GEORGE LILLO’S DOMESTIC TRAGEDY «THE LONDON MERCHANT» – FROM THE DRAMATURGIC TEXT TO THE SOCIAL CONTEXT

Abstract

The paper addresses an important stage in the history of the English dramatic art. In this work the domestic tragedy by George Lillo is considered as a new type of social play of the 18th century. All aspects of analyzing the artistic originality and the innovation of the play are subjected to this task; the peculiarities of social themes development in the 18th-century literature are revealed.

Keywords

• domestic tragedy
• george lillo
• social context
• virtue
• english merchant