2.1. "To live life is not a field to cross"
2.1.1. "Hamlet"
"Hamlet" completes the plot, "prose" plot and transfers the action of the novel to another chronotopic sphere.
The title of the poem refers primarily to Shakespeare's Hamlet. But this is not the only intertextual cross-talk. If you pay attention to the rhythm of the Pasternak poem (a five-foot trochee, “truncated” in even verses by one syllable), its rhythmic prototype is easily found:
I go out alone on the road;
Through the mist the flinty path gleams;
The night is quiet. The desert listens to God
And the star speaks to the star.
K. F. Taranovsky drew attention to this peculiar rhythmic-melodic reference to Lermontov, who singled out Pasternak’s Hamlet from a series of poetic “echoes” of Lermontov’s theme of loneliness, which was clearly “out of tune with the era”, not numerous in Soviet literature. According to Taranovsky, this is "a poem that is entirely related to the" Lermontov cycle "and temporarily closes it, as it were." Indeed, the connection with Lermontov's text is found here not only at the formal level. Of the five thematic associations listed by M. Gasparov - “colors”, which together form the “semantic halo” of the pentameter trochaic, there are three in Hamlet: 1) road / path (“... I went out to the stage»; « ... the end of the road is inevitable»; « Life to live - not a field to go”), 2) night (“ The darkness of the night is upon me...”) and 3) life/death (“... What will happen in my lifetime»; « Life to live - not a field to go"). It is easy to see that the first and third themes (road / path and life / death) symbolically merge, merge into one by the end of the poem.
In the 1st stanza, life is associated mainly with time. The dynamic spatial association that arises in verse 1, associated with the appearance of the lyrical hero on the stage, almost immediately, in verse 2, is “neutralized” by his (the hero’s) static posture:
The hum is quiet. I went out to the stage.
I catch in a distant echo
What will happen in my lifetime.
In the 2nd stanza, this external static is emphasized by the expansion of the boundaries of the observed space: now it is not only a stage, but also an auditorium hostile to the actor standing alone on it. It seems that the hall is the only active subject in this stanza. The illusion arises due to syntactic inversion, which emphasizes the verbal component of the complex symbolic comparison "" a thousand binoculars on an axis” (= auditorium / world) - “ dusk of the night” (=dark / evil)”, which creates a vector image of the “axis” - a beam directed at the actor:
The twilight of the night is directed at me
A thousand binoculars on an axis.
If possible, Abba Father,
Pass this cup.
The 3rd stanza connects what will happen "in the lifetime" of the lyrical hero-actor with the words "plan", "role", "drama". The semantic spectrum of these words, of course, is very wide. The semantic dominant in this case is set by the "gospel" (relatively speaking) context - two verses (3rd and 4th) of the previous, 2nd stanza and 3rd verse of the subsequent, final 4th stanza - in full accordance with the law unity and tightness of the verse series:
I love your stubborn intention
And I agree to play this role.
But now there's a different drama going on
And this time, fire me.
Finally, in the 4th stanza, life is associated with both time and space to the same extent:
But the schedule of actions is thought out,
And the end of the road is inevitable.
I am alone, everything is drowning in hypocrisy.
To live life is not to cross a field (IV, 515).
Time and space here already clearly go far beyond the limits of the coordinate system that is generated by the purely conditional, situational-chronotopic reality of the poetic text, and begin to correlate with the specific realities of novel reality, presenting them in a completely different, symbolic understanding. This stanza is a counterpoint, combining the symbolism of theater/life/path and New Testament allusions into one extended metaphorical symbol. Its 4th verse, literally, without any rhythmic inversions, reproducing a well-known Russian proverb, carries a double semantic load. On the one hand, the proverb’s own literally “edifying” meaning and its figurative and metaphorical meaning, given by the contextual association “life is a path”, are actualized. On the other hand, the proverb acquires a new meaning, becoming an external sign of transferring the action of the poem from symbolic-timeless plan to plan personal-historical. An element of lyrical specificity is introduced into the poem, projecting its plot, so to speak, "on Russian soil." The lyrical hero - "Russian Hamlet" - correlates the archetypal symbolism with his own life and the events of the novel reality. It becomes clear who will have to go through this life path and reconnect the broken connection of times.
The image of Hamlet has long and firmly entered the world cultural consciousness. “Now “Hamlet” is not only the text of Shakespeare, but also the memory of all interpretations of this work,” Yu. Lotman stated. It is worth recalling at least Blok's famous poem “I am Hamlet. The blood is getting colder…”, dated 1914. His hero is tormented by thoughts of the tragic hopelessness of life:
I am Hamlet. Cold blood
When the deceitfulness of the net weaves,
And in the heart - first love
Alive - to the only one in the world.
You, my Ophelia,
The cold took away life,
And I'm dying, prince, in my native land,
Stabbed with a poisoned blade (2, 215).
