The presentation of the concept of existential despair in Lermontov's poem “Demon”

Abstract

The author of the article believes that the main character in Mikhail Lermontov's poem “Demon” strives to become a part of earthly life, but he understands the objective impossibility of realizing this desire. The contradiction generated by this realization turns into tragic despair, which the founder of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard, defined as “a disease to death”. As if extrapolating the thought of the founder of existentialism, Lermontov gives the immanence of despair to the main character of his famous poem. The demon wants to reunite with both earth and heaven, hoping to be reborn through love. However, the determinism of his demonic essence prevents the main character of the poem from realizing this aspiration. The rebellious spirit of the Demon, which cannot belong to any of the worlds, reflects the Russian intelligentsia of that period in general and Lermontov himself in particular. However, in this identification, the Demon's rebellion is much closer to the poet's own rebellion, given Lermontov's criticism of his contemporaries, whom the Russian classic describes as prisoners desperate in the face of power in his famous poem “Thought”. The author of the article argues that in identifying the Demon with Lermontov, the rejection of God and the Divine world order comes to the fore. That is why Lermontov's characters are sometimes considered as harbingers of Nietzscheanism. The Demon, paradoxically, begins his path of striving for good from evil, killing Tamara's fiancé. Thus, it is in the poem “Demon” that the existential and psychological foundations of the criminal behavior of artistic characters in borderline situations are laid. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that it is impossible for the Demon to make an existential choice, he is doomed to forever arrive in the borderline situation described in Karl Jaspers' existential theories, without the possibility of its resolution, which results in an irresistible despair, from which even the path of faith proposed by Kierkegaard cannot be saved.