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ROMANTICISM IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE. Three types of romantic hero.

Romanticism is a movement in literature artistic type creativity, a characteristic feature of which is the display and reproduction of life outside the real-specific connections of a person with the surrounding reality.

The emergence of romanticism. Romanticism arose at the end of the 18th century. The birthplace of romanticism is Germany, the emergence of aesthetics gave the world a number of philosophers: F. Schelling, Fichte, Kant. German romanticism had a decisive influence on all types of art: ballet, painting, literature, landscape art. Many romantics were linguists; they were interested in language as an expression of the spirit of the nation, an expression of thoughts and feelings. Romanticism describes a bright, exceptional plot, sublime passions, feelings, love intrigue.

Romanticism has its own way of typification. These are exceptional characters in exceptional circumstances. Romantics depict human qualities in a departure from the ordinary. Since the birth of romanticism, telepathy and parapsychology have been resurrected. The birth of romanticism is a crisis of rational aesthetics. A new typology of hero is emerging. These types have become eternal. .

The first type of hero. 1 . The hero is a wanderer, a fugitive, a wanderer (he was created by Byron, he was in Pushkin (Aleko), .. Wandering is not geographical, but spiritual, internal migration, the search for the unknown. The search for the highest truth. Wandering is a metaphor for striving into the unknown, an eternal search, longing for the infinite, this longing leads to alienation from society, opposition to others, the world, and God.

This type of hero gave birth to eternal images. Image of the sea...(restlessness, tossing...)

Image of the road...

Don Quixote is a wanderer who is always looking and cannot find.

The image of a disappearing horizon.

The second type of hero is a strange eccentric, a dreamer, out of this world. He is characterized by childish naivety, worldly inability, on earth he is not at home, but visiting. (Odoevsky “Town in a snuffbox”, Pogorelsky, Dostoevsky).

The third type of hero The hero is an artist, a poet with a capital letter. An artist is not only a profession, but a state of mind. Creativity among romantics, who is the main creator? - God. Romantics call him a cosmic artist; for them, poetry is a revelation. They decided that the creation of the world was not completed, and the poet should continue the work of the Creator. They raised the poet to such a height... And gave rise to symbolism.

Visions, hallucinations, dreams gave rise to creativity. Romantics created a biography of Raphael. Zhukovsky's article about how he painted the Madonna painting. “He languished with this image for a long time, but it did not work out on canvas. Raphael fell asleep and had a vision. He saw this image, woke up and wrote. The poet is a spiritual ascetic.

On the topic: methodological developments, presentations and notes

“Heroes of Gorky’s early romantic stories. Romantic pathos and the harsh truth of life in M. Gorky’s story “Old Woman Izergil”

Purpose of the lesson: to identify the features of M. Gorky’s early prose using the example of the story “Old Woman Izergil”. Lesson objectives: Educational: - to consider the problem of the hero in early stories Gorky; - especially note...

THREE DAYS OF THE “LIFE” OF THE HERO OF M. YU. LERMONTOV’S POEM “MCYRI”

Lesson objectives:1. Assimilation of knowledge about the life and work of M. Yu. Lermontov.2. Formation of the ability to collect material about the hero of a literary work.3. Formation of expressive...

The basis of romanticism literary direction represents the idea of ​​the superiority of spirit over matter, the idealization of everything mental: romantic writers believed that spirituality, also called truly human, must necessarily be higher and more worthy than the world around it, than the tangible. The society around the hero is usually considered to be the same “matter.”

The main conflict of the romantic hero

Thus, main conflict romanticism is the so-called conflict of “personality and society”: the romantic hero, as a rule, is lonely and misunderstood, he considers himself superior to the people around him who do not value him. From classic look The romantic hero later formed two very important archetypes of world literature, the superman and the superfluous man (often the first image smoothly turns into the second).

Romantic literature does not have clear genre boundaries; in the romantic spirit one can maintain a ballad (Zhukovsky), a poem (Lermontov, Byron) and a novel (Pushkin, Lermontov). The main thing in romanticism is not the form, but the mood.

However, if we remember that romanticism is traditionally divided into two directions: “mystical” German, originating from Schiller, and freedom-loving English, the founder of which was Byron, we can trace its main genre features.

