Who is the Byronic hero? Describe him. Psychology. Special features of this literary movement

A 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." differs from other people in appearance. Despite his youth, his forehead is carved with wrinkles - evidence of the strength of his experiences. The hero’s gaze 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, from it one can guess the secret passions tormenting “B. G.".

The scale of the hero’s personality also corresponds to the setting in which he is depicted: over the sea, at the entrance to a cave (Corsair), in the night on a narrow mountain path (Gyaur), in an ancient 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, Gyaur’s desire to take revenge on Hassan). The hero's desire for freedom is indomitable; he rebels against any coercion, limitation, 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." in peace and tame his violent temper. The death of his 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 “B. G." A.S. also pointed out Pushkin. According to the observation of the Russian poet, in the person of his hero Byron brings out “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” talks about “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 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 unique sociocultural phenomenon that continues the traditions of English “scary novels” of the 18th century. and rethought in a new way by the authors of the 19th century. In Russian literature, in particular, in the works of Pushkin, to whom the monograph by V.M. Zhirmunsky, "B. G." is debunked, showing not only his strength, but also his weakness.

Of the modern studies devoted to this problem, the work “Byron and Romanticism” (Cambridge, 2002) by Jerome McGann, the author of several books about Byron, as well as the editor of his complete 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 that Byron puts on not in order to hide his true face, but, on the contrary, in order 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, portraying a hero close but not identical to himself, sought to objectify himself, to explore his own thoughts and feelings. However, this method of self-knowledge is imperfect, since ultimately the heroes created by Byron act according to his “poetic orders.”

Byron's "masks" include not only fictional characters - Childe Harold, Giaour, Corsair, Lara, Manfred - but also images of real historical figures appearing in Byron's works: Dante, Torquato Tasso, Napoleon.

Partly the relationship between Byron and “B. G." reminiscent of L.’s attitude towards “Lermontov’s man”, but there are some differences. L.'s hero is not necessarily his “mask,” his self-projection.

The poet is also interested in other heroes, unlike him, “ordinary people”: fishermen, peasants, mountaineers, soldiers, and later - the old “Caucasian” Maxim Maksimych. L.'s interest in others is also manifested in the fact that he turns to the image of a neighbor in Art. "The Neighbor" (1830 or 1831), "The Neighbor" (1837), "The Neighbor" (1840).

This dissimilarity between the two poets is especially clearly visible 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 the girl in love with him, who accompanies him under the guise of a page), then L. was so carried away by the depiction of ordinary people that they overshadowed the image of Vadim and turned out to be more convincing than him from an artistic point of view. However, at the early stage of his work, Byron's heroes - rebellious, incomprehensible, lonely - were precisely those people for whom L. had an “aesthetic interest.” Byron attracted the young man L. with his strength, passion, energy, and thirst for activity. It is these heroes that dominate his early work: Vadim, taking revenge on Rurik for the death of Leda and the enslavement of his native Novgorod, Fernando, seeking to snatch Emilia from the clutches of the treacherous Sorrini, etc. Even the Corsair from the early poem, written before meeting Byron 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 “reach” him, i.e. to equal him in the strength of his talent, fame, 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 “Science”, 2009 – 95 p.; 2) Zhirmunsky V.M. Byron and Pushkin. Pushkin and Western literature. - L.: Nauka, 1978. - 424 p.; 3) Pushkin A.S. That's enough. collection Op.: In 10 volumes - volume VII. - L.: Science. Leningr. Department, 1977–1979; 4) Rozanov M.N. Essay on the history of English literature of the 19th century. Part one. Byron's era. - M.: State Publishing House, 1922. - 247 p.; 5) McGann, Jerome J. Byron and Romanticism. - Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2002.

T.S. Milovanova

Byronism is a movement in literature that has influenced many talented writers and poets around the world. It was especially popular among Russian writers of the 19th century. Let's learn more about Byronism and its creator, and also look at the most famous Russian writers of this period who were passionate about this movement.

Who is Byron?

Before considering what Byronism is in literature (the definition and distinctive features of this movement), it is worth learning about its founder - the British aristocratic poet George Gordon Byron.

The childhood of the future literary idol was spent in poverty, since, despite his noble origin, the poet was able to receive an hereditary title and money only at the age of 10, when his distant relative died.

While studying at Cambridge University, Byron discovered his talent as a poet and began writing poetry. They were well received in literary circles, but the poem about a bored nobleman, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” brought real fame to the author. Soon after its publication, Byron's noble melancholy spread like a plague not only throughout Great Britain, but throughout Europe.

As befits an idol, he lived to the fullest: he won the hearts of beautiful ladies, squandered money without counting, openly criticized the contemporary political system and fought duels.

According to the fatal tradition of geniuses, Byron died young - at 36 years old. The cause of his death was a cold, but what is more interesting is how the poet fell ill. Despite his popularity, Byron was known more as a theorist, and the author himself dreamed of proving that he would be as noble in practice as in words. That is why, when the Greeks (whose culture the writer admired all his life) began a war with the Ottoman Empire for independence, the poet came to their aid. He spent all his money and influence to equip rebel soldiers. However, he never lived to see the victory, catching a cold and dying.

Byronic hero

Soon after the publication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the concept of a "Byronic hero" arose in world literature. In fact, Childe Harold was the first of this species.

Subsequently, such characters were often found in the works of Russian writers - Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev and, of course, Dostoevsky.

What are the distinctive features of a Byronic hero?

• He is always very smart, has an excellent education and upbringing.
• The hero is characterized by cynicism and arrogance. He is almost always in opposition to power - which means he is doomed to the share of an exile.
• Such a character is a kind of sex symbol, capable of seducing anyone. However, the classic Byronic hero does not find much joy in this and most often does it just like that.
• And the main feature of such a hero is his mystery. In the heart and past of each such character lies a secret that, like a magnet, attracts everyone, especially women.

Byronism - what is it?

Having found out who Byron is and what characteristics the type of hero he created in works of art has, it is worth considering the main thing. So, let's find out the answer to the question: "Byronism in literature - what is it?"

This name is given to a special movement of romanticism of the 19th century, whose adherents inherit the traditions of the work of Lord Byron. In other words, at the center of any work of this kind is the Byronic lyrical hero.

Special features of this literary movement

Having learned the answer to the question “What is Byronism?”, it is worth considering works written in a similar style.

• Most adherents of this movement in creativity are characterized by a mood of disappointment in the world and its social structure.
• Another important feature of Byronic characters is the so-called world melancholy. As Pushkin wrote about this, “Like the English spleen, in short: Russian blues.”
• Another feature of Byronic works is the protagonist’s sense of his own difference from everyone around him.
• Despite the ostentatious detachment from the world and melancholy, adherents of this movement are characterized by an attempt to elevate their heroes (as well as themselves) into the role of possible saviors of humanity. Napoleon Bonaparte became a kind of embodiment of this ideal for many at that time. By the way, this is why he appears in one form or another in many works of that time.

