Romanticism as a literary movement emerged at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The foundation for its formation was the movement that preceded it - sentimentalism. It was his basic principles that were borrowed and later developed in romanticism. Speaking about this direction, one cannot fail to mention the “masters” of romance, such as V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov. Romantic motifs were reflected even in the literature of the 20th century. – from A.M. Gorky in "The Old Woman Izergil". The works of all authors of this direction are united by several common provisions, without which romantic creativity is impossible: firstly, the author of such a work concentrates attention on the main character, his inner world, experiences, and the reader sees the external world through the eyes of this hero; secondly, there are certain character traits inherent in a romantic hero; thirdly, works of this direction are characterized by the depiction of situations that are unreal, fictitious, too distant from reality, and the main character usually has to make difficult moral choices; Also, delving into the description of feelings, the author pays little attention to the facts.
All these principles can be easily found in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov's "Mtsyri", which, along with his "Demon", poems by V.A. Zhukovsky, wash A.S. Pushkin's "Prisoner of the Caucasus", as well as some other works, is recognized as a true example of romantic creativity.
Proof that "Mtsyri" is a romantic poem should start with the image of the main character. His biography up to the time of the story is distinguished by brevity and some sentimentality: he, six years old, was captured, but he “fell ill” and, being near death, was left in the monastery, in the care of the monks; at first glance, the young captive got used to his “shackles” - he was even going to take a monastic vow, but one day he disappeared and was found wounded three days later. The poem actually begins with the dying confession. This situation is indeed to some extent far-fetched, although history notes similar cases when the children of the highlanders were captured, but due to their health, out of pity or due to uselessness, they were left in monasteries. Mtsyri, who is barely twenty years old at the time of the story, has to choose: whether to stay in the monastery and accept an incomprehensible and ridiculing Christianity, or to flee and leave the dreary walls. But where should he run? After all, he actually does not exist for his relatives - they have long mourned and forgotten, and he cannot live in the monastery - the silence within its walls puts pressure on the young captive. Why he cannot endure the stuffy atmosphere of the cell, I think he himself certainly does not understand. At the age of six, he could hardly remember much; he associates a free life with his parents, whose faces he also most likely does not remember - only vague images correlated with some better life, according to the definition of the romantics - life “over there.” Thus, the reason for his flight can be called not an impulse to go somewhere, but a desire from somewhere, that is, from the monastery. This movement is rather instinctive and in some way resembles the unconscious desire of the animal to escape from the cage. Mtsyri, as a truly romantic hero, is characterized by the so-called romantic maximalism, for him there is a division of the world only into “black” and “white”, therefore, life, in his opinion, is only possible in freedom.
In general, speaking in freedom, it cannot be considered unambiguously. This concept is deeply personal, and sometimes it can take on a meaning opposite to the generally accepted one, which can be proven by the example of the poem by V.A. Zhukovsky "The Prisoner of Chillon". A man who has lived almost his entire life in prison, and after many years was released to so-called freedom, “sighs” with regret about his prison; For him, a paradox was just born: his freedom is in prison. Thus, the question of what freedom is for Mtsyri is controversial. There is a fact in the poem that indicates an interpretation of this term related to the Prisoner of Chillon - Mtsyri, having been outside the monastery for several days, dies and, dying, finds himself in the very cell from which he fled. This suggests that nature itself prevented his free impulse, that it was unnatural.
However, the escape is complete. Mtsyri found himself in the bosom of wild nature, which he had previously seen only from the window of his cell, and it appears before the reader along with the hero’s new, awakening feelings. The mountain ranges brought to him the image of his father’s house, his sisters rocking his cradle... Every tree, bird, every sound and smell aroused incomprehensible, heart-aching sensations, melancholy reached its highest point after Mtsyri saw a young Georgian woman with a jug. Of course, she was not one of his sisters, but she was probably the one he dreamed of as a stranger.
