The image of chimene in the tragedy sid. Corneille "Sid" - analysis with quotes

Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) - French poet and playwright, creator of the greatest work of classicism, the play "Sid", which became the pinnacle of his work.

Characters:
Don Fernando, first king of Castile
Doña Urraca, Infanta of Castile.
Don Diego, father of Don Rodrigo.
Don Gomez, Count Gomez, father of Jimena.
Don Rodrigo, lover of Jimena.
Don Sancho in love with Jimena.
Don Arias, Don Alonso - Castilian nobles
Jimena, daughter of Don Gomez.
Leonor, tutor of the Infanta.
Elvira, tutor of Chimene.
Page.
Infanta.

Genre "Sida" - tragicomedy, (that is, a tragedy with a happy ending). Corneille painted it in 1636. The protagonist of the play is Don Rodrigo, who was called Sid for military merit. In the first act of the play, there is a quarrel between Count Gomez and Don Diego, during which the Count slaps Diego. Gomez refuses to fight, not considering the old man a worthy opponent. Then Diego asks his son to wash away his insult with the blood of the offender. Rodrigo is confused:

"Fortunately, I was so close at last, -Oh, the evil fates of treason! —And at that moment my father is offended,And the offender was the father of Chimene.I am devoted to internal war;My love and honor in the irreconcilable struggle:Stand up for your father, renounce your beloved!

In the second act, the king tells the count to apologize to Diego, but it's too late: Rodrigo and Gomez go to a duel. Jimena also faces a choice between feeling and duty, and yet chooses to defend the honor of her deceased father:

“Punish the young fool with courage:He took the life of the one who needed the crown;He deprived his daughter of his father.

In the third act, Rodrigo executes himself and comes to repentance to Jimena:

“Having executed the offender, I myself go to the execution.The judge is my love, the judge is my Jimena.To earn her enmity is worse than betrayal,And I came to earn, as a quench of torment,Your judgment from sweet lips and death from sweet hands"

But the Infanta dissuades him from this meeting. Jimena confesses to her that she loves Rodrigo, and, having avenged herself, she will die. Then the killer of her father comes out and offers her to kill him with the same sword, but Jimena relies on the king. At this time, the Moors attack Seville. Diego offers his son to lead the squad. In the fourth act, Rodrigo returns as a hero. The king is delighted with his deed. Jimena declares that she will marry someone who will avenge her father. Sancho, who has long been in love with her, decides to fight. In the fifth act, Sancho returns and reports that Rodrigo knocked the sword out of his hands, but did not kill the one who protects Jimena. Then the king gives Jimena a year to "dry the tears”, and Rodrigo will perform feats for now:

“Trust in yourself, in the royal word;Chimena is ready to give you her heart again,And soothe the unresolved pain in herThe change of days, your sword and your king will help!

"Sid" by Pierre Corneille as a work of classicism

What is classicism? Briefly

Classicism arose in France at the end of the 17th and 18th centuries. The manifesto of the genre is the work of Boileau "Poetic Art". The main conflict in classicism is the struggle between feeling and duty. At the same time, heroes should always choose with their heads, not with their hearts.

The main features of classicism on the example of the play "Sid":

A hero must always be himself. In the play, the characters choose duty and follow it to the end. The concept of the heroic in the play "Sid" suggests that Rodrigo must overcome the unreasonable voice of feelings in himself, this is what makes him "Sid", and not the victory over the Moors. His main triumph is the superiority of will and reason over passions.

- The unity of form and content, but the main role is played by content.

- The tragicomedy is written in verse in a clear and precise language, without excess of tropes.

“A hero must always choose duty over feeling. He is driven by rationalism, not romantic impulses. In the play "Sid" both heroes follow the duty, Corneille shows how hard this choice is given to them. They sacrifice happiness for the sake of duty, but in the end the author gives them hope for a happy ending as a reward.

The drama is based on real historical events. Rodrigo Diaz is a real-life character who was the hero of the Reconquista. The image of Sid is not a fictional character.

