In Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" a young man who escaped from a monastery is shown as a romantic hero. The author develops in his work the ideas of protest and courage. Mikhail Yuryevich almost completely excluded from his creation the love motif, which played a large role in his poem “Confession”. This motif in “Mtsyri” was reflected only in the fleeting meeting of the protagonist with a Georgian woman, which took place near a mountain stream.
Defeating the impulse of his young heart, Mtsyri renounces personal happiness for the sake of the ideal of freedom. In the poem, the patriotic idea is inextricably linked with the theme of freedom. This is also observed in the works of the Decembrist poets. Mikhail Yuryevich does not share these concepts. In his work, thirst for will and love for the Fatherland merge into “fiery passion”. Mtsyri is very attractive as a romantic hero. The plan for analyzing this character must include his relationship to the monastery. This is what we will talk about now.
Mtsyri's relationship to the monastery
The monastery for our hero is a prison. The cells seem stuffy to him, and the walls seem dull and gloomy. The monk guards appear to the main character as pitiful and cowardly, and he himself appears as a prisoner and slave. The impulse for freedom is determined by his desire to find out why we were born into the world, “for freedom or prison.” For the young man, his will turns out to be the few days he spent in the world after escaping from the monastery. Outside the blank walls, he lived a full life, and did not vegetate. The hero calls this time bliss. It is during the days spent in freedom that the image of Mtsyri is fully revealed. As a romantic hero, he manifests himself behind the walls of the monastery.
Essay: “Mtsyri – a romantic hero (based on the poem of the same name by M.Yu. Lermontov)”
The literary scholar offers a short essay on the topic: “Mtsyri - a romantic hero (based on the poem of the same name by M.Yu. Lermontov)”, as well as get acquainted with the main character, his character, motives and actions.
Mikhail Lermontov in the poem “Mtsyri” created the ideal of a romantic hero. He continued the traditions of Pushkin, but also introduced his own innovations into literature. His romantic heroes can be called “Byronic,” that is, classical. Let's take a closer look at the romantic hero Mtsyri from the poem of the same name.
Mtsyri is endowed with all the qualities that should be inherent in a romantic hero. Apart from this, he is also placed in romantic unusual circumstances. Once upon a time, the boy Mtsyri was kidnapped by a Russian general. On the way, he became very ill and probably would have died if the monks had not accepted him into their monastery. There the boy “at first ran away from everyone,” “but later he got used to captivity,” learned a foreign language, culture, and began to prepare for monasticism.
But this whole life was not his. Somewhere deep inside he felt like a stranger here. More than anything else, the boy wanted to find his native place and hug his loved ones. The walls of the monastery become a real prison for him. He suffocates in them and still finds a moment to try his luck. At night, when the thunderstorm spread its loud wet embrace over the silent dark sky, Mtsyri runs from the monastery.
At such times, the monks usually began to pray, they were scared. They believed that thunderstorms were manifestations of God's wrath, so the monks prayed, asking for mercy. It is interesting that Mtsyri himself is so alien to this reality that he is the only person in the monastery who was not afraid of the thunderstorm and greeted the thunder like a brother. For him, these sounds of nature turned out to be a call to escape and salvation. Mtsyri is opposed to the whole society. He is a stranger here and is trying to find his place in this world.
Like a typical romantic hero, Mtsyri finds his world in nature. Having not seen this beauty for years, he easily understands what the birds are singing about, what the grass is whispering. The three days that he spent outside the walls of the monastery gave him a different life. He believed that these days were the only real ones in his life, everything else was just a conclusion. In nature, he meets a young Georgian girl. For the first time, his heart responded with a sweet fire in his chest. And yet, for him, freedom and homeland are much more important than love.
This is the dream that has been with him since childhood. Therefore, Mtsyri leaves her romantic dreams and goes to the call of her mother. And yet, a tragic end is typical for a romantic hero. Mtsyri does not get to his native places. He only remembers pictures from the past: his brave father, sweet sisters who sang songs to him, and the rest of the warriors.
