Lesson topic:"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" The hero's disappointment and loneliness

The purpose of the lesson: give a general description of the plot, composition and genre of the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”; show the tragedy of the hero’s loneliness, the reason for his break with his homeland; form an idea of ​​a romantic hero; improve skills in analyzing lyric-epic poems; help broaden students' horizons

During the classes

1. 
   Organizing time
2. 
   Updating students' basic knowledge

Frontal survey of students:

• 
  historical background of the emergence of romanticismin Europe and Russia
• 
  what is romanticism? two directions of romanticism
• 
  defining features of romanticism
• 
  characteristics of a romantic hero
• 
  What is romantic duality?
• 
  name the genres of romanticism
• 
  name the representatives of romanticism in literature
• 
  name literary works of romanticism
• 
  what did you find out about Byron?
• 
  Byron's most famous poem?

1. 
   Announcing the topic and purpose of the lesson
2. 
   Working on the lesson topic

1. 
   Teacher's opening speech

Pilgrimage (from lat.palma- palm tree) - the journey of believers to worship holy places (for Christians - to Jerusalem and Rome, for Muslims - to Mecca). Named after the custom of Christian pilgrims bringing palm branches from Palestine.

The title of the poem is ironic: Harold leaves his homeland not for religious purposes, but to get rid of disappointment.

Childe is the title of a young nobleman who has not yet been knighted.
The hero of the poem is disillusioned, fed up with life, a proud loner, an individualist who opposes himself to society. Harold, having gone through the “labyrinth of vices,” experienced the “horror of satiety,” his native land aroused disgust in him.

Not wanting to change anything either in himself or in society, he leaves it. Melancholy makes him run away from civilization.

Signs of a Byronic hero:

• 
  unusual fate;
• 
  bright, independent character;
• 
  discord with society and oneself.

1. 
   Project "Class Quote"

Not a single English poet of the 19th century made such a deep impression on his contemporaries as Byron. His poems were read avidly, memorized, quoted and heatedly discussed. His heroes captivated with their unusualness, courage, mystery, and everyone looked for similarities in them with the author himself. After the publication of the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” he truly became the “ruler of thoughts” of his generation, not only in his homeland, but even more beyond its borders. In Russia, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Baratynsky read this poem.

Exercise: read excerpts from the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, choose one that you think is the most impressive (see appendix).

Quotes are distributed on each desk. Students read the quotes and choose one (the most impressive one), write the number on a piece of paper (put a bird in the table). At the end of the work, choose a quote of the day and justify your choice.

1. 
   Writing in workbooks

Composition of the work :

SongI– Harold’s journey through Portugal and Spain (thoughts about wars in general, about liberation wars).

SongII– the hero’s visit to Albania and Greece (a call to the Greek people to begin the liberation struggle).

SongIII– a trip to Belgium (thoughts about the revolution in France).

SongIVtravel around Italy.

1. 
   Working on the content of the SongI(verses 1-13) – compiling a table

What do we learn about Harold?	stanza 2	There lived a young man in Albion. Your century He devoted himself only to idle entertainment, In a mad thirst for joys and bliss Without disdaining the ugly debauchery, Soul devoted to base temptations, But alien to both honor and shame, He loved the diversity of the world, Alas! only a series of short connections Yes, a cheerful horde of drinking buddies.
How was his life at the age of 19?	(stanza 4)	Entering my nineteenth year, Like a moth, he frolicked, fluttering, I didn’t think that the day would pass - And the darkness of the night will blow cold. But suddenly, in the prime of life's May, The satiety in him began to speak, A fatal disease of the mind and heart, And everything around seemed disgusting: The prison is the homeland, the grave is the father's house.
his attitude towards love?	(stanza 5)	He did not know the strict reproaches of his conscience And he walked blindly along the path of passions. Loved one - seduced the love of many, He loved her and didn’t call her his.
his attitude towards balls?	(stanza 8)	But often in the brilliance, in the noise of crowded halls Harold's face expressed anguish.
loneliness of the hero	(stanza 9)	And he was alone in the world. At least many He watered generously at his table, He knew them, the hangers-on of the wretched, Friends for an hour - he knew the value of them.
why does he go traveling?	(stanza 7)	And in a thirst for new places, Harold rushed off, Leaving your venerable old home...
exchanged what for what?	(stanza 11)	All that luxury makes revelers happy, He traded for winds and fogs, To the roar of southern waves and barbarian countries.
What do you regret about leaving home?	(stanza 13, towards the end of the stanza)	I don't regret anything about the past, The stormy path is not scary, But it’s a pity that, having left my father’s house, I have no one to breathe about. I trust the wind and the wave, I'm alone in the world. Who can remember me Who could I remember?

