The meaning of the word "pathos" is literally translated (in Greek) as "passion", "suffering". Initially, it was introduced as a special term in the theory of eloquence in the field of oratory. In most cases, pathos manifests itself in people from higher social strata. A pretentious person is convinced of his exclusivity; he is confident that he knows about world fashion trends and current situation Overall the best.
Pretentious personalities
What is pathos, and how to identify such people? Pretentious individuals love to be listened to attentively, even if they are just bragging or talking outright nonsense. For them, this is one of the ways of self-expression. In addition, such individuals primarily communicate with people similar to themselves, since they intuitively feel that they will be listened to and, most importantly, understood.
Literary meaning
In the literature, what pathos is is defined as follows. This is sometimes unnecessary, inappropriate and unfounded enthusiasm. As a rule, it can be found in the works of beginning authors who have not yet decided on the direction of their work and have not studied what was written by their predecessors on this topic. Pathos - what is it? This is a strong feeling of the author, which he does not yet know how to express. There is nothing superfluous in naturalistic or descriptive literature. Pathos exists in several forms: romantic, satirical, heroic, sentimental, dramatic, and so on. Thanks to different types This literary device makes it possible to reveal works of art in a new way. For example, heroic pathos is necessary to assert the greatness of the main character. The sentimental and romantic views are somewhat similar, but the first is limited to the family and everyday manifestations of the characters’ feelings. A person inclined to such self-expression is predestined to live his life and enjoy the opportunities for self-realization.
Pathos in everyday life
Now let's look at what pathos is in everyday life. It is a phenomenon of localized recklessness and euphoria. This condition manifests itself in a person in difficult life situations and is characterized by a lack of real self-image. Pathos is an enthusiastic and inspired state of mind. This is the energy that gives a person a surge of emotions. This is how delight manifests itself, usually in an overly false and feigned way. The pathos state is characterized by solemn and pompous speeches, which often contain book turns.
Is it possible to cure pretentiousness?
It’s easy to understand what pathos is, but how can it be cured? If we consider this phenomenon as a disease, then the most important thing is to understand in time that you have no real friends. After all, pretentious people only fill their need for self-expression with the people around them. As soon as you realize that you have no friends, you need to start communicating with normal people who can tell you the whole truth to your face: that this style does not suit you, and so on. As a rule, after two to three months, a pretentious person begins to understand reality. But, unfortunately, many people with this approach to life are incurable.
For, and the intention of its author, it is necessary to penetrate the ideological world work of art, which contains many elements, one of which is pathos. Essentially this is emotional coloring, a kind of emotional mood. This word has a synonym, which is an expression such as "emotional-value orientation".
What does it mean to analyze pathos in literary text? This means establishing its typology, emotional and value guidelines. To have this valuable skill you need to understand existing varieties of pathos. This is quite useful. Let's start in order.
Epic-dramatic pathos
Here it is necessary to understand some terms. So, we can talk about such a concept as literary genre. The genre is epic, lyric, drama. Each of them has its own nature artistic image and your own means of creating an image.
Epic- the word is ancient Greek and means “word” or “narration.” The epic presents us with a heroic narrative about the historical past, and it creates integrity of the picture of people's life, in harmonious unity illuminates the epic world of the great heroes-heroes. But in fact, epic is the global totality of epic texts.
Epic-dramatic pathos represents a complete acceptance of the world as a whole without any doubt and of oneself in it, which gives a person an epic worldview, which does not provide for a thoughtless perception of a cloudless world that is in complete harmony with it.
Existence is recognized in its absolute conflict (which is what drama is), but this recognition is perceived as a fair and important side of the world. Why? Because in historical chronology, conflicts appear and are resolved, which allows existence and the dialectical development of being.
Here we are talking about maximum trust in the objective world with all its diversity and mass of contradictions. This type of pathos is found very rarely in literature and in pure form it happens even less often.
Great works based on epic-dramatic pathos can be represented by such masterpieces as "Iliad" And "Odyssey" Homer, Shakespeare's play "Storm", novel by Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel", novel by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy "War and Peace", poem by Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin".
The first masterpiece mentioned is the story of mythological heroes and gods, the story of a fairy-tale world in which reality is intertwined with fiction. Here people and gods confront each other. This is the story of Odysseus, who was sung by the great Homer.
Second masterpiece. Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".
The third masterpiece from Francois Rabelais is Gargantua and Pantagruel. From the pen of Rabelais, simple folk tales turned into a philosophical novel with the exploits of the famous and fearsome Pantagruel. Rabelais published this book in 1532. The novel became Rabelais' life's work.
The fourth masterpiece. Epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". Hundreds of characters, written out with amazing completeness.
Fifth masterpiece. Poem by Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin"
P The last element included in the ideological world of the work is pathos, which can be defined as the leading emotional tone of a work, its emotional mood. A synonym for the term “pathos” is the expression “emotional-value orientation.” To analyze pathos in a work of art means to establish its typological variety, the type of emotional-value orientation, attitude towards the world and man in the world.
