The main features of a romantic hero. Types of Romantic Heroes

27.04.2019

The concept of "romanticism" is often used as a synonym for the concept of "romance". By this they mean the tendency to look at the world through rose-colored glasses and an active life position. Or they associate this concept with love and any actions for the sake of their loved one. But romanticism has several meanings. The article will focus on a narrower understanding that is used for a literary term, and on the main character traits of a romantic hero.

Characteristic features of the style

Romanticism is a trend in literature that arose in Russia in the late 18th - first half of the 19th century. This style proclaims the cult of nature and the natural feelings of man. Freedom of self-expression, the value of individualism and the original character traits of the protagonist become new characteristic features of romantic literature. Representatives of the direction abandoned rationalism and the primacy of the mind, which were characteristic of the Enlightenment, and put the emotional and spiritual sides of a person at the forefront.

In their works, the authors do not display the real world, which was too vulgar and vile for them, but the inner universe of the character. And through the prism of his feelings and emotions, the outlines of the real world are visible, the laws and thoughts of which he refuses to obey.

Main conflict

The central conflict of all works written in the era of romanticism is the conflict between the individual and society as a whole. Here the protagonist goes against the rules established in his environment. At the same time, the motives for such behavior can be different - actions can both go for the benefit of society, and have a selfish intention. In this case, as a rule, the hero loses this fight, and the work ends with his death.

A romantic is a special and in most cases very mysterious person who tries to resist the power of nature or society. At the same time, the conflict develops into an internal struggle of contradictions, which takes place in the soul of the main character. In other words, the central character is built on antitheses.

Although in this literary genre the individuality of the protagonist is valued, literary critics have nevertheless identified what features of romantic heroes are the main ones. But, even despite the similarity, each character is unique in its own way, since they are only general criteria for highlighting the style.

Ideals of society

The main feature of the romantic hero is that he does not accept the well-known ideals of society. The main character has his own ideas about the values ​​of life, which he tries to defend. He, as it were, challenges the whole world around him, and not an individual person or group of people. Here we are talking about the ideological confrontation of one person against the whole world.

At the same time, in his rebellion, the main character chooses one of two extremes. Either these are unattainable highly spiritual goals, and the character is trying to catch up with the Creator himself. In another case, the hero indulges in all sorts of sins, not feeling the measure of his moral fall into the abyss.

Bright personality

If one person is able to withstand the whole world, then it is as large and complex as the whole world. The protagonist of romantic literature always stands out in society, both externally and internally. In the soul of the character there is a constant conflict between the stereotypes already laid down by society and his own views and ideas.

Loneliness

One of the saddest traits of the romantic hero is his tragic loneliness. Since the character is opposed to the whole world, he remains completely alone. There is no such person who would understand it. Therefore, he either himself flees from a society he hates, or he himself becomes an exile. Otherwise, the romantic hero would no longer be like this. Therefore, romantic writers focus all their attention on the psychological portrait of the central character.

Either past or future

The features of the romantic hero do not allow him to live in the present. The character is trying to find his ideals in the past, when the religious feeling was strong in the hearts of people. Or he indulges himself with happy utopias that supposedly await him in the future. But in any case, the main character is not satisfied with the era of dull bourgeois reality.

Individualism

As already mentioned, the hallmark of the romantic hero is his individualism. But it's not easy to be "different from others." This is a fundamental difference from all the people who surround the main character. At the same time, if a character chooses a sinful path, then he realizes that he is different from others. And this difference is taken to the extreme - the cult of personality of the protagonist, where all actions have an exclusively selfish motive.

The era of romanticism in Russia

The poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. He creates several ballads and poems ("Ondine", "The Sleeping Princess" and so on), in which there is a deep philosophical meaning and aspiration for moral ideals. His works are saturated with his own experiences and reflections.

Then Zhukovsky was replaced by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. They impose on the public consciousness, which is under the impression of the failure of the Decembrist uprising, the imprint of an ideological crisis. For this reason, the work of these people is described as a disappointment in real life and an attempt to escape into their fictional world, filled with beauty and harmony. The main characters of their works lose interest in earthly life and come into conflict with the outside world.

One of the features of romanticism is the appeal to the history of the people and their folklore. This is most clearly seen in the work "Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, a young guardsman and a daring merchant Kalashnikov" and a cycle of poems and poems dedicated to the Caucasus. Lermontov perceived it as the birthplace of free and proud people. They opposed the slave country, which was under the rule of Nicholas I.

