How is the hero shown in a romantic work? Main features of a romantic hero: concept, meaning and characteristics

The moral pathos of the romantics was associated, first of all, with the affirmation of the value of the individual, which was embodied in the images of romantic heroes. The first, most striking type is the loner hero, the outcast hero, who is usually called the Byronic hero. The opposition of the poet to the crowd, the hero to the mob, the individual to a society that does not understand and persecutes him - characteristic romantic literature.

About such a hero E. Kozhina wrote: “A man of the romantic generation, a witness to bloodshed, cruelty, the tragic destinies of people and entire nations, striving for the bright and heroic, but paralyzed in advance by the pitiful reality, out of hatred for the bourgeoisie, elevating the knights of the Middle Ages to a pedestal and even more acutely aware in front of their monolithic figures is his own duality, inferiority and instability, a man who is proud of his “I”, because only it sets him apart from the philistines, and at the same time is burdened by him, a man who combines protest, and powerlessness, and naive illusions, and pessimism, and unspent energy, and passionate lyricism - this man is present in all the romantic paintings of the 1820s.”

The dizzying change of events inspired, gave rise to hopes for change, awakened dreams, but sometimes led to despair. The slogans of Freedom, Equality and Fraternity proclaimed by the revolution opened up scope for the human spirit. However, it soon became clear that these principles were not feasible. Having generated unprecedented hopes, the revolution did not live up to them. It was discovered early that the resulting freedom was not only good. It also manifested itself in cruel and predatory individualism. The post-revolutionary order was less like the kingdom of reason that the thinkers and writers of the Enlightenment dreamed of. The cataclysms of the era influenced the mindset of the entire romantic generation. The mood of romantics constantly fluctuates between delight and despair, inspiration and disappointment, fiery enthusiasm and truly world-wide sorrow. The feeling of absolute and boundless personal freedom is adjacent to the awareness of its tragic insecurity.

S. Frank wrote that “the 19th century opens with a feeling of “world sorrow.” In the worldview of Byron, Leopardi, Alfred Musset - here in Russia in Lermontov, Baratynsky, Tyutchev - in the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer, in the tragic music of Beethoven, in the terrible fantasy of Hoffmann, in sad irony Heine - sounds a new consciousness of the orphanhood of man in the world, the tragic impossibility of his hopes, the hopeless contradiction between intimate needs and hopes human heart and space and social conditions human existence."

Indeed, doesn’t Schopenhauer himself speak about the pessimism of his views, whose teaching is painted in gloomy tones, and who constantly says that the world is filled with evil, meaninglessness, misfortune, that life is suffering: “If the immediate and immediate goal of our life is not there is suffering, then our existence represents the most stupid and inexpedient phenomenon. For it is absurd to admit that the endless suffering flowing from the essential needs of life, with which the world is filled, was aimless and purely accidental. Although each individual misfortune seems to be an exception, misfortune in general is the rule.”

The life of the human spirit among the romantics is contrasted with the baseness of material existence. From the feeling of his ill-being, the cult of a unique individual personality was born. She was perceived as the only support and as single point countdown life values. Human individuality was thought of as an absolutely valuable principle, torn out from the surrounding world and in many ways opposed to it.

The hero of romantic literature becomes a person who has broken away from old ties, asserting his absolute dissimilarity from all others. For this reason alone, she is exceptional. Romantic artists As a rule, they avoided portraying ordinary and ordinary people. As the main characters in their artistic creativity lonely dreamers perform, brilliant artists, prophets, individuals endowed with deep passions and titanic power of feelings. They may be villains, but never mediocre. Most often they are endowed with a rebellious consciousness.

The gradations of disagreement with the world order among such heroes can be different: from Rene’s rebellious restlessness to novel of the same name Chateaubriand to the point of total disappointment in people, reason and the world order, characteristic of many of Byron's heroes. The romantic hero is always in a state of some kind of spiritual limit. His senses are heightened. The contours of the personality are determined by the passion of nature, the insatiable desires and aspirations. The romantic personality is exceptional by virtue of its original nature and is therefore completely individual.