Epic-dramatic pathos represents a deep and undoubted acceptance of the world as a whole and oneself in it, which is the essence of the epic worldview. Epico-dramatic pathos is the maximum trust in the objective world in all its real versatility and inconsistency. Note that this type of pathos is rarely presented in literature, and even less often it appears in its pure form.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey can be cited as works based generally on epic-dramatic pathos. The objective basis of the pathos of heroism is the struggle of individuals or groups for the implementation and defense of ideals, which are necessarily perceived as sublime. Another condition for the manifestation of the heroic in reality is the free will and initiative of man: forced actions, as Hegel pointed out, cannot be heroic. With heroism as pathos based on the sublime, other types of pathos that have a sublime character come into contact - first of all, tragedy and romance. Romance is related to heroism by the desire for a sublime ideal.
But if heroism is a sphere of active action, then romance is a region of emotional experience and aspiration that does not turn into action. The pathos of tragedy is the awareness of the loss, and the irreparable loss, of some important life values - human life, social, national or personal freedom, the possibility of personal happiness, cultural values, etc. Literary scholars and aestheticians have long considered the insoluble nature of a particular life conflict to be the objective basis of tragedy. In sentimentality - another type of pathos - we, as in romance, observe the predominance of the subjective over the objective.
The pathos of sentimentality often played a dominant role in the works of Richardson, Rousseau, and Karamzin. Moving on to consider the following typological varieties of pathos - humor and satire - we note that they are based on the general basis of the comic. In addition to the subjective, irony as pathos also has objective specificity. Unlike all other types of pathos, it is not aimed at objects and phenomena of reality as such, but at their ideological or emotional
Types of pathos:
a) heroic (heroes in myths) are assessed positive traits character
b) idyllic (people’s relationship with nature, people’s trusting relationships with each other) positively depicts people’s relationships
d) romantic (excited depiction of people’s characters)
g) comic – reality is ridiculed, criticized
h) humor - kind comic pathos, where contradictions are illuminated so that the weaknesses of the heroes do not cause harm.
The plot of a literary work. Plot components. Plot and plot.
Plot is an artistically appropriate system of described events, which the author presents in such a sequence and using such literary forms and techniques that most fully meet his creative task.
Types of plot
It is customary to distinguish between a concentric plot and a chronicle plot. In a concentric plot, everything is simple and clear: the author explores only one conflict, and the elements of the composition are easy to identify and name, since they come one after another. Here, all episodes will have a cause-and-effect relationship, and the entire text will be permeated with clear logic: no chaos, no compositional violations. Even if several storylines are involved in the work, all events will be interconnected according to the principle of links in one chain. With a chronological plot, everything is somewhat different: here cause-and-effect relationships may be broken or completely absent. In addition, some elements of the composition may simply not exist.
Plot components. In most stories classical works the course of events more or less corresponds to the life logic of the development of events. As a rule, such plots are based on conflict, so the location and relationship of events in the plot are determined by the development of the conflict.
A conflict-based plot may include the following components: exposition, beginning of the action, development of the action, climax, resolution of the action.
1. Exposition. What the work begins with. What motivates the reader to continue the story. What could have happened a year ago, ten years ago with this or that character. Sometimes the exposition resembles the myth of the creation of the world: it is it that gives impetus to everything that exists, but does not particularly affect anything. It also happens that the exposition echoes the epilogue or is an episode from the middle of the book. In a word, you start reading, thinking and waiting. These are the primary tasks of the prologue.
2. The beginning. At this stage, it already becomes clear that a conflict is not far off. More precisely, right now it appears: at first slowly and imperceptibly, as if in a dotted line. And a little further it becomes more obvious and intense. Usually this is a meeting of two heroes who are destined to walk together along the road of life and dot all the i’s. By the way, conflict is not always something bad and sharply negative. This is just a collision of someone or something: points of view, lifestyles, situations, people, etc. Love, by the way, is also a conflict. And what a one!
3. Development of action. The reader is already involved in what is happening, knows the names of the characters, how they live and how they think. He already understands what is happening, but continues to closely follow the development of the plot, intrigued and at a loss. As a rule, this stage is the most significant part of the book, when the writer leads the reader into his imaginary world.
4. Climax is the highlight of any text, it is a sea of emotions, a storm of feelings and sharp actions. Usually, readers' eyes are already burning, they devour page after page and cannot stop, even if urgent matters await them. Nerves in in this case tense to the limit, your head is bursting with the most unthinkable assumptions. Someone can hardly breathe anymore and then... fireworks! After which you can finally remember that you need to breathe.
5. The denouement is a kind of opening of the curtain. You find out who killed the old woman, whose son broke the vase and who wrote anonymous letters to the heroine all this time. The tension gradually subsides, you can already inhale and exhale evenly, your heartbeat evens out, and thoughts flash like this: “Wow, that’s what I thought.” Or: “But how is this possible?”
6. Epilogue. Usually it talks about what happened to the characters next. Who got married, who fell in love and how many children they had. The first few paragraphs are devoted to the main characters, and then the author briefly outlines later life minor characters.
Plot and plot... What's the difference?
Usually these two concepts are confused and passed off as one another. Therefore, let us first turn to etymology. If the word “plot” literally meant “subject,” then fabula is closest to the verb “to tell” (if you follow the Latin language).
Both the plot and the plot can be retold, but the question is how to do this: the plot is the sequence of events in their chronological order, the plot does not adhere to such an order and can contain events taking place in different time periods.