- The number of acts must strictly be odd (3.5, rarely 7). There are 5 acts in Corneille's play "Sid".

- The problematics of "The Sid" fully fit into the classic repertoire of that time: the conflict of feelings and duty, mind and heart, public and personal.

The rule of trinity in classicism on the example of Corneille's play "Sid":

- Places. All the action takes place in one place - the city of Seville, which has an ambiguous interpretation, since this is an extended scene of action.

- Time. According to the canons of classicism, the action should last no more than a day. The play takes place over two days. On the first day there is a quarrel between the count and Diego, at night the Moors attack the city, the next day the king gives Jimena the hand and heart of Rodrigo.

- Actions. Throughout the play, one storyline, one conflict should develop. The storyline is broken by the role of the king's daughter Infanta, who, above all, is in love with Don Rodrigo.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

The best creation of Corneille is his early play "Sid" (tragicomedy, which means "tragedy with a happy ending" - a mixed genre not accepted in classicism). Its plot is taken from the medieval Spanish epic, but the images and problems reflect the French life of the 17th century. The play is imbued with heroic pathos. The young man Rodrigo and the girl Jimena, who love each other, sacrifice their love in the name of duty, in this case, the duty of fighting for the honor of their fathers: Rodrigo kills Jimena's father in a duel, who insulted his father with a slap in the face; Jimena, in turn, demands the execution of Rodrigo for the murder of her father. The spiritual conflict of both is expressed with great force, especially in the famous monologue of Rodrigo in the VI phenomenon of the first act:

I am devoted to the internal war:My love and honor in the irreconcilable struggle:Stand up for your father, renounce your beloved!He calls for courage, she holds my hand.(Translated by M. Lozinsky) The love that Rodrigo and Jimena sacrifice is depicted as a great heroic feeling. Each of them, having made this sacrifice, dreams of dying. Majestic and at the same time touching is the scene of their meeting after the murder that blocked their path to happiness. Both do not retreat for a moment from their cruel duty, but, parting, sincerely express their human pain. The highest heroism is expressed here in the fact that love itself makes severe demands and does not put up with weakness and shame. As Rodrigo Jiméne explains, he was prompted to resolve an internal dispute in favor of debt by the thought that

That the one who valiant used to see me,The downtrodden must be hated. Ximena responds by saying to Rodrigo:

The one worthy of you should kill you. But above the duty of feudal honor, which destroys love, is the duty to the homeland: the exploits performed by Rodrigo in defense of his country from the attack of the Moors save his life and, ultimately, the love of him and Jimena. Through the mouth of the infanta (daughter of the king), Corneille condemns the revenge directed against the defender of the state.

And you would decide, protecting your home,Give the fatherland to the enemy's defeat? - she asks Jimena reproachfully.The public, state principle lies at the basis of those high demands on a person that are made by all the heroes of this play. The idea of ​​honor acquires a new shade: the honor of a person, his value is determined primarily by his merits before the state and the king. The monarch is depicted as the embodiment of the state.However, the patriotic idea appears in the play in its national meaning: the glory of Rodrigo, who defeated the enemies, is proclaimed primarily by the people themselves. The play reflects the national upsurge of the French people, associated with the defense against the threatened German invasion: it was created in one of the most difficult moments of the Thirty Years' War.Rodrigo is heroized as an ideal warrior, devoted to duty and honor, as a patriot who performs the highest feats in defense of his homeland, and as a lover, ready to die for his love.

... He appreciated, as the best in the homeland,Above passion is duty and passion is above life. His character, therefore, is not turned into a schematic embodiment of one feature; the strength of feeling gives him liveliness and persuasiveness.The play is very clear in its structure. The main problem is revealed by numerous arguments of the characters and a logically clear symmetrical opposition of images: on the one hand, Rodrigo is the only son with his love and duty to his father; on the other hand, in the same position, Jimena is the only daughter. Above all, as a judge, a king.The clear sound of the verse also contributes to the logical disclosure of the conflict. Among the classicists, rhyme expressively emphasizes the meaning of the phrase. With the parallel structure of two poetic lines or two halves of a verse, Corneille creates sharp juxtapositions.

