Ramzin began a new era of Russian literature,” Belinsky asserted. This era was primarily characterized by the fact that literature acquired influence on society; it became a “textbook of life” for readers, that is, what the glory of Russian literature of the 19th century is based on. The significance of Karamzin’s activities for Russian literature is great. Karamzin’s word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. The greatest influence on subsequent literature was exerted by Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” “Poor Liza” (1729) - the most popular and best story of this writer. Its plot, presented to the reader as a “sad story,” is extremely simple, but full of dramatic tension.
Talking about the love of the poor peasant girl Lisa for the aristocrat Erast, who deceived her into committing suicide, the author does not emphasize the class opposition between the hero and heroine. He clearly sees this opposite, but does not want to admit that it was precisely this that caused the death of “poor Liza.” Throughout the story, the lives of the heroes are portrayed through the secular and the veil of sentimental idealization. The images of the story are embellished. Lisa's deceased father was an exemplary family man, because he loved work, plowed the land well and was quite prosperous, everyone loved him. Liza’s mother, “a sensitive, kind old woman,” is weakening from incessant tears for her husband, or even peasant women know how to feel. She touchingly loves her daughter and admires nature with religious tenderness. Neither Lisa’s mother nor the heroine herself resembles genuine peasant women. The heroine of the story is most idealized - “a beautiful villager in body and soul,” “tender and sensitive Lisa.”
Loving her parents dearly, she cannot forget about her father, but hides her sadness and tears so as not to disturb her mother. She took tender care of her mother, got her medicine, worked day and night (“weaved canvas, knitted stockings, picked flowers in the spring, and in the summer she took berries and sold them in Moscow”) The author is sure that such activities fully provide for the life of the old woman and her daughters. According to his plan, Lisa is completely unfamiliar with the book, but after meeting Erast, she dreams of how good it would be if her beloved “was born as a simple peasant shepherd...” these words are completely in the spirit of Lisa. Liza not only speaks like a book, but also thinks. However, the psychology of Lisa, who fell in love with a girl for the first time, is revealed in detail and in a natural sequence. The following moments are psychological and interesting: the desire to see Erast the next day after meeting and “some kind of sadness” when this desire did not come true, joyful fear and excitement at the unexpected appearance of Erast under the window of her hut, the author depicts this same feeling with the help of details in at the beginning of the story, wonder how she could live before without knowing Erast; anxiety at the thought that Erastu the master cannot be the husband of a simple peasant woman; the fear of losing a loved one and the hope of his return, finally, hopeless despair after Erast sent her out of the office. Before throwing herself into the pond, Lisa remembered her mother, she took care of the old woman as best she could, left her money, but this time the thought of her was no longer able to keep Lisa from taking a decisive step.
As a result, the character of the heroine is idealized, but internally integral. The author in the story raises not only the theme of the “little man” and social inequality, but also such topics as fate and circumstances, nature and man, love-sorrow and love-happiness. Erast, his character is much different from Lisa’s character. Erast is depicted in greater accordance with the social environment that raised him than Lisa. This is a “rather rich nobleman” who led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, but often did not find it, was bored and complained about his fate,” endowed with “a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty”, “he read novels. In the image of Erast, the type of disappointed Russian aristocrat is outlined for the first time. Lisa is a child of nature, her soul and character are close to the people. Erast recklessly falls in love with Lisa, breaking the rule that she is not a girl of his circle. Lisa is naive and she does not understand that at the time in which she lives, she is considered a small person and is not given the right to love. Having learned that Erast loves her, Lisa surrenders to her love selflessly without thinking about anything. At first, Erast acts in the same way, but then a turning point comes, the hero does not withstand the test of love, low feelings win.
Wednesday prevents the hero's soul from resurrecting and forces him to lie to Lisa. Only circumstances allow the heroine to discover the deception. The minute Lisa begins to see clearly, fate acts as a punishment for sin. Lisa is punished for her love. Erast is punished for not keeping his oath. The author's position in the story is that of a humanist. Before us is Karamzin the artist and Karamzin the philosopher. He sang the beauty of love, described love as a feeling that can transform a person. The writer teaches that a moment of love is beautiful, but only reason gives long life and strength.