Another significant difference is that the plot is a condensed retelling of the most important thing, and the plot can contain, in addition to the main components of the composition, all kinds of lyrical digressions (like Gogol in “Dead Souls” or Pushkin in “Eugene Onegin” ).
Finally, the third point is as follows. The plot is the development of the conflict itself. And the plot is also the scenery against which the conflict unfolds.
From what was said in the previous chapter, it is obvious that the ideological orientation of a literary work of art is determined primarily by how the writer comprehends and evaluates the phenomena of life that he reproduces. A deep and historically truthful ideological and emotional assessment of the characters depicted, generated by their objective national significance, is the pathos of the creative thought of the writer and his work.
In lectures on aesthetics, Hegel used the word “pathos” (Gr. pathos - a strong, passionate feeling) to describe the artist’s high enthusiasm for comprehending the essence of the life depicted, its “truth.” The philosopher considered the embodiment of pathos “the main thing both in works of art and in
perception last viewer" Belinsky, sharing in many ways Hegel’s point of view, emphasized that pathos stems from the artist’s worldview, from his lofty social ideals, from his desire to resolve acute social and moral problems modernity. He saw the primary task of criticism as, by analyzing a work, to determine its pathos (26, 312-314).
But not every work of art has pathos. It does not exist, for example, in naturalistic works that copy reality and are devoid of deep problems. Author's attitude to life does not rise to pathos in them. In works with a false idea, the writer’s subjective pathos is not justified by the essence of the phenomena depicted, distorts them and is therefore deliberate and stilted.
The content of pathos in a work with a historically truthful ideological orientation has two sources. It depends both on the artist’s worldview and on the objective properties of those phenomena of life (those characters and circumstances) that the writer cognizes, evaluates and reproduces. Due to their significant differences, the pathos of affirmation and the pathos of negation in literature also reveals several varieties. The work can be heroic, tragic, dramatic, sentimental and romantic, as well as humorous, satirical and other types of pathos. They should be considered in more detail.
All types of pathos arise initially in the consciousness of society, and then find expression in artistic creativity. Heroic, dramatic, tragic pathos, sentimentality, romance, humor, satire in a work of art - all this is a deep ideological awareness and a truthful emotional assessment of the contradictions that exist in reality.
But the characters, relationships, and activities of people in their reality are multifaceted and changeable. Those contradictions that cause various types pathos, are often closely related to each other, transform into one another and even penetrate each other. In accordance with the famous saying: “from the great to the ridiculous” there is only “one step” - the listed varieties of pathos may also be close.
In a work of art, depending on its issues, one type of pathos or image sometimes dominates.
a combination of its different types is revealed. It is known that the problematics of many works are more or less one-sided, and in the early stages of the history of artistic creativity, also abstract. Writers usually focus on certain aspects of the characters and relationships they depict, strengthening and developing them, often even completely distracting from all other aspects. Hence, the pathos of a work can be predominantly heroic, tragic, etc. In the literature of recent centuries, especially in realistic literature, more and more often a work, sometimes even one image, expresses various properties and shades of pathos, arising from the complexity and versatility of the characters and relationships perceived by the writer . In order to understand the predominance and transitions of certain types of pathos when analyzing works, it is necessary to find out the characteristics of each of them. At the same time, as already mentioned, it should be borne in mind that pathos in art is created artistic means- the depiction of the characters, their actions, their experiences, the events of their lives, the entire figurative structure of the work.
HEROIC PATHOS
Heroic pathos contains an affirmation of the greatness of the feat of an individual and an entire team, its enormous significance for the development of a people, a nation, and humanity. The subject of heroic pathos in literature is the heroism of reality itself - the active activity of people, thanks to which great national progressive tasks are carried out.
The content of heroism is different in different national-historical circumstances. Mastering the elements of nature, repelling foreign invaders, fighting the reactionary forces of society for advanced forms of socio-political life, for the development of culture - all this requires a person to be able to rise to the interests and goals of the collective, to recognize them as his vital cause. Then common interests become an internal need of the individual, mobilize his strength, courage, will and inspire him to heroism. According to Hegel, the “universal forces of action” of human society become the “forces of the soul” of an individual person, as if embodied -113
in his character, in his actions (43, 1, 195). Heroics always presuppose the free self-determination of the individual, his effective initiative, and not obedient diligence.
The embodiment in the actions of an individual, with all the limitations of his powers, great, national about regressive aspirations - such is the positive internal contradiction of heroism in life.
By figuratively revealing the main qualities of heroic characters, admiring them and praising them, the artist of words creates works imbued with heroic pathos 1 . He not only reproduces and emotionally comments on the heroics of reality, A ideologically and creatively rethinks it in the light of his ideal of civic valor, honor, and duty. He brings life into the figurative world of the work, expressing his idea of the feat, the essence of the heroic character, his fate and significance. The heroism of reality is reflected in a work of art refracted and hyperbolically in fictional, sometimes even fantastic characters and events. Therefore, not only real heroic situations and characters are diverse, but also their interpretation in literature.
