The generalized image of a person created by J.G. Byron, reflecting Byron's ideas about the human personality and in many ways close to the author himself. The heroes of Byron's poems and dramas are different, but 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." different from other people already outwardly. Despite his youth, his forehead is cut with wrinkles - evidence of the strength of his experiences. The look of the hero is also expressive: it can be gloomy, fiery, mysterious, frightening (to such an extent that only a few are able to withstand it), it can burn with anger, rage, determination, you can guess from it the secret passions that torment “B. G.".
Corresponds to the scale of the personality of the hero and the environment in which he is depicted: over the sea, at the entrance to the 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 entirely, without a trace (Selim's passion for Zuleika, Giaur's desire to take revenge on Gassan). The hero's desire for freedom is indomitable, he rebels against any coercion, 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 a 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 of “B. G." A.S. also pointed out Pushkin. According to the Russian poet, in the person of his hero, Byron displays "the ghost of himself." Pushkin calls "B. G." "gloomy, powerful", "mysteriously captivating".
Researcher M.N. Rozanov characterized such a hero as "titanic". V.M. Zhirmunsky in his study "Byron and Pushkin" speaks of "B. G." not only as a hero of Byron's works.
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 that continues the traditions of English "terrible novels" of the 18th century. and reinterpreted in a new way by the authors of the 19th century. In Russian literature, in particular, in the work of Pushkin, to whom the monograph by V.M. Zhirmunsky, "B. G." debunked, showing not only his strength, but also his weakness.
Of the recent studies on this issue, the work Byron and Romanticism (Cambridge, 2002) by Jerome McGann, the author of several books about Byron, and also the editor of the complete collection of his 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, since, 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 hero close, but not identical to himself, sought to objectify himself, to explore his own thoughts and feelings. However, this way of self-knowledge is imperfect, since in the end the heroes created by Byron act according to his "poetic orders".
Byron's "masks" McGann refers not only to 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.
Partly the relationship between Byron and "B. G." reminiscent of L.'s attitude to the "Lermontov man", but there are some differences. The hero L. is not necessarily his "mask", his self-projection.
The poet is also interested in other heroes, unlike him, "ordinary people": fishermen, peasants, highlanders, soldiers, and later - the old "Caucasian" Maxim 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 between 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 spiritual life of Lara (and partly in love with him a girl who, under the guise of a page, accompanies him), then L. was so carried away by the image of ordinary people that they obscured the image of Vadim and turned out to be more convincing from an artistic point of view. However, at an early stage of creativity, Byron's heroes - rebellious, incomprehensible, lonely - were precisely those people to whom L. had an "aesthetic interest". Byron attracted the young man L. with strength, passion, energy, and a thirst for activity. It is these heroes that prevail in his early work: Vadim, who takes revenge on Rurik for the death of Leda and the enslavement of his native Novgorod, Fernando, who seeks to snatch Emilia from the clutches of the insidious Sorrini, etc. Even the Corsair in the early poem, written before Byron was known 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 wanted to "achieve" him, i.e. to equal him in terms of 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 "Nauka", 2009 - 95 p.; 2) Zhirmunsky V.M. Byron and Pushkin. Pushkin and Western Literature. - L.: Nauka, 1978. - 424 p.; 3) Pushkin A.S. Full. coll. cit.: In 10 vols. - vol. VII. - L.: Science. Leningrad. Department, 1977–1979; 4) Rozanov M.N. Essay on the history of English literature of the 19th century. Part one. Age of Byron. - M.: State publishing house, 1922. - 247 p.; 5) McGann, Jerome J. Byron and Romanticism. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
T.S. Milovanova
J. G. Byron
English romantic poet. The younger generation is a 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 (lyrical epic poem, philosophical mystery drama, verse novel ...), innovation in various areas of poetics, in ways of creating images, and finally, participation in the political and literary struggle of his time. Byron's inner world was complex and contradictory. He was born in a turning point. The castle was inherited by Byron at the age of 10 with the title of lord
Byron is the embodiment of real human virtues; indestructible fighter for justice; a rebel against the then politics; ideal for a whole generation; wrestler, poet, cynic, socialite, aristocrat, romantic, idealist, satirist; passionate and impulsive, easily fell in love, disappointed, captured by new ideas, strong in spirit, sensitive and impressionable, acutely felt not only his own defeats, the troubles of life, all the sorrows of the world, the Byronic hero, universal sorrow.
Born in poverty in London, lame, his father lowered the family fortune. Raised by mother. Never got along with her. At school they made fun of him. Byron University never graduated, had fun, played cards. Debts were growing.
Byron fought with representatives of the "lake school" (a satire on them)
The first collection "Leisure Hours". The collection received negative reviews.
The disclosure of the idea of freedom as a proper life in unity with nature reaches its greatest strength in the poem “I want to be a free child ...”
Made a big trip. Traveling impressions formed the basis of the lyrical poem "Childe-Harold's Pilgrimage". The poem became famous throughout Europe, gave rise to a new type of literary hero. Byron was introduced into high society, and he plunged into secular life, although he could not get rid of the feeling of awkwardness due to a physical defect, hiding it behind arrogance.
Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" sounded the idea of freedom for all peoples, affirmed not only the right, but also the duty of every people to fight for independence and freedom from tyranny. In another sense, freedom for Byron is the freedom of the individual.
But the synthesis of the epic and lyrical layers peculiar to the poem gives a special complexity to the composition: it is not always possible to determine exactly who owns the lyrical thoughts: the hero or the author. The lyrical beginning is brought into the poem by the images of nature, and above all by the image of the sea, which becomes a symbol of the uncontrollable and independent free element.
In the third song, the poet refers to the 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, art in the struggle for the freedom of peoples. The poet compares himself to a drop that has poured into the sea, to a swimmer who is related to the sea element. This metaphor becomes understandable if we consider that the image of the sea embodies the people who have been striving for freedom for centuries. The author in the poem is thus a citizen poet.
"Oriental stories"
The appeal to the East was characteristic of the romantics: it revealed to them a different type of beauty compared to the ancient Greco-Roman ideal, which the classicists were guided by; The East for romantics is also a place where passions rage, where despots stifle freedom, resorting to oriental cunning and cruelty, and the romantic hero placed in this world reveals his love of freedom more vividly in a collision with tyranny. "Corsair", "Gyaur", "Abydos Bride"
Unlike Childe Harold, the hero-observer who has withdrawn from the struggle with society, the heroes of these poems are people of action, active protest.
Swiss period
Byron's political free-thinking and the freedom of his religious and moral views caused a real persecution of the whole of English society against him. His break with his wife was used to campaign against the poet. Byron leaves for Switzerland. His disappointment is in fact becoming universal.
"Manfred". The symbolic-philosophical dramatic poem "Manfred" was written in Switzerland. Manfred, who comprehended "all earthly wisdom", is deeply disappointed. Manfred's suffering, his "world sorrow" is inextricably linked with the loneliness that he himself chose. Manfred's egocentrism reaches the ultimate level, he considers himself above everything in the world, he wants complete, absolute freedom. But his self-centeredness brings doom 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" Byron's greatest work. 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 Byron's other poems that it is 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 a Spanish legend about the punishment of an atheist and seducer of many women. witty description of the exploits of the legendary and tireless hero-lover
Byron in Greece. The desire to take part in the national liberation struggle, about which Byron wrote so much, leads him to Greece. Sick Dying. The Greeks still regard Byron as their national hero.
Byron, who never knew the measure of desires, striving to get as much as possible from life, fed up with the available benefits, was looking for new adventures and impressions, trying to get rid of deep spiritual anguish and anxiety.
Byron's poems are more autobiographical than those of other English Romantics.
Unlike most romantics, Byron respected the heritage of English classicism,
Byronism is a romantic trend. Byronists are characterized by disappointment in society and the world, moods of "world sorrow", a sharp discord between the poet and others, the cult of the superman
Byronic hero
The protest of the human personality against the social system that constrains it.
With the advent of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and other works by Byron, the concept of "Byronic hero" became widely used, which became the literary embodiment of the spirit of the era, those moods that society lived in the early 19th century. This was the artistic discovery of the poet, which he made in observations of himself and his generation.
Extraordinary personality, freethinker,
His hero is disillusioned with the world, he is not happy with 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 are superior to those around them in intelligence and education, they are mysterious and charismatic, irresistibly attracting the weaker sex. They place themselves outside society and the law, look at social institutions with arrogance, sometimes reaching cynicism. Digging in yourself. Conclusion. 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. For him, disappointment in the surrounding reality, protest against it, boredom, wandering in the slum of his own soul, disappointment, melancholy, longing for unrealizable ideals are characteristic. Rebel strong character, dreamer
This is a lone traveler, an exile. Usually the Byronic hero is an exceptional character, acting under exceptional circumstances. He is characterized by deep and intense feelings, longing, melancholy, spiritual impulses, ardent passions, he rejects the laws that others obey, so such a hero always rises above the environment.
The hero is disappointed in the values of the world, he is not happy with wealth, entertainment, or fame. The main state of mind is boredom. He is dissatisfied with the environment, cannot find a place in it. The hero does not correlate his life with his homeland, country, land, he stands above the borders, he belongs to everyone. His suffering and feelings are the main subject of the author's research.
Poem
THE SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS
Sleepless sun, mournful star,
Your wet beam reaches us here.
With him, the night seems darker to us,
You are the memory of happiness that rushed away.
The vague light of the past still trembles,
Still flickers, but there is no heat in it.
Midnight ray, you're alone in the sky
Clean, but lifeless, clear, but far away!..
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 - this is the inner theme of the poet's lyrics.
End! Everything was just a dream.
There is no light in my future.
Where is happiness, where is charm?
Trembling under the wind of an evil winter,
My dawn is hidden behind a cloud of darkness,
Gone is the love, the radiance of hope...
Oh, if only a memory!
George (Lord) Byron
Sleepless sun, sad star,
How tearfully your beam always flickers,
Like the darkness is even darker with him,
How it resembles the joy of former 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 grief,
Visible, but far away - bright, but cold!