• 
  summarize the above and tell me what is the reason for the hero’s disappointment and melancholy, his break with his homeland?
• 
  This break with society indicates that the work belongs to which literary movement?
• 
  prepare an oral story about Harold using the materials in the table

1. 
   Summarizing. Teacher's final words

A break with society is a characteristic feature of the romantic hero. The conflict of the individual with the environment (even more so with the world) was supposed to emphasize and reveal, on the one hand, the superiority of the hero over other people, and on the other, the severity of loneliness, which the world despised condemns him to and which he chooses for himself. Childe Harold became a household name for the romantic hero - a young man, disillusioned, dissatisfied and lonely. He believes neither in sublime feelings nor in affection; in his opinion, there is neither true love nor true friendship. The reason for Childe Harold's disappointment was a clash with society.

In the first two songs we see the hero in Portugal, Spain, Albania and Greece - the countries where Byron visited. Childe Harold longs for personal freedom and, not finding it in the world around him of “riches and miserable poverty,” dreams of loneliness. He avoids people, goes far into the mountains, listens to the splash of the sea wave, and is fascinated by the raging elements. Only ordinary people, courageous and freedom-loving, attract Childe Harold.

Childe Harold is not satisfied with life, but his protest is passive: he reflects on the reasons for his dissatisfaction, but does not seek to intervene in life, to take part in the liberation struggle.

1. 
   Summing up the lesson

Appendix to the “Quote of the Day” project (excerpts from the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”)

In 1817, Byron's Italian period began. The poet creates his works in the context of the growing Carbonari movement for the freedom of Italy. Byron himself was a participant in this national liberation movement. In Italy, the poem “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 1809-1817” was completed. In terms of genre features, it is a lyric-epic poem, written in the form of a poetic travel diary.

A new hero of romantic literature appears in the poem. Childe Harold is a dreamer breaking with a hypocritical society, a reflective hero who analyzes his experiences. Here are the origins of the theme of the spiritual quest of a young man, which became one of the leading themes in the literature of the 19th century. Obsessed with the desire to escape from his usual way of life, disappointed and irreconcilable, Childe Harold rushes to distant lands. Active self-analysis makes him passive in the practical sphere. All his attention is absorbed by the experiences caused by the break with society, and he only contemplates the new things that appear before his eyes during his wanderings. His melancholy has no specific reason; it is the worldview of a person living in a troubled state of the world. Childe Harold does not fight, he only looks closely at the modern world, trying to comprehend its tragic state.

The plot movement of the poem is connected with the hero’s wanderings, with the development of the feelings and views of both Childe Harold and the author himself. In some ways, the image of Childe Harold is close to the author: certain biographical facts, a feeling of loneliness, escape from high society, protest against the hypocrisy of modern England. However, the difference between the personality of the poet and the hero of the poem is also obvious. Byron himself denied the identity between himself and Childe Harold: he ironically refers to the pose of a disappointed wanderer, calmly observing what he sees during his wanderings, to the “perversity of the mind and moral feelings” of a passive personality.

The poem is imbued with civic pathos, which is caused by an appeal to large-scale events of our time. In the first and second songs, the theme of popular uprising plays a significant role. The poet welcomes the liberation movement of the peoples of Spain and Greece. Episodic but impressive images of ordinary people appear here. A heroic image of a Spaniard participating in the defense of Zaragoza was created.

Poems of heroic content are replaced by sarcastic poems, in which the poet denounces British policy in the Iberian Peninsula and Greece, where, instead of helping the Greek people in their liberation struggle, Britain is engaged in robbing the country, taking away national values ​​from it.

The heroic theme of the poem is connected, first of all, with the image of the rebellious people, with the image of the struggle of Spanish and Greek patriots. Byron feels that it is among the people that freedom-loving aspirations are alive and it is the people who are capable of heroic struggle. However, the people are not the main character of the poem; Childe Harold, who is far from the people, does not become a heroic figure. The epic content of the people's struggle is revealed mainly through the author's emotional attitude. The movement from the lyrical theme of a lonely hero to the epic theme of folk struggle is given as a change in the emotional spheres of the hero and the author. There is no synthesis between the lyrical and epic beginnings.

Appeal to significant social facts of his time gives Byron grounds to call the poem political. The main idea of ​​the poem is the apotheosis of popular indignation against tyranny, the pattern of revolutionary action of the masses. The image of Time, associated with the idea of ​​fair retribution, runs through the entire poem.