Interest in heroics is found even in ancient works syncretic creativity, in which, along with the images of gods, images of heroes appeared, or, as they were called in Greece, heroes (Greek heros - lord, lord), performing unprecedented feats for the benefit of their people. Such images were created in the era of the heyday of the clan system - in the “age of heroes” 2, when the independence of the individual increased noticeably and the importance of his proactive actions in the life of the people’s collective increased. At the holidays in honor of the victorious battle, the choir praised the winners, and they talked about the recent
1 It should be noted that in the history of literature there are also
false, false glorification, for example, of conquerors, colonialists,
defenders of the reactionary regime, etc. It distorts the essence of the real
historical situation, gives the work a false ideological direction
laziness.
2 The name “age of heroes” first appeared in an ancient Greek poem
poet Hesiod’s “Theogony” (“The Origin of the Gods”) and preserve
moose is still in modern times historical science. It means og
romny period in the life of mankind - from the highest stage of development
tribal system before the formation and early existence of the state
as organizations of class society.
them in battles with enemies. As A. N. Veselovsky showed in his study (36, 267), such stories, becoming the property of the tribe, formed the basis of historical legends, songs, and myths. In oral transmission, the details changed, received a hyperbolic image and a fantastic interpretation. This is how images of heroes arose - valiant, courageous, capable of performing great feats, arousing admiration, admiration, and the desire to imitate them. In ancient Greek myths, this is Hercules with his twelve labors or Perseus, who cut off the head of the gorgon Medusa. In Homer's Iliad these are Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, who became famous in the battles near Troy.
Heroic images of myths and legends were widely used in the literature of subsequent eras. Although subject to rethinking, they nevertheless retain their meaning eternal symbols human heroism. They affirm the value of feat and heroism as the highest standard of behavior for each member of the people's collective.
At later stages of social development, in class society, the heroic problem acquired new urgency and more broad meaning. In works of folklore - historical songs, epics, heroic tales, epics, military stories - in the center stands a mighty, fair heroic warrior who protects his people from foreign invaders. He risks his life not by order from above, not by obligation - he freely makes a decision and devotes himself entirely to a great goal. His actions are less arbitrary, more conscious than those of the mythological hero; they are caused by a sense of honor, duty, and internal responsibility. And the epic singer often reveals the high national self-awareness of the hero, the patriotic meaning of his deeds.
“For sweet France” Roland dies in “The Song of Roland.” Other heroes of the French “chanson de gesture” (“songs of deeds”), glorifying the ideal, kind, invincible in battle, King Charlemagne, bravely fight the Saracens, Saxons, Normans. The hero of the Spanish "Song of My Cid" Rodrigo de Bivar bravely fights the Moors for liberation native land. Russian heroes Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, and Ilya Muromets perform their feats for the glory of great Kyiv. The epic singer sees in the heroes the embodiment of the power of the people asserting their national independence.
In heroic works of artistic literature
ratures created in the process of individual creativity, the originality of the author’s ideological beliefs is more clearly reflected than in folklore. For example, the ancient Greek poet Pindar, glorifying heroes in his odes, proceeds from the understanding of “valor” that was characteristic of the aristocracy: he sees in valor not a personal, but a hereditary, tribal quality. Pindar's contemporary Simonides expresses a different, democratic point of view when he glorifies the heroes who died in the fight against the Persians. This is what his inscription sounds like at the site of the battle of the Spartans who fell at Thermopylae:
Traveler, go and tell our citizens in Lacedaemon that, keeping their covenants, here we died in bones.
Restrained words full of sorrow ideologically affirm the dignity of all citizens who remain faithful to their duty to the end. Thus, already in ancient Greek literature, heroics are interpreted from various ideological positions.
Starting from the Renaissance, the content of national-historical heroics is largely associated with the processes of formation of feudal states, and later with the formation of bourgeois nations. In works of fiction that reflect and glorify heroism, real events and historical figures are often reproduced. The movement of history finds visible embodiment in the initiative free actions of the heroes. Thus, in Russian literature, the activity of Peter I was glorified by Lomonosov in the odes and poem “Peter the Great”, and later by Pushkin in the lyrics, in the poem “Poltava”, in the introduction to “ To the Bronze Horseman" The response to the war of 1812 was “The Singer in the Camp of Russian Warriors” by Zhukovsky, “Memories in Tsarskoe Selo” by Pushkin, “Borodino” by Lermontov. The heroism of this struggle is reproduced with epic breadth in L. N. Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”
But heroism is required not only by the fight against an external enemy. The resolution of internal civil conflicts, without which there is no development of society, gives rise to revolutionary heroism. This is the heroism of freely assumed civic duty, high responsibility for the fate of the homeland, and the readiness to enter into an unequal struggle with the dominant forces of reaction. It requires from the hero not only great courage, determination, dedication, but also much greater ideological
independence than fighting an external enemy. In fiction, Aeschylus, using the ancient myth of Prometheus, the titan who gave people fire and was punished for this by Zeus, affirmed the heroism of tyrant warfare. Later, Milton, turning to biblical legends, conveyed the heroism of the English bourgeois revolution in Paradise Lost. Revealed in my own way heroic character Shelley's Prometheus in the poem "Prometheus Unchained".
The heroism of the national struggle for freedom often received a revolutionary interpretation. Thus, glorifying the struggle of the Greek people for independence, Pushkin and the Decembrist poets protested against the oppression of the Russian autocracy.
