The peasants, the original workers who received the self-assembled tablecloth, do not even think about free wealth, and they only ask the magic bird for their peasant, modest “living wage”: bread, kvass, cucumbers. And only in order to get to the meaning of life, to the essence of human happiness. After all, the men who had argued and started talking, walked “thirty versts” from the meeting place (and even further from their villages) only wanted to “rest until the sun” in the forest, and then return to their labors and household chores. The self-assembled tablecloth is a justification and explanation for their wanderings, not distracted by everyday worries about their daily bread. They had the opportunity to go in search of happiness, and interest and desire, remarkable ones, were there from the very beginning - this was clearly stated at the very beginning of the Prologue.
Real men, smitten with vodka, start a drunken fight. And it grows into a grandiose massacre, shaking the entire forest, calling on the forces of nature itself:
The author reports that the Russian man is stubborn and persistent in achieving a goal, and not a practical one, namely “whims”, dreams, fantasies, the search for truth and beauty. At the same time, it is said that the disputants were busy with their usual affairs: one of them went to the forge, another “carried honeycombs to the market,” others “caught a stubborn horse,” etc. But all the usual everyday activities were abandoned - so strong was the grip on the peasants the general concern is to find “who lives cheerfully and at ease in Rus'.”
The description of the “revelry” of the echo is interesting not only because of the hyperbole-personification it is based on, but also because of the closeness of the narrator to the natural world. Describing the awakened forest, Nekrasov used words with diminutive suffixes (“bunny”, “chicks”, “chaff”, “chick”, “nest”), metaphors (“the warbler is crying”, “the old cuckoo... has decided”, eagle owls “ admiring the carnage"), a peculiarly constructed comparison "And their eyes are yellow
In the “Prologue” the reader meets truth-seeking peasants. There are either no individual characteristics of each of the seven men at all, or they are very laconic: the slow Pahom, who needs to “push” before uttering a word; “gloomy” Prov, “vodka-hungry” Gubin brothers... However, here you can find the first detailed description of the peasantry as a whole:
With this author’s characterization of the peasantry and the disputants, which, by the way, is repeated several times in the following chapters of the poem, the reader is psychologically prepared to perceive numerous pictures of the lives and destinies of people, which will constitute a kind of “for” and “against” in the unfolding dispute.
“Prologue” is a term that denotes the introduction to a work, that part of it that introduces the reader either to the general intention of the artist, or to the facts preceding the events described in the work. The “Prologue” to the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” basically corresponds to the traditional idea of an introduction to literary work. But it includes not only expositional elements, but also action that has already begun - dispute and wandering. It was in the “Prologue” that the refrain appeared - “who lives happily and freely in Rus'”, which will run through the entire poem.
Thus, the seven men who open the “Prologue” become seven truth-seekers by the end of it. Nekrasov noticed in this readiness to get up like this and go in search of the very essence of the internally free spirit of Russian life. After all, wanderers are usually not just wanderers, but also strange (unusual) people. However, Nekrasov’s wanderers who set off on their journey are not traditional pilgrim pilgrims (these will also appear in the poem), but ordinary peasants, seized upon by a wonderful question: who can live well in Rus'?
Two years after the introduction of new reforms, Nikolai Nekrasov began work on a work that became the pinnacle of his creativity. Long years he worked on the text, and as a result, a poem was created in which the author was not only able to depict the people’s grief, but, together with his characters, sought to answer the following questions: “What is the happiness of the people?”, “How to achieve it?”, “Can Is it possible for an individual to be happy in the midst of universal grief?” The analysis of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is necessary in order to find out which images helped Nekrasov answer these difficult questions.
Concept
When starting the work, the author himself hardly knew the answer to these troubling questions. These were difficult times in the history of the Russian people. The abolition of serfdom did not make life easier for the peasantry. Nekrasov’s original idea was that wandering men would return home after a vain search. During the work, the storyline changed somewhat. The events in the poem were influenced by important social processes. Like his characters, he strives to answer the question: “Is it good to live in Rus'?” And if at the first stage of work on the poem the author does not find grounds for a positive answer, then later representatives of young people appear in society who really find their happiness in going “to the people.”
A striking example was a certain teacher who reported in a letter to Nekrasov that she was experiencing real surges of happiness in her work among the people. The poet planned to use the image of this girl in the development storyline. But I didn’t have time. He died without completing his work. Nekrasov wrote the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” until the last days of his life, but it remained unfinished.
Art style
The analysis of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” reveals the main artistic feature works. Since Nekrasov’s book is about the people, and primarily for them, in it he used folk speech in all its diversity. This poem is an epic, one of the purposes of which was to depict life as it is. Fairytale motifs play a significant role in the narrative.
Folklore basis
Nekrasov borrowed a lot from folk art. The analysis of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” allowed critics to identify epics, legends and proverbs that the author actively used in the text. Already in the prologue there are bright folklore motives. A warbler, a self-assembled tablecloth, and many animalistic images of Russian folk tales appear here. And the wandering men themselves resemble heroes of epics and fairy tales. The prologue also contains numbers that have sacred meaning: seven and three.
Plot
The men argued about who would live well in Rus'. Nekrasov, using this technique, reveals main topic poems. The heroes offer several options for the “lucky” ones. Among them are five representatives of various strata of social society and the king himself. In order to answer such an alarming question, the wanderers go to long haul. But only the priest and the landowner have time to ask about happiness. As the poem progresses, general questions change to more specific ones. Men are already more interested in the happiness of the working people. And the plot of the story would have been difficult to implement if ordinary men had dared to visit the king himself with their philosophical problems.
Peasant images
The poem contains many peasant images. The author pays close attention to some, but talks about others only in passing. The most typical is the portrait of Yakim Nagogo. Appearance This character symbolizes the hard labor existence that is typical of peasant life in Rus'. But despite the backbreaking work, Yakim did not harden his soul. The analysis of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” gives a clear idea of how Nekrasov saw or wanted to see representatives of the working people. Yakim, despite the inhuman conditions in which he is forced to exist, has not become bitter. He has been collecting pictures for his son all his life, admiring them and hanging them on the walls. And during a fire, he rushes into the fire to save, first of all, his favorite images. But Yakima's portrayal differs from more authentic characters. The meaning of his life is not limited to work and drinking. Great importance for him there is also the contemplation of beauty.
Artistic techniques
In the poem, Nekrasov uses symbolism from the very first pages. The names of the villages speak for themselves. Zaplatovo, Razutovo, Dyryavino are symbols of the lifestyle of their inhabitants. Truth-seekers meet different people during their journey, but the question of who can live well in Rus' remains open. The misfortunes of ordinary Russian people are revealed to the reader. In order to give liveliness and persuasiveness to the narrative, the author introduces direct speech. The priest, the landowner, the bricklayer Trofim, Matryona Timofeevna - all these characters talk about their lives, and from their stories a general bleak picture of Russian life emerges. folk life.
Since the life of a peasant is inextricably linked with nature, its description is harmoniously woven into the poem. A typical everyday picture is created from many details.
The image of landowners
The landowner is undoubtedly the main enemy of the peasant. The first representative of this social stratum that the wanderers met gave a completely detailed answer to their question. Talking about the rich life of the landowners in the past, he claims that he himself always treated the peasants kindly. And everyone was happy, and no one experienced grief. Now everything has changed. The fields are desolate, the man is completely out of control. The 1861 reform is to blame. But the next living example of the “noble class” that appears on the path of the peasants has the image of an oppressor, tormentor and money-grubber. He leads a free life, he does not have to work. The dependent peasants do everything for him. Even the abolition of serfdom did not affect his idle life.
