Good and evil on the pages of world literature. Good and evil essay

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Plan

Introduction

1. Good and evil in the ethical space

2. Good and evil in the fairy tale “Cinderella” by Evgeniy Schwartz

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Purpose of the work: to reveal the concepts of good and evil in Russian literature, explain how these qualities are related to each other, what they mean in ethics, and what place they occupy in literature.

The concepts of good and evil are closely related to such a science as ethics, but few people have thought about how much these qualities mean in life, and what they teach us in books. There is a familiar concept: good always triumphs over evil. It's nice to read a book or watch a movie when you understand that justice will prevail, the good will triumph over the bad, and the story will end with the usual good ending. On a psychological level, we learn from Russian works to be good and honest people; alas, not everyone succeeds, but they give us hope for something bright and happy, for what is called good.

Ethics is one of the oldest theoretical disciplines, the object of study of which is morality. Ethics studies the history of the development of morality of mankind, explores morality as a form public relations and consciousness, its role in society. Ethics reflects on what is good and what is evil, what is the purpose and meaning of human life, what kind of people we should be and how to correctly live our only and contented life. short life. A thinking person cannot do without thinking about these questions, and ethics - the theory of morality - will help him with this.

Good and evil are the most important concepts of ethics. Good is understood as what society in a given historical period considers moral, worthy of respect and imitation. We, people, put into this concept everything that contributes to the improvement of life, the moral elevation of a person, justice, mercy, love for one’s neighbor. When we talk about a “kind” person, we mean that he is ready to come to the aid of another person not for the sake of profit, but selflessly, out of conviction, out of moral duty. Creating good is the meaning of every person's life. In all cases when a person has to make a responsible decision, he is guided by the main practical guideline - the value of good.

Everything that is opposite to good is evil. This is a violation of morality, it is immoral, condemnable, inhumane. This concept generally expresses everything that deserves contempt and must be overcome by people, society, and the individual. Evil is found where a person is humiliated and insulted. The concept of evil covers all negative phenomena: violence, deceit, rudeness, meanness, theft, betrayal, etc. Every day a person can encounter evil that has become commonplace, which has become a habit - rudeness, rudeness, selfishness, indifference to suffering, alien pain, drunkenness, cunning, etc. Unfortunately, evil is very widespread and many-sided, and often insidious. It does not declare itself: “I am evil! I am immorality!” On the contrary, evil knows how to hide behind a mask of goodness.

So, good and evil are the basic concepts of ethics. They serve as our guide in the vast moral world. Moral man strives to organize its activities in such a way as to suppress evil and create good. Man is a moral being, he is called to live according to the laws of morality, which are interpreted in ethics, and not according to the laws of the jungle, where the strong are always right. The concepts of good and evil underlie the ethical assessment of human behavior. Considering any human act “good”, “good”, we give it a positive moral assessment, and considering it “evil”, “bad” - a negative one.

So it is with E. Schwartz. The theme of good and evil is widely revealed in the fairy tale; one might say that the whole essence of what is presented is based on these two qualities. We observe the ethical behavior of the two main characters. Stepmothers are supporters of evil and Cinderella is a supporter of good.

Cinderella is a sweet, meek, modest, responsible, sincere, honest girl, always ready to help, who fulfilled all the whims of her stepmother because of Great love to my father. These qualities that we value so much in a person are good, they are worthy of respect, and the stepmother is a formidable, stern woman with a “poisonous” character who seeks benefit in everything, does everything only for herself, is evil, cunning, envious, greedy. By her behavior she shows us an immoral attitude, contempt for people, i.e. negative phenomena and evil.

In fictional works, good always triumphs over evil, unfortunately in life this is not always the case, but as they say: “in a fairy tale there is a lie, but in it there is a hint...”.

All our actions, actions, morality are assessed from the point of view of humanism, determine whether it is good or bad, good or evil. If our actions are useful to people and help improve their lives, that’s good, that’s good. They don’t contribute, they interfere – this is evil. The English philosopher I. Bentham formulated the following criterion of goodness: “The greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.” They become kind only when they lead intensive moral life(do good). And the one who walks will master the road to goodness.

1. Goodand evil in the ethical space

Ethics (лthicб from зthos - custom, morality, character) is a set of principles and norms of behavior accepted in a given era and in a given social environment. The main subject of the study of ethics is morality.

Morality is the norms and rules imposed on a person, the implementation of which is voluntary. Solonitsyna A.A. Professional ethics and etiquette. Publishing house Dalnevost. University, 2005. Pp. 7

In Aristotle's understanding, ethics is a special practical science of morality (virtue), the purpose of which is to teach a person how to become virtuous (and happy). Ethics should help a person understand the main goals of his life and resolve the issue of the possibility of raising virtuous citizens in the state.

Good is the highest moral and ethical value, in relation to which all other categories are secondary. Good: Source: http://ethicscenter.ru/dobro.html

Evil is the actions of a person or many people aimed at destroying or ignoring socially accepted moral principles, causing harm to other people and oneself, it brings with it moral suffering and leads to the destruction of personality.

Evil, as well as good, are fundamental concepts of ethics. According to many religious doctrines, these two concepts stood at the origins of the creation of the world. Only evil is the turning side of good, a smaller part of it. In religion, good is the prerogative of God; his power in creating good is undeniable. On the contrary, evil is in the hands of the Devil (translated as enemy), who is weaker than God. All religions of the world teach that evil will be ended by an act of will of God. All phenomena of this world go through the struggle between the categories of good and evil. Evil: Source: http://ethicscenter.ru/zlo.html

In a broad sense, the words good and evil denote positive and negative values ​​in general. Good and Evil are among the most general concepts moral consciousness, distinguishing between moral and immoral. Good is usually associated with the concept of Good, which includes what is useful to people. Accordingly, something that is useless, unnecessary or harmful is not good. However, just as good is not the benefit itself, but only that which brings benefit, so evil is not the harm itself, but that which causes harm, leads to it.

Ethics is not interested in any, but only in spiritual goods, which include such highest moral values ​​as freedom, justice, happiness, and love. In this series, Good is special kind benefits in the sphere of human behavior. In other words, the meaning of goodness as a quality of actions is what relation these actions have to good.

And then good is love, wisdom and talent.

“Let those who do not know this state imagine from the experience of love in this world what a meeting with the most beloved being must be like” See: Ado P. Plotinus, or simplicity of view.

What is love? No matter how beautiful an object is, is that enough to explain our love for it?

"The soul can be attracted to objects very distant and much lower than it. If it feels towards them strong love, not because they are what they are, but because an additional element is added to them, descending from above.”

If we love, it is because something inexplicable is connected to beauty: movement, life, brilliance, which make the object desirable and without which beauty remains cold and inert. See: Ado P. Plotinus, or simplicity of view. The ancient idealist philosopher Plotinus spoke.

If religious ethics considers Good and Evil, first of all, as the basis for the moral behavior of an individual, then philosophical analysis of these categories is aimed rather at identifying their essence, origins and dialectics. The desire to understand the nature of good and evil, combining the efforts of different thinkers, gave rise to a rich classical philosophical and ethical heritage, which highlights the consideration of these concepts by F. Hegel. From his point of view, the interconnected and mutually positing concepts of good and evil are inseparable from the concept of individual will, independent individual choice, freedom and sanity. In “Phenomenology of Spirit” Hegel wrote: “Since good and evil stand before me, I can make a choice between them, I can decide on both, I can accept both into my subjectivity. The nature of evil, therefore , is such that a person can want it, but does not necessarily have to want it" See: Hegel G.V. F. Philosophy of Law. Page 45.

