In Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri”, a young man who escaped from a monastery is shown as a romantic hero. The author develops ideas of protest and courage in his work. Mikhail Yuryevich almost completely excluded from his creation a love motive, which played a large role in his poem "Confession." This motive in “Mtsyri” was reflected only in the fleeting meeting of the protagonist with the Georgian, which took place at the mountain stream.
Conquering the impulse of his young heart, Mtsyri for the sake of the ideal of freedom renounces personal happiness. In the poem, the patriotic idea is inextricably linked with the theme of freedom. This is also observed in the work of Decembrist poets. Mikhail Yurievich does not share these concepts. In his work, a thirst for will and love for the Fatherland merge into a "fiery passion". Mtsyri is very attractive as a romantic hero. The analysis plan for this character should include his attitude to the monastery. We’ll talk about this now.
Mtsyri attitude to the monastery
The monastery for our hero is a prison. His cells seem stuffy to him, and the walls are dull and gloomy. Guardian monks appear to the protagonist as miserable and cowardly, and he himself as a prisoner and slave. The impulse to freedom is due to his desire to find out why we were born into the world, "for the will or prison." For a young man, the will is a 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 bliss this time. It is on the days spent at large that the image of Mtsyri is fully revealed. As a romantic hero, he manifests himself outside the walls of the monastery.
Patriotism of the protagonist
The least freedom-loving patriotism of the protagonist is like a love of expensive graves and beautiful native landscapes, although Mtsyri yearns for them. He truly loves his Motherland, wants to fight for its freedom. With undoubted sympathy, Mikhail Yurievich glorifies these youthful dreams. The work does not reveal the aspirations of the protagonist to the end, however, in hints, they are quite noticeable. The young man remembers his acquaintances and his father mainly as warriors. This hero does not accidentally dream of battles in which he is the winner. No wonder his dreams draw into the world of battles and worries.
The character of the protagonist
Mtsyri as a romantic hero is shown brave and courageous. He himself is convinced that “in the land of the fathers” could be one of the “daredevils”. And although this hero was not destined to experience the rapture of the battle, he is a real warrior by the nature of his character. From a young age, Mtsyri was distinguished by severe restraint. Proud of this, the hero says that he never knew tears. Only during the escape does the young man give free rein to tears, since no one sees them. The will of the protagonist was tempered by loneliness in the monastery walls. It was no accident that it was on a thunderous night that Mtsyri decided to escape: the fearful monks were frightened by the rampant elements, but not this young man. Toward a thunderstorm, he had only a sense of brotherhood.
The stamina and masculinity of a young man
The stamina and courage of Mtsyri is manifested with the greatest force in the episode of the battle with the leopard. His grave did not frighten him, since he understood that returning to the monastery would be a continuation of his suffering. The tragic finale created by the author shows that the spirit of the hero does not wane due to the approach of death. His freedom-loving patriotism in her face does not disappear. The Mtsyri do not make the monk's exhortations repent. He says that he would again trade eternity and paradise for several minutes spent among loved ones. There is no fault of Mtsyri in the fact that circumstances could not be overcome, and he could not get into the ranks of the fighters. The hero tried in vain to argue with his fate. He was defeated, but not internally broken. Mtsyri is a positive hero of Russian literature. His integrity, courage, courage were reproach to inactive and fearful representatives of the noble society, modern Lermontov.
The role of landscape in character disclosure
The Caucasian landscape serves to reveal the image of a young man from the poem "Mtsyri". As a romantic hero, despising the environment, he feels a kinship only with nature. Growing up within the walls of a monastery, he compares himself to a greenhouse leaf. Breaking free, he raises his head with the flowers at sunrise. Being a child of nature, Mtsyri falls to the ground and, like a hero of fairy tales, learns the secret of the prophetic chirping of birds, the riddles of their songs. He understands the thought of the eager cliffs eager to meet, the argument with the stones of the stream. The young man’s gaze is sharpened: he notices how the leopard’s wool casts silver, the scales of snakes shine, he sees a pale strip between the earth and the sky and the prongs of distant mountains. Mtsyri, as a romantic hero of the poem, thinks that through the blue of the sky he could see the flight of angels.
The traditions of romanticism and new features of the poem of Lermontov
Of course, the poem of Mikhail Yurievich continues the tradition 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 confession. In this, Mikhail Yurievich followed the tradition. All this is typical of romanticism. Nevertheless, Lermontov, who wrote his poem in the years when he worked on the realistic work “Hero of Our Time”, introduced features in Mtsyri 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 formation of their characters. And in the work "Mtsyri" we find lines that the childhood and adolescence of the protagonist were unhappy. This helps us to better understand his thoughts and experiences. It should be noted that the form of confession, which is so characteristic of poems in the style of romanticism, is connected with the desire to "tell the soul," that is, to reveal it as deeply as possible. Such detailing of experiences, the psychologism of the work are natural for Lermontov, since he created at the same time a socio-psychological novel.
The confession in the confession of numerous romantic metaphors (images of flame, fire), with a poetically mean and accurate introductory speech characteristic of realism, is very expressive. The poem begins with the lines: “Once a Russian general ...” The work, romantic in its form, testified to the fact that in Lermontov's work realistic tendencies became more and more distinct.
Lermontov's innovation
So, we opened the topic "Mtsyri as a romantic hero." Lermontov entered Russian literature as a successor to the Decembrist poets and traditions of Pushkin. However, he introduced something new in the development of the Russian word of art.
Belinsky said that we can talk about the so-called Lermontov element. The critic explained that by it is meant primarily "original living thought." Of course, it is felt in the creation of such an image as Mtsyri. As a romantic hero, briefly this young man was characterized by us. You saw that the work has some realistic features.