Karamzin laid the foundation for a huge cycle of literature about “little people” and took the first step into this previously unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such classics of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others.
The story “Poor Liza,” which became an example of sentimental prose, was published by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin in 1792 in the Moscow Journal publication. It is worth noting Karamzin as an honored reformer of the Russian language and one of the most highly educated Russians of his time - this is an important aspect that allows us to further evaluate the success of the story. Firstly, the development of Russian literature was of a “catch-up” nature, since it lagged behind European literature by about 90-100 years. While sentimental novels were being written and read in the West, clumsy classical odes and dramas were still being composed in Russia. Karamzin’s progressiveness as a writer consisted in “bringing” sentimental genres from Europe to his homeland and developing a style and language for the further writing of such works.
Secondly, the assimilation of literature by the public at the end of the 18th century was such that at first they wrote for society how to live, and then society began to live according to what was written. That is, before the sentimental story, people read mainly hagiographic or church literature, where there were no living characters or living speech, and the heroes of the sentimental story - such as Lisa - gave secular young ladies a real life scenario, a guide to feelings.
Karamzin brought the story about poor Liza from his many trips - from 1789 to 1790 he visited Germany, England, France, Switzerland (England is considered the birthplace of sentimentalism), and upon his return he published a new revolutionary story in his own magazine.
“Poor Liza” is not an original work, since Karamzin adapted its plot for Russian soil, taking it from European literature. We are not talking about a specific work and plagiarism - there were many such European stories. In addition, the author created an atmosphere of amazing authenticity by depicting himself as one of the heroes of the story and masterfully describing the setting of events.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, soon after returning from the trip, the writer lived in a dacha near the Simonov Monastery, in a picturesque, calm place. The situation described by the author is real - readers recognized both the surroundings of the monastery and the “Lizin Pond”, and this contributed to the fact that the plot was perceived as reliable, and the characters as real people.
Analysis of the work
Plot of the story
The plot of the story is love and, as the author admits, extremely simple. The peasant girl Lisa (her father was a wealthy peasant, but after his death the farm is in decline and the girl has to earn money by selling handicrafts and flowers) lives in the lap of nature with her old mother. In a city that seems huge and alien to her, she meets a young nobleman, Erast. Young people fall in love - Erast out of boredom, inspired by pleasures and a noble lifestyle, and Liza - for the first time, with all the simple, ardor and naturalness of a “natural person”. Erast takes advantage of the girl’s gullibility and takes possession of her, after which, naturally, he begins to be burdened by the girl’s company. The nobleman leaves for war, where he loses his entire fortune at cards. The way out is to marry a rich widow. Lisa finds out about this and commits suicide by throwing herself into a pond, not far from the Simonov Monastery. The author, who was told this story, cannot remember poor Lisa without holy tears of regret.
Karamzin, for the first time among Russian writers, unleashed the conflict of a work with the death of the heroine - as, most likely, it would have happened in reality.
Of course, despite the progressiveness of Karamzin’s story, his heroes differ significantly from real people, they are idealized and embellished. This is especially true for peasants - Lisa does not look like a peasant woman. It is unlikely that hard work would have contributed to her remaining “sensitive and kind”; it is unlikely that she would conduct internal dialogues with herself in an elegant style, and she would hardly be able to carry on a conversation with a nobleman. Nevertheless, this is the first thesis of the story - “even peasant women know how to love.”
Main characters
Lisa
The central heroine of the story, Lisa, is the embodiment of sensitivity, ardor and ardor. Her intelligence, kindness and tenderness, the author emphasizes, are from nature. Having met Erast, she begins to dream not that he, like a handsome prince, will take her into his world, but that he would be a simple peasant or shepherd - this would equalize them and allow them to be together.