J. G. Byron
English romantic poet. The younger generation is a 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 (lyrical epic poem, philosophical mystery drama, verse novel ...), innovation in various areas of poetics, in ways of creating images, and finally, participation in the political and literary struggle of his time. Byron's inner world was complex and contradictory. He was born in a turning point. The castle was inherited by Byron at the age of 10 with the title of lord
Byron is the embodiment of real human virtues; indestructible fighter for justice; a rebel against the then politics; ideal for a whole generation; wrestler, poet, cynic, socialite, aristocrat, romantic, idealist, satirist; passionate and impulsive, easily fell in love, disappointed, captured by new ideas, strong in spirit, sensitive and impressionable, acutely felt not only his own defeats, the troubles of life, all the sorrows of the world, the Byronic hero, universal sorrow.
Born in poverty in London, lame, his father lowered the family fortune. Raised by mother. Never got along with her. At school they made fun of him. Byron University never graduated, had fun, played cards. Debts were growing.
Byron fought with representatives of the "lake school" (a satire on them)
The first collection "Leisure Hours". The collection received negative reviews.
The disclosure of the idea of freedom as a proper life in unity with nature reaches its greatest strength in the poem “I want to be a free child ...”
Made a big trip. Traveling impressions formed the basis of the lyrical poem "Childe-Harold's Pilgrimage". The poem became famous throughout Europe, gave rise to a new type of literary hero. Byron was introduced into high society, and he plunged into secular life, although he could not get rid of the feeling of awkwardness due to a physical defect, hiding it behind arrogance.
Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" sounded the idea of freedom for all peoples, affirmed not only the right, but also the duty of every people to fight for independence and freedom from tyranny. In another sense, freedom for Byron is the freedom of the individual.
But the synthesis of the epic and lyrical layers peculiar to the poem gives a special complexity to the composition: it is not always possible to determine exactly who owns the lyrical thoughts: the hero or the author. The lyrical beginning is brought into the poem by the images of nature, and above all by the image of the sea, which becomes a symbol of the uncontrollable and independent free element.
In the third song, the poet refers to the 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, art in the struggle for the freedom of peoples. The poet compares himself to a drop that has poured into the sea, to a swimmer who is related to the sea element. This metaphor becomes understandable if we consider that the image of the sea embodies the people who have been striving for freedom for centuries. The author in the poem is thus a citizen poet.
"Oriental stories"
The appeal to the East was characteristic of the romantics: it revealed to them a different type of beauty compared to the ancient Greco-Roman ideal, which the classicists were guided by; The East for romantics is also a place where passions rage, where despots stifle freedom, resorting to oriental cunning and cruelty, and the romantic hero placed in this world reveals his love of freedom more vividly in a collision with tyranny. "Corsair", "Gyaur", "Abydos Bride"
Unlike Childe Harold, the hero-observer who has withdrawn from the struggle with society, the heroes of these poems are people of action, active protest.
Swiss period
Byron's political free-thinking and the freedom of his religious and moral views caused a real persecution of the whole of English society against him. His break with his wife was used to campaign against the poet. Byron leaves for Switzerland. His disappointment is in fact becoming universal.
"Manfred". The symbolic-philosophical dramatic poem "Manfred" was written in Switzerland. Manfred, who comprehended "all earthly wisdom", is deeply disappointed. Manfred's suffering, his "world sorrow" is inextricably linked with the loneliness that he himself chose. Manfred's egocentrism reaches the ultimate level, he considers himself above everything in the world, he wants complete, absolute freedom. But his self-centeredness brings doom 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" Byron's greatest work. 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 Byron's other poems that it is 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 a Spanish legend about the punishment of an atheist and seducer of many women. witty description of the exploits of the legendary and tireless hero-lover
Byron in Greece. The desire to take part in the national liberation struggle, about which Byron wrote so much, leads him to Greece. Sick Dying. The Greeks still regard Byron as their national hero.
Byron, who never knew the measure of desires, striving to get as much as possible from life, fed up with the available benefits, was looking for new adventures and impressions, trying to get rid of deep spiritual anguish and anxiety.
Byron's poems are more autobiographical than those of other English Romantics.
Unlike most romantics, Byron respected the heritage of English classicism,
Byronism is a romantic trend. Byronists are characterized by disappointment in society and the world, moods of "world sorrow", a sharp discord between the poet and others, the cult of the superman
Byronic hero
The protest of the human personality against the social system that constrains it.
With the advent of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and other works by Byron, the concept of "Byronic hero" became widely used, which became the literary embodiment of the spirit of the era, those moods that society lived in the early 19th century. This was the artistic discovery of the poet, which he made in observations of himself and his generation.
Extraordinary personality, freethinker,
His hero is disillusioned with the world, he is not happy with 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 are superior to those around them in intelligence and education, they are mysterious and charismatic, irresistibly attracting the weaker sex. They place themselves outside society and the law, look at social institutions with arrogance, sometimes reaching cynicism. Digging in yourself. Conclusion. 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. For him, disappointment in the surrounding reality, protest against it, boredom, wandering in the slum of his own soul, disappointment, melancholy, longing for unrealizable ideals are characteristic. Rebel strong character, dreamer
This is a lone traveler, an exile. Usually the Byronic hero is an exceptional character, acting under exceptional circumstances. He is characterized by deep and intense feelings, longing, melancholy, spiritual impulses, ardent passions, he rejects the laws that others obey, so such a hero always rises above the environment.
