The Novice by Mikhail Lermontov

First published: “Mtsyri,” 1840 (English translation, 1929)

Type of work: Poetry

Type of plot: Narrative

Time of plot: 1840

Locale: Georgia, Russia

Principal characters

• The Novice, a novice monk
• The Father Confessor,
• A Georgian Girl,

The Poem:

As a boy of six, the young novice is captured by Russians in his native mountains. They want to take him to their own country, but he falls ill with a fever and is left with the monks of the monastery. At first, the boy refuses food and drink and seems likely to die. One of the monks, who is to become his father-confessor, takes him into his care and nurses him back to health. A Muslim by birth, he is baptized a Christian and becomes a novice confined within the narrow monastery walls. He finds his prisonlike existence intolerable. The memory of his free life in a mountain village constantly haunts him. One night, he escapes. After three days, he is found, starved and exhausted, by his father-confessor. On his deathbed, he offers his confession to the old man. It is an account of what happened to him the night he escaped and during the days that followed before his recapture.

The night he fled, the novice explains, there was a storm so violent that the monks prostrated themselves in fear before the altar. The novice took advantage of the distraction to escape into the surrounding countryside. Trying to reach his village, he wandered in the forest. He felt at home with the wild landscape and with the creatures that lived in it. His perception became heightened so that he clearly heard the many voices of nature. While drinking at a stream, he heard another song; it was that of a beautiful Georgian girl fetching water. Unseen, he watched her graceful and sensual movements and saw her go back to her home—an image that brought the uprooted novice much suffering. He longed to head toward her hut, but instead he took the path that led into the woods, and, as night fell, he became lost in the dense forest.

For the first time in his life, he cried. Suddenly, he saw two lights shining in the darkness: the eyes of a panther. The novice seized a tree branch as a weapon, the panther pounced, and the novice struck him, inflicting a bloody wound to the animal’s head. The panther pounced once more. As they struggled, the novice mystically took on the spirit of the panther, knowing its ways instinctively and echoing its snarls. It was as if the panther’s forlorn cry was born deep within him. Eventually, the panther tired and died in the embrace of his opponent.

When the novice emerged from the forest, it was day. With growing despair, he heard the clanging of the monastery bell. He came in a full circle. He recalled that, since childhood, the noise of the bell had destroyed his beautiful visions of his homeland and family. At that point, he realized that he would never see his birthplace again. He reflected that he was like a plant that was forced to grow in the dark; it cannot survive in the bright daylight but is scorched by the sun and dies. He knew that he, too, was about to die.

In his delirium, he dreamed that he was at the bottom of a deep stream, being caressed by the cooling waves that quenched his burning thirst. As he watched the fish swimming around him, a fish danced above his head and, meeting his gaze, sang a song to him. The song invited the novice to come live with the fish in the freedom of the water. Sadness would be driven away, and the centuries would pass quickly and sweetly. The fish ended its song with an affirmation of its love for the novice. He felt himself lured by the bright beauty and calm of the dreamworld.

The novice is found unconscious by his father-confessor and brought back to the monastery. He tells his father-confessor that he regrets that his body will lie in alien soil, and that his grave will awake a response in no one. He clasps the old man’s hand in farewell, explaining that he does not seek release from worldly chains; on the contrary, he will willingly exchange heaven and eternity for one short hour among the rocks where he played as a child. He thus remains resolute, rebellious and defiant to the end. He asks to be buried in a sunny place in the garden, within view of his beloved Caucasus mountains.

Bibliography

Eikhenbaum, B. M. Lermontov. Translated by Ray Parrott and Harry Weber. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Ardis, 1981. A literary and historical evaluation of Lermontov’s works, including “The Novice.” Places Lermontov in Russian literary context and offers useful insights into his versification.

Garrard, John. Mikhail Lermontov. Boston: Twayne, 1982. One of the best overviews of Lermontov’s life and works for the general reader. Contains a substantial section on “The Novice,” examining its background, form, structure, and themes.

Golstein, Vladimir. Lermontov’s Narratives of Heroism. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1998. Focuses on the theme of heroism and the individual in Lermontov’s works, including “The Novice.” Citations of works are in Russian with English translation.

Kelly, Laurence. Lermontov: Tragedy in the Caucasus. 1977. Reprint. London: Tauris Parke, 2003. Colorfully illustrated biography covering Lermontov’s childhood in the “wild” East, his education, his rise and fall in society, and his attitudes toward war as reflected in his works.

Lavrin, Janko. Lermontov. New York: Hillary House, 1959. A lucid and intelligent summary of Lermontov’s life, major works, and recurrent themes. Includes a short section on “The Novice.”

Mersereau, John, Jr. Mikhail Lermontov. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962. An extremely useful and readable critical analysis of Lermontov’s works, incorporating a valuable discussion of Lermontov’s Romanticism and a section on “The Novice.”

Powelstock, David. Becoming Mikhail Lermontov: The Ironies of Romantic Individualism in Nicholas I’s Russia. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2005. Powelstock argues that Lermontov had a coherent worldview, which he defines as “Romantic individualism,” and he demonstrates how this philosophy explains contradictions in the writer’s life and works.