Poem by M.Yu. Lermontov’s “Mtsyri” is rightfully considered one of the peaks of M.Yu.’s poetic creativity. Lermontov. The work is united by a common mood. In it, the author created the character of a young highlander of exceptional strength and courage.

The boy was captured as a child, and due to illness he remained to live within the walls of the monastery. However, just as a meadow flower is difficult to grow in a garden, Mtsyri suffered painfully in captivity. He was tormented by nostalgia, and he “looked, sighing, to the east,” tormented by homesickness. This patriotic feeling entered his life unconsciously, instinctively, as if with mother’s milk. Gradually Mtsyri got used to captivity:

I began to understand a foreign language,

Was baptized by the holy father

And, unfamiliar with the noisy light,

Already wanted in the prime of life

Make your monastic vows.

But the strength of character did not allow the proud mountaineer to humble himself and remain forever in the monastic monastery. Risking his life, he escaped. In his confession, he told about how he spent three days in freedom:

I lived little and lived in captivity.

Such two lives in one,

But only full of anxiety,

I would trade it if I could

He exclaims with delight. This loyalty to the tribal way of life, combined with the tragic motive of orphanhood, evokes involuntary sympathy for the young highlander. A proud, freedom-loving young man paid at the cost of his life for the right to experience a breath of freedom, to see the peaks of the gray Caucasus. However, Mtsyri is characterized by the most ordinary, natural human feelings. For example, he experiences fear on the edge of an abyss. His heart melts at the sound of the young Georgian woman’s voice.

It is interesting that the patriotic theme is revealed in the poem not so much through Mtsyri’s declarative statements, but through admiring the beauty of the Caucasus.

The young man calls himself timid, sobs with frustration at not finding the way to his native village. But his determination, desire to see his native country at any cost, on the contrary, testify to the hero’s mental fortitude. On the way, he suffers from hunger, but does not turn back. After a fight with a mighty leopard, he realizes that he could be “in the land of his fathers, not one of the last daredevils.” In the scene of the battle between Mtsyri and the leopard, Lermontov with frankness and directness emphasizes the warlike spirit in the character of his hero. He is first and foremost a fighter, and in a bloody fight his ancient hunting instincts are revealed.

After the battle with the leopard, the wounded Mtsyri feels that he is dying. Through his dying thoughts, Lermontov shows the depth and tenderness of the young man’s soul. Only a creatively gifted, rich nature can understand nature so subtly.

Using the example of the image of Mtsyri, Lermontov teaches to love life in all its fullness, to be devoted to one’s native land, for every person is as happy as possible where he was born, where he is destined to live by God and fate. Mtsyri dies with the thought of his homeland, bequeathing to transfer him to the garden, from where the Caucasus is visible, and hopes that he will send his last greetings to his prodigal son with a cool breeze.

The poem "Mtsyri" is a hymn to the unconquered person. Of course, Mtsyri was created as a romantic hero, but the closeness of his views to the author’s is obvious. Thus, we can confidently say that Lermontov’s ideal of a person is a free hero-fighter, actively approaching life, able not only to love and subtly feel the world around him, but also to fight to make his dreams come true. N.P. Ogarev believed that Mtsyri is “the clearest and only ideal of the poet.”

