The tragedy of man

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Title page of the first edition (1861, recte 1862).

The Tragedy of Man ( Hungarian Az ember tragédiája ) is a dramatic poem by the Hungarian writer Imre Madách . The station drama consists of 15 pictures and is mostly written in blank verse . It was published on January 16, 1862 (the year 1861 is indicated on the title of the first edition) and was premiered in Budapest on September 21, 1883.

The poster for the first performance in 1883.

The drama, which is Madách's best-known work, is clearly inspired by Goethe's Faust poem. The final sentence, in which the Lord responds to people's fear of the end of life by saying that they should fight and trust, is one of the most famous literary quotes in Hungary. You can find it on postage stamps , in school buildings or cultural institutions:

Mondottam, ember: küzdj és bízva bízzál!
Man, your commandment is: fight and trust.

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After three opening images, the following scenes bring Adam, Eve and Lucifer to different places and times in the past, future and present:

  • 1st picture: In heaven, right after the creation of the world by the Lord. The archangels praise his work, while Lucifer criticizes some contradictions in creation.
  • 2nd picture: In paradise. Adam and Eve are seduced by Lucifer to eat from the tree of knowledge, regardless of the warnings of the Lord's voice.
  • 3rd picture: Outside of paradise. Adam and Eve now take care of their own fate. They ask Lucifer to allow them “a glimpse into the future”.
  • 4th picture: In Egypt, Adam as Pharaoh, Lucifer as his minister, Eve appears as the wife of a slave. Adam has a pyramid built to consolidate his fame.
  • 5th picture: In Athens. Eva appears as Lucia, wife of the general Miltiades , the winner of Marathon , with her son Kimon . In front of the temple hall, Lucia has to listen to her husband being slandered. When he arrives, he is judged by ungrateful people.
  • 6th picture: In Rome. Adam is Sergiolus, a rich Roman. Together with others he watches a gladiator fight. Overall, a picture of Roman decadence is drawn. Suddenly Peter appears , who with Christianity proclaims a new idea that Adam lets himself be carried away by: "Now on to the fight, the new teaching / inspire us, we create / the new world."
  • 7th picture: In Byzantium. Adam is Tankred , who has just returned from the crusade. Eve is Isaura, who cannot accept Adam's love vows because she follows a vow made by her father, a crusader, and goes to the monastery.
  • 8th picture: In Prague at the court of Rudolf II , Adam as Johannes Kepler , Eva as his wife Barbara, Lucifer as Kepler's famulus. Adam despairs that he must not go contrary to church teachings and must instead serve with astrological predictions.
  • 9th picture: Paris, Place de Grève . Adam as Danton preaching freedom, equality, brotherhood . In the end, he is picked up by the crowd and taken to the guillotine.
  • 10th picture: Back in Prague, the events in Paris in the previous picture turn out to be a dream of Kepler. This is followed by a teaching conversation between Kepler and an inquisitive student.
  • 11th picture: In contemporary London, colorful market activity between the Tower and the Thames. Adam and Lucifer mingle with the people as simple workers, Eve appears as a civil girl.
  • 12th picture: In a phalanstère in the near future. Adam and Lucifer speak to a scholar who shows them a technocratic world from which, to Adam's horror, all poetry has been banned. The scholar tries to create a test tube person.
  • 13th picture: In space. Adam as an old man flies through the spheres with Lucifer, but eventually returns to earth.
  • 14th picture: In an icy area in the future, Adam as a broken old man, desperate in the face of this dystopia. Lucifer awakens him from his dream.
  • 15th picture: Back in the palm landscape of the 3rd picture, Adam again as a young man, he is still a bit shaken because of the dream pictures. Then Eve reports to him that she is pregnant, and Adam draws new courage. Just as Lucifer is about to intervene again, the Lord returns and again takes mankind's side.

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