Poor Lisa is the beginning. The story “Poor Liza” by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin

Karamzin N M

Poor Lisa

Perhaps no one living in Moscow knows the surroundings of this city as well as I do, because no one is in the field more often than me, no one more than me wanders on foot, without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through the meadows and groves , over hills and plains. Every summer I find new pleasant places or new beauty in old ones. But the most pleasant place for me is the place where the gloomy, Gothic towers of the Si...nova Monastery rise. Standing on this mountain, you see on the right side almost the whole of Moscow, this terrible mass of houses and churches, which appears to the eye in the form of a majestic amphitheater: a magnificent picture, especially when the sun shines on it, when its evening rays glow on countless golden domes, on countless crosses ascending to the sky! Below are lush, densely green flowering meadows, and behind them, along the yellow sands, flows a bright river, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats or rustling under the helm of heavy plows that sail from the most fertile countries of the Russian Empire and supply greedy Moscow with bread.

On the other side of the river one can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze; there young shepherds, sitting under the shade of trees, sing simple, sad songs and thus shorten the summer days, so uniform for them. Further away, in the dense greenery of ancient elms, the golden-domed Danilov Monastery shines; even further, almost at the edge of the horizon, the Sparrow Hills are blue. On the left side you can see vast fields covered with grain, forests, three or four villages and in the distance the village of Kolomenskoye with its high palace.

I often come to this place and almost always see spring there; I come there and grieve with nature on the dark days of autumn. The winds howl terribly within the walls of the deserted monastery, between the coffins overgrown with tall grass, and in the dark passages of the cells. There, leaning on the ruins of tombstones, I listen to the dull groan of times, swallowed up by the abyss of the past - a groan from which my heart shudders and trembles. Sometimes I enter cells and imagine those who lived in them - sad pictures! Here I see a gray-haired old man, kneeling before the crucifix and praying for a quick release from his earthly shackles, for all the pleasures in life had disappeared for him, all his feelings had died, except for the feeling of illness and weakness. There a young monk - with a pale face, with a languid gaze - looks into the field through the lattice of the window, sees cheerful birds swimming freely in the sea of ​​air, sees - and sheds bitter tears from his eyes. He languishes, withers, dries up - and the sad ringing of a bell announces to me his untimely death. Sometimes on the gates of the temple I look at the image of miracles that happened in this monastery, where fish fall from the sky to feed the inhabitants of the monastery, besieged by numerous enemies; here the image of the Mother of God puts the enemies to flight. All this renews in my memory the history of our fatherland - the sad history of those times when the ferocious Tatars and Lithuanians devastated the environs of the Russian capital with fire and sword and when unfortunate Moscow, like a defenseless widow, expected help from God alone in its cruel disasters.

But most often what attracts me to the walls of the Si...nova Monastery is the memory of the deplorable fate of Lisa, poor Lisa. Oh! I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow!

Seventy yards from the monastery wall, near a birch grove, in the middle of a green meadow, there stands an empty hut, without doors, without endings, without a floor; the roof had long since rotted and collapsed. In this hut, thirty years before, the beautiful, amiable Liza lived with her old woman, her mother.

Lizin's father was a fairly prosperous villager, because he loved work, plowed the land well and always led a sober life. But soon after his death, his wife and daughter became poor. The lazy hand of the mercenary poorly cultivated the field, and the grain ceased to be produced well. They were forced to rent out their land, and for very little money. Moreover, the poor widow, almost constantly shedding tears over the death of her husband - for even peasant women know how to love! - day by day she became weaker and could not work at all. Only Lisa, who remained after her father for fifteen years, - only Lisa, not sparing her tender youth, not sparing her rare beauty, worked day and night - weaved canvas, knitted stockings, picked flowers in the spring, and took berries in the summer - and sold them in Moscow. The sensitive, kind old woman, seeing her daughter’s tirelessness, often pressed her to her weakly beating heart, called her divine mercy, nurse, the joy of her old age, and prayed to God to reward her for all that she does for her mother.

“God gave me hands to work with,” said Lisa, “you fed me with your breasts and followed me when I was a child; now it’s my turn to follow you. Just stop being upset, stop crying; our tears will not revive the priests.” .

But often tender Liza could not hold back her own tears - ah! she remembered that she had a father and that he was gone, but to reassure her mother she tried to hide the sadness of her heart and seem calm and cheerful. “In the next world, dear Liza,” answered the sad old woman, “in the next world I will stop crying. There, they say, everyone will be cheerful; I’ll probably be cheerful when I see your father, Only now I don’t want to die - what’s wrong with you?” "What will happen without me? Who will leave you with? No, God grant that first you will be settled in a place! Perhaps a good person will soon be found. Then, having blessed you, my dear children, I will cross myself and calmly lie down in the damp earth."