After the “explosion” of feelings, there was an “explosion” of fortitude – the fight with the leopard. The duel between man and beast should not be taken literally: it, like the entire poem, is symbolic. This is not only a confrontation between a mighty spirit and physical strength; This is a picture of Mtsyri’s soul, where two principles are fighting: the instinctive desire for freedom and the habit of a “flower” grown in prison. Mtsyri has an innate rebellious spirit that intensified during the period of imprisonment; he, a captive, is looking for communication, he is drawn to a young Georgian woman, to a distant, smoking village.
Do not assume that his attempt to contact the outside world has failed. He found a common language - with himself, he understood, tried life; his death turns out to be, in a sense, a victory - he nevertheless escaped from the world of “stuffy cells and prayers.” And, although, in principle, he is defeated, there is no winner - the monastic way of life has been shaken due to the possibility of escaping from captivity. Interestingly enough, the poem opens with an image of a destroyed, deserted monastery. Thus, the confrontation between two worlds - the world of “stuffy cells and prayers” and the wonderful world of “anxiety and battles” - a confrontation that ends in nothing, is the central action in the poem, and Mtsyri is considered not as a specific hero, but as any person in general; a monastery, where the sun's rays do not penetrate, seems, of course, not just a building, but a symbol of bondage in the broadest sense; its walls close off the world of the human soul from nature. If the monastery itself can still release Mtsyri (after all, in any monastery there are doors), then the old monk, as it were, complements the dungeon, making it formidable, the last refuge of the one who enters. It was against this that Mtsyri rebelled - against the reigning silence, because even the monk, like the stones of the monastery, remains silent and does not allow the rebellious spirit of the hero to break out to his “homeland”, to find the lost “paradise”.
This desire from unnaturalness to naturalness is one of the main features of romanticism. Emphasizing the natural principle of man, the romantics argued that a soul born in freedom cannot tolerate any restriction on its flight; hence the hostility of writers (and, accordingly, their heroes) to everything that makes a person’s personality dependent on something, be it society or everyday life.
Considering Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" as a romantic work, it makes sense to remember first of all the main features characteristic of any romantic work. Firstly, it is a shift of attention to the main character, his thoughts, sensations and experiences. Secondly, this is the implementation in the text of the main principle of romanticism: the depiction of an unusual hero in unusual circumstances. Thirdly, making the main task of conveying the romantic rebellion of the hero, the author often treats facts carelessly and generally pays little attention to the world around him.
Landscape "Mtsyri" as an element of a romantic poem
In “Mtsyri” all of the above conditions are met. For his work, Lermontov chooses an exotic location: a monastery in the Caucasus. Thanks to this, he can create a romantic contrast: the stuffy, cramped walls of the monastery in which Mtsyri languishes - and the majestic nature of the Caucasus, mountains visible in the distance, impenetrable forests, flowing mountain streams. The whimsicality and unconventionality of the landscape is what every line is filled with: “I saw mountain ranges / Bizarre as dreams.”
A mysterious picture emerges before us, besides, the Caucasus, both for Lermontov and for his compatriots, was a symbol of liberty, freedom (remember another poem by Lermontov about the Caucasus: “Perhaps, behind the ridge of the Caucasus I will hide from your kings, From their all-seeing eyes, From their all-hearing ears"). It is this freedom that the main character strives for. It is fair to say that mountains, along with the sea, are one of the most characteristic landscapes of romanticism.
The unusual hero "Mtsyri"
The hero himself, described by Lermontov, is also unusual. After analyzing it, it can be proven that the poem “Mtsyri” is romantic.
Very little is told about Mtsyri’s life. This is precisely the characteristic of a romantic work: to shroud the hero in mystery. How he grew up and was brought up - all this remains outside the scope of the story. Not even a detailed description of Mtsyri’s appearance is given. But the three culminating days are depicted in great detail, when the hero finally receives the desired freedom. This is important, because it is at this moment that Mtsyri is revealed as a romantic rebel hero, not understood by the outside world (in this situation, by the monastery).