In the third and fourth songs, the image of the hero is gradually replaced by the image of the author. The poet expresses thoughts about the central event of his era - about the French bourgeois revolution, in which “mankind realized its strength and made others realize it,” about the great enlighteners Rousseau and Voltaire, who with their ideas participated in the preparation of the revolution. In the fourth song, Byron writes about the fate of Italy, its history and culture, and the suffering of the Italian people. The poem expresses the idea of ​​the need to fight for the freedom of Italy. A metaphorical image of the “tree of freedom” is also created here. Despite the fact that the reaction cut down this tree, it continues to live and gain new strength. The poet expresses faith in the inevitable triumph of freedom in the future:

But Byron does not bow to fate. He believes that a person can heroically resist fate. He is a supporter of man's active attitude to life; he calls for a heroic struggle for the freedom of the individual and the people. The poem "Childe Harold" exalts the rebellion of a person who comes into conflict with the forces of evil hostile to him. The poet is aware of the inevitable tragedy of this struggle, since fate is stronger than man, but the essence of a true human personality lies in heroic confrontation.

The essence of the free form of the romantic poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” is in the change of stylistic colors and tones - lyricism, journalism, meditation, in the flexibility and multi-colored verse. The poetic form of the poem was the Spencerian stanza, consisting of nine lines of different sizes. In the first two songs of “Childe Harold”, folklore motifs, echoes of the folk art of Spain, Albania, and Greece, are obvious. The most important ideas of the poem are often expressed in aphorisms that conclude Spencer's stanza.

The style of the poem is distinguished by energy and dynamism, contrast of comparisons and passion of appeals. All these qualities of the Childe Harold style correspond to the civic pathos of the poem and its modern political content.

CHILDE HAROLD

The character of Childe Harold is a representative of a broad literary type defined by the term “Byronic hero.” Comparing Childe Harold with other characters in Byron's works: the Giaour, the Corsair, Cain, Manfred, we can identify the characteristic features of this literary type. The “Byronic hero” was early fed up with life, he was overcome by the deepest melancholy, “a disease of the mind.” He broke with the social circle that disappointed him and got used to loneliness. The “Byronic hero” hates the hypocrisy that has become the norm of life in the society around him, and having broken with it, he becomes uncompromising. Striving for independence from society, he breaks all the threads connecting him, allowing for himself only one connection - love. The generalized features of the “Byronic hero” are inherent in Childe Harold. At the beginning of the work, the author portrays his hero almost satirically: “Harold is alien to both honor and shame,” “a slacker, corrupted by laziness”: There lived a young man in Albion. He devoted his life only to idle entertainment, In an insane thirst for joys and pleasures, Not disdaining the ugly in debauchery, His soul was devoted to base temptations, But it was equally alien to honor and shame, He loved the diverse world, Alas! Just a series of brief connections and a cheerful horde of drinking buddies. However, when Childe Harold, by the age of 19, becomes fed up with social life, acquires the ability to take a critical look at the falsehood that reigns in the world where he lived, when the hero “seemed vile all around: a prison - his homeland, a grave - his father’s house,” then he becomes interesting to the poet . And so, having broken with the hypocritical and depraved secular society, Childe Harold moves away from it, leaves England - this is his position in the fight against evil. Childe Harold visits Portugal and Spain, then travels by sea. Sailing past the islands where, as the myth says, the nymph Calypso lived, capable of charming anyone, Childe Harold remembers a certain Florence, who tried to charm his heart, but, unlike Calypso, she failed to achieve her goal. Ch. G. finds some peace and peace of mind when he finds himself in the mountains of Albania, among hospitable and proud Albanians, not spoiled by secular mores. He compared them with the people he knew in England; the Albanians did not irritate him: “they did not offend the taste of their movements, and there was no stupid vulgarity in everything that he saw in front of him.” After visiting Greece, Childe Harold returns to England, but then leaves it again and goes to Germany, but Childe Harold’s travels have no other purpose than to escape from his homeland, he does not take part in historical events and the struggle of the peoples of the countries visited. This is the main difference between Childe Harold and the second hero of the poem - the author.

And his features breathed a gloomy coldness of life-denying sadness.

D. Byron

The poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" is written in the form of a lyrical diary of a traveler.

The journey of the hero and the author has not only educational significance - each country is depicted by the poet in his personal perception. He admires nature, people, art, but at the same time, as if unintentionally, he finds himself in the hottest spots of Europe, in those countries where the revolutionary and people's liberation war was fought - in Spain, Albania, Greece. The storms of the political struggle of the beginning of the century burst into the pages of the poem, and the poem takes on a sharp political and satirical sound. Thus, Byron's unusual romanticism is closely connected with modernity and is imbued with its problems.

Childe Harold is a young man of noble birth. But Byron calls the hero only by name, thereby emphasizing both his vitality and the typicality of the new social character.

Childe Harold undertakes the journey for personal reasons: he “had no enmity” towards society. The journey should, according to the hero, protect him from communicating with the familiar, boring and annoying world, where there is no peace, joy, or self-satisfaction.

The motives for Harold's wanderings are fatigue, satiety, world-weariness, dissatisfaction with himself. Under the influence of new impressions from historically significant events, the hero’s conscience awakens: “he curses the vices of his wild years, he is ashamed of his wasted youth.” But familiarization with the real concerns of the world, even if only morally, does not make Harold’s life any more joyful, for very bitter truths are revealed to him, connected with the life of many peoples: “And the gaze that sees the light of truth grows darker and darker.”

