Ideas and moral attitudes in the works of Shakespeare. What is the secret meaning of Shakespeare's works? Shakespeare's nationality lies in the fact that he lived by the interests of his time, was faithful to the ideals of humanism, embodied the ethical principle in his works, and drew inspiration from

Shakespeare's tragedies, historical chronicles and comedies created more than three centuries ago still live, excite and shake the imagination of viewers. The best theaters in the world and outstanding actors still consider it an exam and happiness to stage and perform a Shakespearean play.

Having seen such a performance or simply read Shakespeare's play, you will probably want to know more about who created these works. But it's not that simple.

Little information has been preserved about the life of the great playwright. Shakespeare did not write memoirs or keep a diary. We do not have his correspondence with his contemporaries. No manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays have survived. Only a few documents have reached us that mention various circumstances of his life. Each of these documents, even if they contain only a few words about Shakespeare, has been researched and interpreted. The rarest historical treasures are those few pieces of paper on which a few lines are written by Shakespeare or simply bear his signature.

A lot of work had to be put in so that we could now read about Shakespeare what every educated person should know about him.

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the small English town of Stratford, located on the Avon River. His father was a craftsman and merchant. The story of Shakespeare's childhood and youth is full of colorful details. However, science cannot recognize them as completely reliable. When Shakespeare was just over 20 years old, he had to suddenly leave Stratford. Young Shakespeare went to London.

Finding himself in an unfamiliar city without funds, without friends and acquaintances, he, according to widespread legends, at first earned his living by guarding horses near the theater, on which noble gentlemen came. Later, Shakespeare began to serve in the theater. He made sure that the actors went on stage on time, rewrote roles, and sometimes replaced the prompter. In a word, long before the great playwright brought his heroes to the stage, he learned the difficult behind-the-scenes life of the theater.

Several years have passed. Shakespeare began to be assigned small roles in the theater, which later became known as the Globe, whose performances were successful in London. Shakespeare never became an actor, but his statements about the art of acting, and most importantly, his excellent skill in constructing a play, testify to an amazing knowledge of the laws of the stage.

However, Shakespeare wrote not only plays. His poems - sonnets - captivated his contemporaries and continue to captivate his descendants with the power of feelings, depth of thought, and grace of form. Readers can especially appreciate Shakespeare's sonnets thanks to excellent translations.

But the main thing for Shakespeare, the passion of his whole life, was the work of a playwright, the creation of plays. Shakespeare's skill as a playwright is enormous. The language of his tragedies is unusually rich and colorful. His dramaturgy takes pride of place in the repertoire of theaters around the world.

The jubilant joy of life, the glorification of a healthy, strong, courageous, brightly feeling, boldly thinking person - this is the main thing in Shakespeare’s first plays - comedies: “The Taming of the Shrew”, “The Comedy of Errors”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Much Ado About Nothing” , "Twelfth Night", written in 1593-1600. They express an important idea for the Renaissance: a person should be judged not by his dress, not by knowledge, not by class and wealth, but by his behavior and personal qualities.

It is difficult to find in world drama a play as fabulously - cheerful, clear, magical as "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Shakespeare's poetic imagination gave rise to fantastic images of the Mustard Seed, the Cobweb, and the Moth, close to folk tales. Their participation in the fate of the lovers leads to a happy ending.

But the noble humanistic ideas of the Renaissance were not destined to win in that cruel era. Shakespeare feels this with bitterness. His next plays also expressed the ideas of the Renaissance, but the colors of the plays became darker. It depicts the clash of the beautiful ideals of the Renaissance with harsh activity. In Shakespeare's works, the theme of the death of heroes, especially those dear to him, who embody bright humanistic ideas, begins to be heard.

Young Romeo and Juliet - the heroes of Shakespeare's first great tragedy (1594) - passionately love each other. Their love encounters an insurmountable barrier - the ancient feud of families. In an unequal duel with age-old prejudices, with bloody and senseless laws, Romeo and Juliet die. But in their love, which was not measured against the prejudices of antiquity, lies a high moral victory.

Shakespeare's plays were staged at the Globe Theater in London. The Globe Theater was like a round open-air pen. A visiting foreigner who attended Shakespeare's first performance of Julius Caesar in 1599 called the Globe Theater a house with a thatched roof - he meant the roof over the stage. The theater got its name from the statue of Hercules supporting the globe with his shoulders.

After the production of "Julius Caesar" from 1601 to 1608. Shakespeare created his greatest tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello.

The Danish prince Hamlet bitterly mourns his dead father. But suddenly he learns with horror: he did not die, he was killed. The murderer - the brother of the murdered man, Hamlet's uncle - not only inherited the throne of the late king, but also married his widow - Hamlet's mother.

The tragedy depicts how Hamlet first exposes the hypocrisy of the crowned criminal, and then takes revenge on him for the death of his father. But these are only the external events of the play.

The tragedy depicts the complex and difficult thoughts of a noble man about the nature of evil, about the vicious royal court, about the lies lurking within the palace walls, about the diseases that afflict the age, as if “dislocated in its joints.” The great Russian critic V.G. Belinsky wrote about Hamlet: “This is a soul born for good and for the first time seeing evil in all its vileness.”

Hamlet's loneliness is the loneliness of a man who was ahead of his time, is in tragic discord with him and therefore dies.

In the last years of Shakespeare's work (1608-1612), his plays took on a different character. They move away from real life. They sound fabulous, fantastic motifs. But even in these plays - "Pericles", "The Winter's Tale", "The Tempest" - Shakespeare condemns despotism and autocracy, stands up for the ideals dear to him, glorifies the power of love, faith and the best motives of man, and affirms the natural equality of all people. The exclamation of the hero of one of these plays: “How wonderful humanity is!” - may serve as a sign of the Renaissance, which gave the world Shakespeare.

In 1612, Shakespeare wrote his last play, The Tempest. Soon he left the theater. Perhaps Shakespeare experienced disappointment in the English theater, which was moving away from the great path along which he had led it. Or perhaps, during the years of silence, he nurtured plans for new brilliant creations that were never destined to appear.

Shakespeare died in 1616, on the day he turned 52 years old. He was buried in the church of his native Stratford, where admirers of his talent still come from all over the world to venerate the grave of the great playwright, visit the house where he lived, and watch his plays at the Stratford Memorial Theater, where only Shakespeare's plays are staged.

The question of Shakespeare's moral ideal

The question of Shakespeare's moral ideal raises great difficulties. They note that his ideal is an intelligent, noble, educated person, but this statement lacks specificity, since a modern schoolchild does not always understand the requirements for an individual in the Renaissance.

Consequently, the moral ideals of the author, as well as the theme, idea, and intention of the work are not perceived clearly enough by students before working with the teacher. Therefore, the teacher, relying on the material about the Renaissance studied in history lessons, first of all covers in the first lesson the basic ideas of humanists in the social and religious fields and the moral principles based on these ideas. He points out that the Renaissance overthrew the dark dominance of the church and proclaimed the idea of ​​antiquity about the harmonious development of man. The manual for high school students notes that “the principle of the free development of the human personality becomes the ideological banner of the Renaissance.” A person again gains the right to openly express his thoughts, refute, doubt, and comprehend the unknown. A critical mind with broad education is one of the main traits of a Renaissance man. If a person knows how to think and feel, then, from the point of view of humanists, he is beautiful, no matter who he is, no matter what class he belongs to.

By his moral principles, Shakespeare was a worthy son of his era. “An enemy of medieval ideas about hereditary nobility, religious fanaticism, racial prejudices, etc., Shakespeare in his works objectively affirms the principle of equality, the moral equivalence of people of all classes, all races and religions,” writes A. Smirnov in the introductory article to the collection works of the playwright. Shakespeare always ardently sympathizes with young heroes, and especially heroines, who defend their feelings from the domostroevsky way of life. A. Smirnov also points out that Shakespeare highly values ​​“truth in human relationships, the truthfulness of thoughts and feelings.”

I am the spirit, I am your father.

Pretended at night

wander,

And during the day, languish in the middle of the fire.

While the sins of my earthly nature

They won’t be burned to the ground...”

"Laertes

His death, the mystery of the funeral.

Where the sword and coat of arms of bones did not overshadow

Without pomp, without due

ritual

Calling loudly from heaven to

earth."

2. Do the heroes experience doubt before taking revenge?

« Hamlet

…The spirit that appeared to me

Perhaps there was a devil...

and, perhaps…..

He is leading me to destruction. To me

needed

More support.

"Laertes

How did he die? I'm not a fool

I'll endure it.

Faithfulness to Gehenna! Vows to

black demons!

Fear and piety into the abyss

Bezdi!...

King

…Who will hold you back?

Laertes

My only will..."

3. What moral qualities of Hamlet and Laertes are revealed in their statements?

« Hamlet

Call me what

any instrument -

at least you can me

torment, but play with me

you can not"

"Laertes

Sir, I am with you;

Especially when you choose

Me with your weapon"

Nobody knows the truth about Shakespeare, there are only legends,
opinions, some documents and his great works.

William Shakespeare. The only surviving lifetime portrait

No one has surpassed Shakespeare as a playwright. The role of Hamlet, created back in the 16th century, is what all actors dream of, like athletes dream of a gold medal at the Olympics. Shakespeare’s plays are still staged, film studios make films based on his works, and regardless of whether the characters are dressed in historical costumes or modern clothes (as in the Hollywood film “Shakespeare,” for example), all the dialogues and thoughts sound very relevant. What explains the phenomenon of Shakespeare as a poet and playwright? First of all, because even then, during the Renaissance, he touched upon universal human values. He literally “exploded” the dramaturgy of that time when he showed the inner world of man on stage, turning edifying and farcical plots into immortal works.

My eye became an engraver and your image
Imprinted on the chest truthfully.
Since then I have served as a living frame,
And the best thing in art is perspective...

Along the lines of wrinkles in true glass
We all count our losses...
.......................................................
If you stop loving, so now,
Now that the whole world is at odds with me,
Be the most bitter of my losses,
But not the last drop of grief!
........................................................
No wonder the name given to me means
"Wish". We are tormented by desire,
I beg you: take me in addition
To all your other desires.
..........................................................
I love you, but I talk about it less often,
I love more tenderly, but not for many eyes.
he who is in front of the light trades in feeling
He puts his whole soul on display.....
...........................................................

Sonnets translated by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak

William Shakespeare was a humanist. He transferred the ideals of the Renaissance, where the main thing was Man, his ability to love and strength of personality, to the stage. There is different information about his biography. At various times, “anti-Shakespeare” campaigns were launched, where his authorship was disputed. But this only emphasizes the significance of his work.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford, a small town on the banks of the river.

No one knows the exact date of birth of William Shakespeare. In the arsenal of historians there is only a church record of the baby’s baptism, which took place on April 26, 1564. Researchers suggest that the ritual was performed on the third day after birth. Accordingly, incredibly, the date of birth and death of the playwright fell on the same date - April 23.

William's mother, Marie Arden, came from a noble family, his father was a wealthy citizen and at one time played serious roles in local politics - he was the mayor of the town and an alderman. His father owned several houses in Stratford, he traded in grain, wool and meat, so little William had the opportunity to study at the local “grammar” school.

Living in a small provincial town, where everyone knew each other and communicated regardless of class, Shakespeare was well acquainted with the life of ordinary townspeople. He became an expert in folklore, and many of the features of future heroes were copied from local residents. Savvy servants, prim nobles, suffering people who were cramped within the framework of conventions - all these heroes later appeared in his comedies and tragedies.

William was distinguished by his hard work, especially since he had to start working very early - from the age of 16, because his father got confused in business and could not support the whole family. Biographical information about this time varies. According to some sources, William worked as a rural teacher. According to another legend, he was an apprentice in a butcher's shop, and, according to legend, even then he was a humanist - before slaughtering animals, “he made a solemn speech over them.”

At the age of eighteen, William married Anne Hathaway, who was 26 years old at the time.In 1583, the young couple had a daughter, Susan, and William was happy. All his life he was especially attached to her, even after the birth two years later of twins, a son, Khemnet, and a second daughter, Judith.

Three years after his marriage he moved to London. According to legend, Shakespeare fled from a local landowner who was persecuting him because William was killing deer on a nobleman's property (killing a rich man's deer was considered valor).

In London, Shakespeare got work in the theater. He looked after the horses of the visitors, and was at first a “playpatcher”, or, in modern parlance, a rewriter - reworking old plays for new productions. He probably tried himself as an actor. Shakespeare soon became the theater's playwright. During his lifetime, his work was appreciated by his contemporaries. In 1599, the Globe Theater was formed, Shakespeare became one of the shareholders.

Shakespeare's importance for England occupies the same place as Pushkin for Russia. In tragedies, and especially comedies, Shakespeare made extensive use of popular speech patterns, which later organically entered the literary language. But the value of his work was not only this. Over 20 years of creative life, he created something that has remained relevant for five centuries. His sonnets, tragedies and comedies have become classics. Thanks to Shakespeare, new ideas and a new outlook on life appeared in literature. In the theater on stage, the heroes became living people, and not carriers of strictly defined ideas, as was typical in the drama of that time. William took common plots as a basis and introduced into them the advanced ideas of that time - the Renaissance.