The very nature of his rebellion is not fully clear or explained. As Mtsyri himself says, he “knew only thought power, one fiery passion.” And this passion was - escape. But how could a young man, who is hardly twenty years old at the time of the story, know about life in the wild? Brought to the monastery as a child, he practically does not remember his previous life, and his desire for freedom comes not from the rational - memories, the desire to return the past, but from the irrational. That is, from the deep desire for a free life without any prohibitions, which is characteristic of a romantic hero.
Romanticism as a movement is characterized by a clear division of the world into two sides, into black and white, into right and wrong. The same maximalism is reflected in the hero of Lermontov’s work. Mtsyri is convinced that life is only possible in freedom. And, remaining faithful to his convictions to the end, he dies, returning to the monastery. What kills him is not the wounds he received in the fight with the leopard, but the thirst for freedom, expressed in the poem in the form of a flame: “And he burned through his prison.”
Here, in Mtsyri’s desire to escape from the monastery walls, another feature of romanticism is realized: a person’s desire to replace an unnatural environment with a natural one. In the monastery, Lermontov (and after him his hero) saw an environment that was not natural for humans. “I returned to my prison” - this is how Mtsyri speaks of him. And this is a prison not only for Mtsyri alone, no, the image can be considered more broadly, as a prison of earthly existence for the free human spirit. At the end of the poem, the hero breaks the shackles that bound him and gains freedom, but not in this, but in another world. The death of the hero, we note, is also very characteristic of novelism.
Compositional structure of the poem
The features of romanticism in the poem “Mtsyri” are also manifested in the compositional structure of the poem: the narrative is focused on one, most important episode from the life of Mtsyri, and in the form of the hero’s lyrical confession. The confession form is a classic device for romantic works. The episode of the fight with the leopard, which critics highlight as key in the poem, also deserves attention. In it, Mtsyri is revealed as a fearless fighter, as a real hero worthy of his wild and fearless ancestors. Even though Mtsyri’s escape was not crowned with success, the climax moment chosen by the author says otherwise: nothing can break his hero. He won, and his victory is the victory of the romantic.
Based on the analysis, we can clearly consider “Mtsyri” as a romantic poem. It depicts an unconventional hero in unconventional circumstances, and the entire work as a whole is built on the depiction of Mtsyri’s romantic experiences. And the strong, rebellious and passionate image of the hero created by Lermontov invariably resonates with readers.
The facts described in this article will be useful to 8th grade students when writing an essay on the topic “Mtsyri as a romantic poem.”
Work test
What a fiery soul, what a mighty spirit, what a gigantic nature this Mtsyri has! V. Belinsky Lermontov was in love with the Caucasus from early childhood. The majesty of the mountains, the crystal purity and at the same time dangerous power of the rivers, the bright extraordinary greenery and people, freedom-loving and proud, shocked the imagination of a big-eyed and impressionable child. Perhaps this is why in his youth Lermontov was so attracted to the image of a rebel, on the verge of death making an angry speech to the elder monk (the poem “Confession”). Or maybe it was a premonition of his own death and a subconscious protest against the monastic prohibition to rejoice in everything that is given by God in this life. This acute desire to experience ordinary human happiness is heard in the dying confession of young Mtsyri, the hero of one of the most remarkable poems about the Caucasus. The poem was written by M. Yu. Lermontov in 1839. In the poem, the main character is closest to modernity. The fate of a highlander, striving for freedom from captivity, who did not receive it, was most in tune with Lermontov’s generation. At the same time, the heroic pathos of uncompromising struggle, which inspired Mtsyri until the end of his short life, was the most direct reflection of Lermontov’s ideal. ... Contrary to the apparent monologue of the poem, in which there is a confession of its only hero, the poem is internally dialogical, which expands its semantic spectrum. The years of Mtsyri's stay in the monastery and forced introduction to civilization were filled not only with the bitterness of losses, but also with certain gains. The unusual nature of his position and fate makes Mtsyri think about problems