Sadness, loneliness, mental confusion arise as if from within. Harold's heartfelt dissatisfaction is not caused by any real reason: it arises before the impressions of the vast world give the hero true reasons for grief.

The tragic doom of efforts aimed at good is the root cause of Byron's grief. Unlike his hero Childe Harold, Byron is by no means a passive contemplator of world tragedy. We see the world through the eyes of a hero and a poet.

The general theme of the poem is the tragedy of post-revolutionary Europe, whose liberation impulse ended with the reign of tyranny. Byron's poem captured the process of enslavement of peoples. However, the spirit of freedom that so recently inspired humanity has not completely faded away. It still lives in the heroic struggle of the Spanish people against the foreign conquerors of their homeland or in the civic virtues of the stern, rebellious Albanians. And yet, persecuted freedom is increasingly being pushed into the realm of legends, memories, and legends. In Greece, where democracy once flourished, the refuge of freedom is only historical tradition, and the modern Greek, a frightened and obedient slave, no longer resembles a free citizen of Ancient Hellas (“And under the Turkish whips, resigned, Greece prostrated itself, trampled into the mud”). In a world bound in chains, only nature is free, and its lush, joyful flowering provides a contrast to the cruelty and malice that reign in human society (“Let genius die, freedom die, eternal nature is beautiful and bright”). And yet, the poet, contemplating this sad spectacle of the defeat of freedom, does not lose faith in the possibility of its revival. All powerful energy is aimed at awakening the fading revolutionary spirit. Throughout the entire poem, there is a call for rebellion, for the fight against tyranny (“O Greece, rise up to fight!”).

Lengthy discussions turn into the author's monologue, in which the fate and movements of Childe Harold's soul are presented only in episodes, significant, but incidental.

Byron's hero is outside of society, he cannot reconcile with society and does not want to seek the use of his strengths and abilities in its reconstruction and improvement: at least at this stage the author leaves Childe Harold.

The poet accepted the hero’s romantic loneliness as a protest against the norms and rules of life in his circle, with which Byron himself was forced to break, but at the same time, Childe Harold’s self-centeredness and isolation in life ultimately turned out to be the object of the poet’s criticism.

Personality and general characteristics of the work of J. G. Byron (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, Oriental Poems, “Manfred”, “Cain”, “Don Juan”).

John Gordon Byron 1788 - 1824

London, ancient aristocracy. Graduated from university, tried to engage in politics (defended the poor)

In 1815, he married a woman whom he considered ideal, but a year later she demanded a divorce. Byron was accused of immorality.

In 1816, Byron left England forever (company of libel). Traveled around Europe, then lived in Italy. He really hoped for the victory of the Italian revolution, but it failed, Byron left Italy and in 23 came to Greece, where there was also a revolution. In 24 I caught a cold during a trip to the mountains.

Byron's heart is buried in Greece, and his ashes in England.

Byron called people to revolution; it contains a motif of disappointment and world sorrow.

His first collection, “Leisure Hours,” speaks contemptuously of the secular mob. A literary manifesto of English romanticism.

A writer must be closer to life, overcoming religious and mystical moods, Byron believed.

In 1812, the first songs and poems of Charles Harold's Pilgrimage appeared (4 pieces)

The poem was a huge success in Europe, as it touched on the most pressing issues of the time and reflected the mood of disappointment that was widespread in Europe after the collapse of the French Revolution. “Freedom, equality, brotherhood” turned into the suppression of man.

In the first song, Byron shares the idea of ​​the French enlighteners (“all troubles come from ignorance”), but later he comes to deny these thoughts.

Byron believes in rock. This rock is hostile to the human race, hence the gloomy notes of doom.

But soon he changes his point of view and begins to believe in good changes in the world.

The main character of the work is a young man who has lost faith in life and people. He is characterized by spiritual emptiness, disappointment, anxiety and a morbid passion for travel. He leaves his homeland and sails to the east on a ship.

“I am alone in the world. Who can remember me, who could I remember?”

Proud loneliness and melancholy are his lot. Harold's main distinguishing feature is individualism. The positive in the image of Harold is a protest against oppression, disappointment in old ideals, a spirit of search, a desire to know oneself and the world.

The nature is gloomy. In this image, Byron makes a great artistic generalization. Harold is a hero of his time, a thinking and suffering hero. In Europe it caused many imitations.

A very important character in the poem is the lyrical hero, which expresses the author’s thoughts. At the end of the poem, the voice of the lyrical hero sounds increasingly stronger, because Byron is no longer satisfied with the image of Harold. He does not like the role of a passive observer, which is Harold. In addition, this hero’s personal experience is very narrow.