Two years have passed since the death of Lizin's father. The meadows were covered with flowers, and Lisa came to Moscow with lilies of the valley. A young, well-dressed, pleasant-looking man met her on the street. She showed him the flowers and blushed. "Are you selling them, girl?" - he asked with a smile. “I’m selling,” she answered. "What do you need?" - “Five kopecks?” - “It’s too cheap. Here’s a ruble for you.” Lisa was surprised, dared to look at the young man, blushed even more and, looking down at the ground, told him that she would not take the ruble. "For what?" - “I don’t need anything extra.” - “I think that beautiful lilies of the valley, plucked by the hands of a beautiful girl, are worth a ruble. When you don’t take it, here’s five kopecks for you. I would always like to buy flowers from you; I would like you to pick them just for me,” Lisa gave the flowers, took five kopecks, bowed and wanted to go, but the stranger stopped her by the hand; "Where are you going, girl?" - “Home” - “Where is your home?” Lisa said where she lived, said and went. The young man did not want to hold her, perhaps so that those passing by began to stop and, looking at them, grinned insidiously.

The 18th century, which glorified many wonderful people, including the writer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. Towards the end of this century, he published his most famous creation - the story “Poor Lisa”. It was this that brought him great fame and enormous popularity among readers. The book is based on two characters: the poor girl Lisa and the nobleman Erast, who appear during the course of the plot in their attitude to love.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin made a huge contribution to the cultural development of the fatherland at the end of the 18th century. After numerous trips to Germany, England, France and Switzerland, the prose writer returns to Russia, and while relaxing at the dacha of the famous traveler Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov, in the 1790s he undertakes a new literary experiment. The local surroundings near the Simonov Monastery greatly influenced the idea of ​​the work “Poor Liza,” which he nurtured during his travels. Nature was of great importance to Karamzin; he truly loved it and often exchanged the bustle of the city for forests and fields, where he read his favorite books and immersed himself in thought.

Genre and direction

“Poor Liza” is the first Russian psychological story that contains the moral disagreement of people of different classes. Lisa’s feelings are clear and understandable to the reader: for a simple bourgeois woman, happiness is love, so she loves blindly and naively. Erast’s feelings, on the contrary, are more confused, because he himself cannot understand them. At first, the young man simply wants to fall in love, just like in the novels he read, but it soon becomes clear that he is not capable of living with love. City life, full of luxury and passions, had a huge impact on the hero, and he discovers carnal attraction, which completely destroys spiritual love.

Karamzin is an innovator; he can rightfully be called the founder of Russian sentimentalism. Readers received the work with admiration, since society had been wanting something like this for a long time. The public was exhausted by the moral teachings of the classicist trend, the basis of which is the worship of reason and duty. Sentimentalism demonstrates the emotional experiences, feelings and emotions of the characters.

About what?

According to the writer, this story is “a very simple fairy tale.” Indeed, the plot of the work is simple to the point of genius. It begins and ends with a sketch of the area of ​​the Simonov Monastery, which evokes in the narrator’s memory thoughts about the tragic turn in the fate of poor Lisa. This is a love story between a poor provincial woman and a wealthy young man from a privileged class. The lovers' acquaintance began with the fact that Lisa was selling lilies of the valley collected in the forest, and Erast, wanting to start a conversation with the girl he liked, decided to buy flowers from her. He was captivated by Lisa's natural beauty and kindness, and they began dating. However, the young man soon became fed up with the charm of his passion and found a more profitable match. The heroine, unable to withstand the blow, drowned herself. Her lover regretted this all his life.

Their images are ambiguous; first of all, the world of a simple natural person, unspoiled by city bustle and greed, is revealed. Karamzin described everything in such detail and picturesquely that readers believed in this story and fell in love with his heroine.

The main characters and their characteristics

1. The main character of the story is Lisa, a poor village girl. At an early age, she lost her father and was forced to become a breadwinner for her family, accepting any job. The hardworking provincial woman is very naive and sensitive, she sees only good traits in people and lives by her emotions, following her heart. She looks after her mother day and night. And even when the heroine decides to take a fatal act, she still does not forget about her family and leaves her money. Lisa’s main talent is the gift of love, because for the sake of her loved ones she is ready to do anything.
2. Lisa's mother is a kind and wise old woman. She experienced the death of her husband Ivan very hard, as she loved him devotedly and lived happily with him for many years. The only joy was her daughter, whom she sought to marry to a worthy and wealthy man. The character of the heroine is internally whole, but a little bookish and idealized.
3. Erast is a rich nobleman. He leads a riotous lifestyle, thinking only about fun. He is smart, but very fickle, spoiled and weak-willed. Without thinking that Lisa is from a different class, he fell in love with her, but still he is unable to overcome all the difficulties of this unequal love. Erast cannot be called a negative hero, because he admits his guilt. He read and was inspired by novels, was dreamy, looking at the world with rose-colored glasses. Therefore, his real love did not withstand such a test.