Grisha Dobrosklonov
The question posed by Nekrasov remains open. Life was hard for the peasant, and he dreamed of changes for the better. Not one of those who meet on the way of wanderers is a happy person. Serfdom was abolished, but still not completely resolved. The reforms were a strong blow to both the landowner class and the working people. However, without suspecting it, the men found what they were looking for in the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
Why only a scoundrel and money-grubber can live well in Rus' becomes clear when this character appears in the poem. His fate is not easy, like the fate of other representatives of the working class. But, unlike other characters in Nekrasov’s work, Grisha is not characterized by submission to the prevailing circumstances.
Personifies revolutionary sentiments, which began to appear in society in the second half of the 19th century. At the end of the poem, albeit unfinished, Nekrasov does not give an answer to the question in search of which the truth-seekers wandered for so long, but makes it clear that people's happiness is still possible. And not last role it will feature the ideas of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
The history of the poem
Nekrasov began working on the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” in the mid-1860s and continued writing it until the end of his life. The work remained unfinished. Still remains controversial issue about the sequence of parts of the poem. As a rule, parts of the poem are published in the order in which they were created by the author: “Part One”, “The Last One”, “The Peasant Woman”, “A Feast for the Whole World”.
Subject. Russia in historical perspective
“Who Lives Well in Rus'” reflects the life of such classes and social groups as peasantry,nobility,clergy,common intelligentsia(Savva and Grisha Dobrosklonov). An important place in the work is also occupied by folk art, paintings of nature and rural labor.
Nekrasov's poem reflected life post-reform Russia , partly – the life of Russia before the reform of 1861. Nekrasov depicted Russian reality Vhistorical perspective. The poet writes about the difficult legacy of serfdom, O modern crisis, which is experienced by the peasantry and other classes after the reform. Nekrasov also thinks about future of Russia and her people.
The poet recreated in his work a deep a crisis, which all classes, not just the peasantry, are experiencing after the reform of 1861. The former foundations of life for landowners and the clergy are collapsing (chapters “Pop” and “Landowner”). The reform was especially difficult for the peasantry.
You are good, royal letter,
Yes, you are not written with us, -
the men are talking about reform.
Talking about the crisis phenomena of Russian reality in his contemporary era, Nekrasov reveals not only contradictions between classes(primarily between landowners and peasants), but also disorder in the people's life itself,contradictions in the minds of the people. The people in the poem appear as great worker and at the same time how drunk, ignorant crowd. At the same time, the peasantry, according to Nekrasov, despite its illiteracy, is bearer of high spiritual values,richest culture. Finally, a poet glorifies the power of the people, the rebellious spirit of the people and at the same time mournsabout servitude peasants, about their humility before their oppressors.
Embodied in the poem revolutionary democraticideas Nekrasov - primarily in the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, in his songs, but also in the words of the author-narrator himself. The poet associates the best future of the people with introducing peasants to progressive literature and social thought. This point of view is especially evident in author's digression on people's intercessors:
Eh! Eh! Will the time come?
When (come, desired one!)
They will let the peasant understand
What a rose is a portrait of a portrait,
What is the book of the book of roses?
When a man is not Blucher
And not my foolish lord -
Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?
Oh, people, Russian people!
Orthodox peasants!
Have you ever heard
Are you these names?
Those are great names,
Wore them, glorified them
People's intercessors!
Here's some portraits of them for you
Hang in your gorenki,
Main motives
Let us name the main motives of the work. This people's suffering And people's happiness,mother truth;peasant labor;harsh female fate;heroism And longsuffering,rebellion And servility. They sound in the work and satirical motives: the poet denounces the landowners, their arbitrariness towards the people, as well as peasant serfs who curry favor with the oppressors.
Central motive works are people's happiness. It begins to sound in the mouths of seven wandering men, then is picked up by other characters in the work:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
The age-old question about truth and untruth, about grief and happiness It has in Nekrasov's poem concrete historical refraction. The action of the poem takes place in post-reform Russia, and it talks about the life of the people after the reform.
Characters
Plot-forming a collective image plays a role in the poem seven wandering men.This image becomes a symbol of the Russian peasantry, awaiting changes in their lives. In the poem, according to N.N. Skatov, it is emphasized epic unity of seven wanderers. There are essentially no individual characteristics in the depiction of traveling men. It reflects general features of popular consciousness:
In what year - calculate
Guess what land?
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
There is also a poor harvest,
They came together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
The seven peasants from the poem “To whom in Rus'...” remind us of the truth-seeking wanderers from the poem “Reflections at the Front Entrance.” Both images reflect the poet’s ideas about the aspirations of the entire Russian peasantry.
At the same time, the individually outlined figures of peasants also stand out in the work.
Let's call first of all Yakima Nagogo. His appearance reminds us of the Belarusian peasant from “The Railway”:
The chest is sunken; as if pressed in
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth
Bends like cracks
On dry ground...
The character combines such features as huge hard work and endless drunkenness:
In the village of Bosovo
Yakim Nagoy lives;
He works himself to death
He drinks until he's half dead.
Nekrasov also notes Love Yakima to the aesthetic side of life: during a fire, the hero began saving pictures instead of money.
Ermil Girin(aka Ermila,Ermilo) is folk truth-teller. His image embodies the peasant a dream of justice, of mother truth,about the righteous “peasant” king. Yermil’s love of truth is especially clearly revealed in the story of how he became the bailiff on the prince’s estate:
Yermilo went to reign
Over the entire princely estate,
And he reigned!
In seven years the world's penny
I didn’t squeeze it under my nail,
At the age of seven I didn’t touch the right one,
He did not allow the guilty
I didn’t bend my heart.
Yermila also clearly characterizes bidding scene, the hero’s fight with the merchant Altynnikov. Yermil draws strength from popular support: as you know, Yermil was able to survive thanks to the fact that the peasants lent him money - as they say, “from the world to the wind.”
Like every folk hero, Ermil not without sin. “If you don’t sin, you won’t repent,” says the popular proverb. And indeed, instead of his brother Mitri, Yermil sends the son of a poor widow as a recruit. However, soon the hero repents in his action, and justice triumphs.
The firmness of Yermil’s moral position is manifested during the peasant riot. The narrator hints that the hero apparently refused to pacify the rebellious peasants and therefore ended up in prison.
Perhaps the most striking image in the poem is Matrena TimofeevnaKorchagina. The poet notes beauty And greatness heroines:
Matryona Timofeevna -
dignified woman,
Wide and dense
About thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray streaked hair,
The eyes are large, strict,
The richest eyelashes,
Severe and dark.
Life of Matryona Timofeevna inseparable from the life of nature. It is no coincidence that wandering men meet her at the most fertile time - during the harvest:
The ears have already filled up.
There are chiseled pillars,
Gilded heads
Thoughtfully and affectionately
They make noise. It's a wonderful time!
Nothing more fun, more elegant,
There is no richer time!
The narration about her in the part “Peasant Woman” is told mainly in the first person: the heroine herself talks about her own life, which is truly tragic. And in fact, she had the chance bitter share. Her son Dyomushka died. In front of the whole world, Matryona was flogged for the misconduct of Fedotushka’s son. The heroine suffered famine, fires, and other disasters. Her husband Philip was almost recruited. Therefore, the words of Matryona Timofeevna addressed to wanderers are disappointing:
And what are you up to?
Not a matter - between women
Happy searching!
They sound figuratively at the end of “The Peasant Woman” words of a pilgrim pilgrim about women's happiness:
The keys to female happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
From God himself.
It should also be noted that the part “Peasant Woman” is almost entirely built on folklore images and motifs. The poet seeks to emphasize the inextricable connection of the heroine with the folk poetic element.
Savely– peasant- Rebel. Impressive appearance a hero resembling a bear:
With a huge gray mane,
Tea for twenty years without a haircut,
With a huge beard
Grandfather looked like a bear
Especially from the forest
He went out bent over.
Rebellious beginning in the character of the hero is most clearly manifested in the story of the murder of the German manager, whom Savely “buried alive” in the ground.
The hero is endowed heroic strength. At the same time this is hero of the spirit, according to N.N. Skatov’s remark. At the end of his life, Savely goes to the Sand Monastery to pray for the entire Russian peasantry.