The exclusive intrinsic value of individuality did not even allow the thought of its dependence on surrounding circumstances. Starting point romantic conflict is the individual’s desire for complete independence, the assertion of the primacy of free will over necessity. The discovery of the intrinsic value of the individual was an artistic achievement of romanticism. But it led to the aestheticization of individuality. The very originality of the individual was already becoming a subject of aesthetic admiration. Breaking free from his surroundings, the romantic hero could sometimes manifest himself in violating prohibitions, in individualism and selfishness, or even simply in crimes (Manfred, Corsair or Cain in Byron). The ethical and aesthetic in assessing a person might not coincide. In this, the romantics differed greatly from the enlighteners, who, on the contrary, completely merged the ethical and aesthetic principles in their assessment of the hero.

The enlighteners of the 18th century created many positive heroes who were carriers of high moral values who, in their opinion, embodied reason and natural norms. Thus, D. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver became the symbols of the new, “natural,” rational hero. Undoubtedly, true hero The Enlightenment is Goethe's Faust.

A romantic hero is not just positive hero, he is not even always positive; a romantic hero is a hero who reflects the poet’s longing for an ideal. After all, the question of whether the Demon in Lermontov or Conrad in Byron’s “Corsair” is positive or negative does not arise at all - they are majestic, containing in their appearance, in their deeds, indomitable strength of spirit. A romantic hero, as V. G. Belinsky wrote, is “a person who relies on himself,” a person who opposes himself to the entire world around him.

Example romantic hero is Julien Sorel from Stendhal's novel The Red and the Black. The personal fate of Julien Sorel was closely dependent on this change in historical weather. From the past he borrows his internal code of honor, the present condemns him to dishonor. According to his inclinations as a “man of 1993”, a fan of revolutionaries and Napoleon, he was “too late to be born”. The time has passed when positions were won through personal valor, courage, and intelligence. Nowadays, for the “hunt for happiness,” the plebeian is offered the only help that is in use among the children of timelessness: calculating and hypocritical piety. The color of luck has changed, as when turning a roulette wheel: today, in order to win, you need to bet not on red, but on black. And the young man, obsessed with the dream of fame, is faced with a choice: either to perish in obscurity, or to try to assert himself by adapting to his age, putting on the “uniform of the times” - a cassock. He turns away from his friends and serves those whom he despises in his soul; an atheist, he pretends to be a saint; a fan of the Jacobins - trying to penetrate the circle of aristocrats; being endowed sharp mind, assents to fools. Realizing that “everyone is for himself in this desert of selfishness called life,” he rushed into battle in the hope of winning with the weapons forced upon him.

And yet, Sorel, having taken the path of adaptation, did not completely become an opportunist; Having chosen the methods of winning happiness accepted by everyone around him, he did not fully share their morality. And the point here is not simply that a gifted young man is immeasurably smarter than the mediocrities in whose service he is. His very hypocrisy is not humiliated submission, but a kind of challenge to society, accompanied by a refusal to recognize the right of the “masters of life” to respect and their claims to their subordinates moral principles. The top are the enemy, vile, insidious, vindictive. Taking advantage of their favor, Sorel, however, does not know that he owes his conscience to them, since, even treating a capable young man kindly, they see him not as a person, but as an efficient servant.

Ardent heart, energy, sincerity, courage and strength of character, moral healthy attitude to the world and people, a constant need for action, work, fruitful work intelligence, humane responsiveness to people, respect for simple workers, love of nature, beauty in life and art, all this distinguished Julien’s nature, and he had to suppress all this in himself, trying to adapt to the animal laws of the world around him. This attempt was unsuccessful: “Julien retreated before the judgment of his conscience, he could not overcome his craving for justice.”

Prometheus became one of the favorite symbols of romanticism, embodying courage, heroism, self-sacrifice, unbending will and intransigence. An example of a work based on the myth of Prometheus is the poem by P.B. Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound", which is one of the most significant works poet. Shelley changed the ending mythological plot, in which, as is known, Prometheus nevertheless reconciled with Zeus. The poet himself wrote: “I was against such a pitiful outcome as the reconciliation of a fighter for humanity with his oppressor.” Shelley creates Prometheus from the image ideal hero, punished by the gods for violating their will and helping people. In Shelley's poem, the torment of Prometheus is rewarded with the triumph of his liberation. Appearing in the third part of the poem fantastic creature Demogorgon overthrows Zeus, proclaiming: “There is no return for the tyranny of heaven, and there is no successor for you.”