Subjects

• The main theme in sentimental literature is the sincere feelings of a person in a collision with the indifference of the real world. Karamzin was one of the first to decide to write about the spiritual happiness and suffering of ordinary people. He reflected in his work the transition from a civil theme, which was common during the Enlightenment, to a personal one, in which the main subject of interest is the spiritual world of the individual. Thus, the author, having described in depth the inner world of the characters together with their feelings and experiences, began to develop such a literary device as psychologism.
• Theme of love. Love in “Poor Liza” is a test that tests the characters’ strength and loyalty to their word. Lisa completely surrendered to this feeling; the author exalts and idealizes her for this ability. She is the embodiment of the feminine ideal, the one who completely dissolves in the adoration of her beloved and is faithful to him until her last breath. But Erast did not pass the test and turned out to be a cowardly and pathetic person, incapable of self-sacrifice in the name of something more important than material wealth.
• Contrast between city and countryside. The author gives preference to rural areas; it is there that natural, sincere and kind people who do not know temptation are formed. But in big cities they acquire vices: envy, greed, selfishness. For Erast, his position in society was more valuable than love; he was fed up with it, because he was not capable of experiencing a strong and deep feeling. Lisa could not live after this betrayal: if love died, she follows her, because she cannot imagine her future without her.

Problem

Karamzin in his work “Poor Liza” touches on various problems: social and moral. The problems of the story are based on opposition. The main characters vary both in quality of life and in character. Lisa is a pure, honest and naive girl from the lower class, and Erast is a spoiled, weak-willed, thinking only about his own pleasures, young man belonging to the nobility. Lisa, having fallen in love with him, cannot go a day without thinking about him, Erast, on the contrary, began to move away as soon as he received what he wanted from her.

The result of such fleeting moments of happiness for Lisa and Erast is the death of the girl, after which the young man cannot stop blaming himself for this tragedy and remains unhappy for the rest of his life. The author showed how class inequality led to an unhappy ending and served as a reason for tragedy, as well as what responsibility a person bears for those who trusted him.

the main idea

The plot is not the most important thing in this story. The emotions and feelings that awaken during reading deserve more attention. The narrator himself plays a huge role, because he talks with sadness and compassion about the life of a poor rural girl. For Russian literature, the image of an empathic narrator who can empathize with the emotional state of the heroes turned out to be a revelation. Any dramatic moment makes his heart bleed and also sincerely shed tears. Thus, the main idea of ​​the story “Poor Liza” is that one must not be afraid of one’s feelings, love, worry, and sympathize fully. Only then will a person be able to overcome immorality, cruelty and selfishness. The author starts with himself, because he, a nobleman, describes the sins of his own class, and gives sympathy to a simple village girl, calling on people of his position to become more humane. The inhabitants of poor huts sometimes outshine the gentlemen from ancient estates with their virtue. This is Karamzin’s main idea.

The author's attitude towards the main character of the story also became an innovation in Russian literature. So Karamzin does not blame Erast when Lisa dies; he demonstrates the social conditions that caused the tragic event. The big city influenced the young man, destroying his moral principles and making him corrupt. Lisa grew up in the village, her naivety and simplicity played a cruel joke on her. The writer also demonstrates that not only Lisa, but also Erast was subjected to the hardships of fate, becoming a victim of sad circumstances. The hero experiences feelings of guilt throughout his life, never becoming truly happy.

What does it teach?

The reader has the opportunity to learn something from the mistakes of others. The clash of love and selfishness is a hot topic, since everyone has experienced unrequited feelings at least once in their life, or experienced the betrayal of a loved one. Analyzing Karamzin's story, we gain important life lessons, become more humane and more responsive to each other. The creations of the era of sentimentalism have a single property: they help people to enrich themselves mentally, and also cultivate in us the best humane and moral qualities.

The story “Poor Lisa” gained popularity among readers. This work teaches a person to be more responsive towards other people, as well as the ability to be compassionate.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Today in class we will talk about the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”, we will learn the details of its creation, the historical context, we will determine what the author’s innovation is, we will analyze the characters of the heroes of the story, and also consider the moral issues raised by the writer.