Byronism in European literature

After the release of “Pilgrimage...” almost all young writers in Europe were captivated by the beauty of the style and ideas of the author.

At the same time, more mature writers saw perfectly well that behind the enthusiastic romance and noble impulses of the lord there was nothing but youthful maximalism and a selfish belief in his own uniqueness. But they too often proved unable to resist the charm of the poetry of the yearning Briton.

The most famous Byronic writers in France are Alfred Victor de Vigny and Alfred de Musset.

Even Victor Hugo, who gravitated towards realism, shared the desire of Byron's heroes for freedom and their readiness to resist the authorities.

In Italy, the most famous representative of Byronism is Giacomo Leopardi, in Germany - Heinrich Heine, in Poland - Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki.

Byronism in Russian literature of the 19th century.

Like other European geniuses, the writers of Tsarist Russia were fascinated by the ideas of the British yearning lord and were inspired by them when creating their own works.

Among fans of Byronism, the most successful authors were V. Kuchelbecker, A. Polezhaev, A. Pushkin. M. Lermontov, A. Griboedov.

In addition, the influence of this movement can be found in the works of F. Dostoevsky and I. Turgenev.

Interesting facts about Byronism in Pushkin’s works

Considering in more detail examples of Byronism in the works of Russian writers, it is worth starting with the founder of the Russian literary language - A. S. Pushkin.

Like his school friend Kuchelbecker, the future classicist was in love with Byron's poetry. Moreover, according to the testimony of contemporaries, Alexander Sergeevich most admired the Briton’s ability to describe exotic countries and their inhabitants.

For this reason, in Pushkin’s early poetry (“Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”), romantic Byronism is quite strongly felt.

When Alexander Sergeevich matured as a poet, he began to more soberly evaluate the work of his idol. Thus, his famous novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” became a kind of Russian parody of Childe Harold.

Throughout the entire work, its creator sneers at society's fascination with Byronism. In particular, the author ridicules the main tenets of this movement in its “noble melancholy”, laziness, superficial education and constant desire for the forbidden. At the same time, the creator of the novel himself actively used in it such a favorite Byronian technique - the author’s witty remarks during the action.

Even in later periods, Byron's influence is noticeable in Pushkin's work. It seems that the classic to a certain extent competed with his British counterpart. For example, in response to Lord Mazepa’s poem, Alexander Sergeevich wrote “Poltava”.

In the works of Pushkin and Byron there are stories about Don Juan. It is interesting that Alexander Sergeevich’s famous seducer has more of the features of a Byronic hero than the creator Childe Harold.

Byronism in the works of Lermontov

Another talented Russian poet - an adherent of the movement in question is Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.

It is quite possible that his adoration for the work of the British genius was due to the poet’s love for Pushkin’s poems. So, in the biography of the writers there is an interesting fact: at different times they both wrote poems in the style of Byronism - “Prisoner of the Caucasus”.

Lermontov's passion for Byronism developed according to the same pattern as that of Alexander Sergeevich. The young genius wrote several poems (“Izmail-Bey”, “Hadji Abrek”, “Mtsyri”), full of admiration for the oriental flavor of the Caucasian peoples and the same insatiable melancholy and disappointment in life.

Growing up, the poet also began to rethink his passion for romantic melancholy, but, unlike Pushkin, he continued to feel the closeness of his destiny with Byron’s work. Perhaps this can explain the peculiar restlessness of Mikhail Yuryevich and his self-destructive behavior, which cost him his life. Some researchers of his work believe that the poet not only sought to imitate his British idol, but also unconsciously turned into a kind of Childe Harold.

As for Lermontov's later work, an example of Byronism in poetry is "The Demon", and in prose - "A Hero of Our Time".

The image of the demon in the poem of the same name was inspired by Lucifer from Byron’s work “Cain”. But the main character of “A Hero of Our Time,” Pechorin, is Lermontov’s original find, endowed with many of his own features.

Byronic motifs in the works of Turgenev and Dostoevsky

Unlike Lermontov and Pushkin, Turgenev and Dostoevsky were busy people; they had no time for aristocratic melancholy. Despite this, their works were influenced by the current in question.

For example, the main character of Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons,” Evgeny Bazarov, is a typical Byronic hero, called the fashionable word at that time “nihilist.” At the same time, throughout the entire work, Turgenev not only masterfully demonstrates the utopianism of his ideas, but also once again shows the uselessness of such “heroes of our time” to society. Just look at the phrase in the finale of “Fathers and Sons” about young Russian students: “...with whom Heidelberg is filled and who, at first surprising naive German professors with their sober view of things, subsequently surprise those same professors with their complete inaction and absolute laziness... unable to distinguish oxygen from nitrogen, but filled with denial and self-respect..."

The master of words Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky went even further in criticizing Byronism. In his epoch-making novel “Crime and Punishment,” he draws images of not one, but several Byronic heroes (Rodion Raskolnikov and Arkady Svidrigailov) whom he contrasts with each other.

Raskolnikov is disappointed in life and finds solace in his “special mission” - saving the world. As a result, he commits a crime that does not bring anything good to anyone.

Svidrigailov is a more typical Byronic hero. He is mysterious, rich, smart, cynical and devilishly seductive. Toiling from the traditional “world melancholy,” he falls in love with Raskolnikov’s sister. In the finale, he has to realize that her reciprocity cannot heal him - so the hero kills himself.

In contrast to Svidrigailov, Raskolnikov fails to achieve anything he wants, but in the finale he finds not only a new goal in life, but also a new mentor (Sonya), who helps him take the right path.

Researchers of Dostoevsky's work believe that even more features of Byronism can be found in the novel The Brothers Karamazov. Here Fyodor Mikhailovich not only shows a whole series of Childe Harolds with a Russian flavor, but also directly criticizes such a worldview: “Dreamy love craves a quick feat, quickly satisfied and for everyone to look at it. Here it really comes to the point that they even give their lives, if only it would not last long, but would happen quickly, as if on stage, and so that everyone would look and praise. Active love is work and endurance, and for others, perhaps, it’s a whole science...”

After such a deep analysis of the foundations of Byronism in literature and human psychology, as Dostoevsky did in his time, it seemed that this topic should have ceased to worry the minds of writers. However, the magic of the noble point has not dried up to this day.

Therefore, mysterious heroes, languishing from loneliness and misunderstanding, are still one of the most common book characters.