William Shakespeare's youthful comedies "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "The Comedy of Errors", "The Taming of the Shrew" may deserve reproach for the complexity of the intrigue, the appearance of a comedy, the naivety of the action, but excellent scenes, situations and vividly outlined characters are scattered throughout them.

The well-known and beloved comedy “The Taming of the Shrew” is one example. The comedy is based on the plot of the Domostroevsky farce, when a generally rude and narrow-minded man, Fernando, tames the “obstinate” and grumpy Catarina. At the end, Katarina delivers a monologue in which she glorifies patriarchy, the essence of which is how wonderful it is to be a married, submissive wife. Shakespeare managed to show several ideas that are still contemporary today. In general, the essence of the play is not to glorify the resourcefulness of men, or even the equality of men and women. Shakespeare showed the “equivalence” of a man and a woman, who harmoniously complement each other, and the last monologue of the “submissive” wife Katarina is about this.

"...In caring about you
He works on land and sea,
Can't sleep at night in a storm, endures the cold,
While you're basking in the warmth at home,
Without knowing dangers or hardships.
And all he wants from you is love,
Friendly look, obedience -
Insignificant payment for his labors."

The first period of creativity is particularly bright and cheerful. Shakespeare created a brilliant series of comedies during these years: in addition to The Taming of the Shrew, the plays Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing are widely known. This period of Shakespeare's work includes his sonnets, unlike his predecessors, the poet in sonnets glorifies friendship. According to Shakespeare, it is richer than love passion. In the sonnets, various thoughts and feelings of the poet are expressed. He talks about friendship, love, and ... the state. Even a cycle of historical chronicles - bloody dramas: "Henry IV", "Henry V", written at this time, are not so gloomy: everything ends with the triumph of the main character, there is also a comedic character - Sir Falstaff. Shakespeare - whether willing it or not - tried to show life as it there is - with joy and tragedy.

The tragedy "Hamlet" opens the second stage of the poet and playwright's work. There is no more daring fun here, and the heroes are increasingly turning from winners into victims, but they still fight and live. Almost all actors dream of playing Hamlet. Hamlet’s inner world unfolds on stage, his tossing, suffering, torment of choice. Hamlet tries to comprehend his actions, he thinks hard about life and does not see a way out even in death.

If it were not for the fear of something after death,
Of an unknown country, from where no one
The traveler has not yet returned.
This is what shakes and confuses the will,
What makes us endure suffering more quickly?
Instead of running away to other, unknown troubles,
Yes, doubt makes us cowardly...

After meeting the ghost of his father, the worldturned over, presenting himselfbeforeHamletto others:

"How tiresome, dull and unnecessary,

It seems to me that everything in the world! O abomination!"

In “Othello” and “Macbeth,” passions, with a destructive hurricane, overturn what was previously marked by prosperity and contentment. In Shakespeare's "King Lear" great injustice and arrogance are atoned for by great suffering, and on that terrible night when the old king wanders in the rain and whirlwind, having no roof for his gray head, on this night a mysterious renewal of the human soul takes place, which learns to love and have compassion.

Not inferior in artistic beauty and power to the named plays are those three dramas of this period from ancient life, which were written by William Shakespeare mainly on the basis of Plutarch: “Julius Caesar”, “Coriolanus», « Anthonyand Cleopatra."

The drama “Measure for Measure” is distinguished by its gloomy character, in which the poet dealt another blow to Puritan exclusivity and intolerance. Pessimistic notes can also be heard in the works of the last period of Shakespeare’s work, in plays such as “Troilus and Cressida” and “Timon of Athens,” but the harmoniously developed nature of the great poet did not stop at disappointment, but reached reconciliation with life and tranquility in the idea of ​​forgiveness .

Works of the last creative cycle: "Cymbeline", "Winter's Tale", "The Tempest",not so famous. They are written in the genre of allegorical fiction, since the customer of the theater for which Shakespeare wrote was already becoming a noble audience who wanted fun and entertainment. But here, too, humanistic ideals find their expression - this is the faith of the talented poet and playwright in the bright future of humanity, the promise of serene tranquility.

William Shakespeare

The work of the great English writer William Shakespeare has worldwide significance. Shakespeare's genius is dear to all humanity. The world of ideas and images of the humanist poet is truly huge. Shakespeare's worldwide significance lies in the realism and popular nature of his work.

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, the son of a glover. The future playwright studied at a grammar school, where they taught Latin and Greek, as well as literature and history. Life in a provincial town provided the opportunity for close communication with the people, from whom Shakespeare learned English folklore and the richness of the popular language. For some time Shakespeare was a junior teacher. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway; he had three children. In 1587, Shakespeare left for London and soon began acting on stage, although he did not have much success as an actor. From 1593 he worked at Burbage's theater as an actor, director and playwright, and from 1599 he became a shareholder of the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare's plays were very popular, although few people knew his name at that time, because the audience paid attention primarily to the actors.

In London, Shakespeare met a group of young aristocrats. To one of them, the Earl of Southampton, he dedicated his poems “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “Lucrece” (1594). In addition to these poems, he wrote a collection of sonnets and thirty-seven plays.

In 1612, Shakespeare left the theater, stopped writing plays and returned to Stratford-on-Avon. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 and was buried in his hometown.

The lack of information about Shakespeare's life gave rise to the so-called Shakespeare question. Since the 18th century. Some researchers began to express the idea that Shakespeare's plays were not written by Shakespeare, but by another person who wanted to hide his authorship and published his works under the name of Shakespeare. Herbert Lawrence stated in 1772 that the author of the plays was the philosopher Francis Bacon; Delia Bacon argued in 1857 that the plays were written by members of Walter Raleigh's circle, which included Bacon; Karl Bleibtrey in 1907, Dumbleon in 1918, F. Shipulinsky in 1924 tried to prove that the author of the plays was Lord Retland. Some scientists attributed the authorship to the Earl of Oxford, Earl of Pembroke, and Earl of Derby. In our country, this theory was supported by V.M. Fritzsche. I.A. Aksenov believed that many plays were not written by Shakespeare, but were only edited by him.

Theories that deny Shakespeare's authorship are untenable. They arose on the basis of distrust of the legends that served as the source of Shakespeare’s biography, and on the basis of a reluctance to see genius in a person of democratic origin who did not graduate from university. What is known about Shakespeare's life fully confirms his authorship. Philosophical mind, poetic attitude, vastness of knowledge, deep penetration into moral and psychological problems - Shakespeare possessed all this thanks to intensive reading, communication with the people, active participation in the affairs of his time, and attentive attitude to life.

Shakespeare's creative path is divided into three periods. In the first period (1591-1601) the poems “Venus and Adonis” and “Lucretia”, sonnets and almost all historical chronicles were created, with the exception of “Henry VIII” (1613); three tragedies: Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. The most characteristic genre for this period was the cheerful, light comedy (The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Twelfth night").

The second period (1601-1608) was marked by an interest in tragic conflicts and tragic heroes. Shakespeare creates tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens. Comedies written during this period already carry a tragic overtone; in the comedies Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure, the satirical element is strengthened.

The third period (1608-1612) includes the tragicomedies “Pericles”, “Cymbeline”, “The Winter’s Tale”, “The Tempest”, in which fantasy and allegorism appear.

The pinnacle of English poetry of the Renaissance and the most important milestone in the history of world poetry were Shakespeare's sonnets (1592-1598, published in 1699). By the end of the 16th century. The sonnet became the leading genre in English poetry. Shakespeare's sonnets, in their philosophical depth, lyrical power, dramatic feeling and musicality, occupy an outstanding place in the development of the sonnet art of that time. The 154 sonnets created by Shakespeare are united by the image of a lyrical hero who sings of his devoted friendship with a wonderful young man and his ardent and painful love for a dark lady (The Dark Lady of the Sonnets). Shakespeare's sonnets are lyrical confessions; the hero tells about the life of his heart, about his conflicting feelings; this is a passionate monologue, angrily denouncing the hypocrisy and cruelty that reigned in society, and contrasting them with enduring spiritual values ​​- friendship, love, art. The sonnets reveal the complex and multifaceted spiritual world of the lyrical hero, who vividly responds to the problems of his time. The poet exalts the spiritual beauty of man and at the same time depicts the tragedy of life under the conditions of that time.

Artistic excellence in the expression of deep philosophical ideas is inseparable from the concise, laconic form of the sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet uses the following rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg. Three quatrains provide a dramatic development of the theme, often with the help of contrasts and antitheses and in the form of a metaphorical image; the final distich is an aphorism formulating the philosophical thought of the topic.

The image of the dark lady in sonnet 130 is distinguished by the skill of a truthful lyrical portrait. Shakespeare refuses mannered, euphuistic comparisons, trying to draw the real appearance of a woman:

Her eyes are not like stars, Her lips cannot be called corals, Her open skin is not snow-white, And a strand curls like black wire. With a damask rose, scarlet or white, the shade of these cheeks cannot be compared. And the body smells like the body smells, Not like the delicate petal of a violet. (Translated by S. Marshak)

Among the sonnets in which the most important social ideas are expressed, the 66th sonnet stands out. This is an angry denunciation of a society based on baseness, meanness and deceit. All the ills of an unjust society are named in lapidary phrases. The lyrical hero experiences the terrible picture of triumphant evil that has opened before him so much that he begins to call for death. The sonnet, however, ends with a glimmer of light. The hero remembers his beloved, for whose sake he must live:

Everything I see around is disgusting, But it’s a pity to leave you, dear friend!

The lyrical hero pronounces his accusatory monologue, which is a direct explosion of indignation, in one breath. This is conveyed by the repetition of the conjunction “and” in ten lines of poetry. The use of the words “tir"d with all these” (exhausted by everything...) at the beginning and end of the sonnet emphasizes the direct connection between the experiences of the lyrical hero and the social problems of the time. The hero absorbs into his spiritual world everything that worries a person in the public world. Dramatism the experiences of the lyrical hero are expressed in the build-up of energetic phrases, each of which is an antithesis reproducing a real social contradiction: The hero can no longer see Insignificance in luxurious attire, And a false verdict on perfection, And virginity, rudely desecrated, And shame on inappropriate honor, And power in captive to toothless weakness...

The intense feelings of the lyrical hero correspond to the frequent and strict alternation of assonance and alliteration:

And folly - doctor-like - controlling skill... And captive good attending captain ill...

The full power of the emotions of the excited hero is perfectly conveyed by means of language and style. The 146th sonnet is dedicated to the greatness of a person who, thanks to his spiritual quest and tireless creative burning, is able to gain immortality.

Rule over death in a fleeting life, And death will die, and you will remain forever.

The diverse connections of the spiritual world of the lyrical hero with various aspects of social life of that time are emphasized by metaphorical images based on political, economic, legal, and military concepts. Love is revealed as a real feeling, therefore the relationships of lovers are compared with the socio-political relations of that time. In the 26th sonnet, the concepts of vassalage (vassalage) and ambassadorial duties (ambassage) appear; in the 46th sonnet - legal terms: “the defendant doth that plea deny”; in the 107th sonnet there is an image related to economics: “love is like a lease” (the lease of my true love); in the 2nd sonnet - military terms: “When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in the beauty"s field.. .).

Shakespeare's sonnets are musical. The entire figurative structure of his poems is close to music.

Shakespeare's poetic image is also close to the pictorial image. In the verbal art of the sonnet, the poet relies on the law of perspective discovered by Renaissance artists. The 24th sonnet begins with the words: My eye became an engraver and your image was truly imprinted on my chest. Since then I have served as a living frame, And the best thing in art is perspective.

The sense of perspective was a way of expressing the dynamics of existence, the multidimensionality of real life, the uniqueness of human individuality*.

* See: Samarin P.M. Shakespeare's realism. - M., 1964, ch. "Aesthetic problems of Shakespeare's sonnets." The lyrical tragedy of sonnets is developed in Shakespeare's tragedies. Sonnet 127 anticipates the tragic theme of Othello:

The color black was not considered beautiful, When beauty was valued in the world. But, apparently, the white light has changed, - The Beautiful has been denigrated with shame.

The 66th sonnet in miniature contains the philosophical content and lyrical tonality characteristic of the tragedy “Hamlet”.

Shakespeare's sonnets were translated into Russian by I. Mamuna, N. Gerbel, P. Kuskov, M. Tchaikovsky, E. Ukhtomsky, N. Kholodkovsky, O. Rumer. The translations published in 1949 by S.Ya. Marshak, who managed to convey the philosophical depth and musicality of Shakespeare’s sonnets, were recognized as the best.

Shakespeare's humanistic worldview is revealed with particular force in the artistic analysis of socio-political conflicts and tragic contradictions in the life of man and society, which is given in his historical chronicles. The essence of the historical chronicle genre is the dramatic depiction of real persons and events of national history. Unlike tragedies, where Shakespeare, in the interests of the plan, departed from an accurate depiction of historical facts, the chronicle is characterized by a faithful reproduction of historical events, which, however, presupposes artistic speculation and artistic re-creation of the material*.

* See: Shvedov Yu.F. William Shakespeare: Studies. - M., 1977; Komarova V.P. Personality and the state in Shakespeare’s historical dramas. - L., 1977.