The literature of socialist realism most consistently and openly affirms revolutionary heroism. “Mother” and “Enemies” by Gorky, “Left March” by Mayakovsky, “Iron Stream” by Serafimovich, “Armored Train 14-69” by Ivanov, “Ballad of Nails” by Tikhonov, “Chapaev” by Furmanov reveal the rise of self-awareness, social activity of broad democratic circles, captured by revolutionary impulse. The element of revolution in these works appears as a heroic element, not only destructive, but also creative in its historical significance. This is a new understanding of the heroism of the mass movement for the revolutionary transformation of society.
So, heroic pathos expresses the artist’s desire to show the greatness of a person who accomplishes a feat in the name of a common cause, to ideologically establish in the consciousness of society the significance of such a character and his moral readiness for a feat.
Heroic pathos in works of art different eras most often complicated by dramatic and tragic motives. Victory over national and class enemies is often won at the cost of the lives of heroes and the suffering of the people. In Homer's heroic poem The Iliad, the struggle between the Achaeans and Trojans leads to dramatic episodes- the death of Patroclus and Hector, which was deeply experienced by their friends and relatives. The depiction of Roland’s death in a collision with stronger enemy units is also full of drama.
The heroic works of the Decembrist poets reflect the dramatic moments of the death of heroes and the tragic premonition of defeat.
I know: destruction awaits the one who rises first
To the oppressors of the people, Fate has already doomed me. But where, tell me, when was it
Freedom redeemed without sacrifice? (...)
This monologue by Nalivaiko from Ryleev’s poem of the same name reveals the tragic self-awareness of a person who is ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of the ideals of freedom.
In works of socialist realism, heroic pathos is most often combined with romantic and dramatic pathos.
PATHOS OF DRAMATISM
Drama in literature, like heroism, is generated by the contradictions of people's real lives - not only public, but also private. Such situations in life are dramatic when especially significant public or personal aspirations and demands of people, and sometimes their very lives, are under the threat of defeat and death from external forces independent of them. Such situations cause corresponding experiences in the human soul - deep fears and suffering, strong anxiety and tension. These experiences are either weakened by the consciousness of being right and the determination to fight, or they lead to hopelessness and despair.
Dramatic situations and the dramatic experiences of people that they cause often become the subject of deep ideological understanding and evaluation in works of fiction and create their own pathos. But these reflections and evaluations can have different directions. A writer (storyteller, singer) can deeply sympathize with the characters, the drama of their situation, their struggle to fulfill their aspirations, for their destiny and life. Then drama becomes the truly affirming pathos of the work itself, which finds expression in its entire figurative structure.
The author of the ancient Russian “Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu”, with heavy emotional anguish and heartfelt sympathy, depicts the death of the Ryazan principality from a sudden attack of the Tatar horde - extermination in
equal battle of the “daring men, the frolics of Ryazan”, the death of the princes, the destruction of churches and the entire city, the defeat of the hero Evpatiy, who sought to repay Batu for the destruction of Ryazan. With its dramatic nature, the story seems to call for nationwide revenge on an insidious and cruel enemy.
But a writer (storyteller, singer) can also condemn the characters of his characters in the drama of their situation, experiences, and struggles. He can see in the suffering of the characters fair retribution for the falsity of their aspirations, which led to the drama of their situation. Then drama becomes the ideologically negating pathos of the works themselves, expressed in their figurative structure.
Aeschylus's play "The Persians" depicts the terrible moral confusion in Persian court circles at the news of the defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis. King Xerxes mourns with the choir this heavy defeat of his power. But for Aeschylus and the Greek public, the stage presentation of these dramatic experiences of the Persians was an act of condemnation of a strong and dangerous enemy who had encroached on their national freedom, and, indirectly, an act of celebration of their victory over this enemy.
Condemning with dramatic pathos the wrong, false aspirations and actions of his characters, the writer does not always deny the characters themselves in their social essence. The author of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", for example, sees in the main characters - Igor and Vsevolod - worthy representatives of the Russian princely family, strong and brave warriors. The depiction of the decisive battle between the Russians and the Polovtsians is imbued with heroic pathos (“Ardent Tur Vsevolod! You stand on the defensive, you splash arrows on the warriors, rattle your Haraluzhny swords on their helmets,” etc.). However, the pathos of strong drama dominates in the story, which expresses condemnation of Igor’s entire arrogant campaign into the depths of the Polovtsian steppes, which ended in a heavy defeat and brought troubles to the entire Russian land (“And, brothers, Kyiv groaned from sadness, and Chernigov from misfortunes. Longing spread across the Russian earth, deep sadness flowed through the Russian land,” etc.).
The drama of situations and experiences that arise in military clashes between peoples is often reproduced in works of art of all countries and
eras; it is also in Soviet literature different periods its development. Thus, in Fadeev’s “Destruction,” the narrative of Levinson’s Far Eastern partisan detachment, retreating in heavy battles under the onslaught of superior forces of the Japanese army and White Guard detachments, is imbued with dramatic pathos. The deepest pathos of ideologically affirming drama dominates in works that reveal the heroism of the struggle of Soviet people against fascism - in the stories of A. Beck “Volokolamsk Highway”, K. Simonov “Days and Nights”, his novels “Soldiers Are Not Born”, “Alive and dead”, partisan stories by V. Bykov “Kruglyansky Bridge”, “Sotnikov”, “ Wolf Pack", as well as "Sign of Trouble."
