The biblical code of Lesya Ukrainka's dramatic poem "Lawyer Martian"

Abstract

The article is an attempt to interpret Lesya Ukrainka's dramatic poem "Lawyer Martian " with the aim of revealing the deep meanings of the work that do not lie on the surface and can only be read in relation to the biblical text. The specified goal involves a detailed study and decoding of the intertextual connections of the text with the Holy Scriptures using the "biblical code" at different levels: thematic, ideological, figurative, worldview, as well as at the level of allusions and motives. To achieve the set goal, the research used a hermeneutic approach, which involves understanding Lesya Ukrainka's dramatic poem as a semantic unity
endowed with a generative function of meaning creation, as well as revealing those meanings that are not explicitly expressed in the work. The sacred text of the Bible becomes an important key for understanding the semantics, symbolism and semantic
field of the dramatic poem. The hermeneutic approach also involves the interpretation of biblical contexts in Lesya Ukrainka's drama within the relevant cultural, historical and philosophical context.

Having considered Lesya Ukrainka's dramatic poem "Lawyer Martian" through the prism of the Biblical text, we can talk about the existence of a deep connection between the work and the Book of Books. In particular, the basis for modeling the image of the protagonist of the drama, in our opinion, is the archetypes of the biblical righteous: Abraham and the long-suffering Job.

It is noted that the lawyer Martian succeeded in what was unattainable for his children, relatives, and for most ordinary people: he reached such a level of spirituality, when the path of suffering and self-sacrifice is chosen consciously and freely; when the values of the material world and its conventions have no meaning, when the only thing important for him is how he acts in relation to God, and obedience to the Lord's will becomes the main instruction in life. The main character of the drama is an example of a
person who lives according to Christ's instructions and consciously and consistently chooses sacrifice, humility and obedience. It is concluded that the ideological and worldview connection with the Bible, with those Christian truths, the source of which is  its sacred text, is fundamental in this work of Lesya Ukrainka.