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- The theme of love in Blok’s works
Each person’s personal experience helps build an understanding of the mysterious feeling called love. This topic is the most multifaceted in literature. Opinion of A.A. Blok’s idea of this wonderful feeling changed throughout the entire period of his creativity. The author grew, developed, and along with these changes, the theme of love was revealed to him from different sides.
In his first poems, the theme of love sounds with awe and delight. At that time, he was in love with Lyubov Mendeleeva, and dedicated all his creations to her. Blok describes absolutely pure love for a beautiful girl, which he does not dare to violate with a close acquaintance. Blok's hero most often watches the girl from the side. The poet draws an ideal, deified image, calling his beloved Madonna, the most pure virgin. Blok sees love through the prism of his religious feelings - the hero in the poems worships it as something great and at the same time beautiful. Blok's early works are more sublime, there is no primitiveness or earthiness in them. Blok’s theme of love is based on understatement; he gives the reader the opportunity to think about the mystery of existence.
Mendeleev was not the author's only love. Later he became interested in actress Natalya Volokhova, who played in Blok’s drama. Tender feelings for her are expressed in the “Snow Mask” cycle. The image of the beloved is depicted realistically - this is no longer a deity, but an earthly woman with whom you can communicate as equals. Feelings become less bright, and the author even says that he is “tired of his friend’s caresses” in the work “Second Baptism.” The theme of love is compared by Blok to a blizzard, forcing the lyrical hero to disappear in the darkness or freeze in the snow. The feeling weighs heavily on the soul, bringing no pleasure.
After the chilling feelings of the last cycle, the Carmen cycle, on the contrary, is woven from passion. Blok’s heroine is a woman who awakens passion “a window that burns not just from the dawn,” but with it a creative spark “and sees creative dreams.” He paints a vivid image of a contemporary woman, a gypsy or Slav, as freedom-loving as the lyrical hero himself.
The tense situation in the country, devastation and hunger force Blok to face the terrifying reality. The main character of “The Stranger,” intelligently breathing “spirits and mists,” has a hard time in this new life. And the theme of love for a woman in Blok’s work is intertwined with love for his homeland. He calls Rus' his wife, and together with her he feels the pain of what is happening.
Throughout his creative career, Blok tried to understand what love was for him, because at every stage of his life it was different.
Essay Love in Blok’s works
The life of Alexander Blok was difficult and ornate. And it’s no secret that all poets transfer all their emotions and experiences, including love ones, to paper. Blok is no exception.
His work can be divided into 3 stages, and all of them are associated exclusively with women and his love for them.
The most interesting for me is the first stage of his work and, accordingly, the first collection “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”. The lines are permeated with bright, “tasty” emotions. But this is by no means a passion, but a blind, eternal (as it seems) affection and love, from which the heart aches, which sometimes you think that it cannot exist, it is so ideal. The poems were dedicated to Alexander Blok's future wife, Lyudmila Mendeleeva. But in my opinion, they are permeated with youthful maximalism.
I have a feeling about you. Years pass by -
All in one form I foresee You.
Agree. This is so similar to trembling youthful love, timid, sometimes even unrequited.
But the love story of the poet and his wife Lyudmila turned out to be a double-edged sword. Either unable to withstand the complex character of Alexander Alexandrovich, or they have both already grown out of these feelings, the woman leaves him for the then very promising writer Andrei Bely. And all these events are reflected in Blok’s work.
Now his “brainchildren” have become completely different: meaningful, with a different rhythm and intonation. And now the object of adoration is treated not as something unearthly and unattainable, but as something completely mundane, but still desirable. Why something? Yes, because he didn’t particularly perceive her as a woman. He just needed someone to admire and love.
To my great regret, in one of the last cycles of Blok’s poems called “Carmen,” dedicated to a dancer of the ballet troupe, whose performances Alexander Blok often attended, I saw not love, but passion, which is unlikely to end in something good, but After all, I really want to believe in unearthly endless love. It is not known to the village whether this woman was the poet’s mistress, but there was passion between them, which allowed him to write such beautiful poems.
Alexander Blok passed away very young, but he remains a symbol of the Silver Age of Russian literature.
Essay-reasoning What is unique about A. A. Blok’s love lyrics?
A. Blok's love lyrics were and remain unique and inimitable. After all, it is this feeling sent from above that the poet glorifies in most of his works. He dedicated not only individual poems, but also entire collections of his poetic works to the feeling of love.
“Poems about a Beautiful Lady” belongs to the first cycle of the poet’s love lyrics, in which he glorifies the eternal femininity of a real-life beautiful Russian girl - A.’s bride.
