The Image of the Occupant in “Arsena Marabdeli”

Abstract

The “occupant” is a foreign word, but Georgians really don’t have to look for the definition of this word in the dictionaries of the foreign words, as it invaded so organically and thoroughly into the lives of each of us, moreover, it often seems that this “occupant” has always been and will be in Georgian reality. Our homeland has never lacked the conquerors, accordingly, their images were painted in Georgian folklore and literary writings as well. One of those, who masterfully outlined them, is a genious Mikheil Javakhishvili. It must be also mentioned here that these characters differ from each other, they are painted with highly individual features, but at the same time, there is created a united, cumulative image of the occupant.

“Arsena Marabdeli” refers to the epoch when co-believer Russia, with the status of a protector, entered and violated all the points of the Georgievsk Treaty and made Georgia one of the provinces of Russia. Javakhishvili masterfully creates horrific pictures of this oppression and injustice, people’s enslavement and degradation, and the images of the occupant, created by him, are very impressive and memorable.

In “Arsena Marabdeli”, in spite of its historicity, there is strongly felt the writer’s modernity and clearly readable acute social, political and national problems, there is painted a cumulative image of our eternal occupant - a kind of a multiheaded monster or two-headed eagle, grasping with its sharp claws the Caucasus and, among them, our wonderful homeland.