Shakespeare's historical chronicles include ten plays:

"Henry VI. Part One" (The First part of King Henry VI, 1590-1592);

"Henry VI. Part Two" (The Second part of King Henry VI, 1590-1592);

"Henry VI. Part Three" (The Third part of King Henry VI, 1590-1592);

"Richard III" (The Tragedy of King Richard III, 1592-1593);

"Richard II" (The Tragedy of King Richard II, 1595-1597);

“King John” (The Life and Death of King John, 1595-1597);

"Henry IV. Part One" (The First part of King Henry IV, 1597-1598);

"Henry IV. Part Two" (The Second part of King Henry IV, 1597-1598);

"Henry V" (The Life of King Henry V, 1598-1599);

"Henry VIII" (The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII, 1612-1613).

In historical chronicles, Shakespeare gives his understanding and his interpretation of historical events and the actions of historical figures. Using material from the past, he solves problems that worried his contemporaries. The history in his chronicles serves to understand the current state of society. Chronicles, like tragedies, are characterized by ethical pathos, a philosophical formulation of the problem of good and evil, and a humanistic interest in the individual and his fate. The chronicles are in many ways close not only to tragedies, but also to Shakespeare's comedies; they provide a comedic portrayal of the “Falstaffian background.”

The emergence of the genre of historical chronicle is due to the contradictions of English reality itself. V.G. Belinsky justified the development of historical chronicles in England in this way: “Historical drama is possible only under the condition of the struggle of heterogeneous elements of state life. It is not for nothing that drama reached its highest development only among the English; It is no coincidence that Shakespeare appeared in England, and not in any other state: nowhere were the elements of state life in such contradiction, in such a struggle among themselves, as in England.”*

* Belinsky V. G. Poli. collection cit.: In 13 volumes - M, 1954.-T. 5. - P. 496.

Shakespeare's turn to the genre of historical chronicle was also determined by the increased public interest in Russian history during the period of the struggle to strengthen the national state. The source of the plots of historical chronicles was the already mentioned work of R. Holinshed “Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland”.

The Henry VI trilogy paints a broad canvas: depicting the War of the Roses, when English barons brutally exterminated each other in the internecine struggle of Lancaster and York. Shakespeare correctly showed the bloody feuds of the feudal lords, condemning both warring sides. The playwright advocates strong royal power, which could put an end to feudal wars. Therefore, he condemns King Henry VI, a weak man, unable to rule the country, who cannot pacify the warring barons. Henry VI does not commit any atrocities, but he is guilty of shirking his duty as head of state and dreaming of giving up his crown to become a shepherd. Henry VI dies precisely because he failed to wisely use the power given to him.

Shakespeare's historical chronicles show the power of the people. The barons are forced to reckon with the mood of the people. The second part of Henry VI depicts the rebellion of John Cad in 1450. Shakespeare revealed the pattern of popular protest that arose in connection with the plight of peasants and urban artisans due to feudal civil strife. However, Shakespeare saw how feudal lords used popular rebellion for their own selfish purposes.

The Henry VI trilogy describes conditions in society that lead to the emergence of a tyrant. The bloody rivalry of the aristocrats was a prerequisite for the rise to power of Richard of Gloucester, the future Richard III. At the end of the trilogy, the dark personality of Richard Gloucester becomes increasingly influential.

In the play "Richard III" this character becomes central. The play itself in its structure approaches tragedy. The attention to the course of historical events characteristic of Henry VI is replaced in Richard III by attention to the character of the hero and his conflict with others. Richard III emerges not simply as a character usurping power, but as a psychologically compelling personality. Shakespeare develops the accusatory characterization of him as a tyrant, given to him in Thomas More’s book “The History of Richard III” (1514-1518). Richard III is condemned by Shakespeare as a politician who uses Machiavellian methods to achieve power, resorting to criminal acts in the struggle for the throne. He covers up his cruelty and criminal plans with hypocritical arguments about the good. At the same time, alone with himself, he speaks directly about his cunning, about his conscious intention to disregard his conscience.

Richard III is smart and courageous, he has great willpower, conquering those who treat him with distrust and hostility. His behavior is a game that misleads many. He managed to seduce Anna, who knew that he had killed her husband. There is a titanic element in the villainous appearance of Richard III. It is no coincidence that V.G. Belinsky wrote: “A tragic face must certainly arouse sympathy. Richard III himself is a monster of villainy, arousing sympathy for himself with the gigantic power of the spirit.”* Richard III, who justified his cruelty with the words: “The fist is our conscience, and the law is our sword,” ultimately experiences pangs of conscience and, in the face of death, condemns himself for breaking his oath, committing murders and thereby dooming himself to loneliness .

* Belinsky V. G. Poli. collection cit.: In 13 volumes - M, 1955. - T. 7. - P. 534.

The action in the play is the implementation of the cunning villainous plans of the protagonist, it demonstrates the art of intrigue of Richard III, who himself acts as an actor and director in scenes of violence and murder. He plays confidently and boldly, his actions lead to success: he achieves the throne. But, having become king, the tyrant feels that he cannot strengthen his power through crimes.

Condemning tyranny, Shakespeare puts forward the idea of ​​a monarchy that can establish peace and tranquility in the country. The tyrant Richard III is contrasted with the Earl of Richmond, the founder of the Tudor dynasty. This image is only outlined here, but its ideological and compositional significance is great: associated with it is the idea of ​​​​the need to fight against despotism, about the laws of victory over tyranny. The theme of a monarch caring for the good of the country, outlined in the image of Richmond, grows in the next chronicle - “King John” - into the theme of a patriotic monarch. The play was created at a time when England felt threatened by Catholic Spain. Therefore, the theme of patriotism and the theme of condemnation of Catholicism became central in the chronicle. The theme of patriotism is revealed in the images of John the Landless and the Bastard of Fockenbridge.

Shakespeare's patriotic position is the main criterion in assessing the behavior of the characters in the play "Richard II". In its plot, this drama is close to “Edward II” by Christopher Marlowe. Both works depict the depraved king’s refusal of the crown and his death. However, the similarity of the plot situation is explained not so much by the influence of Marlowe’s drama on Shakespeare’s drama, but by the closeness of the fates of historical figures. The shrewd Richard II feels that time has turned against him. In a state of deep mental crisis, he refuses the crown.

Duke Henry Bolingbroke, the antagonist of Richard II, is a smart and subtle politician. Bolingbroke's courage and courage aroused sympathy for him from the people. The Duke skillfully uses his popularity among the common people to carry out his ambitious plans. Shakespeare treats Bolingbroke's patriotism with great sympathy, but speaks with obvious hostility about his hypocrisy, prudence, and ambition. The usurpation of power is represented by an immoral act leading to the crime of murder of Richard P.

Shakespeare's best historical dramas are the two parts Henry IV and Henry V. Bolingbroke, who became King Henry IV, comes into conflict with the feudal lords. His main opponents are the barons from the Percy family. When raising a rebellion against the king, the feudal lords act inconsistently; selfish interests prevent them from uniting. As a result of such disunity, the brave Henry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur (“Hot Spur”), tragically dies during the rebellion. And in this chronicle, Shakespeare shows the inevitability of the defeat of the feudal lords in a clash with royal power. Nevertheless, the knight Hotspur is depicted in positive colors. He evokes sympathy for his loyalty to the ideal of military honor, courage and fearlessness. Shakespeare is attracted to the moral qualities of a brave knight. But he does not accept Hotspur as a person expressing the interests of the feudal lords and associated with forces going back to the past. Hotspur acts as an adversary to Henry IV, Prince Harry, and Falstaff, and he is clearly inferior to these heroes, who represent new, developing forces in society. The play reflects the objective pattern of time: the tragic death of the feudal lords and the gradual establishment of a new force - absolutism.

King Henry IV, having found himself on the throne thanks to skillful diplomatic actions, eventually loses activity and, like his predecessors, finds himself in a state of moral crisis. Henry IV is concerned that he failed to rid the country of fratricidal wars. Shortly before his death, the sick Henry IV, having moved away from his former suspicion and secrecy, in a conversation with his son directly expresses his concern for the fate of England, giving Prince Harry advice regarding state affairs. Henry IV could not bring the fight against the feudal lords to the end because he himself always acted as a feudal lord and came to power as a feudal lord, usurping the throne.

The most important role in the plot of both parts of Henry IV is played by the image of Prince Harry, the future king Henry V. In accordance with the legend that existed during the Renaissance, Shakespeare presented Prince Harry as a dissolute fellow, indulging in fun and funny adventures in the company of Falstraff. But despite his dissipation, Prince Harry is a morally pure person. Although in reality Prince Harry was a cruel adventurer, Shakespeare presented him as a beautiful young man. The idealization of the prince is caused by Shakespeare's belief in the progressiveness of an absolute monarchy that unites the nation.

Prince Harry's character is multifaceted. He is decisive and courageous in battle, lively and spontaneous in communication with the people, intelligent and far-sighted in state affairs. Prince Harry spends his life in entertainment; together with Falstaff, Bardolph and Pistol, he has fun in the Hog's Head Tavern. But even in scenes of revelry, Harry remains a noble man. He attracts with his kind attitude towards ordinary people, his ability to find a common language with them. Leading the life of a dissolute fellow, the prince at the same time thinks very seriously about how he will come to power and rule the country. For Prince Harry, democratic communication with the lower classes is a form of wide acquaintance with those who will become his subjects.

The historical chronicles “Henry IV” and “Henry V” depict the motley plebeian strata of society - peasants, servants, soldiers, merchants, the so-called “Falstaffian background”. The realism of historical drama was determined by its multifaceted and multifaceted portrayal of society. Raising the question of the position of the people, of the relationship between the monarch and the people, becomes important. “Falstaff's Background” is a realistic picture of the life of the lower classes of society not only of the time when the action of the chronicles takes place, but also of Shakespeare’s contemporary England.

Among the characters in the “Falstaffian background”, the bright comic image of Sir John Falstaff stands out first of all. This fat knight causes laughter with his endless antics and witty speech. Falstaff has many vices. He is a libertine, a drunkard, a liar and a robber. Hence the satirical touches in this image. But the main thing in Falstaff is the element of fun, artistic play, and endless ingenuity. This image conveys the charm of human nature unfettered by social conventions. Falstaff is good-natured and frank, cheerful and cheerful, enterprising and wise. The roguish and mischievous Falstaff, performing surrounded by comic characters, embodies the cheerful spirit of the Renaissance, opposing both the religious morality of the Middle Ages and the puritanical hypocrisy of bourgeois circles. Falstaff laughs at religious bigotry. An impoverished nobleman and knight, he lives off highway robbery. Conscious of the power of money, he at the same time does not bow to it. Unlike the bourgeois, Falstaff is devoid of the thirst for hoarding or petty hoarding and frugality. He needs money to enjoy life.

Falstaff opposes Hotspur by rejecting knightly honor. The knightly honor of feudal lords was reduced to mandatory participation in internecine wars. Knight Falstaff has a negative attitude towards knightly honor precisely because he sees the senseless cruelty of war. Falstaff is a comic image of a warrior of that time. He is very worried about his life, which is dearer to him than anything in the world, so he does not serve particularly diligently, covering up his lack of official zeal with cunning and lies.

Falstaff is charming with his boundless love of life, unbridled imagination, playful buffoonery, self-confidence, and insightful and witty criticism of feudal morality. Falstaff's cynical judgments are a form in which the unattractive essence of relationships in feudal society is revealed and emphasized.

One of the most significant characters created by Shakespeare, Falstaff represents the comedic world of Shakespearean drama, while Hamlet marks the world of tragedy. The image of Falstaff is a comic correspondence to the tragic plan of the main content of historical chronicles. Those problems that are revealed in a tragic aspect in the main storyline are presented in a comic aspect in the “Falstaffian background”. Falstaff's speech is presented in prose, in contrast to the poetic speech of tragic characters. His speech is spontaneous, it very naturally reveals the laughter culture of the folk language. Often Falstaff's witticisms are based on playing on the homonymous sound of words, on parody. The comedy of Falstaff's image is also based on the emphasized discrepancy between the appearance of the fat elderly servant and the cheerful, daring actions and statements of the young-spirited man.

Prince Harry is friends with the witty hedonist Falstaff. When the prince becomes King Henry V, he removes Falstaff from himself. These character relationships have echoes of the real-life relationship between Henry V and Sir John Oldcastle, who is considered the prototype for Falstaff.

The relationship between Falstaff and Prince Harry is full of deep meaning. Thanks to his friendship with Falstaff, Prince Harry becomes familiar with the Renaissance spirit of criticism and cheerfulness, and becomes acquainted with the life and customs of the common people. In his relationship with Prince Harry, Falstaff is trusting; he considers the prince his faithful friend. In this friendly affection and spiritual generosity of the Renaissance personality, Falstaff's superiority over the “ideal monarch” is manifested. But Falstaff is inferior to Prince Harry in soberly assessing new circumstances. Prince Harry's break with Falstaff is inevitable. The “ideal monarch” Henry V, having come to power, abandons the previous Renaissance freemen. To strengthen an absolutist regime, neither humor nor spiritual generosity is needed.

