Maeterlinck blind analysis of the work. Poetics of the one-act symbolist drama by M. Maeterlinck (“The Blind,” “Uninvited”)

Maurice Maeterlinck- famous Belgian writer, one of the largest representatives of symbolism in Europe. A poet of the era of decay of capitalism, he embodied in his poetry the anxious state of mind of the ruling class, its fear, uncertainty, premonition of its death, misunderstanding of newly emerging social relations, flabbiness, exhaustion and satiety. Maeterlinck was completely unaffected by the proletarian movement that was unfolding in his hometown Ghent in his youth. He received his education first at the Ghent Jesuit College, from where he transferred to the Catholic University.

His favorite thinkers were Novalis, Ruisbroeck, and Emerson. The first collection of his poems, Serres chaudes (1889), was influenced by Mallarmé and Baudelaire. Among the European symbolists, M. was the main, almost the only major playwright

Maeterlinck became popular thanks to his early plays, written between 1889 and 1894. The heroes of these plays do not have limited understanding of one's nature and the world in which they live.

As a supporter of Schopenhauer's ideas, Maeterlinck believed that man powerless against fate. He believed that actors could easily be replaced by puppets and even wrote plays such as “There Inside” (1894) and “The Death of Tentagille” (1894) for puppet theater. Calls on actors to depersonalization , to the renunciation of one's individuality. The actor must become like a puppet.

Early drama

1. Blind 1890

2. Uninvited 1890

3. There, inside 1894

4. Death of Tentagille 1894

These plays are considered as a cycle, a totality. General artistic laws apply to them. They are called " Puppet theater", "Static theater", "Waiting Theater", "Theater of Silence"

1896 treatise" Treasure of the Humble ". In it he will explain what is discernible in his plays. Maeterlinck expresses his own position.

A typical idea of ​​drama: dynamics, structure, dialogue, conflict...

Maeterlinck destroys all these canons. He did not intend his works for the theater. " Dreams don't need a director, theater kills the imagination".

The symbol is created with a special focus on polysemy. It is important to preserve this polysemy, not to kill it. He creates a conditional, often impersonal world. No place, no time. A universal myth about the tragedy of the human universe.

There is an external world that can be comprehended. But behind this accessibility there is something higher. The soul carries on a continuous conversation with fate, with these forces. We are immersed in everyday life and do not notice much.

The true ideal state of man is silence. Souls truly touch only in silence. The essence of things and phenomena is comprehended in silence. You can only know Maeterlinck within yourself. In his plays, sometimes the sounds are more meaningful than the lines. The more the heroes talk, the more flawed they are; conversation as a way to suppress feelings of loneliness.

In the play Blind there are no dynamics at all. Everyone just sat and still sits. They sit and wait. What are they waiting for? - It’s unclear. Everything external is reoriented to the internal. All conditions have been created for a person to deepen into himself. But somehow they don’t go deeper. The tragedy is that they have no spiritual search.

The same strange situation is with the conflict. He is not here as such either. Humanity VS Unknown(dog, steps, splashing waves - hints of someone’s presence).

Blind. Starts with two remarks. The first describes a chilly atmosphere, flowers of death, conifers, stars as a guide, pristine nature. There's still a dead priest sitting there. The eyes are bloodshot from the suffering they have seen. He is no longer on this side of reality. He kind of went to the lighthouse|to the light. A hint that there is another reality. He died and regained his sight, and somewhere there something was revealed to him. Conclusion: There is physical blindness and spiritual blindness.

12 blind priests and a child who never cried out, which is essentially impossible. That means he didn’t inhale, that means he wasn’t born. The umbilical cord is connected to the universe. Feels what others don't feel. Then he screams and that means he breaks this ideal connection. He shouted at the steps. So he was frightened by what he saw.

Allusion to Christ and the apostles. Two interpretations of the ending

1. Verdict on Christianity. The priest (Christ) came and left everything...

2. There is a part of the path that you need to go through yourself. They lived there somewhere in isolation, within the four walls of a shelter. This is a false space. The priest led them out of this space to the sea, to something unknown. Tried to lead to the light, happiness to spiritual rebirth. To do this, you need to go deeper into yourself. The problem of internal inertia. The dog, the silent part of the universe, leads to the dead priest, to the line. This was supposed to lead them to spiritual truth, to the secret of the universe. And for them this is a dead end.