The third song reflects the spiritual drama of the author himself. Byron turns to his little daughter Ada, whom he will never see.

The reaction in Europe gives rise to a theme of gloomy disappointment. Byron mourns the suffering millions, curses the monarchs, but his pessimism is replaced by faith in good changes.

Many of Byron's contemporaries believed that Byron and Harold were the same person. In the process of writing the poem, he outgrows his hero. But they have common features.

The work of brilliant poets is always a confession, but Byron knows life and people better than Harold.

Creation of a man of a new time.

The reaction of the revolution is hard for Byron. Motives of gloomy despair appear.

"Eastern Poems"

Abidai bride

Corsair 1814

Siege of Carinth 1816

Rubber 1816

The hero of all these poems is a typical romantic hero (strong passions, will, tragic love). His ideal is anarchic freedom.

The celebration of individualistic rebellion reflected Byron's spiritual drama. The reason for this drama must be sought in the era itself, which gave rise to the cult of individualism. The idea of ​​ruined human opportunities in modern society is important.

The heroes of Byron's poems act as avengers for violated human dignity.

"Yaur" - plot: Yaur on his deathbed confesses to a monk, he loved Leila, they were happy, but Leila's jealous husband tracked down his wife and killed her. Yaur killed Leila's husband. His monologue sounds like an accusation against society, which humiliated him and made him unhappy.

"Corsair" The hero is the leader of the pirates. They deny the laws of society, live on a desert island and are afraid of the Corsair. This man is very stern and powerful, but he is lonely and has no friends. The hero of the Corsair is always immersed in his inner world, he admires his suffering and jealously guards his loneliness. This is his individualism - he puts himself above other people whom he despises.

The evolution of Byron's hero. If Harold does not go beyond passive protest, then for the rebels of Eastern poems the whole meaning of life lies in action, in struggle.

"Jewish Melodies" 1815. The mood of gloomy despair is very strong. Love lyrics are devoid of mysticism, religiosity and asceticism.

"Prisoner of Spies" 18

"Prometheus" - poem. The Promethean theme is one of the main ones in Byron's late works.

Byron's darkest poem is Manfred.

The tragedy of unsatisfactory individuals, the collapse of hopes, despair.

Manfred runs away from human society, condemns the order in it and the laws of the universe, as well as his own weaknesses.

Manfred is a hero of his time. Therefore, he has selfishness, arrogance, lust for power, and gloating.

His girlfriend, Astard, dies because of Manfred's selfish love.

The supreme spirit of evil, Ahriman, and his maid Mimisis are a symbolic image of the dark world of evil.

Manfred cannot submit to the world of evil, just like religion. He rejects Abata's offer to repent and dies free and independent as he lived.

Mystery "Cain" 1821 (dramatization of biblical stories)

The main theme is atheism. Here Cain is not a criminal fratricide as in the Bible, but the first rebel on earth, rebelling against God, for God doomed the human race to incalculable suffering.

Byron's Jehovah is ambitious, suspicious, vindictive, and greedy. That is, all the features of an earthly despot.

Cain, with his sharp mind, questions the authority of God. He strives to understand the world and its laws and achieves this with the help of Lucifer. Lucifer is a proud rebel who is overthrown from heaven by God for his love of freedom. Lucifer opens Cain's eyes to the fact that all disasters are sent by God. But knowledge does not bring happiness to Cain; he seeks sympathy from his brother Avil, but he blindly believes in the goodness of God. In the end, Cain hits his brother in the temple and he dies. the parents curse Cain and he goes into exile along with his wife and two children. Here Byron's “worldly sorrow” reaches cosmic proportions. Together with Lucifer, he visits the kingdom of death in space, where he sees the long dead. “The same fate awaits humanity,” says Lucifer, and Byron comes to the conclusion that progress is impossible.

It is important here that Byron breaks up with the individualist hero. Cain is not a lonely rebel, indifferent to the fate of people like Manfred. He is a humanist who rebelled against the power of God for the good of people. Manfred suffered from loneliness, but Cain is not alone. His wife, Ada, loves him, and he has a friend, Lucifer. Ada is one of the best female characters in Byron's entire work. His atheism made a great impression on his contemporaries.

The crowning achievement of Byron's work is the poem in verse "Don Juan" 1818 - 1823. The main theme is criticism of bourgeois society. Byron considered this the main work of his work.

Reflection of the modern era and revealing the depths of the human soul.

Byron began to be critical of the way the Romantics wrote (for their idealization of life)

He turns to the poetry of reality, that is, to the objective transmission of reality.

The first songs are a parody of romanticism. The image of Juan has lost the aura of romantic heroism. He is a living person with all his weaknesses and vices. Positive traits: honesty, masculinity, love of freedom. Sensitive, capable of compassion.

Bourgeois society will not bring freedom to people. Byron depicts the power of the bourgeoisie as a web that entangles the people.

