Female Images in Byron the Corsair. "Gyaur", "Corsair", "Manfred", "Cain" by J. Byron

The main objectives of the lesson:

"MK - BYRON George Noel Gordon"

BYRON George Noel Gordon

He was, O sea, your singer,

How can you not tame anything.

A.S. Pushkin

pessimistic;

rejecting society, disappointed in people;

freedom-loving;

a rebel protesting against poverty, the slavery of peoples, against the tyranny of governments;

experiencing volcanic experiences;

contradictory;

"mysterious and eternally lonely."

accusatory;

historical;

Evangelical;

space;

"eastern"

"On the Flight of Napoleon from the Island of Elba", "Napoleon's Farewell";

"Stans to August", "Forgive me";

"Manfred", "Cain", "Earth and Sky";

"Gyaur", "Bride of Abydos", "Corsair", "Lara"

Poem "Corsair"

None of Lord Byron's writings

did not make such a strong impression in England,

like his poem "The Corsair" ...

A.S. Pushkin

What character traits can be seen in Byron's hero?

Conclusion.

Created in 1813–14. the triptych of "Eastern" poems consolidated the idea of ​​the Byronic hero as a true spokesman for the social psychology of his age. "Anguish, the caustic force" induces this character to rebellion, attempts to radically change his own spiritual essence, but the feeling of his uselessness on earth remains unsurmounted. Byron's poems, built as a lyrical confession of a character that combines features outstanding personality and type, testifying to the beliefs and diseases of the era, became a literary event. The similarity, and often dispute with these poems, is recognized in the works of many of Byron's contemporaries (in A.S. Pushkin's Gypsies, in M.Yu. Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time).

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"MK - Romanticism in Byron's Poem"

Romanticism. Romantic hero in Western European literature

George Gordon Lord Byron(1788–1824) was in the first quarter XIX century "ruler of thoughts", a living personification of romanticism. He, like no one else, embodied the romantic ideal of a complete fusion of biography and creativity, when the artist lives according to the same laws by which his characters live, and the events of his life immediately turn into the material of his works. The "Byronic legend" is alive to this day, and it is important to separate the myth from the facts in it.

Byron was born into an aristocratic family, at the age of ten he inherited the title of lord and the family estate in the north of England, was educated in privileged educational institutions at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge. He was preparing for a career statesman and for a long time did not treat poetry as the main business of his life. Despite belonging to the ruling elite, he was a rebel by nature, and his whole life was a challenge to the conventions accepted in society. He considered English society inert and hypocritical, did not want to make any concessions to public opinion, and after a short period of glory in his homeland (1812–1816), he left England forever, settling in Italy. His life ended in Greece, where he took part in the national liberation struggle of the Greeks against the Turks.

Poetic legacy Byron is great and varied. Recognition came to him with the publication of the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1812), where he brought the first romantic hero to English literature and created the genre of romantic lyrical-epic poem. Its forms were developed in the Oriental Poems cycle (1813–1816), where romanticism reaches its classical forms. With the move to Italy, his work is enriched in terms of genre (the drama "Manfred", the mystery play "Cain", the poems "Beppo", "Mazepa"). Main labor recent years Byron's life remained unfinished - this is a novel in verse "Don Juan".

The poem "The Corsair" (1814) from the cycle "Oriental Poems" can serve as an example of Byron's romanticism. In all six poems of the cycle, Byron relies on the impressions of his southern journey, which he undertook in the countries of the Mediterranean in 1809-1811. For the first time he presented pictures of southern nature to the reader in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and this was one of the components of the success of this poem; the public expected new exotic landscapes from the young poet, and in The Corsair Byron develops the orientalist motifs so characteristic of romanticism in general. The East in romantic art is opposed to European civilization as a world of free, natural passions, played out against the backdrop of beautiful, fertile nature. But in Byron, the East is more than a conventional romantic background: the action in "Corsair" takes place on the islands of the Greek archipelago and in coastal Greece, which is under the rule of the Turks (Seid Pasha in the poem), and the routes of the pirate raids of the protagonist Conrad are topographically accurate, they can can be traced on the map, and in the descriptions of Greece at the beginning of the third canto of the poem, Byron directly relies on his own impressions four years ago. Thus, behind the romantic landscape of the poem, pictures of nature and customs taken from life appear; Byron often gave in his poems an accurate reproduction of the historical and ethnographic environment.

At the heart of The Corsair, as in all other "Eastern Poems", is the hero's conflict with the world; the plot is reduced to one dramatic situation - the struggle for love.

The hero of the "Corsair" is the leader of the pirates Konrad, his beloved is the meek Medora. The action in the poem begins with the receipt of some news on the pirate island, which forces Konrad to say goodbye to Medora and give the order to urgently raise the sails. Where the pirates are heading and what Conrad's plan is becomes clear from the second song of the poem. The leader of the pirates decides to prevent the blow of his old enemy Seid Pasha and, in the guise of a pilgrim dervish, sneaks to the feast in the pasha's palace. He must strike at the enemy in his house, while his pirates set fire to Seid Pasha's fleet on the eve of going to sea, but the fire in the bay starts earlier than agreed, a hot battle flares up, in which Konrad saves his beloved wife Seid-Pasha from the burning seraglio. Pasha, Gulnar. But military happiness is changeable, and now the pirates are fleeing, and Conrad is captured and thrown into prison. In the third song of the poem, Seyid Pasha delays the execution of Konrad, inventing the most painful death for him. Meanwhile, Gulnar, grateful to Konrad and falling in love with him, offers to arrange an escape for him. At first, Conrad rejects her offer: he does not want to owe his freedom to a woman whose love he cannot return, because he loves only Medora. But when Gulnar sneaks into his dungeon again, he sees a bloody stain on her forehead - she herself killed Seyid Pasha, and together they board the ship heading to the pirate island. Upon his return, Conrad learns of Medora's death. The beloved could not bear the news of his captivity, and, having lost the meaning of life with her, Conrad disappears:

All in vain - day after day rolls,

Conrad is gone, and there is no news of him,

And there is no trace of his fate anywhere:

Did he die or disappeared forever?

Pirates cried for him alone...

They erected a stone to Medora.

Conrad did not erect a monument:

Who knows, maybe he did not die -

Corsair, whose name resurrects again

Darkness of crimes and one love.

As in all "Eastern Poems", Conrad is a lone rebel, professing extreme individualism. Byron does not show his past, the poem only says that his innate virtues were so high that the world was jealous of him and slandered him:

Was clean until he started his

Fights with people and the Almighty;

He was wise, but the world considered him stupid

And spoiled with his training;

I was too proud to drag out life, resigned,

And too hard to fall before the strong in the mud.

Inspiring fear, slandered from a young age,

Became a friend of Malice, but no Humility,

The call of anger considered the call of the Divine

Revenge the majority for the intrigues of the minority.

Konrad is a strong, courageous nature, he rules the pirates with an iron fist, everyone respects him for his unparalleled courage and luck in business and is afraid:

Around, on all the seas,

Only one name in the souls sows fear;

He is stingy in speech - he only knows the order,

The hand is firm, sharp and vigilant eye;

He does not give their feasts fun,

But beyond the reproaches of happiness, the favorite.

Conrad's first appearance in the poem is typical of a romantic hero. He stands on top of a cliff, leaning on his sword, looking at the waves, and his very position in space at that moment - he is higher than the others, pirates are rising up to him with a report - this spatial solution of the scene emphasizes the exclusivity of the hero. The same idea of ​​exclusivity is carried out in the portrait of Conrad (the ninth stanza of the first song). This is a detailed portrait based on a combination of opposites, where each external feature becomes an expression of the character traits of the hero. Byron creates such a vivid portrait of a romantic hero that some of his features will forever enter the characteristic appearance of a romantic literary character:

Tanned cheek, white forehead,

A wave of curls is like a crow's wing;

The bend of the lips involuntarily betrays

Arrogant thought secret passage;

There is something in him that he would like to hide.