Features of the genres of romantic literature

Mystical romanticism is often characterized by a genre ballads, which allows you to fill the work with various “otherworldly” elements that seem to be on the verge of life and death. It is this genre that Zhukovsky uses: his ballads “Svetlana” and “Lyudmila” are largely dedicated to the dreams of the heroines, in which they imagine death.

Another genre used for both mystical and freedom-loving romanticism poem. The main romantic writer of poems was Byron. In Russia, his tradition was continued by Pushkin’s poem “ Prisoner of the Caucasus" and "Gypsies" are usually called Byronic, and Lermontov's poems "Mtsyri" and "Demon". There are many possible assumptions in a poem, which is why this genre is especially convenient.

Pushkin and Lermontov also offer the public a genre novel, maintained in the traditions of freedom-loving romanticism. Their main characters, Onegin and Pechorin, are ideal romantic heroes. .

Both of them are smart and talented, both consider themselves superior to the surrounding society - this is the image of a superman. The goal of such a hero’s life is not the accumulation of material wealth, but serving the high ideals of humanism and developing one’s capabilities.

However, society does not accept them either; they turn out to be unnecessary and misunderstood in a false and deceitful high society, they have nowhere to realize their abilities; thus, the tragic romantic hero gradually becomes a “superfluous person.”

Who is a romantic hero and what is he like?

This is an individualist. A superman who lived through two stages: before colliding with reality; he lives in a “pink” state, he is possessed by the desire for achievement, to change the world. After a collision with reality; he continues to consider this world both vulgar and boring, but he becomes a skeptic, a pessimist. With a clear understanding that nothing can be changed, the desire for heroism degenerates into a desire for danger.

Every culture had its own romantic hero, but Byron gave the typical representation of the romantic hero in his work Childe Harold. He put on the mask of his hero (suggests that there is no distance between the hero and the author) and managed to correspond to the romantic canon.

All romantic works. Distinguish characteristic features:

Firstly, in every romantic work there is no distance between the hero and the author.

Secondly, the author does not judge the hero, but even if something bad is said about him, the plot is structured in such a way that the hero is not to blame. The plot in a romantic work is usually romantic. Romantics also build a special relationship with nature; they like storms, thunderstorms, and disasters.

In Russia, romanticism arose seven years later than in Europe, since in the 19th century Russia was in some cultural isolation. We can talk about Russian imitation European romanticism. This was a special manifestation of romanticism; in Russian culture there was no opposition of man to the world and God. The version of Byron's romanticism was lived and felt in his work first by Pushkin, then by Lermontov. Pushkin had the gift of attention to people; the most romantic of his romantic poems is “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”. Pushkin felt and identified the most vulnerable place of a person’s romantic position: he wants everything only for himself.

Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" also does not fully reflect the characteristic features of romanticism.

There are two romantic heroes in this poem, so if this and romantic poem, then it is very unique: firstly, the second hero is conveyed by the author through an epigraph; secondly, the author does not connect with Mtsyri, the hero solves the problem of self-will in his own way, and Lermontov throughout the entire poem only thinks about solving this problem. He does not judge his hero, but he does not justify him either, but he takes a certain position - understanding. It turns out that romanticism in Russian culture is transformed into reflection. It turns out romanticism from the point of view of realism.

We can say that Pushkin and Lermontov failed to become romantics (however, Lermontov once managed to comply with romantic laws - in the drama “Masquerade”). With their experiments, the poets showed that in England the position of an individualist could be fruitful, but in Russia it was not. Although Pushkin and Lermontov failed to become romantics, they opened the way for the development of realism.In 1825, the first realistic work: “Boris Godunov”, then “ Captain's daughter", "Eugene Onegin", "Hero of Our Time" and many others.

With all the complexity ideological content Romanticism, its aesthetics as a whole opposed the aesthetics of classicism of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Romantics broke the centuries-old literary canons of classicism with its spirit of discipline and frozen grandeur. In the struggle for the liberation of art from petty regulation, the romantics defended unlimited freedom creative imagination artist.