In the first period of his creativity, along with historical chronicles, Shakespeare created cheerful, optimistic comedies, in which a person acts as the creator of his own happiness, overcoming sometimes difficult dramatic situations. The comedies include the following plays: “The Comedy of Errors” (1591), “The Taming of the Shrew” (1594), “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” (1594-1595), “ Love's Labour's Lost, 1594-1595), A Midsummer-Night's Dream, 1594-1595, The Merchant of Venice, 1595 , “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (1597), “Much Ado about Nothing” (1598-1599), “As You Like It” (1599-1600), “ Twelfth Night, or What You Will, 1600.

In the hilarious farcical play The Taming of the Shrew, the colorful characters of Catarina and Petruchio emerge as standouts among the calculating townspeople of Padua. Katarina is known as a stubborn girl, while her sister Bianca is known for her meekness. Katarina's obstinacy and rudeness are only a way of defending her dignity, a way of resisting petty calculations, the despotism of her father and the suitors besieging the house. Katarina is annoyed by Bianca's facelessness and the lowliness of the suitors. She also greets Petruchio with her usual rudeness. A long duel begins between them, as a result of which they both felt that they were not inferior to each other in energy, fortitude, love of life and wit, that they were worthy of each other in intelligence and will.

The idea of ​​the triumph of life and love is also revealed in the comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. The poetic world of this comedy is in a bizarre mixture of the earthly, real with the fabulous, fantastic. In this comedy, Shakespeare the humanist contrasts the conventional nature of traditional morality with the natural naturalness of human feelings and passions. The theme of love is illuminated here in a lyrical and humorous way. The love of young heroes is a pure, bright feeling. It wins, despite all the whims and quirks of human characters and human behavior.

Shakespearean comedy contains deeply dramatic conflicts and even tragic motives. The comedy “The Merchant of Venice” is typical in this regard. Against the backdrop of the cheerful carnival atmosphere of Venice, an acute clash takes place between the world of joy, trust and nobility and the world of self-interest, greed and cruelty. In this comedy, Shakespeare developed the motifs of Giovanni Fiorentino's novella, giving them dramatic depth. The play sharply contrasts those who value selfless friendship most - Portia, Antonio, Bassanio - and those who subordinate all human relationships to their own interests. Antonio borrows money from the moneylender Shylock to help his friend Bassanio, who is in love with Portia. Antonio, who did not return the borrowed money on time, is brought to trial. The cruel Shylock, according to the promissory note, demands a pound of his meat from Antonio for non-payment of the debt. Portia, disguised as a lawyer, speaks in Antonio's defense at the trial. Good triumphs over evil. Young people defeat a moneylender.

The image of Shylock is presented in comedy not only as the embodiment of evil. Shylock's character is complex. Shylock's versatility was noted by Pushkin: “Shylock is stingy, sharp-witted, vengeful, child-loving, witty”*. This image has a tragic beginning. Shylock is shown as a cruel and vindictive moneylender, but at the same time as a man suffering from his humiliated position in society. With a great sense of human dignity, Shylock says that people are equal by nature, despite the difference in nationality. Shylock loves his daughter Jessica and is shocked that she ran away from his home. Shylock may evoke sympathy with some of his traits, but in general he is condemned as a predator, as a person who does not know mercy, as “one who has no music in his soul.” The evil world of Shylock is opposed in the comedy by the bright and joyful world of generosity and nobility. Heinrich Heine, in his essay “Girls and Women of Shakespeare” (1838), wrote: “Portia is the harmoniously clear embodiment of bright joy, in contrast to the gloomy misfortune that Shylock embodies”**.

* Pushkin the critic. - M, 1950. - P. 412.

** Heine G. Collection. Op.: In 10 volumes - M; L., 1958. - T. 7. - P. 391.

In the cheerful everyday comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor" there is a whole gallery of comic images: the stupidity of Judge Shallow and his nephew Slender are ridiculed, and Pastor Hugh Evans is made fun of. A whole group of comic characters from the historical chronicle “Henry IV” moved into this comedy - Falstaff, Bardolph, Shallow, Pistol, Mrs. Quickly.

The image of Falstaff undergoes significant changes in The Merry Wives of Windsor. He lost his free-thinking, humor, and ingenuity. Now Falstaff plays the role of an unlucky philanderer who has been taught a lesson by the Merry Wives of Windsor. Finding himself in a bourgeois environment, he becomes a pitiful and dull philistine, becomes prudent and thrifty.

The comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is imbued with a cheerful carnival atmosphere. But, unlike other comedies, the action in it takes place in a bourgeois environment, which gives Shakespeare the opportunity to better convey the real life and customs of that time, especially in the scenes that depict the everyday existence of the Pages and Fords, the life of the inn, the duel of Caius with Evans, Page exam.

The whimsical intrigue and setting of the action in the comedy Much Ado About Nothing are taken from the works of Bandello and Ariosto. Shakespeare introduced into the famous plot, which was also used by Spenser, an original combination of tragic and comic.

The comedy As You Like It, based on Thomas Lodge's pastoral novel Rosalind, or the Golden Legacy of Euphues, is essentially a parody of the pastoral style. Life in the lap of nature, in the Ardennes Forest, is a kind of utopia, an expression of the dream of a simple and natural life. The general flavor of the comedy is determined not by the pastoral element, but by the folklore traditions of the ballads about Robin Hood. In the Ardennes Forest live not only the shepherdesses Silvius and Phoebe, but also exiles: the dethroned Duke, Rosalind, persecuted by her cruel uncle, robbed by her brother Orlando. The human world of the inhabitants of the Ardennes Forest is contrasted with the cruel and greedy modern society. A satirical criticism of the vices of aristocratic society is given in the statements of the witty jester Oselka with his folk humor and the melancholy Jacques. The jester Touchstone very simply and correctly judges the life of the peasant woman Audrey.

The humorous element of the play is combined with the lyrical theme of the tender feelings of Orlando and Rosalind. A unique result of Shakespearean comedy from the first period of his creative work was the comedy “Twelfth Night, or Whatever.” Written on the plot of one of Bandello's short stories, it received this name because it was performed on the twelfth night after Christmas, when the fun of the Christmas holidays ended. Twelfth Night was the last of Shakespeare's merry, cheerful, carnival comedies.

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare penetrates into the depths of the human heart, speaks of surprises in human behavior, unforeseen emotional movements, and selectivity of feelings. The basis of comedic intrigue is a random coincidence of circumstances that dramatically changes a person’s fate. The comedy affirms the idea that, despite all the vagaries of fate, a person must fight for his own happiness.

The setting of the play is the exotic country of Illyria. Its ruler, Duke Orsino, lives in a charming world of love and music. The highest value for him is love. Orsino is in love with Olivia, who does not return his feelings. She lives as a recluse, spending time in mournful thoughts about her dead brother. Viola, who survived a shipwreck, ends up in the Duke's possessions. Disguised as a man, she, under the name Cesario, enters the service of the Duke. Viola-Cesario falls in love with Orsino, but she selflessly fulfills the Duke's request - to go to Olivia and tell her about his love.

Cesario's persistence in seeking a reception in Olivia's house and his eloquence addressed to her fascinate the recluse. Olivia falls in love with Cesario, confesses her passion for him and speaks of love:

Love is always beautiful and desired, especially when it is unexpected. (Translated by E. Lipetskaya)

As fate would have it, Viola’s brother Sebastian, who is very similar to his sister, turns out to be in Illyria, who disappeared during a shipwreck. Olivia, who meets Sebastian, mistakes him for Cesario. When the secret is revealed, happy weddings occur.

In the system of comedy images, an important place belongs to the jester Festa. The peculiarity of Feste is that his humor is sad. He talks about the transience of life and happiness, the inevitability of death. The jester Feste, together with the company of the merry fellow and joker Toby Belch, mocks Olivia's butler, the arrogant puritan Malvolio. Malvolio has no sense of humor. Feste's witticisms irritate him. Gloomy Malvolio is the enemy of fun and joy. Everything he says is pure edification and condemnation. In response to Malvolio’s Puritan severity, Toby Belch tells him words that have become popular in England: “Do you think that if you are such a saint, there will be no more pies or intoxicating beer in the world?”

In the first period of his work, Shakespeare created three tragedies: Titus Andronicus (1594), Romeo and Juliet (1595), and Julius Caesar (1599).

"Titus Andronicus" was written in the genre of "bloody tragedy", in the tradition of Seneca's tragedies. The plot episodes of this play are murders, following one after another. Twenty sons of Titus Andronicus, his daughter and himself die, and many other characters die. The commander Titus Andronicus was faithful to his patriotic duty to Rome. However, the high morality of a patriot no longer saves Rome from decay. The treacherous and cruel Saturninus, Tamora and the Moor Aron enter the fight against Titus Andronicus. The dramatically acute conflict is revealed, however, as a chain of bloody atrocities, without deeply affecting the essence of the tragic conflict.

Shakespeare's tragic art in all its perfection first appeared in the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet". As a source, Shakespeare used Arthur Brooke's poem "Romeo and Juliet" (1562), which in its plot goes back to the works of Italian authors. Based on Brooke's poem, Shakespeare created a work that was original in idea and artistic skill. He glorifies in him the sincerity and purity of youthful feeling, glorifies love free from the shackles of medieval feudal morality. V.G. Belinsky says this about the idea of ​​this play: “The pathos of Shakespeare’s drama “Romeo and Juliet” is the idea of ​​love, - and therefore, in fiery waves, sparkling with the bright light of stars, enthusiastic, pathetic speeches pour from the lips of lovers... This is the pathos of love, because in the lyrical monologues of Romeo and Juliet one can see not only admiration for each other, but also a solemn, proud, ecstatic recognition of love as a divine feeling”*.

*Belinsky V. G. Poli. collection cit.: In 13 volumes - T. 7. - P. 313.

In Romeo and Juliet there is a tangible connection with the comedies of Shakespeare. The closeness to comedies is reflected in the leading role of the theme of love, in the comic character of the nurse, in the wit of Mercutio, in the farce with the servants, in the carnival atmosphere of the ball in the Capulet house, in the bright, optimistic coloring of the entire play. However, in developing the main theme - the love of young heroes - Shakespeare turns to the tragic. The tragic beginning appears in the play in the form of a conflict of social forces, and not as a drama of internal, spiritual struggle.

The reason for the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet is the family feud of the Montague and Capulet families and feudal morality. The discord between the families also claims the lives of other young people - Tybalt and Mercutio. The latter, before his death, condemns this feud: “A plague on both your houses.” Neither the duke nor the townspeople could stop the feud. And only after the death of Romeo and Juliet does the warring Montagues and Capulets reconcile.

The high and bright feeling of lovers marks the awakening of new forces in society at the dawn of a new era. But the clash of old and new morality inevitably leads the heroes to a tragic end. The tragedy ends with a moral affirmation of the love of life of beautiful human feelings. The tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet” is lyrical, it is permeated with the poetry of youth, the exaltation of the nobility of the soul and the all-conquering power of love. The final words of the play are also shrouded in lyrical tragedy:

But there is no sadder story in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet. (Translated by T. Shchepkina-Kupernik)

The characters of the tragedy reveal the spiritual beauty of a man of the Renaissance. Young Romeo is a free person. He has already moved away from his patriarchal family and is not bound by feudal morality. Romeo finds joy in communicating with friends: his best friend is the noble and brave Mercutio. Love for Juliet illuminated Romeo's life and made him a courageous and strong man. In the rapid rise of feelings, in the natural outburst of young passion, the flowering of the human personality begins. In his love, full of victorious joy and foreboding of trouble, Romeo appears as an active and energetic nature. With what courage he endures the grief caused by the news of Juliet’s death! How much determination and valor there is in the realization that life without Juliet is impossible for him!

For Juliet, love became a feat. She heroically fights against her father's Domostroev morality and challenges the laws of blood feud. Juliet's courage and wisdom manifested itself in the fact that she rose above the centuries-old feud between the two families. Having fallen in love with Romeo, Juliet rejects the cruel conventions of social traditions. Respect and love for a person is more important for her than all the rules sanctified by tradition. Juliet says:

Your name alone is my enemy, And you are you, not a Montague.

The heroine's beautiful soul is revealed in love. Juliet is captivating with sincerity and tenderness, ardor and devotion. Her whole life is in love with Romeo. After the death of her beloved, there can be no life for her, and she courageously chooses death.

In the system of images of the tragedy, the monk Lorenzo occupies an important place. Brother Lorenzo is far from religious fanaticism. He is a humanist scientist; he sympathizes with new trends and freedom-loving aspirations emerging in society. So, he helps, as best he can, Romeo and Juliet, who are forced to hide their marriage. Wise Lorenzo understands the depth of feelings of the young heroes, but sees that their love can lead to a tragic end.

Pushkin highly appreciated this tragedy. He called the images of Romeo and Juliet “charming creatures of Shakespearean grace,” and Mercutio “refined, affectionate, noble,” “the most remarkable person in all the tragedy.” In general, Pushkin spoke about this tragedy as follows: “It reflected Italy, contemporary to the poet, with its climate, passions, holidays, bliss, sonnets, with its luxurious language, full of brilliance and concetti.”

