Problems of fate and free will in Hauptmann's "Iphigenia in Delphi" drama

In: Vestnik of Kostroma State University, Band 29, Heft 1, S. 100-109

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann's interpretation of his own views concerning the problem of fate and freewill, which sheds light on the general problem of modern, connected with the eternal process of creative personality, formation. The objectives of the work correspond to this: to substantiate the leading role of anthropological patterns in the Art Nouveau era, to reveal the dynamics of G.Hauptmann's formation on the basis of commenting his theoretical and artistic works, to reflect in this respect the overcoming of fate and gaining freedom by the heroine of the late drama "Iphigenia in Delphi". In the course of the analysis, it was revealed that in his later work, G.Hauptmann retains the same views on the fatal predetermination deprived of real being, and he switches to the sphere of feelings. In this case, special attention is paid to the author's revision of the romantic concept, in which the idea of immortality, transcend the borders of the visible world, became the main one for the said writer. It is from these positions that Iphigenia's image is revealed. Seeking self-understanding and identity, she renounces the Olympian world, in which sacrifice and fear of gods is the norm, and she voluntarily returns to Hecate's Palace, as it is in them that a new immortal existence takes place. The conclusion is made about the birth of a new personality through the conception of one's own existence, the rejection of dogmatic conceptions from the power of the doom makes the individual free, strong and unbroken by anything or anybody.