There he fights a leopard and defeats him. This scene symbolizes a great thirst for freedom and victory over one's fears. And yet this strong, loving, freedom-loving Mtsyri is doomed to failure. He wanders through the forests until the path again takes him back to the hated monastery. Interestingly, he hears the bell. This sound is artificial, the opposite of the free roll of thunder that called him on his way. Then his strength leaves him, he wants to die.
Having tasted the desired freedom, Mtsyri does not want to return to lifelong captivity. But this hero is doomed to failure. The monks find him in a semi-conscious state. Mtsyri refuses to talk to these people. And yet he finds the strength to confess to one monk. And he tells him the story of three days of wanderings, which were the best days of his life.
Mtsyri, like a true romantic hero, dies at the end of the poem. But before that, he asks the monks to bury him outside the monastery, in the wild. Thus, his sinful body will be able to bite freedom at least after death.
Mtsyri is a typical romantic hero. He is placed in unusual circumstances, the whole world is alien to him. This image is opposed to society; he experiences unity with nature, which reflects all his feelings and rebellious impulses towards freedom. The story of Mtsyri is presented in the form of a confession, as in the best traditions of romanticism. And, of course, his end is very tragic, because he has no place either in the monastery or in any other corner of this world.
Even if he had found his homeland, he certainly would not have found his living relatives. And there he would have to live among people to whom he was a stranger. Mikhail Lermontov omitted the love line in this poem, only briefly remembering it. But this theme is fully compensated by great patriotism and love for the Fatherland. Mtsyri is one of the most striking romantic heroes in Russian literature.
Patriotism of the main character
The freedom-loving patriotism of the main character is least similar to the love of expensive graves and beautiful native landscapes, although Mtsyri yearns for them. He truly loves his Fatherland and wants to fight for its freedom. With undoubted sympathy, Mikhail Yuryevich sings of these youthful dreams. The work does not fully reveal the aspirations of the main character, but in hints they are quite palpable. The young man remembers his acquaintances and his father mainly as warriors. It is no coincidence that this hero dreams of battles in which he is victorious. It is not for nothing that his dreams draw him into the world of battles and anxieties.
Character of the main character
Mtsyri as a romantic hero is shown to be brave and courageous. He himself is convinced that “in the land of his fathers” he could be one of the “dares.” And although this hero was not destined to experience the rapture of battle, he is a true warrior by nature. From a young age, Mtsyri was distinguished by severe restraint. Proud of this, the hero says that he has never known tears. Only during his escape does the young man give free rein to his tears, since no one can see them. The will of the protagonist was strengthened by loneliness within the monastery walls. It is no coincidence that it was on a stormy night that Mtsyri decided to escape: the fearful monks were frightened by the rampant elements, but not this young man. Before the thunderstorm, all he had was a feeling of brotherhood.
Characteristics of the main character
Mtsyri is a young man who was orphaned from an early age and lived in a monastery. It would seem that he should have been grateful for his salvation and not complain about life, but for him life in the monastery was comparable to imprisonment. He dreamed that one day he would break free, see the world, admire nature and get to his homeland, which he often remembered. Life within the monastery walls was disastrous and hopeless for him, since Mtsyri did not feel happiness and peace.
The main character traits of Mtsyri are:
- Love of freedom.
- Love for the Motherland and nature.
- Pride.
- Insubordination.
He thought that only life in freedom among endless fields and forests could instill a sense of peace and joy in his soul, so the hero hoped to find inspiration and love behind stone walls.
Reading the poem, you can notice that the basis of the narrative are Mtsyri’s thoughts and actions, his inner experiences, and a special view of the world.
