The Theme And Structural Significance Of Leonid Andreev's The Black Masks

Abstract

No MAJOR WORK OF Andreev has provoked less comment than his allegorical drama The Black Masks. This is particularly surprising in view of the great importance which he himself attached to it. He wrote to the critic A. Evlakhov in 1916: "For me personally 'The Black Masks' is the most important of my works; it is the closest to me and psychically the dearest (despite its many formal defects)." Although he is referring here primarily to its theme, a greater impression was made by the structural and formal peculiarities of the play when it appeared in St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1908 in the seventh of the Sipovnik ("Wildbriar") almanacs. Whilst most theatre-goers, according to the contemporary critic Kozlovskij, were discouraged by the complexity of the work from even attempting to understand the thought expressed in it, many theoreticians of the "new theatre" were intrigued by Andreev's manner of treatment. It is maintained by the present writer that the source of this interest was due recognition of the fact that Andreev had attempted in the play to put into practice certain theoretical principles which were the subject of keen debate in theatrical circles at the time. But before this aspect of the play's significance can be discussed, it is necessary to establish briefly what Andreev was trying to depict in the play; the "what" must precede the "how."