Good is also realized in Hegel through individual will: “... good is a substantial being for the subjective will - it must make it its goal and accomplish it... Good without subjective will is only a reality devoid of abstraction, and it must only receive this reality through the will of the subject, who must have an understanding of good, make it his intention and implement it in his activity" See: Hegel G.V. F. Philosophy of Law. Page 41. Hegel extends the concept of will not only to the area of ​​external realization, the area of ​​actions, but also to the internal area, the area of ​​thinking and intentions.

Therefore, he assigns an important role to self-awareness, which acts as the source of self-creation human personality through free choice between good and evil. For Hegel, “self-consciousness has the ability... to put one’s own particularity above the universal and to realize it through actions - the ability to be evil. Thus, it is self-consciousness that plays the most important role in the formation of evil will, as well as good.” See: Hegel G.V. F. Philosophy of Law. Page 58

Good is only good when it has in mind the good of the human race as such, that is, a good deed and thought are far from direct personal gain and push the boundaries of any particular interest.

In contrast to good, evil is that which destroys a person's life and well-being. Evil is always destruction, suppression, humiliation. Evil is destructive, it leads to decay, to the alienation of people from each other and from the life-giving sources of existence, to death. Solonitsyna A.A. Professional ethics and etiquette. Publishing house Dalnevost. University, 2005. Page 8

Evil includes such qualities as envy, pride, revenge, arrogance, and crime. Envy is one of the main components of evil. The feeling of envy spoils the personality and relationships of people; it arouses in a person the desire for another to fail, misfortune, and discredit himself in the eyes of others. Envy often pushes people to commit immoral acts. It is no coincidence that it is considered one of the most serious sins, for all other sins can be considered as a consequence or manifestation of envy. Arrogance, characterized by a disrespectful, contemptuous, arrogant attitude towards people, is also evil. The opposite of arrogance is modesty and respect for people. One of the most terrible manifestations of evil is revenge. Sometimes it can be directed not only against the one who caused the original evil, but also against his relatives and friends - blood feud. Christian morality condemns revenge, contrasting it with non-resistance to evil with violence.

If we associate good with life, prosperity and well-being for all people (and, in the limit, for all living beings), then evil is what destroys human life and well-being. Evil is always destruction, suppression, humiliation. Evil is destructive, it leads to decay, to the alienation of people from each other and from the life-giving sources of existence, to death.

Speaking about the empirical life of man, we must note that the evil that exists in the world can be divided into at least three types.

The first is physical, or natural, evil. These are all natural forces that destroy our well-being: earthquakes and floods, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions, epidemics and common diseases. Historically, natural evil does not depend on human will and consciousness; biological and geological processes occur in addition to human desires and actions. However, since ancient times there have been teachings that claim that it is negative human passions- malice, anger, hatred - create special vibrations at the subtle levels of the universe, which provoke and cause natural disasters. Thus, the spiritual world of people turned out to be significantly connected with supposedly purely natural evil. A similar view was expressed in religion, which always said that physical misfortunes that unexpectedly befell people are the result of God’s wrath, because people did so many outrages that punishment followed.

IN modern world Many phenomena of natural evil are directly related to the large-scale activities of mankind and the disruption of the ecological balance. And yet, storms and tornadoes, downpours and droughts - first of all, the action of objective elements - are an inevitable evil and beyond our control.

The second type of objective evil is evil in social processes. The concept of evil: Source: http://bib.convdocs.org/v28791

True, it is already accomplished with the participation of human consciousness, but still in many ways apart from it. Thus, social alienation, which finds expression in class hatred, violence, in severe feelings of envy and contempt, is born from the objective process of division of labor, which inevitably leads to private property and exploitation. In the same way, an objective confrontation of interests - the struggle for land, sources of raw materials - turns into aggression, wars, into which many people find themselves drawn against their will. Social cataclysms break out as spontaneously and uncontrollably as storms, and the heavy wheel of history mercilessly passes through thousands and millions of destinies, breaking and maiming them. The resultant, arising from the interaction and collision of many wills, reveals itself in historical events as a blind and powerful force that cannot be tamed by individual effort, cannot be diverted from itself. Being an exemplary moral, good, decent person, you can, by the will of fate, find yourself in the epicenter of social evil, which is war, revolution, slavery, etc. The concept of evil: Source: http://bib.convdocs.org/v28791

The third type of evil is evil, subjective in origin, actually moral evil. Of course, in reality it does not always exist “in its pure form,” and yet we are obliged to talk about it. We call moral evil that evil that is committed with the direct participation of the human inner world - his consciousness and will. This is evil that occurs and is created by the decision of the person himself, by his choice.

There are two types of such evil - hostility and licentiousness.

By hostility we include the desire for destruction, aggression, violence, anger, hatred, desire for death, suppression of others. This is an active, energetic evil, striving to destroy someone else’s existence and well-being. It is directed outward. A hostile person consciously seeks to cause harm, damage, suffering, and humiliation to others.

Often the trigger for active hostility is fear: those who have moved from defense to attack no longer experience this painful and humiliating feeling.

Promiscuity - another type of moral evil - unites the following human vices: cowardice, cowardice, laziness, servility, inability to control one’s inclinations, desires and passions. A dissolute person easily succumbs to temptation; it is not without reason that Christianity claims that the devil takes possession of the soul in two ways - either by force or by seduction. Promiscuity includes greed, gluttony, lust, and an irrepressible passion for a variety of pleasures. The concept of evil: Source: http://bib.convdocs.org/v28791

A dissolute person does not observe the imperatives of benevolence toward others because he is unable to renounce his pleasures, no matter how gross, unhealthy, or perverted they may be. Selfishness and bodily desires prevail in him and crowd out any active concern for his neighbors. He is weak before his own desires, he is their servant and slave. In essence, it is much easier to give in to your desires than to resist them, and a dissolute with a light heart indulges in his weaknesses. A dissolute person is like an animal that does not know sociocultural restrictions and prohibitions; he fears and avoids effort, overcoming, strict discipline, strives to avoid any discomfort, and is unable to show patience. Such people easily become traitors and obsequious slaves; they are ready to sacrifice anyone and anything for the sake of their own convenience, satiety and well-being. The concept of evil: Source: http://bib.convdocs.org/v28791

In this world, everything pushes us towards evil, and nothing encourages us towards good except freedom itself.