that were not typical for him. Along with dreams of freedom and homeland, a desire to understand the world around us arises in Mtsyri. The hero’s thoughts testify to his deep experiences, the formation of self-awareness, which takes the hero out of natural spontaneity: A long time ago I decided to look at the distant fields. To find out whether the earth is beautiful, To find out whether we are born into this world for freedom or prison. Mtsyri lives in nature and... in harmony with nature. But nature, which was previously beautiful for the hero, a place of free stay, suddenly becomes inhospitable and even hostile: In vain, in rage, at times I tore with a desperate hand the thorns tangled with ivy: . The whole forest was, the eternal forest all around, Scarier and denser every hour; And with a million black eyes the darkness watched the nights through the branches of every bush... In the poem, Lermontov develops the idea of courage and protest, laid down earlier in other works. But in this poem the author almost excludes the love motive, which previously played a significant role. This motive was reflected in Mtsyri’s brief meeting with a Georgian woman near a mountain stream. The hero, defeating the involuntary impulse of the young heart, renounces personal happiness in the name of freedom. The patriotic idea is combined in the poem with the theme of freedom. Lermontov does not share these concepts. His love for his homeland and thirst for freedom merge into one passion. The monastery becomes a prison for Mtsyri, the cells seem stuffy to him, the walls seem gloomy and dull, the monk guards seem cowardly and pitiful, and he himself feels like a slave and a prisoner. His desire to learn a lot about the world, for which he was born, is due to a passionate impulse for freedom. Only outside the monastery did Mtsyri live, only outside the monastery was he free. Only these days he calls bliss. Mtsyri's courage and fortitude are manifested in his battle with the leopard. He was not afraid of death, because he knew: returning to the monastery was a continuation of previous suffering. The tragic ending does not weaken his spirit, the power of his love of freedom. The old monk's admonitions do not make him repent. Even now he would exchange heavenly pleasure for a few minutes of freedom, for a few minutes of life among loved ones. Defeated, he is not spiritually broken and remains a positive image of our literature, and his courage and heroism, fortitude and integrity were a reproach to the fragmented hearts of fearful and inactive contemporaries. Lermontov's poem continues the traditions of advanced romanticism. Mtsyri, full of fiery passions, gloomy and lonely, revealing his soul in a confessional story, is perceived as the hero of romantic poems. However, Lermontov, who created “Mtsyri” in those years when the realistic novel “Hero of Our Time” was also being created, introduces features into this work that are not present in his earlier poems. If the past of the heroes of “Confession” and “Boyar Orsha” remains completely unknown and we do not know the social conditions that shaped their characters, then the lines about Mtsyri’s unhappy childhood and adolescence help to better understand the hero’s experiences and thoughts. The very form of confession, characteristic of romantic poems, is associated with the desire to reveal deeper - to tell the soul. This psychologism of the work, the detailing of the hero’s experiences, are natural for the poet, who at the same time created a socio-psychological novel. The combination of many metaphors of a romantic nature in the confession itself (images of fire, fiery) with the realistically accurate and poetically sparse speech of the introduction (“Once upon a time a Russian general. ..”). The poem, romantic in form, testified to the growth of realistic tendencies in Lermontov’s work. Lermontov entered Russian literature as a successor to the traditions of the great Pushkin, the Decembrist poets, and at the same time as a new link in the development of national culture. According to Belinsky, he introduced his own “Lermontov element” into the national culture. Briefly explaining what should be included in this definition, the critic noted the “original living thought” in his poems as the first characteristic feature of the poet’s creative heritage. And he repeated: “Everything in them breathes original and creative thought.” In the image of Mtsyri, Lermontov reflected the real traits of the best people of the era of the 30s of the 19th century, tried to force his contemporaries to abandon passivity, apathy, indifference, and glorified the inner freedom of man.
"Mtsyri" is a romantic poem. Everything about it is unusual: the setting in which the action takes place, the action itself and, of course, the hero.