§ 1. The main features of Byron's work

Romanticism as a dominant movement 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, gave rise to glaring social disasters: mass pauperism, hunger, prostitution, increased 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 identity. It will be named after the poet - the era of Byronism. In his personality they saw the embodied spirit of the time, it was believed that Byron “set to music the song of an entire generation” (Vyazemsky) Quoted from: Zverev A. “Confrontation between trouble and evil...” // Byron D. G. At the crossroads of existence.. .Letters. Memories. Responses. - M.: 1989.. Byronism was defined as “world sorrow”, which was an echo of unfulfilled hopes that were awakened by the French Revolution. As a reflection caused by the spectacle of the triumph of reaction in post-Napoleonic Europe. Like rebellion, capable of expressing itself only by contempt for universal obedience and sanctimonious well-being. As a cult of individualism, or rather, as the apotheosis of boundless freedom, which is accompanied by endless loneliness Kovaleva O. V. Foreign literature of the 11th - 10th centuries. 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: “Byronism, although it was momentary, was a great, holy and extraordinary phenomenon in the life of European humanity, and almost in the life of all humanity. Byronism appeared in a moment of terrible melancholy of people, their disappointment and almost despair. After the ecstatic raptures of a new faith in new ideals, proclaimed at the end of the last century in France... an outcome came that was so different from what was expected, so deceived the faith of people, that perhaps never in the history of Western Europe has there been such a sad minutes... Old idols lay broken. And at that very moment a great and powerful genius, a passionate poet, appeared. Its sounds echoed the then melancholy of humanity and its gloomy disappointment in its destiny and in the ideals that deceived it. It was a new and unheard-of muse of revenge and sadness, curse and despair. The spirit of Byronism suddenly swept through all of humanity, and all of it responded to it.” Dostoevsky F. M. Complete. collection op. - L: 1984. - T. 26. - P. 113-114.

Recognized as the leader of European Romanticism in one of its most militantly rebellious variants, Byron had a complex and contradictory relationship with the traditions of the Enlightenment. Like other progressive people of his era, he felt with great acuteness the discrepancy between the utopian beliefs of the Enlightenment and reality. The son of an egoistic age, he was far from the complacent optimism of the thinkers of the 18th century with their teaching about the good nature of “natural man.”

But if Byron was tormented by doubts about many of the truths of the Enlightenment and the possibility of their practical implementation, the poet never questioned their moral and ethical value. From the feeling of the greatness of enlightenment and revolutionary ideals and from bitter doubts about the possibility of their implementation, the entire complex complex of “Byronism” arose with its deep contradictions, with its oscillations between light and shadow; with heroic impulses towards the “impossible” and a tragic consciousness of the immutability of the laws of history. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev. - M.: Education. - 1982. - 320 pp. - 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 Byron's most famous work, brought its author worldwide 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 it was Byron’s impressions of a trip to Europe undertaken in 1812. Taking scattered diary entries as the basis for his work, Byron combined them into one poetic whole, giving it a certain semblance of plot unity. He made the story of the wanderings of the main character, Childe Harold, the unifying beginning of his narrative, using this motive to recreate a wide panorama of modern Europe. The appearance of various countries, contemplated by Childe Harold from board 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 “exoticism” and “local color” typical of romantics, Byron depicts the morals and customs of various countries.

With his characteristic tyrant-fighting 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 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 moving into the realm of legends, memories, legends History of Foreign Literature of the 19th Century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev. - M.: Education. - 1982. - 320 p. P. 73.

In Greece, which had become the cradle of democracy, now nothing reminded of the once free ancient Hellas (“And under the Turkish whips, submitting, Greece prostrated itself, trampled into the mud”). In a world that is bound by chains, 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 genius die, freedom die, 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. His whole spirit, all his mighty energy is aimed at awakening the fading revolutionary spirit. Throughout the entire poem, the call for rebellion, for the fight against tyranny (“Oh, Greece, rise up to fight!”) sounds with unflagging force.

And unlike Childe Harold, who only observes from the sidelines, Byron is by no means a passive contemplator of world tragedy. His restless, restless soul, as if an integral part of the world soul, contains all the sorrow and pain of humanity (“world sorrow”). It was this feeling of the infinity of the human spirit, its unity with the whole of the world, combined with purely poetic features - the global breadth of the theme, the dazzling brightness of colors, magnificent landscape sketches, etc. - that transformed, according to M.S. Kurginyan, Byron's work at the highest achievement of romantic art of the early 19th century Kurginyan M. S. George Byron. - M.: 1958.

It is no coincidence that in the minds of many fans 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 relation to Pushkin’s own heroes (Onegin - “a Muscovite in Harold’s cloak”).

Undoubtedly, the main source of the attractive power of “Childe Harold” for contemporaries lay in the spirit of militant love of freedom embodied in the poem. Both in its ideological content and in its poetic embodiment, “Childe Harold” is a true sign of its time. The image of the main character of the poem - the internally devastated, homeless wanderer, tragically lonely Childe Harold - was also deeply in tune with modern times. Although this disillusioned English aristocrat, who had lost faith in everything, was not an exact likeness of Byron (as the poet’s contemporaries mistakenly thought), his appearance already showed (still in the “dotted outline”) features of a special character, which became the romantic prototype of all opposition-minded heroes of literature of the 19th century , and who will later be called the Byronic hero who suffers most 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? -

Byron's Childe Harold mournfully asks.

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 excited tone, heightened emotionality and a peculiar nostalgic shade, born of memories of the past greatness of this country, are already present in one of the early poems about Greece in “Song of the Greek Rebels” (1812):

O Greece, arise!

Glow of Ancient Glory

He calls the fighters to battle,

A great feat.

In Byron's later poems on the same topic, 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 addresses the country of his dreams as a beloved woman or mother:

Love you! don't be harsh with me!

……………………………………

The imperishable foundation of my love!

I am yours - and I can’t cope with this!

He himself best characterized his own perception of civic issues in one of his lyrical works, “From a Diary in Kefalonia” (1823):

The sleep of the dead is disturbed - can I sleep?

Tyrants are crushing the world - will I give in?

The harvest is ripe—should I hesitate to reap?

On the bed there is a sharp thorn; I don't sleep;

In my ears, the trumpet sings like a day,

Her heart echoes her...

Per. A. Blok

The sound of this fighting “trumpet”, singing in unison with the poet’s heart, was audible to his contemporaries. But the rebellious pathos of his poetry was perceived by them differently.

Consonant with the sentiments of the progressive people of the world (many of them could say about Byron together with M. Yu. Lermontov: “We have the same soul, the same torments”), the revolutionary rebellion 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 towards Byron especially intensified due to his speeches in defense of the Luddites (workers who destroyed machines in protest against inhuman working conditions). Added to all this was a personal drama: his wife’s parents did not accept Byron, destroying the marriage. Incited by all this, the British "moralists" took advantage of his divorce proceedings to settle scores with him. Byron became the object of persecution and mockery, in fact, England turned its greatest poet into an exile.

Childe Harold's relationship with the society he despised already carried the seeds of a conflict that became the basis of the 19th century European novel. 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 (“The Giaour”, “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. myself. The place of “oriental 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 is clearly formulated, which arose as a result of a rethinking of Enlightenment views on man.