Rejecting the constraining rules of classicism, they insisted on mixing genres, justifying their demand by the fact that it corresponds to the true life of nature, where beauty and ugliness, the tragic and the comic are mixed. Glorifying the natural movements of the human heart, the romantics, in contrast to the rationalistic demands of classicism, put forward a cult of feeling; the logically generalized characters of classicism were opposed by their extreme individualization.

Hero romantic literature with its exclusivity, with its heightened emotionality, was generated by the desire of the romantics to contrast prosaic reality with a bright, free personality. But if progressive romantics created images strong people with unbridled energy, with violent passions, people rebelling against the dilapidated laws of an unjust society, then conservative romantics cultivated the image of a “superfluous person”, coldly withdrawn in his loneliness, completely immersed in his experiences.

The desire to reveal the inner world of man, interest in the life of peoples, in their historical and national identity - all these strengths Romanticism foreshadowed the transition to realism. However, the achievements of the Romantics are inseparable from the limitations inherent in their method.

The laws of bourgeois society, misunderstood by the romantics, appeared in their minds in the form of irresistible forces playing with man, surrounding him with an atmosphere of mystery and fate. For many romantics, human psychology was shrouded in mysticism; it was dominated by moments of the irrational, unclear, and mysterious. The subjective idealistic idea of ​​the world, of a lonely, self-contained personality opposed to this world, was the basis for a one-sided, non-specific image of a person.

Along with the actual ability to convey difficult life feelings and soul, we often find among romantics the desire to transform the diversity of human characters into abstract schemes of good and evil. Pathetic elation of intonation, a tendency toward exaggeration and dramatic effects sometimes led to stiltedness, which also made the art of the romantics conventional and abstract. These weaknesses, to one degree or another, were characteristic of everyone, even the largest representatives of romanticism.

The painful discord between the ideal and social reality is the basis of the romantic worldview and art. The affirmation of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the image of strong passions, spiritualized and healing nature among many romantics - the heroics of protest or national liberation, including revolutionary struggle, coexists with the motives of “world sorrow”, “world evil”, the night side of the soul, clothed in the forms of irony, grotesque, poetics of dual worlds.

Interest in the national past (often its idealization), traditions of folklore and culture of one’s own and other peoples, the desire to create a universal picture of the world (primarily history and literature), the idea of ​​art synthesis found expression in the ideology and practice of romanticism.

Romanticism in music took shape in the 20s of the 19th century under the influence of the literature of romanticism and developed in close connection with it, with literature in general (recourse to synthetic genres, primarily opera, song, instrumental miniature and musical programming). The appeal to the inner world of man, characteristic of romanticism, was expressed in the cult of the subjective, the craving for emotional intensity, which determined the primacy of music and lyrics in romanticism.

Musical romanticism manifested itself in many different branches associated with different national cultures and with different social movements. So, for example, there is a significant difference between the intimate, lyrical style of the German romantics and the “oratorical” civic pathos characteristic of creativity French composers. In turn, representatives of new national schools that emerged on the basis of a broad national liberation movement (Chopin, Moniuszko, Dvorak, Smetana, Grieg), as well as representatives of the Italian opera school, closely associated with the Risorgimento movement (Verdi, Bellini), in many ways differ from their contemporaries in Germany, Austria or France, in particular, in their tendency to preserve classical traditions.

And yet they are all marked by some common artistic principles, which allow us to talk about a single romantic system of thought.

By the beginning of the 19th century there appeared basic research folklore, history, ancient literature, forgotten medieval legends, Gothic art, and Renaissance culture are resurrected. It was at this time that many national schools of a special type emerged in the compositional work of Europe, which were destined to significantly expand the boundaries of pan-European culture. Russian, which soon took, if not the first, then one of the first places in world cultural creativity (Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, the “Kuchkists”, Tchaikovsky), Polish (Chopin, Moniuszko), Czech (Smetana, Dvorak), Hungarian (Liszt), then Norwegian (Grieg), Spanish (Pedrel), Finnish (Sibelius), English (Elgar) - all of them, joining the general mainstream of European compositional creativity, in no way opposed themselves to the established ancient traditions. A new circle of images has emerged, expressing unique national traits that national culture, to which the composer belonged. The intonation structure of a work allows you to instantly recognize by ear whether you belong to a particular national school.

