Byronic hero and his main features. "Byronic hero

J. G. Byron

English poet-romantic. The younger generation is romantic. His contribution to literature is determined, firstly, by the significance of the works and images he created, and secondly, by the development of new literary genres (lyric-epic poem, philosophical drama-mystery, novel in verse ...), innovation in various fields of poetics, in the ways of creating images, finally, participation in the political and literary struggle of his time. Byron's inner world was complex and contradictory. He was born at a turning point. The castle was inherited by Byron at the age of 10 with the title of lord

Byron is the embodiment of true human virtues; indestructible fighter for justice; a rebel against the then politics; ideal for a whole generation; fighter, poet, cynic, socialite, aristocrat, romantic, idealist, satirist; passionate and impetuous, easily fell in love, disappointed, was captured by new ideas, strong-willed, sensitive and impressionable, acutely felt not only his own defeats, the troubles of life, all the sorrows of the world, the Byronic hero, world grief.

Born in poverty in London, lame, his father pulled down the family fortune. Raised by her mother. Never got along with her. He was mocked at school. Byron University never graduated, he had fun, played cards. Debts grew.

Byron fought against representatives of the "lake school" (satire on them)

The first collection "Leisure Hours". The collection received negative reviews.

The disclosure of the idea of ​​freedom as a due life in unity with nature achieves the greatest strength in the poem "I want to be a free child ..."

Made a great trip. Travel impressions formed the basis of the lyric epic poem Childe-Harold's Pilgrimage. The poem became famous throughout Europe, gave birth to a new type of literary hero. Byron was introduced into high society, and he plunged into high life, although he could not get rid of the feeling of awkwardness due to a physical flaw, hiding him behind arrogance.

In Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" the idea of ​​freedom for all peoples was expressed, not only the right, but also the duty of each people to fight for independence and freedom from tyranny was affirmed. In another sense, freedom for Byron is the freedom of the individual.

But the particular complexity of the composition is given by the synthesis of epic and lyrical layers characteristic of the poem: it is not always possible to determine exactly who the lyrical thoughts belong to: the hero or the author. The lyrical beginning is introduced into the poem by images of nature, and above all the image of the sea, which becomes a symbol of an uncontrollable and independent free element.

In Canto III, the poet addresses a turning point in European history - the fall of Napoleon. Childe Harold visits the site of the Battle of Waterloo. And the author reflects on the fact that in this battle both Napoleon and his victorious opponents defended not freedom, but tyranny.

The problem is the role of the poet and art in the struggle for the freedom of peoples. The poet compares himself to a drop that poured into the sea, to a swimmer, akin to the sea. This metaphor becomes understandable if we consider that the image of the sea is embodied by a people who have been striving for freedom for centuries. The author in the poem is thus a poet-citizen.

"Eastern stories"

The appeal to the East was characteristic of the romantics: it opened up to them a different type of beauty in comparison with the ancient Greco-Roman ideal, which the classicists were guided by; For romantics, the East is also a place where passions are raging, where despots stifle freedom, resorting to eastern cunning and cruelty, and a romantic hero placed in this world more vividly reveals his love of freedom in a confrontation with tyranny. "Corsair", "Gyaur", "Abydos Bride"

Unlike Childe Harold, the observer hero who has withdrawn from the struggle with society, the heroes of these poems are people of action, active protest.

Swiss period

Byron's political freethinking and the freedom of his religious and moral views provoked a real persecution against him by the whole of English society. His break with his wife was used to campaign against the poet. Byron leaves for Switzerland. His disappointment is in fact universal.

"Manfred". The symbolic-philosophical dramatic poem "Manfred" was written in Switzerland. Manfred, who has comprehended "all earthly wisdom", is seized with deep disappointment. Manfred's suffering, his "world sorrow" are inextricably linked with the loneliness that he himself chose. Manfred's egocentrism reaches the ultimate level, he considers himself above everything in the world, wants complete, absolute freedom. But his self-centeredness brings death to all those who love him.

Italian period. The Italian period is the pinnacle of Byron's work. Taking part in the struggle of the Italians for the freedom of the country, the poet creates works full of revolutionary ideas. " Cain"

"Don Juan" the largest work of Byron. It remained unfinished (16 songs were written and the beginning of the 17th). "Don Juan" is called a poem, but in genre it is so different from other poems by Byron that it would be more correct to see in Don Juan the first example of a "novel in verse" (like Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin"). Don Juan is not the story of just one hero, it is also an “encyclopedia of life”. Don Juan is a hero taken from the Spanish legend about the punishment of an atheist and the seducer of many women. witty description of the exploits of the legendary and indefatigable hero-lover

Byron in Greece... The desire to take part in the national liberation struggle, about which Byron wrote so much, brings him to Greece. Sick Dies. The Greeks still consider Byron their national hero.

Byron, who never knew the measure of desires, strived to get as much as possible from life, fed up with available benefits, was looking for new adventures and impressions, trying to get rid of deep mental anguish and anxiety.

Byron's poems are more autobiographical than those of other English romantics.

Unlike most romantics, Byron respected the legacy of English classicism,

Byronism - a romantic trend The Byronists are characterized by disillusionment in society and the world, the mood of "world sorrow", a sharp discord between the poet and those around him, the cult of the superman

Byronic hero

The protest of the human person against the constraining social system.

With the advent of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and other works by Byron, the concept of "Byronic hero" entered widespread consumption, which became the literary embodiment of the spirit of the era, the moods that lived society at the beginning of the 19th century. This was an artistic discovery of the poet, which he made in observing himself and his generation.

Extraordinary personality, freethinker,

His hero is disappointed in the world, he is not pleased with either wealth, entertainment or fame. His main spiritual state is boredom. The Byronic hero is lonely and aloof. The heroes of the works listed by Pushkin surpass those around them in intelligence and education, they are mysterious and charismatic, irresistibly attracts the weaker sex. They put themselves outside society and the law, look at social institutions with arrogance, sometimes reaching cynicism. Digging in yourself. Output. The English poet J. Byron in his work created a type of hero who became the literary embodiment of the spirit of the era of romanticism. He is characterized by disappointment in the surrounding reality, protest against it, boredom, wandering in the slum of his own soul, disappointment, melancholy, longing for unrealizable ideals. Rebel strong character, dreamer

This is a lonely traveler, an exile. Typically a Byronic hero is an exceptional character acting under exceptional circumstances. He is characterized by deep and intense feelings, longing, melancholy, emotional impulses, ardent passions, he rejects the laws that others obey, therefore such a hero always rises above the environment.

The hero is disappointed in the values ​​of the world, he is not pleased with either wealth, entertainment or fame. The basic state of mind is boredom. He is dissatisfied with the environment, he cannot find a place in it. The hero does not relate his life to his homeland, country, land, he stands above the boundaries, he belongs to everyone. His suffering and feelings are the main subject of the author's research.

Poem

SUN OF THE SLEEPING

Sleepless sun, mournful star,

Your wet beam reaches us here.

With him the night seems darker to us,

You are the memory of the happiness that rushed away.

The dim light of the former is still trembling,

Still flickering, but there is no warmth in it.

Midnight ray, you're alone in the sky

Pure, but lifeless, clear, but distant! ..