The dramatic turning point in Byron's personal life coincided with a turning point in world history. The fall of Napoleon, the triumph of reaction, embodied by the Holy Alliance, opened one of the most joyless pages of 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 into the mainstream of philosophy.

The pinnacle of Byron's work is considered to be his philosophical drama "Cain", the main character of which is a fighter against God; taking up arms against the universal tyrant - Jehovah. In his religious drama, which he called “mystery,” the poet uses biblical myth to polemicize the Bible. But God in Cain is not only a symbol of religion. In his gloomy image, the poet unites all forms of tyrannical tyranny. His Jehovah is the sinister power of religion, and the despotic yoke of a reactionary anti-people state, and, finally, the general laws of existence, indifferent to the sorrows and suffering of humanity.

Byron, following the Enlightenment, opposes this multifaceted world evil with the idea of ​​a brave and free human mind that does not accept the 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-based claims about God's mercy and justice. On this path of search and doubt, Lucifer (one of the names of the devil), whose majestic and mournful image embodies the idea of ​​an angry, rebellious mind, becomes his patron. His beautiful, “night-like” appearance is marked with the stamp of tragic duality. The dialectic of good and evil, as internally interconnected principles of life and history, revealed to the romantics, determined the contradictory structure of the image of Lucifer. The evil that he creates is not his original goal (“I wanted to be your creator,” he tells Cain, “and I would have created you differently”). Byron's Lucifer (whose name means "light-bringer") is one who strives to become a creator, but becomes a destroyer. Introducing Cain to the secrets of existence, he and he fly into the superstellar spheres, and the gloomy picture of the cold, lifeless universe (recreated by Byron on the basis of his acquaintance with the astronomical theories of Cuvier) finally convinces the hero of the drama that the overarching principle of the universe is the reign of death and evil ( “Evil is the leaven of all life and lifelessness,” Lucifer teaches Cain).

Cain learns the justice of the lesson taught to him from his own experience. Returning to earth as a complete and convinced enemy of God, who gives life to his creatures only 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 Cain’s process of learning about life. On himself he learns the insurmountability and omnipresence of evil. His impulse for good gives birth to crime. Protest against the destroyer Jehovah turns into murder and suffering. Hating death, Cain is the first to bring it into the world. This paradox, suggested by the experience of the recent revolution and generalizing its results, at the same time provides the most striking embodiment of the irreconcilable contradictions of Byron's worldview.

Created in 1821, after the defeat of the Carbonari movement, Byron's mystery with enormous poetic power 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 forced the poet to search with particular energy for the reasons for the imperfection of life in the objective laws of social existence. In the diaries and letters of Byron (1821-- 1824), as well as in his poetic works, a new understanding of history is already emerging for him, not as a mysterious fate, but as a set of real relations in human society. This shift in emphasis is also associated with the strengthening of the realistic tendencies of his poetry.

Thoughts about the vicissitudes of life and history, which were previously present in his works, now become his constant companions. This tendency is especially clearly expressed in the last two songs of Childe Harold, where the desire to generalize the historical experience of mankind, 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 Ferneuil, where the shadows of the “two titans” live - Voltaire and Rousseau, Florence, which expelled Dante, Ferrara, which betrayed Tasso), included in the third and the fourth song 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 radical turn in the fate of Europe, which took place at the site of Napoleon's last battle, pushes Byron to take stock of the just-gone era and assess the activities of its main character, Napoleon Bonaparte. “The History Lesson” 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 fatal catastrophes. And at the same time, contrary to his own concept of historical “fate,” the poet comes to the idea that “after all, your spirit, Freedom, is alive!”, still calling on the peoples of the world to fight for Freedom. “Rise up, rise up,” 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 a detachment of Greek rebels, interrupted his short, but such a bright life and creative path.

§ 2. Byronic heroes-exiles: Prometheus, Manfred, the Prisoner of Chillon and the Corsair

As already noted, the Byronic hero-exile, a rebel who rejects society and is rejected by it, became 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 exiled heroes appear clearly and clearly.

In the context of our particular theme - the theme of the outcast hero in Byron's work, of greatest interest is one of his early poems - "The Corsair" (1814), part of the cycle of "Eastern Poems", where the Byronic conflict of an extraordinary individual and a society hostile to him is presented in especially full and direct expression.

Corsair. The hero of "Corsair" - the sea robber Conrad, by the very nature of his activities, is an outcast. His way of life is a direct challenge not only to the prevailing norms of morality, but also to the system of prevailing state laws, the violation of which turns Conrad into a “professional” criminal. The reasons for this acute conflict between the hero and the entire civilized world, beyond which Conrad retreated, are gradually revealed in the course of the plot development of the poem. The guiding thread to its ideological plan is the symbolic image of the sea, which appears in the song of the pirates, which precedes the narrative in the form of a kind of prologue. This appeal to the sea is one of the constant lyrical motifs of Byron's work. A. S. Pushkin, who called Byron “the singer of the sea,” likens the English poet to this “free element”:

Make noise, get excited by bad weather:

He was, O sea, your singer!

Your image was marked on it,

He was created by your spirit:

How powerful, deep and gloomy you are,

Like you, indomitable by nothing.

“To the Sea” Pushkin A. S. Complete. collection op. in 10 volumes. - M.: 1958. - t. 7. - p. 52--53.

The entire content of the poem can be considered as the development and justification of its metaphorical prologue. The soul of Conrad, a pirate sailing the sea, is also the sea. Stormy, indomitable, free, resisting any attempts to enslave, it does not fit into any unambiguous rationalistic formulas. Good and evil, generosity and cruelty, rebellious impulses and longing for harmony exist in her in indissoluble 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).

Conrad's tragedy lies precisely in the fact that his fatal passions bring death not only to him, but also to everyone who is in one way or another connected with him. Marked by an ominous doom, Conrad sows death and destruction around him. This is one of the sources of his grief and the still not very clear, barely outlined, mental discord, the basis of which is the consciousness of his unity with the criminal world, complicity in its atrocities. In this poem, Conrad is still trying to find an excuse for himself: “Yes, I am a criminal, like everyone else around me. About whom will I say otherwise, about 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

It attracted him to himself, distorting him.

Everyone mocked and everyone betrayed;

Like the feeling of fallen dew

Under the arch of the grotto; and like this grotto,

It petrified in its turn,

Having gone through my earthly bondage...

Per. Yu. Petrova

Like many of Byron's heroes, Conrad in the distant past was pure, trusting and loving. Slightly lifting the veil of mystery that shrouds the backstory of his hero, the poet reports that the gloomy lot he has chosen is the result of persecution by a soulless and evil society, which persecutes everything bright, free and original. Placing 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 “nightly” “demonic” beauty in this confused consciousness, in the chaotic impulses of the human heart. Its source is a proud thirst for freedom - in spite of everything and at any cost.