What could possibly frighten a child? 1. People came from the shelter - return to that one past life, spiritual death, lesson not learned. 2. The unknown has come and the child is screaming because humanity is not yet ready for it. He is horrified - death?

Old northern forest under high starry sky. Leaning against the trunk of an old hollow oak tree, the decrepit priest froze in deathly immobility. His blue lips are half-opened, his fixed eyes no longer look at this visible side eternity. Emaciated hands folded on knees. To his right, six blind old men sit on stones, stumps and dry leaves, and to his left, facing them, are six blind women. Three of them pray and lament all the time. The fourth is quite an old woman. The fifth, in quiet madness, holds a sleeping child on her lap. The sixth is strikingly young, her hair flowing down her shoulders. Both women and old people are dressed in wide, gloomy, monotonous clothes. All of them, with their hands on their knees and covering their faces with their hands, are waiting for something. Tall cemetery trees - yews, weeping willows, cypresses - spread their reliable canopy over them. Darkness.

The blind people talk to each other. They are concerned about the long absence of the priest. The oldest blind woman says that the priest has been uneasy for several days, that he began to be afraid of everything after the doctor died. The priest was worried that the winter might be long and cold. He was frightened by the sea, he wanted to look at the coastal cliffs. The young blind woman says that before leaving, the priest held her hands for a long time. He was shaking, as if from fear. Then he kissed the girl and left.

“When he left, he said “Good night!” - one of the blind people recalls. They listen to the roar of the sea. The sound of the waves is unpleasant to them. The blind people remember that the priest wanted to show them the island on which their shelter is located. That is why he brought them closer to the seashore. “You can’t wait forever for the sun under the arches of the dormitory,” he said. The blind are trying to determine the time of day. Some of them think they feel Moonlight, feel the presence of stars. Those born blind are the least sensitive (“I only hear our breathing […] I have never felt them,” notes one of them). The blind want to return to the shelter. The distant chime of a clock can be heard - twelve strikes, but the blind cannot understand whether it is midnight or noon. Night birds flap their wings maliciously above their heads. One of the blind men suggests that if the priest does not come, they return to the shelter, guided by the noise of a large river flowing nearby. Others are going to wait without moving. The blind people tell each other where someone came to the island from, the young blind woman remembers her distant homeland, the sun, mountains, unusual flowers. (“I have no memories,” says the man born blind.) The wind blows. Leaves are falling in heaps. Blind people think that someone is touching them. They are overcome with fear. A young blind woman smells flowers. This is an asphodel - a symbol kingdom of the dead. One of the blind men manages to pick a few, and the young blind woman weaves them into her hair. You can hear the wind and the crash of waves against the coastal rocks. Through this noise, the blind hear the sound of someone's approaching steps. This is a shelter dog. She drags one of the blind men towards the motionless priest and stops. The blind realize that there is a dead man among them, but do not immediately find out who it is. The women, crying, kneel down and pray for the priest. The oldest blind woman reproaches those who complained and did not want to move forward with the fact that they tortured the priest. The dog does not leave the corpse. Blind people join hands. A whirlwind spins dry leaves. A young blind woman can discern someone's distant steps. Snow is falling in large flakes. Footsteps are approaching. The crazy child begins to cry. The young blind woman takes him in her arms and lifts him up so that he can see who is coming towards them. Footsteps are approaching, you can hear leaves rustling under someone’s feet, you can hear the rustle of a dress. Footsteps stop next to a group of blind people "Who are you?" - asks the young blind woman. No answer. “Oh, have mercy on us!” - exclaims the oldest. Silence again. Then a child's desperate cry is heard.

Maurice Polydor Marie Bernard Maeterlinck

"Blind"

An old northern forest under a high starry sky. Leaning against the trunk of an old hollow oak tree, the decrepit priest froze in deathly immobility. His blue lips are half-open, his fixed eyes no longer look at this visible side of eternity. Emaciated hands folded on knees. To his right, six blind old men sit on stones, stumps and dry leaves, and to his left, facing them, are six blind women. Three of them pray and lament all the time. The fourth is quite an old woman. The fifth, in quiet madness, holds a sleeping child on her lap. The sixth is strikingly young, her hair flowing down her shoulders. Both women and old people are dressed in wide, gloomy, monotonous clothes. All of them, with their hands on their knees and covering their faces with their hands, are waiting for something. Tall cemetery trees - yews, weeping willows, cypresses - extend their reliable canopy over them. Darkness.