The tragedy "Julius Caesar" completes the cycle of historical chronicles and prepares for the appearance of Shakespeare's great tragedies. The playwright used the material from Plutarch’s “Comparative Lives” and created an original historical tragedy, in which he gave a deep understanding of the problems of state power, the character of a politician, the relationship between the philosophical views of a politician and his practical actions, problems of morality and politics, the individual and the people. Turning in “Julius Caesar” to the historical conflicts of the 1st century. BC, when in Rome there was a transition from republican rule to a regime of autocracy, Shakespeare also had in mind the socio-political conflicts in contemporary England, where the isolated position of the feudal lords was replaced by absolutist power.

Shakespeare sympathizes with the Republicans, showing their valiant service to society, but at the same time recognizes that the Caesarians act in accordance with the demands of the times. Brutus's attempts to restore the republic are doomed to failure, since he acts contrary to the dictates of the times. He agrees to kill Caesar because he sees him as the main enemy of the republic. But Brutus fails to convince the people of the good of republican rule, since the people, in accordance with the spirit of the times, support the regime of autocracy during that period. The people are ready to recognize Brutus as a ruler, but want to see a new, better Caesar in him. The voice of the people is tragically at odds with what Brutus strives for; the people say: “let him become Caesar,” “in him we will crown all the best of Caesar.” Convinced that the republic is doomed, Brutus commits suicide.

If in the chronicles the people were one of the active forces, one of many heroes, then in “Julius Caesar” the people for the first time in Shakespearean dramas become the main character. Both Republicans and Caesarians are forced to reckon with him. The image of the people is especially expressive in the scene of the political dispute between the Republicans and Caesarians in the forum over the corpse of the just killed Caesar. This dispute was resolved by the people, who took the side of the Caesarian Mark Antony. The tragedy "Julius Caesar" testifies to Shakespeare's deep penetration into socio-historical contradictions, into the tragic conflicts of society.

During the second period of creativity, significant changes occurred in Shakespeare's worldview. They were determined by the playwright’s attitude to new phenomena in the socio-political life of English society. The absolutist government more and more clearly revealed its corruption and lost its progressive significance. Contradictions emerged between Parliament and Queen Elizabeth. With the coming to power of James I Stuart (1603), a reactionary feudal regime was established in the country. The contradictions between parliament and royal power deepened even more. The masses of the people found themselves in dire straits. The crisis of the feudal-absolutist system and the inconsistency of the Stuart policies with the interests of the bourgeoisie caused the growth of bourgeois opposition to absolutism. The preconditions for a bourgeois revolution are emerging in the country.

Under these conditions, Shakespeare moves away from the belief in an ideal monarch. The critical pathos of his work intensifies. Shakespeare opposes both feudal reaction and bourgeois egoism.

The cheerful, sunny, carnival character of many works of the first period of creativity is replaced by difficult thoughts about the troubles in the life of society, about the disorder of the world. The new period of Shakespeare's work is characterized by the formulation of large social, political, philosophical problems, a deep analysis of the tragic conflicts of the era and the tragedy of the personality of the transitional time. This was the period of the creation of great tragedies, in which Shakespeare conveyed the historical nature of the tragic collisions and catastrophes that arose during the era of the collapse of the patriarchal-knightly world and the arrival on the arena of history of cynical predators representing new capitalist relations.

The second period of Shakespeare's work opens with the tragedy "Hamlet" (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 1600-1601). The sources of the tragedy were Saxo Grammaticus’s “History of the Danes,” Belfort’s “Tragic Tales,” Thomas Kyd’s “Spanish Tragedy,” and Thomas Kyd’s play about Hamlet, which has not reached us.

In different eras, Shakespeare's Hamlet was perceived differently. The point of view of Goethe, expressed by him in the novel “The Years of the Teaching of Wilhelm Meister” (1795-1796), is well known. Goethe viewed tragedy as purely psychological. In the character of Hamlet, he emphasized the weakness of will, which did not correspond to the great deed entrusted to him.

V.G. Belinsky in the article “Hamlet, Shakespeare's drama. Mochalov in the role of Hamlet” (1838) expresses a different view. Hamlet, according to V.G. Belinsky, overcomes the weakness of his will, and therefore the main idea of ​​the tragedy is not weakness of will, but “the idea of ​​disintegration due to doubt,” the contradiction between dreams of life and life itself, between ideal and reality. Belinsky considers Hamlet's inner world in development. Weakness of will, thus, is regarded as one of the moments of the spiritual development of Hamlet, a naturally strong man. Using the image of Hamlet to characterize the tragic situation of thinking people in Russia in the 30s of the 19th century, Belinsky criticized reflection, which destroyed the integrity of an active personality.

I.S. Turgenev in the 60s of the XIX century. turns to the image of Hamlet in order to give a socio-psychological and political assessment of the “Hamletism” of “superfluous people.” In the article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” (1860), Turgenev presents Hamlet as an egoist, a skeptic who doubts everything, believes in nothing and is therefore incapable of action. Unlike Hamlet, Don Quixote in Turgenev's interpretation is an enthusiast, a servant of an idea who believes in the truth and fights for it. I.S. Turgenev writes that thought and will are in a tragic gap; Hamlet is a thinking man, but weak-willed, Don Quixote is a strong-willed enthusiast, but half-mad; if Hamlet is useless to the masses, then Don Quixote inspires the people to action. At the same time, Turgenev admits that Hamlet is close to Don Quixote in his intransigence to evil, that people receive seeds of thought from Hamlet and spread them throughout the world.

In Soviet literary criticism, a deep interpretation of the tragedy “Hamlet” was given in the works of A.A. Anikst, A.A. Smirnov, R.M. Samarin, I.E. Vertsman, L.E. Pinsky, Yu.F. Shvedov and others .* * See: Anikst A.A. Shakespeare's works. - M., 1963; his own. Shakespeare: The Craft of the Playwright. - M., 1974; Smirnov A.A. Shakespeare. - L.; M., 1963; Samarin R.M. Shakespeare's realism. - M., 1964; Vertsman I.E. Shakespeare's Hamlet. - M., 1964; Pinsky L.E. Shakespeare: Basic principles of dramaturgy. - M., 1971; Shvedov Yu.F. The evolution of Shakespearean tragedy. -M., 1975.

A student at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet at the court of the Danish king Claudius in Elsinore feels lonely. Denmark seems like a prison to him. Already at the beginning of the tragedy, a conflict is indicated between the humanist thinker Hamlet and the immoral world of Claudius, between a freedom-loving personality and an absolutist government. Hamlet perceives the world tragically. The Prince deeply understands what is happening in Elsinore. He interprets the conflicts at the court of Claudius as a state of peace. Hamlet's intellect and his wise aphoristic judgments reveal the essence of relations in society of that time. In Hamlet, as a tragedy of a thinking person in an unjust society, the hero's intellect is poeticized. Hamlet's reason is contrasted with the irrationality and obscurantism of the despotic Claudius.

Hamlet's moral ideal is humanism, from the standpoint of which social evil is condemned. The Ghost's words about Claudius' crime served as the impetus for Hamlet's struggle against social evil. The prince is determined to take revenge on Claudius for the murder of his father. Claudius sees Hamlet as his main antagonist, so he tells his courtiers Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on him. The insightful Hamlet unravels all the tricks of the king, who tried to find out about his plans and destroy him. Soviet literary critic L. E. Pinsky calls “Hamlet” the tragedy of knowledge of life: “...A hero who is active by nature does not commit the expected act because he knows his world perfectly. This is a tragedy of consciousness, awareness..."*

*Pinsky L.E. Shakespeare: Basic principles of dramaturgy. - P. 129.

Hamlet’s tragic worldview and his philosophical reflections are caused not so much by what happened in Elsinore (the murder of Hamlet’s father and the marriage of his mother Queen Gertrude with Claudius), but by the awareness of the general injustice prevailing in the world. Hamlet sees a sea of ​​evil and reflects in his famous monologue “To be or not to be” about what a person should do when faced with rot in society. In the monologue “To be or not to be,” the essence of Hamlet’s tragedy is revealed - both in his relation to the outside world and in his inner world. Hamlet is faced with the question: what to do when faced with the abyss of evil - reconcile or fight?

To be or not to be - that is the question; What is nobler - to submit in spirit to the Slings and arrows of furious fate, or, taking up arms in a sea of ​​turmoil, to defeat them with Confrontation? (Translated by M. Lozinsky)

Hamlet cannot submit to evil; he is ready to fight against the cruelty and injustice reigning in the world, but he realizes that he will die in this fight. Hamlet has the idea of ​​suicide as a way to end “the melancholy and a thousand natural torments,” however, suicide is not a solution, since evil remains in the world and on a person’s conscience (“That’s the difficulty; what dreams will be dreamed in the sleep of death...” ). Next, Hamlet speaks of social evil that causes indignation in an honest and humane person:

Who would bear the lashes and mockery of the century, The oppression of the strong, the mockery of the proud, The pain of despised love, the slowness of judges, The arrogance of authorities and insults inflicted on uncomplaining merit...

Reflections on the long-lasting disasters of mankind, on the sea of ​​evil, cause Hamlet to doubt the effectiveness of those methods of struggle that were possible at that time. And doubts lead to the fact that the determination to act for a long time is not realized in the action itself.

Hamlet is a strong-willed, energetic, active nature. With all the strength of his soul, he is focused on the search for truth, on the fight for justice. Hamlet's painful thoughts and hesitations are a search for a more correct path in the fight against evil. He hesitates in fulfilling his duty of revenge also because he must finally convince himself and convince others of Claudius’s guilt. To do this, he sets up a “mousetrap” scene: he asks wandering actors to perform a play that could expose Claudius. During the performance, Claudius betrays himself with his confusion. Hamlet is convinced of his guilt, but continues to postpone revenge. This causes him a feeling of dissatisfaction with himself, mental discord.

Hamlet resorts to bloodshed only in exceptional cases, when he cannot help but react to obvious evil and baseness. So, he kills Polonius, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spying on him to death, and then kills Claudius himself. He speaks sharply and cruelly to Ophelia, who loves him, who turned out to be a tool in the hands of his enemies. But this evil of his is not intentional, it comes from the tension of his consciousness, from the confusion in his soul, torn apart by contradictory feelings.

The noble character of Hamlet, a poet and philosopher, seems weak from the point of view of those who stop at nothing to achieve their goals. In fact, Hamlet is a strong man. His tragedy lies in the fact that he does not know how to change the unjust state of the world, in the fact that he realizes the ineffectiveness of the means of struggle at his disposal, in the fact that an honest, thinking person can prove that he is right only at the cost of his death.

Hamlet's melancholy arises as a consequence of the understanding that “time is out of joint” and is in a state of disorder and trouble. In the composition of the tragedy, a large place is occupied by the prince’s lyrical and philosophical monologues, in which a deep awareness of the spirit of the time is expressed.

The general philosophical nature of Hamlet's thoughts makes this tragedy close to other eras. Hamlet realizes that he cannot overcome the evil that reigns in the world; knows that after the death of Claudius, evil will not disappear, for it is contained in the very structure of social life of that time. Referring to those around him, Hamlet says: “Not one of the people pleases me.” And at the same time, for Hamlet the humanist, the ideal is a beautiful human personality: “What a masterful creature is man! How noble in mind! How limitless in his abilities, appearances and movements! How precise and wonderful in action! How he resembles an angel in his deep comprehension! How he looks like some kind of god! The beauty of the universe! The crown of all living things! Hamlet sees the embodiment of this ideal in his father and in his friend Horatio.

The development of the plot in the tragedy is largely determined by the feigned madness of the prince. What is the meaning of Hamlet's supposedly insane actions and statements? To operate in the mad world of Claudius, Hamlet is forced to put on a mask of madness. In this role, he does not need to be a hypocrite and lie, he tells the bitter truth. The mask of madness corresponds to the prince’s mental discord, the impulsiveness of his actions, and his insane courage in the fight for truth under the tyranny of Claudius.

A tragic accident plays a big role in the plot. At the end of the tragedy, there is an accumulation of accidents - the heroes participating in the duel exchange rapiers, a glass with a poisoned drink ends up in the wrong person, etc. The tragic outcome is approaching with inexorable inevitability. But it comes in an unexpected form and at an unexpected time. The unreasonableness of the social structure confuses both reasonable and reckless plans and causes the tragic inevitability of “random punishments, unexpected murders.”

Hamlet hesitates in fulfilling his duty, but he is ready to act at any moment, and in the final scene for him “readiness is everything.” Hamlet is a heroic person. He is ready to fight against evil and establish the truth even at the cost of his death. It is no coincidence that after all the tragic events, the deceased Hamlet, at the behest of Fortinbras, is buried with military honors. Before his death, Hamlet expresses his wish that people know about his life and struggle. He asks Horatio to reveal to the world the reasons for the tragic events, to tell the story of the Prince of Denmark.

Hamlet is a realistic tragedy that reflected the complexity of the time when Renaissance humanism entered a time of crisis. The tragedy itself expresses the idea of ​​the need for an objective depiction of life. In a conversation with the actors, Hamlet expresses views on art that are fully consistent with Shakespeare’s aesthetic positions. First of all, the garish effects of those who are ready to “regenerate Herod” are rejected; it is proposed to coordinate “action with speech, speech with action” and “not to overstep the simplicity of nature”; the essence of art is formulated; “to hold, as it were, a mirror before nature, to show virtue its own features, arrogance - its own appearance, and to every age and class - its likeness and imprint.”