The verse "Remembrance" can be considered an example of poetic reticence, behind which the reasons for the author's sadness are hidden. Byron's poetic world is rich and spacious. At the same time, the “lost paradise”, lost hopes and expectations, the lost absolute of human happiness are the inner theme of the poet's lyrics.

End! It was all just a dream.

There is no light in my future.

Where is happiness, where is charm?

I tremble in the wind of an evil winter,

My dawn is hidden behind a cloud of darkness,

Gone are the love, the radiance of hope ...

Oh, if only a memory!

George (Lord) Byron (translated by Alexey Tolstoy)

Sleepless sun, sad star,

How tearfully your ray always flickers

As the darkness with him is even darker,

How it resembles the joy of the old days!

So the past shines on us in the night of life,

But powerless rays do not warm us,

The star of the past is so visible to me in sorrow,

Visible, but far away - light, but cold!

§ 1. The main features of Byron's work

Romanticism as the dominant trend gradually established itself in English art in the 1790-1800s. It was a terrible time. The revolutionary events in France shook the whole world, and in England itself another, silent, but no less significant revolution took place - the so-called industrial revolution, which caused, on the one hand, a colossal growth of industrial cities, and on the other, gave rise to outrageous social disasters: mass pauperism, hunger, prostitution, the growth of crime, impoverishment and the final ruin of the village.

The image of Byron becomes the image of an entire era in the history of European self-awareness. She will be named after the poet - the era of Byronism. In his personality they saw the embodied spirit of the times, they believed that Byron "put the song of a whole generation to music" (Vyazemsky) Quote from: Zverev A. "Confrontation between trouble and evil ..." / / Byron D. G. At the crossroads of being .. .Letters. Memories. Feedback. - M.: 1989 .. Byronism was defined as "world sorrow", which was an echo of unfulfilled hopes that awakened the French Revolution. As a reflection caused by the spectacle of the triumph of reaction in post-Napoleonic Europe. As rebelliousness, capable of expressing itself only by contempt for universal obedience and sanctimonious well-being. As the cult of individualism, or rather, as the apotheosis of boundless freedom, which is accompanied by the endless loneliness of O. Kovaleva. Foreign literature of the XI X century. Romanticism. Textbook / O. V. Kovaleva, L. G. Shakhov a - M.: LLC "Publishing house" ONIK C 21 century ". - 2005. - 272 p .: ill ..

The great Russian writer F.M. Dostoevsky wrote: “Although Byronism was instantaneous, it was a great, holy and extraordinary phenomenon in the life of European mankind, and almost in the life of all mankind. Byronism appeared in a moment of terrible longing of people, their disappointment and almost despair. After the ecstatic raptures of a new faith in new ideals proclaimed at the end of the last century in France ... an outcome came so different from what was expected, so deceiving the faith of people, that perhaps there has never been so sad in the history of Western Europe minutes ... The old idols lay broken. And it was at that very moment that a great and mighty genius, a passionate poet, appeared. In his sounds sounded the then longing of mankind and his gloomy disappointment in his appointment and in the ideals that deceived him. It was a new and even then unheard of muse of revenge and sorrow, curse and despair. The spirit of Byronism suddenly swept through the whole of humanity, everything responded to him. ”Dostoevsky F. M. Poln. collection op. - L: 1984 .-- T. 26 .-- S. 113-114.

Recognized as the leader of European romanticism in one of its most militant and rebellious varieties, Byron was linked to the traditions of the Enlightenment through complex and contradictory relationships. Like other advanced people of his era, he was acutely aware of the discrepancy between the utopian beliefs of the enlighteners and reality. The son of an egoistic age, he was far from the complacent optimism of the 18th century thinkers with their doctrine of the good nature of "natural man."

But if Byron was tormented by doubts about many of the truths of the Enlightenment and the possibility of their practical implementation, the poet never questioned their moral and ethical value. From the feeling of the greatness of the educational and revolutionary ideals and from bitter doubts about the possibility of their realization, the whole complex complex of "Byronism" with its deep contradictions, with its fluctuations between light and shadow arose; with heroic impulses to the "impossible" and tragic awareness of the immutability of the laws of history History of foreign literature of the XIX century: Textbook. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva - M .: Education. - 1982 - 320 pp. - P. 69.

The general ideological and aesthetic foundations of the poet's work did not form immediately. The first of his poetic speeches was the collection of youthful poems "Hours of Leisure" (1807), which still had an imitative and immature character. The bright originality of Byron's creative personality, as well as the unique originality of his artistic style, were fully revealed at the next stage of the poet's literary activity, the beginning of which was marked by the appearance of the first two songs of his monumental poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812).

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which became Byron's most famous work, brought its author worldwide fame, at the same time being the largest event in the history of European romanticism. It is a kind of lyric diary, in which the poet expressed his attitude to life, gave an assessment of his era, the material for it was Byron's impressions of his trip to Europe, undertaken in 1812. Taking scattered diary entries as the basis of his work, Byron combined them into one poetic whole, giving it a certain semblance of plot unity. He made the story of the wanderings of the protagonist Childe Harold as the unifying beginning of his story, using this motive to recreate the wide panorama of modern Europe. The appearance of various countries, contemplated by Childe Harold from the ship, is reproduced by the poet in a purely romantic "picturesque" manner, with an abundance of lyrical nuances and an almost dazzling brightness of the color spectrum. A. Elistratova. The legacy of English romanticism and modernity. - M .: 1960. With a typical for romantics addiction to the national "exotic", "local color" Byron depicts the customs and customs of different countries.

With his characteristic tyrannical pathos, the poet shows that the spirit of freedom, which so recently inspired all of humanity, has not completely faded away. It still continues to exist in the heroic struggle of the Spanish peasants against the foreign conquerors of their homeland or in the civic virtues of the harsh recalcitrant Albanians. And yet persecuted freedom is increasingly leaving in the realm of traditions, memories, legends History of foreign literature of the XIX century: Textbook. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva - M .: Education. - 1982 - 320 p. P. 73.

In Greece, which became the cradle of democracy, now nothing reminded of the once free ancient Hellas (“And humbled under the Turkish lashes, Greece stretched out, trampled into the mud”). In a world that is shackled, only nature remains free, the lush and joyful flowering of which appears as a contrast to the cruelty and anger that reigns in human society ("Let the genius die, liberty died, eternal nature is beautiful and bright").

But the poet, contemplating the woeful spectacle of the defeat of freedom, does not lose faith in the possibility of its revival. All his spirit, all his mighty energy are aimed at awakening the fading revolutionary spirit. Throughout the entire poem, it sounds with unflagging force a call to rebellion, to fight tyranny ("Oh, Greece, rise up to fight!").

And unlike Childe Harold, who is only observing from the sidelines, Byron is by no means a passive contemplator of world tragedy. His restless, restless soul, as if a constituent part of the world soul, contains all the sorrow and pain of humanity ("world sorrow"). It is precisely this feeling of the infinity of the human spirit, of its fusion with the world whole, combined with purely poetic features - the global breadth of the theme's spread, dazzling brightness of colors, magnificent landscape sketches, etc. - that, according to M.S. Kurginyan, Byron's work in the highest achievement of romantic art of the early 19th century Kurginyan M.S. George Byron. - M .: 1958.