The hero is disappointed in the values of the world, he is not happy with wealth, entertainment, or fame. The main state of mind is boredom. He is dissatisfied with the environment, cannot find a place in it. The hero does not correlate his life with his homeland, country, land, he stands above the borders, he belongs to everyone. His suffering and feelings are the main subject of the author's research.
Poem
THE SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS
Sleepless sun, mournful star,
Your wet beam reaches us here.
With him, the night seems darker to us,
You are the memory of happiness that rushed away.
The vague light of the past still trembles,
Still flickers, but there is no heat in it.
Midnight ray, you're alone in the sky
Clean, but lifeless, clear, but far away!..
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 - this is the inner theme of the poet's lyrics.
End! Everything was just a dream.
There is no light in my future.
Where is happiness, where is charm?
Trembling under the wind of an evil winter,
My dawn is hidden behind a cloud of darkness,
Gone is the love, the radiance of hope...
Oh, if only a memory!
George (Lord) Byron
Sleepless sun, sad star,
How tearfully your beam always flickers,
Like the darkness is even darker with him,
How it resembles the joy of former 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 grief,
Visible, but far away - bright, but cold!
§ 1. The main features of Byron's work
Romanticism as a dominant trend gradually established itself in English art in the 1790s-1800s. It was a terrible time. The revolutionary events in France shocked 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, the colossal growth of industrial cities, and on the other hand, gave rise to glaring social disasters: mass pauperism, famine, prostitution, an increase in 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-consciousness. It will be named after the poet - the era of Byronism. In his personality they saw the embodied spirit of the time, they believed that Byron "put the song of a whole generation to music" (Vyazemsky) .Letters. Memories. Responses. - M.: 1989 .. Byronism was defined as "world sorrow", which was an echo of the unfulfilled hopes that the French Revolution awakened. As a reflection caused by the spectacle of the triumph of reaction in post-Napoleonic Europe. As rebelliousness, capable of expressing itself only with contempt for universal humility and sanctimonious well-being. As a cult of individualism, or, rather, as an apotheosis of unlimited freedom, which is accompanied by endless loneliness Kovaleva OV Foreign literature of the XI X century. Romanticism. Textbook / O. V. Kovaleva, L. G. Shakhov a - M .: LLC Publishing House ONIK S 21st Century. - 2005. - 272 p.: Ill..
The great Russian writer F.M. Dostoevsky wrote: “Although Byronism was momentary, it was a great, holy and extraordinary phenomenon in the life of European mankind, and almost in the life of all mankind. Byronism appeared at a moment of people's terrible anguish, their disappointment and almost despair. After the frenzied rapture of a new faith in new ideals proclaimed in France at the end of the last century ... an outcome came so unlike what was expected, so deceived people's faith that perhaps never in the history of Western Europe was so sad minutes... Old idols lay broken. And at that very moment a great and powerful genius, a passionate poet, appeared. In its sounds, the then longing of mankind and its gloomy disappointment in its appointment and in the ideals that deceived it resounded. It was a new and unheard-of even then muse of revenge and sadness, damnation and despair. The spirit of Byronism suddenly swept through all of humanity, all of it responded to him” Dostoevsky F. M. Poln. coll. op. - L: 1984. - T. 26. - S. 113-114.
Recognized as the leader of European Romanticism in one of its more militant and rebellious variants, Byron was linked to Enlightenment traditions in a complex and contradictory relationship. Like other progressive people of his era, he felt with great acuteness the discrepancy between the utopian beliefs of the enlighteners and reality. A son of an egotistical age, he was far from the complacent optimism of the thinkers of the eighteenth century with their doctrine of the good nature of the "natural man."
But if Byron was tormented by doubts about many truths of the Enlightenment and about the possibility of their practical implementation, then the poet never questioned their moral and ethical value. From a sense of the greatness of enlightenment and revolutionary ideals and from bitter doubts about the possibility of their realization, the whole complex complex of "Byronism" arose with its deep contradictions, with its fluctuations between light and shadow; with heroic impulses to the "impossible" and the tragic consciousness of the immutability of the laws of history History of foreign literature of the XIX century: Proc. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. No. 2101 “Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva.-- M .: Education.- 1982.--320 p.- P. 69.
The general ideological and aesthetic foundations of the poet's work were not formed immediately. The first of his poetic performances was a collection of youthful poems Leisure Hours (1807), which still had an imitative and immature character. The bright originality of Byron's creative individuality, 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 the most famous work of Byron, brought its author world fame, at the same time being the largest event in the history of European romanticism. It is a kind of lyrical diary in which the poet expressed his attitude to life, gave an assessment of his era, the material for which was Byron's impressions from a trip to Europe undertaken in 1812. Taking disparate diary entries as the basis of his work, Byron combined them into one poetic whole, giving it a certain appearance of plot unity. He made the story of the wanderings of the protagonist, Childe Harold, the unifying beginning of his narrative, using this motif to recreate a 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 Elistratova A. A. The legacy of English romanticism and modernity. - M .: 1960. With a passion for national "exotics", "local color", characteristic of romantics, Byron depicts the customs and customs of various countries.