Dramatic situations and experiences also arise during the civil struggle of progressive and reactionary forces in historical life different nations. Such drama often forms the basis of the pathos of a literary work, strengthening its affirmative or negative ideological orientation. For example, Nekrasov’s poem “Russian Women” reveals the deeply dramatic situation of Trubetskoy and Volkonskaya, the wives of the exiled Decembrists. Prompted by deep moral and civic self-awareness, they decided to go to their husbands in the Siberian mines. They had to endure a difficult break with loved ones, persistent resistance from the authorities, and the hardships and trials of a long journey. The conversation between Princess Trubetskoy and the Irkutsk governor in the first part of the poem most poignantly expresses the dramatic intensity of the heroine’s aspirations to overcome all obstacles on her chosen path. Drama here serves as a poetic affirmation of the moral height of the Russian woman.
The intensity of the revolutionary struggle of the People's Will of the Seventies is shown in the novel by S. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky “Andrei Kozhukhov.” The life of Andrei and his comrades in the political underground, full of dangers, futile attempts to free imprisoned friends, presence among a hostile crowd during the terrible execution of Boris and Zina, Andrei’s desperate decision to “go alone against the Tsar”, the gloomy and tense experiences generated by this - all this is full of deep drama. . The direction of the novel is twofold: the author admires the selfless courage of his hero, and wants to bring readers to the realization that the enormous efforts of revolutionaries who do not rely on the masses are essentially fruitless.
In contrast to such duality in Gorky’s novel “Mother,” his play “Enemies” expresses the holistic affirmative direction of the drama of the political struggle.
But dramatic contradictions civil life and the experiences they generate do not always manifest themselves directly in the open clash of social forces. They often create such properties of human characters that are revealed in private, everyday, family, and personal relationships. The drama of the situation and experiences of an individual then appears for the writer as a “symptom” of social and political contradictions. Creative reproduction of this kind of drama is found in the fiction of different eras.
Particularly significant in this regard are the novels, dramas, and lyrics of the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. - an era of sharp antagonisms between the old autocratic-serf way of life, which was becoming a thing of the past, and new ideological aspirations associated with the formation of the bourgeois system, then still progressive, but already increasingly showing its own inconsistency. In Germany, for example, these were Schiller’s dramas such as “The Robbers” and “Cunning and Love”; in England - such poems by Byron as “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, “The Giaour”, “The Corsair”, “Lara”; in France - such novels as “Père Goriot” by Balzac, “Confession of a Son of the Century” by Musset, “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal; in Russia - “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, “Eugene Onegin” by Pushkin, “Hero of Our Time”, poems and lyrics by Lermontov, “Who is to blame?” Herzen.
The position of the main characters of such works, who internally protest against the conservatism of the society around them, is deeply dramatic. But this drama manifests itself only in their individualistic experiences, in the conflicts of their private lives, in the unsettled nature of their personal destiny, in ideological “wandering.” For example, the position of Julien Sorel in the novel “The Red and the Black” is dramatic. This young man has democratic aspirations and, deep down, is hostile to the entire reactionary bourgeois-noble way of life. But he hides this hostility and strives to achieve only his own, individual independence, using for these purposes love affairs with women from the privileged environment he despises. He gets confused in these relationships
nikah, shows adventurism and ingloriously dies on the chopping block. The author is on the side of his hero in his hidden spontaneous protest, but he is against him in his individualistic throwings. Such duality in the ideological orientation of drama is characteristic of all such works,
In this novel by Stendhal, the dramatic position of the main characters is enhanced by the circumstances of social inequality - the opposition of plebeianism to nobility, poverty to wealth. In the subsequent era of development of bourgeois society in different countries Such circumstances increasingly attracted the attention of writers, causing their sharply critical attitude. Most vivid examples- “Père Goriot” by Balzac, “Oliver Twist” and “Little Dorrit” by Dickens, “Poor People”, “The Humiliated and Insulted” by Dostoevsky, “The Dowry” by A. Ostrovsky, etc. The drama of the situation and experiences of the characters in these works motivates and strengthens the pathos expressed in them of denial of social inequality in its consequences for the human personality.
In Crime and Punishment, the situation of the entire Marmeladov family, on the verge of poverty, is deeply dramatic, especially his eldest daughter Sonya, who decided - to save her family - to sell herself on the street, and his wife, forced to beg with small children and reaching the point of madness . The drama is expressed most forcefully in the speech of the desperate, drunken Marmeladov, addressed to God.
Along with various dramatic situations created in one way or another by the circumstances of social life, writers often also depict drama in the personal relationships of people, and this is reflected in the pathos of their works. Dramatic, for example, is the position of the main character in Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary, who sought to overcome the bourgeois limitations of her family life through secret love affairs that seemed sublime and romantic to her, but in reality were a vulgar deception that led to her death. In L. Tolstoy's novel, the situation of Anna Karenina is dramatic, she did not experience love in her marriage and for the first time experienced deep feelings in connection with Vronsky. Having broken with her husband, and through this with secular society, which hypocritically guards family morality, Anna was forced to take on the full burden
class exile, but could not bear it. In Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" the situation of Voinitsky is dramatic, he sacrificed his life to the academic career of Professor Serebryakov and realized too late the internal inconsistency of this career. In “Bigva on the Way” by G. Nikolaeva, the dramatically hopelessly strong, deep feeling of Bakhirev and Tina, which is in conflict with their family relationships and public opinion. Thus, by creating dramatically tense situations in the fate of their characters, writers are able to more clearly convey ideological understanding and assessment of significant contradictions public life. The drama of the situations and experiences of people in real reality and characters in literary works is created by the influence of external forces and circumstances that threaten their aspirations and their lives. But often the influence of external circumstances gives rise to internal contradiction in a person’s mind, a struggle with himself. Then the drama deepens to the point of tragedy.