Chimene: He lost his father to his daughter! Don Diego: He returned honor to his father! However, the absolutist ideology is far from being consistently expressed in The Sid. The victory of duty turns out to be incomplete: Jimena must eventually marry her father's killer. The heroes of the play are independent feudal lords, with difficulty weaning from their former liberties; they commit responsible deeds at their own peril and risk, fight in duels, against which at that time Richelieu fiercely fought. The most unbridled of them - the father of Jimena - allows himself to criticize the decision of the king in irreverent tones.

In the play, the artistic rules of classicism are not strictly observed. Neither the genre of tragicomedy nor the Spanish medieval (instead of antique) plot corresponded to them. A slap in the face on the stage was also considered a violation of decency. Three unities are broadly interpreted: the scene of action changes within the same city, the time of action Corneille stretched to 36 hours, and during this period, in the words of Pushkin, "heaped up events for as many as 4 months." The unity of action is broken by the role of the infanta, daughter of the king; in addition, her love for Rodrigo, a youth of non-royal blood, also offended court norms. For all these retreats, "Sid", at the request of Cardinal Richelieu, despite the huge success with the public, was condemned by the academy. This was the assertion of an absolutist policy in literature and cultural life.

Pierre Corneille

A brilliant representative of French classicism, austere, solemn and magnificent art, he was a man of the third estate, a failed lawyer.

The man seemed to have lived 2 lives. For 56 years he lived the life of a peaceful, quiet provincial man, he had 7 children, he did not win a single lawsuit, because he did not speak well, but when he took up the pen, lines poured out from under him, which even passed into French. in the form of sayings (fine as Sid).

The tongue-tied lawyer knew great fame, 2 years of battle with Cardinal Richelieu (Richelieu threw down the gauntlet, but Corneille won). For a long time they did not want to introduce him into the French academy (provincial), but then, when “Sid” was already written, the century did not spare epithets addressed to him.

"SID"

In 1606, the tragicomedy Sid appeared, in which the main problems and conflicts of the first third of the century were concentrated. Ie: the struggle of the king with the feudal freemen; the question of whether or not to be a centralized state; conflict between family and civil; the patriotic theme of the defense of the Motherland, which is attacked by foreigners; but most importantly, a special hero appeared in the work, who, in doubt, hesitation on one's own in a hopeless situation, he found a way out, he decided his own fate (Richelieu could not forgive this), without relying not on the will of the king, not on the decision of the feudal lords, not on traditions. He was a bold-minded person who solved problems on his own.

The plot is elementary: firstly, the action takes place in Spain. The Spanish king, who has not yet become an absolute monarch, and his name is not the king, but his name, like the rest, is Don (Don Fernando), he is not yet an absolute monarch. This king chooses a tutor for his son and the applicant is Don Gomez, a freethinker feudal lord, and the old man Don Diego, who was once a great and glorious warrior who helped unite the territory, but now he is old. Choosing between them, the king naturally chooses Don Diego. Don Gomez is outraged that an infirm old man is chosen. In the same work before us: a vulgar squabble of feudal lords and an epic story about how the enemies were driven back; and laments, and confessions, and love duets, i.e. life in its various projections. Don Gomez slaps the old man (he not only dropped himself in the eyes of everyone, but he dropped the honor of Don Diego) and if this slap is not washed away with blood, then shame will fall on the whole family.

The daughter of Don Gomez - Jimena and the son of Don Diego - Rodrigo love each other, they are engaged. If Rodrigo kills Jimena's father, he will lose Jimena, and if he refuses to fight, then the shame will not be washed away from his surname, and Jimena will not be able to love the unworthy.

