Pelleas and Melisande by Maurice Maeterlinck

Pelleas and Melisande Reviews

• 
  Lisa

  What am I?
  
  Reading Maeterlinck's play feels like engaging in a beautiful, magical, and mysterious riddle.
  
  What am I? A classic play?
  
  Yes, maybe. I do have five acts, a plot, characters and a deadly end, so I guess I could be tragedy. My content suggests it: old man marries young woman, who falls in love with his younger brother. Discovery leads to death. But somehow I lack the action of a classic drama. There is no determination, time is floating, settings change, my characters do not fully understand what they are doing, and why. I do not I think I have the passion of a Greek drama, and I do not feature the complicated, intricate humour of Shakespearean dialogue. Nor do I busy myself with the ideas of Enlightenment theatre. So maybe I am not a drama, after all.
  
  What am I? A fairy tale?
  
  Yes, maybe. I do start in a dark forest, with a young princess in distress who is rescued to an imposing castle on the border between the dark, dark woods and the wide, wide ocean. She loses rings and crowns and falls in love with a young man. I could be a fairy tale. But I lack the moral message in the end, and there is no fight between good and evil, just between indecision and lethargy. So maybe I am not a fairy tale, after all.
  
  What am I? A dream?
  
  Yes, maybe. Almost all that happens remains vague, dreamlike, open-ended, incomprehensible to all characters. I could be a dream. After all, I was born in 1893, at the beginning of the era Freud. I might very well be a subconscious mind, dreaming about symbolic myths. I contain all ingredients. But all my settings are so clear. They are described with loving detail, showing exactly what the castle, the garden, the woods look like, and how my characters are arranged around the scene. If I were a dream, not only thoughts and actions would remain undefined, the surroundings would be cloudy as well. So maybe I am not a dream, after all.
  
  I KNOW WHAT I AM!
  
  I am a tableau vivant! Changing every scene, creating a symbolic picture of a feeling, a constellation, a floating impression. I take care to arrange light and shadows to be aesthetically appealing and evocative of the drama that does not unfold entirely. I create one beautiful picture after the other, and fill each scene with paintings of situations that are accompanied by voices.
  
  And what a beautiful tableau vivant I am. One of the best. L'art pour l'art is celebrated in my eclectic beauty. I am maybe not the reason Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize, but I deserve to be read and admired for the evocation of the era's strange dichotomy between scientific and social development and its fatalistic, dreamlike resignation and passivity.
  
  I am a child of my time!
• 
  Leslie

  Maeterlinck was an important part of the Symbolist movement in literature and it is important to realize that when reading this play. Here is a brief synopsis of Symbolism from Wikipedia:
  
  "Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly. Thus, they wrote in a very metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning."
  
  Thus, do not expect that the characters and action of the play will behave in a realistic or natural manner -- everything is symbolic.
  
  Perhaps when I have time to think over what all these symbols are trying to say, my rating of the play will change. Based on my first gut reaction, this is a tragedy a la Romeo and Juliet about a doomed love between the King's grandson Pelléas and his brother's wife Mélisande. That is the surface story; what it represents I have some suspicions but am not sure.
  
  later, updated rating to 4*
  Thoughts:
  Mélisande seems to be an undine, a female mythological water sprite, as she is discovered near a pool of water and water references abound. Pelléas and his brother Golaud are definitely land creatures, perhaps they are what they appear to be. So one interpretation is that they represent the relationship between nature and society/civilization.
  
  The famine of the people of Allemonde that manifests after Golaud and Mélisande marry could be a symbol foreshadowing the tragedy to come. Or maybe it's a sign of the fact that this marriage is wrong. There is no indication that Mélisande ever cared for Golaud; in fact, at first she shrinks from him. Another symbol indicating problems with the marriage is Mélisande losing her wedding ring into another pool of water, as if the water spirits were trying to reclaim her.
• 
  Greg

  This play, one of his best, brought Maeterlinck to international fame. There is much different about Maeterlinck’s poetry and drama. Heavy in symbolism, rich in dialogue, there is always a tension in his work. Maeterlinck’s dialogue makes great use of repetition. This can be both criticized and studied – criticized for its simplicity and studied for the impact it has on the play. The repetition adds a tense, nervous feel. “When once misfortune enters a house, silence is in vain.” That single line will tell you about this play.
  