Women's images Romanticism is also contradictory, but extraordinary. Many authors of the Romantic era returned to the story of Medea. The Austrian writer of the era of romanticism F. Grillparzer wrote the trilogy “The Golden Fleece”, which reflected the “tragedy of fate” characteristic of German romanticism. "The Golden Fleece" is often called the most complete dramatic version of the "biography" ancient Greek heroine. In the first part - one act drama“The Guest” we see Medea as a very young girl, forced to endure her tyrant father. She prevents the murder of Phrixus, their guest, who fled to Colchis on a golden ram. It was he who sacrificed the golden fleece ram to Zeus in gratitude for saving him from death and hung the golden fleece in sacred grove Ares. The seekers of the Golden Fleece appear before us in the four-act play “The Argonauts.” In it, Medea desperately but unsuccessfully tries to fight her feelings for Jason, against her will, becoming his accomplice. In the third part, the five-act tragedy “Medea,” the story reaches its climax. Medea, brought by Jason to Corinth, appears to others as a stranger from barbarian lands, a sorceress and sorceress. In the works of romantics, it is quite common to see the phenomenon that foreignness lies at the heart of many insoluble conflicts. Returning to his homeland in Corinth, Jason is ashamed of his girlfriend, but still refuses to fulfill Creon’s demand and drive her away. And only having fallen in love with his daughter, Jason himself began to hate Medea.

home tragic theme Grillparzer's Medea lies in her loneliness, because even her own children are ashamed and avoid her. Medea is not destined to get rid of this punishment even in Delphi, where she fled after the murder of Creusa and her sons. Grillparzer did not at all seek to justify his heroine, but it was important for him to discover the motives for her actions. Grillparzer's Medea, the daughter of a distant barbarian country, has not accepted the fate prepared for her, she rebels against someone else's way of life, and this greatly attracted romantics.

The image of Medea, striking in its inconsistency, is seen by many in a transformed form in the heroines of Stendhal and Barbet d'Aurevilly. Both writers portray the deadly Medea in different ideological contexts, but invariably endow her with a sense of alienation, which turns out to be detrimental to the integrity of the individual and, therefore, entails itself death.

Many literary scholars correlate the image of Medea with the image of the heroine of the novel “Bewitched” by Barbet d’Aurevilly, Jeanne-Madeleine de Feardan, as well as with the image of the famous heroine of Stendhal’s novel “The Red and the Black” Mathilde. Here we see three main components famous myth: unexpected, violent emergence of passion, magical actions with either good or harmful intentions, revenge of an abandoned witch - a rejected woman.

These are just some examples of romantic heroes and heroines.

The revolution proclaimed individual freedom, opening up “unexplored new roads” before it, but this same revolution gave birth to the bourgeois order, the spirit of acquisition and selfishness. These two sides of personality (the pathos of freedom and individualism) manifest themselves in very complex ways. romantic concept world and man. V. G. Belinsky found a wonderful formula when speaking about Byron (and his hero): “this is a human personality, indignant against the general and, in his proud rebellion, leaning on himself.”

However, in the depths of romanticism, another type of personality is formed. This is, first of all, the personality of an artist - a poet, musician, painter, also elevated above the crowd of ordinary people, officials, property owners, and secular loafers. Here we're talking about no longer about complaints exceptional personality, but about the rights of a true artist to judge the world and people.

Romantic image the artist (for example, among German writers) is not always adequate to Byron’s hero. Moreover, Byron's individualist hero is contrasted with a universal personality that strives for the highest harmony (as if absorbing all the diversity of the world). The universality of such a personality is the antithesis of any limitation of a person, whether associated with narrow mercantile interests, or with a thirst for profit that destroys personality, etc.

Romantics did not always correctly assess the social consequences of revolutions. But they were acutely aware of the anti-aesthetic nature of society, which threatens the very existence of art, in which “heartless purity” reigns. Romantic artist, unlike some writers of the second half of the 19th century century, did not at all seek to hide from the world in an “ivory tower.” But he felt tragically lonely, suffocating from this loneliness.

Thus, in romanticism two antagonistic concepts of personality can be distinguished: individualistic and universalistic. Their fate in the subsequent development of world culture was ambiguous. The rebellion of Byron's individualist hero was beautiful and captivated his contemporaries, but at the same time its futility was quickly revealed. History has harshly condemned the claims of an individual to create his own court. On the other hand, the idea of universality reflected the longing for the ideal of a comprehensively developed person, free from the limitations of bourgeois society.

Which era in the history of art is closest to 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 birth to special type hero, called romantic.