Freedom is a person’s ability to act in accordance with his interests and goals, to make choices. People are not free to choose the objective conditions of their activities, but they have specific and relative freedom when they retain the opportunity to choose goals and means of achieving them sanctioned by the norms and values ​​of a given society. Solonitsyna A.A. Professional ethics and etiquette. Publishing house Dalnevost. University, 2005. Page 8

Friedrich Engels, a German philosopher, wrote: “Ideas about good and evil changed so much from people to people, from century to century, that they often directly contradicted one another.” This is what educated young people of the beginning of the last century argued about (Onegin and Lensky in the second chapter of “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin). “Everything between them gave rise to disputes and led to reflection:

Treaties of past tribes, The fruits of science, good and evil, And age-old prejudices, And fatal secrets of the grave, Fate and life in their turn, Everything was subject to their judgment." See Pushkin A.S. Evgeniy Onegin

These concepts are eternal and inseparable. In terms of their imperative value content, good and evil seem to represent two sides of the same coin. They are mutually determined and in this they are, as it were, equal. Good and evil are the same-order principles of the world, which are in constant and irreducible combat. Already in ancient times, the idea of ​​an irresistible connection between good and evil was deeply understood. An ancient Chinese parable tells about a young man who turned to a sage with a request to take him as his disciple in order to guide him on the path of truth. - Can you lie? - asked the sage. - Of course not! - answered the young man. - What about stealing? - No. - What about killing? - No - So go, - exclaimed the teacher, - and learn all this. And once you know, don’t do it! Parable: Source: http://znanija.com/task/1757765What did the sage want to say with his strange advice? It’s not that you have to plunge into evil and vice in order to gain true understanding goodness and attain wisdom. Probably, in order to gain wisdom, the young man should not have learned to be a hypocrite, to deceive, to kill. The sage’s thought was different: whoever has not learned and experienced evil cannot be truly, actively good. In Eden, the knowledge of good and evil was on the same tree, that is, good could not be known without evil. This idea runs through the entire history of philosophy and is concretized in a number of ethical provisions. Firstly, good and evil are meaningfully dialectically mutually determined and are cognized in unity, one through the other. This is what was offered to the young man in Chinese parable. Man recognizes evil because he has a certain idea of ​​good; he values ​​goodness, having experienced own experience what is evil? It seems logical to desire only good, and one cannot completely renounce evil without at the same time risking losing good. The existence of evil sometimes seems to be a kind of condition or an indispensable concomitant circumstance of the existence of good.

The main position of ethics, which understands the paradox of good and evil, can be formulated as follows: act as if you hear God’s call and are called to participate in God’s work in a free and creative act, reveal a pure and original conscience in yourself, discipline your personality, fight with evil in oneself and around oneself, but not in order to push the evil and evil into hell and create a hellish kingdom, but in order to really defeat evil and contribute to the enlightenment and creative transformation of the evil." Morality is based on the highest value of the Good, the Good It regulates human behavior and his attitude precisely from the position of good or evil.

Good and evil are the ultimate ethical concepts, the center and “nerve” of all ethical problems.

The problems of Good and Evil, justice and injustice, violence and non-violence have been and remain central and eternal problems ethics. A. Schweitzer expressed a wise thought: “Kindness must become a real force of history and proclaim the beginning of the century of humanity. Only the victory of the humanistic worldview over anti-humanism will allow us to look into the future with hope.” Zelenkova I.L., Belyaeva E.V. Ethics, Minsk, 2000.

2. Goodand evil in the fairy tale by Evgeniy Schwartz" Cinderella"

Consider the work of Evgeniy Schwartz “Cinderella”. She serves as a wonderful example for us. Teaches us to act according to our conscience, to be kind and honest people. The theme of good and evil is widely revealed in the fairy tale; one might say that the whole essence of what is presented is based on these two qualities.

“There are different people in the world: blacksmiths, cooks, doctors, schoolchildren, teachers, coachmen, actors, watchmen. But I am a storyteller. And everyone, actors, teachers, blacksmiths, doctors, cooks, and storytellers - we all work, and we are all necessary, necessary, very good people"See E. Schwartz. The Snow Queen. These words of the hero of the play "The Snow Queen" are fully applicable to its author, Evgeniy Lvovich Schwartz, who worked talentedly, honestly and selflessly in literature for several decades.

Evgeny Schwartz knew a secret that allowed him, without violating the laws of a fairy tale, to let into it the most modern everyday reality. Unlike many interpreters of old fairy tales, he never allowed self-will in relation to the main thing - the interpretation of good and evil. He would never have made Baba Yaga kind, or the Snow Maiden repulsively cheeky. Traditional fairy-tale ethics was sacred for Schwartz; he revered the eternal moral law imprinted in fairy tales, according to which evil always remains evil, and good remains good - without fluidity and psychological inversions. And even if his Cinderella says about herself: “I’m terribly proud!” everyone understands that this is not so. Her behavior throughout the story shows what a kind, modest and meek girl she is.

This is the first reason for the 1947 film's enduringness. It is not for nothing that it ends with the following monologue of the king: “Connections are connections, but you must also have a conscience. Someday they will ask: what can you, so to speak, present? And no connections will help you make your leg small, your soul big, and your heart big.” fair." How sound these words sound for all time! Quote: Source: http://www.russkoekino.ru/books/ruskino/ruskino-0047.shtml

However, a wise text itself has a much greater chance of immortality than an easily outdated cinematic work. It happens, after all, that phrases from films exist, passing from mouth to mouth, when these films themselves have died for a long time. Not like Cinderella. It’s worth pronouncing the name of the film, and your memory will prompt you not only with funny lines or the song “About the Old Beetle,” but also with a completely vivid visual image: soft silver-pearl tones, the comfort of a fairy-tale kingdom, a whimsically winding road along which, accompanied by a breathless retinue, the a long-legged, eccentric king.

Evgeny Lvovich Schwartz is a writer whose fate, even in the context of the destinies of his contemporaries, is perceived as a unique fate of the artist, seemingly consisting of various kinds of accidents and vicissitudes, capable of serving as a truthful mirror in which his unique originality, his moral position, his conviction of the importance of his chosen field of life. IN creative destiny Schwartz reflected with extraordinary clarity his insatiability as a seeker, passion for understanding different, complex, instructive human characters and, most of all, a burning and selfless artistic desire to present to people the world in which we live, explained, unraveled, open in all its multicoloredness.

Writers are very different roads moving towards literary success. For many of them, the trials of life that befall them become literary universities.

In these trials, passionate and militant literary personalities are forged, whose high destiny is to gift readers with their own life experience. Their creative motto: I teach others what life has taught me. Others are directed into literature by literature itself, so to speak, with its inexhaustible spiritual potential and incalculable inner riches. Still others - Evgeny Schwartz was one of them - are driven to become writers by their tireless imagination, a fantasy in which their worldview and analytical talent, deep knowledge of life and the eternal need to know it even better, deeper, and wider are fused together.

Professional literary work E. Schwartz began as an adult and involved in art. Stories: Source: http://www.bestreferat.ru/referat-172984.html In his youth, Schwartz performed in a small experimental, or, as they said in those days, studio theater, and I must say, the critics took his acting abilities quite seriously. Reviews of his performances at the "Theater Workshop" - that was the name of the theater - invariably noted his plastic and vocal abilities, and they promised him a happy stage future.

Schwartz left the stage long before he became a writer, poet, and playwright. The temperament of a stubborn observer, a brilliant storyteller, in his stories to the full extent of his individuality, the enthusiasm of the imitator, parodist and mockingbird were probably an obstacle to the actor's transformation. Working on stage, he was to a large extent deprived of the opportunity to remain himself, and any self-denial was not in his character.

Be that as it may, he parted with acting quite calmly, as if it was destined for him by fate itself. Saying goodbye to the stage, he, of course, had no idea in those distant times that he would conquer the theater stage in the future as one of the brightest and most daring playwrights of the century, that the fairy tales he created would be heard in many theatrical languages ​​of the world. But that's how life works - difficult decisions Quite often they turn out to be the happiest decisions. At that moment, the actor Evgeny Schwartz left the stage, and the ascent of Evgeny Schwartz, the playwright, began. good evil literature fairy tale

Dramaturgy E.L. Schwartz contains plots and images that made it possible to define the genre of many of his plays as “fairy tale play”, “fairy tale play”, “dramatic tale”, “fairy tale comedy”.