Faces seeing sharp features,

You will be captivated, and you will be confused.

As if in it, in the soul, where the darkness froze,

The work of terrible, vague forces boils.

Contempt for people, cruelty, the habit of violence did not completely wither Conrad's soul. For the first time in the history of world literature, creating his romantic hero, Byron justifies in him actions and feelings that are far from the Christian ideal, and a substitution of moral values ​​takes place - the criminal Conrad, who sheds human blood without hesitation, the author endows with irresistible charm. The only feeling that connects the hero with humanity, the last living string in his soul, which he therefore cherishes so much, is love.

In love, the character of the romantic hero is most fully revealed; love in romanticism is an uncompromising passion, the highest value of life, therefore a romantic hero fights for love with any hostile forces. At the heart of the plot in all the "Eastern Poems" is that episode of the hero's life, where he enters into the last, fatal battle for love. From the beloved hero of the "Eastern Poems" only death separates him, like Konrad and Medora. Both female images of the poem - the meek Medora, who is all devotion and adoration, and the ardent Gulnar, capable of committing a crime for the sake of love - are contrasted with each other.

As in other Byron poems, the main way to create the character of the hero is action. Konrad is an active nature, his ideal is anarchic personal freedom, and the plot of the poem is distinguished by increased drama. A series of colorful, spectacular scenes passes before the reader, opposing each other according to the principle of contrast: the song of pirates praising the sea and freedom opens the poem, the sad song of the lonely Medora is opposite to it; the picture of a feast in the luxurious palace of Seyid Pasha is replaced by a picture of a bloody battle; the despondency of Konrad in the dungeon during the night visit to Gulnar and the cheerful freshness of the sea during their flight. The poem strikes with a wealth of moods and colors.

The words of V.G. are quite applicable to Konrad and other heroes of the "Eastern Poems". Belinsky, which he said about the poet himself: "This is a human personality, indignant against the general and, in its proud rebellion, leaning on itself." A.S. also speaks about the same extreme individualism of Byron's heroes. Pushkin:

Lord Byron by a lucky whim

Cloaked in dull romanticism

And hopeless selfishness...

And even though Prisoner of the Caucasus"Pushkin contains many elements directly borrowed from Byron, Pushkin does not exalt, but condemns the individualism of the romantic hero.

Thus, "The Corsair" is a lyrical-epic poem in which the lyrical beginning in the image of the central character and the epic, narrative beginning, which manifests itself in the richness and diversity of the action. Conrad is the hero, representing the purest example of a romantic worldview in Byron's entire work, and the poetics of The Corsair is the most characteristic example of the construction of a romantic poem. The plot is based on the climactic episode from the hero's life, which decides his fate; neither his past nor further development his life is not described, and already in this sense the poem is fragmentary. In addition, the plot is built as a chain of bright pictures-fragments, the causal relationships between which are not always clearly spelled out in the poem, and fragmentation becomes the structure-forming principle of a romantic poem. The hero is taken at a moment of supreme tension vitality, in exceptional circumstances even for his robber life. At such moments, the character of a person is revealed to the end, and the demonic, gloomy, majestic character of Conrad is created in the poem using a variety of artistic means: a portrait, author's characteristics, the attitude of women who love him towards him, but mainly through a description of his actions. One of the leitmotifs of the poem is the image of the sea, so characteristic of Byron's entire poetry; freestyle sea ​​element becomes a symbol of freedom. The pirate song that opens the poem contains these words:

Amid the jubilation of dark blue waters

Boundless thought, free shower flight

Above the foamy, endless wave -

This is our kingdom, this is our home!

The lyrical element that permeates the poem is most clearly revealed in the through image of the sea.

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"RM - Brief summary of the poem"

J. Byron Corsair 1813

Reading time: ~8 min.

AT original- 30−40 min.

Filled with picturesque contrasts, the coloring of the “Giaur” distinguishes next work Byron of the "Eastern" cycle - a more extensive poem "The Corsair", written in heroic couplets. In a brief prose introduction to the poem, dedicated to the author's fellow writer and like-minded Thomas Moore, the author warns against the characteristic, in his opinion, vice of modern criticism - which has haunted him since the days of Childe Harold, the illegal identification of the main characters - whether it is Giaur or anyone the other - with the creator of works. At the same time, the epigraph to the new poem - a line from Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered" - emphasizes the hero's inner split as the most important emotional leitmotif of the narrative.

The action of the "Corsair" is deployed in the south of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, in the port of Koroni and the Pirate Island, lost in the expanses of the Mediterranean. The time of action is not exactly indicated, but it is easy to conclude that the reader is faced with the same era of the enslavement of Greece Ottoman Empire entered the crisis phase. The figurative and speech means that characterize the characters and what is happening are close to those familiar from "Gyaur", however, the new poem is more compact in composition, its plot is developed in more detail (especially with regard to the adventurous "background"), and the development of events and their sequence - more orderly.

The first canto opens with a passionate speech, depicting the romance of the pirate lot filled with risk and anxiety. The filibusters, soldered by a sense of camaraderie, idolize their fearless ataman Konrad. And now a fast brig under a pirate flag that terrifies the whole district brought encouraging news: the Greek gunner said that in the coming days a raid on the city and palace of the Turkish governor Seyid could be carried out. Accustomed to the strangeness of the character of the commander, the pirates become shy when they find him immersed in deep thought. Several stanzas follow detailed description Conrad (“Mysterious and eternally lonely, / It seemed that he could not smile”), inspiring admiration for heroism and fear - for the unpredictable impulsiveness of the one who had gone into himself, disbelieved in illusions (“He among people is the most difficult of schools - / The path of disappointment - passed”) - word that carries typical features romantic rebel individualist, whose heart is warmed by one indomitable passion - love for Medora.

Conrad's lover reciprocates; and one of the most heartfelt pages in the poem is the love song of Medora and the scene of the farewell of the heroes before the campaign. Left alone, she does not find a place for herself, as always worrying about his life, and he, on the deck of the brig, gives instructions to the team, full of readiness to carry out a daring attack - and win.

The second song takes us to the banquet hall in Seyid's palace. The Turks, for their part, have long been planning to finally clear the sea from pirates and divide the rich booty in advance. Pasha's attention is attracted by a mysterious dervish in rags, who appeared at the feast from nowhere. He tells that he was taken prisoner by the infidels and managed to escape from the kidnappers, but he flatly refuses to taste luxurious dishes, referring to a vow made to the prophet. Suspecting him as a scout, Seyid orders to seize him, and then the stranger is instantly transformed: under the humble guise of a wanderer, a warrior in armor and with a sword that smashes on the spot was hiding. The hall and approaches to it in the blink of an eye are overflowing with Conrad's associates; a furious battle boils up: "The palace is on fire, the minaret is on fire."

The merciless pirate who crushed the resistance of the Turks, however, shows genuine chivalry when the flames that engulfed the palace spread to the female half. He forbids his brothers-in-arms to resort to violence against the Pasha's slaves, and he himself carries the most beautiful of them, the black-eyed Gulnar, out of the fire. Meanwhile, Seid, who escaped from the pirate's blade in the confusion of the battle, organizes his numerous Guards in a counterattack, and Konrad has to entrust Gulnar and her friends, unfortunately, to the cares of a simple Turkish house, and himself to enter into an unequal confrontation. All around, one after another, his slain comrades fall; he, having cut down an uncountable multitude of enemies, is hardly alive captured.

