Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)
József Ruszt: Notes on Putting on the Tragedy
scene. The dilemma is insoluble, and therein lies Madách’s creative genius, the brilliance of the work - not philosophical but dramatic excellence. Dramatic Structure Thus, the dramatic structure of the work can be perceived only if we understand the deepest Madáchian idea ... To create a ritual of the mystery of creation, partly because this is the prevailing myth of the times, and partly because this is the very thing which Madách intends to pick a quarrel with. And then — here is the catch! — he cannot cast it aside because then what is there to challenge? „One where Negation can set down its foot, and then destroy Your world, its very root!” Who says this? Who can say it? In the dramatic sense anyone can say it. But on the philosophical level who can say it and to whom? Does Lucifer say it? Madách says it! Does the Lord say it? The obligation of a religious world outlook makes one say it! If Lucifer says it, I am saying it ... and you, you Adam, make up your mind what you are ready to believe me. Lucifer tells Adam there is no Lord God, only you are and I am. Except that the „YOU” outside of me is always seeking for an alternative. And there are as many Adams as there are persons, and there are as many Eves as there are women, and consequently all the men are Adams and all the women are Eves. It is Me that matters, I Lucifer... And if you like, the Holy Ghost, or in tripartite Catholic mythology „the mystery” between the Father and the Son. Obviously, there is an interplay in these roles. Adam is the Son by the Father, and Lucifer is the Holy Ghost, and Lucifer is the Son who succeeds the Father - as after Jehovah comes Christ in Christianity. Or if you like, Cain and Abel, Adam being the first two sons of Mankind, of himself... Thus, this is again a passion play, Adam’s passion, my passion which I myself celebrate for myself, or in vain does my own historical consciousness raise doubts again and again, I will start anew: after all, Adam is the Son because in his case question is not followed by question, but by action. And if my Luciferhood, indeed, wants to know anything uncynically, 69