Among the episodic persons of the poem, the figures stand out the righteous. Let us name among them a pilgrim Fomushka and the townsman's widow Euphrosyne, who cared for those suffering during the cholera years.
In his poem, Nekrasov depicted not only those representatives of the people who arouse the reader’s sympathy. The poet showed and servility, and other negative features of people's life.
Klim Lavin from the part “The Last One” - lazy And two-faced a man who wants to please both the masters and not lose the trust of his fellow villagers:
No matter how desperate
Klim was a man: and a drunkard,
And his hand is unclean.
Serf of Prince Peremetyev, licking the master's plates and finishing wine from glasses, he “earned” the “lord’s disease” - gout. He boasts to the peasants:
With the best French truffle
I licked the plates
Foreign drinks
I drank from the glasses...
The reader learns about Sidore, who, while in prison, sent quitrent to the master. Yardman Ipat and after the reform he continues to consider himself a servant of Prince Utyatin.
Ipat said: “Have fun!
And I am the Utyatin princes
Serf - and that’s the whole story!”
He did not lose his love for the prince even after the owner bathed him in an ice hole and ran him over with a sleigh, eventually making him disabled.
The poem talks about betrayal Gleb who is called Judas. Through the fault of Gleb, his fellow peasants remained for many years in serfdom (“Peasant Sin”).
Truly tragic fate Yakov Verny- an exemplary slave who hanged himself in the presence of his own master.
In his poem, Nekrasov showed the life of not only the peasantry, but also other classes of Russia - clergy(in the chapter “Pop”), landowners(Obolta-Oboldueva from the chapter “The Landowner” and Prince Utyatin from the part “The Last One”).
In the chapter "Pop" ruralpriest talks about his difficult life. In the old days, when rich landowners lived on their estates, they supported the village priests with generous donations. Now, after the reform, some landowners went bankrupt, others left for St. Petersburg or abroad. The estates are desolate, the people are impoverished, and the priest is embarrassed to even take “retribution for the demand” from the poor peasants:
Our villages are poor,
And the peasants in them are sick
Yes, women are sad,
Nurses, drinkers,
Slaves, pilgrims
And eternal workers,
Lord give them strength!
With so much work for pennies
Life is hard!
The priest reminds the pilgrims and evil jokes of peasants addressed to the priest, the priest, the priest's daughter. From the priest’s story, it becomes clear that after the reform of 1861, the clergy was going through difficult times.
The chapter “The Landowner” tells about the entire Russian nobility, although the story is led by a specific landowner - Gavrila AfanasyevichObolt-Obolduev.
Appearance landowner important,solid. However, despite the hero’s venerable years, one can feel in his appearance dashing:
The landowner was rosy-cheeked,
Stately, planted,
Sixty years old;
The mustache is gray, long,
Well done touches,
Hungarian with Brandenburs,
Wide pants.
The hero characterizes lordly life both in the past and in the present. He talks about the past idylls noble estates: here and hound hunting, And luxurious feasts for the holiday.
In the present, the landowner class is also experiencing a crisis. Obolt-Obolduev is also aware of this. It is no coincidence that he yearns so much for the old days.
The landowner appears in this story and how serf-despot, who did not change his habits even after the reform of 1861. He exclaims:
The law is my desire!
The fist is my police!
The blow is sparkling,
The blow is tooth-breaking,
Hit the cheekbone!
Image Prince Utyatin in the part “Last One” - personification decline,degeneration landowners.
With his appearance, the hero resembles a fairy tale, strange creature:
Nose beak like a hawk's
Mustache is gray and long
And different eyes:
Alone, healthy, glowing,
And the left one is cloudy, cloudy,
Like a tin penny!
Prince Utyatin no way can't believe that serfdom already canceled, and acts as if nothing happened. The saddest thing is that the Vakhlak peasants, fooled by the promises of the prince’s heirs, are ready to play “gum” (comedy), portraying themselves as serfs.
Heirs of Utyatin - his guardsmen sons and their wives, the prince's daughters-in-law, eagerly awaiting the death of an old man who has lost his mind, are also depicted in satirical tones.
Nekrasov gives no less vivid characteristics to other landowners. Among them Shalashnikov, who cruelly flogged his serfs for non-payment of rent; sir Polivanov, who bought a village with bribes and there “freed, drank, drank bitterly,” committed violence and tyranny, recruited the nephew of his devoted servant Yakov Verny and drove Yakov himself to suicide. Among tyrant landowners, the murderer is particularly cruel Pan Glukhovsky(“About two great sinners”).
However, among the persons of the noble class described in Nekrasov’s poem, there are also worthy, virtuous people. This is, for example, Pavlusha Veretennikov, folklore collector, who helped out the old man Vavila and bought his granddaughter shoes; widower admiral(“ammiral-widower”), who performed heroic deeds in battles with the enemy and generously set his serfs free (“Peasant Sin”). It's finally governor's wifeElena Alexandrovna, who came to the aid of Matryona Timofeevna with warmth of heart.
In the image Grisha Dobrosklonova and his brother Savva Nekrasov showed the reader commoners– people's intercessors. The surname “Dobrosklonov” reminded Nekrasov’s contemporaries of the revolutionary democrat N.A. Dobrolyubov, a friend and ally of the poet, who passed away early. Grisha's worldview is most clearly revealed in his songs, which the hero sings to his fellow villagers. As an example, let’s take the song “Rus”:
You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You're downtrodden
You are omnipotent
Mother Rus'!
Creating the image of Grisha, Nekrasov addressed young readers, urging them to devote themselves to the cause of liberation of the people.
Nature. Folk calendar
In the poem “To whom in Rus'...” we find remarkable pictures of Russian nature; different Seasons.
The story begins in the spring:
Forests, flood meadows,
Russian streams and rivers
Good in spring.
Wanderers meet Matryona Timofeevna in a time of grace - in summer, while harvesting grain: “The ears have already filled up...” (see above). Other seasons are also shown in the poem - autumn,winter.
It is important that in Nekrasov’s work nature shown in peasant perception. The poem reflects folk calendar. Events, various phenomena in the life of nature and man are correlated with cycle of agricultural work, and also with church holidays And folk beliefs.
For example, in the chapter “Rural Fair” Nekrasov, drawing a picture spring nature, remembers feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, especially revered in Rus':
No wonder our wanderers
They scolded the wet one,
Cold spring...
Only on Nikola Veshny
The weather has cleared up
Green fresh grass
The cattle feasted.
Time earing of grain noted by the following folk sign:
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!
The bread will begin to spike,
You'll choke on an ear of corn -
You won't cuckoo!
In the part “The Last One” the period haymaking connects with time Petrovsky post:
Petrovka. It's a hot time.
Haymaking is in full swing.
IN Day of Simeon the Flyer Matrena Timofeevna emerged from infancy:
On the day of Simeon, father
He put me on a burushka
And brought me out of infancy
In the fifth year.
In accordance with the folk calendar, Memorial Day Holy Great Martyr Catherine noted first sleigh ride:
In winter Philippus came,
Brought a silk handkerchief
Yes, I went for a ride on a sled
On Catherine's day.
Church holidays The day of Matryona Timofeevna’s separation from her husband and her son’s birthday were marked:
Philip on Annunciation
He left, but Kazan
I gave birth to a son.
After the death of Dyomushka Matryona, in accordance with folk custom, doesn't take“in the mouth of an apple to the Savior”, that is, until Transfiguration.
Genre and plot-compositional features of the poem. Artistic means and techniques
Nekrasov addresses genreepic poem, an ancient genre that was not widespread in contemporary literature for the poet.
In an epic poem, or epic, life is not in the foreground. individual, but the whole people. Nekrasov’s poem recreates the fate of the Russian people after the reform, as well as the people’s consciousness, the peasant’s view of the world.