TRAGIC PATHOS
The words “tragic” and “tragedy” come from the ancient Greek name for folk choral ritual performances of the death and resurrection of the fertility god Dionysus. Later, the Greeks developed a class-state system; this presented them with moral questions, which they tried to resolve in plays depicting the conflicts of human life. The old name of the performances was preserved, but it began to denote the very content of such plays. Aristotle wrote in his Poetics that tragedy arouses in the spectator feelings of “compassion and fear” and leads to “a purification (“catharsis”) of such affects.” (20, 56).
According to the mythological views of the ancient Greeks, the will of the gods, the “fatal” predestination of “fate,” dominates the lives of people. Some tragedies, such as Sophocles' Oedipus the King, depicted this directly. The hero of the tragedy, Oedipus, unknowingly became a criminal - the murderer of his father and the husband of his mother. Having ascended the throne, Oedipus brought a plague to the city with his crimes. As a king, he must find the criminal and save the people. But in the search it turns out that the criminal is
it was he himself. Then Oedipus, experiencing severe moral suffering, blinds himself and goes into exile. Oedipus himself is guilty of his crimes, but both the author of the tragedy, Sophocles, and his hero recognize everything that happened as a manifestation of “fate,” “destiny,” which, according to their beliefs, is predetermined from above and from which people cannot escape. This understanding of life was expressed in other ancient tragedies. Therefore, in the theories of tragedy and the tragic, in particular in Hegel, their definition was associated in one way or another with the concepts of “fate”, “fate”, which control the whole life of people, or with the concept of “guilt” of tragic heroes who violated some higher law and paying for it.
Chernyshevsky rightly objected to such concepts that narrowed the question and defined the tragic as everything “terrible” in human life (99, 30). However, its definition must be recognized as too broad, since both dramatic situations and those created by external accidents can be “terrible”. Apparently, Belinsky’s definition of the tragic is closer to the truth: “The tragic lies in the collision of the natural attraction of the heart with the idea of duty, in the resulting struggle and, finally, victory or fall.” (24, 444). But this definition also needs serious additions.
The tragedy of real life situations and the experiences they cause should be considered in terms of similarity and at the same time in contrast with drama. Being in a tragic situation, people experience deep mental tension and anxiety, causing them suffering, often very severe. But this anxiety and suffering are generated not only by collisions with some external forces that threaten the most important interests, sometimes the very lives of people, and cause resistance, as happens in dramatic situations. The tragedy of the situation and experiences lies mainly in the internal contradictions and struggles that arise in the consciousness and soul of people. What could these internal contradictions be?
According to the definition of tragic given by Belinsky, one side of internal inconsistency is the “natural attraction of the heart,” i.e., spiritual personal attachments, love feelings, etc., and the other side is the “idea of duty,” that which prevents the “attraction hearts,” but with which the lover is bound by the consciousness of the moral law.
Usually these are the laws of marriage, given vows, responsibility to the family, clan, and state.
All these relationships can only become one of the sides of an internal, tragic contradiction when they do not have external coercion for a person, but are recognized by him as the highest moral forces, standing above his personal interests and having a “superpersonal” meaning for him. This is always a social meaning, although it is often interpreted in religious or abstract moralistic terms. Originating in the human soul internal struggle, the struggle with himself, causes a pathetic experience in him and dooms him to deep suffering. All this is possible only for a person with high moral development, capable of delving into tragic experiences in his self-awareness. An insignificant person, devoid of moral dignity, cannot become a tragic subject.
Fiction, depicting the tragic situations and experiences of the characters, always takes into account moral level their characters. However (as in the depiction of dramatic situations and experiences) pathos tragic hero and the author's pathos do not always coincide. The tragic pathos of the work itself, arising from the ideological worldview of the writer, can have different directions - both affirming and denying. The writer is aware of the historical progressiveness and truthfulness of those lofty moral ideals, in the name of which his hero experiences a tragic struggle with himself, or is aware of their historical falsity and doom. All this cannot but affect the outcome of the tragic struggle of the literary hero, his entire fate and the pathos of the work, in which, however, sorrow for the suffering of the human spirit always sounds.
Thus, the tragic situation lies in the contradiction and struggle of personal and “superpersonal” principles in the human mind. Such contradictions arise in both the public and private lives of people.