With his inherent tyrannical pathos, the poet shows that the spirit of freedom, which so recently inspired all of humanity, has not completely died out. 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 stern, rebellious Albanians. And yet, persecuted freedom is increasingly relegated to the realm of legends, memories, legends. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Proc. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. No. 2101 “Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva.-- M.: Enlightenment.- 1982.--320 p. S. 73.
In Greece, which became the cradle of democracy, now nothing reminded of the once free ancient Hellas (“And under the Turkish whips, humbled, Greece stretched out, trampled in the mud”). In a world that is chained, only nature remains free, a lush and joyful flowering that appears as a contrast to the cruelty and malice that reigns in human society (“Let the genius die, liberty died, eternal nature is beautiful and bright”).
But the poet, contemplating the sad spectacle of the defeat of freedom, does not lose faith in the possibility of its revival. All his spirit, all his mighty energy is aimed at awakening the fading revolutionary spirit. Throughout the poem, the call to rebellion, to the fight against tyranny (“Oh, Greece, rise up to fight!”) Sounds with unrelenting force.
And unlike Childe Harold, who only watches from the sidelines, Byron is by no means a passive contemplator of the world tragedy. His restless, restless soul, as if a part of the world soul, contains all the sorrow and pain of mankind (“world sorrow”). It was this feeling of the infinity of the human spirit, its fusion with the whole world, combined with purely poetic features - the global breadth of the theme, the dazzling brightness of colors, magnificent landscape sketches, etc. - that, according to M.S. Kurginyan, the work of Byron in the highest achievement of romantic art of the early XIX century Kurginyan MS George Byron. - M.: 1958.
It is no coincidence that in the minds of many admirers and followers of Byron, who enthusiastically accepted the poem, Byron remained primarily the author of Childe Harold. Among them was A. S. 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 the spirit of militant love of freedom embodied in the poem. Both in ideological content and in poetic embodiment, "Childe Harold" is a true sign of its time. Deeply consonant with modernity was the image of the protagonist of the poem - an internally devastated, homeless wanderer, tragically lonely Childe Harold. Although this disillusioned, disillusioned English aristocrat was not an exact likeness of Byron (as the poet's contemporaries mistakenly thought), traits of a special character were already outlined in his appearance (still in the "dotted outline"), which became the romantic prototype of all the opposition-minded heroes of the literature of the 19th century. , and who will later be called the Byronic hero, most of all suffering from loneliness:
I am alone in the world among the empty ones,
boundless waters.
Why should I sigh for others,
who will sigh for me? -
Mournfully asks Byron's Childe Harold.
The inseparability of this single lyrical complex is manifested with particular clarity in poems dedicated to Greece, a country whose dream of liberation became a running motif 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 early poems about Greece in the Song of the Greek Rebels (1812):
O Greece, rise!
Shine of ancient glory
Calls wrestlers to fight,
A majestic feat.
In Byron's later poems on the same subject, the personal emphasis increases. In the last of them, written almost on the eve of his death (“Last Lines Addressed to Greece”, 1824), the poet refers to the country of his dreams as to his beloved woman or mother:
Love you! don't be harsh with me!
……………………………………
My love is an imperishable foundation!
I am yours - and I can not cope with this!
He himself best described his own perception of civic issues in one of the lyrical works - “From a diary in Kefalonia” (1823):
The sleep of the dead is alarmed - can I sleep?
Tyrants crush the world - will I give in?
The harvest is ripe - should I hesitate to reap?
On the couch - a sharp thorn; I do not sleep;
In my ears, that day, the trumpet sings,
Her heart echoes...
Per. A. Blok
The sound of this combat "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.
Consonant with the moods of the progressive people of the world (many of them could say about Byron together with M. Yu. Lermontov: “We have one soul, the same torment”), the revolutionary rebelliousness 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 environment alien to him, he and this environment experienced mutual rejection and contempt for each other: he, because of the hypocrisy of his well-born acquaintances, they, because of his past and because of his views.
The hostility of its ruling circles to Byron was especially intensified because of his speeches in defense of the Luddites (workers who destroyed cars in protest against inhuman working conditions). To all this, a personal drama was added: 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 to get even with him. Byron became the object of harassment and bullying, in fact, England turned its greatest poet into an exile.
Childe Harold's relationship with the society he despised already carried the seed of the conflict that became the basis of the European novel of the 19th century. This conflict between the individual 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”, “The Bride of Abydos”, “Parisina”, “The Siege of Corinth”), the final formation of the Byronic hero takes place in his complex relationship with the world and himself. yourself. The place of "Eastern poems" in the poet's creative biography and at the same time in the history of romanticism is determined by the fact that here for the first time a new romantic concept of personality, which arose as a result of a rethinking of enlightenment views on a person, was clearly formulated.
The 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, embodied in the Holy Alliance, opened one of the most bleak pages in 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 philosophy.