A characteristic element of an epic poem is prologue, where they play a special role fairy-tale-fantastic images. This, for example, is a magic bird, a self-assembled tablecloth, as well as seven eagle owls, a raven, and the witch Durandiha. These images have symbolic meaning. For example, a self-assembled tablecloth is a symbol of well-being and earthly happiness.
In addition, in his work Nekrasov uses various genres of folk art. This fairy tale(about the self-assembled tablecloth - in the prologue), song(there are especially many of them in the parts “Peasant Woman” and “Feast for the Whole World”), epic(for example, the story about Savelia), cry(Matryona Timofeevna’s cry for Dyomushka), legend(“About two great sinners”), mystery(about snow, about an ax, about a castle, about an echo).
Let's look at some plot and compositional features poems. Nekrasov wrote his work in the form trips, which is typical for folk epic. To whom in Rus'...” opens the image pillar path, on which seven wandering men came together.
The poem is distinguished polyphonism. It includes many storylines. It contains the most different voices. Particular emphasis should be placed on the role polyphony in the chapters “Rural Fair”, “Drunken Night”, “Happy”, in the part “Feast for the Whole World”. The entire peasant Russia appears before the reader.
The poet uses such artistic media and techniques, How figurative parallelism,personifications,comparisons,constant epithets, and other artistic techniques.
Let's give examples. Resorting to figurative parallelism, Nekrasov likens the death of a baby to the death of a nightingale’s nest, the story of which opens the chapter “Dyomushka”:
The tree was lit by a thunderstorm,
And there was a nightingale
There's a nest on the tree...
Another parallel tragic event- a story about a swallow that builds a nest under the shore:
Oh, swallow! Oh, stupid!
Don't build nests under the shore,
Under the steep shore!..
Nekrasov also resorts to such a technique as negative concurrency:
It is not the winds that blow violently,
It is not mother earth that sways -
He makes noise, sings, swears,
Swaying, lying around,
Fights and kisses
People are celebrating!
Drawing the sun after the rain, Nekrasov resorts to personification: “The red sun laughs...”
The poet uses numerous comparisons. For example, the night is likened to a letter that the Lord writes in red gold in heaven:
Silent night is falling
Already out into the dark sky
Luna is already writing a letter
Lord is red gold
On blue on velvet...
Popular rumor is likened to the blue sea; “rainy clouds” are compared to “milk cows”.
In the poem there are constant epithets: “violent winds”, “high street”, “red sun”, “blue sea”.
Often in the poem words with diminutive suffixes: “darling”, “chicks”, “mother”, “young lady”, “lipochka”.
All these means give “Who in Rus'...” features, bringing together Nekrasov's poem Withworks of folk art.
Questions and tasks
1. Tell us about the history of the creation of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” When did the poet start working on this work? Did he complete it? What parts of the poem have reached us?
2. What era is reflected in Nekrasov’s poem? The life of which classes and social groups did the poet reflect? Why can we say that the life of Russia is shown in “Who is in Rus'...” from a historical perspective?
3. What contradictions of people’s life and people’s consciousness were reflected by Nekrasov in “Who is in Rus'...”? What is the author's position in the poem?
4. Name the main motives of Nekrasov’s poem and briefly comment on them. Which motif is the central, plot-forming one?
5. Determine the ideological and compositional meaning of the seven wandering men. Quote the beginning of the poem - a passage that characterizes this collective image.
6. Tell us about Yakima Nagy. How does the poet describe Yakima's appearance? What opposing traits are combined in this hero?
7. Why can we call Ermil Girin a lover of truth? Comment on the main episodes that reveal the spiritual appearance of this character.
8. What features of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina indicate that in her image Nekrasov embodied his ideal ideas about a peasant woman? List and briefly comment on the facts from Matryona’s life that indicate the tragedy of her fate; Give examples from the text of the poem. What artistic means does Nekrasov use to create the image of the heroine? Quote the statements of the pilgrim pilgrim and Matryona herself about women's happiness.
9. Why does Nekrasov call Saveliy’s grandfather “the hero of Holy Russia”? How did the hero’s heroism manifest itself? Why can Savely be called a hero of spirit?
10. Name and briefly describe peasant serfs. How exactly does their servility manifest itself? Is it true to say that among the slaves depicted in the poem there are only comic figures?
11. Describe the image of a priest. Can we say that the village priest is depicted by Nekrasov with sympathy? Support your point of view with examples from the text.
12. What features of the Russian nobility and noble life in general were reflected in the image of Obolt-Obolduev? What artistic techniques does Nekrasov use to create his image?
13. Why did the peasants nickname Prince Utyatin “the last one”? How does the poet describe the hero's appearance? How are the prince’s “eccentricities” manifested? What character traits does Nekrasov endow with Utyatin’s heirs?
14. What other landowners did Nekrasov portray in his work? Are there any virtuous people who have compassion for the people among the nobles described in the poem?
15. What is the role of the images of Savva and Grisha Dobrosklonov in “Who in Rus'...”? Which of the real people, close friends of the poet, became the prototype of Grisha Dobrosklonov? In what form does Grisha express his ideas? Who is the author addressing with his young hero?
16. Tell us about the folk calendar recreated by Nekrasov in “Who in Rus'...” How do pictures of nature relate to church holidays and folk signs? Give examples from the text.
17. Describe the genre “To whom in Rus'...” Was the genre of the epic poem widespread during the time of Nekrasov? What goals did the poet pursue when turning to this genre? What element of “Who in Rus'...” is characteristic of the epic poem? What genres of folk art did Nekrasov use in his work?
18. Describe the plot and compositional features of “Who in Rus'...” What underlies the plot of the work? How does the polyphony of the poem manifest itself?
19. What artistic means and techniques does Nekrasov use in “Who in Rus'...”? List them and give examples from the text of the poem.
20. Make a detailed outline on the topic: “Images of landowners and peasants in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.”
21. Write an essay on the topic: “Traditions of folk art in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.”
In January 1866, the next issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published in St. Petersburg. It opened with lines that are now familiar to everyone:
In what year - calculate
Guess which land...
These words seemed to promise to introduce the reader into an entertaining fairy-tale world, where a warbler speaking in human language and a magic tablecloth would appear... So, with a sly smile and ease, N. A. Nekrasov began his story about the adventures of seven men who argued about the one “who lives cheerfully and at ease in Rus'.”
Already in the “Prologue” a picture of peasant Rus' was visible, the figure of the main character of the work stood up - the Russian peasant, as he really was: in bast shoes, onuchakh, an army coat, unfed, having suffered grief.
Three years later, publication of the poem resumed, but each part was met with severe persecution by the tsarist censors, who believed that the poem was “notable for its extreme ugliness of content.” The last chapter written, “A Feast for the Whole World,” came under particularly sharp attack. Unfortunately, Nekrasov was not destined to see either the publication of “The Feast” or a separate edition of the poem. Without abbreviations or distortions, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was published only after the October Revolution.
The poem takes central place in Nekrasov’s poetry, is its ideological and artistic peak, the result of the writer’s thoughts about the fate of the people, about their happiness and the paths that lead to it. These thoughts worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through all his poetic work.
By the 1860s, the Russian peasant became the main hero of Nekrasov’s poetry. “Peddlers”, “Orina, the soldier’s mother”, “ Railway", "Frost, Red Nose" are the most important works of the poet on the way to the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'."
He devoted many years to working on the poem, which the poet called his “favorite brainchild.” He set himself the goal of writing “ folk book”, useful, understandable to the people and truthful. “I decided,” said Nekrasov, “to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” This will be an epic of peasant life.” But death interrupted this gigantic work; the work remained unfinished. However, despite this, it retains ideological and artistic integrity.
Nekrasov revived the genre of folk epic in poetry. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a truly folk work: both in its ideological sound, and in the scale of the epic depiction of modern folk life, in posing the fundamental questions of the time, and in its heroic pathos, and in its widespread use poetic traditions oral folk art, the proximity of poetic language to living speech forms of everyday life and song lyricism.
