The article deals with the «social» comedies of one of the most famous playwrights at the turn of the 1810s—1820s N. I. Khmelnitsky. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the plot features, as well as the main characteristics of the character. The comedies are considered in a chronological order: «The Talker» (1817), «Сastles in the Air » (1818), «Indecisive, or Seven Fridays in the week» (1820), «A social occasion» (1826), «Mutual trials» (1826—1829). Mostly Khmelnitsky borrowed the plots of his comedies from French authors, breathing new life into their texts. Khmelnitsky made the characters of his comedies speak using very elegant language of the upper-class society to which he himself belonged to. Working at Russian re-adaptations of French comedies, Khmelnitsky thoroughly reduced the original, removing unnecessary details and minor events, and left only the main intrigue, which is based on a vaudeville situation-misunderstandings. In this plan he put forward one character, one image, reinforcing and sometimes exaggerated his or her inherent traits according to this principle is built a comedy «The Talker», «Сastles in the Air», «Indecisive, or Seven Fridays in the week». The two remaining comedies are built differently, a love the intrigue is moved to the foreground in them.
Key words: N. I. Khmelnitsky, «The Talker», «Сastles in the Air», «Indecisive, or Seven Fridays in the week», «A social occasion», «Mutual trials».
Reference to article:
Vysokovich K. O. «Social» comedies in the works of N. I. Khmelnitsky // Ivanovo State University Bulletin. Series «The Humanities». 2020. No.3. P. 12-29.