Byron is the enemy of bankers and lords. He paints a sharply negative picture of church circles, bankers and a corrupt government. He talks about the hypocrisy and insignificance of high society.

Byron's personality.

"Genius, ruler of our thoughts" Pushkin

"Byron became the actor of his own life" Andre Murois

Byron had a limp since childhood, was extremely hot-tempered, and could suddenly fly into a rage, just like his mother. Grew up with a mother who was very irritable. Byron's father died in 1791 in complete poverty. At first the Baron pitied his mother, and then began to despise her. At the age of 9 he fell in love with his cousin.

He was ashamed of his lameness, and felt a constant fear that, due to his physical disability, he would be despised. And the stronger his pride manifested itself. The most painful humiliation due to his lameness was when he listened to the conversation of his beloved with his maid. Then at night Byron ran away from home with the desire to die. He became afraid of women and wanted to make them suffer as he suffered himself.

At the age of 16, he learned that he had a half-sister, Augusta, who was 20 years old. Later they fell in love with each other, although Augusta was married. In 1814 she gave birth to a daughter from him. Byron then disowned his mother.

In 1805 he graduated from school. He makes the discovery that people do not need absolute feelings like he does. Everyone around was just playing with love, with truth, with God. He didn't want to be like them. He didn't want to be like them. Underneath the childish gaiety, a deep melancholy grew. Childhood was a tragedy.

In 1805 he entered Cambridge, where he became a central figure.

He suffered from the restless ambition of weak people. He stopped believing in God under the influence of Voltaire. Byron got a pet bear.

From childhood he developed compassion for poverty and gave away a lot of money.

In 1809, Byron sailed to Portugal with a feeling of deep misanthropy. Sends a farewell letter to his mother. I sought refuge in the world of stars and waves because I was afraid of people.

His life changed after the release of "Harold" - he woke up as a celebrity. They began to invite him and Byron began to impersonate Harold, masking his natural shyness. First of all, he was suspicious. It seemed to him that now he knew what a woman was. The time for tenderness and heartfelt outpourings has passed for him.

Byron did not understand the feelings of other people and did not want to understand.

"Like Napoleon, I have always felt great contempt for women, and this opinion has formed from my fatal experience. Although in my works I extol this sex, but this is only because I portray them as they should be."

"Give a woman a mirror and some chocolates and she will be happy"

“It’s a misfortune that we can neither do without women nor live with them.”

26 years have passed, 600 years according to the heart and 6 years according to common sense.

In 1814, Byron groom (26 years old). He hoped for happiness in his marriage to 22-year-old Anabella. But he soon realized that he had made a mistake in getting married. The wife, with her bourgeois prudence, turned love into an equation; moreover, she was devout and tried to convert her husband to faith.

Byron has no interest in religion. He was rude to his wife. In the end, the wife decides to divorce, which shocked Byron.

All former acquaintances began to turn away from Byron. "I don't love the world and the world doesn't love me." Avenger.

Byron was a fatalist and a very superstitious person.

He had many women.

At 31, he has aged terribly.

At 35, life became completely empty.

"Being the first person in the country means getting closer to the deity"

Byron always wanted to do what no one else could ever do.

He decided to devote himself to politics, but he was too indecisive and dreamy.

The rebels in Greece give him the title of archangel (commander-in-chief) and Byron was very proud of this.

It was predicted for him in his youth. that he will die at 37 years old. Byron believed it. And so it happened.

Things were going badly for the rebels and Byron began to be fascinated by his visit to Greece. He's not much of a military man.

After Byron fell ill, he began to understand the value of family, which he once called slavery. His last hours of life were spent in delirium. Byron's brain at autopsy looked like that of a very old person.

After the poet's death, many began to take an interest in him.

Byron's close people burned his memoirs.

“In the depths of his soul there always lived a being higher and more worthy,” Lady Byron said about her husband, “He always suppressed this creature but could never destroy it.”