M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri” was in many ways a summation of the poet’s thoughts about man, the world, the relationship between the individual and society, man and nature. Lermontov's poetic creativity was based on the romantic worldview inherited by Lermontov from Byron - hence the emphasized loneliness of a person in the world and the understanding of this loneliness as a sign of chosenness. A distinctive feature of the poet’s work was the depiction of the misunderstanding of the lyrical hero by his closest people (even his beloved) and his rejection by society; The “diabolical”, Manfredian pride of such a hero, his search for shelter and at the same time the impossibility of finding it due to the qualities of the personality himself became the focus of Lermontov’s attention.
Another source of poetry was the Decembrist tradition with its ideas about man’s destiny to serve the fatherland, acute rejection of the social system, dreams of liberal changes in Russia, and reflections on its destinies. That is why in Lermontov’s lyrics a combination of civil, philosophical and personal content becomes frequent, and the lyrical hero is a bearer of an individualistic character, a poet-thinker and a citizen reflecting on freedom and slavery, life and death. All these ideas receive significant rethinking in the works of late Lermontov and, in particular, in the poem “Mtsyri”.
The hero of the poem ended up in a monastery early, was homesick away from his native place, ran away for a while, and then again found himself in his former prison, where he told what he saw in freedom. Thus, one of the themes clearly depicted in the poem is the theme of the relationship between man and God. This topic was very painful for Lermontov himself. The poet believed that God created man as a bearer of fiery passions, in constant search, incompatible with peace and even happiness. However, God did not show man the path he should follow in order to realize everything that worries him, to find what he is so passionately looking for. Once upon a time, a tragic break occurred between man and God, heaven and earth, after which man found himself doomed to inner emptiness and search for himself and God, he was subject to the influence of evil - this is how the image of the Demon appears in Lermontov’s poetry. However, in the poem “Mtsyri” the reader sees the defense of a completely different position. Mtsyri does not take root in the monastery, but not because one cannot find God in the monastery, but because Mtsyri is too different from the inhabitants of the monastery. Their path to God, holiness and fullness of life cannot become his path - that is why he runs away from the monastery, because he feels: the goal of his search lies beyond the walls of the monastery.
Once free, Mtsyri feels for some time in a state of absolute harmony with the world around him, which is closer to him than the world of people. The hero feels like a part of nature, and most importantly, he experiences the taste of freedom. Lermontov in his early lyrics pointed to nature as a kind of ideal world, to merge with which as a path to absolute harmony a person should strive. What happens in nature can be considered as a symbol of what is happening inside the person himself, which is very important for Lermontov’s lyrical hero, who is, first of all, an “inner man” in his structure. It is precisely the awakening of the soul that Mtsyri experiences, listening to what is happening around him.
But gradually the reader observes changes in Mtsyri’s worldview and sense of self. He realizes that complete merging with the surrounding world is impossible for him - if only because, in its weak physical organization, it is not similar to the natural world, which even turns out to be mortally dangerous for him. Mtsyri understands that the highest point of his approach to nature is its contemplation, but he will never belong to this world. Moreover, in the natural world the hero will never find the true peace that he strives for (not in the sense of inaction, but in the sense of the fullness of being). Here the hero is doomed to eternal wandering - not a free choice, but a manifestation of evil fate. And finally, nature turns out to be an obstacle on Mtsyri’s way home, to her homeland.
The homeland, in the understanding of Lermontov himself, is the soil that once gave life to a person and with which he is forever connected. If this connection is broken, then the person is doomed to endless wanderings. In Mtsyri’s memory, the homeland is the main component, character, content of memory. The power of the past turns out to be inescapable - the hero will never find the desired harmony if he cannot go back. For him, the past is constantly present in the present - and sometimes it is even more tangible and real than the unwanted present that brings only suffering. But, besides the pain that the gap between the past and the present causes, which he is constantly aware of, the past is also the only source of memories of a certain original ideal that once really took place in his life - which means there is hope for finding this ideal. From this moment on in the poem, the call of nature turns into a grave temptation, succumbing to which the hero forever loses any opportunity to get to his homeland and thus find his harmony.
The hero loses consciousness and ends up back in the monastery from which he fled to his desired freedom. He did not find what he was looking for: the ideal turned out to be unattainable, attempts to find a home and return to his homeland ended in complete defeat. However, Mtsyri does not curse everything around him, as a romantic hero would do. Mtsyri realizes that he was looking, first of all, for another person who would be capable of understanding and sympathy. That is why he tells the monk about what he experienced during those three days when he was away - the hero of the early Lermontov would never have done such an act: he was proud of his own loneliness as a sign of a certain mission. But in the poem “Mtsyri” the romantic hero comes to terms with the world around him, although he does not find his specific place in it. Thus, among those moral values that early Lermontov’s lyrics affirmed (freedom, independence, awareness of one’s chosenness, constant search and spiritual restlessness), a new, very significant one appears: the need for peace, spiritual closeness and understanding between people.

Topic 51. What moral values are affirmed in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri"?

You can start your discussion with the composition of the poem. As a matter of fact, thanks to the exposition, the reader knows the story of Mtsyri even before the hero begins to tell it. It is also known that time destroyed the monastery - the Mtsyri prison, and in the face of eternity they seemed to “equalize”. However, the monastery is not valuable here in itself, but only as a “guardian” of the history of the young monk.