At the same time, Nekrasov’s poem has features characteristic specifically of critical realism. Instead of one central character, the poem primarily depicts the folk environment as a whole, the living conditions of different social circles. The people's point of view on reality is expressed in the poem already in the very development of the theme, in the fact that all of Rus', all events are shown through the perception of wandering peasants, presented to the reader as if in their vision.
The events of the poem unfold in the first years after the reform of 1861 and the liberation of the peasants. The people, the peasantry, are the true positive heroes of the poem. Nekrasov pinned his hopes for the future on him, although he was aware of the weakness of the forces of peasant protest and the immaturity of the masses for revolutionary action.
In the poem, the author created the image of the peasant Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, “the hero of the homespun”, who personifies the gigantic strength and fortitude of the people. Savely is endowed with features legendary heroes folk epic. This image is associated by Nekrasov with central theme poems - the search for ways to people's happiness. It is no coincidence that Matryona Timofeevna says about Savely to wanderers: “He was also a lucky man.” Savely’s happiness lies in his love of freedom, in his understanding of the need for active struggle of the people, who can only achieve a “free” life in this way.
The poem contains many memorable images of peasants. Here is the smart old mayor Vlas, who has seen a lot in his time, and Yakim Nagoy, a typical representative of the working agricultural peasantry. However, Yakim Naga portrays the poet as not at all like the downtrodden, dark peasant of the patriarchal village. With a deep consciousness of his dignity, he ardently defends the people's honor and makes a fiery speech in defense of the people.
Important role The poem is occupied by the image of Ermil Girin - a pure and incorruptible “protector of the people”, who takes the side of the rebel peasants and ends up in prison.
In the beautiful female image of Matryona Timofeevna, the poet draws the typical features of a Russian peasant woman. Nekrasov wrote a lot about the harsh “female share” exciting poems, but he had never written about a peasant woman so fully, with such warmth and love with which Matryonushka is described in the poem.
Along with the peasant characters of the poem, who evoke love and sympathy, Nekrasov also depicts other types of peasants, mostly courtyards - lordly hangers-on, sycophants, obedient slaves and outright traitors. These images are drawn by the poet in the tones of satirical denunciation. The more clearly he saw the protest of the peasantry, the more he believed in the possibility of their liberation, the more irreconcilably he condemned slavish humiliation, servility and servility. Such are the “exemplary slave” Yakov in the poem, who ultimately realizes the humiliation of his position and resorts to pitiful and helpless, but in his slavish consciousness, terrible revenge - suicide in front of his tormentor; the “sensitive lackey” Ipat, who talks about his humiliations with disgusting relish; informer, “one of our own spy” Yegor Shutov; Elder Gleb, seduced by the promises of the heir and agreed to destroy the will of the deceased landowner about the liberation of eight thousand peasants (“Peasant Sin”).
Showing the ignorance, rudeness, superstition, and backwardness of the Russian village of that time, Nekrasov emphasizes the temporary, historically transient nature of the dark sides of peasant life.
The world poetically recreated in the poem is a world of sharp social contrasts, clashes, and acute contradictions in life.
In the “round”, “ruddy-faced”, “pot-bellied”, “mustachioed” landowner Obolt-Obolduev, whom the wanderers met, the poet reveals the emptiness and frivolity of a man who is not used to thinking seriously about life. Behind the guise of a good-natured man, behind Obolt-Obolduev’s courteous courtesy and ostentatious cordiality, the reader sees the arrogance and malice of the landowner, barely restrained disgust and hatred for the “men”, for the peasants.
The image of the landowner-tyrant Prince Utyatin, nicknamed by the peasants the Last One, is marked with satire and grotesquery. A predatory look, “a nose with a beak like a hawk,” alcoholism and voluptuousness complement the disgusting appearance of a typical representative of the landowner environment, an inveterate serf owner and despot.
At first glance, the development of the plot of the poem should consist in resolving the dispute between the men: which of the persons they named lives happier - the landowner, the official, the priest, the merchant, the minister or the tsar. However, developing the action of the poem, Nekrasov goes beyond the plot framework set by the plot of the work. Seven peasants are no longer looking for happiness only among representatives of the ruling classes. Going to the fair, in the midst of the people, they ask themselves the question: “Isn’t he hiding there, who lives happily?” In “The Last One” they directly say that the purpose of their journey is to search for people’s happiness, a better peasant lot:
We are looking, Uncle Vlas,
Unflogged province,
Ungutted parish,
Izbytkova village!..
Having begun the narrative in a semi-fairy-tale humorous tone, the poet gradually deepens the meaning of the question of happiness and gives it an increasingly acute social resonance. The author's intentions are most clearly manifested in the censored part of the poem - “A feast for the whole world.” The story about Grisha Dobrosklonov that began here was to take a central place in the development of the theme of happiness and struggle. Here the poet speaks directly about that path, about that “path” that leads to the embodiment of national happiness. Grisha’s happiness lies in the conscious struggle for a happy future for the people, so that “every peasant can live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.”
The image of Grisha is the final one in the series of “people’s intercessors” depicted in Nekrasov’s poetry. The author emphasizes in Grisha his close proximity to the people, lively communication with the peasants, in whom he finds complete understanding and support; Grisha is depicted as an inspired dreamer-poet, composing his “good songs” for the people.
Poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - supreme example folk style of Nekrasov poetry. The folk song and fairy-tale element of the poem gives it a bright national flavor and is directly related to Nekrasov’s faith in the great future of the people. The main theme of the poem - the search for happiness - goes back to folk tales, songs and other folklore sources, which talked about the search for a happy land, truth, wealth, treasure, etc. This theme expressed the most cherished thought of the masses, their desire for happiness, the age-old dream of the people about a fair social system.
Nekrasov used almost everything in the poem genre diversity Russian folk poetry: fairy tales, epics, legends, riddles, proverbs, sayings, family songs, love songs, wedding songs, historical songs. Folk poetry provided the poet with rich material for judging peasant life, life, and the customs of the village.
The style of the poem is characterized by a wealth of emotional sounds, a variety of poetic intonation: the sly smile and leisurely narration in the “Prologue” is replaced in subsequent scenes by the ringing polyphony of a seething fair crowd, in “The Last One” - by satirical ridicule, in “The Peasant Woman” - by deep drama and lyrical emotion, and in “A Feast for the Whole World” - with heroic tension and revolutionary pathos.
The poet subtly feels and loves the beauty of the native Russian nature of the northern strip. The poet also uses the landscape to create an emotional tone, to more fully and vividly characterize the character’s state of mind.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has a prominent place in Russian poetry. In it, the fearless truth of pictures of folk life appears in an aura of poetic fabulousness and the beauty of folk art, and the cry of protest and satire merged with the heroism of the revolutionary struggle.
The ideological meaning and artistic originality of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tales
I. “This was a writer-fighter who stood on the south” (I. S. Turgenev).
II. Master of socio-political satire.
1. “I grew up in the lap of serfdom. I saw a kingdom of fear."
2. Reinterpretation of fairy-tale and folklore images and plots.
3. Saltykov-Shchedrin - “representative of the party of a radical revolution” (A. Herzen), a fighter “against arbitrariness, double-mindedness, lies, selfishness, betrayal, idle thinking” (S. Shchedrin).
4. “There is a victorious grunt everywhere, someone is being chomped everywhere” (S. Shchedrin).
b) “The trouble of the people is that they are poor in the consciousness of their poverty” (S. Shchedrin).
c) The people and the “idle dancers”.
III. The skill of satirical exposure: from irony to caustic sarcasm. Hyperbole and grotesque, the fantastic element as innovative means of political tale-satire.
Bykova N. G
Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin
Shchedrin's tales in miniature contain the problems and images of the entire work of the great satirist. Of the thirty-two tales, twenty-nine were written in the last decade of his life (most from 1882 to 1886), and only three tales were created in 1869. Fairy tales seem to sum up the forty years creative activity writer.
