The Concepts of Tragedy, Freedom, and Woman's Liberation in the Play 'Attila, my Attila!' by Michael Field

Seminar paper from the year 2024 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Decadent Art and Literature, language: English, abstract: This paper contains the analysis of the selected scenes of Michael Field' play 'Attila, my Attila!', examined through the prism of Nikolas Berdiaev's work 'The Destiny of Man'. Specifically, the perception of human tragedy in both works was touched upon: The authors declare its entanglement with human freedom. According to Field and Berdiaev, to respond to tragedy, one must act and fight against the imposed artificial norms, dictated by secular and religious institutions. By acting, one reveals their vital creative potential that provides them with inner strength that is impossible to be ruined by any calamities. A similar concept of tragedy can also be traced in the works of Nikolas Berdiaev, Russian Orthodox philosopher of the 20th century. Although there is no evidence that he could ever read Field's play (which is overall highly unlikely), Berdiaev writes about tragedy, freedom, creativeness, and personality in a way that chimes with that of Field's. In Berdiaev's ethical system, a human is inherently endowed with freedom by God; However, freedom makes life tragic because it brings responsibility for one's choice. The only way to overcome tragedy is to embrace creativeness - a quality that differs an individual, which is a biological category, from a wholesome personality. These ideas are represented in the most prominent Berdiaev's works. In this paper, analysis of tragedy, as it was understood by the philosopher, will be carried out on the material of 'The Destiny of Man' (Berdiaev: 1931, quoted as D.M.). Berdiaev's core ideas, reflected in this book, will be applied to 'Attila, my Attila!' in order to discover similarities and differences in the way the three authors in question viewed the tragedy of human life. It is important to stress that Field's work is mostly focused on tragedy from a female angle, while Berdiaev explores this notion in a more general, human sense.