It was this angry protest against the enslavement of the Personality that determined the enormous power of the artistic impact of Byronic poems on readers of the 19th century. At the same time, the most insightful of them saw in Byron's apology for individualistic self-will and the potential danger contained in it. Thus, A. S. Pushkin admired Byron’s love of freedom, but condemned him for poetizing individualism; behind the gloomy “pride” of Byron’s heroes, he saw the “hopeless egoism” hidden in them (“Lord Byron, by a lucky whim, / Cloaked himself in dull romanticism and hopeless egoism” ) Quoted from: History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev. - M.: Education. - 1982. - 320 p. P. 23.

In his poem “The Gypsies,” Pushkin put into the mouth of one of its characters, an old gypsy, words that sounded 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 place in Byron's concept of personality. But with all the justice of such an assessment, one cannot help but see that this most controversial side of Byronic characters 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 “The Corsair” a certain similarity with Napoleon Mickiewicz A. Sobr. op. in 5 volumes. - M.: 1954 - vol. 4, - p. 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: “In my boyhood I deeply admired Aeschylus’ Prometheus... “Prometheus” has always occupied my thoughts so much that it’s easy for me to imagine its influence on everything I wrote.” Afonina O. Comments // Byron D. G. Favorites. - M.: 1982. - P. 409. In 1816 in Switzerland, in the most tragic year of his life, Byron writes the poem “Prometheus”.

Titanium! To our earthly destiny,

To our sorrowful vale,

For human pain

You looked without contempt;

But what did you get as a reward?

Suffering, stress

Yes kite, that without end

The proud man's liver is tormented,

Rock, chains sad sound,

A suffocating burden of torment

Yes, a groan that is buried in the heart,

Depressed by you, I became quiet,

So that about your sorrows

He couldn't tell the gods.

The poem is constructed in the form of an appeal to titanium; the solemn, odic intonation recreates the image of a stoic sufferer, warrior and fighter, in whom “The example of greatness / For the human race is hidden!” Particular attention is paid to the silent contempt of Prometheus towards Zeus, the “proud god”: “... the groan that was buried in the heart, / Suppressed by you, subsided...”. Prometheus’s “silent answer” to the Thunderer speaks of the titan’s silence as the main threat to God.

In the context of historical events and Byron’s life circumstances in 1816 (restoration of monarchical regimes in Europe, exile), the most important theme of the poem takes on special significance - a bitter reflection on the furious fate, the omnipotent fate that turns man’s earthly lot into a “mournful vale.” In the last part of the poem, human fate is tragically comprehended - “the path of mortals - / Human life is a bright current, / Running, sweeping away the path...”, “a purposeless existence, / Resistance, vegetation...”. The work ends with the affirmation of human will, 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 ease the human pain of those living on earth. Almighty Rock chained him as punishment for his good desire to “put an end to misfortunes.” And although Prometheus’s suffering is beyond his strength, he does not submit to the Tyranny of the Thunderer. The heroism of the tragic image of Prometheus is that he can “turn death into victory.” The legendary image of the Greek myth and tragedy of Aeschylus acquires in Byron's poem the features of civic valor, courage and fearlessness characteristic of the hero of revolutionary romantic poetry O. V. Kovalev. Foreign literature of the 11th - 10th centuries. 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 a proud protest against circumstances and a challenge to tyranny. Thus, 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,

Powerful and all-encompassing, just like yours,

Although clothed with earthly feathers.

But if Byron himself, creating the image of Prometheus, only partially brought his fate closer to his own, then readers and interpreters of the poet’s work often directly identified him with Prometheus. Thus, V. A. Zhukovsky, in a letter to N. V. Gogol, speaking about 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, whose insides are being torn by a kite” Zhukovsky V. A. Aesthetics and criticism. - M.: 1985. - P. 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, to his grief, looked ahead - and without considering, beyond the shimmering distance, the promised land of the future, he cursed the present and declared him irreconcilable and eternal enmity...” Belinsky V. G. Collection. op. in 3 volumes - M.: 1948. - T. 2. - P. 454.

Prometheus became one of the favorite symbols of romanticism, embodying courage, heroism, self-sacrifice, unbending will and intransigence.

"Manfred." In the philosophical drama “Manfred” (1816), one of the initial lines 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 revaluation of his own values. Constructing his drama in the form of a kind of excursion into the area of ​​the inner life of the “Byronic” hero, the poet shows the tragedy of his hero’s mental discord. The romantic Faust - the wizard and magician Manfred, like his German prototype, was disillusioned with 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 grave remorse, he wanders through the heights of the Alps, finding neither oblivion nor peace. The spirits under Manfred's control 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 Byronic conflict of a gifted individual with a hostile world. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev.-- M.: Education - 1982.--320 p. - P. 73.

Having removed himself 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, points out 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. Being the son of his century, Manfred, like Napoleon, is the bearer of epochal consciousness. This is indicated by the symbolic song of the “fates” - the peculiar spirits of history flying over Manfred’s head. The image of the “crowned villain cast into the 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 - both his hero Manfred and the deposed emperor of France - are instruments of the “fates” and their rulers - the genius of evil Ahriman.

Knowledge of the secrets of existence, 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 forward 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 unsolvable. 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 capitulation to the principles of existence hostile to man. His Manfred defends his right to think and dare until the last minute. Proudly rejecting the help of religion, he withdraws into his mountain castle and dies, as he lived, alone. This unyielding stoicism is affirmed by Byron as the only form of life behavior worthy of man.

This idea, forming the basis for the artistic development of drama, acquires extreme clarity in it. This is also facilitated by the genre of “monodrama” - plays with a single character. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev.-- M.: Education - 1982.--320 p. - P. 23. The image of the hero occupies the entire poetic space of the drama, acquiring truly grandiose proportions. His soul is a true microcosm. From its depths everything that exists in the world is born. It contains all the elements of the universe - within himself Manfred carries hell and heaven and carries out judgment on himself. Objectively, the pathos of the poem lies in the affirmation of the greatness of the human spirit. From his titanic efforts a critical, rebellious, protesting thought was born. It is precisely this that constitutes the most valuable conquest of humanity, paid for at the price of blood and suffering. These are Byron's thoughts about the results of the tragic path traversed by humanity at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev.-- M.: Education - 1982.--320 p. - P. 23. .

"The Prisoner of Chillon" (1816). This poem was based on a real life fact: the tragic story of the Genevan citizen Francois de Bonivard, who was imprisoned in Chillon prison in 1530 for religious and political reasons and remained in captivity until 1537. Taking advantage of this episode from the distant past as material for one of his most lyrically mournful works, Byron invested it with acutely modern content. In his interpretation, it became an indictment of political reaction of any historical variety. Under the pen of the great poet, the gloomy image of Chillon Castle grew to the scale of an ominous symbol of a cruel tyrannical world - a prison world, where people, for their loyalty to moral and patriotic ideals, endure torment, before which, in the words of V. G. Belinsky, “Dante’s own hell seems some kind of paradise" Belinsky V. G. Poli. collection op. in 13 volumes. - M.: 1955 - t. 7. - P. 209..

