“Devil in Love” by J. Cazotte and “The Elemental Spirit” by E.T.A. Hoffmann: Symbolic and Psychological Interpretation of Motive of Temptation

Abstract

The article deals with the story of the French pre-romanticist J. Cazotte “The Devil in Love” and the late novella of the German romanticist E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Elemental Spirit”, in which, as in a “magic mirror”, recurring fantastic events of the temptation of heroes by evil spirits are presented. The relevance of the study is related to the problem of the formation of science fiction as a historical concept. It is shown that the characters have a love feeling for the messengers of the natural world. Faced with a miracle, they become participants in supernatural events and experience the “pernicious consequences of fiery imagination.” It is noted that the dream of carnal love, its bodily embodiment, sobering up are presented through a deep penetration into the psychology of the characters. It describes how the supernatural is introduced into everyday life with the help of symbolic images: a mirror, a dagger, a dream, a mother, etc. It is emphasized that the motive of temptation in conjunction with the motives of trial, fall, suffering, fate create a kind of “circle”. The novelty of the study is connected with the identification in the system of characters of the tempted person image as a direct participant (witness) of supernatural events. This approach made it possible to present a historical perspective, complicated and refined, of J. Cazotte temptation motif functioning in the romantic era in the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann and in the works of Russian writers.