action die: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet himself.

The main characters and their characteristics

• Hamlet– from the very beginning of the play, the reader’s interest is focused on the personality of this character. This “bookish” boy, as Shakespeare himself wrote about him, suffers from the disease of the approaching century - melancholy. At his core, he is the first reflective hero of world literature. Someone may think that he is a weak person, incapable of action. But in fact, we see that he is strong in spirit and is not going to submit to the problems that befell him. His perception of the world changes, particles of former illusions turn to dust. This gives rise to that same “Hamletism”—an internal discord in the hero’s soul. By nature he is a dreamer, a philosopher, but life forced him to become an avenger. Hamlet’s character can be called “Byronic”, because he is extremely focused on his inner state and is quite skeptical about the world around him. He, like all romantics, is prone to constant self-doubt and tossing between good and evil.
• Gertrude- Hamlet's mother. A woman in whom we see the makings of intelligence, but a complete lack of will. She is not alone in her loss, but for some reason she does not try to get closer to her son at a time when grief has occurred in the family. Without the slightest remorse, Gertrude betrays the memory of her late husband and agrees to marry his brother. Throughout the action, she constantly tries to justify herself. Dying, the queen understands how wrong her behavior was, and how wise and fearless her son turned out to be.
• Ophelia- daughter of Polonius and lover of Hamlet. A meek girl who loved the prince until her death. She also faced trials that she could not endure. Her madness is not a fake move invented by someone. This is the same madness that occurs at the moment of true suffering; it cannot be stopped. There are some hidden indications in the work that Ophelia was pregnant with Hamlet's child, and this makes the realization of her fate doubly difficult.
• Claudius- a man who killed his own brother to achieve his own goals. Hypocritical and vile, he still carries a heavy burden. The pangs of conscience devour him daily and do not allow him to fully enjoy the rule to which he came to in such a terrible way.
• Rosencrantz And Guildenstern– Hamlet’s so-called “friends” who betrayed him at the first opportunity to make good money. Without delay, they agree to deliver a message announcing the death of the prince. But fate has prepared a worthy punishment for them: as a result, they die instead of Hamlet.
• Horatio- an example of a true and faithful friend. The only person the prince can trust. They go through all the problems together, and Horatio is ready to share even death with his friend. It is to him that Hamlet trusts to tell his story and asks him to “breathe some more in this world.”

Themes

1. Hamlet's Revenge. The prince was destined to bear the heavy burden of revenge. He cannot coldly and calculatingly deal with Claudius and regain the throne. His humanistic principles force him to think about the common good. The hero feels responsible for those who have suffered from the evil that is widespread around him. He sees that it is not Claudius alone who is to blame for the death of his father, but all of Denmark, which blithely turned a blind eye to the circumstances of the death of the old king. He knows that to take revenge he needs to become an enemy to everyone around him. His ideal of reality does not coincide with the real picture of the world; the “shaken age” arouses hostility in Hamlet. The prince understands that he cannot restore peace alone. Such thoughts plunge him into even greater despair.
2. Hamlet's love. Before all those terrible events, there was love in the hero’s life. But, unfortunately, she is unhappy. He loved Ophelia madly, and there is no doubt about the sincerity of his feelings. But the young man is forced to give up happiness. After all, the proposal to share sorrows together would be too selfish. To finally break the connection, he has to inflict pain and be merciless. Trying to save Ophelia, he could not even imagine how great her suffering would be. The impulse with which he rushes to her coffin was deeply sincere.
3. Hamlet's friendship. The hero values ​​friendship very much and is not used to choosing his friends based on his assessment of their position in society. His only true friend is the poor student Horatio. At the same time, the prince is contemptuous of betrayal, which is why he treats Rosencrantz and Guildenstern so cruelly.

Problems

The issues covered in Hamlet are very broad. Here are the themes of love and hate, the meaning of life and the purpose of man in this world, strength and weakness, the right to revenge and murder.

One of the main ones is problem of choice, which the main character faces. There is a lot of uncertainty in his soul; alone he thinks for a long time and analyzes everything that happens in his life. There is no one next to Hamlet who could help him make a decision. Therefore, he is guided only by his own moral principles and personal experience. His consciousness is divided into two halves. In one lives a philosopher and humanist, and in the other, a man who understands the essence of a rotten world.

His key monologue “To be or not to be” reflects all the pain in the hero’s soul, the tragedy of thought. This incredible internal struggle exhausts Hamlet, makes him think about suicide, but he is stopped by his reluctance to commit another sin. He began to become increasingly concerned about the topic of death and its mystery. What's next? Eternal darkness or a continuation of the suffering he endures during his life?

Meaning

The main idea of ​​tragedy is to search for the meaning of life. Shakespeare shows a man of education, eternally searching, with a deep sense of empathy for everything that surrounds him. But life forces him to face true evil in various manifestations. Hamlet is aware of it, trying to figure out how exactly it arose and why. He is shocked by the fact that one place can so quickly turn into hell on Earth. And his act of revenge is to destroy the evil that has entered his world.

Fundamental to the tragedy is the idea that behind all these royal squabbles there is a great turning point in the entire European culture. And at the forefront of this turning point, Hamlet appears - a new type of hero. Along with the death of all the main characters, the centuries-old system of understanding the world collapses.

Criticism

In 1837, Belinsky wrote an article dedicated to Hamlet, in which he called the tragedy a “brilliant diamond” in the “radiant crown of the king of dramatic poets,” “crowned by entire humanity and having no rival before or after himself.”

The image of Hamlet contains all the universal human traits "<…>this is me, this is each of us, more or less...”, Belinsky writes about him.

S. T. Coleridge, in his Shakespeare Lectures (1811-12), writes: “Hamlet hesitates due to natural sensitivity and hesitates, held back by reason, which forces him to turn his effective forces to the search for a speculative solution.”

Psychologist L.S. Vygotsky focused on Hamlet’s connection with the other world: “Hamlet is a mystic, this determines not only his state of mind on the threshold of double existence, two worlds, but also his will in all its manifestations.”

And literary critic V.K. Kantor looked at the tragedy from a different angle and in his article “Hamlet as a “Christian Warrior”” pointed out: “The tragedy “Hamlet” is a system of temptations. He is tempted by a ghost (this is the main temptation), and the prince’s task is to check whether it is the devil who is trying to lead him into sin. Hence the trap theater. But at the same time he is tempted by his love for Ophelia. Temptation is a constant Christian problem.”