THE THEME OF A LOANER HERO’S PROUD DEATH IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FRENCH ROMANTICISM (A. DE VIGNI “THE DEATH OF A WOLF”)

Abstract

The given article deals with investigation of the poem of a French poet-romantic, A. de Vinji «The Death of a Wolf». The author of the article analyses the images of the animals in the poem and artistic devices of their realization. The main topics and problematics of this literary work are viewed both in the context of A. de Vinji’s creative work and in the context of European Romanticism. The given article deals with investigation of the poem of a French poet-romantic, A. de Vigny ’The Death of a Wolf’. The author of the article analyses animal images in the poem and the means of artistic embodiment of the latter. The main topics and problematics of this literary work are considered both in the context of A. de Vigny’ s creative work and in the context of European Romanticism. The poetic work of A. de Vigny begins in 1816 and continues throughout his life. It should be noted that the distinctive peculiarity of de Vigny’s poetry is its all-pervading disbelief both in bourgeois society and in the Restoration Regime, which was trying to save the remnants of the feudal system. The poet has in mind the whole ephemerality of the desire of the nobility to drag out the course of history and return the pre-revolutionary sociopolitical system. That is why Vigny’s poetry is imbued with the utmost skepticism and pessimism. Hence, from this rejection of modernity, the character of de Vigny’s plots and images derives. As the literary critic T. V. Bovsunevskaya emphasizes: “Romantics had to synthesize a new, Renaissance type of person, but in such a way that he reflected the features of a new era and professed a new spirit.” De Vigny was looking for such a hero all his creative life; however, his hero will always be a lonely, misunderstood person, in a state of deepest conflict both with society and often with himself. It should be noted that de Vigny’s poetry is inherently deeply personal and lyrical, and in its external form it is emphatically epic and philosophical. Vigny himself argued that if he was ahead of his contemporaries in some way, it was in the ability to create philosophical poetry. The poet wraps in the form of a mythological or historical parable, an ancient plot such problems as the fatal loneliness of a genius, the impotence of a person in front of a cruel and blind deity, the suffering of the innocent. Thus, another feature of his poetry is also manifested — its being alien to topicality. The poet finds out the relationship not with his age, but with history in general, with God, with fate. In the later period of his work, the theme ’poet and society’ often sounds.