Deciding to torture Conrad and terrible execution, the bloodthirsty Seid orders to place him in a cramped casemate. The hero is not afraid of the coming trials; in the face of death, only one thought worries him: “How will Medora’s message, the evil news, meet?” He falls asleep on a stone bed, and when he wakes up, he finds in his dungeon the black-eyed Gulnar, who has secretly made her way into the prison, completely captivated by his courage and nobility. Promising to persuade the pasha to delay the impending execution, she offers to help the corsair escape. He hesitates: cowardly running away from the enemy is not in his habits. But Medora... After listening to his passionate confession, Gulnar sighs: “Alas! To love is only given to the free!”

Canto Three opens with a poetic declaration of love for Greece (“Beautiful city of Athena! Whoever saw the sunset / Your wondrous one will come back ...”), which is replaced by a picture of the Pirate Island, where Conrad waits in vain for Medora. A boat approaches the shore with the remnants of his detachment, bringing terrible news, their leader is wounded and captured, the filibusters unanimously decide to rescue Conrad from captivity at any cost.

Meanwhile, Gulnar's persuasion to postpone the painful execution of "Gyaur" produces an unexpected effect on Seid: he suspects that his beloved slave is not indifferent to the prisoner and is plotting treason. Showering the girl with threats, he kicks her out of the chambers.

Three days later, Gulnar once again enters the dungeon where Konrad is languishing. Insulted by the tyrant, she offers the prisoner freedom and revenge: he must stab the pasha in the silence of the night. The pirate recoils; the woman's excited confession follows: “Do not call revenge on the despot villainy! / Your despicable enemy must fall in blood! / Did you start? Yes, I want to become different: / Pushed away, offended - I take revenge! / I am undeservedly accused: / Though a slave, I was faithful!

"A sword - but not a secret knife!" is Conrad's counterargument. Gulnar disappears to appear at dawn: she herself took revenge on the tyrant and bribed the guards; a boat and a boatman are waiting for them off the coast to take them to the coveted island.

The hero is confused: in his soul there is an irreconcilable conflict. By the will of circumstances, he owes his life to a woman in love with him, and he himself still loves Medora. Gulnar is also depressed: in the silence of Konrad, she reads the condemnation of the crime she committed. Only a fleeting hug and a friendly kiss of the prisoner she saved bring her to her senses.

On the island, the pirates joyfully greet the leader who has returned to them. But the price set by providence for the miraculous deliverance of the hero is incredible: only one window does not shine in the castle tower - the window of Medora. Tormented by a terrible premonition, he climbs the stairs... Medora is dead.

Conrad's grief is inescapable. In solitude, he mourns his girlfriend, and then disappears without a trace: “[...] A succession of days passes, / There is no Konrad, he disappeared forever, / And did not announce a single hint, / Where he suffered, where he buried the flour! / He was only mourned by his gang; / His girlfriend was received by the mausoleum ... / He will live in the traditions of families / With one love, with a thousand crimes. The finale of The Corsair, like the Giaura, leaves the reader alone with the feeling of an unsolved riddle surrounding the entire existence of the protagonist.

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"Grade 8 Lesson No. 39"

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"RM - Brainstorming"

Brainstorming (group work)

Define "Byronism" using the clue card.

Suggestive wording

1) Byronism is a type of behavior (worldview; life philosophy; way of life; character traits).

2) Characteristic features(select the most important): protest against the existing world order; arrogant and contemptuous attitude towards others; uncompromising behavior; loftiness of ideals; ability for heroic deeds; refinement of nature; pessimism; skepticism; depth of feelings; selfishness; tragic disappointment; alienation.

Brainstorming (group work)

Define "Byronism" using the clue card.

Suggestive wording

1) Byronism is a type of behavior (worldview; life philosophy; way of life; character traits).

2) Characteristic signs (select the most important ones): protest against the existing world order; arrogant and contemptuous attitude towards others; uncompromising behavior; loftiness of ideals; ability for heroic deeds; refinement of nature; pessimism; skepticism; depth of feelings; selfishness; tragic disappointment; alienation.

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"RM - Working with statements"

WORKING WITH TEXTS OF STATEMENTS

What is the theme of these statements?

Is it possible to give an unambiguous answer about Byron's reputation as a GENIUS or a VILLAIN based on these statements?

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"RM-Analytical Reading"

Analytical reading. Poem "Corsair"

None of Lord Byron's works were made in England

such a strong impression as his poem "The Corsair" ...

A.S. Pushkin

Questions and tasks for group work:

What is the uniqueness of the protagonist of Byron's poem?

Discussion card

What character traits can be seen in Byron's hero? Can he be considered a Byronic hero?

What could be the further fate of the Corsair? Justify your assumptions.

Analytical reading. Poem "Corsair"

None of Lord Byron's works were made in England

such a strong impression as his poem "The Corsair" ...

A.S. Pushkin

Questions and tasks for group work:

What is the uniqueness of the protagonist of Byron's poem?

Discussion card

What character traits can be seen in Byron's hero? Can he be considered a Byronic hero?

What could be the further fate of the Corsair? Justify your assumptions.

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"George Gordon Byron"

George Gordon Byron

• Literature presentation
• Grade 9

• Prepared by Pikaleva Irina Germanovna
• Teacher of Russian language and literature
• MBOU "Secondary School No. 143 with in-depth study of individual subjects"
• Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan

• 2012

George Gordon Byron

"Byron is a genius: the master of our thoughts, the sound of a new wonderful lyre ..."

A. S. Pushkin

Scotland

Trinity College

Newstead Manor

Spain

• In 1806, Byron published a collection of poems "Poems in different cases"Having hidden his authorship. In 1807, the second collection, Leisure Hours, was published, when Byron no longer concealed his name when it was published. The reaction to this collection was different: from rave reviews to fierce criticism.

Portugal

Greece

island Malta

• In 1809, Byron went on a trip to Spain, Portugal, Greece, the island of Malta, the poet visited Asia Minor and Turkey. During his wanderings, Byron begins work on the poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

Turkey

Malaya Asia

Upon his return to England, Byron led an active political life, and fruitfully engaged in literature. In 1813 he published the poems "Gyaur" and "The Bride of Abydos", in 1814 the poems "Lara" and "Corsair" were published, in 1816 Byron published "The Siege of Corinth" and "Parisina".

England

Switzerland

• In 1816, Byron again leaves England, and first stops in Switzerland, where he completes work on the poem "Prisoner of Chillon". Two years later, Byron moved to Italy, wrote the poem "The Complaint of Tasso", began work on the novel in verse "Don Juan".

Italy

carbonari

• In Italy, Byron became an active member of the Carbonari organization, who fought for the liberation of Italy from Austria-Hungary, and in 1823 went to Greece, taking part in the liberation struggle of the Greeks from Turkish rule.
• Byron's poems such as "Last words about Greece", "Song to the Souliotes", "From a diary in Kefalonia" are devoted to the struggle of the Greek people.

liberation

fight Greeks

Siege of Missolonghi

• Byron becomes the head of the partisan detachment. In December 1823, during the siege, the poet fell ill with a fever.
• April 19, 1824 Byron died. Byron's lungs were buried in Greece (at the request of his Greek associates), and the body was taken to England.

The value of D.G. Byron

The name of Byron, the poet, in the words of Pushkin, "mourned by freedom", is always close and dear to those for whom the high and wonderful feelings people, their noble struggle against arbitrariness and tyranny.