The main historical collision of the late 16th century. - the conflict between the world of knightly heroism and the crime of absolutist power - is accordingly embodied in the images of two brothers, the father of Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet admires his hero father and hates the hypocritical, treacherous Claudius and everything that stands behind him, i.e. a world of vile intrigues and general decay.

The tragedy “Othello” (Othello, the Moor of Venice, 1604) is based on the short story “The Moor of Venice” by Geraldi Cinthio. The story of love and the tragic death of Othello and Desdemona is shown by Shakespeare against a broad social background. The tragedy features representatives of the government of Venice - the Doge, senators Brabantio, Gratiano, Lodovico; the military environment is depicted - Iago, Cassio, Montano. Against this background, the fate of Othello and Desdemona takes on a deep socio-psychological meaning.

Othello the Moor is an outstanding personality. Thanks to his valor, he achieved a high position in society and became a Venetian commander and general. The life of this warrior was full of dangers, he had to see a lot and endure a lot. From all the trials, Othello emerged as a courageous and courageous man, maintaining the purity and ardor of his feelings. He embodies the Renaissance ideal of a beautiful person. The noble Moor is smart and active, brave and honest. For this, the daughter of the Venetian senator Desdemona fell in love with him:

She fell in love with my fearlessness, and she fell in love with me with her sympathy. (Translated by B. Pasternak)

The love of Othello and Desdemona was a heroic challenge to traditional institutions. This love was based on deep mutual understanding and trust.

The character of Desdemona is similar to the character of Othello. Desdemona is also characterized by fearlessness and gullibility. For the sake of her beloved, she escapes from home and leaves Venice when Othello is appointed governor of Cyprus. Othello calls her his "beautiful warrior." In the captivating appearance of Desdemona, courage is combined with tenderness. But if Desdemona remains a harmonious and whole person to the end, then Othello let “chaos” into his soul, and this caused a disaster. Desdemona maintains trust in Othello; but his trust is shaken under the influence of the intrigues of the low and treacherous Iago.

Not knowing how to explain the reason that Othello changed towards her, Desdemona understands that this reason is not jealousy. She says:

Othello is smart and doesn’t look like vulgar, jealous people...

And when the maid Emilia asks Desdemona if Othello is jealous, she answers with confidence:

Of course not. The tropical sun burned all these shortcomings into him.

Desdemona, like no one else, understands Othello's soul. Indeed, jealousy rises in Othello not as a consequence of suspicion, vindictiveness or ambition, but as a manifestation of a feeling of betrayed trust, insulted dignity. By tragic irony, Othello considers the culprit of the feeling of betrayed trust not to Iago, who deceived the gullible Moor with his machinations, but to the pure and faithful Desdemona. Othello says about himself:

He was not easily jealous, but in a storm of feelings he fell into a rage...

A.S. Pushkin characterized Othello in this way: “Othello is not jealous by nature - on the contrary: he is trusting.”

Othello loves Desdemona dearly, even when he decides to kill her. He thinks he is restoring justice, fulfilling his duty. Having believed in Iago's slander, he believes that he cannot allow Desdemona to deceive others. He is filled with the consciousness of a high duty to people: the murder of Desdemona means for him the elimination of lies as a universal danger. The tragedy of Othello is the tragedy of betrayed trust, the tragedy of blindness by passion. Love for her determined Othello’s attitude towards people, towards the world. When their union was harmonious, Othello perceived the world as beautiful; when he believed in Desdemona's dishonesty, everything appeared before him in a dark, chaotic form.

Honest Othello becomes a victim of Iago's evil intrigues, not realizing that he is deceiving him. Shakespeare does not directly indicate the reasons for Iago’s hatred of Othello, although Iago speaks of his desire to achieve a career, his jealousy of Othello, and his lustful feelings for Desdemona. The main thing in Iago’s character is his Machiavellian desire to achieve advantages over other people at any cost. Iago is, of course, smart and active, but his abilities, his “valor” are entirely subordinated to his selfish plans. Iago's "valor" is individualistic and immoral. He formulates his main interest as follows: “Fill your wallet tighter.” The schemer Iago is cynical and hypocritical. His hatred for Othello is explained by the fundamental difference in their natures, their views, and attitudes towards life. Othello's nobility is a negation of Iago's bourgeois egocentrism. That is why he cannot come to terms with the establishment of Othello’s ethical principles in life. Iago resorts to base means to push the straightforward Othello off his noble path in life, in order to plunge him into the chaos of individualistic passions.

Shakespeare the realist showed what path a person could take when freed from feudal shackles. A personality could become bright and morally beautiful, like the heroic figure of Othello, or base, immoral, like the cynic Iago. Moral inferiority turns personal freedom into its opposite, i.e. into slavish dependence on dark passions and selfish interests. Iago acts against Othello and Desdemona through slander and deceit. He takes advantage of Othello's gullibility, plays on the hero's ardent temperament, on his ignorance of the mores of society. The rapid transition of the noble Othello from heroism to blindness by dark passion indicates that the free-spirited Renaissance personality was vulnerable, because the level of social relations of that time did not allow the humanistic ideal of the individual to be fully realized in reality. Shakespeare showed this tragedy of a valiant individual who found himself drawn into the real base relations of bourgeois society and unable to protect himself from dark passion.

The episode of “recognition” reveals the hero’s human dignity, his moral greatness. With spiritual glee, Othello learns that Desdemona loved him and was faithful to him, but at the same time he is shocked that the worst thing happened: he killed the innocent and devoted Desdemona. Othello's suicide in the final scene is a punishment of himself for retreating from faith in man. The tragic ending thus affirms the moral victory of nobility over the dark forces of evil.

The conflict between the individual and society in a new aspect is shown in the tragedy “King Lear” (King Lear, 1605-1606). This is a tragedy of human dignity in an unjust society.

The essence and evolution of Lear’s character was very accurately defined by N.A. Dobrolyubov: “Lear has a really strong nature, and general servility towards him only develops it in a one-sided way - not for great deeds of love and common good, but solely for the satisfaction of his own, personal whims. This is completely understandable in a person who is accustomed to consider himself the source of all joy and sorrow, the beginning and end of all life in his kingdom. Here, with the external space of action, with the ease of fulfilling all desires, there is nothing to express his spiritual strength. But his self-adoration goes beyond all limits of common sense: he transfers directly onto his personality all that brilliance, all the respect that he enjoyed for his rank; he decides to throw off power, confident that even after that people will not stop trembling at him. This insane conviction forces him to give his kingdom to his daughters and thereby move from his barbarously senseless position to the simple title of an ordinary person and experience all the sorrows associated with human life.”* “Looking at him, we first feel hatred for this dissolute despot; but, following the development of the drama, we become more and more reconciled with him as a person and end up being filled with indignation and burning anger, no longer towards him, but for him and for the whole world - towards that wild, inhuman situation that can lead to such the dissipation of even people like Lear"**.

*Dobrolyubov N.A. Collection Op.: In 9 volumes - M; L., 1962. T. 5. - P. 52.

** Ibid. - P. 53.

"King Lear" is a social tragedy. It shows the demarcation of different social groups in society. Representatives of the old knightly honor are Lear, Gloucester, Kent, Albany; the world of bourgeois predation is represented by Goneril, Regan, Edmond, Cornwall. There is a fierce struggle between these worlds. Society is experiencing a state of deep crisis. Gloucester characterizes the destruction of social foundations in the following way: “Love is cooling, friendship is weakening, fratricidal strife is everywhere. There are riots in the cities, discord in the villages, treason in the palaces, and the family bond between parents and children is collapsing... Our best time has passed. Bitterness, betrayal, disastrous unrest will accompany us to the grave” (Translated by B. Pasternak).

It is against this broad social background that the tragic story of King Lear unfolds. At the beginning of the play, Lear is a king with power, commanding the destinies of people. Shakespeare in this tragedy (where he penetrates deeper into the social relations of the time than in his other plays) showed that Lear's power does not lie in his kingship, but in the fact that he owns wealth and lands. As soon as Lear divided his kingdom between his daughters Goneril and Regan, leaving himself only the kingship, he lost his power. Without his possessions, the king found himself in the position of a beggar. The possessive principle in society destroyed patriarchal family human relations. Goneril and Regan swore their love for their father when he was in power, and turned away from him when he lost his possessions.

Having gone through tragic trials, through a storm in his own soul, Lear becomes human. He learned the plight of the poor, became involved in the life of the people and understood what was happening around him. King Lear gains wisdom. A meeting in the steppe, during a storm, with the homeless and unfortunate Poor Tom played a big role in the emergence of a new view of the world. (This was Edgar Gloucester, hiding from the persecution of his brother Edmond.) In Lear's shocked mind, society appears in a new light, and he subjects it to merciless criticism. Lear's madness becomes an epiphany. Lear sympathizes with the poor and condemns the rich:

Homeless, naked wretches, Where are you now? How will you repel the blows of this severe bad weather - in rags, with your head uncovered and a skinny belly? How little I thought about this before! Here's a lesson for you, arrogant rich man! Take the place of the poor, Feel what they feel, And give them a share of your excess As a sign of the highest justice of heaven. (Translated by B. Pasternak)

Lear speaks indignantly about a society where arbitrariness reigns. Power appears to him in the form of a symbolic image of a dog chasing a beggar who is running away from him. Lear calls the judge a thief, the politician who pretends that he understands what others do not understand is a scoundrel.

The noble Kent and the jester remain loyal to Lear to the end. The image of the jester plays a very important role in this tragedy. His witticisms and paradoxical jokes boldly reveal the essence of relationships between people. The tragicomic jester speaks the bitter truth; his witty remarks express the people's point of view on what is happening.

The storyline associated with the fate of the Earl of Gloucester, the father of two sons, shades the fate of Lear and gives it a general meaning. Gloucester also experiences the tragedy of ingratitude. His illegitimate son Edmond opposes him.

The humanistic ideal is embodied in the image of Cordelia. She does not accept both the old world of chivalry and the new world of Machiavellians. Her character emphasizes with particular force a sense of human dignity. Unlike her hypocritical sisters, she is sincere and truthful, does not fear the despotic nature of her father and tells him what she thinks. Despite her restraint in expressing her feelings, Cordelia truly loves her father and courageously accepts his disfavor. Subsequently, when Lear, having gone through severe trials, gained human dignity and a sense of justice, Cordelia found herself next to him. These two beautiful people are dying in a cruel society.

At the end of the tragedy, good triumphs over evil. The noble Edgar will become king. As a ruler, he will turn to the wisdom that Lear gained in his tragic fate.

The tragedy “Macbeth” (1606), which was created on the material of “Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland” by R. Holinshed, is devoted to the problem of the tragic situation of the state and the individual under a tyrannical regime.

Macbeth is a tyrant and murderer. But he did not immediately become like this. The image is revealed in development, in dynamics, in all the complexity and inconsistency of its inner world. The struggle between remorse and ambitious motives in Macbeth's soul, the eventual awareness of the meaninglessness of his bloody deeds - all this distinguishes him from an ordinary villain and makes him a tragic character.

In the first act, Macbeth appears as a hero in a magnificent scene of victory over Scotland's enemies. This is a strong, brave, courageous warrior. Macbeth is kind by nature and not devoid of humanity. He achieved fame through his exploits. Confidence in his strengths and the capabilities of his nature makes him want to become even more majestic, to achieve even greater glory. However, the social structure of that time placed limits on the development of personality and distorted the limitless abilities of man. Thus, Macbeth's valor turns into ambition, and ambition pushes him to commit a crime - the murder of Duncan in order to achieve higher power. The perversion of valor by ambition is very correctly characterized by the words of the witches from the first scene of the tragedy: “The beautiful is vile, and the vile is beautiful.” In Macbeth's actions, the line between good and evil is increasingly blurred.

The images of disgusting witches predicting the future fate of Macbeth symbolize the inhumanity that was in his intentions and deeds. Witches do not represent any fatal force directing the hero’s behavior. They express exactly what was already arising in Macbeth’s thoughts. Macbeth's criminal decisions are determined by his own will, not by fatal force. Criminal actions increasingly push towards the degeneration of personality. From a kind and valiant man, Macbeth becomes a murderer and tyrant. One crime leads to another. Macbeth can no longer refuse to kill in order to retain the throne:

I'm already so stuck in the bloody mud that it will be easier for me to walk forward than to go back through the quagmire. My terrible plan is still born in my brain, but my hand strives to accomplish it. (Translated by Yu. Korneeva)

As Macbeth's despotism becomes clear to everyone, he finds himself completely alone. Everyone recoiled from the tyrant.

Through crimes, Macbeth wants to change fate, to interfere with the course of time. He is already afraid of missing something and, through incessant bloody deeds, tries to get ahead of the actions of his supposed opponents. The tyrant makes his way to his “tomorrow” with the help of crimes, and “tomorrow” pushes him more and more toward an inevitable end. The tyrant's atrocities provoke opposition. The whole society rises up against the despot. It seems to Macbeth that the forces of nature have also gone against him - Birnam Forest is marching towards Dunsinane. These are the warriors of Macduff and Malcolm, hiding behind green branches, moving in an irresistible avalanche against Macbeth and crushing him. One of the characters in the tragedy, the Scottish nobleman Ross, speaks about the essence of lust for power:

O lust for power, You devour what you live on!