Since Schubert and Weber, composers have been involved in the pan-European musical language intonation turns of the ancient, predominantly peasant folklore of their countries. Schubert, as it were, purified the folk german song From the varnish of Austro-German opera, Weber introduced into the cosmopolitan intonation structure of the Singspiel of the 18th century the song turns of folk genres, in particular, the famous chorus of hunters in The Magic Shooter. Chopin's music, for all its salon elegance and strict adherence to the traditions of professional instrumental writing, including sonata-symphonic writing, is based on the unique modal coloring and rhythmic structure of Polish folklore. Mendelssohn relies extensively on everyday German song, Grieg - on original forms music-making of the Norwegians, Mussorgsky - on the ancient modality of ancient Russian peasant modes.

The most striking phenomenon in the music of romanticism, especially clearly perceived when compared with the figurative sphere of classicism, is the dominance of the lyrical-psychological principle. Of course distinctive feature musical art in general - the refraction of any phenomenon through the sphere of feelings. Music of all eras is subject to this pattern. But the romantics surpassed all their predecessors in the importance of the lyrical principle in their music, in the strength and perfection in conveying the depths of a person’s inner world, the subtlest shades of mood.

The theme of love occupies a dominant place in it, for this is precisely what state of mind most comprehensively and fully reflects all the depths and nuances of the human psyche. But it is highly characteristic that this theme is not limited to the motives of love in the literal sense of the word, but is identified with the widest range of phenomena. The purely lyrical experiences of the characters are revealed against the backdrop of a broad historical panorama (for example, in Musset). A person’s love for his home, for his fatherland, for his people runs like a through thread through the work of all romantic composers.

Huge space is allocated to musical works small and large forms to the image of nature, closely and inextricably intertwined with the theme of lyrical confession. Like images of love, the image of nature personifies the hero’s state of mind, so often colored by a feeling of disharmony with reality.

The theme of fantasy often competes with images of nature, which is probably generated by the desire to escape from captivity real life. Typical for the romantics was the search for a wonderful world sparkling with a wealth of colors, opposing gray everyday life. It was during these years that literature was enriched with the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the fairy tales of Andersen, and the ballads of Schiller and Mickiewicz. Composers romantic school fairy-tale, fantastic images acquire a unique national coloring. Chopin's ballads are inspired by Mickiewicz's ballads, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Berlioz create works of a fantastic grotesque plan, symbolizing, as it were, the reverse side of faith, striving to reverse the ideas of fear of the forces of evil.

IN fine arts Romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, less expressively in sculpture and architecture. Prominent representatives of romanticism in the fine arts were E. Delacroix, T. Gericault, K. Friedrich. Eugene Delacroix is ​​considered the head of the French romantic painters. In his paintings, he expressed the spirit of love of freedom, active action (“Freedom Leading the People”), and passionately and temperamentally called for the manifestation of humanism. Gericault's everyday paintings are distinguished by their relevance, psychologism, and unprecedented expression. Friedrich's spiritual, melancholic landscapes (“Two Contemplating the Moon”) are again the same attempt of the romantics to penetrate into the human world, to show how a person lives and dreams in the sublunary world.

In Russia, romanticism first began to appear in portraiture. In the first third of the 19th century she for the most part lost contact with the dignitary aristocracy. Portraits of poets, artists, art patrons, and images of ordinary peasants began to occupy a significant place. This tendency was especially pronounced in the works of O.A. Kiprensky (1782 - 1836) and V.A. Tropinin (1776 - 1857).

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin strove for a lively, relaxed characterization of a person, expressed through his portrait. Portrait of a Son (1818), “A.S. Pushkin” (1827), “Self-Portrait” (1846) amaze not with their portrait resemblance to the originals, but with their unusually subtle insight into inner world person. It was Tropinin who was the founder of the genre, somewhat idealized portrait of a man from the people (“The Lacemaker”, 1823).

