The image of Don Juan in the theatre play “Night in Valinie” by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

Abstract

This article studies the figurative system of the play “Night in Valonie” by the famous modern French playwright Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. The key image of this work - the image of Don Juan - is examined in detail. This image is one of the so-called “eternal images” in world literature, it is not static, it is constantly changing, each author, taking this image with a key one, gives to this image new characteristics. That is why, the article used comparative-historical, comparative-typological and structural methods to study the stated issues, which made it possible to compare this dramatic work of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt with other literary phenomena, to study in detail the features of the organization of plots, artistic images and their systems in the work of this author and to highlight precisely his creative achievements in revealing this image. In the literary field, the name Don Juan appeared in the 16th century, the first playwright who introduced this image was the Spaniard Tirso de Molina, who presented his character to the reader as a cynical deceiver for whom there are no moral principles and decency. After that, this image was transformed a lot through the works of many world artists - Giliberti, Moliere, D. Byron, L. Ukrayinka. Each author interpreted this image according to his own style in writitng - for some of them Don Juan is just a lecher who gravitates towards amorous adventures, someone uses this image to expose the shortcomings of the then society, and some of them endowed this character with the characteristics of an immoral and cynical person. In this way, this image came to modern French literature and Schmitt, taking Don Juan as the main acting character of his play “Night in Valonie”, endowed him with his own characteristics, studied in detail in the article. Don Juan by Schmitt is searching the true human feelings, he is trying to find his “Me”, although he appears before society as a stereotypical troublemaker and cynic. The image of a libertine in this play, on the one hand, is subject to cardinal changes in comparison with classical interpretations, and on the other hand, it does not bypass the traditions of Moliere’s ideological visions, which can be traced by analyzing the system of images as a whole.