A changed woman — money and crime. Few remarks on Leonid Adreyev’s play "Stamp of Cain". ("Thou shalt not kill") Cover Image

Kobieta odmieniona — pieniądz i zbrodnia. Kilka uwag o dramacie L. Andriejewa "Pieczęć Kaina" ("Nie zabijaj")
A changed woman — money and crime. Few remarks on Leonid Adreyev’s play "Stamp of Cain". ("Thou shalt not kill")

Author(s): Jadwiga Gracla
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: woman; Money; drama; change; murder

Summary/Abstract: The article presents a transformation of the Adreyev’s play main character, which is achieved thanks to a crime and money. In the paper’s author’s opinion, what is the most important in the drama is nonetheless a motive of the crime, i.e. the female character’s striving towards self-transformation. Both the crime and money, here treated as of marginal significance, are not her raison d’être. The character wants to change herself, in which she is similar to many other female protagonists of the 20th-century theatrical plays. According to the author of the article, those characters prefer spiritual values over the material, even though in most cases it unfortunately they end up being punished for what they had never aimed at.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 21
  • Page Range: 53-60
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Polish