His plays based on fairy-tale plots brought him worldwide fame, although there were very few of them in the author’s collection. And he himself treated his own plays, according to his contemporaries, “without any aspiration.” Although, in fact, they sounded like the tuning fork of the era, remaining relevant. Thus, the play based on his play “The Naked King,” created by the author in 1943, was staged at Sovremennik after the author’s death, marking the “thaw” period. And the play "Dragon", written as an anti-fascist pamphlet in 1944, sounded new during the period of perestroika. It turned out that the themes chosen by Schwartz for creativity are essentially eternal themes. The play "Shadow" does not leave the theater stage, inspiring directors for new production interpretations.

Personality, worldview of E.L. Schwartz is clarified by numerous memoirs of his contemporaries. Director N. Akimov writes: “E. Schwartz chose for his comedy a special genre that is currently being developed by him alone - a comedy-fairy tale. Every adult associates with the word “fairy tale” an idea of ​​​​something unusual, wonderful, dear and irrevocably lost History: Source: http://www.bestreferat.ru/referat-172984.html We remember our childhood impressions of fairy tales, and when many years later, smart, educated, equipped with life experience and a formed worldview, we again try to penetrate "into this wonderful world, the entrance to which is closed to us. And yet there was a wizard who, while retaining power over children, managed to conquer adults, and return to us, former children, the magical charm of simple fairy-tale heroes."

So Evgeny Schwartz captivated us with his fairy tale about “Cinderella”. But there are other fairy tales about Cinderella. Let's try to compare them.

“Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper” by C. Perrault, “The Crystal Slipper” and “Cinderella” by E. Schwartz have coexisted peacefully for almost half a century. There is a lot in common between them. It's no secret that T. Gabbe and E. Schwartz relied on the fairy tale by C. Perrault, but they created original dramatic works that became part of our national culture. And, obviously, we are talking here about the so-called “vagrant” plot, because the source for both works was literary fairy tale.

The turn of many children's writers to the fairy tale genre in the second half of the 30s has many reasons. One of them is the social atmosphere, the dominance of censorship. E. Schwartz's reflections on time and himself in diary entries The years 1945-1947, when the script was written and the film “Cinderella” was filmed, help to better understand the artist’s worldview and his plan. In the entry dated January 16, 1947, we read: “...My soul is vague. I am a master of not seeing anything, not discussing anything and believing, even believing that everything will work out. But through this fog the feeling of things that I can’t see begins to emerge.” close it." Schwartz E. I live restlessly... From the diaries. M., 1990. P.25. Today, diaries tell about things that contemporaries and researchers could only guess about. The storyteller, no matter how difficult and scary it is for him, strives to make his young “companions” “have fun” in order to save their souls: after all, what has become funny ceases to be scary. For his film script, E. Schwartz chose the genre of lyrical comedy. At first glance, there is nothing unexpected or original in this. Both the Cinderella theme and the genre of lyrical comedy were widely used in cinema. Suffice it to remember the housekeeper Anyuta (“ Funny boys"), postman Strelka ("Volga-Volga"), nanny Tanya Morozova ("Shining Path"). Purposeful, kind, sympathetic, they achieve the fulfillment of their most cherished desires: one becomes a singer, another - a composer, the third - a weaver famous throughout the country, each of whom finds her own prince. It is interesting that the film “The Shining Path” was originally called “Cinderella”, but under pressure from above G. Alexandrov had to change the name. True, traces of this plan have been preserved, not only in the theme, but also in the heroine’s song that ends the film: “And Kalinin personally presented the order to Cinderella.”

As we can see, Shvartsev’s “Cinderella”, created in the late 40s, is based on two primary sources: the plot - the fairy tale of Charles Perrault and the genre - lyrical comedies about fate Soviet woman. A literary fairy tale, as follows from the term itself, combines literary and folklore (fairytale) principles. T. Gabbe showed this wonderfully in the prologue of the fairy tale-comedy “Tin Rings”. After a long showdown, the Author and the Old Woman (Fairy Tale) enter into an agreement: “Just keep in mind: the characters must remain mine. The Old Woman. Goes! And let the names and costumes be mine - fabulous. Author. Goes! But I warn you: the thoughts will be mine. Old woman. And my adventures" Gabbe T. City of Masters: Fairy-Tale Plays. M., 1961

By mutual consent, jokes, feelings and morals are shared. In the characters, as we see, the reality that surrounds the artist and makes the literary fairy tale modern and topical is most clearly expressed. It is in the characters that the author's will is most fully revealed. The figurative system of Shvartsev's tale differs significantly from literary source. There are twice as many characters: here are also heroes from other fairy tales by C. Perrault - Puss in Boots, Thumb; and completely new ones, playing an important role - the Page, the Minister of Ballroom Dancing, the Marquis of Padetroit, the Forester; episodic, often nameless characters to whom the King speaks - soldiers, gatekeepers, old servant, etc. Some characters in E. Schwartz's fairy tale by C. Perrault are either absent (the Queen), or their roles and functions are significantly changed (the King, the Corporal trying on a shoe, etc.) See. Schwartz E. I live restlessly... From the diaries. M., 1990

I think this is due to E. Schwartz’s rethinking of the main conflict of the fairy tale by C. Perrault. What is the tale of Charles Perrault about? About “such a grumpy and arrogant woman as the world has never seen.” In her husband’s house, “everything was not to her taste, but most of all she disliked her stepdaughter,” because next to the kind, friendly and beautiful Cinderella, “the stepmother’s daughters seemed even worse.”

Cinderella's kindness and patience are eventually rewarded: the prince marries her. The conflict fits well within the family framework and Christian morality: be kind, patient, and God will reward you. E. Schwartz carefully transfers the motif of the evil Stepmother, who oppresses her stepdaughter and husband, but turns the family conflict into a social one: It is not enough for the Stepmother to rule in own home, she wants to rule the whole kingdom: “Well, now they’ll dance in my palace! I’ll set up my own rules with them! Marianna, don’t worry! The king is a widower! I’ll find a home for you too. We’ll live! Oh, it’s a pity - the kingdom is not enough, let’s go wild nowhere! Well, that’s okay! I’ll quarrel with my neighbors! I can do that."See. Schwartz E. Cinderella

In both fairy tales, the evil principle is embodied in the image of the Stepmother. However, if in C. Perrault she is a “grumpy and arrogant woman,” then in E. Schwartz, in addition to this, dictatorial habits are clearly expressed. So in old fairy tale includes an updated theme - the theme of power, despotism. The fairy-tale Stepmother, under the pen of E. Schwartz, acquires quite realistic and even concrete historical features. Not only the stepdaughter, but also her father - a “desperate and brave man” who is not afraid of robbers, monsters, or an evil wizard, constantly shudders and looks around, fearing to anger his wife. “My wife,” he tells the king, “is a special woman. sister, exactly like her, was eaten by a cannibal, poisoned and died. You see what poisonous characters there are in this family." This "special woman" spends all her strength and energy on achieving certain privileges in the ways that were in use when the fairy tale was written, and which have not yet become a thing of the past today: " I work like a horse. I run, I fuss, I charm, I intercede, I demand, I insist. Thanks to me, in church we sit on court benches, and in the theater - on director’s stools. The soldiers salute us! My daughters will soon be included in the velvet book of the first beauties of the court! Who turned our nails into rose petals? A kind sorceress, at whose door titled ladies wait for weeks. And a sorceress came to our house. In a word, I have so many connections that you could go crazy from fatigue maintaining them” (421). Contemporaries, and not only adults, easily recognized the Soviet “secular” lady in Stepmother.