Born January 22, 1788 in London. His mother, Catherine Gordon, a Scot, was the second wife of Captain D. Byron, whose first wife died, leaving him a daughter, Augusta. The captain died in 1791, having squandered most of his wife’s fortune. George Gordon was born with a mutilated foot.
In 1798, the boy inherited from his great-uncle the title of baron and the family estate of Newstead Abbey near Nottingham, where he moved with his mother. The boy studied with a home teacher, then he was sent to a private school in Dulwich, and in 1801 - to Harrow.
In the autumn of 1805, Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge University.
In London, Byron incurred debts of several thousand pounds. Fleeing from creditors, and also, probably, in search of new experiences, on July 2, 1809, he went with Hobhouse on a long journey. They sailed to Lisbon, crossed Spain, from Gibraltar by sea they reached Albania, where they paid a visit to the Turkish despot Ali Pasha Tepelensky, and proceeded to Athens. There they spent the winter in the house of a widow.
Byron returned to England in July 1811; He brought with him the manuscript of an autobiographical poem written in Spencerian stanzas, telling the story of a sad wanderer who is destined to experience disappointment in the sweet hopes and ambitious hopes of his youth and in the journey itself. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published in March of the following year, instantly glorified Byron's name.
Following in the footsteps of Childe Harold, Byron created a cycle of “Oriental Poems”: “The Giaour” and “The Bride of Abydos” - in 1813, “The Corsair” and “Lara” - in 1814. The poems were replete with veiled hints of an autobiographical nature. They rushed to identify the hero of "The Giaour" with the author, saying that in the East Byron was involved in piracy for some time.
Anabella Milbanke, Lady Melbourne's niece, and Byron occasionally exchanged letters; in September 1814 he proposed to her and it was accepted. After the wedding on January 2, 1815 and a honeymoon in Yorkshire, the newlyweds, clearly not meant for each other, settled in London. In the spring, Byron met Walter Scott, whom he had long admired.
On December 10, 1815, she gave birth to Byron's daughter, Augusta Ada, and on January 15, 1816, taking the baby with her, she went to Leicestershire to visit her parents. A few weeks later, she announced that she would not return to her husband. Byron agreed to a court-ordered separation and sailed for Europe on April 25. Byron completed the third song, “Childe Harold,” which developed already familiar motifs - the futility of aspirations, the transience of love, the vain search for perfection and the beginnings of “Manfred.”
Byron returned to work on Don Juan and by May 1823 completed the 16th canto.
He chose the legendary seducer as his hero and turned him into an innocent simpleton who is harassed by women; but even hardened by life experience, by his character, worldview and actions he still remains a normal, reasonable person in an absurd, crazy world.
Byron consistently takes John through a series of adventures, sometimes funny, sometimes touching, - from the “platonic” seduction of the hero in Spain to idyll love on a Greek island, from a slave state in a harem to the position of the favorite of Catherine the Great, and leaves him entangled in the networks of love intrigue in an English country house.
Tired of an aimless existence, yearning for active work, Byron seized on the offer of the London Greek Committee to help Greece in the War of Independence. Sobered by the strife among the Greeks and their greed, exhausted by illness, Byron died of a fever on April 19, 1824.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage occupies a special place among Byron's works.

This is a poem with a large and topical social theme, imbued with deep lyricism. "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" is not only a story about the fate of a romantic hero, but also a political poem. The thirst for political freedom and hatred of tyranny constitute its main content.

Childe Harold became a household name for the romantic hero - a young man, disillusioned, dissatisfied and lonely. He believes neither in sublime feelings nor in affection; in his opinion, there is neither true love nor true friendship. The reason for Childe Harold's disappointment was a clash with society.

In the first two songs we see the hero in Portugal, Spain, Albania and Greece - the countries where Byron visited. Childe Harold longs for personal freedom and, not finding it in the world around him of “riches and miserable poverty,” dreams of loneliness. He avoids people, goes far into the mountains, listens to the splash of the sea wave, and is fascinated by the raging elements. Only ordinary people, courageous and freedom-loving, attract Childe Harold.

Childe Harold is not satisfied with life, but his protest is passive: he reflects on the reasons for his discontent, but does not seek to intervene in life, to take part in the liberation struggle.

And gradually, as the plot of the poem develops, the image of Childe Harold is increasingly relegated to the background. The image of a hero powerless and unable to fight the life that disgusts him is more and more obscured by historical events full of drama, in which the author himself begins to act not only as a contemporary and observer, but also as an active participant. A second, no less important image appears in the poem - the image of a struggling people.

Thus, in the first two songs of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Byron welcomes the performance of progressive forces, the rise of the masses, and the defense of freedom.

The subsequent, third and fourth, songs of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage are separated from the first two by several years. They are directly related to Byron's stay in Switzerland and Italy, where he lived in 1816 - 1823, finally leaving England.

In the third canto, published in 1816, Byron addresses an important issue - the attitude towards the French Revolution of the late 18th century. Speaking about the dominance of the monarchical reaction, especially after the formation of the Holy Alliance in 1815, he is firmly convinced that the ideals of freedom proclaimed by the revolution must certainly triumph; humanity has learned a lot, believed in its own strength, and let the tyrants who are now in power know that their victory is temporary and the hour of reckoning is not far off.

Byron creates a special genre of romantic poem and a characteristic image of a romantic hero. The poet is interested in the acute dramatic events of the past, the life of exotic countries of the East.

The heroes of these poems, disillusioned wanderers who have broken with society, are somewhat reminiscent of Childe Harold, but the passive nature of his experiences is alien to them. People of one passion, great willpower, who do not humble themselves, who do not make any agreements, they are unthinkable outside of struggle. These are rebels. They challenge the sanctimonious bourgeois society, oppose its religious or moral foundations and wage an unequal struggle with it.

