Mozart E.-N. Yu. The Romantic Transformation of the Character of Faust by N. Lenau
(Maxim Gorky Literature Institute)
Abstract ♦ The article is devoted to the romantic transformation of the character of Faust in the eponymous poem by Nikolaus Lenau. This character continues to live and to get new interpretations in the art of the 21st century, which makes the chosen topic relevant for the studies of both Russian and world literature.
The author gives special attention to the stages of the spiritual and personality collapse of the poem’s protagonist (Faust’s physical death as the apotheosis of decay of his soul and personality) and to the evolution of the character of Mephistopheles as an "anticreator" and a "contextual" antipode of Faust.
There are two components of the protagonist’s character in Lenau’s “Faust” — the external and internal ones, which are actually combined into one. The fate of Faust is initially predetermined, which makes it inherently impossible that the protagonist’s death in the finale, in accordance with the aesthetics of romanticism, would be a victory over the world and over the corporal form, a purification and liberation from the shackles of life.
The article points out that the protagonist of the poem combines the features of the good (identified with God) and evil (identified with the devil), so the main conflict is centered inside himself. The external struggle between Good and evil is impersonal, almost completely hidden from the reader, happening somewhere in the background.
In the character of Lenau’s Faust, the aesthetics of romanticism reaches its apogee, claiming that both internal and external conflicts are irresolvable. It also affects the quite deistic problem of the Creator’s full or partial non-interference in the earthly affairs after the Creation of the world. Consequently, the poem “Faust” by N. Lenau presents the story of the catastrophe of spirit.
Keywords: N. Lenau, Faust, Mephistopheles, contextual antipode, anticreator, catastrophe of spirit, romantic hero, romanticism.
Mozart Elena-Neola Yulianovna, Applicant, Foreign Literature Department, Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. Postal address: 25 Tverskoy Blvd., Moscow, Russian Federation, 123104. Tel.: +7 (495) 694-06-81. E-mail: . Research adviser: Candidate of Philology, Professor S. B. Dzhimbinov.
Citation: Mozart, E.-N. Yu. (2014) Romanticheskaia transformatsiia obraza Fausta u N. Lenau [The Romantic Transformation of the Character of Faust by N. Lenau]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 3, pp. 306–312. (In Russ.).
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