Erast differs from Lisa not only in social terms, but also in character. Perhaps, the author says, he was spoiled by the world - he leads a typical life for an officer and a nobleman - he seeks pleasure and, having found it, grows cold towards life. Erast is both smart and kind, but weak, incapable of action - such a hero also appears in Russian literature for the first time, a type of “aristocrat disillusioned with life.” At first, Erast is sincere in his impulse of love - he does not lie when he tells Lisa about love, and it turns out that he is also a victim of circumstances. He does not stand the test of love, does not resolve the situation “like a man,” but experiences sincere torment after what happened. After all, it was he who allegedly told the author the story about poor Lisa and led him to Lisa’s grave.
Erast predetermined the appearance in Russian literature of a number of heroes of the “superfluous people” type - weak and incapable of making key decisions.
Karamzin uses “speaking names.” In the case of Lisa, the choice of name turned out to be a “double bottom.” The fact is that classical literature provided typification techniques, and the name Lisa was supposed to mean a playful, flirtatious, frivolous character. This name could have been given to a laughing maid - a cunning comedy character, prone to love adventures, and by no means innocent. By choosing such a name for his heroine, Karamzin destroyed the classical typification and created a new one. He built a new relationship between the name, character and actions of the hero and outlined the path to psychologism in literature.
The name Erast was also not chosen by chance. It means “lovely” from Greek. His fatal charm and the need for novelty of impressions lured and destroyed the unfortunate girl. But Erast will reproach himself for the rest of his life.
Constantly reminding the reader of his reaction to what is happening (“I remember with sadness...”, “tears are rolling down my face, reader...”), the author organizes the narrative so that it acquires lyricism and sensitivity.
Theme, conflict of the story
Karamzin's story touches on several topics:
- The theme of the idealization of the peasant environment, the ideality of life in nature. The main character is a child of nature, and therefore by default she cannot be evil, immoral, or insensitive. The girl embodies simplicity and innocence due to the fact that she is from a peasant family, where eternal moral values are kept.
- Theme of love and betrayal. The author glorifies the beauty of sincere feelings and talks with sorrow about the doom of love, not supported by reason.
- The theme is the contrast between countryside and city. The city turns out to be evil, a great evil force capable of breaking a pure being from nature (Lisa’s mother intuitively senses this evil force and prays for her daughter every time she goes to the city to sell flowers or berries).
- Theme "little man". Social inequality, the author is sure (and this is an obvious glimpse of realism) does not lead to happiness for lovers from different backgrounds. This kind of love is doomed.
The main conflict of the story is social, because it is because of the gap between wealth and poverty that the love of the heroes, and then the heroine, perishes. The author extols sensitivity as the highest human value, asserts the cult of feelings as opposed to the cult of reason.
Poor Lisa (story)
| Poor Lisa | |
O. A. Kiprensky, “Poor Liza”, 1827 |
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1792, “Moscow Magazine” |
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| in Wikisource | |
History of creation and publication
Plot
After the death of her father, a “prosperous villager,” young Lisa is forced to work tirelessly to feed herself and her mother. In the spring, she sells lilies of the valley in Moscow and there she meets the young nobleman Erast, who falls in love with her and is even ready to leave the world for the sake of his love. The lovers spend all evenings together, sharing a bed. However, with the loss of innocence, Lisa lost her attractiveness for Erast. One day he reports that he must go on a campaign with the regiment and they will have to part. A few days later, Erast leaves.
Several months pass. Liza, once in Moscow, accidentally sees Erast in a magnificent carriage and finds out that he is engaged (he lost his estate at cards and is now forced to marry a rich widow). In despair, Lisa throws herself into the pond.