The stone tomb in which they are buried is gradually killing their body and soul. Unlike his brothers, who died before Bonivard's eyes, he remains physically alive. But his soul is half dying. The darkness surrounding the prisoner fills his inner world and instills formless chaos in him:

And it seemed like in a heavy dream,

Everything is pale, dark, dull to me...

It was darkness without darkness;

It was an abyss of emptiness

Without extension and boundaries;

They were images without faces;

It was some kind of terrible world,

Without sky, light and luminaries,

Without time, without days and years,

Without industry, without blessings and troubles,

Neither life nor death are like the sleep of coffins,

Like an ocean without shores

Crushed by heavy darkness,

Motionless, dark and silent...

Per. V. A. Chukovsky

The stoically unyielding martyr of the idea does not take the path of renunciation, but he turns into a passive person, indifferent to everything, and, what is perhaps the worst thing, he resigns himself to bondage and even begins to love the place of his imprisonment:

When outside the door of your prison

I stepped into freedom

I sighed about my prison.

Starting from this work, according to critics, the center of Byron's works puts forward, in many respects, a new image for him of a fighter for the happiness of mankind - a lover of humanity, ready to put on his shoulders the heavy burden of human suffering. History of foreign literature of the 19th century: Textbook. manual for pedagogical students. Institute for specialties No. 2101 “Rus. language and lit."/ Ed. Ya. N. Zasursky, S. V. Turaev.-- M.: Education - 1982.--320 p. - P. 23.

The outcast hero, free from society, present in all of Byron's works, is unhappy, but independence is more valuable 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. The poet recognizes only one human connection as possible for his free, unhypocritical 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, glorified by Byron, was a feature of the epochal consciousness in its romantic, exaggeratedly bright expression. This ability to penetrate the spirit of the era explains the significance of the influence that Byron's work had on modern and subsequent literature.