It is no coincidence that in the minds of many fans and followers of Byron, who enthusiastically accepted the poem, Byron remained primarily the author of Childe Harold. Among them was A. Pushkin, in whose works the name of Childe Harold is repeatedly mentioned, and quite often in correlation with Pushkin's own heroes (Onegin is "a Muscovite in Harold's cloak").

Undoubtedly, the main source of the attractive force of "Childe Harold" for contemporaries was in the spirit of militant love of freedom embodied in the poem. Both in its ideological content and in its poetic embodiment, Childe Harold is a true sign of its time. The image of the main character of the poem - the internally devastated, homeless wanderer, tragically lonely Childe Harold was also deeply consonant with modernity. Although this disillusioned, disbelieved English aristocrat was not an exact likeness of Byron (as the poet's contemporaries mistakenly thought), in his appearance (still in the "dotted outline") traits of a special character were already outlined, which became the romantic prototype of all opposition-minded heroes of the 19th century literature , and who will later be called the Byronic hero, who most of all suffers from loneliness:

I am alone in the world among the empty,

boundless waters.

Why should I sigh for others,

who will sigh for me? -

Byronic Childe Harold asks mournfully.

The indivisibility of this single lyrical complex manifests itself with particular clarity in poems dedicated to Greece, a country whose dream of liberation has become a pervasive motive in Byron's poetry. An agitated tone, heightened emotionality and a peculiar nostalgic tone, born of memories of the past greatness of this country, are already present in one of the earliest poems about Greece in the Song of the Greek Rebels (1812):

O Greece, rise!

Radiance of Ancient Glory

Fighters calls to swear

For a majestic feat.

In later poems by Byron, a personal emphasis on the same theme increases. In the last of them, written almost on the eve of his death ("The last lines addressed to Greece", 1824), the poet refers to the country of his dreams as to a beloved woman or mother:

Love you! do not be harsh with me!

……………………………………

My love is incorruptible basis!

I am yours - and I cannot cope with this!

He himself best described his own perception of civic issues in one of the lyric works - "From a Diary in Kefalonia" (1823):

The dead sleep is disturbed - can I sleep?

Tyrants crush the world - will I give in?

The harvest is ripe - should I hesitate to reap?

On the bed - a prickly thorn; I do not sleep;

In my ears that day, the trumpet sings,

Her heart echoes ...

Per. A. Blok

The sound of this battle "trumpet", singing in unison with the poet's heart, was intelligible to his contemporaries. But the rebellious pathos of his poetry was perceived by them in different ways.

Consistent with the moods of the world's progressive people (many of them could say about Byron, together with M. Yu. Lermontov: “We have one soul, the same torment”), the revolutionary rebellion of the English poet led him to a complete break with England. Having inherited the title of lord, but having lived in poverty since childhood, the poet found himself in an alien environment, he and this environment experienced mutual rejection and contempt for each other: he because of the hypocrisy of his noble acquaintances, they are because of his past and because of his views.

The enmity of her ruling circles towards Byron was especially intensified by his actions in defense of the Luddites (workers who destroyed cars in protest against inhuman working conditions). Added to all this was a personal drama: the parents of his wife did not accept Byron, destroying the marriage. Spurred on by all this, the British "moralists" took advantage of his divorce proceedings in order to settle scores with him. Byron became the target of bullying and bullying, in fact, England turned its greatest poet into an exile.

Childe Harold's relationship with a society he despised already bore the grain of the conflict that became the basis of the 19th century European novel. This conflict between personality and society will receive a much greater degree of certainty in the works created after the first two songs of Childe Harold, in the cycle of the so-called Oriental poems (1813-1816). In this poetic cycle, consisting of six poems ("Gyaur", "Corsair", "Lara", "Abydos Bride", "Parisina", "Siege of Corinth"), the Byronic hero is finally formed in his complex relationship with the world and himself. yourself. The place of "oriental poems" in the poet's creative biography and at the same time in the history of romanticism is determined by the fact that for the first time a new romantic concept of personality was clearly formulated here, which arose as a result of rethinking the enlightenment views on man.

A dramatic turning point in Byron's personal life coincided in time with a turning point in world history. The fall of Napoleon, the triumph of reaction, the embodiment of which was the Holy Alliance, opened one of the most bleak pages of European history, marking the beginning of a new stage in the work and life of the poet Dyakonov N. Ya. Byron during the years of exile. - L .: 1974. His creative thought is now directed towards the mainstream of philosophy.

The pinnacle of Byron's creativity is considered to be his philosophical drama "Cain", the protagonist of which is a fighter against God; who took up arms against the universal tyrant - Jehovah. In his religious drama, which he called "the mystery," the poet uses biblical myth to debate the Bible. But the god in "Cain" is not only a symbol of religion. In his gloomy image, the poet unites all forms of tyrannical arbitrariness. His Jehovah is both the ominous power of religion, and the despotic yoke of a reactionary anti-popular state, and, finally, the general laws of being, indifferent to the sorrows and sufferings of mankind.

Byron, following the enlighteners, opposes this multifaceted world evil with the idea of ​​a bold and free human mind, which does not accept the cruelty and injustice prevailing in the world.

The son of Adam and Eve, exiled from paradise for their pursuit of knowledge of good and evil, Cain questions their fear-born claims of God's mercy and justice. On this path of searches and doubts, Lucifer (one of the names of the devil) becomes his patron, whose majestic and mournful image embodies the idea of ​​an angry rebellious mind. His beautiful, "night-like" appearance is marked by the stamp of tragic duality. The dialectic of good and evil, which was revealed to the romantics as internally interrelated principles of life and history, determined the contradictory structure of the image of Lucifer. The evil that he creates is not his original goal (“I wanted to be your creator,” he says to Cain, “and would have created you differently”). Byron's Lucifer (whose name means "light-bearer" in translation) is one who seeks to become a creator, but becomes a destroyer. By introducing Cain to the mysteries of being, he together with him flies into the supra-stellar spheres, and the gloomy picture of the cold lifeless universe (recreated by Byron based on his acquaintance with the astronomical theories of Cuvier) finally convinces the hero of the drama that the all-encompassing principle of the universe is the reign of death and evil ( “Evil is the leaven of all life and lifelessness,” Lucifer teaches Cain).

Cain learns the righteousness of the lesson taught to him from his own experience. Returning to earth as a complete and convinced enemy of God, who gives life to his creatures only to kill them, Cain, in a fit of blind, unreasoning hatred, unleashes a blow, intended for the invincible and inaccessible Jehovah, on his meek and humble brother Abel.

This fratricidal act, as it were, marks the last stage in the process of Cain's knowledge of life. In himself, he knows the insurmountability and omnipresence of evil. His impulse for goodness gives rise to crime. A protest against Jehovah's destroyer turns into murder and suffering. Hating death, Cain is the first to bring her into the world. This paradox, prompted by the experience of the recent revolution and generalizing its results, gives at the same time the most vivid embodiment of the irreconcilable contradictions of Byron's worldview.