It is interesting to note one very significant difference. Blok's hero, the "prince", until the last minute keeps in his heart the image of the deceased Ophelia - and he himself dies "in his native land, / He was stabbed with a poisoned blade." In Pasternak's poem there are no external, "plot" realities indicating a connection with Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (the title of the poem remains the only "direct reference"). But the concept-forming intertextual interaction nevertheless arises here, as evidenced by the individual plot lines of Pasternak's novel. “If Yuri Zhivago can be associated with Hamlet<…>, then Evgraf Zhivago in relation to him is Fortinbras: it is he who is destined to preserve the memory of his brother, preserve his works, ensure the future of his daughter, - A. Lavrov noted. Thus ideas about Hamlet "become<…>the key to creating and understanding the image of Yuri Zhivago".
This parallel is reinforced by another archetypal allusion - the death of Yuri Zhivago's father. The role of the insidious Claudius (who crept up to the sleeping king with "the cursed henbane juice in a flask" and poisoned him) in this "other drama" is played by the lawyer Komarovsky: he makes Andrey Zhivago drunk and deliberately provokes him to commit suicide. One can also point to other episodes and plot lines of the novel, which go back to the images of the immortal Shakespearean tragedy and make it possible to understand why the hero of the first poem of the Zhivagov cycle compares himself with Hamlet.
But the point is not only in these plot-archetypal allusions. Let us turn to Pasternak's "Notes on Shakespeare" (1942):
"When<…>suddenly you come across Hamlet's monologue, it seems to everyone that he himself says it, about 15-20 years ago, when he was young ”(V, 323).
Let us also pay attention to a page from the diary of Yuri Zhivago, which was later found among his papers:
““...Constantly, day and night, the street rustling behind the wall is as closely connected with the modern soul, like the overture that has begun with a theater curtain full of darkness and mystery, still lowered, but already reddened by the lights of the footlight. Incessantly and incessantly moving and rumbling behind the doors and windows, the city is an immensely huge introduction to the life of each of us.. Just in such terms I would like to write about the city.
Zhivago's surviving poetry notebook did not contain such poems. Perhaps the poem "Hamlet" belonged to this category? (IV, 486).
Indeed, the diary entry is perceived as a poetic idea that has not yet been formalized, but has already been fully developed in general terms, and the text of the poem is perceived as its artistic embodiment. But for us, another point is important here. In the notes “On Characterizing Blok” (1946), Pasternak spoke of Blok’s “Hamletism”, defining it as “naturally spontaneous, undecided and undirected spirituality”, and argued that “Hamletism” inevitably led “... to the dramatization of all Blokovsky realistic writing» (V, 363) . The association "city-life-scene-fate-rock-role", which formed the basis of the poem, connects the beginning of the hero's spiritual search with Blok's "hamletism", which in this context is perceived as the initial, largely spontaneous, unpredictable in its consequences stage of the spiritual and creative evolution of Yuri Zhivago. The poem was most likely written by the hero in the last year of his life, and perhaps even a few days before death. In any case, the diary entry setting out the poetic intention (we will return to it later - see § 2.3.2) was made precisely during this period.
The poetic-genre characteristic that Pasternak gives to his novel is also interesting: “I think that the form of an extended theater in a word is not dramaturgy, but this is prose.” First of all, let's pay attention to the word "form". The poet identifies "prose" not with the 'theater' and not even with the 'word' as such, but with the 'form' (i.e., most likely, simultaneously with the general type, specific variety and " deployed", dynamically extended, verbalized embodiment) "theatre in the word"'. The semantics of "theatre" and "word" are contaminated in such a way that the resulting concept cannot be reduced either to "dramatology" or to the conditional "dramatic" tension of the action. Theater-in-the-word symbolizes Life-in-the-world. Theater and the world are inseparable, as inseparable life And verbal art.
The symbolism of the theatre, created by a number of "stage" comparisons, metaphors and allusions (including Shakespeare's), acquires a conceptual status in Doctor Zhivago.
The fate of the hero of the novel is his "role" in that "other drama" that is played out on the stage of life. This "drama" is deeply alien to the hero; he does not want to participate in it, although he intuitively feels that it also contains a deep providential meaning that he is not yet aware of (“stubborn intention”). The tragedy of the hero’s position is captured by the gospel “prayer for the cup”, which is again followed by words from the theatrical and “worldly” lexicon, indicating a readiness to obey, to play the “role” to the end (“... If only possible, Abba Father, / Pass this cup. // <…>But thought out action plan, / And the end of the path is inevitable ... "; cf.: “... Abba Father! everything is possible for you; carry this cup past Me; but not what I want, but what You ”- Mk., 14: 36). It is interesting that in the first (eight-line) version of the poem there was no “prayer for a cup”, the gospel symbolism was presented only allusively (the lexeme “Pharisees” in the 3rd verse of the 2nd stanza), and the main theme was resolved in a different way:
Here I am all. I went out to the stage.
Leaning against the doorframe,
I catch in a distant echo
What will be in my lifetime.
It is the noise of far-reaching action.
I play them in all five.
I am alone. Everything is drowning in hypocrisy.
To live life is not to cross a field (IV, 639).