For the first time, a hero stood on the French stage, who independently thought out options for how to act in a situation where there was no way out, when he would lose Jimena anyway.

This ability to independently choose one's own destiny in a hopeless situation was very important.

In Side, Corneille creates a special vision of love. Love in Corneille in his works is always a shared passion, triumphant, which is experienced for the noblest people. And most importantly - which cannot be crossed out by any life circumstances, even the most tragic ones (to kill the father of the bride).

First of all, it is customary to think, because he is called the stern Corneille, he is a singer of a heroic nature, but above all he is a singer of shared, joyful, happy love, which stands above all obstacles. This is the noblest, uplifting feeling of a person.

Hesitating and deciding to take one side or another, Corneille nevertheless decides to raise the sword against Jimena's father and kills him. There is no conflict between love and duty in Corneille's text. By killing Jimena's father, because that's how life circumstances developed, and the love of young people is above the intricacies of life, above the accepted rules of behavior. This is something that cannot be killed. With his sword (the sword is one of the main characters of the work), Don Rodrigo comes to Jimena's house.

Doom you to longing I should have loved

To wash away the shame and deserve you

(If I had not raised my sword against your father, I would not have been worthy as a man who defended his father, you)

But paying in full my debt to my father and honor

I must in my turn become a victim of the right revenge

... he holds out a sword to her: "In the blood of the slain, let the one who killed him be spread."

Jimena: “Alas, although the enmity has separated us far. Rodrigo, I will not reproach you. And having given the tribute of suffering to my fate, I do not blame you. I cry for you. The fact that you fulfilled was only a direct duty ... you kept your glory and I will endure my difficult path to the end .. Having lost my father, I lose you, in the name of the pride of my beloved ... Even passion cannot tell me to be timid before your execution. I should be like you - fearless and harsh. Duty commanded me worthy to take revenge. Worthy of you - should kill you.

Here it is an insoluble conflict - only the one who is honest and noble, who protects his elders, is worthy of love. Two enemies seem to be standing on the stage and something that Corneille could not forgive begins, a love duet begins. It was unusually new: above traditions, duels, fights, there was a love of two creatures, not to blame for being drawn into this bloody conflict. It was bold, new. They were individuals, and personality is always dangerous.

The conflict seems unresolvable. A woman cannot join the fight, but she will find someone who will stand up for her.

To resolve this conflict, Corneille introduces a second intrigue - a second storyline. Namely: the country is attacked by the Moors. And there is no time to solve family problems. And here Rodrigo is magnificent. Foreigners are attacking the country, you need to tell the king, you need to ask for his blessing - and this is the time, the Moors can seize the land. Without asking his permission, he goes to beat the enemies. Throwing on the clothes of the king (deception) ... the same impulsive, the same temperamental ... he also loves Jimena, like he loves his homeland. Rodrigo leads an army, defeats the Moors, who throw banners at him and call him Sid (translated as "lord"). He becomes the first warrior of the state, the winner. This is no longer just Don Rodrigo, this is the right hand of the king. Telling the king about his exploits, he asks for forgiveness for not asking permission to defeat the enemies. At the gates of the palace stands Jimena, who says yes he won, but my father will not get up.

A new conflict between family duty (Jimena) and the beginning of the state (he is no longer Rodrigo, but Sid - the savior of the fatherland). In her bedchamber, she prays to all enemies… she understands the difference between Don Rodrigo and Sid the victor… she thinks that, God forbid, there will not be a person who will throw down the glove to Sid the victor. But there is Don Sancho, who is in love with Jimena, and on her behalf enters the battle and Rodrigo has to fight. And here Corneille perfectly shows female psychology. The difference between male and female psychology is shown extremely accurately. When a man is told no, he understands that it is yes. And the woman understands that no - it's "maybe." When Ximena challenges and on her behalf, Don Sancho must fight Cid, Rodrigo believes that she wants him to die and he will not fight and simply lower the sword. And with the same sword, he comes to the bedchamber to Chimene to say goodbye.