Artistic originality
Simonov Monastery
The plot of the story was borrowed by Karamzin from European love literature, but transferred to “Russian” soil. The author hints that he is personally acquainted with Erast (“I met him a year before his death. He himself told me this story and led me to Lisa’s grave”) and emphasizes that the action takes place in Moscow and its environs, describes, for example , Simonov and Danilov monasteries, Vorobyovy Gory, creating the illusion of authenticity. This was an innovation for Russian literature of that time: usually the action of works took place “in one city.” The first readers of the story perceived Lisa's story as a real tragedy of a contemporary - it is no coincidence that the pond under the walls of the Simonov Monastery was named Liza's Pond, and the fate of Karamzin's heroine received a lot of imitations. The oak trees growing around the pond were covered with inscriptions - touching ( “In these streams, poor Lisa passed away her days; If you are sensitive, passer-by, sigh!”) and caustic ( “Here Erast’s bride threw herself into the pond. Drown yourself, girls: there’s plenty of room in the pond!”) .
However, despite the apparent plausibility, the world depicted in the story is idyllic: the peasant woman Liza and her mother have sophistication of feelings and perceptions, their speech is literate, literary and no different from the speech of the nobleman Erast. The life of poor villagers resembles a pastoral:
Meanwhile, a young shepherd was driving his flock along the river bank, playing the pipe. Lisa fixed her gaze on him and thought: “If the one who now occupies my thoughts was born a simple peasant, a shepherd, - and if he were now driving his flock past me: ah! I would bow to him with a smile and say affably: “Hello, dear shepherd!” Where are you driving your flock? And here green grass grows for your sheep, and here flowers grow red, from which you can weave a wreath for your hat.” He would look at me with an affectionate look - maybe he would take my hand... A dream! A shepherd, playing the flute, passed by and disappeared with his motley flock behind a nearby hill.
The story became an example of Russian sentimental literature. In contrast to classicism with its cult of reason, Karamzin affirmed the cult of feelings, sensitivity, compassion: “Ah! I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow!” . Heroes are important first of all for their ability to love and surrender to feelings. There is no class conflict in the story: Karamzin sympathizes equally with both Erast and Lisa. In addition, unlike the works of classicism, “Poor Liza” is devoid of morality, didacticism, and edification: the author does not teach, but tries to evoke empathy for the characters in the reader.
The story is also distinguished by its “smooth” language: Karamzin abandoned Old Slavonicisms and pomposity, which made the work easy to read.
Criticism about the story
“Poor Liza” was received by the Russian public with such enthusiasm because in this work Karamzin was the first to express the “new word” that Goethe said to the Germans in his “Werther.” The heroine’s suicide was such a “new word” in the story. The Russian public, accustomed in old novels to consoling endings in the form of weddings, who believed that virtue is always rewarded and vice is punished, met for the first time in this story the bitter truth of life.
"Poor Lisa" in art
In painting
Literary reminiscences
Dramatizations
Film adaptations
- 1967 - “Poor Liza” (television play), directed by Natalya Barinova, David Livnev, starring: Anastasia Voznesenskaya, Andrei Myagkov.
- - “Poor Lisa”, director Idea Garanina, composer Alexey Rybnikov
- - “Poor Lisa”, directed by Slava Tsukerman, starring Irina Kupchenko, Mikhail Ulyanov.
Literature
- Toporov V. N.“Poor Liza” by Karamzin: Reading experience: To the bicentenary of its publication. - Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities, 1995.