George Gorgon Byron was the most important English poet of the 19th century. His poems were on everyone's lips. Translated into many languages, they inspired poets to create their own works. Many European poets - admirers and successors of Byron - found in him motives that were in tune with their own thoughts and feelings. Starting from Byronic poems, using them as a form of self-expression, they also put a part of their own worldview into the translations. The English poet was also warmly appreciated by progressive Russian society. Byron's work was fascinated by Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Baratynsky, as well as the Decembrist poets, with whom the rebellious English poet was especially in tune. Byron's heroes fascinated with their courage, unusualness, mystery and, naturally, many people thought about their similarities with the author himself. This was partly true.
After receiving his primary education at a school for the children of the aristocracy, Byron entered Cambridge University. However, university sciences did not captivate the future poet and did not provide an answer to the pressing political and social issues of our time that worried him. He reads a lot, preferring historical works and memoirs.
Young Byron is increasingly overwhelmed by feelings of disappointment and loneliness. A conflict between the poet and the highest aristocratic society is brewing. These motives will form the basis of his first collection of poetry – largely immature and imitative – “Leisure Hours,” published in 1807.
Already in the poet's early lyrics, the strokes of his future tragedy are outlined: the final break with the ruling class of England and voluntary exile. Already now he is ready to sacrifice his inherited estate and the high-profile title of lord so as not to live among people he hates. The poet would gladly exchange the “arrogant prison of England” for the beauty of primeval nature with virgin forests, sky-high mountain peaks and wide valleys, as he writes about in the poem “When I Could in the Desert Seas.” Here Byron bitterly admits: “I have lived little, but it is clear to my heart that the world is as alien to me as I am to the world.” The poem ends on the same pessimistic note. The poet’s soul, bound by the prejudices of an aristocratic society, passionately desires a different destiny, longing for the unknown:
Oh, if only from the narrow vale,
Like a dove in the warm world of a nest,
Leave, fly into the heavenly expanse.
Forgetting earthly things forever!
Byron conveys the tragic feeling of loneliness in the poem “Inscription on the Grave of a Newfoundland Dog.” The words addressed by the lyrical hero to the people around him contain the deepest contempt. Mired in all sorts of vices, empty, hypocritical people should, in his opinion, feel shame in front of any animal.
Although the lyrical hero of Byron's poetry subsequently evolved along with his author, the main features of his spiritual appearance: world sorrow, rebellious intransigence, fiery passions and freedom-loving aspirations - all these features
remained unchanged. Some idle critics even accused Byron of misanthropy, identifying the author himself with the heroes of his works. Of course, there is some truth in this. Every writer, poet, when creating works, first of all expresses himself. He puts some part of his soul into his literary heroes. And although many writers deny this, contrary statements are also known. For example, Flaubert and Gogol. The latter, in the book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” writes about “Dead Souls”: “None of my readers knew that, laughing at my heroes, he laughed at me... I began to give my heroes more than their own nasty things with my own rubbish.”
The statement of A.S. is also noteworthy. Pushkin regarding the uniformity of the heroes in almost all of Byron’s works: “...He (Byron - P.B.) comprehended, created and described a single character (namely his own), everything except some satirical antics... he attributed to.. ... a gloomy, powerful face, so mysteriously captivating." As you know, Pushkin was most captivated by the image of Byron’s Childe Harold, whose characteristic features he endowed with his hero, Onegin, calling him “a Muscovite in Harold’s cloak.”
However, Byron, like the lyrical hero of his early lyrics, despised and hated not all of humanity as a whole, but only its individual representatives from the environment of a depraved and vicious aristocratic society, in whose circle he saw himself lonely and outcast. He loved humanity and was ready to help the oppressed peoples (Italians and Greeks) throw off the hated foreign yoke, which he later proved with his life and work.
Unable to bear the difficult situation that reigned around him, Byron in 1809 set off on a journey through the Mediterranean countries, the fruit of which were the first two songs of the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.”
The poem is a kind of diary, united into one poetic whole by some appearance of a plot. The connecting beginning of the work is the story of the wanderings of a young aristocrat, satiated with secular pleasures and disappointed in life. At first, the image of Childe Harold leaving England merges with the image of the author, but the further the story unfolds, the sharper the line between them becomes. Along with the image of the bored aristocrat Childe Harold, the image of the lyrical hero, embodying the author’s “I,” emerges more and more clearly. The lyrical hero speaks enthusiastically about the Spanish people, heroically defending their homeland from the French invaders, and mourns the former greatness of Greece, enslaved by the Turks. “And under the Turkish whips, resigned, Greece prostrated itself, trampled into the mud,” the poet says bitterly. But nevertheless, Byron, contemplating this sad spectacle, does not lose faith in the possibility of a revival of freedom. The poet’s call for rebellion sounds with unrelenting force: “O Greece, rise up to fight!” Unlike his hero Childe Harold, Byron is not at all a passive contemplator of life. His restless, restless soul seems to contain all the sorrow and pain of humanity.
The poem was a huge success. However, different strata of society treated it differently. Some saw only a disappointed hero in Byron's work, others appreciated not so much the image of the bored aristocrat Childe Harold, but rather the pathos
love of freedom, which permeates the entire poem. Nevertheless, the image of the protagonist of the poem turned out to be deeply in tune with modern times. Although this disappointed, faithless English aristocrat was not at all an exact likeness of Byron, his appearance already showed typical features of that special character of a romantic hero, which many writers of the 19th century subsequently developed in their works. (Childe Harold will become the prototype of Pushkin’s Onegin, Lermontov’s Pechorin, etc.).
The theme of the conflict between the individual and society will be continued in Byron’s subsequent works, in the so-called “oriental poems” written in 1813 - 1816. In this poetic cycle, which includes six poems (“The Giaour”, “The 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. At the center of each poem is a truly demonic personality. This is a type of avenger disappointed in everything, a noble robber who despises the society that expelled him. (We note here that a similar type of hero was used by A.S. Pushkin in the story “Dubrovsky”). Byron mostly gives a purely conventional portrait of the hero of the “oriental poems”, without going into details. For him, the main thing is the internal state of the hero. After all, the heroes of these poems were, as it were, the living embodiment of the vague romantic ideal that possessed Byron at that time. The poet’s hatred of the aristocratic circles of England was about to develop into open rebellion, but it was still unclear how to accomplish this and where the forces that could be relied upon were. Subsequently, Byron would find use for his inner protest and join the Carbonari movement, who fought for the liberation of Italy from the Austrian yoke. In the meantime, in the “eastern floodplains,” Byron’s hero, like the poet himself, carries within himself only the negation of a loner individualist. Here, for example, is how the author describes the main character of the poem “The Corsair,” the sea robber Conrad:
Deceived, we avoid more and more,
From a young age he despised rooks
And, having chosen anger as the crown of his joys,
He began to take out the evil of a few on everyone.
Like other heroes of “oriental poems,” Conrad in the past was an ordinary person - honest, virtuous, loving. Byron, slightly lifting the veil of secrecy, reports that the gloomy lot that fell to Conrad is the result of persecution by a soulless and evil society, which persecutes everything bright, free and original. Thus, placing responsibility for the Corsair’s crimes on a corrupt and insignificant society, Byron at the same time poetizes his personality and the state of mind in which Conrad is located. The most insightful critics of their time noted this idealization of individualistic self-will by Byron. Thus, Pushkin condemned the egoism of the heroes of Byron’s “oriental poems,” in particular Conrad. And Mickiewicz even saw in the hero of “The Corsair” some similarities with Napoleon. No wonder. Byron probably had some sympathy for Napoleon, as evidenced by his republican sentiments. In 1815, in the House of Lords, Byron voted against war with France.
The revolutionary rebellion of the English poet led him to a complete break with bourgeois England. The hostility of the ruling circles towards Byron especially intensified due to his speech in defense of the Luddites, who destroyed machines in factories in protest against inhuman working conditions. As a result, by making Byron the object of severe persecution and bullying, taking advantage of the drama of his personal life (divorce from his wife), reactionary England pushed the poet onto the path of exile.
In 1816 – 1817 After traveling through the Alps, Byron creates the dramatic poem "Manfred". By constructing the work as a kind of excursion into the area of ​​the inner life of the “Byronic” hero, the poet shows the tragedy of mental discord, which was only hinted at in his “Eastern poems”. Manfred is a thinker like Faust, disillusioned with the sciences. But if Goethe’s Faust, discarding dead, scholastic sciences, seeks the path to true knowledge and finds the meaning of life in working for the good of people, then Manfred, convinced that: “The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life,” calls upon the spirits to demand oblivion . Here Byron's romantic disappointment seems to contrast with Goethe's enlightenment optimism. But Manfred does not accept his fate, he rebels, proudly defies God and, in the end, dies rebellious. In “Manfred,” Byron, with much greater certainty than in previously created works, speaks of those destructive principles that lurk in the modern individualistic consciousness. The titanic individualism of the proud “superman” Manfred acts as a kind of sign of the times.
This is manifested to an even greater extent in the mystery "Cain", which represents a significant peak in Byron's work. The poet uses the biblical story to give his hero’s rebellion truly universal proportions. Cain rebels against God, who, in his opinion, is the author of evil on earth. The entire world order is declared imperfect. Next to Cain there is the image of Lucifer, a proud rebel, defeated in an open battle with God, but did not submit.
Cain differs from Byron's previous romantic heroes, who in proud, loneliness opposed themselves to all other people. Hatred of God appears in Cain as a result of compassion for people. It is caused by pain for human fate. But, fighting against evil, Cain himself becomes an instrument of evil, and his rebellion turns out to be futile. Byron does not find a way out of the contradictions of the era and leaves the hero as a lonely wanderer, going into the unknown. But such an ending does not diminish the fighting pathos of this rebellious drama. The condemnation of Abel sounded in it as a protest against any reconciliation and slavish submission to the tyranny of those in power.
Written in 1821, just after the suppression of the Carbonari uprising, Byron's mystery "Cain" with enormous poetic power captured the depth of despair of the poet, who was convinced that the hopes of people, in particular Italians, for liberation from foreign rule were unrealistic. Byron saw with his own eyes the doom of his Promethean rebellion against the cruel laws of life and history.
As a result of this, in the unfinished work - the novel in verse “Don Juan” - the Byronic hero appears from a different perspective. Contrary to the world literary tradition, which portrayed Don Juan as a strong-willed, active person, and in complete contradiction with the principles of building the characters of his former heroes, Byron makes him a person unable to resist the pressure of the external environment. In relationships with his many lovers, Don Juan acts not as a seducer, but as the seduced. Meanwhile, nature endowed him with both courage and nobility of feelings. And although sublime motives are not alien to Don Juan, he gives in to them only occasionally. In general, the circumstances are stronger than Don Juan. It is the idea of ​​their omnipotence that becomes the source of irony that permeates the entire work.
The storyline of the novel is interrupted from time to time by lyrical digressions. In the center of them stands the second lyrical hero of “Don Juan” - the author himself. In his sorrowful, but at the same time satirically caustic speeches, an image of a corrupt, self-interested world emerges, the objective demonstration of which is the basis of the author’s plan.
“The ruler of thoughts” (according to Pushkin) of an entire generation, Byron had a great beneficial influence on his contemporaries. Even the concept of “Byronism” arose and spread widely, which is often identified with world sorrow, that is, suffering caused by the feeling that the universe is governed by cruel laws hostile to man. Byronism, however, is not reduced to pessimism and disappointment. It includes other aspects of the poet’s multifaceted life and work: skepticism, irony, individualistic rebellion, and at the same time – loyalty to public service in the fight against despotism, both political and spiritual.