Then, when the 2nd stanza becomes the 4th, Pasternak will change its 1st and 2nd verses - retaining the melody, but shifting the meaningful accents. What is heard in the “distant echo” in the final version does not correspond to the noise of “far-reaching actions”, but to the “rumble” of the auditorium and that dramatic “plan”, from participation in the embodiment of which the “lyrical author” cannot avoid, appearing here in the hypostasis of a fatalist who suddenly felt his doom. The path (life/role) has yet to be passed (to live/fulfill), but the fate of the hero (actor/Hamlet), in fact, is already predetermined. It is fatalism that gives the monologue of Zhivago-Hamlet a tragic intonation, imbued with Gethsemane bitterness and sorrow. This is natural - after all, the fate of Hamlet is also archetypal in many respects: “Hamlet “does the will of the one who sent him”. So<…>in Pasternak's characterization of Hamlet, another image emerges, a new face - Christ ”(V. Alfonsov). However, it is clear that this poem is not about Christ. The New Testament symbolism of Hamlet has other origins. The meaning that it contains is somewhat different from the meaning generated by the images of the gospel (sub) cycle poems (they will be discussed ahead - see §§ 2.3.1-2.4.2). As we have already said, Hamlet reveals the dramatic antinomy of Yuri Zhivago's worldview, which characterizes the initial period of his spiritual and creative evolution. The "lyrical author" is trying to understand: is he really free to choose his future path? What prevails over him - a chain of fatal accidents, called a tragic fate and forcing him to play a role unusual for him, or is it still a destiny, a mission for which he comes to this world? For the hero of Hamlet, role and mission are synonymous; ‘life/mission’ is perceived by him through the prism of ‘fate/role’. The individual-author's rethinking of the famous Shakespearean metaphor leads to the emergence of a new concept-symbol. The world is getting theater of life, requiring from the "actor" not "reading" and hypocrisy, but maximum naturalness and fidelity to oneself, i.e. (to borrow the wording from another poem by Pasternak, not included in the Zhivagov cycle) striving
... not a single slice
Don't back away from your face
But to be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only to the end (II, 150).
By the theater life there is also an opposite semantic pole - "theatricalism". Zhivago speaks of “theatricality” in Chapter 12 of Part 4 (“Overdue Inevitability”), telling Gordon about “how he saw the sovereign at the front”:
“Accompanied by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, the sovereign walked around the lined grenadiers. With each syllable of his quiet greeting, like splashing water in swaying buckets, he raised explosions and bursts of thunderous rolling cheers.
They expect historical words from the tsar (“- He should have said something like: I, my sword and my people, like Wilhelm, or something like that. But it’s definitely about the people, it’s certainly”), but Nikolai is embarrassed is silent:
“... he was natural in Russian and tragically above this vulgarity. After all, this theatricality is unthinkable in Russia. Because it's theatrical stuff, isn't it?" (IV, 122).
The deadly element of "theatricality", that is, unnaturalness, vulgarity and posturing, is embodied in the images of some characters in Pasternak's novel. Lawyer Komarovsky is constantly acting, acting in the guise of a charming villain-tempter, and then a penitent and suffering hero, then in his more characteristic role of a grasping businessman and political adventurer. The actors are Commissar Gints and the founder of the Zybushinskaya Republic, the anarchist Klintsov-Pogorevshiy (for more details about these characters, see below, in § 2.1.2). Even Strelnikov, whose revolutionary spirit "was distinguished by its authenticity, fanaticism, not sung from someone else's voice, but prepared by his whole life and not accidental" (IV, 249), - and he, as at a certain moment it seems to Yuri Zhivago, involuntarily imitating someone , plays in the post-October revolutionary tragedy not his own, but someone else's role:
“This person must have had some kind of gift, not necessarily original. The gift, visible in all his movements, could be the gift of imitation. Then everyone imitated someone. Famous heroes of history. Figures seen at the front or during the days of unrest in the cities and struck the imagination. The most recognized popular authorities. To the comrades who came to the forefront. Just to each other" (IV, 248).
So, the symbolism of the theater in Doctor Zhivago is multifaceted. It correlates both with the content (Shakespearean quotes and allusions, "stage" comparisons and metaphors in a prose text, the emphatically "theatrical" chronotope of the first poem of the Zhivagov cycle), and with the form or, to be more precise, with the genre of the work (the author's attempt to reveal the genre specifics novel through the definition of "the form of an extended theater in the word"). These semantic plans are united by the semantics of ‘life’. Being spontaneous, unpredictable and even “fatal” in external, phenomenal (“historical”) manifestations, life in its most intimate, essential, noumenal depth is subject only to the laws of the universal (“(meta)historical”) harmony and internal, existential, creative freedom, transforming the human soul and the visible world.
All this is told by the sixteen-line "Hamlet". In the compositional-architectonic structure of Yury Zhivago's Poems, this short text (which is a kind of symbolic "quintessence" of the prose parts and chapters) occupies a special position: it outlines and partly verbalizes those images and (leit) motifs that will further determine the deployment "poetic" plot of the novel.
Lermontov M. Yu. Sobr. op. in 4 vols. M.: Pravda, 1969. T. 1. S. 341-342.