  Arkel, the voice of wisdom, declares, “Unless we close our eyes we are always deceived.” He does so at the beginning of the play and the line is repeated later. Maeterlinck could not be clearer. As Montrose Moses states in the introduction, “All that Maeterlinck requires in his dramas is for us to recognize that there is an intimate beauty, an interior value, an essence, more real and more true than the object which symbolizes it.” Part of this belief is a theory I don’t fully comprehend. Maeterlinck said, “I believe that poems die the moment they are outwardly expressed.” It is the truth that is left behind, the words and masterpieces of theatre and literature or symbolic representations of that truth.
  
  This work is a masterpiece. It deserves study. It is difficult. I liked it very much.
  
  
  
  See my other reviews here!
  
• 
  Nicholas Whyte

  
  https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2872453.html
  
  This is one of Maeterlinck's earliest plays, first performed in 1893, and must have contributed richly to his reputation. The title of the play makes it easy to guess the plot. Although Golaud falls in love with Mélisande in the second scene and marries her, in fact she and his brother Pelléas end up fatally attracted to each other, and Golaud kills them both when he finds out. (Actually it's not clear if the wound or childbirth is the cause of Mélisande's death, but basically he stabs her and she dies.)
  
  It's a pretty basic narrative - doomed adulterous love is one of the oldest cliches in the book, but I guess it resonated well in the 1890s. I wasn't overwhelmed by its elaboration in the script. Mélisande literally comes out of nowhere (she is cited in TV Tropes as a classic Fragile Flower); she seems to exist purely as an object of romantic interest for the two male leads. Pelléas is not much better. Golaud is more interesting than either of the title characters, as he works through disbelief, revenge and ultimately repentance, but that's not saying much. At the same time there's a lot of symbolism, especially around water (and Mélisande's entangling hair), that a good director could turn into something pretty memorable, especially if armed with Sibelius' incidental music.
  
• 
  Amandine

  J'ai eu un peu de mal à comprendre l'histoire de cette pièce et où Maeterlinck voulait en venir. L'intrigue est assez simple, mais comme souvent avec les œuvres symbolistes, j'ai préféré délaisser le sens à rechercher et me laisser charmer par la musicalité des mots, la beauté des images. J'ai particulièrement aimé le jeu entre clarté et ombre, lumière et obscurité qui traverse toute l’œuvre. Le style de Maeterlinck est absolument magnifique, savoureux: un véritable délice et bonheur de lecture pour moi.
  (première lecture: 01 mars 2011)
  
  
  Relue avec le même plaisir que la première fois, mais en occultant moins la part de compréhension cette fois. La narration me semble toujours aussi elliptique et entourée de mystère malgré tout : beaucoup de choses semblent passer par les regards, les gestes, et il y a énormément de non-dits. J’aimerais voir cette pièce sur scène pour voir comment seraient traduits ceux-ci et si je comprendrais davantage. Après les motifs de la lumière et de l’ombre qui m’avaient marqué la première fois, c’est celui de l’eau qui m’a particulièrement attiré pendant cette lecture-ci : elle est sans cesse présente, partout, reliant les personnages les uns aux autres. Enfin, mon avis reste le même quant à ce style symboliste : il me plaît toujours autant et est pour moi un véritable délice à lire.
  (deuxième lecture: 06 juin 2011)
• 
  VBDR

  Avec le génie de Gabriel Fauré en fond sonore, juste sublime.
• 
  maged senara

  هي قصة أمير اسمه جولو، عثر في أثناء تيه في الغابة على فتاة ملائكية، تبكي ولا تعلم من أين جاءت، واسمها ميليزاند، يأخذها معه حيث القصر الذي تغيب عنه الشمس في غالبية أيام السنة، وينجح في الزواج منها، حيث هو أرمل ولديه طفل صغير.
  