By speaking out against humanity, Macbeth dooms himself to complete isolation, loneliness and death. Lady Macbeth is fanatically devoted to her husband, whom she considers a great man. She is as ambitious as he is. She wants Macbeth to become king of Scotland. Lady Macbeth is determined to achieve power and supports her husband, helping him overcome his moral doubts when he plans to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth thinks that it is enough to wash the blood from her hands and the crime will be forgotten. However, her human nature can't handle it and she goes crazy. In her frantic, somnambulistic state, she tries to wash the blood off her hands and cannot. On the day of her husband's death, Lady Macbeth commits suicide.

Compared to other Shakespearean tragedies, the tragic atmosphere in Macbeth is very dense. It is intensified in connection with the development of the theme of coming to power through crime. The action becomes more compressed, concentrated and rapid; it usually occurs at night and against the background of a storm; The supernatural element (witches, visions) occupies a large place, playing the role of ominous premonitions and omens. However, in the end the darkness dissipates, humanity triumphs over evil.

Shakespeare's tragedies are characterized by deep insight into the essence of the tragic contradictions of his time. Shakespeare's dramaturgy surprisingly truthfully reflects the socio-political conflicts of the Renaissance. The profound changes in life associated with the gigantic revolution in history, when feudalism was replaced by a new bourgeois system, are the basis of the tragic in Shakespeare. Shakespeare's historicism lies in comprehending the main trends of the real struggle unfolding between the old and the new, in revealing the tragic meaning of social relations of that time. For all his naively poetic view of the world, Shakespeare was able to show the importance of the people in the life of society.

Shakespeare's poetic historicism introduced new content into the tragic theme, rebuilt the tragic as an aesthetic problem, giving it new unique qualities. The tragic in Shakespeare differs from medieval ideas about the tragic, from Chaucer’s view of the tragic, expressed in The Canterbury Tales (“The Monk’s Prologue” and “The Monk’s Tale”). According to the medieval idea, tragedy could happen to people of high position who lived in happiness and forgot the power of Providence. Such people are subject to the whims of fortune, regardless of their character, their merits and demerits. Their very high position was the cause of pride, so disaster was always close. According to medieval ideas, fortune brought misfortune upon a person completely unexpectedly and without cause. Before the wisdom of Providence, man is helpless, and no one is able to avoid the blows of fate. The medieval concept of the tragic came not from the character of man and his clash with fate, but from the belief in the omnipotence of supernatural forces, therefore, in the tragic works of medieval literature, the epic, narrative principle prevailed over the dramatic.

Shakespeare's tragic is free from the idea of ​​fatalism and fate. And although his heroes refer to both God and fortune, Shakespeare shows that people act based on their desires and will, but along the way they encounter life circumstances, i.e. with the will and desires of other people expressing personal, public and state interests. From the clash between the people themselves, who represent society and humanity, come both victories and defeats. The tragic is characteristic of people themselves, their struggle and does not depend on fatalistic predetermination. The tragic fate of the hero, the inevitability of his death, is a consequence of his character and life circumstances. Much happens by chance, but ultimately everything is subject to necessity - Time.

The supernatural in Shakespeare's tragedies - ghosts and witches - is more a tribute to folklore motifs than a manifestation of the playwright's superstition; it is a poetic convention and a peculiar technique in depicting characters and intensifying the tragic atmosphere. Both Hamlet and Macbeth act according to their own aspirations and will, and not at the behest of supernatural forces. Shakespeare and his heroes do not always understand the meaning of tragic events, but it is always clear that they occur according to the laws of causality, according to the harsh laws of time.

In Shakespeare, necessity appears not only as the historical movement of Time, but also as the certainty and indisputability of the natural moral foundations of human life. In public life, common humanity is necessary. Morality based on human justice is the ideal to which people should strive, and the violation of which leads to tragic consequences.

The tragic in Shakespeare is dialectical. Society can violate natural moral relations and lead heroes to death (Romeo and Juliet), and the hero, due to a number of his negative properties, can commit evil and cause harm to society (Macbeth), and at the same time the hero and society can be guilty towards each other ( King Lear). Everything depends on the real complexity of the social contradictions of the time and the psychological conflicts of each individual. The struggle between good and evil takes place not only in the public arena, but also in the human soul.

The conflict in Shakespeare's tragedies is extremely tense, acute and irreconcilable, and it unfolds as a clash of two antagonistic forces. In the foreground is the struggle of two strong heroes, embodying different characters, different life principles and views, different passions. Hamlet and Claudius, Othello and Iago, Lear and Goneril, Caesar and Brutus - these are the opposing characters who entered into battle. But Shakespeare's noble hero fights not only against some individual antagonist, he enters into a fight with the entire world of evil. This struggle reveals the best spiritual capabilities of the hero, but it also causes bad things. The struggle goes on simultaneously in the soul of the hero himself. The hero painfully seeks truth, truth, justice; The hero's mental suffering at the sight of the abyss of evil that opened before him turns out to be truly tragic; but he himself, in his search for the truth, makes a mistake somewhere, once comes into contact with evil, hiding under the guise of good, and thereby accelerates the tragic outcome.

The actions of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, outstanding people, influence the entire society. The characters are so significant that each of them is a whole world. And the death of these heroes shocks everyone. Shakespeare creates large and complex characters of active and strong people, people of reason and great passions, valor and high dignity. Shakespeare's tragedies affirm the value of the human personality, the uniqueness and individuality of a person's character, and the richness of his inner world. The life of the human soul, experiences and suffering, the inner tragedy of man interests Shakespeare above all. And this also reflected his innovation in the field of the tragic. The depiction of the characters’ inner world so deeply reveals their humanity that it evokes admiration and deep sympathy for them.

A number of Shakespeare's heroes - Macbeth, Brutus, Antony (Antony and Cleopatra) - are guilty of their own tragedy. But the idea of ​​guilt is incompatible with many noble heroes. The fact that young Romeo and Juliet are dying is to blame for a society that is hostile to sincere and integral human feelings. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear had mistakes and delusions that did not change the moral basis of their noble characters, but in the world of evil and injustice led to tragic consequences. Only in this sense can we speak of their “tragic guilt.” Together with these heroes, completely pure natures suffer and die, such as Ophelia, Cordelia, Desdemona.

In the resulting catastrophe, both the real perpetrators of evil, those who bear the “tragic guilt,” and those who are completely innocent die. Shakespeare's tragedy is far from that “poetic justice”, which consists in a simple rule: vice is punished, virtue triumphs. Evil ultimately punishes itself, but good experiences tragic suffering, immeasurably greater than the hero's mistake deserves.

Shakespeare's tragic hero is active and capable of moral choice. He feels responsible for his actions. If circumstances and society contradict moral ideals and violate them, then the moral choice of the heroes is in the struggle against circumstances; in intransigence to evil, even if it leads to their own death. This was most clearly demonstrated in Hamlet.

The episode of “recognition”, awareness of error and guilt, insight before death is replete in Shakespeare’s tragedies with the most intense experiences of the characters and the most important moral ideas. This episode is characterized by deep ideological and psychological content. The episode of “recognition” is important in the tragedy as a triumph of the moral principles of truth and goodness, as the result of the internal struggle and suffering that the hero experienced. This episode illuminates the hero’s entire life with a new light, affirms the greatness of the human spirit and the importance of the moral foundations of life.

The characters of the villains in Shakespeare's plays also differ in their individuality. They have a will and a mind that actively serves insidious and ambitious plans. These villains are the embodiment of a real phenomenon of the era - Machiavellianism. Free reason appears for them in an extremely individualistic form, as the effective pursuit of selfish goals. Shakespeare's villains are by no means conventional figures of abstract evil; in them one can discern the concrete and typical evil of the bourgeois system. Envy, malice and hatred are the main things in the characters of villains. But Shakespeare did not try to present them as fiends of hell. Villains are also people, but for various reasons they have lost their humanity. Sometimes it awakens in them to emphasize the futility of their existence, devoid of moral principles (Edmond, Lady Macbeth).

Shakespeare expressed a humanistic belief in the goodness and nobility of man, in his indomitable spirit and creative energy. He affirmed human dignity and the greatness of human achievements. From all catastrophes and troubles, human nature emerges undefeated. Shakespeare's true humanism is where his optimism lies. This optimism was not good-natured, since Shakespeare was aware of the power of evil and the misfortunes it brings. The optimism of Shakespeare's tragedies lies in triumph over despair and in a powerful belief in the victory of man over social evil.

The versatility of depicting life and depicting characters is invariably revealed in the combination and interpenetration of the tragic and the comic. This was Shakespeare's innovation, the discovery of a new way of depicting man and society.

Shakespeare was also an innovator in the plot and compositional structure of tragedies. In his tragedies a second storyline appears. Side storylines create the impression of the versatility of life and the wide scope of reality. The technique of parallelism of characters and plot lines, used for the purpose of comparisons and contrasts, is supplemented in Shakespeare’s tragedies with images of nature. Confusion in the souls of heroes, a tragic struggle of passions, reaching the highest tension, is often accompanied by a storm in nature (“King Lear”, “Macbeth”).

The complexity of the structure and the free flow of events in Shakespeare's tragedies largely anticipate the poetics of the novel of the 19th and 20th centuries. Saturation of action, dramatic character, mystery of events, panoramic depiction of history, freedom in time and space, bright contrast - all these features of Shakespeare's tragedies are further developed in the genre of the novel.

In the last, third, period of his work, Shakespeare remained faithful to the ideals of humanism, although he no longer had any illusions about the humanism of the new capitalist order. Not finding embodiment in life, the ideals of humanism in Shakespeare’s creative imagination took the form of a dream about the future, about a wonderful new world. This dream, in the absence of the possibility of realizing it in reality, was embodied in the form of fantastic elements, pastoral scenes and allegories characteristic of Shakespeare's work of the last period. The artistic method of "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest" is deeply natural, aesthetically necessary and is a further step in the evolution of Shakespeare's creativity.

"Pericles", "Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale", "The Tempest" represent a new aesthetic quality. They combine the genre features of tragicomedy, pastoral drama and allegory. In the dramas of the third period, Shakespeare turns to a mixture of fantasy and reality, to folklore motifs, to fairy-tale plots and utopian situations, to picturesque scenes unfolding against the backdrop of nature. In Shakespeare's later tragicomedies, the lyrical-heroic principle, the romance of exceptional events, dominates. These plays are characterized by the theme of contrast between society and nature, cruel court morals and idyllic rural life. However, a break with society is here a form of moral and ethical criticism of this society, and not a call to flee from it. It is no coincidence that heroes return to society to continue the fight against evil.

The tragicomedy “The Winter's Tale” (1610-1611) was written in the spirit of folk poetry. This work condemns the despotism of kings and poetizes the kindness of rural residents. The whole play is built on a sharp contrast between the tyranny of the royal court and the humanity of peasant shepherds. The Sicilian king Leontes, enjoying unlimited power, decided to brutally deal with his wife Hermione, jealous of her for the Bohemian king Polixenes. He arranges a trial of the innocent Hermione, wanting to destroy her along with her child. Hermione hides with Paulina, who sharply condemns the despotism of Leontes. Loss, daughter of Leontes and Hermione, finds shelter in Bohemia with an old shepherd, who becomes her sworn father. Lost fell in love with the son of King Polixenes, Prince Florizel. Disregarding class differences, Florizel wants to marry Lost. When Polixenes refuses to consent to this marriage, Florizel and Loss leave Bohemia. The ideal of equality of people is affirmed in the words of Loss that the same sun shines in the sky over the shack and the palace.

Good in this play triumphs over evil. Leontes eventually realizes his guilt and finds happiness again with Hermione.

The image of the chorus - Time - is of great importance in the philosophical content of the play. In the prologue to the fourth act, commenting on the fate of the characters in the play, Time expresses the idea of ​​development, the idea of ​​continuous changes in the life of society. Time establishes the perspective of developing events, placing Hermione's sad story in a certain place in the general flow of history. From the point of view of the eternal laws of development, tragic events are just individual moments that are overcome, become a thing of the past, and become a legend. On the scale of historical time, good inevitably wins. In The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare expressed his belief in a wonderful future for humanity.

Shakespeare's dreams of a just society are expressed in the fantastic plot of the tragicomedy The Tempest (1611). Having landed on the island after a shipwreck, Gonzalo dreams of arranging everything here differently than in the Kingdom of Naples. He wants to abolish officials and judges, abolish poverty and wealth, abolish inheritance rights and land enclosures. Thus, Gonzalo strives to eradicate the evil that prevails in an unjust society. However, Gonzalo also expresses naive wishes: to abolish trade, science and labor and live only on what nature itself gives. In Gonzalo's monologue, the influence of the ideas of Thomas More's Utopia is noticeable.

Gonzalo's utopian dreams are opposed to a real society where atrocities are committed. Twelve years ago, Antonio seized power in Milan, expelling the rightful duke, his brother Prospero. Prospero and his daughter Miranda find themselves on an island inhabited by fantastic creatures. However, evil reigns here too. The ugly savage Caliban, a monster born of a witch, taking advantage of the trust of Prospero, who had done a lot of good things for him, planned to dishonor Miranda. The wizard Prospero conquers Caliban, who embodies the power of dark instincts, and does good deeds with the help of the good spirit of the air, Ariel.