The blind people talk to each other. They are concerned about the long absence of the priest. The oldest blind woman says that the priest has been uneasy for several days, that he began to be afraid of everything after the doctor died. The priest was worried that the winter might be long and cold. He was frightened by the sea, he wanted to look at the coastal cliffs. The young blind woman says that before leaving, the priest held her hands for a long time. He was shaking, as if from fear. Then he kissed the girl and left.

“When he left, he said “Good night!” - recalls one of the blind people. They listen to the roar of the sea. The sound of the waves is unpleasant to them. The blind people remember that the priest wanted to show them the island on which their shelter is located. That is why he brought them closer to the seashore. “You can’t wait forever for the sun under the arches of the dormitory,” he said. The blind are trying to determine the time of day. Some of them think that they feel the moonlight, feel the presence of stars. Those born blind are the least sensitive (“I only hear our breathing<…>I’ve never felt them,” notes one of them). The blind want to return to the shelter. The distant chime of a clock can be heard - twelve strikes, but the blind cannot understand whether it is midnight or noon. Night birds flap their wings maliciously above their heads. One of the blind men suggests that if the priest does not come, they return to the shelter, guided by the noise of a large river flowing nearby. Others are going to wait without moving. The blind people tell each other where someone came to the island from, the young blind woman remembers her distant homeland, the sun, mountains, unusual flowers. (“I have no memories,” says the man born blind.) The wind blows. Leaves are falling in heaps. Blind people think that someone is touching them. They are overcome with fear. A young blind woman smells flowers. These are asphodels - a symbol of the kingdom of the dead. One of the blind men manages to pluck a few, and the young blind woman weaves them into her hair. You can hear the wind and the crash of waves against the coastal rocks. Through this noise, the blind hear the sound of someone's approaching steps. This is a shelter dog. She drags one of the blind men towards the motionless priest and stops. The blind realize that there is a dead man among them, but do not immediately find out who it is. The women, crying, kneel down and pray for the priest. The oldest blind woman reproaches those who complained and did not want to move forward with the fact that they tortured the priest. The dog does not leave the corpse. Blind people join hands. A whirlwind spins dry leaves. A young blind woman can discern someone's distant steps. Snow is falling in large flakes. Footsteps are approaching. The crazy child begins to cry. The young blind woman takes him in her arms and lifts him up so that he can see who is coming towards them. Footsteps are approaching, you can hear leaves rustling under someone’s feet, you can hear the rustle of a dress. Footsteps stop next to a group of blind people "Who are you?" - asks the young blind woman. No answer. “Oh, have mercy on us!” - exclaims the oldest. Silence again. Then the desperate cry of a child is heard.

A dead priest sits under an old oak tree. Northern forest, high cold sky. Nearby the blind were located on dry leaves and stumps. The priest brought them here to show them the island where they would live. They hear the roar of the nearby sea and worry about the long absence of their companion.

The whole group is dressed the same: gloomy, wide clothes identify them as residents of the shelter. A doctor died there recently. This worried the priest, so he took several men and women away from there. But he did not have time to complete his mission - he fell into an eternal sleep on the rocky seashore under an old oak tree.

There were few blind people. Six women and six old men. One of them has a child sleeping on her lap, another has an ancient old woman, and the third has a very young woman. Three women lament and pray, the rest talk quietly.

The young woman smells the scent of cemetery flowers, the flowers of the kingdom of the dead. Some of the men suggest going back to the shelter, others want to wait for the priest to return. The wind throws dry leaves at them. Blind people are scared. It seems to them that someone is touching them and scares them.

Blind people hear a rustling sound - a dog from a shelter has found them. She dragged one of the men by his clothes to the dead priest. Blind people do not immediately understand that their guide is dead. Someone begins to pray, someone reproaches others for tormenting the priest with their demands and stupid doubts.

Suddenly the child begins to cry. The blind hear footsteps, but cannot understand who it is. The person who approaches does not answer their questions. Blind people are scared. Snow is falling in flakes. Requests and pleas from the blind for mercy and mercy are heard. Then a child's desperate cry was heard. And dead silence was restored.

