TOPOS OF THE ROAD IN THE PLAYS “PEOPLE’S MALAKHII” BY MYKOLA KULISH AND “EMPEROR JONES” BY EUGENE O’NEILL

Abstract

The article presents a comparative analysis of the plays “People’s Malahii” by Mykola Kulish and “Emperor Jones” by Eugene O’Neill. Its aim is to identify the common and distinctive features of the artistic interpretation of the road topos, which serves as the structural and compositional centre of the analysed plays. The movement of the main characters in space ensures the development of the dramatic action as well as the revelation of the main characters of the plays: Malachai and Jones. The primary motivation for Malakhai and Jones is rooted in their respective obsessions: for Malakhai, it is the socialist restructuring of society, while for Jones, it is a relentless pursuit of power and wealth. In both cases, the emphasis is on the hopelessness and tragic inevitability of the characters' paths, the stages of which are associated with Dante's circles of hell. In the works of the Ukrainian author, these circles are represented in the form of urban institutions: streets, asylums, factories, and brothels, which symbolise the absurdity of Malakhy's efforts, reducing them to “blue nothingness”. In Eugene O'Neill's play, Jones's journey ends in the forest and shifts into the realm of the subconscious, where memories of the Emperor's immoral deeds are projected through the prism of his people's impoverished past, provoking sharp pangs of conscience and a desire for atonement. The thorny path of the characters ends in a tragic resolution; however, while the Ukrainian playwright's fanaticism of Malachi reaches its extreme, leading to the final renunciation of family values, the American Jones comes to the realisation of his own guilt and the desire to reconnect, even after death, with his roots.