Created in 1821, after the defeat of the Carbonari movement, Byron's mystery with tremendous poetic power captured the depth of the poet's tragic despair, who recognized the impracticability of the noble hopes of mankind and the doom of his Promethean rebellion against the cruel laws of life and history. It was the feeling of their insurmountability that made the poet look with special energy for the reasons for the imperfection of life in the objective laws of social life. In the diaries and letters of Byron (1821-1824), as well as in his poetic works, a new understanding of history for him is already outlined not as a mysterious fate, but as a set of real relations of human society. Associated with this shift in emphasis is the strengthening of the realistic tendencies of his poetry.

Thoughts about the vicissitudes of life and history, which were present earlier in his works, now become his constant companions. This tendency is especially clearly expressed in the last two songs of Childe Harold, where the desire to generalize the historical experience of mankind, which was previously characteristic of the poet, takes on a much more purposeful character. Reflections on the past, clothed in the form of various historical reminiscences (Ancient Rome, from which ruins remained, Lausanne and Ferney, where the shadows of "two titans" - Voltaire and Rousseau live, Florence, who expelled Dante, Ferrara, who betrayed Tasso), included in the third and the fourth song of Byron's poem indicate the direction of his quest.

The key image of the second part of "Childe Harold" is the field at Waterloo. The cardinal turn in the fate of Europe, which took place at the site of the last battle of Napoleon, pushes Byron to summarize the results of the just past era and assess the activities of its protagonist, Napoleon Bonaparte. "The Lesson of History" tells the poet not only conclusions about its individual events and figures, but also about the entire historical process as a whole, perceived by the author of "Childe Harold" as a chain of fatal fatal catastrophes. And at the same time, contrary to his own concept of historical “rock”, the poet comes to the conclusion that “after all, your spirit, Freedom, is alive!”, Still calling on the peoples of the world to fight for Freedom. "Rise, rise, - he turns to Italy (which was under the yoke of Austria), - and, having driven away the bloodsucker, show us your proud, freedom-loving disposition!"

This rebellious spirit was inherent not only in Byron's poetry, but throughout his life. The death of the poet, who was in the detachment of Greek rebels, interrupted his short, but such a bright life and creative path.

§ 2. Byronic exiled heroes: Prometheus, Manfred, the Prisoner of Chillon and the Corsair

As already noted, the Byronic hero-exile, a rebel, rejecting society and rejected by it, became a special type of romantic hero. Undoubtedly, one of the brightest Byronic heroes is Childe - Harold, however, in other works of Byron, the images of romantic heroes, rebel heroes, and exiled heroes appear vividly and clearly.

In the context of our particular theme - the theme of a rogue hero in Byron's work, one of his early poems - "Corsair" (1814), which is part of the cycle of "Eastern Poems", where the Byronic conflict of an outstanding personality and a hostile society is presented is of greatest interest in a particularly complete and direct expression.

Corsair. The hero of the "Corsair" - the sea robber Konrad, by the very nature of his activities, is an outcast. His way of life is a direct challenge not only to the prevailing moral norms, but also to the system of dominant state laws, the violation of which turns Konrad into a "professional" criminal. The reasons for this acute collision between the hero and the entire civilized world, beyond which Konrad retired, are gradually revealed in the course of the plot development of the poem. The guiding thread to her ideological concept is the symbolic image of the sea, which appears in the song of the pirates, pre-sent to the narrative in the form of a kind of prologue. This appeal to the sea is one of the constant lyrical motives of Byron's work. A. Pushkin, who called Byron "the singer of the sea", likens the English poet to this "free element":

Noise, get excited by the bad weather:

He was, oh sea, your singer!

Your image was marked on it,

He was created by your spirit:

How powerful, deep and gloomy you are,

Like you, nothing is indomitable.

"To the Sea" Pushkin A. S. Complete. collection op. in 10 volumes. - M .: 1958. - t. 7. - p. 52-53.

The entire content of the poem can be viewed as a development and justification of its metaphorical prologue. The soul of Konrad, a pirate plowing the seas, is also the sea. Stormy, indomitable, free, resisting all attempts at enslavement, it does not fit into any unequivocal rationalistic formulas. Good and evil, generosity and cruelty, rebellious impulses and longing for harmony exist in her in an indissoluble unity. A man of powerful unbridled passions, Konrad is equally capable of murder and heroic self-sacrifice (during the fire of the seraglio belonging to his enemy Pasha Seid, Konrad saves the latter's wives).

The tragedy of Konrad lies precisely in the fact that his fatal passions bring death not only to him, but also to everyone who is somehow connected with him. Marked with the seal of ominous doom, Konrad sows death and destruction around him. This is one of the sources of his grief and as yet not very clear, barely outlined, mental discord, the basis of which is the consciousness of his unity with the underworld, complicity in his atrocities. In this poem, Konrad is still trying to find an excuse for himself: “Yes, I am a criminal, like everyone else. About whom shall I say otherwise, about whom? " And yet his way of life, as if imposed on him by a hostile world, to some extent weighs on him. After all, this freedom-loving rebel-individualist is by no means intended by nature for "dark deeds":

He was created for good, but evil

To himself, his distorting, attracted.

All mocked, and all betrayed;

Like the feeling of falling dew

Under the arch of the grotto; and how is this grotto,

It turned to stone in its turn

Having passed my earthly bondage ...

Per. Yu. Petrova

Like many of Byron's heroes, Konrad in the distant past was pure, trusting and loving. Slightly lifting the veil of mystery that shrouds the prehistory of his hero, the poet says that the dark lot he has chosen is the result of persecution by a soulless and evil society, which persecutes everything bright, free and original. Placing responsibility for the destructive activities of the Corsair on a corrupted and insignificant society, Byron poeticizes his personality and the state of mind in which he is. As a true romantic, the author of "Corsair" finds a special "night" "demonic" beauty in this confused consciousness, in the chaotic impulses of the human heart. Its source is a proud thirst for freedom - in spite of everything and by all means.

It was this angry protest against the enslavement of the Personality that determined the enormous power of the artistic influence of Byronic poems on the readers of the 19th century. At the same time, the most perceptive of them saw in Byron's apology for individualistic willfulness and the potential danger contained in it. So, A.S. Pushkin, admired Byron's love of freedom, but condemned him for the poeticization of individualism, behind the gloomy “pride” of Byron's heroes, he saw the “hopeless egoism” hidden in them (“Lord Byron with a successful whim / He put on dull romanticism and hopeless selfishness” ) Quoted from: History of Foreign Literature of the XIX century: Textbook. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva - M .: Education. - 1982 - 320 p. P. 23.

In his poem "Gypsies" Pushkin put into the mouth of one of her characters - an old gypsy - words that sound like a sentence not only to Aleko, but also to the Byronic hero as a literary-psychological category: "You only want freedom for yourself." These words contain an extremely accurate indication of the most vulnerable point of Byron's concept of personality. But for all the fairness of this assessment, one cannot fail to see that this most controversial side of the Byronic characters arose on a very real historical basis. It is no coincidence that the Polish poet and publicist A. Mitskevich, together with some critics of Byron, noticed in not only Manfred, but also "Le Corsaire" a well-known resemblance to Napoleon A. Mitskevich Sobr. op. in 5 volumes. - M .: 1954 - t. 4, - S. 63 ..