Maurice Maeterlinck

Priest.

The first person born blind.

Second born blind.

The third man born blind.

The oldest blind man.

The fifth is blind.

The sixth one is blind.

Three blind old women immersed in prayer.

The oldest blind person.

Young blind woman.

Blind crazy.

An old, old, primeval northern forest under a high starry sky. In the middle, shrouded in the darkness of the night, sits a decrepit priest in a wide black cloak. He threw back his head, leaned against a tall hollow oak tree and froze in deathly immobility. The waxy yellowness does not leave the face, the blue lips are half-open. The mute, frozen eyes no longer look at this visible side of eternity; they seem to have become bloodshot from innumerable, unforgettable torments and tears. Straight and sparse strands of strict gray hair fall on his face, and his face is brighter and more motionless than everything that surrounds him in the sensitive silence of the gloomy forest. He folded his emaciated hands on his knees. On the right, six blind old men are sitting on stones, stumps and dry leaves. To the left, separated from the old men by a tree with exposed roots and fragments of rock, six women, also blind, sit facing them. Three of them pray and lament all the time in dull voices. The fourth is unusually old. The fifth, in a pose indicating quiet insanity, holds a sleeping child on her lap. The sixth is strikingly young; her loose hair covers her waist. Women, like old people, wear wide, gloomy and monotonous clothes. Almost all of them, with their elbows on their knees and covering their faces with their hands, are waiting for something; They must have long been unaccustomed to unnecessary gestures and do not turn their heads at the vague alarming sounds that are heard on this island. Tall cemetery trees - yews, weeping willows, cypresses - extend their reliable canopy over them. Not far from the priest, tall asphodels bloom in the darkness of the night. The stage is unusually dark, despite the moonlight, which here and there tries, at least for a moment, to break through the foliage and cut through the darkness.

The first person born blind. Is he back yet?

Second born blind. You woke me up!

The first person born blind. I was sleeping too.

The third man born blind. And I.

The first person born blind. Is he back yet?

Second born blind. No one's steps are heard.

The third man born blind. It's time to go back to the shelter.

The first person born blind. We need to find out where we are.

Second born blind. After he left it got colder.

The first person born blind. We need to find out where we are.

The oldest blind man. Who knows where we are?

The oldest blind person. We walked for a very long time; We must be a long way from the shelter.

The first person born blind. A! Women opposite us?

The oldest blind person. We are sitting opposite you.

The first person born blind. Wait, I'll come to you now. (Gets up and gropes.) Where are you?.. Raise your voice so that I can hear where you are!

The oldest blind person. Here. We are sitting on the rocks.

First man born blind(goes forward and stumbles upon a tree trunk and rock fragments). Something separates us...

Second born blind. It's better not to move!

The third man born blind. Where are you sitting?.. Would you like to join us?

The oldest blind person. We don't dare rise!

The third man born blind. Why did he separate us?

The first person born blind. I hear women praying.

Second born blind. Yes, these are three old women praying.

The first person born blind. Now is not the time to pray!

Second born blind. You will pray later, in the bedroom.

The three old women continue to pray.

The third man born blind. I want to know who is sitting next to me.

Second born blind. It seems like I'm next to you.

They feel objects around them.

The third man born blind. We can't touch each other!

The first person born blind. However, we are close to each other. (He continues to feel the objects around him and touches the fifth blind man with his stick, he groans dully.) Next to us is the one who does not hear!

Second born blind. I can't hear everyone; Recently there were six of us.

The first person born blind. I'm starting to realize it. Let's ask women; you need to know what to do. I hear three old women still praying - are they really together?

The oldest blind person. They are sitting next to me on a stone.

The first person born blind. I'm sitting on fallen leaves!

The third man born blind. Where's the beautiful blind woman?

The oldest blind person. She is close to those who pray.

Second born blind. Where is the crazy woman with the child?

Young blind woman. He's sleeping, don't wake him!

The first person born blind. Oh, how far you are from us! And I thought you were opposite me.

The third man born blind. We learned almost everything we needed; Let's chat now while waiting for his arrival.

The oldest blind person. He told us to wait for him in silence.

The third man born blind. We're not in church.

The oldest blind person. You don't know where we are.

The third man born blind. I'm scared when I'm silent.