One of Byron's characteristic romantic heroes is Conrad, the main character in the poem "The Corsair". His appearance is unusual: burning black eyes and gloomy eyebrows, thick curls falling onto a high pale forehead, a caustic smile that simultaneously expresses contempt for everything around him and regret. This is a gloomy, strong and gifted nature, capable, perhaps, of accomplishing noble deeds. However, society rejected Conrad and did not give him the opportunity to develop his abilities. He became the leader of a gang of sea robbers. His goal is to take revenge on the criminal society that rejected him and now calls him a criminal. Conrad is an extreme individualist. The whole world is hostile to Conrad, and he curses this world. Loneliness instills a feeling of disappointment and pessimism in his soul.

The hero of Byron's romantic rebellious poems but has positive ideals. They fight without believing in victory, they understand that they cannot defeat a society that is stronger than them, but they remain hostile to it to the end. Byron's heroes remain lone rebels. They are attracted by the strength of protest, the irreconcilable spirit of struggle, but the lack of connection between the hero and the masses, the people, and common interests, the hero’s individualism is evidence of the weakness of Byron’s own worldview.

Byron's rebellious poetry, rich in socio-political significance, was the main reason for the organized persecution of the poet by reactionary circles of English society. The reactionary press took up arms against him.

Byron decided to leave his homeland. In 1816 he left for Switzerland, then to Italy. An enemy of official England, its hypocrisy, hypocrisy, the notorious bourgeois “freedoms”, the corrupt bourgeois press, he continues to be deeply interested in the fate of his homeland, the fate of his people.

Byron looked forward to the revolutionary upsurge in England and more than once stated that in this case he would return to his homeland to take a personal part in the struggle.

In the satirical epic Don Juan, the action moves to the 18th century. The hero of the work, Juan, from Spain ends up in Greece, then in Turkey, Russia, Poland, Germany, England... According to the author, “having traveled across Europe, experiencing all kinds of sieges, battles and adventures,” Juan had to finish his travels "participation in the French revolution."

However, the main thing in Don Juan, as Byron himself admitted, is not the fate and adventures of the hero, but the depiction of public and private life in various countries of Europe and Asia.

In Byron's works the image of a contemporary emerges, given a romantic interpretation. This is a person who breaks with European civilization, because there is falsehood, lack of freedom, this is a person open to the world, a person who does not find refuge anywhere. The complete type of individualism.

However, the motives of hopeless despair are combined in this work with the determination of its hero to defend his human dignity and freedom of spirit to the end. The poem “Manfred” belongs to the powerful poetry of symbols, which interprets the fundamental questions of existence. Manfred achieved his enormous power over nature not through a deal with the rulers of the underworld, but solely through the power of his mind, with the help of a variety of knowledge acquired through exhausting labor over many years of life. The tragedy of Manfred, just like the tragedy of Harold and other early heroes of Byron, is the tragedy of extraordinary individuals. However, Manfred’s protest is much deeper and more significant, for his unfulfilled dreams and plans were much broader and more diverse: The collapse of hopes associated with enlightenment is what underlies the hopeless despair that has taken possession of Manfred’s soul. Having cursed the society of people, Manfred runs away from it , retires to his abandoned family castle in the deserted Alps. Lonely and proud, he opposes the whole world - nature and people. He condemns not only the orders in society, but also the laws of the universe, not only the rampant universal egoism, but also his own imperfection, because of which he destroyed his beloved Astarte, for Manfred is not only a victim of unjust social orders, but also a hero of his time, endowed such traits as selfishness, arrogance, lust for power, thirst for success, schadenfreude - in a word, those traits that turned out to be the other side of the coin of “personal emancipation” during the French bourgeois revolution. Manfred is well aware of his selfishness and is tormented by the fact that his wild, indomitable character brings terrible devastation to the world of people. It is unthinkable for Manfred to submit to this cruel world, just as it is unthinkable for him to submit to religion, which seeks to subjugate his powerful, proud spirit. Manfred's suffering reflects the difficult thoughts of Byron himself, ultimately generated ... by the general crisis of educational thought in Europe. These lines are directly related to the problems of “Cain”; reflections on the question of the essence of knowledge and the place of man in the system of the universe in “Cain” will receive special meaning and development. Another motif, inherited from Byron’s previous works and later transferred to “Cain,” will be the already familiar motif of tyranny-fighting, refusal to bow to higher powers. In “Manfred” this protest is most clearly expressed at the end of the poem, when the hero refuses to obey the ruler of evil forces, Ahriman, and follow the powerful spirit called upon to lead him towards death. Manfred, having mastered various sciences, longs for oblivion and freedom from his experience, he dreams of non-existence. Like other heroes of Byron's drama, he "painfully experiences the very fact of his existence."