Taranovsky K.F. On the relationship of poetic rhythm and subject matter // Taranovsky KF On poetry and poetics. M.: Languages of Russian culture, 2000. S. 400. Taranovsky included “a number of “variations on a theme” in which dynamic path motif opposed static motive of life”, as well as “a series of poetic reflections on life and death in direct contact of a lonely person with“ indifferent nature ”(sometimes replaced by an indifferent city landscape)”, i.e. “works that have something to do with“ I go out ””. This cycle "was widely developed in the poetry of the XX century<…>. In the 19th century, Russian 5‑Art. chorea often developed regardless of Lermontov's achievements in the field of this size ”(Ibid., pp. 381-382. K. Taranovsky’s discharge).
“In total, in the semantic halo of the lyrical 5-st. chorea can be divided into five semantic colors<…>. These are (with decreasing importance): Night, Landscape, Death (triumphant or overcome) and the road. They gravitate toward each other to varying degrees” (Gasparov M.L. Meter and meaning. On one of the mechanisms of cultural memory. M.: RGGU, 2000, p. 264).
It is interesting that the semantics of negation as such, formally contained in the particle “not” (“to live - not to pass”), in this case only helps to reveal the contextual-metaphorical meaning (life is ‘a difficult path that the hero has to go through’).
Lotman Yu. M. Inside the thinking worlds: Man. Text. Semiosphere. Story. M.: Languages of Russian culture, 1999. S. 22.
The terms "intertextual interaction", "intertextual communication(s)" are often used as paraphrases of the terms "intertext" and "intertextuality". See, for example: Fateeva N.A. Intertext in the world of texts: Counterpoint of intertextuality. Moscow: KomKniga, 2006; Ranchin A. M. “At the feast of Mnemosynes: Intertexts of Brodsky. Moscow: New Literary Review, 2001.
Understanding under intertextuality the original orientation of artistic speech - and human speech in general, without dividing it into written and oral - on a "foreign" word, we are talking about intertextual interaction as one of the manifestations of intertextuality. This definition combines all more or less explicit quotations, reminiscences, allusions, literary and archetypal parallels, deepening, dynamizing the meaning of the work and emphasizing the fundamentally new meaning that it acquires in dialogical interaction with the "alien" - "one's own", unique, individually authorial. word.
Lavrov A. V. "The fate of crossing" ... S. 250.
Polivanov K. M. Pasternak and contemporaries. S. 264.
Words of the Ghost (Shakespeare V. The tragic story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark / Translated by B. Pasternak // Shakespeare V. Collected selections. Vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Terra Fantastica MGP "Corvus", 1992. P. 64.
Later, the same idea was formulated somewhat differently by A. Sinyavsky: “Hamlet is open to all mankind. They can, in principle, turn out to be everyone ”(Tertz Abram. Voice from the choir // Tertz Abram (Sinyavsky A.D.). Collected works in 2 vols. M .: SP Start, 1992. Vol. 1. S. 645).
Italic B. Pasternak.
The beginning of a short monologue that preceded the author's reading of the first chapters of the novel in the house of P. A. Kuzko on April 5, 1947. A verbatim record of this speech was made by L. Chukovskaya. See: Chukovskaya L. K. Excerpts from the diary // Chukovskaya L. K. Soch. in 2 vol. M.: Gudial-Press, 2000. T. 2. S. 231.
L. Chukovskaya pointed out a significant difference between Pasternak’s form of “theater in the word” and the dramatic form proper in a letter to D. Samoilov, who created the staging of Zhivago and Others in 1988: “Is it necessary to turn a novel into a drama? I doubt.<…>For what<…>to turn the form of theater found by him (Pasternak. - A.V.) into a word - into some other dramatic form?<…>After all, this directly contradicts the conviction of the author whom you are staging ”(Samoilov D.S., Chukovskaya L.K. Correspondence: 1971-1990. M .: New Literary Review, 2004. S. 246).
For more on the symbolism of the cup, see § 2.4.2.
Alfonsov V. N. Poetry of Boris Pasternak. S. 295.
It is worth paying attention to the polemical orientation of this episode, which is clearly manifested when it is compared with one of the fragments of the novel by A. M. Gorky “The Life of Klim Samgin”. Compare: "... The square was filled with such a hot, deafening roar that Samghin's eyes darkened." Giving himself into the power of the loyal impulse that gripped the crowd, the Gorky hero-intellectual kneels down: “The tsar and tsarina seemed to him unusually touching there, on the balcony. He suddenly felt confident that this little man, saturated, charged with the enthusiasm of people, would now tell them some historical,<…>wonderful words. He was not alone in waiting for this ... ”(Gorky A. M. Life of Klim Samgin // Gorky A. M. Collected works in 18 volumes. M .: GIHL, 1960-1963. T. 13. S. 369, 370) . Nicholas II does not utter any “historical” words here either - to the annoyance and disappointment of Samghin, who, unlike Zhivago, craves precisely “theatricalism”: “Yes, an insignificant person,” he reflected not without bitterness. - Ivan the Terrible, Peter - these would say, would find words ... "
He felt<…>deceived…” (Ibid., p. 371).
What is the meaning of B. Pasternak's poem "Hamlet", and can it be considered Christian in content?