This story is told in the form of a confession - in the first person. Before us is a clear rethinking of the genre: instead of a monk’s story about sins and repentance, there is a passionate story of a young man about three days spent “in freedom.”

Thus, the reader’s attention is focused on the main thing - the inner world of the hero. B. Eikhenbaum in “Articles about Lermontov” wrote that in the poem “Mtsyri” “the problem of the struggle for moral values, human behavior, pride and beliefs, the problem of “proud faith in people and other life” is put forward.”

The theme of good and evil is refracted in a special way in the poem. It is the monk who saves Mtsyri from death; the monastery becomes a shelter for a weak child, deprived of his homeland due to the war. But this same monastery is a “prison” for Mtsyri. According to Yu.V. Mann, “evil exists only as violence against the will, against the natural feeling of homeland. Prisonership is achieved only by submission to the established order of things.” This is an image of protection, close to images of peace, promising a refusal to fight for one’s ideals.

It is repeatedly emphasized that he dies “proudly”: as a boy and as a young man. In pride there is protest and challenge, this is a feeling that is in many ways alien to Christian humility. “Proud gaze” is what characterizes his father in Mtsyri’s mind. In the article already cited above by Yu.V. Mann notes that Mtsyri is alien to the desire for forgiveness, the ideas of Christian humility, he does not complain about God, but does not turn to him - this is the reason for his loneliness. And this happens because “the desired, native land of Mtsyri is outside the visible available circle of phenomena... in “God’s world”, where everything is in its place, Mtsyri turned out to be an extra link.”

Homeland and freedom are combined into one multi-valued symbol. “And how I lived in a foreign country, // I will die a slave and an orphan” - the impossibility of being in the Motherland is closely connected with the inability to overcome circumstances (hence, apparently, the word “slave”) and the absence of a kindred soul. For the sake of this Motherland, the hero is ready to give up heaven and eternity. She calls and beckons him. “A child at heart” - “a monk by destiny” is the most important antithesis: naturalness, inner freedom cannot be combined with the “stalled”, ordered life of the monastery. The motive of the prisoner develops into the motive of doom to loneliness. But this loneliness also cannot be the hero’s state - he must either “take a monastic vow” or, “taking a sip of freedom,” die. These two lives, two possibilities are irreconcilable, and the choice is determined by the hero’s internal aspirations - the “fiery passion” living in him.

The theme of humility is connected with the monastery - renunciation of the homeland, family, friends (“I could not say to anyone // The sacred words “father” and “mother.” // Of course, you wanted, old man, // So that I would lose the habit of being in the monastery // From these sweet names”). Mtsyri does not accept humility, and therefore “does not pray for forgiveness.”

“A life full of worries” contrasts Mtsyri with “life in captivity,” “a wonderful world of worries and battles” with “stuffy cells and prayers.” He remains true to his ideals to the end. And this is his moral strength. The path to the homeland, an attempt to find a “kindred soul” becomes the only possibility for existence.

Mtsyri’s path is not only the path to the Motherland, but also the path of life; it is no coincidence that some researchers draw parallels with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. And Mtsyri’s moral choice lies away from the path chosen for him by life, from the path outlined by the appearance of a beautiful Georgian woman, from the alluring path from the song of the fish. This is the once chosen path of life, nourished by “tears and melancholy,” recognized “before heaven and earth,” and loyalty to which is secured by an oath.

The days spent in freedom are life in its true, the only possible meaning for Mtsyri - the focus of joy, danger and struggle.

Mtsyri feels the harmony of nature and strives to merge with it. He feels its depth and mystery. In this case, we are talking about the real, earthly beauty of nature, and not about an ideal that exists only in the imagination. Mtsyri listens to the voice of nature and admires the leopard as a worthy opponent. And the spirit of Mtsyri himself is unshakable, despite his physical illness.

It is also important that the beauty of the earth is directly connected for him with the idea of freedom - it is no coincidence that his goal is “To find out if the earth is beautiful; // Find out whether for freedom or prison // We will be born into this world.”