The resilience and masculinity of a young man
Mtsyri's fortitude and masculinity are manifested with greatest force in the episode of the battle with the leopard. The grave did not frighten him, since he understood that returning to the monastery would be a continuation of suffering. The tragic ending created by the author shows that the hero’s spirit does not weaken due to the approach of death. His freedom-loving patriotism does not disappear in front of her. Mtsyri is not forced to repent by the monk’s exhortations. He says that he would trade eternity and paradise again for a few minutes spent among loved ones. It is not Mtsyri’s fault that the circumstances could not be overcome, and he could not join the ranks of the fighters. The hero tried in vain to argue with his fate. He was defeated, but not broken internally. Mtsyri is a positive hero of Russian literature. His integrity, masculinity, and courage were a reproach to the inactive and fearful representatives of the noble society contemporary with Lermontov.
The role of landscape in revealing character
The Caucasian landscape serves to reveal the image of the young man from the poem “Mtsyri”. Like a romantic hero, despising his surroundings, he feels kinship only with nature. Having grown up within the walls of a monastery, he compares himself to a greenhouse leaf. Having broken free, he raises his head along with the flowers at sunrise. Being a child of nature, Mtsyri falls to the ground and, like the hero of fairy tales, learns the secret of the prophetic chirping of birds, the riddles of their songs. He understands the thoughts of those separated rocks eager to meet, arguing with the stones of the stream. The young man’s gaze is sharpened: he notices how the leopard’s fur shimmers with silver, how the snake’s scales glisten, he sees a pale stripe between earth and sky and the jagged teeth of distant mountains. Mtsyri, as the romantic hero of the poem, thinks that through the blue sky he could see the flight of angels.
Traditions of romanticism and new features of Lermontov’s poem
Of course, Mikhail Yuryevich’s poem continues the traditions of romanticism. This is evidenced, in particular, by the central image of the work. Full of fiery passions, Mtsyri, as a romantic hero, lonely and gloomy, reveals his soul in a confessional story. In this, Mikhail Yuryevich followed tradition. All this is typical of romanticism. Nevertheless, Lermontov, who wrote his poem during the years when he was working on the realistic work “Hero of Our Time,” introduced into “Mtsyri” features that were not characteristic of his earlier poems. Indeed, the past of the heroes of “Boyar Orsha” and “Confession” remains unknown to us. We do not know what social conditions influenced the development of their characters. And in the work “Mtsyri” we find lines that the protagonist’s childhood and adolescence were unhappy. This helps us gain a deeper understanding of his thoughts and experiences. It should also be noted that the form of confession, so characteristic of poems in the style of romanticism, is associated with the desire to “tell the soul,” that is, to reveal it as deeply as possible. Such detailing of experiences and the psychologism of the work are natural for Lermontov, since he simultaneously created a socio-psychological novel.
The combination in the confession of numerous metaphors of a romantic nature (images of flame, fire), with the poetically sparse and precise speech of the introduction, characteristic of realism, is very expressive. The poem begins with the lines: “Once upon a time, a Russian general...” The work, romantic in its form, indicated that realistic tendencies were becoming more and more distinct in Lermontov’s work.
The poem "Mtsyri" as a romantic work
Considering Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" as a romantic work, it makes sense to remember first of all the main features characteristic of any romantic work. Firstly, it is a shift of attention to the main character, his thoughts, sensations and experiences. Secondly, this is the implementation in the text of the main principle of romanticism: the depiction of an unusual hero in unusual circumstances. Thirdly, making the main task of conveying the romantic rebellion of the hero, the author often treats facts carelessly and generally pays little attention to the world around him.
Lermontov's innovation
So, we have revealed the topic “Mtsyri as a romantic hero.” Lermontov entered Russian literature as a successor of the Decembrist poets and the traditions of Pushkin. However, he also introduced something new into the development of Russian artistic expression.
Belinsky said that we can talk about the so-called Lermontov element. The critic explained that it means, first of all, “original living thought.” Of course, it is also felt in the creation of such an image as Mtsyri. This young man was briefly described by us as a romantic hero. You saw that the work also has some realistic features.
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