The image of the mask is one of the key elements in Lermontov's poetry. It expresses the discrepancy between the brilliant form and the insignificant content that so struck the poet in secular society.

In the poem "Like a ray of dawn, like Lelya's roses..." he writes:

But what won't the light destroy?
What is noble will demolish,
What kind of soul won't it squeeze,
Whose self-esteem will not multiply?
And whose eyes will not be deceived
Fancy your own mask?
(Italics hereafter are ours - V. D.)

According to the observations of Yu. M. Lotman, already from the mid-1830s, the poet's imagination began to worry with impunity about the flourishing "decency-brightened vice": "The subject of the image is a large light, which is drawn to Lermontov as a masquerade of criminals and victims" (Lotman Yu.M. In the school of poetic word. Pushkin. Lermontov. Gogol, Moscow, 1988, p. 210). In the play "Masquerade", the death of an innocent pure person-Nina Arbenina-is perceived as a pattern.

In the poem " How often, surrounded by a motley crowd ..."there is a situation of romantic duality characteristic of the poet: the brilliance and vanity of the world, in which "with the wild whisper of sacred speeches, images of soulless people flash by, decently pulled masks", according to the author.-

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et contrasts the artless and harmonious world of nature that surrounded him as a child and where he aspires in his dreams.

Using the motif of the mask, Lermontov creates a contradictory image of his beloved:

From under the mysterious cold half-mask
Your voice sounded to me, pleasant as a dream.
Your charming eyes shone on me
And the sly lips smiled.
The female image hidden under the mask also appears in A. Blok's cycle of poems "The Snow Mask". This is a mysterious mysterious Stranger:

I don't understand what beckons us,
You won't understand what's wrong with me,
Whose eyes are misty under the mask
The twilight of a snowstorm?

And do your eyes shine on me
in reality or in a dream?
Even in the middle of the day, even in the middle of the day
, the night's hair was scattered...
("Confusion")

The contrast between light and dark, between white and black is embodied with the help of masks:

In a long story
Secretly hiding,
The standard time is ticking.
Wearing a dark mask
Slot
Bright eyes.

("Through the Wine crystal")

The wind called and drove the chase,
I didn't catch up with the black masks...
our horses were loyal,
Someone white
helped ...
("Here and there")

Like the symbolists, Blok believed that the poet's work creates his own beautiful world, opposing the prosaic reality, in which there is vulgarity, evil and deception.

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I - any fairy tales you want
Tell,
And what kind of masks do you want
I'll give you one.
("In the corner of the sofa")

The theme of masquerade and masks is interpreted differently by A. Akhmatova. As if inspired by the exquisite works of artists A. Benois and K. Somov, who depicted refined marquises and gallant gentlemen, the poetess creates her own ironic stylization-the poem "Masquerade in the Park":"...And languidly under the mask paled from burning premonitions of love (...) And Pierrot, pale and carrying a bouquet of azaleas, greets Them with laughter: "My prince! Oh, didn't you break the feather on the Marquise's hat?""

In" A Poem without a Hero "(1940-1962), recalling the situation of her" then life", Akhmatova writes::

You were wrong: The Doge's Venice
is nearby... But the masks are in the hallway
And cloaks, and wands, and crowns
You'll have to leave it today.
In the author's remark to the first part of the poem "The Nine Hundred and thirteenth year" we read: "New Year's Eve. Fountain House. To the author, instead of the one who was expected, the shadows of the thirteenth year come under the guise of mummers. White hall of mirrors. Lyrical digression - "Guest from the Future". Masquerade. Poet. The ghost."

There are many mummers-from Petrushka ("The denouement is ridiculously close: from behind the screens of Petrushkin's mask") to the Lord of Darkness himself:

I hope to the Lord of Darkness
You didn't dare enter here?..

Is it a mask, a skull, or a face -
An expression of angry pain,
What only Goya managed to convey.
Everything that happens seems to be some kind of diabolical phantasmagoria, giving rise to images of a doomed world:

The rooster's cry is only a dream,
Outside the window, the Neva river is smoking,
The night is bottomless - and lasts, lasts-
St. Petersburg Devil's day ...
In the black sky, the stars are not visible,
Doom is here somewhere, obviously,
But careless, spicy, shameless
Masquerade chatter...
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The death of the hero ("dragoon Pierrot") is perceived as a kind of purification, getting rid of the evil and depravity of the environment:

And behind her in a greatcoat and helmet
You who entered here without a mask,
You, Ivanushka of the ancient fairy tale,
What's bothering you today?
How much bitterness there is in every word,
How much darkness is there in your love,
And why this trickle of blood
Does the petal pick up lanit?
Only this character, who appears without a mask, represents a sincere feeling. His appearance at the masquerade becomes a triumph of love over death.

The main character in Akhmatova's poem is fate, its inevitability, which appears in the terrible, diabolical image of an Iron Mask. It took superhuman courage from the poetess to endure all the trials of fate together with her people. She had a right to say something about herself:

What is the tread of an Iron Mask to me?
I myself am more desirable than those!
Anna Akhmatova, referring to the image of the mask, preserved and developed, in accordance with the spirit of the time and her poetry, the civil, accusatory and prophetic sound that Lermontov gave this image.

Kirov

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