The play reveals the conflict between good and evil. The image of the humanist scientist Prospero is the embodiment of good reason and its beneficial effect on people. The wise Prospero transforms people, making them reasonable and beautiful.

Prospero is omnipotent on the island, the spirits of mountains, streams, lakes, forests are subject to him, but he wants to return to his homeland, Italy, and again plunge into the turbulent life of society, to fight against evil. Shakespeare expressed in “The Tempest” his love for humanity, admiration for the beauty of man, and faith in the advent of a wonderful new world. The humanist poet places hope in the minds of future generations, who will create a happy life.

In the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom,” N.A. Dobrolyubov defined the global significance of Shakespeare as follows: “Many of his plays can be called discoveries in the field of the human heart; his literary activity advanced the general consciousness of people to several levels, to which no one had risen before him and which were only indicated from afar by some philosophers. And that’s why Shakespeare has such worldwide significance: he marks several new stages of human development.”*

*Dobrolyubov N.A. Collection Op.: In 9 volumes - M; L. -1963. - T. 6. - P. 309-310.

The characters created by Shakespeare are multifaceted; they combine the elements of the tragic and the comic, just as this happens in life itself.

The realism of the Renaissance and the work of Shakespeare have their own conventional forms. Conventionally, for example, the place of action. The action of Shakespeare's plays may take place in Denmark, Scotland, Sicily, Bohemia, but the playwright always had England in mind, depicting the conflicts, characters and morals of his homeland. Shakespeare's dramas are polyphonic. They combine various poetic elements, different plot motifs, and reveal them in different aspects and variations. Shakespearean realism often manifests itself in a fairy-tale-romantic form, in fantastic, allegorical images, in a hyperbolic and metaphorical style, in a pathetic and musical mood, and in a spectacular stage form. The most important problem for Shakespeare is the problem of human character. Most of Shakespeare's dramas center on a personality that is revealed through the struggles that take place in the present. Shakespeare does not provide background information for his characters. The man in Shakespeare's works is connected with the life of the playwright's contemporary society. A.S. Pushkin spoke about the versatility of Shakespeare’s characters: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, like Moliere’s, types of such and such a passion, such and such a vice, but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices; circumstances develop before the viewer their diverse and multifaceted characters.”*

* Pushkin the critic. - P. 412.

Shakespeare conveyed the national flavor of English reality, the character of English folk culture. No one before him could depict the course of history itself, show the various layers of society in a single dynamic system.

Shakespeare captured in his works the turning point of the era, the dramatic struggle between old and new. His works reflected the movement of history in its tragic contradictions. Shakespeare's tragedy is based on the plot material of history and legend, which reflects the heroic state of the world. But using this legendary and historical material, Shakespeare put forward pressing modern problems. The role of the people in the life of society, the relationship between the heroic personality and the people are revealed with amazing philosophical depth in the tragedy “Coriolanus” (Coriolanus, 1608). The valiant commander Coriolanus is great when he represents the interests of his native Rome, the interests of the people, winning victory in Corioli. The people admire their hero, appreciate his courage and straightforwardness. Coriolanus also loves the people, but does not know their life well. The patriarchal consciousness of Coriolanus is not yet capable of embracing the developing social contradictions in society; therefore, he does not think about the plight of the people and refuses to give them bread. The people turn away from their hero. In Coriolanus, expelled from society and finding himself alone, exorbitant pride and hatred of the plebs awaken; this leads him to treason against his fatherland. He opposes Rome, against his people, and thereby dooms himself to death.

Shakespeare's nationality lies in the fact that he lived by the interests of his time, was faithful to the ideals of humanism, embodied the ethical principle in his works, drew images from the treasury of folk art, and depicted heroes against a broad folk background. In the works of Shakespeare are the origins of the development of drama, lyrics and the novel of modern times.

The folk character of Shakespeare's dramaturgy is also determined by language. Shakespeare used the richness of the spoken language of the inhabitants of London, giving words new shades and new meaning*. The lively folk speech of the heroes of Shakespeare's plays is full of puns. The imagery of language in Shakespeare's plays is achieved through the frequent use of precise, picturesque comparisons and metaphors. Often the speech of characters, mainly in plays of the first period, becomes pathetic, which is achieved by the use of euphuisms. Subsequently, Shakespeare opposed the euphuistic style.

* See: Morozov M. Articles about Shakespeare. - M, 1964.

In Shakespeare's plays, poetic speech (blank verse) alternates with prose. Tragic heroes mostly speak in verse, while comic characters and jesters speak in prose. But sometimes prose is also found in the speech of tragic heroes. The poems are distinguished by a variety of rhythmic forms (iambic pentameter, hexameter and iambic tetrameter, hyphenation of phrases).

The speech of the characters is individualized. Hamlet's monologues are philosophical and lyrical in nature; Othello's lyrical speech is characterized by exotic imagery; Osric's speech (Hamlet) is pretentious. Shakespeare's language is idiomatic and aphoristic. Many Shakespearean expressions have become catchphrases.

Soviet literary criticism views Shakespeare's work as realistic. The Soviet theater played a huge role in revealing the realistic essence of Shakespeare's works. Soviet translators also did a lot to master Shakespeare’s creative heritage.

The works of a number of Soviet Shakespeare scholars pose problems of Shakespeare's worldview, the periodization of his work, the theatrical history of his plays, the problems of realism and nationality. Social attention in Soviet Shakespeare studies was paid to the problem of “Shakespeare and Russian literature.”

7. HUMANISM OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

It is interesting that almost at the same time in England, where national statehood had already taken place and centralized power was established, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest humanist of the Late Renaissance, artistically comprehended the inconsistency and tragedy of the already established relationships “man-society-state” .

In Shakespeare's tragedies ("King Lear", "Macbeth", etc.), obviously or not, there is always a natural cosmos, which carries a meaning completely opposite to that of Montaigne. This space reflects a vague feeling that above the personal life, the consciousness of a “natural” person, there is some other all-determining world within which the heroes act. This world of transpersonal will is the sphere of social-state relations that completely subordinate the “natural” person to the standards of the state and make him a “statesman.”

The solution to Shakespeare's heroes is that their lives take place on two levels: personal ("natural individuality") and national (socio-civil). However, the heroes do not distinguish between these worlds: their subjectivity shakes the foundations of the world, even if they act within the circle of their own “natural” motives. The “core” of Shakespeare’s tragedies is hidden in the contradictory unity of the individual and the national. For example, in Othello, the hero’s personal world is shrouded in the veil of superhuman cosmic forces. Othello, who has committed the crime, begins to feel that “now the moon and the sun will be completely eclipsed, the earth will shake in horror.” This figurative series sets off the faceless, social and state that invades the fate of the hero.

Othello is a brilliantly guessed image of a person who resides in the (seemingly) consistent unity of his own naturalness and sociality, “statehood, citizenship.” Othello is a “natural” person (this is reinforced by the fact that he is a Moor), who has the right to love, hate, be gentle, and stand up for personal insults. At the same time, he is endowed with a “set” of certain rights and responsibilities. The norms of two spheres of life collided in his soul - and he died.

The scene of Desdemona's murder is far from the climax of the tragedy, as it is sometimes presented in bad theater. The tragedy is in the suicide scene. After finding out that Desdemona is innocent, Othello is still strong in spirit to live, and demands from those around him that he not be prevented from leaving freely. However, everything collapses when Othello hears that the republic is depriving him of his honor, that he is a prisoner and deprived of power. It is impossible to live anymore. He could not bear the dishonor of the state. Othello dies not as a murderer of his wife (after all, he “acted out of honor”), but as a man who, in defending his personal honor, lost the honor of a citizen. Staying in two spheres of ethical life is the source and strength of the tragic in the fate of Othello.

At the end of the Renaissance, Shakespeare showed the existing discord between personal "natural" and social life. And at the same time he showed that no one can cut the internal connection between these two spheres of life of the same person - death is inevitable. But how then to live? The man turns out to be a character in search of an author.

CONCLUSION

Concluding the consideration of the philosophical quests of the Renaissance, it is necessary to note the ambiguity of assessments of its heritage. Despite the general recognition of the uniqueness of Renaissance culture as a whole, this period for a long time was not considered original in the development of philosophy and, therefore, worthy of being singled out as an independent stage of philosophical thought. However, the duality and inconsistency of philosophical thinking of this time should not detract from its significance for the subsequent development of philosophy, nor call into question the merits of Renaissance thinkers in overcoming medieval scholasticism and creating the foundations of modern philosophy.

The English philosopher and moralist A. Shaftesbury (1671 - 1713) once remarked: every conflict between two spheres of life indicates either that society is imperfect, or the imperfection of man in himself.

The revival established itself in the dualism of the individual and the social-state, the empirical and the ideal, the emotional and the rational. The 17th century, based on their opposition and analysis, tries to decide what is defining in a person.

The Renaissance is one of the most fruitful stages in the development of European history. Renaissance is a point of choice in the historical process, when new ways of intellectual and civilizational development are sought. Thinkers, on the one hand, return to the classical ancient heritage in a more complete manner than was the case in medieval culture, and on the other hand, they discover a new world of man and nature.

So, the Renaissance, or Renaissance, is an era in the life of mankind, marked by a colossal rise in art and science. The art of the Renaissance, which arose on the basis of humanism - a movement of social thought that proclaimed man as the highest value of life. In art, the main theme was a beautiful, harmoniously developed person with unlimited spiritual and creative potential. The art of the Renaissance laid the foundations of European culture of the New Age and radically changed all major types of art. Creatively revised principles of the ancient order system were established in architecture, and new types of public buildings emerged. Painting was enriched by linear and aerial perspective, knowledge of the anatomy and proportions of the human body. Earthly content penetrated into the traditional religious themes of works of art. Interest in ancient mythology, history, everyday scenes, landscapes, and portraits increased. Along with monumental wall paintings decorating architectural structures, painting appeared and oil painting arose. The creative individuality of the artist, as a rule, a universally gifted person, came to the fore in art.

In the art of the Renaissance, the paths of scientific and artistic comprehension of the world and man were closely intertwined. Its cognitive meaning was inextricably linked with sublime poetic beauty; in its desire for naturalness, it did not stoop to petty everyday life. Art has become a universal spiritual need.

Of course, the Renaissance is one of the most beautiful eras in human history.

LITERATURE

1. Gurevich P.S. Philosophy of Man Part 1 – M: RAS, 2005

2. Losev A.F. "Renaissance Aesthetics". - M, 2006

3. Motroshilova N.V. The birth and development of philosophical ideas. M., 2004

4. Pico della Mirandola. Speech about human dignity // Man. M., 2003

5. Philosophy. A. G. Spirkin. Publishing house "Gardariki", 2006

6. Philosophy. Tutorial. I. M. Nevleva. Publishing house "Russian Business Literature", 2006

7. Bruno J. Dialogues. M., 1949

8. Pico della Mirandola J. Speech about human dignity. //Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1981

9. Montaigne M. Experiments. Book I. M. 1987

10. Montaigne M. Experiments. Book III. M. 1987

11. Montaigne M. Experiments. Book I. M. 1987

Gurevich P.S. Philosophy of Man Part 1 – M: RAS, 2005, p.11

Losev A.F. "Renaissance Aesthetics". - M, 2006, p.16

Motroshilova N.V. The birth and development of philosophical ideas. M., 2004, p.29

Gurevich P.S. Philosophy of Man Part 1 – M: RAS, 2005, p.26

Losev A.F. "Renaissance Aesthetics". - M, 2006, p.25

Motroshilova N.V. The birth and development of philosophical ideas. M., 2004, p.41

Synergetics (from the Greek sinergos - acting together) is a theory of self-organization that emerged in the 70s of the 20th century (I. Prigogine, G. Hagen). Studies the processes of transition of open non-equilibrium systems from less to more ordered forms of organization, from chaos to order. In theology, the term “synergy” is used, understood as the collaboration of man with God in the creation of salvation.

Gurevich P.S. Philosophy of Man Part 1 – M: RAS, 2005, p.29

Bruno J. Dialogues. M., 1949. P.291.

Pico della Mirandola J. Speech about human dignity. //Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1981. P. 249.

Pico della Mirandola J. Speech about human dignity. //Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1981. P.250.

Losev A.F. "Renaissance Aesthetics". - M, 2006, p.54

Montaigne M. Experiments. Book one. M.-L., 1954. S. 194, 203, 205, 201, 205.

Motroshilova N.V. The birth and development of philosophical ideas. M., 2004, p.64

Motroshilova N.V. The birth and development of philosophical ideas. M., 2004, p.68

Montaigne M. Experiments. Book I. P. 195.

Montaigne M. Experiments. Book III. P. 291.

Philosophy. A. G. Spirkin. Publishing house "Gardariki", 2006, p.36

Philosophy. Tutorial. I. M. Nevleva. Publishing house "Russian Business Literature", 2006, p.57

Montaigne M. Experiments. Book I. S. 204.

Philosophy. A. G. Spirkin. Publishing house "Gardariki", 2006, p.68

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