Second born blind. Don't know where the priest went?

The third man born blind. It seems to me that he left us for a long time.

The first person born blind. He became decrepit. It seems he is also blind. He doesn't want to admit it for fear that someone else will take his place with us, but I suspect that he sees almost nothing. We would need another guide. He doesn't listen to us, but there are many of us. He and three nuns are all the sighted people in our orphanage, and they are all older than us!.. I am sure that he got lost and is now looking for his way. Where did he go?.. He doesn’t dare leave us...

The oldest blind man. He's gone far. It seems he warned the women.

The first person born blind. He only talks to women!.. And what about us?.. In the end, we will have to complain.

The oldest blind man. Who will you complain to?

The first person born blind. I don't know yet. Let's see, let's see... But where did he go?.. I address this question to women.

The oldest blind person. He was tired from walking for a long time. It seems he sat down with us for a minute. He hasn't been feeling well for several days now. After the doctor's death, he became afraid of everything. He avoids everyone. He is silent almost all the time. I don't know what happened to him. He definitely wanted to go out today. He said that he wanted to see the island when sunlight V last time before winter comes. The winter seems to be long and cold; Ice floes are already arriving from the north. He was very worried - he said that due to heavy rains the river overflowed and broke through all the dams. He also said that the sea frightens him, it is very agitated, and the coastal cliffs are not high. He wanted to see for himself, but did not tell us anything... Now he must have gone to get bread and water for the mad woman. He said he was going far... Let's wait.

Young blind woman. Before leaving, he held my hands for a long time. His hands shook as if from fear. Then he kissed me...

The first person born blind. ABOUT! ABOUT!

Young blind woman. I asked him what happened. He said he didn't know anything. He said that the kingdom of old people was apparently coming to an end...

The first person born blind. What did he mean by this?

Young blind woman. I didn't understand. He said he was going to the big lighthouse.

The first person born blind. Is there a lighthouse here?

Young blind woman. Yes, in the northern part of the island. I think it's not far. He said that the light of the lighthouse was visible from here, making its way between the branches. Today he was somehow especially sad. It seems to me that all these last days he cries often. I don’t know why, but I also cried without noticing it. I didn't hear him leave. I didn't ask him any more. I felt that he smiled a sad smile; I felt that he had closed his eyes and that it was difficult for him to speak...

On the seashore, blind people sat on fallen trees and listened intently to hear the steps of the guide who was to take them to the shelter. They did not know that the guide was sitting with them dead, “his face is brighter and more unruly than everything around.” It was a dark night. The blind were waiting for a guide. The sea was agitated, threatening people with death. And gradually they lost hope.

It is not difficult to understand the meaning of Maeterlinck's symbols: the island is both human life and the Earth in the Universe, the blind are humanity, there was no way out; priest-guide - a faith that people no longer had; waiting for someone's steps is an illusion of life; the inevitability of the sea tide is the inevitability of death.

According to Maeterlinck, death was always among people, but they did not know it, did not see it; only a few, the most vulnerable, felt her presence. Only a wise old man can feel the approach of death, but only a small child can see it. In the play, the baby began to cry: obviously, he saw death. However, this image could also symbolize new faith who was born. After all, the young blind guide said: "The kingdom of the old is apparently coming to an end."

The symbol is always multi-valued, often it has not been subject to final decoding. However general idea works understood: a person is blind, lonely, defenseless before death. Maeterlinck's skill in realizing this idea turned out to be primarily in creating unique dialogues. They contain replicas characters- ambiguous repetitions, and pauses between remarks, that is, silence, were complemented by the viewer’s imagination. It was the silence that fueled horror and despair. Acquired great importance and a palette of colors: the darkness of the forest at night, the dark, monotonous clothes of the blind, the black cloak of the priest.

The play “The Blind” contains all the signs of a symbolist drama: the action took place in conventional circumstances; there were no specific signs of action and time, so the work acquired an out-of-clock quality; characters deprived individual traits, have become the personification of fear, hopelessness, helplessness - these are no longer characters, but symbols. This play is an illustration of thoughts about the Unknown. Maeterlinck managed to create a world that lived according to the laws of his philosophy.