Shchedrin often resorted to the fairy-tale genre in his work. There are also elements of fairy-tale fiction in “The History of a City,” and complete fairy tales are included in the satirical novel “Modern Idyll” and the chronicle “Abroad.” It is no coincidence that Shchedrin’s genre flourished in the 1980s. It was during this period of rampant political reaction in Russia that the satirist had to look for a form that was most convenient for circumventing censorship and at the same time the closest, understandable to the common reader.
When creating his fairy tales, Shchedrin relied not only on the experience of folk art, but also on the satirical fables of the great Krylov, on the traditions of Western European fairy tales. He created a new one original genre a political fairy tale that combines fantasy with reality.
As in all of Shchedrin’s work, fairy tales confront two social forces: the working people and their exploiters. The people act under the masks of kind and defenseless animals and birds (and often without a mask, under the name “man”), the exploiters act in the guise of predators. The symbol of peasant Russia, tortured by exploiters, is the image of Konyaga from fairy tale of the same name. Horse is a peasant, a worker, a source of life for everyone. Thanks to him, bread grows in the vast fields of Russia, but he himself has no right to eat this bread. His destiny is eternal convict heap. “No end to work! Work exhausts the whole meaning of his existence...” exclaims the satirist.
A generalized image of the worker - the breadwinner of Russia, who is tormented by the oppressors, is also in Shchedrin’s earliest fairy tales: “How one man fed two generals”, “The Wild Landowner”. Showing the hard labor life of the working people, Shchedrin mourns the obedience of the people, their humility before the oppressors. He laughs bitterly at how a man, on the orders of the generals, twists a rope with which they then tie him.
In almost all fairy tales, the image of the peasant people is depicted by Shchedrin with love, breathing with indestructible power and nobility. The man is honest, straightforward, kind, unusually sharp and smart. He can do everything: get food, sew clothes; he conquers the elemental forces of nature, jokingly swimming across the “ocean-sea”. And the man treats his enslavers mockingly, without losing his feelings self-esteem. The generals from the fairy tale “How one man fed two generals” look like pitiful pygmies compared to the giant man. To depict them, the satirist uses completely different colors. They “understand nothing,” they are cowardly and helpless, greedy and stupid. Meanwhile, they imagine themselves to be noble people, they push the peasant around: “You’re sleeping, you couch potato!.. Now go to work!” Having escaped death and become rich thanks to the peasant, the generals send him a pathetic sop to the kitchen: “... a glass of vodka and a nickel of silver: have fun, peasant!” The satirist emphasizes that it is useless to expect the people from the exploiters to have a better life. The people can achieve their happiness only by throwing off their parasites.
In the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner,” Shchedrin seemed to summarize his thoughts about the liberation of the peasants. He raises here an unusually acute problem of the post-reform relationship between the nobles-serf owners and the peasantry completely ruined by the reform:
The cattle comes out to drink - the landowner shouts: my water! a chicken wanders into the outskirts - the landowner shouts: my land! And the earth, and the water, and the air - everything became his! There was no torch to light the peasant's light, there was no rod to sweep out the hut with. So the peasants prayed to the Lord God all over the world:
– God! It’s easier for us to perish even with small children than to toil like this all our lives.
This landowner, like the generals from another fairy tale, had no idea about work. Abandoned by his peasants, he immediately turns into a dirty and wild animal. He becomes a forest predator. The wild landowner, like the generals, regains his outward human appearance only after his peasants return. Scolding the wild landowner for his stupidity, the police officer tells him that without peasant taxes and duties the state cannot exist, that without peasants everyone will die of hunger, “you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread at the market,” and the masters won’t have any money. . The people are the creator of wealth, and ruling classes only consumers of this wealth.
On the question of ways to change social order In Russia, the seasonal workers from “The Way to Go,” the petitioner raven from the fairy tale of the same name, the idealistic crucian carp, the boy Seryozha from “The Christmas Tale” and many others struggle in vain.
Heroes of fairy tales " Selfless hare" and "The Sane Hare" are performed by cowardly ordinary people hoping for the kindness of predators. The hares do not doubt the right of the wolf and the fox to take their lives; they consider it quite natural that the strong eat the weak, but they hope to touch the wolf’s heart with their honesty and humility. “Or maybe the wolf... ha-ha... will have mercy on me!” Predators are still predators. It doesn’t help Zaitsev that they “didn’t start revolutions, didn’t go out with weapons in their hands.”
Shchedrinsky became the personification of wingless and vulgar philistinism wise minnow- the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. The meaning of life for this “enlightened, moderately liberal” coward was self-preservation, avoidance of conflicts and struggle. Therefore, the gudgeon lived to a ripe old age unharmed. But this life was humiliating. It consisted of continuous trembling for one's skin. “He lived and trembled - that’s all.”
Shchedrin's sarcasm manifested itself most sharply and openly in fairy tales depicting the bureaucratic apparatus of the autocracy and the ruling elite, right up to the tsar. In the fairy tales “The Toy Business of Little People”, “The Watchful Eye”, “Idle Conversation”, images of officials appear robbing the people.
The fairy tale “The Eagle Patron” gives a devastating parody of the tsar and the ruling classes. The eagle is the enemy of science, art, the defender of darkness and ignorance. He destroyed the nightingale for his free songs, “dressed up the literate woodpecker... in shackles and imprisoned him in a hollow forever,” and ruined the crow men. It ended with the crows rebelling, “the whole herd took off from their place and flew away,” leaving the eagle to die of starvation. “Let this serve as a lesson to the eagles!” - the satirist meaningfully concludes the tale.
The fairy tale “The Bogatyr” speaks with extraordinary courage and directness about the death of the autocracy. In it, the author ridicules the belief in the “rotten” Bogatyr, who gave up his long-suffering country to destruction and mockery. Ivanushka the Fool “broke the hollow with his fist” where the Bogatyr was sleeping, and showed everyone that he had long since rotted, that no help could be expected from the Bogatyr.
The masks of the animal world could not hide the political content of Shchedrin's fairy tales. Transferring human traits to animal world created a comic effect and clearly exposed the absurdity of existing reality.
The language of Shchedrin's tales is deeply folk, close to Russian folklore. The satirist uses traditional fairy-tale techniques, images, proverbs, sayings, and sayings.
In an elegy fairy tale, the hero pours out his soul, reproaches himself in isolation from active action. These are the thoughts of Shchedrin himself.
The images of fairy tales have come into use, become household names and live on for many decades.
"Messrs. Golovlevs"
Among the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, an outstanding place belongs to the socio-psychological novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” (1875–1880).
The plot of this novel is based on tragic story of the landowner Golovlev family. Three generations of Golovlevs pass before the readers. In the life of each of them, Shchedrin sees “three characteristic features”: “idleness, unsuitability for any work and hard drinking. The first two brought with them idle talk, dullness, emptiness, the latter was, as it were, a mandatory conclusion to the general turmoil of life.”
The novel opens with the chapter “Family Court.” It contains the plot of the entire novel. Life, living passions and aspirations, energy are still noticeable here. The center of this chapter is Arina Petrovna Golovleva, formidable to everyone around her, an intelligent landowner-serf, an autocrat in the family and on the farm, physically and morally completely absorbed in the energetic, persistent struggle to increase wealth. Porfiry here is not yet an “escheat” person. His hypocrisy and idle talk cover up a certain practical purpose– deprive brother Stepan of the right to a share in the inheritance.
A strong reproach to Golovlevism is Stepan, his dramatic death, which ends the first chapter of the novel. Of the young Golovlevs, he is the most gifted, impressionable and clever man, received a university education. But from childhood he experienced constant oppression from his mother, and was known as the hateful son-clown, “Styopka the dunce.” As a result, he turned out to be a man with a slavish character, capable of being anyone: a drunkard, even a criminal.