J. G. Byron

English romantic poet. The younger generation is romantic. His contribution to literature is determined, firstly, by the significance of the works and images he created, secondly, by the development of new literary genres (lyric-epic poem, philosophical mystery drama, novel in verse...), innovation in various fields of poetics, in the ways of creating images, and finally, by participating in the political and literary struggle of his time. Byron's inner world was complex and contradictory. He was born at 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; an indestructible fighter for justice; a rebel against the politics of the time; ideal for a whole generation; fighter, poet, cynic, socialite, aristocrat, romantic, idealist, satirist; passionate and impetuous, 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 into poverty in London, lame, his father squandered the family fortune. Raised by mother. Never got along with her. They made fun of him at school. Byron never graduated from university; he had fun and played cards. Debts grew.

Byron fought against representatives of the “lake school” (a satire on them)

The first collection “Leisure Hours”. The collection received negative reviews.

The revelation 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 great trip. Travel impressions formed the basis of the lyric epic poem “Childe-Harold’s Pilgrimage.” The poem became famous throughout Europe and gave birth to a new type of literary hero. Byron was introduced into high society, and he plunged into social life, although he could not get rid of the feeling of awkwardness due to a physical flaw, hiding it behind arrogance.

In Byron's poem “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,” the idea of ​​freedom for all peoples was expressed; not only the right, but also the duty of every nation to fight for independence and freedom from tyranny was asserted. In another sense, freedom for Byron is the freedom of the individual.

But the special complexity of the composition is given by the synthesis of the epic and lyrical layers characteristic of the poem: it is not always possible to accurately determine who owns the lyrical thoughts: the hero or the author. The lyrical element is introduced into the poem by images of nature, and above all by the image of the sea, which becomes a symbol of an uncontrollable and independent free element.

In Song III, the poet addresses the turning point in European history - the fall of Napoleon. Childe Harold visits the site of the Battle of Waterloo. And the author reflects that in this battle both Napoleon and his victorious opponents defended not freedom, but tyranny.

The problem is the role of the poet and art in the struggle for the freedom of peoples. The poet compares himself to a drop that flows into the sea, to a swimmer who is akin to the sea element. This metaphor becomes understandable if we consider that the image of the sea embodies a people who have been striving for freedom for centuries. The author in the poem, therefore, is a poet-citizen.

"Eastern Tales"

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 strangle freedom, resorting to eastern cunning and cruelty, and a romantic hero placed in this world more clearly reveals his love of freedom in a clash with tyranny. “Corsair”, “Giaur”, “Bride of Abydos”

Unlike Childe Harold, a hero-observer who withdrew from the struggle with society, the heroes of these poems are people of action and active protest.

Swiss period

Byron's political free-thinking and freedom of his religious and moral views caused real persecution against him throughout English society. His break with his wife was used to campaign against the poet. Byron leaves for Switzerland. His disappointment actually becomes universal.

"Manfred." The symbolic and philosophical dramatic poem “Manfred” was written in Switzerland. Manfred, who has comprehended “all earthly wisdom,” is deeply disappointed. Manfred's suffering, his “worldly sorrow” is inextricably linked with the loneliness that he chose himself. Manfred's egocentrism reaches the extreme level, he considers himself above everything in the world, desires complete, absolute freedom. But his self-centeredness brings death to all those who love him.

Italian period. The Italian period is the pinnacle of Byron's creativity. Having taken part in the Italians’ struggle for the country’s freedom, the poet creates works full of revolutionary ideas. " Cain"

"Don Juan" Byron's greatest work. It remained unfinished (16 songs 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. a 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 and dying. The Greeks still consider Byron their national hero.

Byron, who never knew the limits of his desires, sought to get as much as possible from life, satiated with available benefits, was looking for new adventures and impressions, trying to get rid of deep spiritual melancholy and anxiety.

Byron's poems are more autobiographical than the works of other English romantics.

Unlike most romantics, Byron respected the heritage of English classicism,

Byronism is a romantic movement. Byronists are characterized by disappointment in society and the world, a mood of “world sorrow”, a sharp discord between the poet and those around him, and the cult of the superman.

Byronic hero

Protest of the human personality against the social system that constrains it.

With the advent of “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and other works of Byron, the concept of “Byronic hero” came into widespread use, which became the literary embodiment of the spirit of the era, the mood that lived in society at the beginning of the 19th century. This was the poet’s artistic discovery, which he made in observations of himself and his generation.

An extraordinary personality, a freethinker,

His hero is disappointed in the world; he is not pleased with wealth, entertainment, or fame. His main spiritual state is boredom. The Byronic hero is lonely and alienated. 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 of society and the law, and look at public institutions with arrogance, sometimes reaching the point of cynicism. Digging into 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. He is characterized by disappointment in the surrounding reality, protest against it, boredom, wandering in the slums of his own soul, disappointment, melancholy, longing for impossible ideals. Rebel strong character, dreamer

This is a lonely traveler, an exile. Typically, the Byronic hero is an exceptional character acting under exceptional circumstances. He is characterized by deep and intense feelings, melancholy, melancholy, emotional impulses, ardent passions, he rejects the laws to which others obey, therefore such a hero always rises above his environment.

The hero is disappointed in the values ​​of the world; he is not pleased with wealth, entertainment, or fame. The main state of mind is boredom. He is dissatisfied with the environment and cannot find a place in it. The hero does not correlate his life with his homeland, country, land, he stands above borders, he belongs to everyone. His suffering and feelings represent the main subject of the author's study.

Poem

SUN OF THE SLEEPLESSNESS

Sleepless sun, mournful star,

Your moist ray reaches us here.

With him the night seems darker to us,

You are the memory of happiness that rushed away.

The dim light of the past still trembles,

It still flickers, but there is no warmth in it.

Midnight ray, you are alone in the sky,

Clean, but lifeless, clear, but distant!..

The verse “Memory” 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, “lost paradise”, lost hopes and expectations, the lost absolute of human happiness - this is the internal theme of the poet’s lyrics.

End! It was all just a dream.

There is no light in my future.

Where is the happiness, where is the charm?

I'm trembling in the wind of the evil winter,

My dawn is hidden behind a cloud of darkness,

Gone is the love, the radiance of hope...

Oh, if only there was a memory!

George (Lord) Byron (translation by Alexei Tolstoy)

Sleepless sun, sad star,

How tearfully your beam always flickers,

How the darkness is even darker with him,

How similar it is to the joy of former days!

This is how the past shines for us in the night of life,

But the powerless rays no longer warm us,

The star of the past is so visible to me in grief,

Visible, but distant - light, but cold!