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
In this poem, consisting of four stanzas (16 lines), the most important events in the life of B. Pasternak in the first post-war years were poetically expressed. Apparently, the immediate reason for writing it was the first public reading of W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet" translated by Pasternak in February 1946 at the club of Moscow University (actor Alexander Glumov read). Then, in February 1946, the first version of the poem "Hamlet" was created ("Here I am. I went out on the stage ..."). The main idea of the first edition of the poem: life is a high drama with a tragic sound.
This idea, which constitutes the semantic core of the poem, in the final version B. Pasternak gave a strong and vivid gospel expressiveness (“bitterness of the Gethsemane note”).
In "Remarks on Shakespeare's Translations" in June 1946, B. Pasternak noted that "Hamlet" is not a drama of spinelessness, but "a drama of high lot, commanded feat, entrusted destiny. The rhythmic beginning concentrates this general tone of the drama to tangibility. But this is not its only application. Rhythm has a softening effect on some of the sharpness of tragedy, which would be unthinkable outside the circle of its harmony. Pasternak B.L. Sobr. op. M., 1990. T. 4. S. 416). To understand the poem "Hamlet" it is important not how much the image of the Prince of Denmark as interpreted by the translator corresponds to the intention of W. Shakespeare himself, but the worldview position of B. Pasternak, who consciously and boldly draws New Testament parallels. So, to the words from Hamlet's monologue (act 3, scene 1): "To be, or not to be: that is the question ..." ("To be or not to be, that is the question"), he gives a certain eschatological sound: "This already, so to speak, an advance, preliminary “Now you let go”, a requiem for every unforeseen event. They have redeemed and enlightened everything in advance” (Ibid., p. 688).
In the course of work on the novel "Doctor Zhivago", the beginning of which refers to the winter of 1945-1946, B. Pasternak introduces the gospel text into the final version of the poem "Hamlet". By this time, he finally realized himself as a Christian. In a letter to his cousin Olga Freidenberg dated October 13, 1946, he wrote: “Actually, this is my first real work. In it I want to give a historical image of Russia over the past 45 years, and at the same time, all aspects of my plot, heavy, sad and elaborated, as, ideally, in Dickens and Dostoevsky, this thing will be an expression of my views on art, on the Gospel, on the life of a person in history, and on many other things ... In it, I settle scores with Jews, with all types of nationalism (and in internationalism), with all shades of anti-Christianity and its assumptions that some peoples exist even after the fall of the Roman Empire and there is an opportunity to build a culture on their raw national essence.
The atmosphere of the thing is my Christianity.”
The poem "Hamlet" has a complex composition. The author harmoniously combines several plans: stage, literary-romantic and autobiographical. The poetic synthesis is so organic that to the reader this work may seem monophonic. However, three voices clearly sound in the poem.
The hum is quiet. I went out to the stage.
The action takes place in the theatre. The Hamlet actor enters the stage. The initial “The rumble subsided” immediately creates that disturbing mood that pervades the entire poem.
Leaning against the doorframe,
I catch in a distant echo
What will happen in my lifetime.
The twilight of the night is directed at me
A thousand binoculars on an axis.
This is the voice of Pasternak. The action takes place in Peredelkino. Door open at night. It is known that the poet was ready for the fact that they could come for him any night. The prosecutor, who studied the case of V. Meyerhold in connection with his rehabilitation, discovered denunciations against Pasternak and was surprised that he was free and had never been arrested. The used verb "instructed" (association with the muzzle of a weapon) well conveys the poet's anxious state. The metaphor of "a thousand binoculars on an axis" (the stars of the night sky) connects two planes - the life-real and the stage.
If possible, Abba Father,
Pass this cup.
These words from the Gospel in the middle of the poem give the author's experiences a sublime Christian meaning.
I love your stubborn intention
And I agree to play this role.
But now there's another drama going on
And this time, fire me.
But the schedule of actions is thought out,
And the end of the road is inevitable.
I am alone, everything is drowning in hypocrisy.
To live life is not a field to cross.
In the last stanza, the voice of Yuri Zhivago is heard, to whom the authorship of this poem is attributed. The word "pharisaism" does not occur in the novel. However, chapter 15 (“The End”) describes the last years of the protagonist of the novel: close friends (Mikhail Gordon and Innokenty Dudorov) leave their old principles and are carried away by the opportunity to find their place in a new era: “Innokenty’s virtuous speeches were in the spirit of the times. But it is precisely the regularity, their transparency bigotry blew up Yuri Andreevich. A non-free person always idealizes his bondage. B. Pasternak himself could not say about himself: "I am alone, everything is drowning in hypocrisy." Until the end of his life, he had a circle of close people who did not leave him even during the years of persecution (1957-1960): A.A. Akhmatova, Korney and Lydia Chukovsky, pianist Heinrich Neuhaus, pianist Maria Yudina, philosopher V.F. Asmus and others. B. Pasternak, unlike Yuri Zhivago, was not broken by persecution. In anticipation of the impending reprisal, he wrote a letter to the head of the department of culture of the Central Committee of the CPSU D.A. Polikarpov: “I assure you, I would have hidden it [the novel] if it had been written weaker. But he turned out to be stronger than my dreams, the strength is given from above, and, thus, his further fate is not in my will. I won't interfere with it. If the truth that I know must be redeemed by suffering, this is not new, and I am ready to accept any.