The early works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin are also imbued with the idea of ​​romanticism. An example is "Eugene Onegin" or "The Queen of Spades".

Romanticism was the product of the turbulent events of the early 19th century (the era of Napoleon and subsequent reaction). Dissatisfaction with the present, uncertainty about the future. Romanticism as a current embraced

  • philosophical thought (Schelling, Fichte),
  • political aspirations (),
  • poetry (Byron and Hugo),
  • painting (Delacroix, Bryullov).

And although in the 30-40s this style was replaced as the main direction, romantic works of art were created later (at the end of the 19th century, Scandinavian literature), and are being created now (in literature, cinema, painting).

Characteristic features of romanticism

These include:

  • Individualism

The romantic hero is opposed to the world, the world does not accept him, and he does not accept this world. Love is associated with betrayal, friendship with betrayal. He is lonely and disappointed, cursed with loneliness. He cannot find a soul mate, a person who loves and understands him. All his attempts to find his place in life are in vain. Happiness is the lot of ordinary people, philistines, who can only enjoy this life. Only a genius can comprehend the tragedy of life, its injustice. Therefore, the life of a romantic is tragic, his destiny is suffering.

  • rebellion

If life is tragic in its essence and structure, then the only way out for a person is rebellion. Rebellion is the normal relation of the romantic hero to the world. Rebellion can be active, when the hero comes into conflict with this world and strives to remake it, or passive - retreat into dreams, dreams. The positive hero of romanticism is often opposed to. A demon cast down and rejected by God. God is the order that affirms everyday slavery. The demon is an eternal rebel, a fighter for freedom.

  • Contradictory attitude towards the people

The romantic hero thinks of himself as a fighter against world evil in the name of the good of the people. But the people, from the point of view of romanticism, is a passive mass. The hero can sacrifice his life for the sake of others, but at the same time despises the crowd and the mob. While sacrificing, he is at the same time lonely and despised by those for whom he sacrifices.

  • Feeling is higher than reason, therefore art is higher than science

In art, expressiveness is important, the exposure of one's feelings to the reader.

  • ABOUT lack of rules and

the price has originality, originality, individual style.

  • Unusual in everything

The appearance of the hero reflects his inner world, spirituality. Beauty is not as important here as in.

  • Interest in national creativity, fairy tales, legends, medieval legends

Particular interest in the East and its unusualness (for Russia, this is the Caucasus), as well as in northern legends (Scotland).

Definitions of the term "romantic hero"

romantic hero- one of the artistic images of the literature of romanticism.

● Existence « two worlds»: the world of the ideal, the dream and the world of reality. This brings Romantic artists into a mood of despair and hopelessness, " world sorrow».

● Appeal to folk stories, folklore, interest in the historical past, the search for historical consciousness.

To learn more about the theory of romanticism, use the presentation on this topic.

Typology of the romantic hero

A word cloud illustrating key traits of a romantic hero

Typically, the types of romantic heroes can be represented as national, or as universal.

For example:

weirdo hero- ridiculous and ridiculous in the eyes of the townsfolk and passers-by

lone hero- rejected by society, aware of his alienation to the world

"Byronic Hero"- an extra person, the "son of the century", suffers from the inconsistency of his own nature

Demonic Hero- challenges the world, sometimes even God, a person doomed to discord with society

Hero is a man of the people- rejected by society

The cloud is based on articles "Romantic Hero in Western European Literature" from the Online Library of the Lyceum Publishing House. The main aspects of the romantic character are visually represented. Thus, the romantic hero appears as a person striving to search for the world of the romantic ideal. This is an exceptional personality, challenging the world around him, longing for a moral revolution. Such a person contradicts everyday life and dreams of spiritual perfection.

Analysis of the character of heroes by various German authors

The romantic hero and society are opposing forces because they represent two different concepts: spirituality and mediocrity. For Novalis, as an innovator, the romantic hero is an eternal wanderer in search of his great ideal and striving for self-improvement, Hölderlin - lonely recluse And child of nature deifying Love, while Hoffmann, with his intertwining with realism and romantic irony, has several worldly comical weirdo, nevertheless capable of childish delight and ingenuous belief in miracles. One way or another, all the characters are bound by the desire to indulge in feelings, while removing the cold mind. Exactly Love awakens all the best in heroes, it opens their eyes to beautiful, truly important things, love transforms a romantic hero, encourages creativity, in it he finds the very embodiment of a dream. " Love is the main thing- wrote Schilling.

