Characterization of Mtsyri in the light of the romantic ideals of Lermontov

The poem "Mtsyri" critic Belinsky for no reason called Lermontov's favorite child, emphasizing that in her the great poet reflected his cherished dreams and ideals. The poem is of an autobiographical nature, it contains subtle hints of the personality and destiny of the poet himself.

Author and hero

Yes, the author and his hero are spiritually close to each other. Characterization of Mtsyri, the history of his life allow us to see direct analogies. Like Lermontov, Mtsyri is a bright, unconventional nature, ready to challenge the whole world and rush into battle in the name of freedom and for the sake of gaining the Motherland. Quiet, measured life in the monastery walls, endless fasts and prayers, complete humility and rejection of any resistance is not for a young novice. Similarly, Lermontov refused to drag the miserable existence of a manual court poet, a sugary frequenter of balls and high-society lounges. Mikhail Yurievich hated the country of slaves and gentlemen to the same extent as his Mtsyri's stuffy cell and the entire way of monastic life. And both of them - the author and the fruit of his creation - were infinitely lonely, devoid of happiness to be understood, to be close to a close, native, beloved soul. The joy of true friendship, the sweetness of true, faithful, mutual love, the opportunity to live where the heart is torn - all this passed by them, poisoning the soul with the bitterness of disappointment and the pain of unfulfilled hopes.

Romantic features of the poem

The hero of the poem is a vivid embodiment of Lermontov's romantic outlook. In light of this, Mtsyri's characterization, as well as the whole work, reflects the main features of this literary and artistic direction. The place of action in the romantic work is exotic countries, far from the shackles of civilization and its corrupting influence. Lermontov has the Caucasus, which became his symbol of freedom in his work. The life and customs of the highlanders, sometimes wild, incomprehensible to the European consciousness, their tribal pride and militancy, the heightened sense of honor and dignity, the power and pristine beauty of the mountains and of all the Caucasian nature have captivated the poet even in early childhood and have won the heart for life. And in the fateful game of chance, the Caucasus became the second home of Mikhail Yurievich, the place of his endless references and an inexhaustible source of creativity. Here and in the poem the whole plot unfolds in Georgia, near the monastery, which stood at the confluence of Aragva and the Kura.

Characterization of Mtsyri includes the motive of rejection, misunderstanding on one side and pride, rebelliousness, challenge, struggle - on the other, which is also typical for romantic works. The main hero of the poem years spent in the monastery, considered lost, lost, erased from life. Confessing to the old monk who once left him, an exhausted child, saved from physical death, but recognized spirituality, for he could not become his father or friend, and so, narrating about what he saw and did at will during Escape, Mtsyri remarked: he would not have regretted three lives in the monastery for the sake of one action-filled movement, struggle and freedom.

Monks will never understand a young man. They spend their lives humbly bowing their heads in prayers and hopes for the Lord. The hero relies on himself, on his strength and capabilities. Demonstrative characteristic of Mtsyri - he fled from his prison during a terrible thunderstorm, and the revelry of the elements pleases him, for him the storm is a sister, while monks in horror pray for salvation. And the battle with the leopard, taken by Lermontov from the mountain legends (also an element of romanticism - the connection with folklore) and "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" Rustaveli and so brilliantly reinterpreted and reworked, surprisingly organically fits into the content of the work and helps to reveal the best features of the personality of the young man. Here and courage, and amazing courage, self-control, belief in their strengths and capabilities and checking them for strength, the complete fusion of a proud, recalcitrant spirit with the same unruly nature. Without the episode "Combat with a leopard", the character of the hero Mtsyri would be incomplete, and his image is not fully disclosed.

What else, besides freedom, does the young man dream? First of all, find your family, hug your relatives, be under the roof of your father's house. He dreams of his father and brothers, recall the echoes of a lullaby that the mother used to sing. In dreams he sees smoke over his native aul, he hears the guttural speech of his people. In fact, this is what constitutes the foundation, the spiritual core of every person: family, home, mother tongue and native land. Take away one thing - and the person will feel orphaned. And the Mtsyri was deprived of everything - and immediately! But Lermontov important that he saved his memories, kept them in himself as the most precious and intimate. Like Lermontov himself, he bore and cherished in the depths of the heart the image of the people's Russia with its boundless forests, rivers like rivers, and birches on the hillock.

Hero and time

Analysis of Lermontov's verse, analysis of his poem allow to understand: the author did not accidentally present Mtsyri only three days of bright, full-bodied, full-blooded life. For the rebels of such a warehouse, the time has not yet come, just as the poet himself is far ahead of his time. Society, being in spiritual despondency after the defeat of the Decembrists and the death of Pushkin, could not rise to the brunt of the reaction. A rare single-type Mtsyri was doomed to perish. After all, the hero of time, the portrait of a whole generation of Lermontov's contemporaries, was not a mountain youth, but Pechorin, Grushnitsky, Dr. Werner - "superfluous people", disappointed in life or playing in such.

And yet it was Mtsyri who became the embodiment of the romantic ideals of the poet, a symbol of a bright, purposeful personality who is ready to burn out in a flash, but brightly, and not smolder by a worthless bullet for many years.