During the Great Patriotic War, he wrote the play "Dragon" Schwartz. You can find a summary of the work in this article. The playwright at that time was evacuated to Stalinabad.
The play "Dragon"
The play "Dragon" by Schwartz, the summary of which is given below, is one of the author’s key works. It begins in a spacious kitchen, a cat is warming near a burning hearth. At this time, a passerby enters the house.
It turns out to be Lancelot. He is looking for hosts, but to no avail. He learns from the cat that the people who live here are gone. This is the archivist Charlemagne and his daughter Elsa. The cat is sad because grief happened in the family. It turns out that four centuries ago, a terrible Dragon settled near their city. Once a year he chooses a girl for himself, which he takes with him to the cave. After that, no one had ever seen her. Rumor has it that all women are dying of disgust. This year it was Elsa's turn.
Meet the Archivist
At this moment, the owners return home. They are unexpectedly friendly with an unexpected guest. Outwardly, they are calm. Elsa invites Lancelot to dinner. The guest is struck by their composure. It soon turns out that they simply resigned themselves to their fate.
They know that confronting the Dragon is useless. About two hundred years ago, several daredevils were found, but he killed them all.
Elsa should be taken away the next day. Father feels that right after that he will die. Lancelot tries to awaken the will to resist in them, but he fails. Then he declares that he is ready to kill the Dragon.
At this time, in the play "Dragon" by Yevgeny Lvovich Schwartz, a brief summary of which you are reading, an eerie whistle and noise are heard. On the threshold is an elderly man. It turns out that this is the Dragon. From time to time it takes on a human image. After a short conversation, Lancelot calls him to battle.
The archivist intervenes in their conversation, who recalls that 382 years ago, the Dragon signed a document according to which the opponent should appoint the date of the fight, and not he. The dragon says that he is not going to abide by these rules, when he signed them, he was young and thoughtless. In the end, the Dragon agrees to fight tomorrow.
Elsa and Lancelot
Elsa is trying to convince Lancelot that he was doing all this in vain, because she is not at all afraid to die. But Lancelot is determined to get even with the villain.
Suddenly, a cat appears, who reports that the whole city already knows about the upcoming fight. On this occasion, the Burgomaster is not long in coming. Together with him comes Henry, his son and ex-fiancé Elsa, who became the personal secretary of the Dragon. When Henry is left alone with the girl, he passes her the order of his master - to kill Lancelot. For this, Henry even brought with him a poisoned knife. Elsa picks up the knife, but decides to kill himself, and not her noble defender.
In the play of Eugene Schwartz, “The Dragon,” the brief content of which allows you to get acquainted with the main points of the work, the meeting of the Mayor with his son in the central square is important. Discussing the upcoming events, Henry claims that his master is very nervous, so he even asks his father if he doubts that the Dragon will win. The burgomaster in time realizes that this is a secret interrogation initiated by the main villain himself.
Handing over weapons
In the play by E. Schwartz, “The Dragon” (a brief summary can be found in this article), the Lancelot presents weapons to the same square. All this is organized with poorly hidden falsity. Instead of a shield, he is presented with a copper basin, and instead of a spear - a certificate that it is being repaired. They also report that there were no knightly armor in the warehouse.
Only the cat brings good news, but Lancelot does not have time to get to know them, because at that moment the Dragon flies in howling and whistling. He orders Elsa to say goodbye to Lancelot one last time, and then kill him. Instead of farewell, a declaration of love takes place, which ends with a kiss. After this, Elsa throws a poisoned dagger into the well. The dragon realizes that he is forced to fight. Those who read Schwartz's play "The Dragon" claim that this is one of the most intense and climax episodes.
Dragon fight
Finally, Lancelot receives real weapons. This is a sword, a spear, a flying carpet and an invisible hat, which donkey drivers bring him. The knight immediately disappears, wearing a hat.
Giant Dragon heads appear, enveloped in flames. He cannot find Lancelot anywhere. Suddenly, the Dragon hears the ringing of a sword and heads fall from the villain’s shoulders one after another. They pray for help, but no one pays attention to them.
When everyone disperses, a seriously wounded Lancelot appears. He is sure death is near.
Power at the Mayor
In the play "The Dragon" by Schwartz, which we are now briefly describing, after Lancelot kills the Dragon, power passes to the Mayor. He orders everyone to call themselves president of the free city, and the burgomaster appoints his son. Everyone who opposes is sent to prison.
The new ruler proclaims himself the winner of the Dragon, as a reward he wishes to marry Elsa. The only thing that stops him is the fear that Lancelot may return. Therefore, the former Mayor sends his son to the girl to find out if she has any information about Lancelot.
Communicating with Elsa, Henry in every way pretends to sympathize with her, while Elsa believes this and tells everything that she knows. Readers of the play "The Dragon" by E. Schwartz (a summary of the chapters in this article) will find out that Lancelot will never return. A cat found him wounded and took him out of the city on a donkey. On the way, the hero died. The cat wanted to go back so that Elsa could say goodbye to the deceased and bury him with dignity. But the donkey became stubborn.
The ending of the play
The burgomaster is now sure what a wedding to be. He invites guests from all around, but suddenly the bride refuses to marry him. She addresses the audience with a vivid speech that the Dragon did not actually die, but reincarnated into many people and now she again has no one to protect.
At the most unexpected moment, Lancelot appears, whom his friends miraculously cured. The guests are hiding under the table, and the former Mayor flatters and fawns in front of him. The knight admits that he missed the girl greatly, and she realizes that she loves him even more than before.
The burgomaster and his son are trying to escape, but Lancelot overtakes them. It turns out that he walked around the city for a month in an invisible hat, he knows what they brought the city to. Henry and his father are imprisoned. Lancelot is getting ready for the hard work of killing a dragon in disfigured human souls.
Characteristic of the play
The play "Dragon" by Schwartz, the brief content of which does not replace the work itself, is an example of a classic allegory. That's just what she symbolized, for a long time it was unclear. Soviet censorship deciphered Schwartz’s images in his own way, underground writers in a completely different way.
Soviet critics in the play "Kill the Dragon" by Schwartz, the brief content of which you already know, saw a clear image of fascism. In their opinion, the burgomaster with his son and his assistants are the big bourgeoisie, and the numerous petty inhabitants are the petty, peculiar bourgeoisie.
The idea of ​​allegory was also seen in the fact that the destruction of fascism did not at all mean the liberation of all those around from the dark forces that still existed in the world. Lancelot, on the other hand, looked like a conscious proletarian who crushed the fascist reptile, but could not, with one blow, free the world from all evils.
During the post-Soviet intelligentsia, the perception of the novel became completely different. This time, the Dragon was associated exclusively with communism, and more precisely with the party that was in power. The burgomaster and his comrades were officials standing at the foundations of the state, and ordinary urban inhabitants were the Russian people, who were trying to squeeze themselves drop by drop, as Gorky had bequeathed.
In Lancelot, the post-Soviet intelligentsia saw themselves. Those who managed to crush the 70-year-old communist oppression. It was this perception that was close to the creators of the film, who filmed the work of Schwartz in 1988.