Speech and Intonation Script of the Stage Image in Theoretical Understanding by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Abstract

The article analyzes Lessing's views on speech characteristics of a stage image in the context of the enlightenment theory of mimesis. The study pays special to the thoughts of this German enlightener both to the importance of intonation modulations and the pause in the speech script of an actor as a means of creating the stage illusion of a natural human life. Keywords: imitation, natural man, feelings, actor, speech and intonation script, pause. Most studies devoted to the analysis of G.E. Lessing's theoretical heritage consider Lessing's views on the dramatic art as a derivative component of his theory of drama. However, not every expert in Lessing's works in their research addresses the thoughts of the enlightener in this regard. But those researchers who did focus on the G.E. Lessing's considerations about the actor's work believe that his findings provided significant reasons to talk not only about his contribution to the drama theory but also to the development of basic principles of actor's work, and to refer this aspect to the theory of stage art of the enlightener. For example, German researcher of Lessing's theoretical heritage Klaus Treiher considers the Hamburgische Dramaturgie as an attempt of the enlightener to investigate the possibility of the theory's applicability to the stage performance practices (Тrager, 1981, p. 19). It should be noted that Lessing has worked out the new aesthetic principles of theatrical art which were in sharp controversy with the principles of classicism and standard canons which, in his opinion, had limited the right of an artist for a realistic reflection of the realities of life, contrary to the general philosophical challenges in the 18th century. In this regard, following the new ideological and aesthetic enlightenment benchmarks, according to Lessing, the whole system of art needed reloading due to the fact that the task of art had turned into of (Lessing, 1936, p. 258), whereas the stage stylistics of the German theater has been still trammeled by the stage canons which had been borrowed from the French classicism. Lessing has emphasized that the true of nature assumed not only the imitation of natural phenomena but, above all, required a special attention to the nature of our sensations and emotional strengths (Lessing, 1936, p. 258). In the context of the enlightenment theory of mimesis by G.E. Lessing, it is important to consider his position regarding the reform of stage means of expression. The rational convention of the classicism stage tradition failed to demonstrate the natural feelings and emotions since its aesthetics had been based on of solely beautiful nature. Therefore, his demand for the refocusing of the actor's work expressions, which henceforth had to reflect the inherent nature of human behavior and feelings on the stage, clearly implied outstanding revolutionary potential. First of all, that referred to the replacement of plastic and speech6intonation script of the actor's stage behavior, in the apprehension of which Lessing was trying to find the best means of stage interpretation of the character. In this document, the is paid to Lessing's views on the speech component of the actor's work. In order to address the problem of speech features of the character as one of the basic means of expression of the dramatic character, Lessing was analyzing the dramatic talent of Sophie Friederike Hensel who was a principal actress of the Hamburg Theater. G.E. Lessing thought that the extremely true delivery of the dramatic text and the absence of false intonations, indicating the mastery of words and high speech culture, was a remarkable feature of the actress's talent. Paying special to that acting art of S. F. Hensel, G.E. Lessing wrote: she is able to speak the