  تقوم علاقة حب أفلاطونية بين ميليزاند وپلياس أخو جولو، يجد فيها الجزء الناقص وفيه، وترى هي فيه اكتمالها، لكن جولو عائق بينهما، ويكون ضياع خاتم الخطبة في البحيرة في وسط الكهف بداية لشكوك جولو فيها، حتى يعثر عليها وهما في حالة عناق، يقتل أخاه، وتموت ميليزاند نتيجة لإصابة بجرح في جنبها الأيسر تحت ثديها اللطيف، جرح صغير لو كان بحمامة لما قتلها.
  ...
  ربما هذه المسرحية تعبر عن الشعب، المجبر عن اتباع الأمير، الحاكم أيا ما كان، لكن إذا أراد الشعب "ميليزاند" الاختيار فغالباً سيتعرض لعقوبة كبيرة، هو قتل المختار، وشنق حلم الشعب ببطء.. ربما الكهف كان رمزاً لأن اختيار الشعب يمثل كل صعوبات الحياة في الكهف، لكن رغم الصعوبات تكمن المتعة، ربما كان في الاجبار، القصر الوهمي، أو الوطن المثالي الذي يعشش في خيال الشعب، لكن كيف هذا والنور محجوب عنه.. مسرحية بها الكثير من الرمز، الأماكن يكمن فيها الكثير من الإيحاءات، ويبقى لكل قارئ لهذه المسرحية مهمة فك الطلاسم.
• 
  Melanie Hacke

  A gripping love story, that I would like to see performed on stage. I liked how Maeterlinck perfectly captures the tense atmosphere in and around Arkel's dark castle. I also found it impressive how he entirely delineates the personalities of his characters in the space of such a short play.
  That said, I would have liked a few more dialogues between Pelleas and Melisande, as their love story now remains too much in the background, hidden behind allusions and silent references. The only scene in which the reader gets more details about their love affair, when Melisande is combing her hair in the window, lacks the poetic depth of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.
• 
  Mouâd Benzahra

  Une pièce de théâtre en cinq actes de Maurice Maeterlinck, invitant le lecteur à naviguer dans un clair-obscur mélancolique intimement lié au péché de deux amants.
  
  Le cadre spacio-temporel, très abstrait dans cette oeuvre n’est pas pour déstabiliser le lecteur. Aussi, la succession des actes est tout sauf monotone, elle peut être qualifiée de très savoureuse même…
  
  Il est de ces figures littéraires qui représentent la quintessence du drame symboliste, et cette pièce en fait assurément partie.
• 
  Dolf van der Haven

  Nobel Prize 🏆 in Literature 1911
  Maurice Maeterlinck is mostly remembered for the Opera Claude Debussy made out of this play. I read it accompanied in the background by that music, as well as the adaptations by Schönberg, Sibelius, Fauré and Mel Bonis.
  The story itself is a classic love-triangle, but the symbolism in it makes it a predecessor of many modern plays. As such, it was ahead of its time.
• 
  Andy Davis

  Quite an old fashioned tragedy in terms of its language. The plot is simple boy meets girl who loves brother instead. But there is a nice sense of gothic with the sea port castle of the setting, sitting over strange grottoes and cellars. The fee innocence of Melisande is a nice construct: she is some sort of river nymph adrift among humans who are no longer as innocent as she.
• 
  Miro Quinet

  Waarschijnlijk een geweldig stuk toneel maar ze hadden het beter op de planken gehouden en niet als boek uitgeven. (De reden van de slechte review ligt echter wel volledig aan mijn kant, scripts zijn niet mijn favoriete lectuur..)
• 
  Emerson Vieira

  Qui est Mélisande? Un enfant? Un changeling? Une des nymphes des eaux? Une princesse? Une reine? Une fée? Une folle? Mélusine? Un succube? On peut dire qu'elle est tout et rien au même temps...
• 
  Maged Agpo

  عندما تدخل متاهة الترجمة تفقد القيم و الأحداث و حتي الشخصيات ذاتها
• 
  Özer Öz

  hiç böyle bir oyun okumamıştım. Debussy'nin uyarladığı operasından sebep merak edip Türkçe metni okudum. Sembolist eser, sanatın akışını değiştirmiş özel işlerden.
• 
  Rayana H.