In the next chapter - “Kindly” - the action takes place ten years after the events described in the first chapter. But how the faces and relationships between them have changed! The imperious head of the family, Arina Petrovna, turned into a modest and powerless hanger-on in the house youngest son Pavel Vladimirovich in Dubravin. Judushka - Porfiry took possession of the Golovlevsky estate. He now becomes almost the main figure of the story. As in the first chapter, here too we're talking about about the death of another representative of the young Golovlevs - Pavel Vladimirovich.
Subsequent chapters of the novel tell about the spiritual disintegration of personality and family ties, about “deaths.” The third chapter - “Family Results” - includes a message about the death of Porfiry Golovlev’s son, Vladimir. The same chapter shows the reason for the later death of Judas’s other son, Peter. It tells about the spiritual and physical withering of Arina Petrovna, about the savagery of Judushka himself.
In the fourth chapter - “Niece” - Arina Petrovna and Peter, the son of Judas, die. In the fifth chapter - “Illegal Family Joys” - there is no physical death, but Judushka kills the maternal feeling in Evprakseyushka.
In the climactic sixth chapter - “Escaped” - we are talking about the spiritual death of Judas, and in the seventh his physical death occurs (here we also talk about Lyubinka’s suicide, about Anninka’s death agony).
The life of the youngest, third generation of Golovlevs turned out to be especially short-lived. The fate of the sisters Lyubinka and Anninka is indicative. They escaped from their cursed nest, dreaming of serving high art. But the sisters were not prepared for the harsh struggle of life for the sake of high goals. The disgusting, cynical provincial environment absorbed and destroyed them.
The most tenacious among the Golovlevs turns out to be the most disgusting, the most inhuman of them - Judushka, “a pious dirty tricker”, “a stinking ulcer”, “a blood drinker”.
Shchedrin not only predicts the death of Judas, he also sees his strength, the source of his vitality. Judas is a nonentity, but this empty-hearted man oppresses, torments and torments, kills, dispossesses, destroys. It is he who is the direct or indirect cause of the endless “deaths” in the Golovlevsky house.
In the first chapters of the novel, Judas is in a state of binge of hypocritical idle talk. It is the most characteristic feature of Porfiry’s nature. With his unctuous, deceitful words, he torments the victim, mocks human personality, above religion and morality, the sanctity of family ties.
In the following chapters, Judas acquires new features. He plunges into the soul-devastating world of trifles and trifles. But everything died out around Judas. He was left alone and fell silent. Idle talk and idle talk lost their meaning: there was no one to lull and deceive, tyrannize and kill. And Judas begins a binge of lonely idle thoughts, misanthropic landowner dreams. In his delusional fantasy, he loved to “torture, ruin, dispossess, suck blood.”
The hero comes to a break with reality, with real life. Judas becomes an escheat, a terrible dust, a living dead. But he wanted complete deafness, which would completely abolish any idea of life and throw him into the void. This is where the need for a drunken binge arises. But in the final chapter, Shchedrin shows how a wild, driven and forgotten conscience awoke in Judushka. She illuminated to him all the horror of his treacherous life, all the hopelessness and doom of his situation. An agony of repentance, mental turmoil set in, an acute feeling of guilt before people arose, a feeling appeared that everything around him was hostilely opposing him, and then the idea of the need for “violent self-destruction,” suicide, ripened.
In the tragic denouement of the novel, Shchedrin’s humanism in understanding the social nature of man was most clearly revealed, the confidence was expressed that even in the most disgusting and degraded person, it is possible to awaken conscience and shame, to realize the emptiness, injustice and futility of one’s life.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin knew Russia perfectly. True it mighty word awakened and formed the self-awareness of readers, called them to fight. The writer was not aware real ways to the happiness of the people. But his intense search prepared the way for the future.
"The Story of a City"
The famous satirical review novel “The History of a City” was written by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1869–1870.
The author presented his work as the notebooks of a chronicler found in the archive, supposedly living in the 18th century, and assigned himself only the modest role of “publisher” of his notes; He represented the kings and royal ministers in the images of mayors, and the state regime they established in the image of the city of Foolov.
This novel uses all the artistic techniques of Shchedrin's satire - satirical fantasy, grotesque, merciless irony and cheerful, triumphant humor. This fantasy is essentially true and realistic; only the external features of the images and events are unreal. “They talk about caricature and exaggeration, but you just need to look around for this accusation to fall by itself... Who is writing this caricature? Isn't it reality itself? Isn’t she constantly exposing herself to exaggeration?” – wrote Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Busty-Organchik, despite all the fantastic appearance of his appearance (instead of a brain he has a primitive mechanism inserted - an organ), commits actions that are no different from the actions of real-life rulers. Upon entering the province, he flogs the coachmen, then day and night he writes “more and more new compulsions.” According to his orders, “they grab and catch, flog and flog, describe and sell.” Such control has been tested for centuries, and in order to control it in this way, it was enough to have an “empty vessel” instead of a head. No wonder the superintendent of the public school answered the question of the Foolovites: “Have there been examples in history of people giving orders, waging wars and concluding treaties with an empty vessel on their shoulders?” - answers that this is quite possible, that a certain ruler “Karl the Simple-minded... had on his shoulders, although not empty, but still like an empty vessel, and he waged wars and concluded treaties.”
Besides “I’ll ruin you!” and “I will not tolerate it!” Organchik did not need any other words due to the nature of his activity. “There are people,” writes Shchedrin, “whose entire existence is exhausted by these two romances.” In the image of Organchik, the features of automatism and callousness of the rulers are sharpened to the limit.
The mayor Vasilisk Wartkin, famous for his “wars for enlightenment”, for the introduction of mustard and Persian chamomile into the life of the Foolovites, also appears as an evil, soulless doll and wages his wild wars with the assistance of tin soldiers. But Wartkin’s actions are by no means more fantastic than the actions of any tyrant ruler. Wartkin “burned down thirty-three villages and with the help of these measures collected arrears of two rubles and a half.”
In his works preceding “The History of a City,” Shchedrin wrote that vile pimples appear on the “face of society,” indicating its rottenness and internal illness. It is precisely this personification of the disease of the exploitative system that Mayor Pyshch is. The main feature of the mayor Pimple (aka Stuffed Head) is animality. The pimple invariably whets the appetite of the leader of the nobility - his head, stuffed with truffles, spreads a seductive smell. In the episode where the leader of the nobility eats the head of the mayor, Pimple finally loses his human appearance: “The mayor suddenly jumped up and began wiping with his paws those parts of his body that the leader had poured vinegar on. Then he spun in one place and suddenly his entire body fell to the floor.”
Even the image of Gloomy-Burcheev - this symbol of oppression and tyranny - absorbed many specific features of the anti-people rulers of Russia. The images of mayors are devoid of psychological depth. And this is no coincidence. The Gloomy-Burcheevs are alien to feelings of grief, joy, and doubt. They are not people, but mechanical dolls. They - complete opposite living people, suffering and thinking. Shchedrin draws mayors in a sharply sarcastic and grotesque manner, but sometimes he uses irony and even cheerful humor.
Shchedrin loved the oppressed people of Russia with all his soul, but this did not stop him from condemning their ignorance and humility. When Shchedrin was accused of mocking the people, the writer replied: “It seems to me that in the word “people” we must distinguish two concepts: a historical people and a people representing the idea of democracy. I really cannot sympathize with the first one, who carries the Wartkins, Burcheevs, etc. on his shoulders. I have always sympathized with the second, and all my writings are full of this sympathy.”