The poem "Hamlet" is written in trochaic pentameter, in which stressed syllables alternate with unstressed ones. This classical meter often began to be used in Russian poetry after Lermontov's poem "I go out alone on the road ...", written at the end of the short life of the poet. M. Lermontov's main motive is deep life fatigue. The main images are transparent and understandable. He is a lone wanderer on the flinty path. The soul quiveringly and sensitively experiences the harmony of the Creator and the night nature:
The night is quiet. The desert listens to God
And the star speaks to the star.
This beauty fades for the poet, who painfully felt his alienation from the majestic silence of the universe. Man can find freedom and peace only in God. Therefore, the poet "is so painful and so difficult", because he dreams of an endless sweet earthly dream.
Later F.I. Tyutchev wrote the poem "On the eve of the anniversary of August 4, 1864" in the same pentameter chorea. Here are the same themes: life, path, loneliness, fatigue. But the cause of the pain is different: separation from a loved one.
Here I am wandering along the high road
In the quiet light of the fading day ...
It's hard for me, my legs freeze ...
My dear friend, do you see me?
Everything is darker, darker above the ground -
The last reflection of the day has flown away...
This is the world where we lived with you,
Tomorrow is a day of prayer and sorrow
Tomorrow is the memory of a fateful day...
My angel, wherever souls hover,
My angel, do you see me?
In all three works there is a motif of life's loneliness. However, the philosophical and religious solution is different. "Hamlet" is distinguished by the clear sounding of the idea of Christian duty and understanding of life as a high lot and a commanded feat.
For B. Pasternak himself, such a life was a hard-won happiness.
In church window painting
So look into eternity from the inside
In shimmering crowns of insomnia
Saints, hermits, kings.
Like the inside of a cathedral
Expanse of land, and through the window
Distant echo of the choir
I hear sometimes given.
Nature, the world, the secret of the universe,
I serve you long
Embraced by the secret trembling,
In tears of happiness I suck.
Poem "Hamlet" was completed by B. Pasternak after the war, in 1946. It is it that opens the cycle of poems written by the hero of the novel "Doctor Zhivago" Yuri.
The world in which a person lives is not always butterflies, flowers and white stripes of life. Sooner or later, the flowers are covered with thorns, the butterflies have a sharp sting, and the road ahead somehow leads to a dead end. Whose side to take if one day you are faced with hatred, meanness and envy? Choosing your moral position in the cruel world of violence and evil - main theme Poems "Hamlet" by Yuri Zhivago.
But why is the crowd going to execute Hamlet? Maybe because he can see his future ( "I catch in a distant echo, What will happen in my lifetime")? Or maybe his strength is almost gone and he is barely on his feet, leaning against the door ( "Leaning Against the Doorframe")?
To understand the cause of the crowd/hero conflict, the author takes us to atmosphere of the night. Darkness, gloom are thickening, as if universal evil has gathered in one place to pounce on the hero ( "The twilight of the night is directed at me"). And even the stars in the sky are against him ( "A thousand binoculars on an axis").
Further, Pasternak uses biblical motif taken from the gospel. ( “If possible, Abba Father, take this Cup past.”). Only once did Jesus doubt his deeds, and the phrase he said at the moment of spiritual torment sounded exactly like that.
The lyrical hero understands that the fate of every person is to be a dull sheep when you have to lie and pretend, and a ferocious wolf when someone who is weaker than you is nearby. Before he wanted to live like everyone else ( "And I agree to play this role"), but its purpose turned out to be completely different. The lyrical hero cannot tolerate lies and violence, evil and betrayal. And the drama of life that unfolded around him requires other actions ( "But there's another drama on, and this time fire me").
In the last stanza of the poem "Hamlet", the hero/crowd conflict is not just heated up - it is overgrown with a new one. issues. The hero realizes that it will not be easy ( "To live life is not a field to cross"), but it turns out that he will have to fight the lies alone ( "I am alone, everything is drowning in hypocrisy"). At the same time, Pasternak successfully uses the word "pharisaism", which means the formal, ostentatious execution of someone's rules and regulations
The image of a lyrical hero. However, it would be foolish to identify the lyrical hero with Yuri Zhivago, Pasternak, Hamlet or even Jesus. Before us is a Man with a capital letter in the context of the historical and cultural heritage of mankind. Before us is a Personality who has absorbed the spiritual heritage of all previous eras. And, in the end, we have before us a Sovremennik, who struggles with the "sleeping" world with the strength of the spirit, creativity and inner freedom.
The poetic size of "Hamlet" is a five-foot trochee, which the author of "Borodino" Mikhail Lermontov often used in his lyrics. Cross rhymes (abab), male rhymes (ud. on the last syllable) and female (ud. on the penultimate syllable).
- "Doctor Zhivago", an analysis of the novel by Pasternak
- "Winter Night" (Snow, snow all over the earth...), analysis of Pasternak's poem
- "July", analysis of Pasternak's poem
Boris Pasternak. HAMLET
The hum is quiet. I went to the stage
Leaning against the doorframe,
I catch in a distant echo
What will happen in my lifetime.