Then, what he valued as the best in the homeland above passion is honor, but passion is above life. This was the audacity of Corneille. And Jimena understands that Sid will lower his sword and allow himself to be killed, she must tell the truth: "If the call of death is so powerful over you, you remember our passion, my dear Rodrigo." According to the law of the duel, it should go to the one who wins: "To defeat me so that they do not give me to someone who is disgusting to both heart and mind." The protagonist is a daring basis, which was met with hostility by Rechelier - the bright love of the young over morality, over traditions, the bright love that wins in its eternity.
Inspired by Jimena, Rodrigo goes to the duel.

Jimena prays that Cid will win, but Don Sancho enters Jimena's bedchamber with Cid's sword. He manages to say half a phrase: "These weapons are at your feet, laying down ..." then he tries to say something, but cannot break through the flow of Chimena's words. She cries from her share, the king appears, to whom she speaks of her great love for Sid, that she is going to the monastery. When she gets tired of speeches, Don Sancho says that everything is not as she imagined, during the duel Sid knocked the sword out of his hands, but he did not want to kill him - he gave him life and the sword of the winner, he ordered to bring Jimena.
Rodrigo appears, says that he did not come for abusive prey, he asks what he should do so that she, at least for a minute, forgets about the death of her father. Corneille breeds among themselves (and this is the 17th century) that passion that rages in the hearts of young people and which cannot be killed by anything and the problems of marriage. Because going into the hands of someone who killed your father is a completely different thing than loving someone who killed your father. And Corneille very subtly, very intelligently separates these two moments in love. Jimena cannot kill her love for Rodrigo, but she cannot marry him either.

And that is ripening, with which the 19th century will then begin: “The passage of time has more than once legitimized what we saw as a criminal beginning.” The king says that time heals many wounds and nuances. Those. Rodrigo is sent, the Moors attack again, to defend the country from the Moors. Maybe someday Jimena will be able to forget about the death of her father and become his wife, because she loves him. But so far the work has an open ending.

The Sid is a great work that made Corneille famous.

In the days of Corneille, the norms of the classical theater were just beginning to take shape, in particular the rules of the three unities - time, place and action. Corneille accepted these rules, but performed them very relatively and, if necessary, boldly violated them.

Contemporaries greatly valued the poet as a historical writer of everyday life. "Sid" (medieval Spain), "Horace" (the era of kings in Roman history), "Cinna" (imperial Rome), "Pompeii" (civil wars in the Roman state), "Attila" (Mongol invasion), "Heraclius" ( Byzantine Empire), "Polyeuct" (the era of the original "Christianity"), etc. - all these tragedies, like others, are built on the use of historical facts. Corneille took the most acute, dramatic moments from the historical past, depicting the clashes of various political and religious systems, the fate of people in moments of major historical shifts and upheavals.Corneille is primarily a political writer.

Psychological conflicts, the history of feelings, the ups and downs of love in his tragedy faded into the background. He, of course, understood that the theater is not a parliament, that tragedy is not a political treatise, that “a dramatic work is ... a portrait of human actions ... the portrait is the more perfect, the more it resembles the original” (“Discourses on three unities). Nevertheless, he built his tragedies according to the type of political disputes.

^ The Tragedy of the Sid (according to Corneille's definition, a tragicomedy), was written in 1636 and became the first great work of classicism. Characters are created differently than before. They are not characterized by versatility, acute conflict of the inner world, inconsistency in behavior. The characters in Side are not individualized, it is not by chance that such a plot is chosen in which the same problem confronts several characters, while all of them solve it in the same way. It was typical for classicism to understand one trait as a character, which, as it were, suppresses all the others. Those characters who can subordinate their personal feelings to the dictates of duty have character. Creating such characters as Ximena, Fernando, Infanta, Corneille gives them majesty and nobility. The majesty of the characters, their citizenship in a special way color the feeling of love. Corneille denies the attitude to love as a dark, destructive passion or gallant, frivolous entertainment. He struggles with the precise idea of ​​love, introducing rationalism into this area, illuminating love with a deep humanism. Love is possible if lovers respect each other's noble personality. The heroes of Corneille are above ordinary people, they are people with feelings inherent in people, passions and sufferings, and they are people of great will ... (images for chit days)

Of the many stories associated with the name of Sid, Corneille took only one - the story of his marriage. He simplified the plot scheme to the limit, reduced the characters to a minimum, removed all the events from the stage and left only the feelings of the characters.