The word “connections” takes on special meaning in a fairy-tale context. Even the fairy cannot help but take into account the phenomenon he designated: “I hate the old woman forester, your evil stepmother, and her daughters too. I would have punished them long ago, but they have such great connections!” . Wizards have no power over connections! The only thing the author can do is give a moral assessment at the end of the fairy tale through the mouth of the King: “Well, friends, we have reached the very point of happiness. Everyone is happy, except for the old woman forester. Well, she, you know, is to blame herself. Connections are connections, but You must also have a conscience. Someday they will ask: what can you, so to speak, present? And no connections will help you make your legs small, your soul big, and your heart pure.

The entire text of the script associated with the depiction of the character of the Stepmother is permeated with irony. Many of her remarks and monologues are self-exposures. E. Schwartz shows that good words and intonations addressed to Cinderella are always harbingers of trouble: “Oh yes, Cinderella, my star! You wanted to run to the park, stand under the royal windows.” “Can I?” asks the girl joyfully, “Of course, dear, but first tidy up the rooms.” , wash the windows, polish the floor, whitewash the kitchen, weed the beds, plant seven rose bushes, know yourself and set coffee for seven weeks." This entire list is clearly mocking in nature. During filming, the character of the Stepmother underwent some changes, and, I think, they are quite natural and better highlight its essence. In the film script, the Stepmother, with gentle words, forces Cinderella to wear Anna's shoe, in the movie, after affectionate words that had no effect, is followed by a threat to drive her father away from the world. The change in motivations allows us to more clearly clarify the despotic nature of the Stepmother: carrots and sticks are the tried and tested means of tyrants big and small. As soon as her cherished dream of taking over the kingdom collapses, the mask resets, and the Stepmother shouts to the King: “Intrigue! And he also put on a crown!" See Schwartz E. Cinderella. The viewer witnesses a metamorphosis: the fairy-tale villainess turns into a petty apartment intriguer. What was scary has become funny and everyday, from real life. A few years later, in the prologue of "An Ordinary Miracle" E. Schwartz will say this openly: in the king “you can easily guess an ordinary apartment despot, a frail tyrant, deftly able to explain his outrages with considerations of principle." As we see, E. Schwartz’s fairy-tale and real-life evil are one, inseparable. Carefully transferred from the literary source the motive of the confrontation between the stepdaughter and the stepmother, E. Schwartz surrounds Cinderella with like-minded friends.At one pole of the conflict - the Stepmother with her daughters (the role of the latter in the script is extremely narrowed), at the other - Cinderella, her father, the Fairy, the Page, the King, the Prince and even the Corporal , in a word, all are good, honest, decent people. Evil, although strong, is lonely, a good beginning unites everyone. This trend has emerged in literary fairy tales since the 20s. Together with Cinderella, the bearer of good beginnings, the fairy tale includes one of the main themes of E. Schwartz’s work - the theme of love, understood very broadly by the playwright.

The confrontation between good and evil, thus, appears as the opposition of love to despotism and tyranny. This interweaving of the themes of love and despotism is a characteristic feature of the work of E. Schwartz ("The Snow Queen", "Cinderella", "An Ordinary Miracle", etc.). E. Schwartz usually deprives the bearers of an evil nature of the ability to love (the stepmother and her daughters). But the rest of the characters definitely love someone: the Prince, the Prince and the Page - Cinderella, the King and the Forester - their children, the latter, according to him, is generally in love, the Corporal and the soldiers also know what love is for the Fairy, Cinderella's godmother, and her student's love and creativity are inseparable. If you compare the heroine of C. Perrault and E. Schwartz, it is not difficult to notice very significant differences. The characterization initially given by C. Perrault - “kind, friendly, sweet”, with good taste - is almost not specified; the reader knows almost nothing about the psychological state of the heroine. Character is revealed in the proposed circumstances, but does not develop. C. Perrault comes from a folk tale and is much closer to its canons than the authors of later times. E. Schwartz relies not only on folklore tradition, but also takes into account the new features that the literary fairy tale acquired in the 20-30s of our century. Shvartsev's heroine is also kind, friendly, gentle, and tolerates lies in vain. However, (kindness and friendliness were not given to her by birth, but are the result of the daily labor of the soul: “By scrubbing the floor, I learned to dance very well. While sewing, I learned to think very well. By enduring unnecessary insults, I learned to compose songs. At the spinning wheel, I learned to sing. While nursing the chickens, I became kind and gentle" (420). Sometimes she is overcome by doubts: "Can't I really wait for fun and joy?" E. Schwartz shows how lonely the girl is: "I'm so tired of giving myself gifts for Christmas. birthday and on holidays. Good people, where are you?" Her only interlocutors are kitchen utensils and flowers in the garden, which always sympathize with her, with them she shares joy and sorrow. Cinderella dreams of happiness, but to achieve it she never will not sacrifice her own dignity: “I really want people to notice what kind of creature I am, but only by themselves. Without any requests or hassle on my part. Because I’m terribly proud, you know?” As we see, here too she is complete the opposite of Stepmother.

E. Schwartz shows not just a kind, sympathetic and hard-working girl, but a talented, gifted, inspired person. For her, any work is inspired work, the creative atmosphere in which she is immersed is contagious. In his depiction of the love between Cinderella and the Prince, E. Schwartz is so original that there is no question of any similarity with C. Perrault. He emphasizes that the King and Prince are struck not so much by the beauty of the girl (this is only the first impression), but mainly by naturalness, simplicity, truthfulness, sincerity, so rare at court. It is no coincidence that the King twice remarks with delight: “What a joy! She speaks sincerely!” “Ha-ha-ha!” the king rejoices. “Sincerely! Notice, son, she speaks sincerely!” See: Schwartz E. Cinderella

In the depiction of the love of Cinderella and the Prince, the main emphasis is on their spiritual closeness and partial similarity of fate. Both he and she grew up without maternal affection, the Prince is also lonely (his father did not notice that he has grown up and treats him like a child), they understand each other perfectly, both are creatively gifted natures. Love transforms young people, they do not understand their actions, they become unpredictable: “What happened to me!” Cinderella whispers. “I’m so truthful, but I didn’t tell him the truth! I’m so obedient, but I didn’t listen to him! I wanted to see him so much - and trembled when I met it, as if a wolf had come towards me. Oh, how simple everything was yesterday and how strange today."

The prince also does not behave according to parentheses: he becomes easily vulnerable, touchy (why Cinderella did not explain the reason for leaving), distrustful (neglects his father’s wise advice), runs away from people, still trying to “find one girl and ask her why she offended him so much. And at the same time, E. Schwartz shows the spiritual vigilance of the Prince in love: “There is something very familiar in your hands, in the way you lowered your head... And that golden hair.” In the dirty Cinderella, he recognizes the girl he fell in love with. He is not put off by her poor outfit: This moment is enhanced in the movie. When Cinderella is asked to perform something and she immediately agrees, the King remarks in shock: “It doesn’t break!” In the scene in the forest, the Prince says that all princesses are breakers. “If you are a poor, ignorant girl, then I will only be glad of this.” For the sake of his beloved, he is ready for any hardships and feats. According to E. Schwartz, true love capable of destroying all barriers. The writer will create a hymn to the recklessness of brave men in love in “An Ordinary Miracle.” In Cinderella, addressed to children, he does this in a thinly veiled form. We must not forget that in children's literature of that time the theme of love was persecuted and forbidden. It is no coincidence that in the movie the word “love” in the mouth of the page boy is replaced by the word “friendship”. See: E. Schwartz. I live restlessly... From the diaries

The author also subjects Cinderella to the test, although not in the script, but in the film. The girl is faced with a choice that is by no means a fairy tale: if you put on Anna’s glass slipper, you could lose your loved one, if you don’t, you could lose your father. The heroine cannot betray her father, who because of his amorousness and kindness found himself in the power of the evil Stepmother. You cannot build happiness on the misfortune of others, especially your father - this idea is expressed by E. Schwartz extremely frankly, it runs through the entire work and is very relevant for the time when they tried to turn renunciation of loved ones into the norm. Everything here is interconnected: the character of the heroine determines her moral choice, and this choice, in turn, illuminates the character in a new way.

