Sorrow" / "grief" in the Mikhail Lermontov's poem "Demon"

The article analyzes the role of cultural constants "sadness” / "sorrow” and their derivatives in creating the image of a fallen angel - the hero of Lermontov's poem "Demon”. Poet, by connecting to the global tradition of referring to infernal characters (Milton, Kazot, de Vigny, Byron, Goethe), presents his original version of the hero who, unlike their predecessors (Satan, the devil, Lucifer, Mephistopheles), longs to change his destiny - to return to God by means of love to earthly woman. His demon is its creator's double, hence it leads to the special complexity, ambiguity of the character, where the traditional features of the "spirit of negation” (total skepticism, disdain for the world, a feud with "heaven”) is complemented by non-traditional ones (including the ability to experience grief / sadness, "too humane” tenderness and pity for the object of his love), which is associated with a strong personal, lyrical part of the image, distinguishing it from a mass of similar ones.