Prometheus. J. Gordon Byron drew many of his ideas from the ancient myth of Prometheus. In 1817, Byron wrote to the publisher J. Merry: “As a boy, I deeply admired Aeschylus' Prometheus. "Prometheus" has always occupied my thoughts so much that it is easy for me to imagine its influence on everything that I wrote "Afonina O. Comments / / Byron D. G. Selected. - M .: 1982. - S. 409. In 1816 in Switzerland, in the most tragic year of his life, Byron wrote the poem "Prometheus".

Titanium! To our earthly destiny,

To our sorrowful vale,

To human pain

You looked without contempt;

But what did he receive as a reward?

Suffering, tension of forces

Yes, a vulture that endlessly

Torments the liver of a proud man

A rock, a sad sound of chains,

Suffocating burden of anguish

Yes, the groan that is buried in the heart,

Suppressed by you, quieted down,

So that about your sorrows

He could not tell the gods.

The poem is built in the form of an appeal to the titan, the solemn, odic intonation recreates the image of the sufferer-stoic, warrior and fighter, in whom "The greatness is hidden a model / For the human race!" Particularly emphasized is the tacit contempt of Prometheus in relation to Zeus, the "proud god": "... the groan that is buried in the heart, / You suppressed, quieted down ...". "The silent answer" of Prometheus to the Thunderer speaks of the silence of the titan as the main threat to God.

In the context of historical events and life circumstances of Byron in 1816 (restoration of monarchical regimes in Europe, exile), the most important theme of the poem acquires special significance - the bitter meditation on the fierce fate, the all-powerful fate, which turns the earthly lot of man into a "mournful vale". In the last part of the poem, human fate is tragically comprehended - "the way of mortals - / Human life is a bright current, / Running, sweeping away the path ...", "aimless existence, / Resistance, vegetation ...". The work ends with the affirmation of the will of man, the ability to "triumph" "in the depths of the most bitter torments."

In the poem "Prometheus" Byron drew the image of a hero, a titan, persecuted because he wants to ease the human pain of those living on earth. Almighty Fate fettered him as a punishment for his good desire to "put an end to misfortunes." And although the suffering of Prometheus is beyond all forces, he does not humble himself before the Tyranny of the Thunderer. The heroic of the tragic image of Prometheus is that he can “turn death into victory”. The legendary image of the Greek myth and tragedy of Aeschylus acquires in Byron's poem the traits of civic valor, courage and fearlessness, characteristic of the hero of revolutionary romantic poetry O. V. Kovalev. Foreign literature of the XI X century. Romanticism. Textbook / O. V. Kovaleva, L. G. Shakhov a - M.: Publishing House ONIK S 21st Century LLC - 2005..

The images of Prometheus, Manfred and Cain in Byron's poems of the same name are consonant with a proud protest to circumstances and a challenge to tyranny. So, Manfred declares to the spirits of the elements who came to him:

Immortal spirit, the legacy of Prometheus,

The fire lit in me is just as bright

Mighty and all-embracing, like yours,

Although he is clothed with an earthly finger.

But if Byron himself, creating the image of Prometheus, only partially brought his fate closer to his own, then readers and interpreters of the poet's work often directly identified him with Prometheus. So, V. A. Zhukovsky in a letter to N. V. Gogol, speaking about Byron, whose spirit is "high, mighty, but the spirit of denial, pride and contempt", writes: "... we have a titan Prometheus, chained to a rock Caucasian and proudly swearing Zeus, to whom the vulture tears his insides "Zhukovsky VA Aesthetics and criticism. - M .: 1985. - C 336.

Belinsky gave a vivid description of Byron's work: “Byron was the Prometheus of our century, chained to a rock, tormented by a kite: a mighty genius, on his own mountain, looked ahead - and without considering, beyond the shimmering distance, the promised land of the future, he cursed the present and declared him an irreconcilable and eternal enmity ... "Belinsky VG Sobr. op. in 3 volumes - M .: 1948 .-- T. 2. - S. 454.

Prometheus became one of the most beloved symbols of romanticism, embodying courage, heroism, self-sacrifice, unbending will and intransigence.

"Manfred". In the philosophical drama "Manfred" (1816), one of the initial remarks of its hero, the wizard and magician Manfred, reads: "The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life." This bitter aphorism summarizes not only the results of historical experience, but also the experience of Byron himself, whose play was created under the sign of a well-known reassessment of his own values. Building his drama as a kind of excursion into the inner life of the "Byronic" hero, the poet shows the tragedy of his hero's mental discord. Romantic Faust - the magician and magician Manfred, like his German prototype, was disappointed in knowledge.

Having received superhuman power over the elements of nature, Manfred, at the same time, was plunged into a state of fierce internal conflict. Obsessed with despair and grievous remorse, he wanders the heights of the Alps, finding neither oblivion nor peace. The spirits subject to Manfred are unable to help him in his attempts to escape from himself. A complex mental collision, which acts as the dramatic axis of the work, is a kind of psychological modification of the Byronic conflict of a gifted person with a hostile world. History of foreign literature of the XIX century: Textbook. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S.V. Turaeva - M .: Education - 1982 - 320 p. - S. 73.

Having retired from the world he despised, the hero of the drama did not sever his inner connection with him. In "Manfred" Byron, with much greater certainty than in his earlier works, points to those destructive principles that are hidden in his contemporary individualistic consciousness.

The titanic individualism of the proud "superman" Manfred is a sign of the times. As the son of his age, Manfred, like Napoleon, is the bearer of an epochal consciousness. This is indicated by the symbolic song of "destinies" - the peculiar spirits of history flying over the head of Manfred. The image of the "crowned villain cast into the dust" (in other words, Napoleon), appearing in their sinister chants, clearly correlates with the image of Manfred. For the romantic poet, both of them - his hero Manfred and the deposed emperor of France - are instruments of "destinies" and their ruler - the genius of evil Ahriman.

Knowledge of the secrets of life, which are hidden from ordinary people, was bought by Manfred at the cost of human sacrifice. One of them was his beloved Astarte (“I shed blood,” says the hero of the drama, “it was not her blood, and yet her blood was shed”).

The parallels between Faust and Manfred constantly accompany the reader. But if Goethe was characterized by an optimistic understanding of progress as a continuous progressive movement of history, and the unity of its creative and destructive principles (Faust and Mephistopheles) acted as a necessary prerequisite for the creative renewal of life, then for Byron, to whom history seemed like a chain of catastrophes, the problem of the costs of progress was presented tragically insoluble. And yet, the recognition of the laws of the historical development of society that are not subject to reason does not lead the poet to surrender to the principles of life hostile to man. His Manfred until the last minute defends his right to think and dare. Proudly rejecting the help of religion, he closes himself in his mountain castle and dies, as he lived, alone. This adamant stoicism is affirmed by Byron as the only form of life worthy of a person.

