Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, of course, is one of the greatest Russian poets, whose name brought world fame to the literature of our country. By its significance, it is placed on a par with such great geniuses as A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol.
The main creative periods of the poet: romantic (1828-1832), transitional (1833-1836) and mature (1837-1841). Subject homeland in Lermontov runs through all his work.
In the mid-1830s, the poet began to master in his own way a special romantic conception of the historical and social process that was forming at that time in European philosophical aesthetics and historiography (A.V. Schlegel, G.F. Hegel, G.G. Gervinus, I . G. Herder and others), as well as in the literature of Russia and Europe (F. Schiller, I.V. Goethe, A. Bestuzhev, V. Scott, N. Polevoy, K. Ryleev, early Gogol and others).
The connection of time and generation
As I.V. said Goethe, the artist must feel this process as a fusion of the past and the present. According to G.G. Gervinus, a creative person as his participant needs to become a fighter "in the army of fate." Fate is understood as the realization of eternal bonds between the future and the past in the events of the present.
Conscious of himself in such a role, Lermontov comes into the defense of the human person. Feeling the connection of generations and times, Mikhail Yurievich, at the same time, is experiencing a dramatic break. Cold reality confronts in the poet’s mind the heroic past of the Russian people. It hinders the feat, socially important deed, true love, which unite people in a highly developed society, put them on a new level of moral and spiritual self-realization and development.
Personality-History-Eternity
Contrasting the present with the past, Lermontov, whose theme of nature and homeland is revealed in many works, according to V.F. Egorova, wants to exclude the middle component from the formula “personality-history-eternity”. Protesting against history, Mikhail Yurievich sees his task in accusing the modern generation of him of inaction and apathy (the poem "Duma") and a reminder of the glorious heroic past of the people ("Borodino").
D.S. Merezhkovsky dispels Solovyov’s myth about Lermontov’s supposedly “demonism”. He writes that sometimes, while reading literature contemporary to him, the thought involuntarily arises that it has exhausted Russian reality. The connection between the last fifty years in the field of literature and reality, the author writes, is broken. This is reflected in the work of Lermontov.
"Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich"
"A song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich ..." is included in a single epic text created by the author as a dream, a dream of a legendary glorious past, when the Russians were "waking people" capable of sacrifice, heroic deed and feat in the name of a lofty goal, " the eternal law "of being, inducing a person to such heroic acts. They do not last very long, but they remain in the memory of the people for centuries, combining “instant” with “eternity”. The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s work is often revealed in such acts, which, in the opinion of Mikhail Yurievich, subsequently make up mythological legends that are for the artist and writer, as A.S. said Pushkin, "happier" than historical memories.
New Type Lyrics
Lermontov created poetry of a new type with his poetry, combining tradition, historical and personal experience and the latest philosophical thought in direct interaction. It also synthesized the thirst for earthly happiness and intellectual reflection, generalization and personal passions and emotions, a sacred, metaphysical word and everyday speech.
Lermontov relied on all significant philosophical concepts about personality and human existence (I. Kant, G.V.F. Hegel, F. Schelling, I.G. Fichte and others), but did not give preference to any of them. His poetic thought turned into an instrument of self-knowledge and cognition of the surrounding world, overcoming the limitations of rationalism and subjectivity of philosophical thought inherent in modern romanticism, eliminating the disharmony of modern reality, rushing to search for genuine spiritual values.
M.Yu. Lermontov, exposing the tragic position of modern Russia and the thinking person in our state, constantly searched for various opportunities for a person to return to the national whole, people, collective, God. As a result of this, the poet, having assimilated and generalized the achievements of Russian and world poetic thought, opened the prospects for the development of a new direction - symbolist poetry of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the poetry of the future as a whole.
The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s poetry was revealed in a difficult transitional time. With power and expressiveness, Lermontov embodied the world of experiences and ideas of a spiritually developed personality of the contemporary transitional era. Having formed as a poet in the borderline period of the decomposition of the feudal serfdom and lack of certainty in the future, he powerfully expressed this intermediate state of mind, breaking the shackles of the old concepts that fetter him, but not yet finding new foundations.
M.Yu. Lermontov. Homeland: theme and idea
The theme of the Motherland in the works of Lermontov, the relationship between the individual and the state forced Mikhail Yuryevich to turn to the formulation of acute ethical and socio-philosophical problems. At the same time, it was incomplete, since the personality in the concept of the poet was not a totality of relations in society, but an individual, considered from the point of view of universal nature.
"Thought"
Lermontov showed his personality in opposition to the whole world, an effective, but often dangerous for her, denial of everything that fettered freedom of lofty aspirations. At the same time, the poet turned to contemporaries. In the poem "Duma", written in 1838, the sad thought of a generation doomed to follow a life path without leaving the slightest trace in history replaces his youthful dream of a romantic feat.
Lermontov considered himself obligated to tell contemporaries the truth about the deplorable situation in which their conscience and spirit were. According to Mikhail Yurievich, it was a humble, weak-willed, cowardly generation, living without the slightest hope for the future. Such was the feat of the poet, perhaps more difficult than the readiness in the name of his country and its freedom to die on the scaffold. Since not only Lermontov’s enemies, but even those for whom he was reporting this mournful truth, accused Mikhail Yurievich of slandering contemporary society. And only V.G. Belinsky, with his phenomenal insight, was able to see Lermontov’s faith in honor and dignity of a person’s life in a “chilled and not evil” attitude to life.