Blok and the fictional image of an ideal woman - an angel. Although he realizes that the vague outlines of the dream woman he invented do not actually exist, the poet is afraid of being disappointed in his real-life beloved. After all, a real person, even the most beloved, simply cannot be ideal. Therefore, the poet’s mood changes from enthusiastic words to doubts, foreshadowing the death of the Beautiful Lady as “unprecedented dreams of thoughts.” The poet increasingly strives to ensure that spiritual feelings prevail over carnal thoughts.
With the advent of a new hobby for the actress N. Volokhova, a new collection of love lyrics “Snow Mask” is born, and under the impression of the poet in love with the singer L. Delmas, the collection “Carmen” is born. Unlike the first cycle of poems, which were enthusiastic and glorified the woman as an angel and the embodiment of naive purity, these works are characterized by clear outlines and specific characteristics of each new lover. Are you enrolling in 2021? Our team will help you save your time and nerves: we will select directions and universities (according to your preferences and expert recommendations); we will fill out applications (all you have to do is sign); we will submit applications to Russian universities (online, by e-mail, by courier); we will monitor competition lists ( we will automate the tracking and analysis of your positions); we will tell you when and where to submit the original (we will evaluate the chances and determine the best option). Entrust the routine to professionals - more details.
Now love does not appear as a sublime, wonderful feeling. No - now it is an insidious alluring passion that brings death and demands a lot in return.
The same theme of ungrateful love is the leading one in the collection “A Terrible World.” Its name itself speaks for itself. Love mixed with passion, torment, and suffering is real torture for a poet in love. Such love cannot inspire and give happiness. On the contrary, it vulgarizes and defiles the best intentions and aspirations of the lyrical hero. Therefore, the poet is disappointed in the essence of earthly existence, believing that in this world of base passions there is no place for beautiful and deep feelings. Love here is always doomed, so it cannot make anyone happy.
Blok's love lyrics essentially reflect the formation of the poet's spiritual path from an ardent, enthusiastic youth who idealizes a woman as an untouchable deity, to the image of a real earthly woman with her feelings, problems and shortcomings. But such an ordinary woman, like any other person, is worthy of love and understanding.
Useful material on the topic:
- What is unique about the disclosure of the love theme in the lyrics of A. A. Blok?
- What is the drama of M. Yu. Lermontov’s love lyrics?
- What are the features of the sound of a love theme in the poetry of the Silver Age? (Using the example of the lyrics of one of the poets.)
- What is unique about the sound of the love theme in the poetry of A. A. Fet?
- What is unique about the conflict between the poet and the crowd in the lyrics of V. V. Mayakovsky
Option 4
Love is what is given to us from above. Each person has a different understanding of love: some give themselves completely to this feeling, while others do not understand how important and pleasant it is to love and be loved. Many poets, writers, psychologists, and scientists have tried to give answers to many questions about love, but there are no clear answers.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok is a poet who often addressed the theme of love in his lyrics. He was in love with Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, so works of art were often dedicated to this woman. The Beautiful Lady contained mystery, beauty and harmony. Blok lived with expectations and desires, but was afraid of being rejected. He loved as a woman to be worshiped and admired. His love for Mendeleeva can be called an unearthly and divine feeling.
L.D. Mendeleev was for A.A. Blok with something supernatural. He admired this woman, knew that she was close, but at the same time understood that she was unattainable. It was the opportunity to admire a woman and feel that she was close that gave rise to many of Blok’s poetry masterpieces. He saw how everyday life and everyday life change women for the worse, so he wanted to do everything for his beloved.
A.A. Blok always dreamed of finding his ideal, a soul mate, in his own life, but, unfortunately, he never managed to find the one who would be with the poet in both joy and sorrow. Mendeleev’s love could not stand it, got tired of Blok’s divine love and left him for Andrei Bely. Despite the pain and disappointment, the poems of the magnificent Alexander Blok remained.
Love for Mendeleeva was intertwined with love for the Motherland in perfect works. He wanted to serve his Motherland, despite the fact that all his experiences and thoughts were only about the Beautiful Lady. Alexander Alexandrovich grew up, developed, and his views on life changed dramatically. He could not calmly watch the death, hunger and suffering around him.
Blok was looking for ways to real life, where disappointments, outbursts of despair, attempts to revise his life goals, etc. awaited him. But the poet managed to prove that he is a deep man with a big heart. Alexander Alexandrovich Blok in his works showed what kind of person he is, how he treats people and love. He drew a parallel between the beautiful, the wonderful and what is really important: helping the people who are so in need of calm and peace.
Despite the fact that the life of the lyric poet was cut short very early, the popularity of Alexander Alexandrovich Blok’s poems does not fade in our time. He always perceived everything that happened around him with his feelings. Therefore, his works of art are filled with mysteries, mysticism and have incredible appeal.
What is unique about the disclosure of the love theme in the lyrics of A.A. Blok?