Notes
Links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
See what “Poor Lisa (story)” is in other dictionaries:
POOR LISA- Tale by N.M. Karamzin. Written in 1792 and then published in the Moscow Journal, which was published by the writer himself. The plot of the story, which had been reproduced many times before in European bourgeois drama of the 18th century, is simple. This is a love story... ... Linguistic and regional dictionary
Cover of one of Leo Tolstoy's stories. The story is a prose genre that does not have a stable volume and occupies an intermediate place between the novel, on the one hand ... Wikipedia
The request "Karamzin" is redirected here; see also other meanings. Nikolay Karamzin ... Wikipedia
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 See also: Other events in 1792 Contents 1 Events 2 Prizes ... Wikipedia
Historiographer, b. December 1, 1766, d. May 22, 1826 He belonged to a noble family, descended from the Tatar Murza, named Kara Murza. His father, a Simbirsk landowner, Mikhail Egorovich, served in Orenburg under I. I. Neplyuev and ... Large biographical encyclopedia
Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766 1826) an outstanding writer and literary figure, the head of Russian sentimentalism (see). R. and grew up on the estate of his father, an average Simbirsk nobleman, a descendant of the Tatar Murza Kara Murza. He studied with a village sexton, later... ... Literary encyclopedia
Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich - .… … Dictionary of the Russian language of the 18th century
“Poor Lisa” has a truly happy fate. The story is one of the works that mark a literary era, and this is its significance for the history of literature. Written almost 200 years ago, over these two centuries it has not known either oblivion or loss of readership.
One of the most characteristic features of the great works of Russian literature is that, despite the simplicity of the external plot, they raise the most complex, deep questions of life. Such are “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin, “Dead Souls” by N. V. Gogol, “Anna Karenina” by L. N. Tolstoy...
The plot of “Poor Lisa,” as the author himself rightly noted, is very simple. The peasant woman Lisa and the nobleman Erast fell in love with each other, but soon Erast left his beloved to marry a rich widow and thereby improve his fortune. An abandoned girl drowned in a pond out of grief.
This story was a greater success than anything Karamzin had written before. “Your “poor Lisa” is beautiful to me!” - this is how Petrov, an impartial and harsh critic, responded to the story.
First of all, “Poor Liza” captivated the reader because it talked about Russian life, about modernity. Usually in the stories they wrote that the action takes place in an indefinite “one city”, “one village”, and here the Simonov Monastery, well known to every Muscovite, everyone recognized the birch grove and meadow where the hut stood, the monastery pond surrounded by old willows - the place of death of poor Lisa ... Accurate descriptions gave special authenticity to the whole story. In addition, the author emphasized the veracity of his story: “Ah! Why am I writing not a novel, but a sad true story!” Even the fact that Liza sold forest flowers was a new feature of everyday life: in one of the articles, Karamzin reports that they began selling bouquets of such flowers in Moscow only a year or two before the creation of the story.
The name Lizin was established behind the Fox Pond; for a long time it became a place of pilgrimage for sensitive readers. The guide to Moscow of 1827, along with the Sukharev Tower, the Red Gate and other Moscow attractions, recommends visiting Lizin Pond.
Not only sensitive girls, but also men came to the pond: Pogodin reports the words of Professor Tsvetaev, “that he also went to Lizin’s pond, with a white handkerchief in his hands, to wipe away his tears.”
Now, many years later, “Poor Liza” seems almost an elegant toy, but at one time it was perceived differently: it was an extremely modern and socially sounding work. The theme and images of “Poor Liza” directly resonate with the pages of Radishchev’s book that had just been banned and confiscated even from private individuals.
The chapter “Edrovo” “Travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow” tells how in this village the author met a peasant girl Anyuta, who cannot marry the man she loves, because he has to pay 100 rubles for permission to marry, and neither , neither Anyuta has that kind of money. The author offers Anyuta and her mother this money, but they refuse.
The image of Anyuta’s mother echoes the image of Liza’s mother, who resolutely refuses to take from Erast the payment he persistently offers “ten times more than the price she sets” for the fabric woven by Liza. In addition, there are minor coincidences in details and words: for example, Anyuta’s father died, leaving a strong household, Lisa’s father was also a “prosperous villager,” and here and there there was no male worker left in the house; Karamzin’s Lisa says: “God gave me hands to work with,” Anyuta’s fiancé, also refusing to accept money as a gift, declares: “I, master, have two hands, I’ll run the house with them.” The connection between “Poor Liza” and “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” is undeniable.
