The main features of a romantic hero: concept, meaning and characteristics

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

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 talk about a narrower understanding that is used for a literary term, and about the main character traits of a romantic hero.

Style features

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 expression, the value of individualism and the original character traits of the protagonist become new characteristic features of romantic literature. The representatives of the direction refusedrationalism and the supremacy of the mind, which were characteristic of the Enlightenment, and put at the forefront the emotional and spiritual side of man.

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.

The main features of a romantic hero

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 identified which features of romantic heroes are the main ones. But, despite the similarities, each character is unique in its own way, soas they are only general criteria for style selection.

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 kinds 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 a 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 centralcharacter.

Either past or future

The traits of a 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 a 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 founder of Russian romanticism is the poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. 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 thoughts.

Then Zhukovsky was replaced by Nikolai Vasilievich 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 creativity of these people is described as a disappointment inreal life and an attempt to escape into your 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 an 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".