At the beginning of the 19th century, significant cultural center Tver was in Russia. All outstanding people Moscow have been here on literary evenings. Here young Orest Kiprensky met A.S. Pushkin, whose portrait, painted later, became the pearl of the world portrait art, and A.S. Pushkin dedicated poems to him, calling him “the favorite of light-winged fashion.” The portrait of Pushkin by O. Kiprensky is a living personification of the poetic genius. In the decisive turn of the head, in the energetically crossed arms on the chest, in the poet’s entire appearance, a feeling of independence and freedom is reflected. It was about him that Pushkin said: “I see myself as in a mirror, but this mirror flatters me.” A distinctive feature of Kiprensky’s portraits is that they show the spiritual charm and inner nobility of a person. The portrait of Davydov (1809) is also full of romantic mood.

Many portraits were painted by Kiprensky in Tver. Moreover, when he painted Ivan Petrovich Wulf, the Tver landowner, he looked with emotion at the girl standing in front of him, his granddaughter, the future Anna Petrovna Kern, to whom one of the most captivating lyrical works- poem by A.S. Pushkin “I remember wonderful moment.." Such associations of poets, artists, musicians became a manifestation of a new direction in art - romanticism.

The luminaries of Russian painting of this era were K.P. Bryullov (1799 -1852) and A.A. Ivanov (1806 - 1858).

Russian painter and draftsman K.P. Bryullov, while still a student at the Academy of Arts, mastered the incomparable skill of drawing. Sent to Italy, where his brother lived, to improve his art, Bryullov soon amazed St. Petersburg patrons and philanthropists with his paintings. Large canvas The Last Day of Pompeii was a huge success in Italy and then in Russia. The artist created in it an allegorical picture of the death of the ancient world and the onset of new era. The birth of a new life on the ruins of an old world crumbling into dust is the main idea of ​​Bryullov’s painting. The artist depicted a mass scene, the heroes of which are not individual people, but the people themselves.

The best portraits of Bryullov constitute one of the most wonderful pages history of Russian and world art. His “Self-Portrait”, as well as portraits of A.N. Strugovshchikova, N.I. Kukolnik, I.A. Krylova, Ya.F. Yanenko, M Lanci are distinguished by their variety and richness of characteristics, the plastic power of the design, the variety and brilliance of the technique.

K.P. Bryullov introduced a stream of romanticism and vitality into the painting of Russian classicism. His “Bathsheba” (1832) is illuminated by inner beauty and sensuality. Even ceremonial portrait Bryullov’s (“The Horsewoman”) breathes living human feelings, subtle psychologism and realistic tendencies, which is what distinguishes the movement in art called romanticism.

The concept of "romanticism" is often used as a synonym for the concept of "romance". This refers to the tendency to look at the world through rose-colored glasses and active life position. Or they associate this concept with love and any actions for the sake of their own loved one. But romanticism has several meanings. The article will discuss the narrower understanding that is used for the literary term, and the main character traits of the romantic hero.

Characteristic features of the style

Romanticism is a movement in literature that arose in Russia at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. This style proclaims the cult of nature and natural human feelings. New characteristic features freedom of self-expression, the value of individualism and the original character traits of the main character become romantic literature. Representatives of the movement abandoned rationalism and the primacy of the mind, which were characteristic of the Enlightenment, and put the emotional and spiritual aspects of man at the forefront.

In their works, the authors depict not the real world, which was too vulgar and base for them, but the inner universe of the character. And through the prism of his feelings and emotions, the outlines of the real world are visible, the laws and thoughts of which he refuses to obey.

Main conflict

The central conflict of all works written in the era of romanticism is the conflict between the individual and society as a whole. Here main character goes against the established rules in his environment. Moreover, the motives for such behavior can be different - actions can either be for the benefit of society or have a selfish plan. In this case, as a rule, the hero loses this fight, and the work ends with his death.

A romantic is a special and in most cases very mysterious person who tries to resist the power of nature or society. At the same time, the conflict develops into an internal struggle of contradictions that occurs in the soul of the main character. In other words, the central character is built on antitheses.

At least in this literary genre and the individuality of the protagonist is valued, but still literary scholars have identified which features of romantic heroes are the main ones. But, even despite the similarities, each character is unique in its own way, since they are only general criteria for identifying a style.