Love ennobles and inspires those who come into contact with it and who are themselves capable of loving. In this regard, the image of the Forester, Cinderella’s father, is interesting. As you know, in the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, the father “looked at everything through the eyes” of his wife “and would probably only scold his daughter for ingratitude and disobedience” if she decided to complain about her stepmother. In E. Schwartz, the Forester understands that, together with his daughter, he ended up in bondage to a “pretty, but stern” woman; he feels guilty before his beloved daughter. With just a few details, the author shows that the father sincerely loves Cinderella, is the first to notice the change in her behavior and, driven by feelings of love and guilt, “straightens up.” This motive is reinforced in the film: it is the Forester who brings Cinderella to the palace and shows her the slipper he found on her. He is no longer stopped or awed by his wife’s menacing gaze or angry shout. Father's love turns out to be stronger than fear. And most importantly, before the eyes of the viewer, a timid, kind person becomes brave and unsteady, that is, character development occurs. And this is clearly the author’s, and not a fairy-tale, beginning.

In Shvartsev's tale, a theme appears that C. Perrault does not even hint at: love is capable of creating miracles, and such a miracle is creativity. The fairy loves to create miracles and calls it work: “Now, now I will do miracles! I love this work!” She creates joyfully and selflessly, and her every gesture is accompanied by music: it is a “cheerful ringing” when, obeying rotational movements magic wand, a huge pumpkin rolls up to her feet; that is " ballroom music, soft, mysterious, quiet and affectionate", accompanying Cinderella's dressing up in ball gown; The appearance of the Fairy is accompanied by music “light, light, barely audible, but so joyful.” Petrovsky M. Books of our childhood. M., 1986

The page boy looks at Cinderella with loving eyes. For the Fairy and the author, this is a creative stimulus: “Great,” the Fairy rejoices. “The boy has fallen in love. It’s good for boys to fall hopelessly in love. Then they start writing poetry, and I adore it.”

When the boy says that “love helps us do real miracles,” and gives it to Cinderella glass slippers, The Fairy remarks: “How touching, Noble act. This is what we call in our magical world - poetry." E. Schwartz puts "love", "poems" and "miracles", "magic" on a par. The artist and the wizard, thus, turn out to be equivalent concepts, which is especially striking appeared later in "An Ordinary Miracle". The theme of creativity, joy and happiness to create, combined with themes of love and power, first appears in "Cinderella". The echoes and parallels with the "Ordinary Miracle" are not only not accidental, but also quite natural. Act One " An ordinary miracle" E. Schwartz wrote in 1944, the last one in 1954.

Work on “Cinderella” (script and film) took place in 1945-1947, that is, during the period when “An Ordinary Miracle” was postponed for a while, but the thoughts that worried the writer, taking into account his age, were partially realized here. This often happens with writers who work simultaneously for children and adults: M. Petrovsky discovered a similar overlap between “The Golden Key” and the third part of A. Tolstoy’s “Walking Through Torment.”

One cannot ignore one more feature of E. Schwartz’s tale: fairy tale images, objects and situations are noticeably reduced, and ordinary, or close to it, are made magical. Puss in Boots takes off his boots and sleeps by the fireplace, Thumb plays hide and seek for money, seven-league boots are carried past the target, etc. On the contrary, seemingly natural properties of human character are absolutized. In the final monologue, the King says: “I adore the wonderful qualities of his (the boy’s) soul: loyalty, nobility, the ability to love. I adore, adore these magical feelings that will never, never end.” Obviously, the shortage of these magical properties, if the artist talks about them in the key phrase of the script. See: E. Schwartz. I live restlessly... From the diaries

Even a cursory analysis indicates that the writer turns to a “wandering” plot only when he sees an opportunity in the “alien” to express “his own”, innermost. For the fact that in the darkest times E. Schwartz, K. Chukovsky, A. Tolstoy, A. Volkov, N. Nosov, A. Nekrasov could convey the truth to the reader, to preserve a living soul in him, it is necessary. as the poet advised, “humbly kneel before them.” Petrovsky M. books of our childhood. M., 1986

Conclusion

Director N.P. Akimov said wonderful words about the dramaturgy of E.L. Schwartz: “...There are things in the world that are produced only for children: all sorts of squeakers, jump ropes, horses on wheels, etc. Other things are manufactured only for adults: accounting reports, cars, tanks, bombs, alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. However it’s hard to decide for whom the sun, the sea, the sand on the beach exist, blooming lilac, berries, fruits and whipped cream? Probably for everyone! Both children and adults love it alike. So it is with dramaturgy. There are plays exclusively for children. They are staged only for children, and adults do not attend such performances. Many plays are written specifically for adults, and even if adults don't fill out auditorium, children are not very eager for empty seats.

But the plays of Evgeniy Schwartz, no matter in which theater they are staged, have the same fate as flowers, sea surf and other gifts of nature: everyone loves them, regardless of age...

Most likely, the secret of the success of Schwartz's fairy tales lies in the fact that, telling about wizards, princesses, talking cats, about a young man turned into a bear, he expresses our thoughts about justice, our idea of ​​happiness, our views on good and evil. The fact is that his fairy tales are real modern, relevant plays." Quote.

Essays on the topic “Good and Evil” are assigned to schoolchildren in primary school. Children write essays on this topic in literature, social studies, and music lessons, examining this topic from a variety of angles.

What should you consider when writing?

When writing an essay on the topic “Good and Evil,” you need to rely on some work (if you were assigned it in literature). It is necessary to compare the heroes of this work with different moral qualities.

But usually children are given an essay on such a topic to test their level of reading, perception of the world, and how they can reason and analyze. The theme "Good and Evil" allows you to do this. It’s quite easy to write an essay if you know how to think through information and analyze it.

Introduction

Ideally, any essay should consist of three paragraphs: an introduction, the main part, which reveals the whole meaning, and a conclusion.

An introduction must be written, even if it is a mini-essay on the topic “Good and Evil.” It is from the beginning of your reasoning and narration that the reader’s further perception of the rest of the text depends. The introduction reveals the meaning of the subsequent text; you should notify the reader about what you want to write about, as well as your position. The introduction should be short, about 2-5 sentences, no more. Examples of introduction for an essay on the topic “Good and Evil”:

1. Our Big world divided into white and black, good and evil. Absolutely every person has encountered both good and evil at some point in his life. This topic is the most relevant today, which is why it is so important to discuss the topic of good and evil, their interaction and differences.
2. From the early childhood We are read books and fairy tales about how good and evil are opposed. The theme of good and evil has always existed on our planet; it is the most relevant. But can good exist without evil? How do good and evil interact? Let's try to speculate on this topic.

“Good and Evil” is not that difficult to write if you have something to say. The introduction is always much more difficult than writing the main part of the essay and conclusion. Many experienced writers say that starting a story, even for them, is much more difficult than finishing it.