The hero of the poem is Mtsyri, a non-serving monk. As a six-year-old boy, he ends up in a monastery, where he spends his whole life, far from home, from loved ones, from worldly pleasures. This is how Lermontov creates exceptional circumstances in which his hero lives. Stuffy cells, constant loneliness - all this is well known to Mtsyri. It is unusual not only that the poet chose a monastery as the scene of action, but also where this monastery is located. Lermontov paints Georgia blooming “in the shadow of its gardens.” The majestic mountains and the forest surrounding them are a truly romantic picture.
To the one who escaped from the Mtsyri monastery, the world opens up in all its fullness and beauty. He finally finds himself in “a wonderful world of anxiety and battles, where rocks hide in the clouds, where people are free like eagles.” The Hero’s imagination is struck by lush fields, hills framed by forests, “chests of dark rocks,” mountain ranges smoking “at the hour of dawn.” The romantic landscape masterfully created by Lermontov helps to better understand the feelings of the hero who, after many years of imprisonment, saw this beauty.
With great melancholy Mtsyri remembers his fatherland: the village, herds returning from pastures, important elders whitened with gray hair, the shine of daggers, a mountain river. The poetically drawn picture of Caucasian life also speaks of the romanticism of the poem. Lermontov, who knows the Caucasus well, creates in the poem the image of a young Georgian woman and “dresses” her, a Christian by faith, in a veil. After all, this way she looks much more mysterious and romantic.
The introduction of a fight with a leopard into the poem greatly contributes to the creation of a romantic atmosphere. Lermontov borrowed this episode from Georgian folklore. Mtsyri's victory, of course, is exaggerated, but the description of the battle looks very organic in the general context of the work.
The hero of the poem, full of fiery passions, bares his soul to confession. Mtsyri's confession is a large part of the poem, and it is she who contributes to the creation of such a vivid romantic image. Using the form of revelation, the poet strives to “tell the soul” of the hero more deeply, and the poem acquires an extraordinary psychological quality. Lermontov depicts in detail all the experiences of Mtsyri. To do this, he generously uses numerous artistic techniques.
For a few sips of freedom, the hero is ready to give two lives in a monastery. Peace and quiet cannot replace the beauty of the world and destroyed youthful dreams. He is lonely and strives for life, full of “anxiety and battles”, strives to know “for freedom or prison we were born into this world.” For Mtsyri, the prison is not only a monastery, but also the whole way of calm and measured life, which is incompatible with the ideas about it of an ardent and passionate young man. Striving for his goal, the hero courageously overcomes many difficulties. He endures the suffering of hunger, boldly rushes into battle with the beast, makes his way through the thorny thorns. In difficult times, Mtsy-ri does not seek human help. He considers himself a stranger to everyone. “And if even a minute’s scream had changed me, I swear, old man, I would have torn out my weak tongue,” the hero admits.
V. G. Belinsky highly appreciated the image of Mtsyri. “What a fiery soul, what a mighty spirit,” what a gigantic nature this Mtsyri has!” - he wrote. The critic considered the hero of the poem to be Lermontov’s ideal, “a reflection in poetry of the shadow of his own personality.”
The poem ends, as befits a romantic work: Mtsyri is on the verge of death. He bequeaths to bury himself where the Caucasus is visible. The hero does not repent of what he has done and does not give up on his dreams.
M. Yu. Lermontov entered Russian literature as a continuer of Pushkin’s traditions. However, according to Belinsky, he introduced something special, original into national literature, the so-called “Ler-Montov element.” “Everything breathes with original and creative thought,” the critic wrote about his poetry.
Features of romanticism in M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri”
Romanticism is an ideological movement in art and literature, the main ideas of which are the recognition of the value of the spiritual and creative life of every person and his right to independence and freedom. Very often, the works of this literary movement depict heroes with a strong, rebellious character, the plots are characterized by a bright intensity of passions, and nature is depicted in a spiritualized way.
M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri” includes such features of romanticism as dual worlds, an atypical hero in atypical circumstances, sublime motives and actions of the character, the tragic doom of the hero’s fate, the exotic landscape of the Caucasus, the elaborate style of the work, as well as the pinnacle composition, which adds mystery to the plot.