The term “romantic hero” can immediately evoke the idea of a lover, echoing such stable combinations as “ 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. Creative personality, retaining the ability to live human feeling, has no place in such a world, so a romantic hero is always a person, not accepted by society who came into conflict with him. 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 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 definitively degraded type of romantic hero in opera English composer B. Britten (1913-1976) “Peter Grimes”: main character here, too, he is opposed to the world of ordinary people in which he lives, he is also in eternal conflict with the inhabitants of his hometown and ultimately dies - but he is no different from his nearby neighbors, his ultimate dream is to make money 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.

Who is a romantic hero and what is he like?

This is an individualist. A superman who has lived through two stages: before colliding with reality, he lives in a “pink” state, he is overcome by the desire for achievement, to change the world; after colliding with reality, he continues to consider this world both vulgar and boring, but he does not become a skeptic or a pessimist. With a clear understanding that nothing can be changed, the desire for achievement degenerates into a desire for danger.

The Romantics could attach eternal lasting value to every little thing, every concrete fact, every single thing. Joseph de Maistre calls this “the paths of Providence,” Germaine de Stael calls it “the fruitful womb of the immortal universe.” Chateaubriand in The Genius of Christianity, in a book devoted to history, directly points to God as the beginning of historical time. Society appears as an unshakable connection, “a thread of life that connects us with our ancestors and which we must extend to our descendants.” Only a person’s heart, and not his mind, can understand and hear the voice of the Creator, through the beauty of nature, through deep feelings. Nature is divine, a source of harmony and creativity, and its metaphors are often carried into the political lexicon by romantics. For romantics, a tree becomes a symbol of gender, spontaneous development, and the perception of juices native land, a symbol of national unity. The more innocent and sensitive a person’s nature, the easier he hears the voice of God. A child, a woman, a noble youth more often than others perceives the immortality of the soul and the value of eternal life. The thirst for bliss among the romantics is not limited to the idealistic desire for the Kingdom of God after death.

In addition to mystical love for God, a person needs real, earthly love. Unable to possess the object of his passion, the romantic hero became an eternal martyr, doomed to wait for a meeting with his beloved in the afterlife, "for she is worthy of immortality great love when it cost a man his life."

The problem of personality development and education occupies a special place in the work of romantics. Childhood is devoid of laws; its instantaneous impulses violate public morality, obeying its own rules of children's play. In an adult, similar reactions lead to death, to the condemnation of the soul. Looking for heavenly kingdom a person must comprehend the laws of duty and morality, only then can he hope for eternal life. Since duty is dictated to romantics by their desire to gain eternal life, the fulfillment of duty gives personal happiness in its deepest and most powerful manifestation. To the moral duty is added the duty of deep feelings and sublime interests. Without mixing the merits of different sexes, romantics advocate the equality of spiritual development of men and women. In the same way, civic duty is dictated by love for God and his institutions. Personal aspiration finds its completion in a common cause, in the aspiration of the whole nation, all humanity, the whole world.

Every culture had its own romantic hero, but Byron gave the typical idea of the romantic hero in his work "Charold 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 are distinguished by 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.

Probably the most common way to create a romantic hero is through typing - that is, traits that any romantic hero can have. This original character manages to stand out from all the others.

Also, the character of the romantic hero differs from others in its inner strength, integrity, focus on the life idea, passion for struggle. The main thing in such a character is the boundless love of freedom, in the name of which the hero is able to challenge even the whole world.

The romantic character is built in contrast to ordinary, philistine characters, and necessarily comes into conflict with them. The romantic hero is often very lonely. He alone enters into the struggle for freedom, love, the Motherland, and in most cases carries others along with him.

The romantic character corresponds to exceptional circumstances in which it is fully revealed. IN given character Psychologism is used as a means of deepening into the inner world of the hero.

Many writers quite often use landscape as a means of characterizing the hero.

The sea is the favorite landscape of romantics. And the language of romantic works is unusually rich and varied; it most often uses bright tropes - words with a figurative meaning.

A very romantic hero strong personality, which in almost all cases is a winner, a rescuer, in a word, a hero.

Glossary:

- characteristics of a romantic hero

– romantic character

– what character traits should a romantic hero have?

– characteristics of a romantic hero

- traits of a romantic hero

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How is the hero shown in a romantic work? Main features of a romantic hero: concept, meaning and characteristics

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