Byron's work was innovative, it contained ideas that excited both contemporaries and subsequent generations. Unsaid, misunderstood by Byron

was said or gave rise to new

controversy, but his work always disturbed

minds, awakened fantasy. And the poet, as it were

anticipating this, he said:

• ... I did not live in vain!

Byronic hero

The poem revealed in itself the first example

Byronic hero. Byronic idea

hero carries many of the following

various characteristics:

The hero must have a high level of intelligence and perception, as well as be able to easily adapt to new situations and use cunning to his own advantage. So, Childe Harold is well educated, well-mannered and smart, and also endowed with external attractiveness, style and tact. Aside from the obvious allure this automatically creates, he struggles with his honest directness, being prone to swings or bipolar tendencies. .

In general, the hero is inherently irreverent.

to any

power, so

created

byronic image

the hero as an exile or an outcast.

The hero also has a tendency to be

arrogant and cynical

indulging in self-destructive behavior that is coupled with the need to seduce women.

The mystery of the hero is certainly an intensifying factor in his sexuality.

attraction, however

even more provocative

his frequent encounters with those

or other problems.

• http://www.philology.ru/literature3/usmanov-81.htm
• http://aphorism-list.com/biography.php?page=bayron
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1 %81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE_%D0%A7%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B4-%D0%93%D0%B0%D1% 80%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B4%D0%B0
• childe+harold& hl=ru&newwindow=1&sa=X&biw=1204&bih=805&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=rhzCdg
• http://wap.fictionbook.ru/author/viktor_nikolaevich_eremin/100_velikih_literaturniyh_geroev/read_online.html?page=9
• http://www.google.ru/imgres?q= childe+harold& hl=ru&newwindow=1&sa=X&biw=1204&bih=805&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=KiInM_PIi
• http://www.rudata.ru/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD,_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE %D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B6_%D0%9D%D0%BE%D1%8D%D0%BB%D1%8C_%D0%93%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B4%D0 %BE%D0%BD
• http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/arminas-k/view/168430/?page=2
• http://cynicat.diary.ru/p170398678.htm?oam
• http://skygid.ru/shotlandiya/
• http://www.stragtur.com/country.php?id=9
• http://www.intergid.ru/country/16/

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) on a pan-European scale is the largest, most prominent figure of English romanticism. In 1813-1816, Byron created a number of lyrical-epic poems, known in the history of literature under the name "Eastern" (traveled east): "Gyaur" (1813), "Abydos Bride" (1813), Corsair (1814), "Lara "(1814), "The Siege of Corinth", Parisina (1815-1816).

The main problem of all "oriental" poems- the problem of the individual in its irreconcilable collision with society. romantic hero"oriental" poems- an individualist, an exceptional personality, possessed by strong passions. The hero breaks with society, not wanting to put up with cruel resentment and injustice; rejects all the legal orders of a proprietary society; he takes the path of revenge or struggle. (typical romantic hero) The meaning of this outcast's life- in the struggle against despotism and in love for a pure devoted woman. This hero is an active and active person, but he acts only in the name of his personal goals.

Myself Byron did not combine them into a single cycle, and their action does not always take place in the east. The poet uses an ethnographically accurate oriental flavor to give special drama, freshness and expressiveness to an already known plot or a separate plot motif. In Eastern poems, the personality of the author comes through weakly.. The lyrical element is associated here only with lyrical digressions, which paint colorful, unforgettable, vivid pictures of oriental nature.

Byron, through the lips of his violent heroes, proclaimed a passionate call to action, to struggle - main meaning of life. The action of the "eastern" poems takes place mainly in Greece, and the author relies on his personal impressions in describing the national "oriental" flavor. Often the poem is a monologue of the hero, who talks about unusual, exceptional deeds, strong passions. Story line interrupted digressions author. Composition The poem is fragmentary, it corresponds to the impulsive, impetuous actions of the romantic hero. Entering into an irreconcilable conflict with his opponents, the hero dies or leaves society forever. Heroes of the poems Byron act as judges and avengers for desecrated human dignity. The composition and style of the "oriental poems" are characteristic of the art of romanticism. Where exactly the action of these poems takes place is unknown. It unfolds against the backdrop of lush, exotic nature: descriptions are given of the endless blue sea, wild coastal cliffs, fabulously beautiful mountain valleys. "The action in Lara takes place on the Moon." Each of the "Oriental poems" is a small poetry story, in the center of the plot of which is the fate of any one romantic hero. Poems 1813-1816 different plot completeness; main character is not only a link between the individual parts of the poem, but is its main subject. The poet does not describe here large folk scenes, does not give political assessments of current events, a collective image of ordinary people from the people. The protest sounding in these poems is romantically abstract. The construction of the plot is characterized by fragmentation, a heap of random details; everywhere there are many omissions, meaningful allusions. Action usually begins at some point snatched from the middle or even the end of the narrative, and only gradually becomes clear what happened before. Each of the poems is dedicated to one of Byron's close friends.

All poems bear the stamp of pessimism, Byron's disappointment, his disbelief that despotism will be overthrown. The individualistic rebellion of Byron's heroes varies, it can often be due to personal motives (Selim, Gyaur), social (Lara, Minotti). Sometimes the hero of an oriental poem is in power bad rock like Lara, Alp, Hugo. The hero of the poem "Corsair" is the leader of pirates - fearless people who reject the despotic laws of the society in which they are forced to live and to which they prefer a free life on a desert island. Corsair, their bold leader, is a rebel. The hero of The Corsair is always immersed in his inner world, he admires his suffering, his pride and jealously guards his loneliness. This affects hero individualism, as if standing above other people, whom he despises for their insignificance and weakness of spirit. The poem "The Corsair" is a masterpiece of English poetry. In the "oriental poems" Byron continued to develop the genre of the romantic poem.

9. Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". Genre originality, composition. Childe Harold and the lyrical hero.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is Byron's first romantic poem. It was published between 1812 and 1818. The dedication of the poem is an appeal to Ianthe, under whose name the daughter of his English acquaintances is hidden. The designation of the protagonist comes from the old English title childe ("childe") - the medieval designation of a young nobleman who was still just a candidate for knighthood. Central problem is a personality problem. The poem is distinguished primarily by the new genre form is a lyric-epic poem that combines the story of the life and journey of the hero with the free improvisations of the poet, who made not just a fascinating journey to the East, but discovered the life and customs of countries that entered a period of rapid and rapid development. The poem is imbued with civic pathos, which is caused by an appeal to large-scale events of our time. The first two songs of "Childe Harold" in form resemble both the lyrical diary of a poet-traveler, and internal monologue a hero entering an independent life, and a poetic essay about the fate of the peoples of Europe during the Napoleonic wars and national liberation movements. Without binding himself to rigid genre rules, Byron not only gives freedom to his imagination, he experiments in the field of content and language. , Ruins Of Ancient Greek Temples. The new genre form determined the compositional structure of the poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

In the first and second songs, the theme of the popular uprising plays a significant role. The poet welcomes freedom movement peoples of Spain and Greece. Episodic but impressive images of ordinary people appear here. Poetry heroic content are replaced by sarcastic verses in which the poet denounces British policy in the Iberian Peninsula and in Greece, where instead of help Greek people in his liberation struggle, Britain is engaged in robbing the country, taking out of it national values. In the third and fourth songs, the image of the hero is gradually replaced by the image of the author. These songs are built as a lyrical reflection on life, the author's voice sounds stronger in them, the attitude to the present is more directly expressed. The poet expresses thoughts about the central event of his era - about the French bourgeois revolution, in which "humanity realized its strength and made others realize it", about the great enlighteners Rousseau and Voltaire, who participated in the preparation of the revolution with their ideas. In the fourth song, Byron writes about the fate of Italy, about its history and culture, about the suffering of the Italian people. The poem expresses the idea of ​​the need to fight for the freedom of Italy. A metaphorical image of the "tree of freedom" is also created here.