The pinnacle of Byron's work is considered to be his philosophical drama "Cain", the main character of which is a theomachist; who took up arms against the universal tyrant - Jehovah. In his religious drama, which he called "mystery", the poet uses the biblical myth to polemic with the Bible. But the god in "Cain" is not only a symbol of religion. In his gloomy image, the poet combines all forms of tyrannical arbitrariness. His Jehovah is both the sinister power of religion, and the despotic yoke of the reactionary anti-people state, and, finally, the general laws of being, indifferent to the sorrows and sufferings of mankind.
Byron, following the enlighteners, contrasts this many-sided world evil with the idea of a bold and free human mind that does not accept cruelty and injustice reigning in the world.
The son of Adam and Eve, expelled from paradise for their desire to know good and evil, Cain questions their fear-born claims of God's mercy and justice. On this path of searching and doubting, 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, “like night”, appearance is marked by the seal of tragic duality. The dialectics of good and evil, as internally interconnected beginnings of life and history, revealed to the romantics, determined the contradictory structure of the image of Lucifer. The evil he does is not his original purpose (“I wanted to be your creator,” he says to Cain, “and I would have created you differently”). Byron's Lucifer (whose name means "light-bearer" in translation) is the one who strives to become a creator, but becomes a destroyer. Introducing Cain to the mysteries of being, he makes a flight with him to the superstellar spheres, and the gloomy picture of the cold lifeless universe (recreated by Byron on the basis of acquaintance with Cuvier's astronomical theories) finally convinces the hero of the drama that the all-encompassing principle of the universe is the domination of death and evil ( “Evil is the leaven of all life and lifelessness,” Lucifer teaches Cain).
The justice of the lesson taught to him Cain comprehends from his own experience. Returning to earth already a complete and convinced enemy of God, who gives life to his creatures only in order 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 knowledge of life by Cain. In himself he knows the irresistibility and omnipresence of evil. His impulse to good gives rise to crime. The protest against the destroyer of Jehovah turns into murder and suffering. Hating death, Cain is the first to bring it into the world. This paradox, prompted by the experience of the recent revolution and generalizing its results, at the same time gives 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 great poetic force captured the depth of the tragic despair of the poet, who knew the impossibility 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 with special energy look 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, there is already a new understanding of history for him, not as a mysterious fate, but as a set of real relations in human society. With this shift in emphasis, the strengthening of the realistic tendencies of his poetry is also connected.
Thoughts about the vicissitudes of life and history, which were present in his works earlier, now become his constant companions. This trend is especially clearly expressed in the last two songs of "Childe Harold", where the desire to generalize the historical experience of mankind, and 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 remain, Lausanne and Ferney, where the shadows of the "two titans" - Voltaire and Rousseau, Florence, who expelled Dante, Ferrara, who betrayed Tasso), are included in the third and the fourth canto 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 Napoleon's last battle, pushes Byron to sum up the results of the just past era and evaluate the activities of its main character, Napoleon Bonaparte. The Lesson of History prompts the poet not only to draw 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 catastrophes. And at the same time, contrary to his own concept of historical "rock", the poet comes to the idea that "after all, your spirit, Freedom, is alive!", Still calling the peoples of the world to fight for Freedom. “Rise, rise,” he addresses Italy (which was under the yoke of Austria), “and, having driven away the bloodsuckers, 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 the Greek rebels, interrupted his short, but such a bright life and creative path.
§ 2. Byronic heroes-exiles: Prometheus, Manfred, Prisoner of Chillon and Corsair
As already noted, the Byronic exile hero, a rebel who rejects society and is rejected by it, has become a special type of romantic hero. Of course, one of the brightest Byronic heroes is Childe-Harold, however, in other works of Byron, the images of romantic heroes, rebel heroes, and exile heroes are vivid and distinct.
In the context of our theme - the theme of the outcast hero in Byron's work, one of his early poems - "The Corsair" (1814), which is part of the Oriental Poems cycle, is of the greatest interest, where the Byronic conflict of an outstanding personality and a society hostile to her is presented in a particularly complete and direct expression.
Corsair. The hero of "The Corsair" - the sea robber Conrad, by the very nature of his activity, is an outcast. His way of life is a direct challenge not only to the prevailing moral standards, but also to the system of prevailing state laws, the violation of which turns Conrad into a "professional" criminal. The reasons for this sharpest conflict between the hero and the entire civilized world, beyond which Conrad retired, are gradually revealed in the course of the plot development of the poem. The guiding thread to its ideological concept is the symbolic image of the sea, which appears in the song of the pirates, prefaced by the narrative in the form of a kind of prologue. This appeal to the sea is one of Byron's constant lyrical motifs. A. S. Pushkin, who called Byron "the singer of the sea", likens the English poet to this "free element":
Shumi, get excited by bad weather:
He was, O sea, your singer!
Your image was marked on it
He was created by your spirit:
Like you, mighty, deep and gloomy,
Like you, nothing is indomitable.
"To the sea" Pushkin A. S. Full. coll. op. in 10 volumes. - M.: 1958. - v. 7. - p. 52-53.
