What does “living” mean for Mtsyri? (based on the poem of the same name by M. Lermontov)

We are all familiar with the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". She belongs to the romanticism movement, her main idea is the problem of freedom and life in general. After reading it, a person may still have questions, sometimes the poem gives him answers to them, sometimes he himself finds them in his heart. This reading will not leave anyone indifferent, but what does it mean to live in the poem “Mtsyri”?!
Lermontov, in his work, creates the image of a romantic man who, like a bird, is imprisoned in a cage. Mtsyri, the main character of the work, has lived on a foreign land since childhood. While still just a boy, people kidnapped him from his home and forced him to live with them. Years later, he came to terms with this thought, he even found people dear to his heart and became close to them. He even wanted to study in church and then become a monk; people respected and appreciated him. But was Mtsyri happy?

Answering the question, I thought a little. Can a person who was forced to live not his own life, nor on his own land, be happy at all? And even though he is used to this life, it will never be able to bring him the desired pleasure. Having spent his entire life in captivity, Mtsyri dreams of only one thing, freedom. He wants to taste her scent, wants to return to his land, where he has the opportunity to see his family and friends. Guided by his desire, the hero decides to take a desperate act; under the cover of darkness, he leaves his cage and runs away into the darkness. He does not know exactly where to go and what to do, he has neither food supplies nor clean fresh water, but this does not matter when he has the opportunity to return to his native land.
On his way he encounters difficulties and obstacles. Particular attention should be paid to the fight against leopards. The animal in this case is the personification of his past life. If earlier he endured everything meekly, quietly experiencing his grief, now he fights back. He fights to the death with his bare hands, this is a battle where his freedom is at stake. This is what a person who desires to receive it is capable of. In this fight, he wins, but leaves there with large wounds and abrasions.
The story itself comes in the form of a story within a story. Already dying in the monastery, Mtsyri tells the monk about his experiences, for him this is a real confession. Unfortunately, Mtsyri is caught by those from whom he managed to escape and, already wounded and dying, they are carried back to the monastery. A place that seemed to bring happiness and peace to a person turned into a prison for the hero. He never managed to reach his cherished goal, he only saw a piece of his home, there on the other side. Therefore, he asks to be buried in the mountains, where he will see his land, at least this way he will be closer to him, even if he is no longer alive.
To live, in this poem, means to be free. Do what you want, live where you want. Being in a cage all his life, the hero actually understands the value of these things. He is ready to fight a terrible beast, for the sake of the opportunity to spend at least a little time in his homeland. We experience all the feelings together with the hero and his grief becomes our grief. I think this story should teach us to appreciate what we have. After all, we have freedom, we are free to do whatever we want, so there is no need to exchange for imaginary values ​​and experiences. To live means to be free.

- You lived, old man!

There is something in the world for you to forget,

You lived - I could also live!

At the beginning of his confession, Mtsyri addresses these fiery words to the monk listening to him. His speech contains both a bitter reproach to those who, albeit unconsciously, deprived him of the best part of his life, and a painful awareness of his own loss. These words are spoken on his deathbed, and the hero will never again have to taste real life. But what does it mean to live for Mtsyri?

To answer this question, let’s first look at the composition of the poem “Mtsyri”. The poem is divided by the author into two unequal parts. One, occupying only a page, tells about Mtsyri’s life in the monastery, while the remaining lines of the poem are entirely devoted to Mtsyri’s escape from the monastery. With this compositional technique, Lermontov emphasizes an important idea: Mtsyri’s life in the monastery was not life at all, it was a simple physical existence. There is nothing to write about this time, because it is monotonous and boring. Mtsyri himself understands that he is not living, but is simply slowly moving towards death.
In the monastery, everyone has “lost the habit of desires”; not only human feelings, but even a simple ray of sunshine do not penetrate here. “I will die a slave and an orphan” - this is the fate that awaits Mtsyri in the monastery, and realizing this, he decides to flee.

Mtsyri’s real life stopped at the moment when he, still a very small boy, was taken away from his native village, and then continued again - for three days of escape. Three days of freedom, to which an entire poem is dedicated! To live free, in accordance with one’s dreams and desires (and Mtsyri strives to get home, to his homeland), to breathe free air - this is what it means to live for the hero Mtsyri and for his author.