The poet freely handles not only the narrative line of the poem, breaking it up with inserts - ballads, stanzas, lyrical digressions - he freely manages with his hero, presenting him to the reader, then Harold's personality is blurred in a stream of impressions from the personal seen and experienced by the poet. Harold is a dreamer, breaking with a hypocritical society, subjecting his experiences to analysis. Here are the origins of the topic of spiritual quest young man, which became one of the leading in the literature of the 19th century. Obsessed with the desire to escape from the familiar way of life, disillusioned and implacable, Childe Harold rushes to distant lands. Active introspection makes him passive in the practical realm. All his attention is absorbed by the experiences caused by the break with society, and he only contemplates the new that appears before his eyes during his wanderings. His longing has no specific reason; it is the attitude of a person living in a vague state of the world. Childe Harold does not fight, he only looks at the modern world, trying to comprehend its tragic state. Byron denied the identity between himself and Childe Harold: he is ironic about the pose of a disillusioned wanderer, calmly observing what he sees during his wanderings.

10. W. Scott as the creator of historical romanticism. novels contributed to public consciousness era something important for culture XIX century. Scott's innovation in that, as noted by V.G. Belinsky, created the genre of the historical novel, "which did not exist before him." Scott's rule: "In order to interest the reader, the events depicted in the work must be translated into the mores of the era in which we live, as well as into its language." For the first time in English literature, he created philosophical-historical novels, in novels for the first time the people appeared: real. a human collective that moves, thinks, doubts, united by common interests and passions, capable of acting due to its own natural reaction to events (puritans in The Puritans, mountaineers in The Legend of Montrose, in Rob Roy, in The Beauty of Perga "). A picture of the struggle of conflicting and complex interests of various social groups, parties, religious sects. V.S. expanded the boundaries of the novel and created a whole philosophy of history. Never before has a novel covered so many types, estates, classes and events. Features of the novel: breadth of composition, contrast of paintings, style and language. According to the old tradition, the novel should be built on a love affair. This rule was strictly observed in the 18th century and completely passed into the 19th century. He freed politicians from a fictional love affair and handed it over to fictional heroes. Historical accuracy is observed, preserved obligatorily. romantic intrigue. The hero-director and the "deep plot", which in the "Gothic" novel aroused interest or fear, in Scott serve other purposes and acquire a philosophical and historical significance. Relationship between history and landscape.

With his works, W. Scott dealt, according to Belinsky, a "terrible blow" to those romantics who regretted the passing of the old world. Sermons of humility, religious mysticism, detachment from the struggle for a democrat. freedom, energy, a sober mind, the heroism of the working people. He created a new type of storytelling, founded. to realistic. depicting rural life, reproducing the local color and speech characteristics of the inhabitants of the corners of Great Britain, laying the foundation for a tradition that was used both by his contemporaries (Bulwer-Lytton, W. G. Ainsworth) and later. generations of writers (E. Gaskell, the Bronte sisters, D. Eliot, etc.). Novels: 1) devoted to the recent past of Scotland, the period of the civil war: from the Puritan revolution of the 16th century. before the defeat of the mountain clans in the middle of the 18th century ("Waverley", "Guy Mannering", "Edinburgh Prison", "Scottish Puritans", "Lamermoor Bride", "Rob Roy", "The Monastery" etc. 2) dedicated to the past of England and continental countries ("Ivanhoe", "Quentin Dorward", "Kenilworth" etc.).

Canto One

Pirates feast on the island. Their kingdom is "above the foamy, endless wave." Their joy is a storm, a fight. They do not know fear, they are bored with death, because the death of pirates is quick, “souls break their connection with us instantly,” as the pirate song says. The leader of the pirates is Konrad.

He is stingy in speech - he only knows the order,
The hand is firm, sharp and vigilant eye;
He does not give their feasts fun.

Conrad behaves like a righteous man - he refrains from luxurious food, "the enemy of the sensual - he is harsh and simple." Conrad enjoys unquestioned authority among the pirates, not a single person dares not only to challenge the orders of the Corsair, but also to disturb him without a good reason.

In the distance, the pirates spot a ship. It soon turns out that this is theirs, a pirate brig under a blood-red flag. The arrivals brought good news. Corsair's long-time spy, the Greek, writes that there is a golden opportunity to rob the Turkish Pasha's fleet. After reading the message of the Greek, Conrad decides to immediately set out on the road. He orders to check and prepare his weapons for battle. No one dares to argue with the Leader.

He is secretly separated from everyone,
In curiosity and his sigh and laughter,
And the name "Conrad" turns into chalk

The tan of anyone who is fierce and bold.
Ruler of souls, most skillful strategist,
He, terrifying, delights those
Who is terrible - glorifying him ...
Brilliance of skill - luck - success, -
And, imperious, he is strong by the lack of will of all.
He dictates - and the exploits of their hands

Everyone reveres around him among his merits.

Conrad was not always a merciless pirate. In the past lies the cause of his present anger at the whole world.

He was wise, but the world considered him stupid

And spoiled with his training;
I was too proud to drag out life, resigned,
And too hard to fall before the strong in the mud ...
Inspiring fear, slandered from a young age,
Became a friend of Anger, but Humility - no ...
He hated - but to those hearts,
Where is hatred with servility in half;
Him, from everyone standing far away,

And friendship and contempt bypassed:
Marveling at him, they were afraid of his deeds,
No one dared to humiliate him.

However, Conrad is subject to one sincere passion - Love. Konrad happily and mutually loves Medora, does not pay attention to the beautiful captives, of which there are many on the island of pirates. Now, before a dangerous campaign, Conrad is going to say goodbye to his beloved, goes to her castle. Approaching Medora's room, Conrad hears the sounds of a sad song. The girl sings about her love for him, about a love that knows no rest, because lovers must constantly part, and Medora lives in eternal fear for Conrad's life. Medora dreams of the day when "peace will lead us into a peaceful home." Medora wonders why her gentle lover is so cruel to people. Konrad announces to Medora that "he must again go to short journey". Medora gets upset, she invites Conrad to at least share with her the festive meal she prepared, hoping that he will come to her. Ho Conrad can't stay. He hears the signal of the gun: it's time to act. Konrad leaves, "touching his forehead with a kiss." Left alone, Medora lets her tears flow.

Konrad returns to the ship. "A true leader would rather die suddenly than lose his honor because of women's torment." He again becomes a decisive commander, issues orders, orders that his comrades wait for them back to the victorious feast in three days. Konrad unfolds the sea charts, consulting them, looks through the telescope, notices the Turkish galley fleet. He is imperturbable; he calmly urges his comrades to begin the massacre.

Canto two

"Arranged a feast in honor of Seyid Pasha's future victories." He intends to defeat the pirates and capture the sea robbers as prisoners, and then divide the rich booty between his people. A lot of Muslims gathered under the banner of Seid. A dervish, a fugitive from a pirate ship, is brought to Seid Pasha. This is Conrad in disguise. Seyid Pasha begins to interrogate him. But the dervish seems to be playing for time. “I am a worthless spy: my eyes were fixed only on escape,” he declares. According to the dervish, the pirates are stupid and careless: after all, the guards overslept - the flight of the dervish, which means that the Pasha's "invincible fleet" will also oversleep. Seyid Pasha orders to feed the dervish, but he does not eat anything, explaining that such is his vow that if he starts to enjoy the joys of life, the Prophet "will block his path to Mecca." However, from the side it seems that "for those who were condemned to fasting and labor for so long, he behaved strangely." At this moment, the pirates attack the Turks, take them by surprise and put them to flight. Konrad throws off the clothes of a dervish and appears as "a horseman rushing through the smoke", "like Afrit - a demon of evil." Konrad fights heroically, the pasha himself retreats, forgetting about his harem. Konrad forbids offending women: “We are born to kill and die, but we must always spare the tender sex!” Konrad himself takes away the decoration of the Pasha's harem, Gulnar. Seid Pasha sees that there are few pirates. He is ashamed that such a small detachment managed to break his will, and he gives the order to attack. There are many more Muslims, and soon the detachment of pirates is almost all killed, only a few manage to escape. Konrad is captured.