One of the most important and very common types of tragic conflicts that inevitably arise in the development of different peoples is the contradiction between the “historically necessary requirement” of life and the “practical impossibility of its implementation” (4, 495). Conflicts of this kind manifest themselves with particular force when state power dominant
classes has already lost its progressiveness and has become reactionary, but those social forces of the nation that would like to overthrow it are still too weak for this. Such a conflict is depicted in many literary works that reveal the tragedy of popular uprisings, such as the slave uprisings in Ancient Rome led by Spartacus in Giovagnoli's novel Spartacus or the spontaneous peasant uprising in Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, as well as the tragedy of many more conscious political movements. In this case, tragedy is usually combined with heroism and drama.
The artistic creativity of the Decembrist poets (“Argives” by Kuchelbecker, “thoughts” and poems by Ryleev, as well as their lyrics) is imbued with heroic-tragic pathos. The same can be said about the work of populist writers (lyrics by V. Figner, Stepnyak-Kravchinsky’s novel “Andrei Kozhukhov”).
However, tragic contradictions can also arise in the lives of those progressive-minded representatives of society who do not directly participate in the heroic struggle against the reactionary government, but are opposed to it. Realizing the need and at the same time the impossibility of changing the existing state of affairs on their own, acutely feeling their loneliness, these people also come to a tragic self-esteem. This kind of tragedy was shown, for example, by Shakespeare in Hamlet. The hero of this tragedy understands that his revenge on King Claudius cannot significantly change anything in the society in which he lives - Denmark will remain a “prison”. But Hamlet, a man of high humanistic ideals, cannot come to terms with the surrounding evil. Understanding the political and moral problems of the century in philosophical terms, he comes to an ideological crisis, disappointment in life, and a mood of doom. But he morally conquers the fear of death.
Tragic pathos is often imbued with those works that reproduce private life, moral and everyday relations of people that are not directly related to political conflicts.
Tragic conflict in family and everyday relationships is shown by A. Ostrovsky in the play “The Thunderstorm” (which he inaccurately called “drama”). Married against her will, Katerina tragically fluctuates between the consciousness of her marital duty, which was instilled in her by religious
representations of her environment, and love for Boris, which seems to the heroine a way out of family enslavement. She goes on a date with Boris, but the consciousness of her sinfulness takes over in her, and she repents before her husband and mother-in-law. Then, unable to bear the remorse of conscience, contempt and reproaches of the family, Boris’s indifference, complete loneliness, Katerina throws herself into the river, but with her death Ostrovsky confirms the strength and height of her character, which rejects moral compromises.
Tragic pathos finds expression not only in drama, but also in epic and lyric poetry. Thus, in the consciousness of Mtsyri, the hero of Lermontov’s poem of the same name, there lurks a deep contradiction between his contempt for the slave life of the monastery, the thirst to free himself from it, romantic aspirations into the imaginary “wonderful world of worries and battles” and the impossibility of finding a way into this world, the consciousness of his weakness, the slave life brought up in him, the feeling of doom. “Mtsyri” is a romantic-tragic poem in its pathos.
A wonderful example of tragedy in lyrics - a cycle of verses
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Pathos- this is the main emotional tone, the main emotional mood of the work, as well as the emotional-evaluative coverage of a particular character, event, phenomenon by the author.
Heroics, or heroic pathos, associated with the active, effective affirmation of lofty ideals, in the name of achieving which heroes have to overcome very serious obstacles, risk their own well-being, and often their lives. The ballad of M.Yu. is permeated with heroic pathos. Lermontov "Borodino".
Tragedy, or tragic pathos, expresses suffering, unbearable sorrow. As a rule, it is associated with situations in which any decision of the hero will inevitably lead him to misfortune, and his choice is a choice “of two evils.” Tragic pathos is based on a conflict that does not have a successful resolution (such is the conflict between Danila Burulbash and the Sorcerer in N.V. Gogol’s “Terrible Vengeance”). I. A. Bunin’s short story “Lapti” is characterized by tragic pathos.
Romance, or romantic pathos, in its manifestations it is very similar to heroic pathos, since it conveys a strong emotional experience, aspiration towards a sublime and significant ideal. But romantic pathos is based not on the active implementation of a set goal, but on the experience of a dream (often unattainable), on the search for means of translating this dream into reality. M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri” is based on romantic pathos.
Sentimentality, or sentimental pathos, arises when in a work the author deliberately emphasizes his emotional attitude towards the depicted and persistently strives to evoke similar emotions in the reader. Example: poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Peasant Children”.
Drama, or dramatic pathos, manifests itself in works where the relationships of the characters or the character’s relationship with the outside world are characterized by particular tension and conflict, but, unlike tragic situations, a favorable outcome is possible here, although it requires the characters to make the right decisions and activity, decisive action. Example: V. G. Rasputin’s short story “French Lessons.”
Humor, or humorous pathos, we feel in works that present us with comic characters and situations. This pathos, as a rule, is accompanied by a good-natured smile from the reader. Example: vaudeville A.P. Chekhov's "Bear".
Satire, or satirical pathos, directed against the rocks that “lash” with laughter, causing not so much fun as indignation of the reader. Example: A.P. Chekhov’s short story “Chameleon”.
Invective as a type of pathos, it involves the frank expression of accusations against people or events. Example: A. S. Pushkin “The Desert Sower of Freedom,” where the poet clearly expresses his indignation towards people endowed with a slave psychology, deprived of the concept of honor.
Lyrical pathos involves the creation of a special atmosphere in the work, tuning the reader to display a subjectively interested attitude towards what is described by the author.