The Problem of Good and Evil in the Plays of Zbigniew Herbert

ABSTRACT: The aim of my presentation is to examine the problem of good and evil in the plays of the Polish poet, essayist, and playwright Zbigniew Herbert. His most famous play, The Philosophers’ Cave, is a profound meditation on the struggle between good and evil. In the play, Socrates’ belief in the power of wisdom to change human life is challenged when he realizes that the high idealism of his philosophy is rendered impotent in confrontation with evil. The radio drama Lalek also tells a story of murder and cowardice. It is based on a real event; in 1960 a young man was brutally murdered by his companions, while the conspiracy of silence that followed speaks of fear and corruption of contemporary authorities. Finally, the bleak Letters from Our Readers is a depressing story of a Job-like figure of unmerited suffering in the Poland of the 1960s.

Przemysław Michalski read English literature at the Jagiellonian University, graduating in 1996. He has published on a number of American, English, Irish, and Polish poets. He has written two books: "The Problem of Mysticism in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins" (2013) and “No friendly God..."? (Self-)manifestations of the Divine in the Poetry of R.S. Thomas (2016). He holds the position of assistant professor at the University of the National Education Commission in Krakow, where he teaches English literature.