Conflict. Corneille reveals a new conflict - the struggle between feeling and duty - through a system of more specific conflicts. The first of these is the conflict between the personal aspirations and feelings of the characters and the duty to the feudal family, or family duty. The second is the conflict between the feelings of the hero and the duty to the state, to his king. The third is the conflict of family duty and duty to the state. These conflicts are revealed in a definition, sequence: first through the images of Rodrigo and his beloved Jimena - the first, then through the image of the infanta (the daughter of the king), suppressing her love for Rodrigo in the name of state interests, - the second, and finally, through the image of the king of Spain, Fernando - third.

A whole campaign was launched against the play, which lasted 2 years. She was attacked by a number of critical articles written by Mere, Scuderi, Clavere and others. Mere accused K. of plagiarism (apparently from Guillen de Castro), Scuderi analyzed the play from t. "Poetics" of Aristotle. K. was condemned for the fact that he did not observe 3 unity, and especially for the apology of Rodrigo and Jimena, for the image of Jimena, for the fact that she was marrying her father's murderer. Against the play, a special Opinion of the French Academy on the Side was formed, edited by Chaplin and inspired by Richelieu. The attacks affected the playwright to such an extent that at first he fell silent for 3 years, and then tried to take into account the wishes. But it's useless - Richelieu didn't like Horace either.

The reproaches thrown at The Sid reflected the real features that distinguished it from modern "correct" tragedies. But it was precisely these features that determined the dramatic tension, the dynamism that provided the play with a long stage life. "Sid" is still included in the world theatrical repertoire. These same “shortcomings” of the play were highly appreciated two centuries after its creation by the romantics, who excluded The Sid from the list of classicist tragedies they rejected. The unusualness of its dramatic structure was also appreciated by the young Pushkin, who wrote to N. N. Raevsky in 1825: “The true geniuses of tragedy never cared about plausibility. See how Corneille handled Sid slickly “Ah, do you want the 24-hour rule to be respected? If you please" - and heaped up events for 4 months ".

The discussion about "Sid" was the occasion for a clear formulation of the rules of classical tragedy. “The opinion of the French Academy on the tragicomedy “Sid”” became one of the program manifestos of the classical school.

« Sid"(Le Cid) - a theatrical play (tragicomedy) in the verses of Pierre Corneille. The first performance of The Sid took place in December 1636 or January 1637.

History of creation and production

The tragedy "Sid" (which he himself defined as "tragicomedy", emphasizing a happy ending, impossible for a tragedy) Corneille wrote in 1636, while in Rouen. The protagonist of the play was the hero of the Spanish Reconquista, Rodrigo Diaz, known as Cid Campeador, and Corneille used Spanish romances and the Spaniard Guillen de Castro's drama "Cid's Youth" as literary material for processing. From this play, he borrowed 72 of the best verses (The Literary Encyclopedia indicates that such borrowings in the era of classicism were not an exceptional phenomenon).

The first production of The Cid was at the Théâtre du Marais in December 1636 (according to other sources, in January of the following year).