Gulnar is hidden by Konrad in a safe place. She wonders why "the robber, covered in blood, seemed more tender to her than Seyid in love." She understands that Seyid saved only himself, and the unfamiliar pirate took care of weak women first of all. Seid Pasha decides to execute Conrad with a painful execution - impale him, and imprison him until morning. Conrad is "defeated, alone, but the will has managed to breathe courage into his chest." Shackled, the prisoner behaves with dignity.

At night, Gulnar makes his way to Konrad. She thanks him for saving her. It is not in her power to save the life of a noble pirate, but she promises to influence Seyid Pasha with the help of female charms and delay the execution for at least a day. Konrad tells Gulnar about his Medora, about their mutual love, about the fact that he is not afraid of death, but is afraid to deliver grief to his beloved. He asks Gulnar if she loves Seyid Pasha. Ta replies in the negative: “He will come, he will leave - I don’t need him anyway, he is close, but not in my heart, but outside ... And I am a slave, I am afraid of a different fate, which is worse than slavery - to become his wife.” Before leaving, Gulnar clings to Konrad's shackles, cries, her tears, like diamonds, remain on the iron of the chains.

Pirates come to Medora, miraculously surviving, and tell the girl that Konrad is in captivity. Medora takes the blow with restraint, without tears or screams.

Was in her, meek, this grace -
Endure, soften, hope and wait.

Upon learning the details of Conrad's capture, Medora falls unconscious. Conrad's friends rush to take care of her, and then tell Anselmo, who remained on the island instead of Conrad, about what happened. Anselmo decides to go rescue Conrad from captivity, and if he is already killed, to avenge him.

Gulnar is trying to soften the pasha, to persuade him, to convince him that if he does not execute Konrad, he will only win. He will find out where the innumerable treasures of the pirates are and take possession of them. Ho Pasha is adamant. He is not interested in treasures: “The hour of his torment is incomparable with wealth! Corsair is in chains, and I have power over him. Pasha agrees to postpone the execution for a day, but only so that he has more time to come up with a more elaborate execution. He humiliates Gulnar, suspecting that she is interceding for a captured pirate for a reason (he saw how Konrad carried Gulnar in his arms from the battlefield):

Hey, two-faced woman! Hear:
He is not mortal alone. And the only word
And you...

Gulnar understands that she is only a thing in the hands of her master, that Seyid Pasha does not love her. But now she herself knows what love is, and for the sake of her beloved she will stop at nothing. At midnight, having bribed the guard, she comes to the Corsair, persuades him to kill the pasha (for which she brings him a knife) and escape together. Konrad refuses again - his weapon is a sword, not a knife, he is not used to attacking at night from around the corner. In addition, Conrad understands that, in principle, he deserved to be executed, because he sinned a lot. Konrad urges Gulnar to be happy, to leave him, not to overshadow her life with murder. Gulnar calls the pasha the source of evil, the accursed tyrant, explains that her well-being in the pasha's palace is illusory: "The lust of the old man saves my life, when he gets tired of the female charms, the sea will accept the bag with me as a gift." The girl does not want to live without Konrad, so she decides to kill the hated pasha herself. If she fails to do this, then in the morning she will die with Conrad on the scaffold. Gulnar leaves. Conrad notices that the door to his dungeon is not locked. Picking up the shackles so that they do not ring, Konrad walks through the night palace. He sees Gulnar, hopes that she did not dare to kill. The girl turns around, and the Corsair sees "on her forehead - one unwashed, forgotten spot - a bloody trail, familiar from a young age - the stigma of murder, a trace of crime." Conrad saw many murders in his life, but none of them touched his soul as much as this. It seems to him that "a bloody trail, a criminal stream washed away the beauty from swarthy female cheeks." Gulnar announces to Konrad that a ship is waiting for him, that she has gathered a detachment of loyal people who are ready to ensure the safety of her and her beloved. Through a secret passage, Gulnar leads Konrad to the seashore. During the voyage, Gulnar notices that "his empty, icy gaze is like a sentence." Gulnar cries, insists that God will not forgive her, but Konrad must forgive, because she committed a crime for him, thereby refusing both a calm earthly life and heavenly paradise. Ho Conrad does not blame her, he rather throws reproaches to himself. A ship flying a blood-red flag is sailing towards them. This is Anselmo and his comrades hurrying to the rescue of their leader. Having lamented a little that the operation to free him had failed (because Konrad had already been freed by Gulnar), everyone joyfully set off on their way back. If Gulnar told how she saved the Corsair, the pirates would choose her as queen, but she is silent. Conrad is full of "hostility for deeds, sympathy for tears." He knows that Heaven will punish Gulnar, but he himself takes pity on the girl. Konrad hugs his savior, kisses her. He knows that even Medora, "whose soul is pure, would forgive her conjugated lips - here Weakness stole a kiss, here Love gave her breath."

The ship sails to the island. Konrad is surprised: he sees no light in Medora's window. He goes up into all the rooms and sees that his beloved is dead. Conrad understands that this is the punishment of heaven for his transgressions. The only being he loved in the world is now separated from him forever. Medora, of course, will go to heaven, but Conrad, who sinned a lot, will not go to heaven. Corsair is shocked. He cannot utter a word, only sobs alone.

In the morning, Anselmo enters Medora's room. Ho The leader has disappeared. They searched for him, but did not find him on the whole island. Since then, there has been no news of Conrad, no one knew whether he was alive, or "buried with grief." A monument was erected to Medora, but not to Conrad (because he may be alive). His glory lives on forever.

He was one virtue -
And endowed with a thousand vices ...

George Gordon Lord Byron(1788-1824) was in the first quarter of the 19th century "the ruler of thoughts", a living personification of romanticism. He, like no one else, embodied the romantic ideal of a complete fusion of biography and creativity, when the artist lives according to the same laws by which his characters live, and the events of his life immediately turn into the material of his works. The "Byronic legend" is alive to this day, and it is important to separate the myth from the facts in it.

Byron was born into an aristocratic family, at the age of ten he inherited the title of lord and the family estate in the north of England, was educated at privileged educational institutions - at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge. He was preparing for a career as a statesman and for a long time did not treat poetry as the main business of his life. Despite belonging to the ruling elite, he was a rebel by nature, and his whole life was a challenge to the conventions accepted in society. He considered English society inert and hypocritical, did not want to make any concessions to public opinion, and after a short period of glory in his homeland (1812-1816), he left England forever, settling in Italy. His life ended in Greece, where he took part in the national liberation struggle of the Greeks against the Turks.

Byron's poetic heritage is great and varied. Recognition came to him with the publication of the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1812), where he introduced the first romantic hero in English literature and created the genre of romantic lyrical-epic poem. Its forms were developed in the Oriental Poems cycle (1813-1816), where romanticism reaches its classical forms. With the move to Italy, his work is enriched in terms of genre (the drama "Manfred", the mystery play "Cain", the poems "Beppo", "Mazepa"). The main work of the last years of Byron's life remained unfinished - this is a novel in verse "Don Juan".