The twilight of the night is directed at me
A thousand binoculars on an axis.
If possible, Abba Father,
Pass this cup.
I love your stubborn intention
And I agree to play this role.
But now there's another drama going on
And this time, fire me.
But a well thought out schedule
And the end of the road is inevitable.
I am alone. Everything is drowning in hypocrisy.
To live life is not a field to cross.
Pasternak found his spiritual brother in Hamlet - he entrusted his anxiety for the new century to him. - a poem about the hero Prince of Denmark, who rose to fight against all world evil and died in this hopeless struggle; about a brilliant actor playing the role of Hamlet in the theater, who deeply comprehended this role; about Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Son of God, who came to earth to go the way of suffering and to atone for all the sins of mankind by his sufferings; about the hero of Yuri Zhivago's novel; finally, about the author of the novel, Boris Pasternak.
If you listen carefully, think about the poem, you can hear in it the harmonious unity of five voices.
Hamlet from the 17th part of the novel "Doctor Zhivago" has become, as it were, a lyrical interpretation of the eternal Shakespearean image.
Just as the hero of a Pasternak book lives on in his poetry, so Hamlet lives on in his poem despite his death in tragedy.
We remember that the Prince of Denmark had a direct relationship with the theater and even acted as director of the tragedy The Murder of Gonzago, presented by a troupe of itinerant actors. So being on the stage is natural for him.
The hum is quiet. I went out to the stage.
In a literal, direct sense, these are the words of an actor. Metaphorically, these words can be very naturally attributed to Hamlet, who said that life is a theater and the people in it are actors.
The first phrase of the text “The rumble has subsided” suggests the auditorium, the audience, its slight noise before the start of the performance. The association with the theater is reinforced with such details as "scaffolding", "twilight", "binoculars", "echoes", "play a role". This lexical range supports our idea of an actor - a thinker who deeply got used to the essence of his stage image.
Leaning against the doorframe,
I catch in a distant echo
What will happen in my lifetime.
In the literal sense, these words belong both to Hamlet, who peers intently into moving time, and to the actor playing the role of Hamlet, comprehending his role in the tragedy. But Jesus Christ himself is clearly included in the poem, since Pasternak introduces an association with the gospel story about praying for a cup. But these are, after all, the painful thoughts of Yuri Andreevich Zhivago himself, in whose notebook we read the poem "Hamlet". He foresees the inevitability of new troubles and suffering, his own death and those who are dear to him. And, of course, these are the words of Pasternak himself about himself, since he assumed that the authorities would not forgive him for his novel, which reflects the difficult path of that part of the Russian intelligentsia that remained in Russia with its people without emigrating. Very many did not leave, but they, like Yu. Zhivago, like Akhmatova, like Pasternak, felt their opposition to the world that was drowning in hypocrisy.
The twilight of the night is directed at me
A thousand binoculars on an axis.
Pasternak also saw how “the twilight of the night” was directed at him, how “thousands of binoculars” (a striking symbol of danger!) were looking at him with their sighting eyepieces. He lived for many post-war years in anticipation of a possible arrest and reprisal. Yevgenia Pasternak recalls how the poet repeated: “Of course, I am always ready for anything. Why could it be with everyone, but not with me? After all, this is also an understanding that “the end of the road is inevitable,” that “a different drama is now underway,” no less terrible than in the time of Shakespeare. And the poet was ready, like his hero, to sacrifice himself in the name of his most important task - writing a novel.
A few more words about association with Christ:
If possible, Abba Father,
Pass this cup.
The unexpected appeal "Abba Father" seems to take us for a moment to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ prayed before his arrest. He cries out to his God-Father, knowing about the series of sufferings that he has to go through. The new vocabulary of the text helps to feel the closeness of that world: Abba Father, chalice, hypocrisy, end of the road. The words from the Gospel come to mind: “My Father! if possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39) and about the subsequent Golgotha – “the end of the road”.
These verses closely convey Christ's prayer in . In the Gospel of Mark we read: “Abba, Father! Everything is possible for You; take this cup away from me” (ch. 14, verse 36). Abba - "father" in Hebrew; Abba Father - an appeal to God the Father. It is clear that in the literal sense these two verses were written by Pasternak on behalf of Christ. In a figurative sense, they belong to all four other carriers of the author's consciousness. The expression "Let this cup pass from me" and similar ones have long entered the languages of the Christian peoples and have become winged. So could Hamlet, and the actor, and Yuri Andreevich, and Pasternak.
I love your stubborn intention
And I agree to play this role.
Whose words are these? They can be understood as a continuation of the speech of Christ, who in the Gospel says after the words above: "But not what I want, but what You." First, Christ asks the Father that sufferings pass from Him, but immediately adds: “but let not what I want come true, but what You want.” He accepts all the tests of his fate, whatever they may be, and Hamlet in Shakespeare's tragedy. Consciously, courageously go towards death and the hero of the novel, and its author. In the literal sense, the consent to play the role was expressed on behalf of the actor.
But now there's another drama going on
and this time fire me.