Main part of the essay

Essays on the topic “Good and Evil” are food for thought for any person, both an adult and a child. In the main part you can give arguments from life, literary works, from personal experience. The main part can consist of 10-20 sentences, and for a mini-essay even 8. Ideas for writing the main part of such an essay:

1. Psychologists believe that everything in our lives comes back like a boomerang. This assumption, the theory, has existed in practice for many years and is proven by examples from life and literary works. If a person does good, then, as a rule, it will definitely return to him. The proverb “don’t do good to people, you won’t get evil” refutes the boomerang theory, but this proverb is rarely true. In fact, a person who does good receives it in return. Perhaps from another person, but he receives it. A person who does good is happy and believes in the kindness of other people. He lives surrounded by a world of good-natured people. An evil person who commits evil against other people does not receive good in his life, but only anger and aggression from others.
2. Can good exist without evil? I think not. God created evil so that people would understand. If people did not know, they would not value such things as good deeds. A person towards whom only evil is constantly manifested begins to value good deeds and perform them himself. This is observed in many examples, for example in the book When the boy was little, he was offended and disliked. But there were strangers in his life who gave him kindness. Since childhood, David felt the sharp difference between good and evil, so he learned to value goodness and tried to do the same with people.

Conclusion of the essay

At the conclusion of the essay on the topic “Good and Evil,” it is necessary to make a brief conclusion of your reasoning and speculation. For a long essay, this section can reach up to seven sentences, and for a mini-essay, up to four. In conclusion, you need to say the same thing as in the main part, but at the same time convey only the main essence.

The theme of Good and Evil is an eternal theme. It has interested people throughout the entire existence of mankind. What is Good? What is Evil? How are they connected? How are they related in the world and in the soul of each person? Each writer answers these questions differently.

Thus, F. Goethe in his tragedy “Faust” shows the struggle between the “devilish” and the “divine” in the soul of the hero. By “diabolical” we mean not only the forces of evil, but also a person’s (and all of humanity’s) lack of faith in their own strength, self-limitation, and pessimism. “Divine” is the daring spirit of discovery, exploits, and creativity. This is creation, eternal dissatisfaction with oneself and the world around us, the desire to make life better.

Main character works - Faust is a zealous truth-seeker. He wants to comprehend the “internal connection of the universe” and at the same time indulge in tireless practical activities, live in full swing of your moral and physical strength.

For this he is even ready to sell his soul to the devil. Mephistopheles could not seduce this hero with simple carnal pleasures - Faust's desires are much deeper. But the devil still gets his way - he makes an agreement with the hero. Captivated by the bold thought of developing living, comprehensive activity with the help of Mephistopheles, Faust sets his own conditions: Mephistopheles must serve him until the first moment when he, Faust, calms down, content with what has been achieved.

The hero makes another “deviation” from Good in his relationship with Margarita. Gradually, feelings for this girl cease to be something sublime, the hero seduces her. We understand that Faust is only playing with love, and by doing this he dooms his beloved to death.

But at the end of the work, Faust still learns the truth. He comes to the conclusion that all ideas, all brilliant thoughts make sense only when they can be implemented in reality. We can say that he takes the side of Good, science, life.

M. Bulgakov develops the theme of Good and Evil in the novel “The Master and Margarita”. The theme of Good and Evil in the novel is directly related to the image of Woland and his retinue. Satan himself, along with Azazello, Koroviev and Behemoth, appears in the author’s contemporary Soviet Moscow. The purpose of Woland's visit was to find out whether man had changed over many centuries; what drives his actions today, how his soul lives.

The epigraph to the novel is the lines from Goethe’s Faust: “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good.” They help to understand the author's thought - by exposing evil, Woland thereby serves goodness and beauty, that is, restores the balance between Good and Evil in the world.

Satan has always been opposed to God. Bulgakov treats him freely and makes Woland a defender of God as the only criterion of good and evil, morality and immorality in man. But it is important that the hero himself judges people mercilessly, without loving them.

Bulgakov shows that the “demonic” principle lives in every person. Thus, the author depicts for us the lifestyle of an association of writers, for whom the main business of life is to eat deliciously and dance. Envy, careerism, the ability to get a job, hatred of the talented - this is the moral portrait of those who made literature for social purposes.

Only the presence of a dark side in the soul can explain the bribery of the chairman of the housing association Nikanor Bosogo. Who forced him to register him for money, to move him into vacated rooms for a bribe?

The “Black Magic Session” brought these heroes and other Moscow residents together. Mass hypnosis showed in everyone his inner “I” - a greedy, rude person, with base tastes, a lover of bread and circuses. But Bulgakov, horrified by his merciless grotesquery, “saves” the audience with the cries of Bengalsky, a talker and buffoon, whose head was torn off by the cat Behemoth.

The writer instructs Woland to pronounce the “sentence”: “Humanity loves money... Well, they are frivolous... well, well... and mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts... ordinary people...”.

One of my favorite books, which has changed my views in many ways, is the philosophical parable “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” written by Richard Bach. The main character of the work, the seagull Jonathan Livingston, was not like everyone else. He wanted to fly higher than everyone, farthest, wanted to be the best in everything. Nobody believed in him; all the seagulls in his flock laughed at him.

Without listening to anyone, Jonathan flew at night, although no one had done this before. The hero developed an incredible speed - 214 miles per hour - and dreamed of even more. Expelled from the pack, but not broken, in the finale Jonathan gained freedom and found like-minded people.

As an epigraph to the work, the author wrote the following lines “To the non-fictional Jonathan Seagull who lives in each of us.” This book instills in us faith in ourselves, in the fact that a person can do anything if he strives for a goal and learns not to depend on public opinion.

So, Good and Evil are fundamental concepts that determine not only the essence of man, his inner world, but also the entire world order. Writers all over the world tried to determine for themselves, find out, understand... But this search will continue forever as long as the world and man exist on Earth.

Good and evil in the works of Russian writers were the center of attention. The writers reflected in their Works of Russian writers these moral categories by different means.

Pushkin touches on the theme of evil several times. In the poem "Anchar" the author believes that evil should balance good. Nature has set aside a place for evil at the edge of the universe. People who are driven by the thirst for power, wealth, envy (of the king) and fear (of the slave) became the spreaders of evil throughout the earth. These feelings are conductors of evil. Money can play a similar role in a person’s life. They make people lose noble knightly qualities, family ties, love (“ Stingy Knight"). They poison the creative process (“Egyptian Nights”). One of the main manifestations of evil is violence. Its use leads to tragedy. Pushkin denies it in the ode “Liberty”, in prose works"Dubrovsky", "The Captain's Daughter".
Power acquired through violence will not receive recognition from the people (“Boris Godunov”). A person who chooses the path of crime cannot be a creative person.

Genius and villainy are incompatible (“Mozart and Salieri”), Pushkin’s humanism lies in the conclusion that any Evil always punishable. Good start he sees in nature (“Once again I visited ...”), in art (the image of Mozart, “Poet”), in natural human feelings love and friendship (“I remember a wonderful moment,” “October 19, 1827”).

Lermontov's creative heyday occurred in a darker decade than Pushkin's. Lermontov developed the theme of evil more sharply. He divides evil into two types. Evil The author respects the romantic for its strength and awareness of doom. This is revealed in the cycle of poems about Napoleon and in the poem “The Demon”. Another evil comes from society. This is the evil of the “mocking ignoramuses,” high-society philistines who persecuted Pushkin (“The Death of a Poet,” “How often, surrounded by a motley crowd...”).