The entire content of the poem can be seen as a development and substantiation of its metaphorical prologue. The soul of Conrad, a pirate plowing the sea, is also the sea. Stormy, indomitable, free, resisting all attempts to enslave, it does not fit into any unambiguous rationalistic formulas. Good and evil, generosity and cruelty, rebellious impulses and yearning for harmony exist in it in an inseparable unity. A man of powerful unbridled passions, Conrad is equally capable of murder and heroic self-sacrifice (during the fire of the seraglio belonging to his enemy Pasha Seid, Conrad 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 to everyone who is somehow connected with him. Marked with the seal of sinister fate, Conrad 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. Of whom shall I say otherwise, of whom?” And yet, his way of life, as if imposed on him by a hostile world, to some extent burdens 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 itself, its mangling, attracted.
Everyone mocked, and betrayed everyone;
Like the feeling of fallen dew
Under the arch of the grotto; and how this grotto
It petrified in its turn,
Having passed his earthly bondage ...
Per. Y. Petrova
Like many of Byron's heroes, Conrad was pure, trusting, and loving in the distant past. Slightly lifting the veil of mystery enveloping the background of his hero, the poet reports that the gloomy lot he has chosen is the result of persecution by a soulless and evil society that persecutes everything bright, free and original. Laying the responsibility for the destructive activities of the Corsair on a corrupt and insignificant society, Byron poeticizes his personality and the state of mind in which he is. As a true romantic, the author of The Corsair finds a special "night" "demonic" beauty in this confused consciousness, in the chaotic impulses of the human heart. Its source is a proud desire for freedom - against all odds and at all costs.
It was this angry protest against the enslavement of the Personality that determined the tremendous artistic impact of the 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 self-will 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” lurking in them (“Lord Byron with a successful whim / Clothed in dull romanticism and hopeless egoism” ) Quoted from: History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Proc. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. No. 2101 “Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva.-- M.: Enlightenment.- 1982.--320 p. S. 23.
In his poem "Gypsies", Pushkin put into the mouth of one of its characters, an old gypsy, words that sound like a sentence not only to Aleko, but also to the Byronic hero as a literary and psychological category: "You only want freedom for yourself." These words contain an extremely precise indication of the most vulnerable spot in Byron's concept of personality. But with all the fairness of such an assessment, one cannot fail to see that this most controversial side of the Byronic characters also arose on a very real historical basis. It is no coincidence that the Polish poet and publicist A. Mickiewicz, together with some critics of Byron, saw in not only Manfred, but also in Le Corsaire a well-known resemblance to Napoleon Mickiewicz A. Sobr. op. in 5 volumes. - M.: 1954 - v. 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: “I deeply admired Aeschylus' Prometheus in my boyhood years ... "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 lot,
To our mournful vale,
For human pain
You looked without contempt;
But what was the reward?
Suffering, stress
Yes kite, that without end
Torments the liver of the proud,
Rock, chains a sad sound,
The suffocating burden of torment
Yes, the groan that is buried in the heart,
You suppressed, calmed down,
So that about your sorrows
He couldn't tell the gods.
The poem is built in the form of an appeal to a titan, a solemn, odic intonation recreates the image of a stoic sufferer, warrior and fighter, in whom “Greatness is hidden / For the human race!”. The attention is especially focused on the silent contempt of Prometheus in relation to Zeus, the "proud god": "... the groan that is buried in the heart, / suppressed by You, subsided ...". 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 Byron's historical events and life circumstances in 1816 (restoration of monarchical regimes in Europe, exile), the most important theme of the poem acquires special significance - a bitter reflection on a furious fate, omnipotent fate, which turn a person's earthly lot into a "mournful vale". In the last part of the poem, human fate is tragically comprehended - "mortal path - / Human life - 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 torment."
In the poem "Prometheus" Byron painted the image of a hero, a titan, persecuted because he wants to alleviate the human pain of those living on earth. Almighty Rock chained him as a punishment for his good desire to "put an end to misfortunes." And although the suffering of Prometheus is beyond all strength, he does not humble himself before the Tyranny of the Thunderer. The heroism of the tragic image of Prometheus is that he can "turn even death into victory." The legendary image of the Greek myth and tragedy of Aeschylus acquires in Byron's poem the features of civic prowess, courage and fearlessness characteristic of the hero of revolutionary romantic poetry Kovaleva OV Foreign literature of the 11th century. Romanticism. Textbook / O. V. Kovaleva, L. G. Shakhov a - M .: LLC Publishing House ONIK S 21st Century - 2005. .
The images of Prometheus, Manfred and Cain in Byron's poems of the same name are consonant with the proud protest of circumstances and the challenge of tyranny. So, Manfred declares to the spirits of the elements who came to him:
Immortal spirit, legacy of Prometheus,
The fire lit in me is just as bright,
Mighty and all-encompassing, like yours,
Although clothed with earthen dust.
But if Byron himself, creating the image of Prometheus, only partly 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 of Byron, whose spirit is “high, powerful, but the spirit of denial, pride and contempt”, writes: “... before us is the titan Prometheus, chained to a rock Caucasus and proudly cursing Zeus, to whom the kite tears his insides” Zhukovsky V. A. 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 grief, looked ahead, and without considering, beyond the flickering distance, the promised land of the future, he cursed the present and declared to him irreconcilable and eternal enmity...” Belinsky V. G. 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 certain reassessment of his own values. Building his drama in the form of a kind of excursion into the inner life of the "Byronic" hero, the poet shows the tragedy of his hero's spiritual discord. Romantic Faust - magician and magician Manfred, like his German prototype, was disappointed in knowledge.