The actor agrees to play on stage, but does not want to participate in the repulsive (as follows from the final quatrain) drama of life. Acceptance and rejection of suffering and violent death reflect the hesitations of Christ, so reliably conveyed in the Gospel and giving Him such a touching humanity, and Hamlet, the throwing of Yuri Andreevich and Pasternak himself.
But the schedule of actions is thought out,
And the end of the road is inevitable.
The actor is forced to act even when he no longer likes the play.
Others, too, cannot change anything in life, they cannot escape the tragic ending.
I am alone, everything is drowning in hypocrisy.
The Pharisees rejected the teachings of Christ, and the denunciation of their hypocrisy and hypocrisy is repeatedly heard in the speeches of Christ, transmitted in the Gospel. Pharisaic - deceitful, hypocritical - was the court of King Claudius in Elsinore, where Hamlet had to act. The hypocrisy and hypocrisy of his time was repeatedly denounced by Pasternak, including in Doctor Zhivago.
Gospel images, a high biblical syllable are combined with a folk proverb containing a simple but very deep thought:
To live life is not a field to cross.
Such an ending gives naturalness, authenticity to the whole poem. It is written in five-foot trochee in the classical size, which was used by Lermontov in the poem "I go out alone on the road ...". When we talk about poetic meter in general, we mean not only the alternation of strong and weak syllabic positions, but also the interlacing of certain themes, syntactic constructions, intonations, and moods inherent in it. It seems to me that the theme and mood of loneliness are conveyed in this poem with the utmost tension, starting from the first and ending with the final verse. The trochaic pentameter is usually characterized by a contrast between the theme of the path and the immobility of the hero. We see such a contrast in Pasternak's Hamlet: the hero stepped onto the stage; stopped, leaning against the door frame, and does not dare to go further, although he understands that it is necessary to go. He is simply doomed to go, although suffering and death await him (life to live is not a field to cross). In these contradictions and hesitations lies the tragedy of the position of Hamlet of all time.
So, Hamlet in Pasternak's poem is identified with. The poem is about the very process of finding the only way out that would be worthy of everyone who sees us when reading the poem.
Pasternak's Hamlet speaks on an equal footing with the entire universe, she hears Hamlet as an old acquaintance. - Pasternak's Hamlet tries to understand his destiny and correlates it with the inevitability of the law that must be obeyed.
Yes, the Universe hears him, but this does not prevent him from being alone with himself, just the scale of his thoughts is commensurate with the scale of the Universe.
For Pasternak, Hamlet is a man making a choice before our eyes. In this, Hamlet echoes the image of Christ.
- Everyone is alone with himself, in front of everyone is an inevitable bowl of suffering. Everyone pays for the sins of their contemporaries.
The hum is quiet. I went out to the stage.
Leaning against the doorframe,
I catch in a distant echo
What will happen in my lifetime.
The twilight of the night is directed at me
A thousand binoculars on an axis.
If possible, Abba Father,
Pass this cup.
I love your stubborn intention
And I agree to play this role.
But now there's another drama going on
And this time, fire me.
But the schedule of actions is thought out,
And the end of the road is inevitable.
I am alone, everything is drowning in hypocrisy.
To live life is not a field to cross.
Analysis of the poem "Hamlet" by Pasternak
The immortal tragedy "Hamlet" has not lost its relevance in our time. The universal philosophical questions raised in it interested people of any nationality in all eras. Pasternak owns one of the most successful translations of the tragedy. He did a great job of analyzing it and translating Shakespeare's thoughts into Russian as accurately as possible. Therefore, the poem "Hamlet" (1946) does not accidentally open the poetic part of the novel "Doctor Zhivago". In the image of Yuri Pasternak reflected Hamlet's painful doubts when choosing a life path.
The work uses a multi-stage comparison. First of all, the lyrical hero compares himself not with the character of the tragedy, but with the actor who should play this role. The performance of Hamlet is considered one of the most difficult in the theatrical world. To accurately convey the fullness of the emotional conflict of the protagonist, the actor must literally get used to his image, to feel the tragedy of his life for himself. Pasternak reproduces the moment the actor appears on the stage. All the attention of the auditorium is focused on him through "a thousand binoculars". The actor is in a state of the highest spiritual uplift from the realization of the importance of what is happening.
There is another analogy. The lyrical hero is compared to Jesus Christ. According to the gospel legend, Christ had to drink a bitter cup, meaning his consent to the acceptance of all human sins and future suffering. “Fearing in his heart,” he asks God to deliver him from this cup, but still finds strength in himself and accepts it. The image of the bowl has become a household word when describing a difficult life choice.
In the second part of the poem, Pasternak directly alludes to the Soviet totalitarian society. The lyrical hero agrees to play the role of Hamlet on stage, but understands that the same tragedy is happening in his life. It is clear that the play will end as usual, all the words and actions of the characters are known in advance. But what to do if the real life of a living person becomes just a role in a performance played by someone.
The end of the poem is extremely pessimistic. All compared characters (Christ, Hamlet, Zhivago, the actor) as a result are united in the author himself, who “is drowning in hypocrisy” (the biblical image also closes the argument). Life in a totalitarian state is deprived of freedom and is under the control of the "chief director". The painful choice is just a game, nothing depends on it.