Lermontov's work describes the story of a captive boy left in a monastery.
One can immediately note the principle of romantic dual worlds, which is based on a comparison of ideal and real life, dreams and reality. The unattainable dream is freedom, the native land in the understanding of the hero, and the oppressive reality is the monastery:
I knew only the power of thoughts,
One but fiery passion:
She lived inside me like a worm,
She tore her soul and burned it.
She called my dreams
From stuffy cells and prayers
In that wonderful world of worries and battles
A strong thirst for freedom pushes Mtsyri to escape. Mtsyri is revealed as a romantic rebel hero, not understood by the outside world (in this situation, by the monastery). His lofty motives are to learn about the life of his ancestors, that land “where people are free as eagles.”
It is worth noting that desperate courage, deep patriotism, freedom-loving disposition, faith in a dream and recklessness characterize the young man as an atypical character. Even after getting lost in the forest and having lost all hope, the hero does not want to accept human help: “But, believe me, I didn’t want human help...”. In the mysterious exotic forest, which at first seemed close and dear to him, Mtsyri weakens due to fatigue and hunger. His assertiveness and firm movement towards the goal show the spiritual masculinity of the character, and the heroism of his personality is visible in the battle with a wild leopard (an atypical circumstance). The half-faced young man finds the strength to fight the beast:
And I was terrible at that moment;
Like a desert leopard, angry and wild,
I was on fire and screaming like him;
As if I myself was born
In the family of leopards and wolves
It must be added that the hero’s fantastic victory over a wild animal gives rise to many speculations about the possibility of such a fight. For example, according to E. G. Babaev, the battle with the leopard is just Mtsyri’s dream, as it personifies the hero’s internal struggle. However, the young man dies not because of the wounds he received, but because of the thirst for freedom, expressed in the poem in the form of a flame: “And he burned through his prison.” Although Mtsyri spent only three days in freedom, he managed to experience the cruelty of nature and the difficulties of human life, and was oversaturated with the freedom granted by fate, despite its short moment. You can learn about the tragic denouement from the epigraph to the poem “When I tasted, I tasted little honey, and now I died” (1 Book of Kings). It should be emphasized that the doom of the protagonist’s fate is one of the principles of a romantic work.
In the distance I saw through the fog
In the snow, burning like a diamond,
Gray-haired unshakable Caucasus
Mountains for Lermontov, as well as for his compatriots, were a symbol of liberty, freedom (remember another poem by Lermontov about the Caucasus: “Perhaps behind the ridge of the Caucasus I will hide from your kings, from their all-seeing eyes, from their all-hearing ears”). It is this freedom that the main character strives for. It is fair to say that mountains, along with the sea, are one of the most characteristic landscapes of romanticism.
Among other things, the poem is filled with a huge number of means of expressive speech. Thus, epithets (“flaming chest”, “dark walls”, “fiery passion”, “foggy heights”, “proud voice”) convey the state of the hero’s soul and the beauty of his environment. Comparisons (“Like a chamois, the mountain is timid and wild”, “weak and flexible like a reed”) emphasize Mtsyri’s spiritual state. Using metaphors, the author conveys Mtsyri’s experiences, the thirst for freedom (death will heal them forever, the battle has begun). With the help of anaphora, rhythm is intensified. Rhetorical questions, appeals and exclamations are often used.
It is also impossible not to highlight the peak form of the inverse composition, which gives the plot of the work mystery and richness. The narrative is focused on one, most important episode from the life of Mtsyri in the form of a lyrical confession of the hero (inverse composition). The confession form is a classic device for romantic works. The episode of the fight with the leopard also deserves attention, which critics highlight as key in the poem, as it reveals the brave and courageous character of the hero.
Thus, M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri” has the main features of romanticism. However, one can also notice the principles of realism in the work: for example, the poet accurately determines the chronotope of the poem. So, the action takes place in a monastery, which is located near Mtskheta, at the confluence of two rivers: Aragva and Kura.