An example of Byronian romanticism is poem "Corsair"(1814) from the cycle "Oriental Poems". In all six poems of the cycle, Byron relies on impressions of his southern journey, which he undertook in the countries of the Mediterranean in 1809-1811. For the first time he presented pictures of southern nature to the reader in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and this was one of the components of the success of this poem; the public expected new exotic landscapes from the young poet, and in The Corsair Byron develops the orientalist motifs so characteristic of romanticism in general. The East in romantic art is opposed to European civilization as a world of free, natural passions, played out against the backdrop of beautiful, fertile nature. But in Byron, the East is more than a conventional romantic background: the action in "Corsair" takes place on the islands of the Greek archipelago and in coastal Greece, which is under the rule of the Turks (Seid Pasha in the poem), and the routes of the pirate raids of the protagonist Conrad are topographically accurate, they can can be traced on the map, and in the descriptions of Greece at the beginning of the third canto of the poem, Byron directly relies on his own impressions four years ago. Thus, behind the romantic landscape of the poem, pictures of nature and customs taken from life appear; Byron often gave in his poems an accurate reproduction of the historical and ethnographic environment.

At the heart of The Corsair, as in all the other Oriental Poems, is the hero's conflict with the world; the plot is reduced to one dramatic situation - the struggle for love.

The hero of the "Corsair" is the leader of the pirates Konrad, his beloved is the meek Medora. The action in the poem begins with the receipt of some news on the pirate island, which forces Konrad to say goodbye to Medora and give the order to urgently raise the sails. Where the pirates are heading and what Conrad's plan is becomes clear from the second song of the poem. The leader of the pirates decides to prevent the blow of his old enemy Seid Pasha and, in the guise of a pilgrim dervish, sneaks to the feast in the pasha's palace. He must strike at the enemy in his house, while his pirates set fire to Seid Pasha's fleet on the eve of going to sea, but the fire in the bay starts earlier than agreed, a hot battle flares up, in which Konrad saves his beloved wife Seid-Pasha from the burning seraglio. Pasha, Gulnar. But military happiness is changeable, and now the pirates are fleeing, and Conrad is captured and thrown into prison. In the third song of the poem, Seyid Pasha delays the execution of Konrad, inventing the most painful death for him. Meanwhile, Gulnar, grateful to Konrad and falling in love with him, offers to arrange an escape for him. At first, Conrad rejects her offer: he does not want to owe his freedom to a woman whose love he cannot return, because he loves only Medora. But when Gulnar sneaks into his dungeon again, he sees a bloody stain on her forehead - she herself killed Seyid Pasha, and together they board the ship heading to the pirate island. Upon his return, Conrad learns of Medora's death. The beloved could not bear the news of his captivity, and, having lost the meaning of life with her, Conrad disappears:

It's all in vain - day after day rolls on, Conrad is gone, and there is no news of him, And there is no trace of his fate anywhere: Has he perished or disappeared forever? The pirates wept for him alone... They erected a stone to Medora. Conrad has not erected a monument: Who knows, maybe he did not die - Corsair, whose name resurrects again the Darkness of crimes and one love.

As in all "Eastern Poems", Conrad is a lone rebel, professing extreme individualism. Byron does not show his past, the poem only says that his innate virtues were so high that the world was jealous of him and slandered him:

Was clean until he started his battles with people and the Almighty; He was wise, but the world considered him stupid And spoiled him with his training; He was too proud to drag out his life, resigned, And too hard to fall before the strong in the mud. Instilling fear, slandered from a young age, Became a friend of Malice, but not of Humility, He considered the Call of Wrath as a call of the Divine To avenge the majority for the intrigues of the minority.

Konrad is a strong, courageous nature, he rules the pirates with an iron fist, everyone respects him for his unparalleled courage and good luck in business and is afraid:

Around, on all the seas, Only one name in the souls sows fear; He is stingy in speech - he knows only the order, The hand is firm, sharp and vigilant eye; He does not give fun to their feasts, But beyond the reproaches of happiness, the favorite.

Conrad's first appearance in the poem is typical of a romantic hero. He stands on top of a cliff, leaning on his sword, looking at the waves, and his very position in space at that moment - he is taller than the others, pirates rise up to him with a report - this spatial solution of the scene emphasizes the exclusivity of the hero. The same idea of ​​exclusivity is carried out in the portrait of Conrad (the ninth stanza of the first song). This is a detailed portrait based on a combination of opposites, where each external feature becomes an expression of the character traits of the hero. Byron creates such a vivid portrait of a romantic hero that some of his features will forever enter the characteristic appearance of a romantic literary character:

A tanned cheek, a white brow, A wave of curls - like a crow's wing; The bend of the lip involuntarily betrays to Arrogant thought a secret passage; Although his voice is quiet, and his face is straight and bold, There is something in him that he would like to hide. Faces seeing sharp features, You will be captivated, and you will be embarrassed. As if in him, in his soul, where darkness has frozen, The work of terrible, vague forces boils.

Contempt for people, cruelty, the habit of violence did not completely wither Conrad's soul. For the first time in the history of world literature, creating his romantic hero, Byron justifies in him actions and feelings that are far from the Christian ideal, and a substitution of moral values ​​takes place - the criminal Conrad, who sheds human blood without hesitation, the author endows with irresistible charm. The only feeling that connects the hero with humanity, the last living string in his soul, which he therefore cherishes so much, is love.

In love, the character of the romantic hero is most fully revealed; love in romanticism is an uncompromising passion, the highest value of life, therefore a romantic hero fights for love with any hostile forces. At the heart of the plot in all the "Eastern Poems" is that episode of the hero's life, where he enters into the last, fatal battle for love. From the beloved hero of the "Eastern Poems" only death separates him, like Konrad and Medora. Both female images of the poem - the meek Medora, who is all devotion and adoration, and the ardent Gulnar, capable of committing a crime for the sake of love - are contrasted with each other.

As in other Byron poems, the main way to create the character of the hero is action. Konrad is an active nature, his ideal is anarchic personal freedom, and the plot of the poem is distinguished by increased drama. A series of colorful, spectacular scenes passes before the reader, opposing each other according to the principle of contrast: the song of pirates praising the sea and freedom opens the poem, the sad song of the lonely Medora is opposite to it; the picture of a feast in the luxurious palace of Seyid Pasha is replaced by a picture of a bloody battle; the despondency of Konrad in the dungeon during the night visit to Gulnar and the cheerful freshness of the sea during their flight. The poem strikes with a wealth of moods and colors.

The words of V.G. are quite applicable to Konrad and other heroes of the "Eastern Poems". Belinsky, which he said about the poet himself: "This is a human personality, indignant against the general and, in its proud rebellion, leaning on itself." A.S. also speaks about the same extreme individualism of Byron's heroes. Pushkin:

Lord Byron, with a successful whim, Clothed in dull romanticism And hopeless selfishness ...

And although Pushkin's Prisoner of the Caucasus contains many elements directly borrowed from Byron, Pushkin does not glorify, but condemns the individualism of the romantic hero.