A feat in the name of the motherland
Mikhail Yuryevich did not want and did not know how to hide his thoughts. All the poems, dramas, poems and tragedies created by his pen over thirteen intense years of creativity are truly a feat in the name of the Motherland and freedom. The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s work is reflected not only in glorifying the victory of Russians in the poem “Borodino”, in the famous lines “I love my homeland ...”, but also in many works, which do not directly speak of freedom or the Motherland, but the appointment of the poet, the fate of the generation, senseless bloodshed, a lonely prisoner, the emptiness of life, exile. Reminding the modern generation of his people about the heroic past of the people (“A Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilievich”, “Borodino”), he expressed faith in the creative, heroic potential of a person who can overcome the tragedy of the future, history and current situation. Love for Lermontov’s homeland was active, active.
The hero of Lermontov in the poem "From Andrei Chenier" reflects on the need for social action in the works "July 10, 1830" and "July 30 (Paris) 1830." seeks to participate in revolutionary battles and welcomes its participants, in the poem "Prediction" he is attracted to the paintings of the uprising.
Homeland in the early lyrics
In the heroes of early poetry - Byron and Napoleon - Mikhail Yurievich also praises a social act. However, his ideas about revolutionary upheavals, as well as about Napoleon, the hero of strong-willed action, are contradictory. Lermontov writes that the fateful year will come when the monarchy will be overthrown, people will cease to love the king, and "death and blood will be the food of many." The described picture - the result of the uprising in the state - is gloomy and does not at all look like the happy time that the hero was looking for. This is the apotheosis of chaos, destruction, inhuman suffering.
"Prediction"
In the poem "Prediction", written by another sixteen-year-old poet in 1830, Lermontov prophesies about the inevitable disaster and the sad consequences of such events. He depicts a terrible executioner in a black cloak. This is a metaphor for the image of impenetrable darkness, already visible now due to the clouds and smoke of a century.
Already in his early poems, Lermontov expresses disbelief in people and life, despair. Later, overcoming the attraction of Byron's muse, he tries to find support for his ideals in reality itself. The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s work begins to sound different. He describes the love of his native land (remember, for example, the analysis of Lermontov’s poem “Homeland” ), the feeling of merging with nature, turning into an experience of harmony with the whole universe (“When a Yellowing Cornfield Excites”).
Borodino
The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s work is revealed in the famous poem Borodino. This work was published in Sovremennik in 1837. The story of the creation of the poem originates from the early romantic poem "Borodin Field". Lermontov in many ways changed the original work. The place of an unknown speaker, freedom-loving, but abstract in his love of freedom, was taken by "uncle" - a completely prosaic narrator, as the analysis of the verse shows. Lermontov’s homeland looks more realistic, since some pathetic standard details that did not correspond to the reality of events were removed from the text. For example, the weather, a romantic storm that allegedly happened on the eve of the battle, was replaced by a clear autumn night, which was true. This was not just a clarification of the fact, such a follow-up of reality testified to the maturity of Lermontov’s creative gift. Therefore, Borodino is on a par with Mikhail Yuryevich's greatest realistic masterpieces Testament, Rodina, and Valerik.
Genre change
Lermontov’s poems on the theme “Homeland” radically change their genre. The didactics of the dispute of the early "Borodin Field" was supplanted by the natural, ironic didactics of an intentionally simple and clear narrative. The work "Borodino" is a short story. Rather, this is a didactic short story in which the battle scenes are turned in their polemic to an inert, listless, apathetic, according to the poet, real. Belinsky interpreted Borodino as a two-planed work in which the foreground is the narrative of an old warrior, a realistic depiction of battle scenes, its panorama, and the second is the bitterness of reproach, the contrast between the past and the present, whose condemnation was even more strongly reflected in the poem Duma.
The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s work is inextricably linked with the concept of nationality and people. Belinsky noted that Lermontov was imbued with the spirit of the people, merged with him. Note once again that the poet worked during the period of timelessness. In these years, the question of the further development of the state and its future is especially acute. Mikhail Yuryevich's patriotic feeling arose very early and subsequently became the most important. As a fifteen-year-old youth, M.Yu. Lermontov, whose theme of the Motherland passes through all his creativity, wrote: "I love my homeland and more than many" (poem "I saw a shadow of bliss ...").
New lyrical hero
After 1837, the lyrical hero changes noticeably: he began to feel equality with other people, and was moving away from demonism. Defining himself as a victim of time, he recognizes himself as his representative. There is an interest in life and other people, even spiritual, inner unity with them, sometimes turning into a reincarnation as a soldier or a prisoner ("Neighbor", "Neighbor", "Prisoner", "Captive Knight"). In such a rapprochement, the hero opens up new possibilities. He increasingly feels the futility of individualism, the insolubility of his internal contradictions, seeks to find support for his ideals. The theme of the Motherland in Lermontov’s works begins to sound in a new way.
The symbolic image of the motherland
The poet, being a romantic, also created a symbolic generalized image of his country. Lermontov’s poems on the theme of “Motherland” depict her as an ideal. Mikhail Lermontov, for whom the Motherland meant a lot, despises people who do not have it, free from suffering and passions. He compares them with clouds (the poem "Clouds", 1840), always cold and free, racing south from bored barren fields.