Ontologiczno-mitologiczny charakter tragicznej miłości w utworze Siergieja Łukianienko i Władimira Wasiliewa Dzienny patrol
The ontological-mythological character of tragic love in the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev Day watch

Summary/Abstract: The idea of love is one of the ageless topics touched upon by writers of all epochs and literary genres. It is popular also with authors of fantasy fiction, a fine example of which is Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev's novel The Day Watch. They did not confine themselves to the classic way of approaching the topic, presenting the romantic feeling in a different, deeper dimension. They do not analyse love only from the physically-emotional perspective, instead they introduce in the story elements of psychology, philosophy and mythology. By tradition of the romantic genre a couple of young people – Alisa Donnikova and Igor Teplov – fall under the influence of forbidden affection, which in their world is considered as something unnatural and condemned. The authors do not halt on that problem, which had already been exploited by the previous generations of writers. They go one step further. If we examine closely the mentioned couple we will be able to notice that they are a perfect embodiment of the ancient Chinese symbol of yin and yang, who describes two primeval forces, which, thou they are opposing to one another, also supplement each other. Alisa the witch, who represents the dark forces and woman factor, becomes the personalisation of element yin; whereas, the Light Mage Igor, who embodies the male factor and is a servant of light, stands for the element yang. Their natures are diametrically different, yet they harmonize with each other perfectly and only together they create a balanced whole. Although, it could appear that the two protagonists share only a physical attraction, after deeper analyse of the novel we learn that the physical closeness is only a manifestation of a deep feeling, which unexpectedly united two unfamiliar people. A feeling, which compels making great sacri¬fices to save the person one lives. Alisa, entangled in a deadly bat¬tle with Igor, resigns from self-defence to save the beloved man. Though, being a Dark Other, she is expected to behave egocentric and selfish, she is capable of experiencing pure, altruistic love, which gives her strength to making a sacrifice of herself. Unfortunately, this sacrifice is futile, because, as yang cannot exist without yin, also Igor cannot live without his second half, and, unable to bare separation, he follows his beloved to the mysterious world from which there is no return.

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