Death for Mtsyri is the end of suffering, but also the renunciation of life in all its fullness. He does not hope to meet his Motherland “beyond the grave,” and therefore it is important for him to see the land of his dreams for the last time, to feel its breath.

According to D.E. Maksimov, “the meaning of the poem is to glorify the search, the power of will, courage, rebellion and struggle, no matter what tragic results they lead to.”

Mtsyri is a romantic work that was written by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov after a trip to the Caucasus and is considered one of the author’s best works, and is also considered to be practically the last example of Russian romantic poetry.

Who wrote Mtsyri's poem and how?

The famous Russian poet and prose writer Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov conceived the poem “Mtsyri” in those days when he was traveling around the Caucasus.

In general, it should be noted that Lermontov’s works very often combined civil, philosophical and personal motives. At the same time, in his works he was often inspired by examples of what Byron did. The so-called Byronic hero is a character of the highest quality, a rebel, a fiery nature that no circumstances can break. Lermontov was also inspired by Byron at the moments when he created Mtsyri.

The poem was written in 1839 and published in 1840, in the only edition of Lermontov’s lifetime. Eyewitnesses say that while traveling along the Georgian Military Road, he met a monk who told him how he was taken to a monastery as a child, was sad, made escape attempts, and one of them almost led him to death.

Whether this really happened - there is no documented evidence. However, it was precisely this plot that formed the basis of the poem “Mtsyri”.

Why is Mtsyri a romantic hero?

As I already said, Lermontov, inspired by the Byronic characters of the romantic era, endowed his main characters with similar traits: rebellion, fiery nature, freedom of spirit, not subject to circumstances and fate.

This is exactly how Mikhail Yuryevich carefully writes out his main character. It should also be noted that the narration in the poem comes from first-hand accounts - this is one of the main techniques of romanticism - a form of confession. The story becomes both emotional and sincere.

Why did Mtsyri run away from the monastery?

He ended up in a monastery when he was still small - he was captured by a Russian general and placed in a monastery. He is a rebel by nature; he cannot forget his homeland and refuse to meet with it. That is why, despite the fact that the monks do not wish him harm, he tries to escape over and over again.

It is not for nothing that Lermontov paints a scene of escape on a stormy night - contrasting the riot of nature with quiet life in a cell. At this moment, all the monks are praying, fearing God’s wrath, but for the rebel Mtsyri, on the contrary, this causes an attack of desire to reunite with rebellious nature.

Why did Mtsyri die?

The escape attempt was not very successful. He was granted only a few days in freedom, where Mtsyri got into a fight with a leopard.

The central scene of the entire work. Mtsyri is a warrior and a child of nature. He manages to defeat the leopard, but is wounded and returned to his cell by the monks. From this moment the real tragedy of the hero begins.

He realizes that no one is waiting for him, he has no relatives, and the freedom that attracts him so much is actually loneliness. A few days later he dies. He dies unbroken with his gaze fixed on freedom, even with the knowledge that he is completely alone there. This also reveals a certain romanticism.

How old is Mtsyri?

Judging by the description, the main character should be somewhere around 16-18 years old. A young enough character for all the events that were in store for him.

As the story goes, it is said that he was kidnapped as a child, about six years old. At the same time, he stayed with the monks for about 10 years. It turns out 16-18 years old.

What moral values are affirmed in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri"?

In his poem “Mtsyri” M. Lermontov raises a number of questions concerning such human values as good and evil, pride and conviction. The story is narrated in the first person. A story about a young man who spends several days away from his monastery in freedom. It is here that he rethinks many things in his life, and also reconsiders his attitude towards the world and the universe.

The poem also raises the theme of humility. It is reflected in the rejection of family friends, as well as in the rejection of one’s homeland. In the hero's soul there are constant comparisons of different realities. On the one hand, this is monastic life or captivity, as the hero himself calls it, on the other hand, this is life in freedom - it is full of anxiety and battles.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the main leitmotif of the entire poem is the fight for one’s dream, for the goal towards which the hero has been moving all his life. The meaning of Lermontov’s work “Mtsyri” is to glorify such human qualities as willpower and courage. It is these qualities of the human soul that the main character demonstrates. In this case, it does not matter at all how tragic the consequences may be, both for the hero himself and for the situation as a whole.

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What values are affirmed in Lermontov’s poem Mtsyri