This thought, constituting the basis of the artistic development of the drama, acquires the utmost clarity in it. This is facilitated by the genre of "monodrama" - plays with a single character. History of foreign literature of the XIX century: Textbook. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S.V. Turaeva - M .: Education - 1982 - 320 p. - P. 23. The image of the hero occupies the entire poetic space of the drama, acquiring truly grandiose proportions. His soul is a true microcosm. Everything that is in the world is born from its depths. It contains all the elements of the universe - in himself Manfred carries hell and paradise and himself makes judgment on himself. Objectively, the pathos of the poem is in the affirmation of the greatness of the human spirit. From his titanic efforts, a critical, rebellious, protesting thought was born. It is she who constitutes the most valuable conquest of mankind, paid for at the price of blood and suffering. Such are Byron's reflections on the results of the tragic path traversed by mankind at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. History of Foreign Literature of the 19th Century: Textbook. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S.V. Turaeva - M .: Education - 1982 - 320 p. - S. 23.

The Prisoner of Chillon (1816). This poem was based on a real life fact: the tragic story of a Geneva citizen, François de Bonivard, who was imprisoned in the Chillon prison in 1530 for religious and political reasons and was imprisoned until 1537. Taking advantage of this episode of the distant past as the material for one of his most lyrically mournful works, Byron put a cutting-edge content into it. In his interpretation, it became an indictment against political reaction of any kind of history. Under the pen of the great poet, the gloomy image of the Chillon Castle grew to the scale of an ominous symbol of a cruel tyrannical world - a world-prison, where people endure torments for their loyalty to moral and patriotic ideals, before which, according to V.G.Belinsky, “Dante's own hell seems some kind of paradise "Belinsky V. G. Poly. collection op. in 13 volumes. - M .: 1955 - t. 7. - S. 209 ..

The stone tomb in which they are buried gradually kills their body and soul. Unlike his brothers, who died in front of Bonivar, he remains physically alive. But his soul is half dying. The darkness surrounding the prisoner fills his inner world and settles in him a formless chaos:

And I saw, as in a heavy dream,

Everything pale, dark, dull to me ...

That was - darkness without darkness;

That was - an abyss of emptiness

No stretch and no boundaries;

They were images without faces;

That was a terrible world,

Without sky, light and luminaries,

Without time, without days and years,

Without trade, without blessings and troubles,

Neither life nor death is like a dream of coffins,

Like an ocean without shores

Crushed by a heavy haze

Motionless, dark and dumb ...

Per. V. A. Chukovsky

The stoically adamant martyr of the idea does not take the path of renunciation, but he turns into a passive, indifferent person to everything, and, perhaps the most terrible thing, resigns himself to bondage and even begins to love the place of his imprisonment:

When outside your prison door

I stepped into freedom,

I sighed about my prison.

Starting with this work, according to critics, a new image of a fighter for the happiness of mankind, a philanthropist, ready to shoulder the heavy burden of human suffering, is put forward in the center of Byron's works. manual for ped students. in-tov on specials. No. 2101 "Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky, S.V. Turaeva - M .: Education - 1982 - 320 p. - S. 23.

A hero free from society, an outcast who is present in all Byron's works, is unhappy, but independence for him is dearer than peace, comfort, even happiness. The Byronic hero is uncompromising, there is no hypocrisy in him, tk. ties with a society in which hypocrisy is a way of life are severed. The poet recognizes only one human connection as possible for his free, unhypocritical and lonely hero - a feeling of great love, only one ideal exists for him - the ideal of Freedom, for the sake of which he is ready to give up everything, to become an outcast.

This individualistic pride, sung by Byron, was a feature of the epoch-making consciousness in its romantic, exaggeratedly vivid expression. This ability to penetrate the spirit of the era explains the significance of the influence that Byron's work had on modern and subsequent literature.

The generalized image of a person created by J.G. Byron, reflecting Byronic ideas about the human person and in many ways close to the author himself. The heroes of Byron's poems and dramas are different, however, in all the images created by the English poet, one can trace a certain general idea, highlight the features that bring them all together.

“B. G." differs from other people already outwardly. Despite his youth, his forehead is lined with wrinkles - a testament to the strength of his experiences. The hero's gaze is also expressive: he can be gloomy, fiery, mysterious, frightening (to such an extent that only a few are able to withstand it), can burn with anger, rage, determination, one can guess from him about secret passions tormenting “B. G.".

Corresponds to the scale of the hero's personality and the setting in which he is depicted: over the sea, at the entrance to a cave (Corsair), at night on a narrow mountain path (Gyaur), in an old gloomy castle (Lara).

“B. G." proud, gloomy, lonely, and the passion that owns him absorbs him completely, without a trace (Selim's passion for Zuleika, Giaur's desire to take revenge on Hassan). The hero's desire for freedom is indomitable, he rebelles against any compulsion, restriction, even against the existing world order (Cain).

Next to such a hero is usually his beloved - the complete opposite of him, a meek, gentle, loving creature. She is the only one who can reconcile “B. G." with the world and tame his violent temper. The death of his beloved means for the hero the collapse of all his hopes for happiness, the loss of the meaning of existence (Gyaur, Manfred). The existence of such a generalized type “B. G." A.S. also pointed out. Pushkin. According to the observation of the Russian poet, in the person of his hero Byron displays "the ghost of himself." Pushkin calls “B. G." "Dark, powerful", "mysteriously captivating."

Researcher M.N. Rozanov characterized such a hero as "titanic". V.M. Zhirmunsky in the study "Byron and Pushkin" talks about "B. G." not only as a hero of the works of Byron.

The titanic, heroic image created by Byron turned out to be so interesting to his contemporaries that the features of Byronism can also be found in the works of other authors. Thus, “B. G." ceases to belong to Byron alone and turns into a kind of socio-cultural phenomenon, continuing the traditions of English "scary novels" of the 18th century. and reinterpreted by the authors of the XIX century in a new way. In Russian literature, in particular, in the work of Pushkin, to whom the monograph by V.M. Zhirmunsky, “B. G." debunks, showing not only his strength, but also his weakness.

Of modern research on this issue, the work "Byron and Romanticism" (Cambridge, 2002) by Jerome McGann, author of several books on Byron, and also the editor of his complete works, is especially interesting. The key concepts for this work are "mask" and "masquerade". According to McGann, “B. G." - this is a kind of mask, put on by Byron not to hide his true face, but on the contrary, to show it, as paradoxically "Byron puts on a mask and is able to tell the truth about himself." The mask acts as a means of self-knowledge: the poet, depicting a close, but not identical to himself, a hero, sought to objectify himself, to explore his own thoughts and feelings. However, this method of self-knowledge is imperfect, since ultimately the heroes created by Byron act according to his "poetic orders."

Byron McGann refers to the “masks” not only of fictional characters - Childe Harold, Giaur, Corsair, Lara, Manfred - but also images of real historical figures that appear in Byron's work: Dante, Torquato Tasso, Napoleon.

In part, Byron's relationship with B. G." remind L.'s attitude to the "Lermontov man", but there are some differences. Hero L. is not necessarily his "mask", his self-projection.

The poet is also interested in other, unlike him heroes, "ordinary people": fishermen, peasants, mountaineers, soldiers, and later - and the old "Caucasian" Maksim Maksimych. L.'s interest in the other is also manifested in the fact that he refers to the image of a neighbor in Art. "Neighbor" (1830 or 1831), "Neighbor" (1837), "Neighbor" (1840).

