Bereczky Erzsébet (szerk.): Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man. Essays about the ideas and the directing of the Drama (Budapest, 1985)
dr. Ferenc Kerényi: A Dramatic Poem from Hungary to the Theaters of the World
LUCIFER Did You not feel a void inside Your thoughts Which was the bar of every life You planned? This has compelled You to create a world — Well, this obstruction’s name was Lucifer, The ancient spirit of negation - I! In the story of the Fall, the second scene of the Tragedy Madách continues to follow the biblical story. In the third scene Adam and Eve, having been exiled from Paradise, settle down on the eart they will cultivate: ADAM Just this is mindé. Instead of all the world This little spot of earth becomes my home. I shall protect it from voracious beasts And force its soil to yield our daily bread. EVE And I shall build a bowér like the one We had before; and so I shall bring back Our lost Garden of Eden. At the end of Scene III Lucifer — upon Adam’s request — cause Adam and Eve to fall asleep and shows them the future of humanity. In Scene IV-XIV Madách enables and requires the three leading actors to make full use of their potential acting ability by having them retain their major characteristics while donning various historical and imagined roles. As a counterpoint to the unceasing fighting spirit of the aging Adam, Eve retains her many-hued, vibrant feminity to the end. Though she stands at Adam’s side, throughout all the labyrinths of history, it is almost as if he has dreamed her — the personification of „the lost Eden” — as well. The actors potentials and responsibilities in the Tragedy are considerably enhanced in the supporting characters in Scenes IV-XIV. These are Partly historical persons, partly the results of Madách’s poetic imagination, but all of them require true character 13