The main features of a romantic character that unite the heroes of literary works at different stages are displayed in a mental map.

The English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley said this about romanticism, fantastically comparing it with clouds: “I don’t know permanence, I always change my appearance, but I will never die ..”

romantic hero

romantic hero- one of the artistic images of the literature of romanticism. A romantic is an exceptional and often mysterious person who usually lives in exceptional circumstances. The clash of external events is transferred to the inner world of the hero, in whose soul there is a struggle of contradictions. As a result of such a reproduction of the character, romanticism raised the value of the personality, inexhaustible in its spiritual depths, extremely highly, opening its unique inner world. A person in romantic works is also embodied with the help of contrast, antithesis: on the one hand, he is understood as the crown of creation, and on the other, as a weak-willed toy in the hands of fate, forces unknown and beyond his control, playing with his feelings. Therefore, he often turns into a victim of his own passions.

Signs of a Romantic Hero

  1. Exceptional Hero in Exceptional Circumstances
  2. Reality is actively recreated in accordance with the ideal
  3. Independence
  4. Insolvability of the conflict between the hero and society
  5. Abstract perception of time
  6. Pronounced two or three character traits

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See what "Romantic Hero" is in other dictionaries:

    romantic hero- see the hero of the work + romanticism ...

    the hero of the work- one of the main characters of a work of art (as opposed to a character); the development of the character of the hero and his relationship with other characters play a decisive role in the development of the plot and composition of the work, in revealing it ... ... Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on literary criticism

    hero- 1. A person who has accomplished military or labor exploits. Selfless, fearless, brilliant (obsolete), daring (obsolete poet), valiant, glorious (obsolete), famous, famous, true, legendary, courageous, folk, real, ... ... Dictionary of epithets

    Grushnitsky ("A Hero of Our Time")- See also Juncker. He's only been in the service for a year. He was in the active detachment and was wounded in the leg. Wears, in a special kind of foppery, a thick soldier's overcoat. He has a St. George cross. He is well built, swarthy and black-haired; he looks like he can... Dictionary of literary types

    - - was born on May 26, 1799 in Moscow, on Nemetskaya Street in the house of Skvortsov; died January 29, 1837 in St. Petersburg. On his father's side, Pushkin belonged to an old noble family, descended, according to the genealogy, from a native "from ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

    Pushkin A. S. Pushkin. Pushkin in the history of Russian literature. Pushkin studies. Bibliography. PUSHKIN Alexander Sergeevich (1799 1837) the greatest Russian poet. R. June 6 (according to the old style, May 26) 1799. The P. family came from a gradually impoverished old ... ... Literary Encyclopedia

    1. The hero of the tragedy by A.P. Sumarokov "Dimitry the Pretender" (1771). The historical prototype is False Dmitry I, he is probably Yuri (Grigory) Otrepiev. In 1601 the Pretender appeared in Poland under the name of Demetrius, son of Ivan IV the Terrible; in the summer of 1604 with ... ... literary heroes

    The hero of A.S. Griboedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit” (1824; in the first edition, the spelling of the name Chadsky). Probable prototypes of the image P.Ya.Chaadaev (1796 1856) and VKKyukhelbeker (1797 1846). The nature of the actions of the hero, his statements and relationships with ... ... literary heroes

    - (fr. Jean Valejean) the hero of the novel by V. Hugo "Les Misérables" (1862). One of the prototypes of the hero was the convict Pierre Morin, who in 1801 was sentenced to five years in hard labor for stealing a piece of bread. Only one person, the Bishop of the city of Digne Monsignor de ... ... literary heroes

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The word ROMANTISM.

ROMAN - love relationship between a man and a woman.

ROMANTIC - one who is sublime, emotionally related to something.

ROMANCE - a short piece of music for voice accompanied by an instrument,

written in lyric poetry.


During the conversation, the teacher asks the question: "How are the meanings of these three words similar?" The term ROMANTISM, the meaning of which you will learn today in the lesson, is also directly related to the concept of feeling.

Different eras - different criteria for evaluating a person.