This dissimilarity of the two poets is especially clearly seen when comparing Byron's poem "Lara" and Lermontov's novel "Vadim". Both Lara and Vadim are the leaders of the peasant uprising, tragic demonic personalities. But if Byron is only interested in the mental life of Lara (and partly the girl in love with him, who accompanies him under the guise of a page), then L. became so carried away by the image of ordinary people that they overshadowed the image of Vadim and turned out from an artistic point of view more convincing than him. However, at an early stage of creativity, Byron's heroes - rebellious, incomprehensible, lonely - were precisely the people to whom L. had an "aesthetic interest." Byron attracted the young man L. strength, passion, energy, thirst for activity. It is such heroes that prevail in his early work: Vadim, taking revenge on Rurik for the death of Leda and the enslavement of his native Novgorod, Fernando, seeking to snatch Emilia from the clutches of the insidious Sorrini, etc. Even the Corsair from an early poem, written before meeting Byron in the original, is already endowed with these character traits. Consequently, L.'s interest in strong and passionate personalities is explained not by imitation of Byron, but by the inner need of the poet himself to portray just such people. The Russian poet sincerely admired the British genius, but he wanted to "achieve" him, i.e. to equal him in the strength of his talent, fame, the degree of originality of his creative and personal destiny, and not to become like him.

Lit .: 1) Belova N.M. Byronic Hero and Pechorin. - Saratov: Publishing Center "Science", 2009 - 95 p .; 2) Zhirmunsky V.M. Byron and Pushkin. Pushkin and Western Literature. - L .: Nauka, 1978. - 424 p .; 3) Pushkin A.S. Full. collection cit .: In 10 volumes - volume VII. - L .: Science. Leningrad. Branch, 1977-1979; 4) Rozanov M.N. Essay on the history of English literature of the XIX century. Part one. The era of Byron. - M .: State Publishing House, 1922. - 247 p .; 5) McGann, Jerome J. Byron and Romanticism. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

T.S. Milovanova

10 chose

228 years ago, January 22, 1788 lord was born Byron... For his time, he was a real superstar. The famous poet is more successful Napoleon conquered Europe, invaded Russia and left his mark on our literary life. At the same time, Byron influenced not only world literature, but also human psychology, drawing a new type of personality - the Byronic hero. Let's think about whether such characters are found in real life.

Byron's characters are romantic heroes in an imperfect world. This discrepancy makes them suffer, and at the same time make others around them unhappy. They are mysterious (often associated with some kind of secret past), smart (which makes them feel superior to those around them) and hopelessly selfish. The actions of such characters make them closer to antiheroes, but antiheroes immensely attractive... Both in literature and in life, their gloomy charm reliably affects young enthusiastic persons who secretly dream of re-educating such a hero and giving peace of mind to his rushing soul. No wonder women writers have created incredibly attractive images of Byronic characters: Mr. Rochester ("Jane Eyre"), Heathcliff ("Wuthering Heights"), Rhett Butler ("Gone with the Wind"). But among male writers, Byronic characters are not able to bring happiness to anyone. Let us recall at least Onegin (although, in my opinion, the cheerful Pushkin described his "Child Harold" with a fair amount of irony) and Pechorin. A popular Byronic character in modern popular culture - Dr. House.

The characteristic features of the Byronic hero, both in literature and in life, often determine his fate.

• Contempt for society... Such a person considers himself smarter than the people around him, puts himself above society, its moral and ethical laws. This prevents him from becoming a part of public life. Probably young Salvador Dali considered himself a little Byron, when he refused to answer the teachers at one of the exams at the Madrid Academy of Arts, explaining that he considered himself much smarter than them.
• Loneliness... The second point logically follows from the first point: despising people in general, the Byronic man treats women accordingly. He seduces them, but more out of boredom or seeking power over other people's feelings. And after that he always leaves, dooming his random companions to misfortune, and himself to eternal loneliness.
• Lack of goals... Often the Byronic personality is doomed to an aimless existence. The philistine interests of those around him are too shallow for him, and idealism is lacking for lofty goals.
• Indifference to life... The consequence of all this is indifference to life. Byronic heroes are desperately bored, are not afraid of risk (hoping that the danger will somehow entertain them), have bad habits. Their behavior is consistent self-destruction. Such people are clearly not determined to live. "happily ever after".

Personally, I have met this type of men only in my youth. Maybe this has its own logic. After all, Pushkin and Lermontov were only 24 years old when they began to describe their Onegin and Pechorin. Often in real life, Byronism is just a mask that some men like to wear in their youth. And if this is the real essence of a person, then it is worth running from him without looking back. After all, he makes both himself and those around him unhappy.

Byronism is a trend in literature that has influenced many of the most talented writers and poets around the world. It was especially popular among Russian writers of the 19th century. Let's find out in more detail about Byronism and its creator, and also consider the most famous Russian writers of this period who were fascinated by this trend.

Who is Byron?

Before considering what Byronism is in literature (the definition and distinctive features of this movement), it is worth learning about its founder - the British aristocrat poet George Gordon Byron.

The childhood of the future literary idol was spent in poverty, since, despite his noble birth, the poet was able to receive the hereditary title and money only at the age of 10, when his distant relative died.

While studying at the University of Cambridge, Byron discovered the talent of a poet and began to write poetry. They were well received in literary circles, but the poem about a bored nobleman "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" brought real fame to the author. Soon after its publication, Byronic's noble longing spread like a plague not only across Great Britain, but throughout Europe.

As befits an idol, he lived to the fullest: he won the hearts of beautiful ladies, squandered money without an account, openly criticized the current political system and fought in duels.

According to the fateful tradition of geniuses, Byron died young - at the age of 36. The cause of his death was a cold, but of greater interest is how the poet fell ill. Despite his popularity, Byron was better known as a theoretician, and the author himself dreamed of proving that he would be as noble as he was in words. That is why, when the Greeks (whose culture the writer admired all his life) began a war with the Ottoman Empire for independence, the poet came to their aid. He spent all his money and influence to equip rebel soldiers. However, he did not live to see victory, having caught a cold and died.

Byronic hero

Soon after the publication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the term “Byronic hero” emerged in world literature. In fact, Childe Harold was the first of this species.

In the future, such characters were often found in the works of Russian writers - Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev and, of course, Dostoevsky.

What are the distinguishing features of the Byronic hero?

• He is always very smart, has an excellent education and upbringing.
• The hero is characterized by cynicism and arrogance. He is almost always in opposition to the authorities, which means that he is doomed to the lot of an exile.
• Such a character is a kind of sex symbol that can seduce anyone. However, the classic Byronic hero does not find much joy in this and most often does it just like that.
• And the main feature of such a hero is his mystery. There is a secret in the heart and past of each such character, which, like a magnet, attracts everyone, especially women.

Byronism - what is it?

Having learned who Byron is and what features the type of hero of works of art created by him has, it is worth considering the main thing. So, let's find out the answer to the question: "Byronism in literature - what is it?"

A similar name bears a special course of romanticism of the 19th century, the adherents of which inherit the traditions of the work of Lord Byron. In other words, the Byronic lyrical hero is at the center of any work of this kind.