Real life is always fraught with risk and requires constant struggle for it - this motive begins to sound in the poem from the moment Mtsyri leaves the monastery walls. Mtsyri escapes on a stormy night, when all the monks, frightened by the thunderstorm, “lie prostrate at the altar” and forget about their pupil. The hero is not afraid of the thunderstorm; on the contrary, it delights him with its unbridled power and awakens in him a long-forgotten sense of life. This is how he himself talks about it:

- I ran. Oh I'm like a brother

I would be glad to embrace the storm!

I watched with the eyes of a cloud,

I caught lightning with my hand...

And in these lines one can hear undisguised admiration for the beauty and power of nature revealed to him.

Risk awakens in Mtsyri an awareness of his youth and strength, which was uselessly vegetating in the monastery. Going down to the menacingly seething stream, clinging to branches and stones, is just a pleasant exercise for the young man. A real feat, a battle with a leopard, awaits him ahead. This episode of the poem was very important for Lermontov. The poet drew inspiration for him from ancient Georgian songs about a duel between a young man and a tiger. Later, critics accused the poet of violating authenticity: leopards are not found in the Caucasus, and Mtsyri simply could not meet the beast.
But Lermontov goes to the extent of violating natural authenticity for the sake of preserving artistic truth. In the collision of two completely free, beautiful consciousnesses of nature, the reader is revealed the face of true life in the Caucasus, a life that is free, cheerful and not subject to any laws. Let's pay attention to how the beast is described in the poem:

"... Raw bone
He gnawed and squealed joyfully;
Then he fixed his bloody gaze,
Wagging its tail affectionately,
For a full month - and on it
The wool was cast in silver.”

“Fun”, “affectionately” - not the slightest fear or discontent sounds in Mtsyri’s words, he admires his opponent and recognizes him as his equal. He rejoices at the upcoming battle, in which he will be able to show his courage, prove that in his homeland he would be “not one of the last daredevils.” Freedom and mutual respect not only for man, but also for nature - this is exactly what real life should be. And how different it is from monastic life, where a person is called “God’s servant!”

It is not surprising after all this that Mtsyri, again returned to the monastery, cannot live. Now he clearly understands the difference between life here and life in the wild, and his death is a kind of protest.

The grave doesn't scare me:
There, they say, suffering sleeps
In the cold eternal silence;
But I’m sorry to part with life.
I'm young, young...

How much despair and insane thirst for life, young, unspent life in these words! But not every life is valuable, some life is worse than death, Lermontov tells us about this.

Mtsyri dies, fixing his gaze on the Caucasus Mountains, on his distant homeland. There, in the village, where his sisters sang and his father sharpened weapons, where old people gathered in the evenings near their houses, there remained his unlived life, his real destiny. After death, he will be freed from captivity, and his soul will fly to where it so longed. Perhaps it is then that his real life will begin - such hope, clearly heard in the last lines of the poem, Lermontov leaves to the reader.

What does it mean to live for Mtsyri - a description of the feelings of Lermontov’s hero |

Filchenkova Natalya

The student used additional material to write the essay. The essay contains many quotes from the text; one’s own conclusions are drawn from the points of the plan. The image of Mtsyri is fully revealed.

Download:

Preview:

Composition

What is the meaning of Mtsyri’s life?

(based on the poem “Mtsyri” by M.Yu. Lermontov)

Plan

I. What is the meaning of the poem "Mtsyri"?

II. What is the meaning of Mtsyri’s life?

1).Life of Mtsyri in the monastery.

A). What views does monk Mtsyri reject?

B). What did Mtsyri strive for?

IN). Why did he call the monastery a prison?

2).Mtsyri's life in freedom.

A).Communication with nature.

B).Mtsyri’s memories of his father’s house.

IN). What does it mean to live for Mtsyri?

G). Meeting with a beautiful Georgian woman.

D). Fight for life.

E). What is the tragedy of Mtsyri?

AND). Did Mtsyri repent before his death of his

Aspirations and actions?

III. Conclusion.

1).V.G. Belinsky about Mtsyri.