The society has always been important criterion by which it would be possible to evaluate a person. Each era put forward different criteria for evaluation. So, for example, the ancient era considered a person from the point of view of his appearance, physical beauty: it is enough to recall that the sculptures of that time depict naked, physically developed people. Outward beauty has been replaced by spiritual beauty.

Society in the 18th century was convinced that the strength of a person is in his mind. The world was created by God, and the task of man is to rationally improve this world. Thus, humanity entered the Age of Enlightenment. However, fanatical admiration for the power of the mind, of course, could not exist for a long time: convictions are convictions, and practically nothing changes for the better. On the contrary: such ideas led to revolutionary upheavals and bloodshed (for example, under the slogan “In the name of reason!” There was a revolution in France), and by the end of the 18th century. swept a wave of disappointment in the power of the mind. The need for an alternative became obvious. This alternative has been found. What is the opposite of reason in man? Feelings.

As we have already said, it is with the concept of feeling that the term ROMANTICISM is associated. ROMANTICISM is a trend in culture that affirms the inherent value of a spiritual and creative personality, the cult of nature, feelings and the natural in man.

Now the artist, addressing the connoisseur of beauty, appealed, first of all, to his feelings, and not to the mind, guided not by sober mental reflections, but by the dictates of the heart.


Dual world (antithesis)

To begin with, let's recall the concept of ANTITHESIS. Find the antithesis in the following passages:

1. I am a king, I am a slave, I am a worm, I am a god.

2. They got along. Water and stone, Poetry and prose, ice and fire Not so different from each other...

3. Bright thoughts rise In my torn heart, And bright thoughts fall, Burnt by dark fire.

4. Today I soberly triumph, tomorrow I cry and sing.

5. You are a prose writer - I am a poet

you are rich - I am very poor.

Antithesis (from the Greek antithesis - opposition) - a comparison of sharply contrasting or opposite concepts and images to enhance the impression.

Suggested answers:

1. king - slave worm - god

2. water - stone poetry - prose ice - flame

3. light - dark

4. today - tomorrow I triumph - I cry and sing

5. prose writer - poet rich - poor


What antithesis caused the transition from the previous era to the era of romanticism? MIND - FEELINGS. For understanding of ROMANTISM the concept of FEELING, which is opposed to MIND, becomes the key. An antithesis arises, which is also reflected in the artist's attitude to the world around him. Reasonable reality does not find a response in the soul of romance: the real world is unfair, cruel, terrible. In search of the best, the artist dreams of going beyond the limits of reality: it is there, outside the existing life, that he has the opportunity to acquire perfection, dreams, ideals.

This is how the DOUBLE WORLD, characteristic of romanticism, arises: “here” and “there”. The despised "here" is a modern reality of romance, where evil and injustice triumph. “There” is a kind of poetic reality that the romantic opposes to reality.

The question arises: where to find this “there”, this ideal world? Romantics find it in their own souls, and in the other world, and in the life of uncivilized peoples, and in history. This “there” is given to the reader through the prism of the artist's view. And can romance passed through the soul be everyday, prosaic? In no case! It, emphasizing the break with the prose of life, will certainly be very unusual, sometimes even unexpected for the reader.

The main features of a romantic hero

Rejection, denial of reality determined the specifics of the romantic hero. This is a fundamentally new hero, like him did not know the old


literature. He is in hostile relations with the surrounding society, opposed to it. This is an unusual, restless person, most often lonely and with a tragic fate. The romantic hero is the embodiment of a romantic rebellion against reality. Romantic hero in the flesh - English poet George Noel Gordon Byron (1788-1824).

Answer questions on your own:

1. How does a romantic relate to reality?

Suggested answer: the romantic does not accept reality, he runs away from it.

2. Where is the romantic going?

Suggested answer: a romantic aspires to a dream, to an ideal, to perfection.

3. How are events, landscape, people depicted?

Suggested answer: events, landscape, people are depicted in an unusual, unexpected way.

4. Where can a romantic find an ideal?

Suggested answer: the romantic finds his ideal in his own soul, in the other world, in the life of uncivilized peoples.

5. What becomes a cult for a romantic? Suggested answer: the romantic strives for freedom.

6. What is the meaning of a romantic life?

Suggested answer: the meaning of the life of a romantic is in rebellion against reality, in a feat, in gaining freedom.

7. How does fate test romance?

Suggested answer: fate offers romance exceptional, tragic circumstances.



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