In “The History of a City,” Shchedrin predicted the death of the autocracy. Humiliated, driven to despair, Foolovites eventually begin to understand the impossibility of their existence under the despotic regime of Ugryum-Burcheev. The writer tangibly conveys the growing anger of the people, the atmosphere preceding the explosion. Shchedrin ends his chronicle with a picture of this powerful explosion that shook the city. Gloomy-Burcheev disappeared, “as if melting into thin air,” and “history stopped flowing,” the history of the gloomy city, its downtrodden and submissive inhabitants, its insane rulers. A new period begins in the life of the liberated people. The true history of mankind is endless, it is like a mountain river, the mighty movement of which was powerless to stop Gloomy-Burcheev. “The river didn’t let up. As before, it flowed, breathed, gurgled and wriggled; As before, one bank of it was steep, and the other was a meadow lowland, flooded with water over a distant space in the spring.” Shchedrin’s bright view of the future, vividly embodied in his book, is associated with the premonition of great historical changes in Foolov.
The chronicle is written in colorful, very complex language. It makes extensive use of the high style of ancient speech - for example, in the address of an archivist-chronicler to the reader - and folk sayings and proverbs, and the heavy, unreadable style of stationery papers in a parodic arrangement (the so-called “Base documents” attached to the chronicle), And journalistic style contemporary journalism to Shchedrin. The combination of the “chronicler’s” tale-like style with the author’s transcription of his notes allowed Shchedrin to give the story a somewhat archaic character. historical evidence, then again introduce into it clear echoes of modernity.
Shchedrin's satire has always been on the side of those who fought for the triumph of justice and truth. The writer believed in the collapse of Foolov's system of life on earth, in the victory of the immortal ideas of democracy and progress.
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The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a work about the people, their life, work and struggle, poem by G. I. Nekrasov told Uspensky what he wanted
“Who in Rus' should create a book that is “useful, understandable to the people and live well”, truthful.” This is how the poem turned out. This is a work about the people and for the people. In an effort to create a work understandable and close to the people, the poet turned to spiritual treasures created by the people themselves. Oral folk art was such a treasure for the poet. It, like a mirror, reflects the spiritual life of the people, their thoughts, hopes, and way of life. Nekrasov called folk poetry “the repository of the Russian people.” TO artistic creativity The poet addressed the people throughout his life. This is eloquently evidenced by such works as “Frost - Red Nose”, “Peddlers”, “ Green noise" and etc.
The poet especially highly valued those works of oral folk art in which anger, hatred and protest of the peasantry against centuries-old oppression and lawlessness were heard. Nekrasov used folk poetry not only to make his works accessible to the people, but also to show the extraordinary talent of the people, their spiritual power, and to influence the people in a democratic spirit.
The poet himself was a deep connoisseur of folk art. A lot of poetic materials was stored in his notes, he stored even greater wealth in his amazing memory. In addition, Nekrasov used collections folk tales, songs, lamentations, riddles, proverbs and sayings collected by major scientists of his time: Rybnikov, Barsov, Dahl, Afanasyev and others.
In the poem, the men say this about themselves and their masters:
We'll fall into absolute hell.
That's what awaits the peasant there too
Work for the gentlemen!
What will happen there, Klimushka?
And it will happen that it is appointed: They will boil in a cauldron,
And we'll add firewood!
Connection with folk art
It appeared, as already mentioned, in the plot of the poem, marked with the stamp of fabulousness. Such characters as a wonderful bird that speaks in a human voice, and a self-assembled tablecloth that made it easier for wanderers to find happiness are also fabulous. The elements of fairy-tale fantasy present in the poem did not prevent it from remaining a realistic work, truthfully and fully showing all aspects of Nekrasov’s contemporary reality. The poet uses the technique of folk art in the beginning of the poem. To enhance the impression of him, Nekrasov resorts to the technique of multiple repetition. When meeting each new person, the wanderers repeat who they are, where they come from and what they argued about. They also repeat the story about that “caring woman” who “brought them out of their homes,” “unfriended” them with work, “kept them away from food,” and their decision:
Don't toss and turn in the houses.
Don't see your wives
Not with the little guys.
Not with old people.
As long as our dispute
We won't find a solution.
Until we find out.
Whatever it is, for sure
Who has fun living?
At ease in Rus'.
Talking about the bitter lot of the Russian peasant woman, Nekrasov especially often turned to Barsov’s book “Lamentations Northern Territory" This book was a record of the “cries” of the most talented storyteller Irina Fedosova, an illiterate peasant woman who had a great poetic gift and a rare memory: she remembered about thirty thousand poems by heart. Fedosova’s angry, protesting songs were close and dear to Nekrasov, because they embodied the torment, grief and hatred of the people towards their oppressors. Fedosova’s “cries” and “lamentations” formed, in particular, the basis for the chapter “Dyomushka”.
The poem uses a large number of folk riddles. These are riddles about an echo, snow, a mill, a castle, an axe, a starry sky, evening shadows, ears of corn, etc. Most often, Nekrasov gives them along with the answer:
A booming echo woke up
Spring has come - it has affected
snow!
Nobody saw him
He is humble for the time being:
And everyone has heard,
It flies - is silent, lies -
Without a body - but it lives,
is silent
Without a tongue - screams.
When he dies, then he roars.
A poem whose main character is the people could not have been written in any other language. Nekrasov admired the strength, beauty and richness of the folk word, “which you can’t come up with even if you swallow a pen.” Vernacular, in which the poem was written, testified to the poetic talent of the Russian peasantry, the spiritual greatness of the people - the creator of this amazing language.
The nationality of the poem affected everyone visual media, in particular - in comparisons. Nekrasov looked at life through the eyes of the people, events, people and actions were assessed from the people's point of view, and therefore the comparisons included in the author's language of the poem are no different in nature from the comparisons used by the plowmen - the heroes of the poem. Thus, drawing a portrait of Yakim Nagogo, a portrait that acquires the meaning of a generalizing symbol, the poet writes:
Bends like cracks at the eyes, at the mouth
On dry ground;
And to Mother Earth myself
He looks similar: his neck is brown.
Like a layer
the plow is fucked up.
Brick face. Hand - tree bark,
And the hair is sand.
Many comparisons are remarkable not only for their poetic beauty, but also for the strength of the peasant anger and grief that is captured in them:
Like rye spreading in the wind, it goes like a fire through the peasant heart.
The Lord's abuse. What a mosquito sting. Peasant - asshole.
Every peasant has a Soul like a black cloud - Angry, menacing - and Thunder should thunder from there, Bloody rain should fall...
The song is folding, rolling wide and freely,
. Each of the heroes of the poem speaks to his special language. The speech of the peasants is simple and rich. Truthfully conveying the speech of the people, Nekrasov, when dictated by poetic necessity, resorts to vulgarisms:
Man, what a bull: he gets into the head, what a whim, You can’t knock it out with a stake from there...
Why were you yelling and showing off? You got into a fight, anathema?.. Go quickly and grunt, lie down in the ditch, drink some water, Maybe the crap will jump off!
The speech of a priest or sexton seems different, interspersed with such words as pastures, complacency, the garden of Christ, amen, it is a sin to murmur against God, etc.
197The speech of the heroes of the poem is an excellent means of characterizing them. So, for example, the sedate speech of the elder Vlas, beloved by the peasants, differs sharply from the speech of the fake mayor Klimka Lavin, who “had heard enough of some special words: fatherland, Moscow is the first throne, the Great Russian soul; I’m a Russian peasant!”
By their nature the poems Nekrasov's poem adjacent to folk poems. Nekrasov used all the techniques of oral folk poetry: p o s goi nn y my "epithets (damp earth, ardent wax/black crows, violent winds, etc.), negative comparisons (not violent winds howl, not mother earth sways...), beginnings, repetitions, hyperboles, etc.
Nekrasov's creativity was formed under the strong influence of Belinsky and Chernyshevsky. Chernyshevsky's aesthetic theory found brilliant embodiment in Nekrasov's poetry. His poems truthfully reproduced life in all its complexity and completeness, explained life and taught how to pronounce judgment on life. Nekrasov's poetry posed and helped resolve major social issues. He tried to write in such a way that “the words were cramped, but the thoughts were spacious”; addressing his colleagues in creativity, he said:
Give generous tribute to the form
Time: important in the poem