Ideals of society

The main feature The main characteristic of a romantic hero is that he does not accept the generally known ideals of society. The main character has his own ideas about the values ​​of life, which he tries to defend. He seems to challenge the entire world around him, and not an individual person or group of people. Here we're talking about about the ideological confrontation of one person against the whole world.

Moreover, in his rebellion, the main character chooses one of two extremes. Or these are unattainable, highly spiritual goals, and the character is trying to become equal to the Creator himself. In another case, the hero indulges in all sorts of sins, without feeling the extent of his moral fall into the abyss.

Bright personality

If one person is able to withstand the whole world, then it is as large-scale and complex as the whole world. The main character of romantic literature always stands out in society both externally and internally. In the soul of the character there is a constant conflict between the stereotypes already laid down by society and his own views and ideas.

Loneliness

One of the saddest traits of a romantic hero is his tragic loneliness. Since the character is opposed to the whole world, he remains completely alone. There is no person who would understand him. Therefore, he either himself flees from the society he hates, or he himself becomes an exile. Otherwise, the romantic hero would no longer be like that. Therefore, romantic writers focus all their attention on the psychological portrait central character.

Either the past or the future

The traits of a romantic hero do not allow him to live in the present. The character is trying to find his ideals in the past, when religious feeling was strong in the hearts of people. Or he consoles himself with happy utopias that supposedly await him in the future. But in any case, the main character is not satisfied with the era of dull bourgeois reality.

Individualism

As already said, distinctive feature The romantic hero is his individualism. But it’s not easy to be “different from others.” This is a fundamental difference from all the people who surround the main character. Moreover, if a character chooses a sinful path, then he realizes that he is different from others. And this difference is taken to the extreme - the cult of personality of the protagonist, where all actions have an exclusively selfish motive.

The era of romanticism in Russia

The founder of Russian romanticism is considered to be the poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. He creates several ballads and poems (“Ondine”, “The Sleeping Princess” and so on), in which there is a deep philosophical meaning and the desire for moral ideals. His works are imbued with his own experiences and reflections.

Then Zhukovsky was replaced by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. They put on public consciousness impressed by failure Decembrist uprising, the imprint of an ideological crisis. For this reason, the creativity of these people is described as disappointment in real life and an attempt to escape into their fictional world, filled with beauty and harmony. The main characters of their works lose interest in earthly life and come into conflict with the outside world.

One of the features of romanticism is its appeal to the history of the people and their folklore. This is most clearly seen in the work “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov” and a cycle of poems and poems dedicated to the Caucasus. Lermontov perceived it as the homeland of free and proud people. They opposed a slave country that was under the rule of Nicholas I.

Early works Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s works are also imbued with the idea of ​​romanticism. An example would be “Eugene Onegin” or “The Queen of Spades”.

Which era in the history of art is closest to modern man? The Middle Ages, the Renaissance - for a narrow circle of the elite, Baroque - is also a bit far away, classicism is perfect - but somehow too perfect, in life there is no such clear division into “three calms”... It’s better to keep quiet about modern times and modernity - this art only scares children (maybe it is true to the limit - but we are fed up with the “harsh truth of life” in reality). And if we choose an era, the art of which, on the one hand, is close and understandable, finds a living response in our soul, on the other hand, gives us refuge from everyday hardships, although it speaks of suffering - this is, perhaps, the 19th century, which has gone down in history like the era of romanticism. The art of this time gave rise to a special type of hero, called romantic.

The term "romantic hero" can immediately evoke the idea of ​​a lover, echoing such stable combinations, How " romantic relationship», « romantic story“- but this idea does not entirely correspond to reality. A romantic hero can be in love, but not necessarily (there are characters who correspond to this definition who were not in love - for example, Lermontov's Mtsyri has only a fleeting feeling for a graceful girl passing by, which does not become decisive in the fate of the hero) - and this is not the main thing in it... and what is the main thing?