Having received superhuman power over the elements of nature, Manfred was at the same time plunged into a state of cruel internal conflict. Possessed by despair and heavy remorse, he wanders through 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. The complex spiritual conflict, which acts as the dramatic axis of the work, is a kind of psychological modification of the Byron conflict of a gifted person with a hostile world. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Proc. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. 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 break his inner connection with it. In "Manfred" Byron, with much greater certainty than in previously created works, indicates those destructive principles that are hidden in the individualistic consciousness of his time.
The titanic individualism of the proud "superman" Manfred is a kind of sign of the times. As the son of his age, Manfred, like Napoleon, is the bearer of epochal consciousness. This is indicated by the symbolic song of "fates" - the peculiar spirits of history flying over Manfred's head. The image of the “crowned villain cast into dust” (in other words, Napoleon), which appears in their ominous chant, clearly correlates with the image of Manfred. For the romantic poet, both of them - and his hero Manfred, and the deposed emperor of France - are the tools of "fates" and their master - the evil genius 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”).
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 to be a chain of catastrophes, the problem of the costs of progress seemed tragic. 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 being hostile to man. His Manfred up to 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 inflexible stoicism is affirmed by Byron as the only form of life behavior worthy of man.
This idea, which forms the basis of the artistic development of 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: Proc. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. 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 a truly grandiose scale. His soul is a true microcosm. Everything that is in the world is born from its bowels. It contains all the elements of the universe - in himself, Manfred bears hell and heaven, and he himself creates judgment on himself. Objectively, the pathos of the poem is in affirming 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 cost of blood and suffering. These are Byron's reflections on the results of the tragic path traveled by mankind at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Proc. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. No. 2101 “Rus. lang. and lit. "/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaeva.-- M .: Education - 1982.--320 p. - S. 23. .
"Prisoner of Chillon" (1816). This poem was based on a real life fact: the tragic story of the Genevan citizen Francois de Bonivare, who was imprisoned in the Chillon prison in 1530 for religious and political reasons and was imprisoned until 1537. Using this episode of the distant past as material for one of his most lyrically mournful works, Byron put into it a sharply modern content. In his interpretation, it became an indictment of the political reaction of any historical variety. 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 prison world, where people suffer torment for their loyalty to moral and patriotic ideals, before which, in the words of V. G. Belinsky, “Dante himself seems to be in hell some kind of paradise ” Belinsky V. G. Poly. coll. op. in 13 volumes. - M.: 1955 - v. 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 dead. The darkness surrounding the prisoner fills his inner world and settles in him a formless chaos:
And I saw, as in a bad dream,
All pale, dark, dull to me...
It was darkness without darkness;
It was - the abyss of emptiness
Without stretch and borders;
They were images without faces;
That was some kind of terrible world,
Without sky, light and luminaries,
Without time, without days and years,
Without fishing, without blessings and troubles,
Neither life nor death is like a dream of coffins,
Like an ocean without a shore
Crushed by the heavy haze,
Motionless, dark and mute...
Per. V. A. Chukovsky
The stoically adamant martyr of an idea does not embark on the path of renunciation, but he turns into a passive person, indifferent to everything, and, perhaps the worst thing, resigns himself to bondage and even begins to love the place of his imprisonment:
When outside the door of your prison
I stepped free
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 put on his shoulders the heavy burden of human suffering, is put forward in the center of Byron's works in many respects. allowance for students ped. in-t on spec. 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, present in all Byron's works, is unhappy, but independence is dearer to him than peace, comfort, even happiness. The Byronic hero is uncompromising, there is no hypocrisy in him, because ties with a society in which hypocrisy is a way of life are severed. Only one human connection is recognized by the poet as possible for his free, non-hypocritical and lonely hero - a feeling of great love, only one ideal exists for him - the ideal of Freedom, for which he is ready to give up everything, to become an outcast.
This individualistic pride, sung by Byron, was a feature of the epochal 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 has had on modern and subsequent literature.
10 chose
228 years ago January 22, 1788 born lord 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 there are such characters 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 unhappy. They are mysterious (often connected to some secret of the past), intelligent (which makes them feel superior to others), and hopelessly selfish. The actions of such characters make them closer to antiheroes, but antiheroes are immensely attractive. Both in literature and in life, their gloomy charm works flawlessly on young enthusiastic persons who secretly dream of re-educating such a hero and giving peace to his rushing soul. No wonder women writers have created incredibly attractive images of Byronic heroes: 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 is 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 bit of Byron when, at one of the exams at the Madrid Academy of Art, he refused to answer the teachers, explaining that he considers 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 then 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 petty-bourgeois interests of those around him are too shallow for him, and idealism is not enough for lofty goals.
- indifference to life. The result of all this is indifference to life. Byronic heroes are desperately bored, not afraid of risk (hoping that danger will somehow entertain them), and have bad habits. Their behavior is consistent self-destruction. Such people are clearly not aimed at living "happily ever after".
Personally, I met a similar type of men only in my youth. Maybe there is some logic to this. 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 away from him without looking back. After all, he makes both himself and those around him unhappy.