The fundamental difference between the works of Radishchev and Karamzin is that in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” the theme is revealed through the means of journalism, in “Poor Liza” - through artistic means. Radishchev names the phenomenon and gives it an explanation from a social and economic point of view, Karamzin depicts it. Both methods have their merits, but for the conditions of Russian reality, fiction was of particular importance. N. G. Chernyshevsky defined its role in public life very well. He called it a “textbook for life.”
Poor Liza" Karamzin
Question #8
"Poor Liza" by N. M. Karamzin as an example of sentimental prose
N. M. Karamzin is a prominent representative of sentimentalism, a movement that arose in European culture in the second half of the 18th century. By that time, it became clear that it was impossible to remake the world according to the laws of reason, that a conflict most often arises between reality and dreams, which a person is unable to overcome. Sentimentalists believed that all human vices are rooted in the negative influence of society, and that the individual is initially morally pure and ethical. By listening to oneself, observing one’s emotions and movements of the soul, returning to nature, a person can “clean up”
become better. Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote that “a person who lives according to the laws of nature is more moral.”
“Poor Liza” by Karamzin was a new turning point in Russian ALLSoch.ru 2005 literature. The revelation of the inner world of the characters, their feelings and experiences became a real revelation for readers.
Poor peasant girl Liza falls in love with a handsome young nobleman, Erast. But if Lisa is the ideal of a “natural person”, kind, sincere, open, capable of loving tenderly and devotedly, then Erast “led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements.”
How poetic and touching are the dates between Erast and Lisa in the lap of nature! With what subtle psychologism Karamzin managed to describe the hopes, joys and sorrows of lovers! The heroes of the story are no longer mannequins, not bearers of any one distinctive feature, but real, living, real people who know how to feel and experience.
Circumstances are such that Erast is forced to stop dating for a while, but during the separation he manages to lose at cards and go broke. The only way to improve the situation is to marry a rich widow. So dream and reality, mind and heart collided! When Lisa accidentally meets Erast in the city and, suspecting nothing, happily hugs him, the young man gives her money, wanting to pay off his love. The girl's feelings are insulted and, unable to withstand grief and humiliation, she tragically ends her life.
Of course, Erast is to blame for the fact that the girl committed suicide, but the author does not blame him and even tries to justify him in his own way. Erast is a victim of society, circumstances, time, base passions, but he, too, “was unhappy until the end of his life.” Having learned about the fate of poor Lisa, Erast “could not console himself and considered himself a murderer,” which means that all was not lost for him.
The author's lyrical digressions, remarks and exclamations allow us to know his view of the events taking place. Karamzin is so concerned about the accuracy of the depiction of the place and time of what happened that we do not doubt the reality of the story. And the final words of the story are filled not only with bitterness, but also with hope: “Now, they must have already made peace!
Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to the translations of the novels of Werther by J.W. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison by S. Richardson, New Heloise by J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791–1792).
His story "Poor Liza" (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.
The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared "Poor Masha" by A.E. Izmailov (1801), "Journey to Midday Russia" (1802), "Henrietta or the Triumph of Deception over Weakness or Delusion" by I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G.P. Kamenev ( “The Story of Poor Marya”; “Unhappy Margarita”; “Beautiful Tatiana”), etc.
Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to Karamzin’s group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic pompous style and outdated genres.
Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of a translation of Elegy, written in a rural cemetery by E. Gray, became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, because he translated the poem “into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not an individual work of an English poet”, which has its own special individual style (E.G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story “Maryina Roshcha” in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.
Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.
It was one of the stages of pan-European literary development, which completed the Age of Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.
The main features of the literature of sentimentalism.
So, taking into account all of the above, we can identify several basic features of Russian literature of sentimentalism: a departure from the straightforwardness of classicism, an emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world, a cult of feelings, a cult of nature, a cult of innate moral purity, innocence, a rich spiritual world of representatives is affirmed of the lower classes. Attention is paid to the spiritual world of a person, and feelings come first, not great ideas. http://www.velib.com/text_sochin.php?id=122
Poor Liza" Karamzin - concept and types. Classification and features of the category “Poor Liza” Karamzin 2017, 2018.