The theme of love occupies a large place in the lyrics of A.A. Blok. The uniqueness of his disclosure of this topic lies in the fact that love is deified: it is sacred and inextricably linked with religion and faith. The first cycle of love lyrics, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” is dedicated to the image of “eternal femininity,” taken from the philosophy of V. Solovyov. On the one hand there is a real woman, the future wife of the poet, L.D. Mendeleev, and on the other - an angel, an ideal being. The image is vague, foggy, and the lyrical hero himself is aware of this. He is afraid that the appearance of a beautiful maiden in flesh and blood will result in the death of his romantic hopes and will kill his bright dreams.
A new feeling for actress N.N. Volokhova inspired the poet to write a new collection - “Snow Mask”. Here the image of the beloved is concretized, and the feeling is no longer light and inspiring, but leading to death through the dark distances.
The collection “Carmen” is dedicated to the opera singer L.A. Delmas, and is completely imbued with the burning passion that arose from the character she played.
In the collection “Scary World” the main theme is also love. Here love is mixed with passion, and together they coexist with torment, torture, suffering and death, and the entire environment vulgarizes and darkens them. The poet, and with him the lyrical hero with his dreams, are defeated by this world. They are disappointed in him, in love, in people. If passion, then it destroys, if love, then it goes away, these are the terrible laws of the universe, and happiness is impossible here.
Blok’s love lyrics reflected the poet’s entire spiritual journey from an ardent youth to a mature man who experienced and understood a lot. The beloved, who at first had a ghostly image that cannot even be touched, gradually turns into an earthly woman experiencing feelings that are not always sublime and pure. This is the main originality of the poet’s love lyrics.
What gave rise to the contemporaries of A.S. Pushkin to call him “the singer of friendship”?
It's no secret that such a concept as friendship occupies a very important place in a person's life. This is not a whim, but a necessity. Every person needs a feeling of being protected, to know that there is a close person in spirit nearby who, like no one else, can understand our feelings and experiences. And even great people felt this need. Alexander Pushkin was no exception.
The great poet did a lot for his homeland; his works are still considered one of the best, and you can re-read them endlessly. But even such a talented and self-sufficient person needed a close friend. Alexander had the rare gift of true friendship, he really knew what valor and honor were in relationships between like-minded people, he knew how painfully betrayal hurt and therefore could never allow himself to commit such a base act.
Pushkin was called differently, he earned many eloquent names: the Sun of Poetry, the Smartest Man of Russia, the Prophet, the Sage and much more. But what especially stands out is his nickname “singer of friendship.” It is not without reason that contemporaries dubbed the poet this way. It all started at the lyceum, where young Alexander made friends. Then they could share all the thoughts that came to mind, have fun together, but they still did not imagine that they were connected by a thread of true friendship that went far beyond the confines of the lyceum.
The friends who were sent to the poet by fate themselves won Alexander’s trust and he was faithful to the bonds of holy friendship until his last breath. Pushkin always found the opportunity to visit his true friends; he needed to communicate with kindred spirits. Despite his wild popularity, he always remained that simple guy with whom his comrades at the lyceum became friends. Even while in exile, the poet found the strength to write to those closest to him.
How important the concept of friendship was for the talented poet can be seen directly in his work. Many of Pushkin’s poems and works were dedicated precisely to the motives of the bright feeling of friendship. Many of the author’s poems reveal the depth of Alexander’s heart and his gratitude for the fact that his friends did not abandon him and visited him even in the most terrible moments. He dedicated many poems to close friends. All this gives the right to call Alexander Pushkin the singer of friendship.
History of creation
The poem “In the Restaurant” was written on April 19, 1910. This year has been difficult for Alexander Alexandrovich. He has very difficult relationships in his family:
“Lyuba drove my mother to illness... Lyuba pushes all the best people away from herself and from me...”
In the same year, V.F. Komissarzhevskaya dies of smallpox, M.A. Vrubel passes away, and L.N. Tolstoy passes away. Also in 1910, Russian futurism entered the scene, which means symbolism fades into the background. But not for Blok!
The poem under analysis is a kind of rethinking of “The Stranger.” Many sources report that “In the Restaurant” is dedicated to the actress and dancer Olga Afanasyevna Sudeikina.
A very interesting fact is that for her husband, artist Sergei Sudeikin, she was a “dream”, an adored, “ethereal object”. Similar relationships developed in the Blok family. Lyubov Dmitrievna was for Blok the living embodiment of the Beautiful Lady, whom he glorified in his works all his life. There is also an assumption that this poem is not dedicated to Sudeikina, but to the wife of one of the artists, Maria Dmitrievna Nelidova.
The poem “In the Restaurant” is an integral part of the cycle “Scary World”. This cycle is distinguished by a special tragedy, a certain fear of life, of the vulgarity of the modern world.
