Alfred Jarry and Maurice Maeterlinck: two aspects of symbolist theatre

In the end of 19th century, there were many attempts to reform the existing values of the French theatre. In the course of eighties, the reform which was aimed against the official commercial theatre, was mostly realized by the naturalist and symbolist movements. The symbolists were largely inspired by the principles of correlation and analogy and they admired Richard Wagner's concept of gesamtkunstwerk. This concept was focused on linking all sorts of arts together. During the course of nineties, in the top period of the French symbolist theatre, the main societies of theatre artists were established and the first symbolist plays were written. In this short period full of failures, mainly two authors - Maurice Maeterlinck and Alfred Jarry - were remarkable. The first one ideally represented the symbolist principles in his plays, the second one completed the history of symbolist theatre and indicated the future direction of modern theatre. Both personalities formed bounds of one period of the French drama