Characters

• Don Rodrigo, son of Don Diego and lover of Jimena. The name "Sid" will be mentioned by the king and the infanta in relation to Rodrigo only in the IV and V acts.
• Jimena, daughter of Don Gomez and beloved of Don Sancho and Don Rodrigo, she herself is in love with the latter.
• Don Gomez, Count Gormas, father of Jimena.
• Don Diego Don Rodrigo's father.
• Doña Urraca, Infanta of Castile (secretly in love with Rodrigo).
• Don Fernando, the first king of Castilian.
• Don Sancho in love with Jimena.
• Elvira, teacher of Chimena.
• Leonor, tutor of the Infanta.
• Don Arias And don Alonso, Castilian nobles.

Plot

Don Rodrigo, in love with Jimena, the daughter of Count Gormas, is forced to challenge the father of his beloved, who seriously insulted his own father, Don Diego, by giving him a slap in the face. The choice between love and filial duty Rodrigo makes in favor of the latter and kills Gormas in a duel. Now Jimena faces a choice: she still loves Rodrigo, but her father's death cries out for revenge. Like Rodrigo, Jimena puts duty above love and demands the death of her lover from the king.

The tragic denouement is prevented by a night attack by the Saracens, which is repulsed by a detachment led by Rodrigo. The king, impressed by his loyalty and patriotism, decides to replace the execution with a duel between Rodrigo and the defender of Jimena, Don Sancho. The winner of the duel should receive Jimena's hand. When, after the duel, the loser Sancho appears before Jimena with this news, she, being sure that Rodrigo was killed, betrays her true feelings for him. After that, she is forced to give up revenge, and the king gives permission for the wedding.

Imagery and conflict

The Cid is the first play in French literature that reveals the main conflict that occupied the writers of the Classical era - the conflict between duty and feeling. Although the heroes consistently make a choice in favor of duty, Corneille was the first to show the mental anguish associated with him, which is reflected in the words of Chimene: The beginning of the quote Alas! My soul is one of the halves

Another is slain, and the duty that commanded is terrible,

So that I avenge the survivor for the deceased. End quote

Corneille resolves the conflict between honor and personal happiness by introducing the idea of ​​an even higher debt than the debt of ancestral honor - a debt to the country, to the monarch, which is interpreted in the Side as the only true one. The fulfillment of this duty turns Rodrigo into a national hero, over whom the usual feudal ethical norms, which are replaced by state necessity, are not dominated.

The images of "Sid" are also characteristic of classicism, causing admiration and admiration for their heroic integrity. This style of depicting characters in one color - either completely positive or scoundrels without a single bright line - is typical of Corneille's entire work, and the creation of images of knights without fear and reproach was dictated by the historical period that France was going through at that moment, in need of exemplary heroes.

Criticism

Although the basic requirements of the canons of French classicism were observed in the Side, Corneille creatively rethought them, creating the first great theatrical work in this style. Thus, he interpreted the principle of “the unity of the palace” as “the unity of the city”, and the total duration of the stage action was not a day, but 30 hours. These digressions became a formal reason for criticizing the play, among the complaints against which were also the “immodest” behavior of the main character, a side storyline of the Infanta in love with Rodrigo, and an implausible pile of events.

The real reason for the attacks, however, lay in the plane of politics, not art. The choice of the Spaniards as heroes of the drama, showing them as brave and noble people, was out of place for Cardinal Richelieu, the young playwright's former literary patron. Richelieu, the de facto ruler of France, fought with Spain for influence in Europe, and he did not need a play that showed the Spaniards in a positive way. In addition, the rebellious nature of the protagonist also caused concern. The French Academy, whose founder was Richelieu, condemned the plot and denouement of "Cid" at his suggestion, and such playwrights as Georges de Scudery and Jean Mere also negatively assessed the play. Corneille was also accused of plagiarism due to borrowing from Guillen de Castro's play. At the same time, the general public accepted the play so enthusiastically that it even included the phrase “beautiful, like Sid.” Nevertheless, for Corneille, The Sid was the last tragicomedy created. He left for Rouen for two years and returned from there already with plays created in full accordance with the canon of classicism - the tragedies "Horace" and "Cinna", and "Sid" itself in the reprint of 1648 was already also called a tragedy.