MRGUDA BY PETAR KOČIĆ – A VICTIM OR A REAL HERO

Abstract

A strong love and suffering because of it, almost an archetypal motif and a common mythopoetic theme, is the basis of the story Mrguda by Petar Kočić. Mrguda represents poeticized death with the power of great ancient heroes of post-Homeric age. It seems that only by death is Mrguda able to restrain body strength and desire, the fire that cannot be quenched; to overpower physical by spiritual. The character of Mrguda can be seen not in the fight, as Vitomir Vuletić wrote, but in yearning for death – or phraseologically – in heroic death. Does a suicide possess heroic or brave qualities, that is an eternal question. Mrguda’s taking is, in one hand, taking of the body, while the soul remains to live; taking the soul would go into another direction – the body does not belong to the universe, memory and eternity anyway.