2).My attitude towards Mtsyri.

M.Yu Lermontov's poem “Mtsyri” is directed against religious morality and monastic bondage. The meaning of the poem is to glorify will, courage, struggle, dedication, in a word, all those qualities that are inherent in the hero.

The main character of the poem is a young man who lived his childhood years in captivity. His name is Mtsyri. During confession, he argues with the monk and tells him:

Let the beautiful light now

I hate you: you are weak, you are gray,

And you have lost the habit of desires.

What kind of need? You lived, old man!

From these lines we see how great Mtsyri’s love for life is. But what follows:

I lived little and lived in captivity.

Such two lives in one,

But only full of anxiety,

I would trade it if I could.

We can conclude: all of Mtsyri’s aspirations were directed towards one bright dream - towards freedom, towards that beautiful dream for which he gave his life. He asks the old man:

...you saved me from death -

For what? Gloomy and lonely

A leaf torn off by a thunderstorm,

I grew up in dark walls

A child at heart, a monk at heart.

Mtsyri assures the old monk that no force can subjugate the will and feelings of a freedom-loving mountaineer. There is no way to force him to renounce the world, which attracts him to itself with its wonderful mysteries of nature. The life of a slave for a little Caucasian is like a prison. He could not come to terms with cruel captivity, separation from his homeland, and therefore he was driven by a passion for his native land, but he never thought about revenge on the people who separated him from his native Georgia. Dreaming of his homeland, he was alone among people, and this is the worst thing for a person, especially for a child.

And so, when Mtsyri runs away from the monastery and is left alone with nature, it seems to him that he understands the voices of birds, guesses the thoughts of dark rocks, hears an argument between a pile of stones and a mountain stream, in a word, he understands nature and its feelings. Not finding like-minded people among people, he communicates with nature. And it seems to him that she understands him. Describing nature, the poet wants the reader to imagine picturesque pictures of the Caucasus.

God's garden was blooming all around me;

Rainbow plants outfit

Kept traces of heavenly tears,

And the curls of the vines

Weaving, showing off between the trees

Transparent green leaves.

While observing the beautiful landscapes, Mtsyri heard an unknown voice that told him that his home was located in these parts. And gradually the pictures of his childhood years passed before him more and more clearly. He imagined either his father in combat clothes, or his young sisters bending over his cradle, or living pictures of his native village. And the more he imagined all this, the stronger his desire to return home grew.

Living for Mtsyri means being free and independent. He admits that his life without these three days would be darker than the powerless old age of a monk.

Tell me what's between these walls

Could you give me in return

That friendship is short, but alive,

Between a stormy heart and a thunderstorm?

Mtsyri is happy because he could experience happy moments of connection with nature. Mtsyri is fascinated by the beauty of the beautiful Georgian woman. From all these unknown feelings he loses consciousness. Waking up, the young man sees the girl moving away from the stream and compares her to a slender poplar. And he wanted even more to go to that unknown country.

In the fight against the leopard, Mtsyri shows courage and dedication. After all, he fought not only for his life, but also for his freedom, that is, for his dream. He discovers in himself such qualities as resourcefulness, ingenuity, and the extraordinary strength of a mountaineer, which he inherited. He is confident that, if not for the hand of fate, he “might not have been one of the last daredevils in the land of his fathers.”

Having defeated the leopard, forgetting about the pain, he goes towards his dream. But... shock again. The young man realizes that he has lost his direction and returns to the monastery. Is it really for this that he fought with the leopard, for this he wandered through the thorny thickets? Really, after his dream was almost fulfilled, should he return to the monastery? When he heard the ringing of bells, it seemed to him that this ringing was coming out of his chest, as if someone was striking his heart with an iron. And then the hero realized the terrible truth: he would never return to his homeland. What could be more terrible than this thought for Mtsyri?

The young man compares himself to a prison flower, which was transplanted into the neighborhood of roses, where he died from daylight. But even before his death, Mtsyri asks to be buried in the garden in a place from which the Caucasus is visible. We see that the young highlander has not repented of his dreams and aspirations and is faithful to his dream. Having gone through such a difficult and overwhelming path, Mtsyri does not want to change his views. This is the tragedy of the freedom-loving young man: after living his real life for three days in freedom, he again ends up in a monastery and ... dies, because he cannot live in captivity after taking a breath of the air of freedom.