Pushkin writes bitterly about the crowd that does not understand the poet. Lermontov strengthens this motive (“Prophet”). For him, people of light are the bearers of evil. Lermontov's heroes, actively pursuing life, rush between good and evil (“Hero of Our Time”). Good in creativity Lermontov is concentrated in nature, where the lyrical hero finds a response psychological state("I go out alone on the road").

Gogol has a different concept. He put everything together Evil in Russia, contrasting him with faith in the spiritual revival of his homeland. Gogol gave pictures of evil from mystical images of ancient evil (“Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, “Viy”, “ Terrible revenge") to the point of evil in contemporary society. The spirit of demonism enters real people and intertwined with petty philistine evil. This is the story of the terrible portrait and the fate of the artist Chertkov, who exchanged his creative soul for money, selling himself to the devil (“Portrait”). In “The Inspector General,” “The Overcoat,” and “Dead Souls,” the writer gives an extensive description of small but numerous evils and shows their danger to society and the human soul.

At Nekrasov's Evil has a specific social origin. The real source of evil is serfdom. It allows the nobleman to live in idleness and disdain the people (“Railroad”, chapter 3). Serfdom transforms spiritually free man into a slave (“Hey, Ivan!” and chapters from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” “The Last One,” “About the Faithful Yakov, an Exemplary Slave”). Good in creativity Nekrasova also has a social connotation. The poet's goodness has a connotation of sacrifice (“The Poet and the Citizen,” “On the Day of Gogol’s Death,” “N. G. Chernyshevsky,” “A Knight for an Hour”). The poet sees the moral principles of Russian life in the people's soul:

Burned in slavery
The sun is free.
Gold, gold -
People's heart.

(“Rus”, song by Grisha Dobrosklonov from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”)

L. Tolstoy agrees with Nekrasov in his assessment of serfdom and violence against the individual. Tolstoy views the concepts of good and evil philosophically. If a person lives in harmony with the world around him and his own nature, then he was created for good (Karataev). If people lose their national roots and try to remake their human essence in order to rise above those around them, then they fall into evil. In War and Peace such characters are Napoleon and Kuragin. They are contrasted with Bolkonsky, Kutuzov, and Rostov, who are spiritually connected with nature and the people. Tolstoy considers war to be the greatest evil.

Dostoevsky talks about good and evil passionately. He reveals the origins of evil. The social side of life is the background of the story about the struggle between God and the devil in the human soul. good and evil exist in the world in balance.

Raskolnikov (“Crime and Punishment”) suffers from social evil and chooses the most terrible form in the fight against injustice. Compulsory good, based on violence, degenerates into evil. Initially, Raskolnikov feels like a liberator of humanity from harmful bloodsuckers. But in the end it turns out that he “killed it for himself.” Sonya helps Raskolnikov make a paradoxical turn towards goodness. Sonya steps over herself for the well-being of others, keeping her soul pure. The path from evil to good lies through suffering, repentance, and purification of the soul. Raskolnikov experiences all this in the epilogue, and the light of truth is revealed to him. Dostoevsky leaves any deeply fallen person the right to repent and rise to the light from the depths of hell.

Good and evil in the works of Russian writers occupy an important place because these moral categories are decisive in the spiritual life of humanity. Classic literature sought to reveal the deadly nature of evil and protect the soul from its destructive influence.

Black and white? Good and evil?

There is a common position that there is no black and white in life, there is only gray, that good and evil are united and fulfill some kind of common mission, almost imposed by God. It is said about God: “God is light and in Him there is no darkness.” Let me make it clear right away that I adhere to precisely this point of view. For me there IS good, and it is absolute, pure, unclouded, like some great power given to us from above. And good never flirts with evil, never flirts.

Anton Chizh has wonderful work"Divine Poison" In it, the main character, a detective, is asked a question: what is the meaning of the struggle and all our work, if most often (almost always) evil wins on earth? I was shocked by the answer - with its depth and simplicity:

SO THAT VICTORY IS GIVEN TO EVIL AT AS EXPENSIVE A PRICE AS POSSIBLE!!!

Where good is born and evil ends

Two colleagues meet in the corridor. One of them says:

You know, my new boss such a bastard... - here he turns around and sees his boss, - ... in in a good way this word.

To determine what is good and what is bad, what is good, And what evil, it is very important to understand where the border between them is. What is good and what is evil, from the point of view of scientific terminology?

Good- the concept of morality, meaning intentional aspiration to selfless help to one's neighbor, as well as to a stranger, animal and even plant. In an everyday sense, this term refers to everything that receives a positive assessment from people, or is associated with happiness and joy.

Evil- the concept of morality means intentional, willful, conscious causing harm, damage or suffering to someone. In the everyday sense, evil refers to everything that receives a negative assessment from people, is condemned by them, and contradicts the rules of morality.

-opposites that deny each other. IN European tradition goodness is usually associated with light, bright, white. Evil - with darkness, dark, black. According to the tenets of some religions, good and evil are considered as autonomous forces, waging an eternal struggle for the right to rule the world. This kind of belief system in theology is called dualism.

problem of good And evil can be considered in a variety of areas, such as ethics, philosophy, religion, folklore, but we will focus on the topic of good and evil in modern world. This is the most common topic for discussing what is good and evil from the point of view of modern society.

For each of us good and evil symbolizes completely different things. For some, moving an old lady across the street is the only good thing in his entire life, and for others, building a free school for orphans is just one piece in a countless string of good deeds. Many people consider drinking alcohol, smoking, and obscene language to be evil. Someone will consider this a way of life... As Leo Tolstoy said:

– We love people for the good we have done to them, and we do not love them for the evil we have done to them!

For many people, the source of goodness is church. “Do not make for yourself an idol”, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, “Do not commit adultery” - each of us remembers by heart, the only question is that some, with the help of the church, prayer, communion and other church sacraments, are trying to “wash away ′′ from themselves the evil that they commit with enviable consistency. God, as they say, is good. He will forgive. And in general, if we talk about the church, the majority turn there only when there is trouble.

Concepts about good And evil must be formed in childhood. And it begins good exactly when a child is born. Pure, bright, truly Kind creation of God. By instilling in children simple everyday rules of behavior, we cultivate the moral code of a generation. In the future, kindergarten, then school, and university have a huge influence on the formation of good and evil in the child’s mind. But it is in the family that the initial foundations of personality are laid. Sukhomlinsky claims that “children live by their own ideas about good and evil, honor and dishonor, human dignity; they have their own criteria of beauty, they even have their own measurement of time.” The whole question is how to preserve all this purity and innocence of a small heart.

It is necessary to direct positive energy to the destruction of evil as a phenomenon. Every day, every hour, every moment. A person will never become completely ideal, but that’s another story, and everyone can minimize evil deeds. By myself search , myself improvement , myself discipline , myself implementation. Every word has the root “Sam”, I’m not just pointing it out to you, but with the goal of calling and finally convincing you that no church, society, society, parents, fully will not affect your perception of good And evil, except Yourselves. This is where ends evil. It is in you and me. In our work on ourselves! I wish you inexhaustible will and desire to act based only on kind motives! Daria SHCHUKINA

Parable about good and evil

Wrath had a son. His name was evil. Such that he himself had a hard time with him. And he decided to marry him to some virtue. Look, he will soften a little, and in his old age it will be easier for him! He stole joy and married his evil to it.

Only that marriage was short-lived. But what remained of him was a child - gloating. And it’s true that good and evil cannot have anything in common. And if it does happen, don’t expect any good from him!