Lermontov Topics: The Dual Development of Meaning

Abstract

The author analyzes three works by Mikhail Lermontov (Confession, Boyarin Orsha, and Mtsyri) that form, in the author’s opinion, a single logical chain of meditations showing the extreme capabilities of not only the human soul, but also his very power of judgement, the idea of which dominated European philosophy of Lermontov’s time. In analysis of the poet’s works the author pays special attention to repetition, which he used in many of them and which gave him freedom to change meanings, redraw plot lines, and show the life of things and characters in their free state. The main notions chosen from the three poems are confession and judgement.