Thus, "The Corsair" is a lyrical-epic poem in which the lyrical beginning in the image of the central character and the epic, narrative beginning, which manifests itself in the richness and diversity of the action, are fused together. Conrad is the hero who represents the purest example of a romantic worldview in Byron's entire work, and the poetics of Le Corsaire is the most characteristic example of the construction of a romantic poem. The plot is based on the climactic episode from the hero's life, which decides his fate; neither his past nor the further development of his life is described, and already in this sense the poem is fragmentary. In addition, the plot is built as a chain of bright pictures-fragments, the causal relationships between which are not always clearly spelled out in the poem, and fragmentation becomes the structure-forming principle of a romantic poem. The hero is taken at the moment of the highest tension of vital forces, in exceptional circumstances even for his robber life. At such moments, the character of a person is revealed to the end, and the demonic, gloomy, majestic character of Conrad is created in the poem using a variety of artistic means: a portrait, author's characteristics, the attitude of women who love him towards him, but mainly through a description of his actions. One of the leitmotifs of the poem is the image of the sea, so characteristic of Byron's entire poetry; the free sea element becomes for him a symbol of freedom. The pirate song that opens the poem contains these words:

In the midst of the jubilation of dark blue waters Boundless thought, free soul flight Above the foamy, endless wave - This is our kingdom, this is our home!

The lyrical element that permeates the poem is most clearly revealed in the through image of the sea.

Filled with picturesque contrasts, the coloring of the “Gyaur” is also distinguished by Byron’s next work of the “eastern” cycle - the more extensive poem “The Corsair”, written in heroic couplets. In a short prose introduction to the poem, dedicated to the author's fellow writer and like-minded Thomas Moore, the author warns against the characteristic, in his opinion, vice of modern criticism - which has haunted him since the days of Childe Harold, the illegal identification of the main characters - be it Giaur or anyone the other - with the creator of works. At the same time, the epigraph to the new poem - a line from Tasso's "Jerusalem Liberated" - emphasizes the hero's internal duality as the most important emotional leitmotif of the story.

The action of "Corsair" takes place in the south of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, in the port of Koroni and the Pirate Island, lost in the expanses of the Mediterranean. The time of action is not precisely indicated, but it is easy to conclude that the reader is faced with the same era of the enslavement of Greece by the Ottoman Empire, which entered the phase of crisis. The figurative and speech means that characterize the characters and what is happening are close to those familiar from "Gyaur", however, the new poem is more compact in composition, its plot is developed in more detail (especially with regard to the adventurous "background"), and the development of events and their sequence - more orderly.

The first canto opens with a passionate speech, depicting the romance of the pirate lot filled with risk and anxiety. The filibusters, soldered by a sense of camaraderie, idolize their fearless ataman Konrad. And now, a fast brig under a pirate flag that terrifies the whole district brought encouraging news: the Greek gunner said that in the coming days a raid on the city and palace of the Turkish governor Seyid could be carried out. Accustomed to the strangeness of the character of the commander, the pirates become shy when they find him immersed in deep thought. Several stanzas follow with a detailed description of Conrad (“Mysterious and eternally lonely, / It seemed that he could not smile”), inspiring admiration for heroism and fear - for the unpredictable impulsiveness of the one who had gone into himself, disbelieved in illusions (“He is among people the most difficult of schools - / The path disappointment - passed") - in a word, bearing the most typical features of a romantic rebel-individualist, whose heart is warmed by one indomitable passion - love for Medora.

Conrad's lover reciprocates; and one of the most heartfelt pages in the poem is Medora's love song and the farewell scene of the heroes before the campaign. Left alone, she finds no place for herself, as always worrying about his life, and on the deck of the brig he gives instructions to the team, ready to carry out a daring attack - and win.

The second song takes us to the banquet hall in Seyid's palace. The Turks, for their part, have long been planning to finally clear the sea from pirates and divide the rich booty in advance. Pasha's attention is attracted by a mysterious dervish in rags, who appeared at the feast from nowhere. He tells that he was taken prisoner by the infidels and managed to escape from the kidnappers, but he flatly refuses to taste luxurious dishes, referring to a vow made to the prophet. Suspecting him as a scout, Seyid orders to seize him, and then the stranger is instantly transformed: under the humble guise of a wanderer, a warrior in armor and with a sword that smashes on the spot was hiding. The hall and approaches to it in the blink of an eye are overflowing with Conrad's associates; a furious battle boils up: "The palace is on fire, the minaret is on fire."

The merciless pirate who crushed the resistance of the Turks, however, shows genuine chivalry when the flames that engulfed the palace spread to the female half. He forbids his brothers-in-arms to resort to violence against the Pasha's slaves, and he himself carries the most beautiful of them, the black-eyed Gulnar, out of the fire. Meanwhile, Seid, who escaped from the pirate's blade in the confusion of the battle, organizes his numerous guards in a counterattack, and Konrad has to entrust Gulnar and her friends, unfortunately, to the cares of a simple Turkish house, and himself to enter into an unequal confrontation. All around, one after another, his slain comrades fall; he, having cut down an uncountable multitude of enemies, is hardly alive captured.

Deciding to subject Konrad to torture and a terrible execution, the bloodthirsty Seid orders him to be placed in a cramped casemate. The hero is not afraid of the coming trials; in the face of death, only one thought worries him: “How will Medora’s message, the evil news, meet?” He falls asleep on a stone bed, and when he wakes up, he finds in his dungeon the black-eyed Gulnar, who has secretly made her way into the prison, completely captivated by his courage and nobility. Promising to persuade the pasha to delay the impending execution, she offers to help the corsair escape. He hesitates: cowardly running away from the enemy is not in his habits. But Medora... After listening to his passionate confession, Gulnar sighs: “Alas! To love is only given to the free!”

Canto Three opens with the author's poetic declaration of love for Greece ("Beautiful city of Athena! Whoever saw the sunset / Your wondrous one will come back..."), which is replaced by a picture of the Pirate Island, where Conrad waits in vain for Medora. A boat approaches the shore with the remnants of his detachment, bringing terrible news, their leader is wounded and captured, the filibusters unanimously decide to rescue Konrad from captivity at any cost.

Meanwhile, Gulnar's persuasion to postpone the painful execution of "Gyaur" produces an unexpected effect on Seid: he suspects that his beloved slave is not indifferent to the prisoner and is plotting treason. Showering the girl with threats, he kicks her out of the chambers.

Three days later, Gulnar once again enters the dungeon, where Konrad is languishing. Insulted by the tyrant, she offers the prisoner freedom and revenge: he must stab the pasha in the silence of the night. The pirate recoils; the woman's excited confession follows: “Do not call revenge on the despot villainy! / Your despicable enemy must fall in blood! / Did you start? Yes, I want to become different: / Pushed away, offended - I take revenge! / I am undeservedly accused: / Though a slave, I was faithful!

"A sword - but not a secret knife!" is Conrad's counterargument. Gulnar disappears to appear at dawn: she herself took revenge on the tyrant and bribed the guards; a boat and a boatman are waiting for them off the coast to deliver them to the coveted island.

The hero is confused: in his soul there is an irreconcilable conflict. By the will of circumstances, he owes his life to a woman in love with him, and he himself still loves Medora. Gulnar is also depressed: in Konrad's silence, she reads the condemnation of the crime she committed. Only a fleeting hug and a friendly kiss of the prisoner she saved bring her to her senses.

On the island, the pirates joyfully greet the leader who has returned to them. But the price set by providence for the miraculous deliverance of the hero is incredible: only one window does not shine in the castle tower - the window of Medora. Tormented by a terrible presentiment, he climbs the stairs... Medora is dead.

Conrad's grief is inescapable. In solitude, he mourns his girlfriend, and then disappears without a trace: “A series of days passes, / Conrad is gone, he disappeared forever, / And did not announce a single hint, / Where he suffered, where he buried the flour! / He was only mourned by his gang; / His girlfriend was received by the mausoleum... / He will live in the traditions of families / With one love, with a thousand evil deeds. The finale of The Corsair, like the Giaura, leaves the reader alone with the feeling of an unsolved riddle surrounding the entire existence of the protagonist.