Special features of this literary movement

Having learned the answer to the question "Byronism - what is it?", It is worth considering the works written in a similar style.

• For the majority of adherents of this trend in creativity, a mood of disillusionment with the world and its social order is characteristic.
• Also an important feature of Byronic characters is the so-called world melancholy. As Pushkin wrote about this, "Like an English spleen, in short: Russian blues."
• Another feature of Byronic works is the feeling of the protagonist of his own difference from everyone around him.
• Despite the ostentatious detachment from the world and melancholy, adherents of this movement are characterized by an attempt to elevate their heroes (as well as themselves) to the role of possible saviors of humanity. For many at that time, Napoleon Bonaparte became a kind of embodiment of this ideal. By the way, that is why he appears in one form or another in many works of that time.

Byronism in European literature

After the release of "Pilgrimage ..." almost all young writers of Europe were captivated by the beauty of the style and the ideas of the author.

At the same time, more mature writers saw perfectly well that behind the lord's enthusiastic romance and noble impulses there was nothing but youthful maximalism and a selfish belief in his own uniqueness. But they too often proved unable to resist the charm of the poetry of the yearning Briton.

The most famous Byronist writers in France are Alfred Victor de Vigny and Alfred de Musset.

Even Victor Hugo, gravitating towards realism, shared the desire of Byron's heroes for freedom and their willingness to resist the authorities.

In Italy, the most famous representative of Byronism is Giacomo Leopardi, in Germany - Heinrich Heine, in Poland - Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Slowacki.

Byronism in Russian literature of the 19th century

Like other European geniuses, the writers of tsarist Russia were fascinated by the ideas of the British yearning lord and were inspired by them when creating their own writings.

Among the admirers of Byronism, the most successful were such authors as V. Küchelbecker, A. Polezhaev, A. Pushkin. M. Lermontov, A. Griboyedov.

In addition, the influence of this trend can be found in the works of F. Dostoevsky, I. Turgenev.

Interesting facts about Byronism in the work of Pushkin

Considering in more detail the examples of Byronism in the work of Russian writers, it is worth starting with the founder of the Russian literary language - A.S. Pushkin.

Like his school friend Kuchelbecker, the future classic was in love with Byron's poetry. Moreover, according to the testimony of contemporaries, Alexander Sergeevich admired the British's ability to describe exotic countries and their inhabitants most of all.

For this reason, in the early poetry of Pushkin ("Prisoner of the Caucasus", "Bakhchisarai Fountain"), romantic Byronism is quite strongly felt.

When Alexander Sergeyevich matured as a poet, he began to more soberly evaluate the work of his idol. Thus, his famous novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" became a kind of Russian parody of Childe Harold.

Throughout the entire work, its creator mocks at the society's hobby for Byronism. In particular, the author ridicules the main postulates of this trend in its "noble melancholy", laziness, superficial education and constant striving for the forbidden. At the same time, the creator of the novel actively used in it such a favorite Byron technique - the author's witty remarks along the way.

Even in later periods, the influence of Byron is noticeable in Pushkin's work. One gets the impression that the classic to some extent competed with his British counterpart. For example, in response to Lord Mazepa's poem, Alexander Sergeevich wrote Poltava.

In the works of Pushkin and Byron there are stories about Don Juan. It is interesting that in Alexander Sergeevich the famous seducer is more inherent in the features of a Byronic hero than in the creator of Childe Harold.

Byronism in the work of Lermontov

Another talented Russian poet - an adherent of the trend in question is Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.

It is possible that his admiration for the work of the British genius was due to the poet's love for the poetry of Pushkin. So, in the biographies of the writers there is an interesting fact: they both at different times wrote poems in the style of Byronism - "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

Lermontov's hobby for Byronism developed along the same lines as that of Alexander Sergeevich. The young genius wrote several poems ("Izmail-Bey", "Hadji Abrek", "Mtsyri"), full of admiration for the oriental flavor of the Caucasian peoples and all the same unquenchable melancholy and disappointment in life.

Growing up, the poet also began to rethink his passion for romantic melancholy, but, unlike Pushkin, he continued to feel the closeness of his fate with the work of Byron. Perhaps this can explain the peculiar restlessness of Mikhail Yuryevich and his self-destructive behavior, which cost him his life. Some researchers of his work believe that the poet not only sought to imitate his British idol, but also unconsciously turned into a kind of Childe Harold.

As for Lermontov's later work, an example of Byronism in poetry is "The Demon", and in prose - "A Hero of Our Time."

The image of a demon in the poem of the same name was inspired by the author Lucifer from Byron's "Cain". But the main character of the "Hero of Our Time" Pechorin is an original find by Lermontov, endowed with many of its own features.

Byron's motives in the works of Turgenev and Dostoevsky

Unlike Lermontov and Pushkin, Turgenev and Dostoevsky were busy people, they did not have time for aristocratic melancholy. Despite this, their works were influenced by the trend in question.

For example, the main character of Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" Yevgeny Bazarov is a typical Byronic hero, called the then fashionable word "nihilist." At the same time, Turgenev throughout the entire work not only skillfully demonstrates the utopian nature of his ideas, but also once again shows the uselessness of such "heroes of our time" to society. Just what is the phrase in the finale of Fathers and Sons about young Russian students: “... with whom Heidelberg is filled and who, surprising at first naive German professors with their sober view of things, subsequently surprise the same professors with their complete inaction and absolute laziness ... unable to distinguish oxygen from nitrogen, but full of denial and self-respect ... ".

The master of words, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, went even further in his criticism of Byronism. In his epoch-making novel "Crime and Punishment", he displays the images of not one, but several Byronic heroes (Rodion Raskolnikov and Arkady Svidrigailov) whom he opposes to each other.

Raskolnikov is disappointed in life and finds consolation in his "special mission" - to save the world. As a result, he goes to a crime that does no good to anyone.

Svidrigailov is a more typical Byronic hero. He is mysterious, rich, intelligent, cynical and devilishly seductive. Suffering from the traditional "world melancholy", he falls in love with Raskolnikov's sister. In the finale, he has to realize that her reciprocity cannot heal him, so the hero kills himself.

In contrast to Svidrigailov, Raskolnikov fails to achieve anything of the desired, but in the finale he finds not only a new goal in life, but also a new mentor (Sonya), which helps him to get on the right path.

Researchers of Dostoevsky's work believe that even more features of Byronism can be found in the novel The Brothers Karamazov. Here Fyodor Mikhailovich not only shows a whole series of Childe Harolds with a Russian flavor, but also directly criticizes such a worldview: “Dreamy love longs for a quick, quickly satisfying feat and for everyone to look at it. Here it really comes to the point that they even give up their lives, so long as it does not last long, but rather quickly, as if on a stage, and for everyone to watch and praise. But active love is work and endurance, but for others it is, perhaps, a whole science ... ".

After such a deep analysis of the foundations of Byronism in literature and human psychology, as Dostoevsky did in his time, it seemed that this topic should have ceased to excite the minds of writers. However, the magic of the noble point has not dried up to this day.

Therefore, mysterious heroes, languishing with loneliness and misunderstanding, are still one of the most common book characters.