GENIUS AND THE CROWD IN LYRICS BY M.YU. LERMONTOV: THE TRAGЕDY OF ROMANTICISM
Abstract
DOI 10.18522/1995-0640-2024-3-145-155
The article is devoted to the one of the key oppositions in the lyrics of M.Yu. Lermontov – Genius vs. crowd that acquires tragic features from the poet. In understanding the Genius and his conflict with the crowd, M.Yu. Lermontov follows the main principles of romanticism: the romantic hero is an introvert, contrasting his inner world with the external and, accordingly, “general opinion”; the inner self of a romantic hero feels such a moral and psychological influence from higher authorities that the hero feels like their “guide”; the romantic hero is an ambivalent personality: he embodies both the rights of truth, goodness and beauty trampled in the outside world, and the demonic elements are dangerous for everything around such a hero. One of the determining factors in the development of Lermontov’s lyrics is the understanding of the signs of genius, its nature, while the demonic principle, evil, tends to become a constant in the characteristics of the Genius. One of the options for the opposition Genius vs. crowd in Lermontov’s lyrics is the opposition Genius vs. beau monde, while it intensifies in poetic evolution, reaching its culmination in the poem “The Death of a Poet.” The tragedy of a romantic personality lies in his passionate desire for good, but such a hero does not consider either the final victory of good in the world or the rights of good to be guaranteed, because such guarantees do not exist either in the objective laws of the external world or in human subjectivity. The lyrical hero, autopsychological in early lyrics, is thought of by the poet as a Genius, doomed to loneliness and misunderstanding; in his mature period he reaches his apogee in his poetic evolution, when in the poem “The Prophet” Lermontov leads him to refuse communication with the crowd, to serve the universe without communication with humanity, which has never understood the Genius.
Key words: lyrics, lyrical hero, motive, opposition, Genius, ingenuity, romanticism, M.Yu. Lermontov
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