V.G. Belinsky, reviewing the poem “Mtsyri,” spoke of its hero: “What a fiery soul, what a mighty spirit, what a gigantic nature this Mtsyri has! In everything that Mtsyri says, he breathes his own spirit, amazes him with his own power ... "

Mtsyri attracted me with his courage, boldness, and perseverance. In the most difficult moments of his life, he does not submit to fate and goes towards his dream.

M. Yu. Lermontov confessed in his works, talking about exiles, he indirectly wrote about himself.

The epigraph to the poem "Mtsyri" ("Tasting, I taste a little honey, and now I die"), in my opinion, means that the main character in his entire life lived very little for real, that is, the way he imagined life .

I believe that Mtsyri understood by the word “life”, first of all, freedom, anxiety, space, struggle, constant stay on the line between life and death, the right and wrong path, between lightning and a ray of sunshine, between dreams and reality, youth and eternity. But he experienced so little of all this

(“I lived little and lived in captivity. Such two lives in one, but only one full of anxiety, I would exchange if I could...”), that the grave “does not frighten him.”

Mtsyri’s memories of a serene childhood, family, games, and stories about ancient times are very touching. It is clear that the homeland is dear to the hero in its own way. But, upon reflection, you understand that, sooner or later, he would still have given up his “peaceful home” for the sake of knowing the answers to his questions (“...to find out if the earth is beautiful, to find out whether we were born into this world for freedom or prison We...")

Having finally found his three-day freedom, Mtsyri enjoys nature, the thunderstorm, with which he is waging a long-awaited playful fight, enjoys the animals that he sees and is not afraid of (“... sometimes in the gorge the jackal screamed and cried like a child, and, with smooth scales Shining, the snake slid between the stones, but fear did not squeeze my soul: I myself, like an animal, was alien to people and crawled and hid like a snake.")

Mtsyri enjoys the moments spent watching the young Georgian woman, the dream in which he saw her again ("...and with a strange, sweet melancholy again my chest ached...")

I don’t quite understand the hero’s behavior in the battle with the leopard. The first thing I noticed in him was cruelty, thirst for blood, fight, thirst for victory. But the beast was not initially in the mood for battle (“He gnawed at a raw bone and squealed merrily; then he fixed his bloody gaze, wagging his tail affectionately, for a full month...”, “He sensed the enemy and a drawn-out howl, pitiful like a groan, suddenly rang out. .."). Moreover, Mtsyri killed the leopard for the sake of self-affirmation, the confidence that “he could be in the land of his fathers not one of the last daredevils.”

Returning to a familiar village, Mtsyri feels powerlessness, the bitterness of the shame of the pity of the monks (“... and your pity is a shame...”) Feeling this bitterness in his heart more and more, Mtsyri dies, he is “tormented by dying delirium,” and, forgetting himself, he feels freedom, peace, love and self-care, he feels what he lacked in his life. Dying, the hero of the story once again emphasizes that now, more than ever, he values ​​the attention of his family, freedom, and the comfort of his native, “peaceful home.” But Mtsyri does not blame anyone for his death. He simply falls asleep (“And with this thought I will fall asleep, and I will not curse anyone!..”).

Mtsyri was taken from his native mountain settlement by a Russian officer. The boy fell ill on the road, and the officer left him in the monastery. The boy was treated and raised there. He lived with the monks. They thought that he too would become a monk. But Mtsyri grew up and realized that he could not live in a monastery. For him, life there was too calm and boring. He tried to escape, but returned. Before his death, he tells the monk that he wanted to return to his home. For him, living means being free from the monastery. He wants to live with his family, fight enemies, meet a girl, live in the mountains, breathe mountain air. He was born as a warrior, he wants to lead the life of a warrior and fight his enemies. The monastery could not give him all this. He tells the elder that he came to the monastery as an adult who has already fully experienced worldly life. Mtsyri hardly remembers worldly life. He doesn’t know what fights are, first love, first enemy, first fight. He wants to know it all. Without this there is no life for him.