  Le théâtre symboliste : une merveille ❤️
• 
  tanisha

  i enjoyed reading this but i think it had more to do with an easy style (donc, not having to check a french dictionary every three words) than the actual play. still, v excited to have finally finished a piece en français, it's about time!
• 
  annaëlle

  J’ai beaucoup apprécié cette lecture !
  C’est l’histoire de Golaud qui, alors perdu dans la forêt, tombe sur Mélisande près d’une fontaine pleurant. Il l’épouse, la ramène au château familial où se trouvent Arkël son grand-père, Geneviève sa mère, et Pelléas son frère.
  Mais voilà, Mélisande et Pelléas tombent amoureux dans le non-dit.
  Ce qui pouvait être une simple tragédie s’élève au rang de mythe tel Tristan et Iseult ou encore Roméo et Juliette. Deux amants maudits.
  On ne sait rien de chaque personnage, on est extérieur aux événements qui se produisent sans que l’on puisse faire quoi que ce soit.
  On ressent bien l’inspiration médiévale avec la fontaine, la forêt, une contrée au milieu de nulle part et la lune! Que serait une histoire d’amour maudit sans cette conseillère de l’âme ?
  En résumé j’ai beaucoup aimé! Ça se lit vraiment vite, c’est une pièce assez courte donc pour une lecture de détente c’est parfait!
  
• 
  Czarny Pies

  Pelleas and Melisande is the first canon shot in the war of the avant-garde against the tediousness of realism and naturalism. Mélisande is a water spirit from traditional French Folklore who is discovered next to a pool of water by Prince Golaud who promptly resolves to marry her. Melisande agrees but subsequently falls in lover with Golaud's brother Pelleas. When Golaud learns of the truth he kills his brother Pelleas and mortally wounds Melisande who survives long enough to give birth to a daughter. The cycle of life associated with water has been perpetuated.
  
  Ten years later, Debussy's opera Pelleas and Melisande would debut giving enormous visibility to Maeterlinck's symbolist aesthetic.
  
  
  
• 
  Trounin

  Побольше мрачности в сюжет пьес, чтобы зритель ёрзал на стуле и с нетерпением ждал развязки. Морис Метерлинк предпочитал наполнять свои произведения истинной драматичной событийностью. Для того он вёл внимающего через бурелом страстей, позволял обходить острые углы и ставил перед очевидной проблематикой сущего: всё случается вследствие имеющегося у человека желания видеть затруднения там, где их нет. Опираясь на исход каждой истории, Метерлинк начинал разворачивать пьесы в примерно пяти действиях, наполнял происходящее утяжеляющими диалогами, заполняя требуемое для постановки время. Зритель извлекал мораль, пьеса подходила к концу, оставалось ощущение избыточности метерлинкнутости.
  
  
  (c) Trounin
• 
  Lilith

  En tant que pièce appartenant au courant du symbolisme, Pelléas et Mélisande de Maurice Maeterlinck invoque une sensibilité particulière, qui peut être difficile d’abord pour un lecteur moderne. Malgré une certaine connaissance du mouvement artistique, je ne suis pas vraiment parvenue à me mettre dans le bon état d’esprit. Pour ma sensibilité contemporaine, la pièce apparaît tout simplement sous-développée : peu de réponses sont données, la relation entre Pelléas et Mélisande n’est pas « montrée » et les personnages n’ont pas vraiment de personnalité distincte.
• 
  Ville

  A fascinating, mysterious and dreamlike experience. I don't have enough knowledge about symbolism and Maeterlinck's ouevre to analyse it further, but I enjoyed it tremendously. I haven't seen it on stage but would love to.
• 
  Narda

  Als audioboek gelezen, poëtisch, sprookjesachtig, meesterlijk en meeslepend uitgevoerd en verteld. Het ontroerde mij zoals ook de opera dat doet. Een boekbelevenis die nog langer had mogen duren en mij nog lang zal heugen!
• 
  Yulia Pomarina

  I saw an opera Pelleas and Melisanda by Claude Debussy on a libretto by Maeterlink. Decadence. It is very good to see mood in which people lived before WWI. It seems that they were very unhappy.
• 
  cristina

  I don’t know what I’m saying. I don’t know what I know. I’ve stopped saying what I mean…