Without going into a detailed analysis of Maeterlinck's other plays of the first period of his work, we note that the principle of their construction, methods of creating emotional tension, leitmotifs and characteristic characters varied, but remained unchanged in essence. This followed from the playwright’s understanding of the true task of art - to show the “tragedy of everyday life,” as well as from the dramaturgical principle of “static theater” that he formulated. By this term he understood theater in which the main thing is not events, but the inner life of the hero, his spiritual struggles and the desire for an ideal. Moreover, all this was conveyed not only by word, but also by eloquent silence and default, because most often people talked about unimportant, secondary, and their true feelings and thoughts remained unexpressed. These ideas of the playwright were embodied in the dramatic works of other writers, not of the symbolic, but of the realistic type. artistic thinking, were consonant with both Ibsen’s formal quest and later Chekhov’s discovery.

In the early 90s, Maeterlinck revised his symbolist concept. He wrote that it seemed to him “honest and reasonable to throw death off the throne” and to “raise love, wisdom and happiness” onto this throne. Therefore, in the following plays he changed his philosophical positions.

An example would be the drama "The Death of Tentagille"(1894), where a fairy-tale situation was deciphered mystical secret, and therefore the action moved from the mystical-symbolic sphere into a fairy-tale-romantic one. Already from the first remarks of the characters, the author whipped up a feeling of uncertainty, mystery, and fear. Igrena, the sister of little Tentagile, told the boy: “Your first night on our island will be restless, Tentagile. The sea is already roaring around us, the trees are groaning. It’s late. The moon is hiding behind the poplars that surrounded the palace on all sides... We, it seems, here, although you have to be on your guard all the time. Here they wait for the approach of the slightest happiness. I don’t trust the future...” It was further said that the guy was brought by order of the queen, the secret of his face could not be seen. The unknown stood in the form of an evil old queen who was strangling good people. She is old and infinitely powerful. She was probably afraid of losing power - her throne, which is why she ordered the bringing of a possible, and therefore dangerous for her, successor - the grandson of Tentagil.

Already in the first act (all 5 acts are very short) keywords, set the tone, created an alarming mood, there were such things as “shadows”, “windowless corridors”, “something is hiding”, “I wanted to run but couldn’t”, “dead trees”, “black castle”, “ Fresh air doesn’t get it”, “that there is no grass”, “to eavesdrop”, “we live here, feeling an insurmountable burden on our souls”, etc. These emotionally significant lexical means intensified the exciting tension that grew from action to action. The sisters and their little brother are powerless before the queen, who "lives in his high tower and brings one after another to the grave, and no one dares to return blow for blow. It weighs down our soul like a gravestone, and no one dares to remove it." No effort, strong iron doors, submission and entreaties could not protect Tentagille. The unfortunate child died.

If we look at the title of the laureate's play Nobel Prize Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot", which also dealt with expectations of something incredibly mysterious and dangerous, the content of Maeterlinck's play about Tentagille could be defined as "Waiting for Death". They are generally similar in many ways, these two are different works- symbolic and modernist. And above all - with its mystery, growing nervous tension, its pessimism, and tragedy. It is no coincidence that the Belgian’s dramaturgy was called “the dramaturgy of death.”

To create the appropriate emotional mood, Maeterlinck used well-known romantic clichés, images and words borrowed by romanticism from the Gothic poetics of the 18th century, which in dramatic work thanks to the clarity acting, scenery and stage lighting, music and sound effects - acquired a special emotional power and influence. All this and much more ensured success early plays playwright, as well as their poetry, some magical tenderness and melancholy.

Plays of the pre-war period, in particular " Blue bird", formally echoed the plays written in the 80-90s years XIX V. However, their general mood, they became lighter, their heroes lost their helplessness and passivity, they had, of course, a noble goal and hope for its implementation.

"The Blue Bird" is a philosophical play-fairy tale, allegorical and symbolic work about the meaning of existence and the omnipotence of man. The blue bird is a symbol of happiness, truth, goodness. The plot of the drama is the heroes' search for a mysterious bird; conflict - the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, the heroes overcoming everything stood in the way of achieving their goal.

Questions for self-control:

1. What is the innovation of S. Mallarmé?

2. Trace the stages of development of M. Maeterlinck’s dramaturgy. Give their general characteristics.

3. Reveal the signs and features of M. Maeterlinck’s “theater of death”.

4. What is the playwright’s “theater of hope” philosophy?