To understand this, let us remember what romanticism was all about. It was born out of disappointment in the results of the Great french revolution: the new world, which arose on the ruins of the old, was far from the “kingdom of reason” predicted by the enlighteners - instead, the “power of the money bag” was established in the world, a world where everything is for sale. A creative personality who has retained the ability to live human feeling, has no place in such a world, therefore a romantic hero is always a person who is not accepted by society, who has come into conflict with it. Such, for example, is Johannes Kreisler, the hero of several works by E.T.A. Hoffmann (it is no coincidence that at the very beginning of the presentation of the “biography” of the hero, the author mentions that Kreisler was dismissed from the post of bandmaster, refusing to write an opera based on the poems of the court poet). “Johannes rushed here and there, as if on an eternally stormy sea, carried away by his visions and dreams, and, apparently, searched in vain for that pier where he could finally find peace and clarity.”

However, the romantic hero is not destined to “find calm and clarity” - he is a stranger everywhere, he is an extra person... remember who this is said about? That's right, Evgeny Onegin also belongs to the type of romantic hero, or more precisely, to one of its variants - “disappointed”. Such a hero is also called “Byronic”, since one of his first examples is Byron’s Childe Harold. Other examples of a disappointed hero are “Melmoth the Wanderer” by Charles Maturin, partly Edmond Dantes (“The Count of Monte Cristo”), as well as “The Vampire” by J. Polidori (dear fans of “Twilight”, “Dracula” and other similar creations, please know , that all this subject, dear to you, goes back precisely to the romantic story by J. Polidori!). Such a character is always dissatisfied with his environment, because he rises above him, being more educated and intelligent. For his loneliness, he takes revenge on the world of philistines (narrow-minded ordinary people) with contempt for social institutions and conventions - sometimes bringing this contempt to the point of demonstrativeness (for example, Lord Rothven in the mentioned story by J. Polidori never gives alms to people driven to poverty by misfortunes, but never refuses in a request for financial assistance those who need money to satisfy vicious desires).

Another type of romantic hero is the rebel. He also opposes himself to the world, but enters into open conflict with it, he - in the words of M. Lermontov - “asks for a storm.” A wonderful example of such a hero is Lermontov’s Demon.

The tragedy of the romantic hero is not so much in being rejected by society (in fact, he even strives for this), but in the fact that his efforts always turn out to be directed “to nowhere.” Existing world does not satisfy him - but there is no other world, and nothing fundamentally new can be created by simply overthrowing secular conventions. Therefore, the romantic hero is doomed either to die in a collision with a cruel world (Hoffmann’s Nathaniel), or to remain a “barren flower” who does not make anyone happy or even destroys the lives of those around him (Onegin, Pechorin).

That is why, over time, disappointment in the romantic hero became inevitable - in fact, we see it in “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin, where the poet openly ironizes about romanticism. Actually, not only Onegin can be considered a romantic hero here, but also Lensky, who also seeks an ideal and dies in a collision with the cruelty of a world that is very far from romantic ideals... but Lensky already resembles a parody of a romantic hero: his “ideal” is narrow-minded and frivolous a district young lady, outwardly reminiscent of a stereotypical image from novels, and the reader, in essence, is inclined to agree with the author, who prophesies a completely “philistine” future for the hero, if he remains alive... M. Lermontov is no less merciless towards his Zoraim, the hero of the poem “Angel of Death” :

“He looked for perfection in people,

And he himself was no better than them.”

Perhaps we find the finally degraded type of romantic hero in the opera by the English composer B. Britten (1913-1976) “Peter Grimes”: the main character here is also opposed to the world of ordinary people in which he lives, is also in eternal conflict with the inhabitants of his hometown and in the end ends up dying - but he is no different from his nearby neighbors, his ultimate dream is to earn more money to open a shop... such is the harsh sentence handed down to the romantic hero of the 20th century! No matter how you rebel against society, you will still remain a part of it, you will still carry its “cast” within you, but you will not run away from yourself. This is probably fair, but...

I once conducted a survey on a website for women and girls: “Which opera character would you marry?” Lensky took the lead by a huge margin - this is perhaps the romantic hero closest to us, so close that we are ready not to notice the author’s irony towards him. Apparently, to this day, the image of the romantic hero - eternally lonely and rejected, misunderstood by the “world of well-fed faces” and always striving for an unattainable ideal - retains its attractiveness.