It must be said that the publication of this story was accompanied by extraordinary success, even a stir among the Russian reading public, which is not surprising, because the first Russian book appeared, the heroes of which could be just as empathized with as Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther” or “New Héloïse" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We can say that Russian literature has begun to become on the same level as European literature. The delight and popularity were such that even a pilgrimage began to the place of the events described in the book. As you remember, this is happening not far from the Simonov Monastery, the place was called “Lizin Pond”. This place is becoming so popular that some evil-tongued people even write epigrams:

Drowned herself here
Erast's bride...
Drown yourself, girls,
There's plenty of room in the pond!

Well, is it possible to do it?
Godless and worse?
Fall in love with a tomboy
And drown in a puddle.

All this contributed to the extraordinary popularity of the story among Russian readers.

Naturally, the popularity of the story was given not only by the dramatic plot, but also by the fact that it was all artistically unusual.

No one in Russia had ever written like this before Karamzin. Moreover, the unusualness began already with the exposition, with the description of the place where the action of the story will take place.

“Perhaps no one living in Moscow knows the outskirts of this city as well as I do, because no one is in the field more often than me, no one more than me wanders on foot, without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through the meadows and groves, hills and plains. Every summer I find new pleasant places or new beauty in old ones. But the most pleasant place for me is the place where the gloomy, Gothic towers of the Sin...nova Monastery rise.”(Fig. 3) .

Rice. 3. Lithograph of the Simonov Monastery ()

There is also something unusual here: on the one hand, Karamzin accurately describes and designates the location of the action - the Simonov Monastery, on the other hand, this encryptedness creates a certain mystery, understatement, which is very consistent with the spirit of the story. The main focus is on the non-fictional nature of events, on documentary evidence. It is no coincidence that the narrator will say that he learned about these events from the hero himself, from Erast, who told him about this shortly before his death. It was this feeling that everything was happening nearby, that one could witness these events, that intrigued the reader and gave the story a special meaning and a special character.

Rice. 4. Erast and Liza (“Poor Liza” in a modern production) ()

It is curious that this private, simple story of two young people (the nobleman Erast and the peasant woman Liza (Fig. 4)) turns out to be inscribed in a very broad historical and geographical context.

“But the most pleasant place for me is the place where the gloomy, Gothic towers of the Sin...nova Monastery rise. Standing on this mountain, you see on the right side almost the whole of Moscow, this terrible mass of houses and churches, which appears to your eyes in the image of a majestic amphitheater»

Word amphitheater Karamzin singles out, and this is probably no coincidence, because the place of action becomes a kind of arena where events unfold, open to everyone’s gaze (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. Moscow, XVIII century ()

“a magnificent picture, especially when the sun shines on it, when its evening rays glow on countless golden domes, on countless crosses ascending to the sky! Below are lush, densely green flowering meadows, and behind them, along the yellow sands, flows a bright river, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats or rustling under the helm of heavy plows that sail from the most fertile countries of the Russian Empire and supply greedy Moscow with bread.”(Fig. 6) .

Rice. 6. View from the Sparrow Hills ()

On the other side of the river one can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze; there young shepherds, sitting under the shade of trees, sing simple, sad songs and thus shorten the summer days, so uniform for them. Further away, in the dense greenery of ancient elms, the golden-domed Danilov Monastery shines; even further, almost at the edge of the horizon, the Sparrow Hills are blue. On the left side you can see vast fields covered with grain, forests, three or four villages and in the distance the village of Kolomenskoye with its high palace.”

It’s curious why Karamzin frames private history with this panorama? It turns out that this story becomes part of universal human life, belonging to Russian history and geography. All this gave the events described in the story a general character. But, giving a general hint of this world history and this extensive biography, Karamzin still shows that private history, the history of individual people, not famous, simple, attracts him much more strongly. 10 years will pass, and Karamzin will become a professional historian and begin working on his “History of the Russian State,” written in 1803-1826 (Fig. 7).

Rice. 7. Cover of the book by N. M. Karamzin “History of the Russian State” ()

But for now the focus of his literary attention is the story of ordinary people - the peasant woman Lisa and the nobleman Erast.

Perhaps Karamzin’s main artistic discovery in “Poor Liza” is the image of the storyteller, the narrator. This is coming from the perspective of a person interested in the fates of his heroes, a person who is not indifferent to them, who sympathizes with the misfortunes of others. That is, Karamzin creates the image of the narrator in full accordance with the laws of sentimentalism. And now this is becoming unprecedented; this is happening for the first time in Russian literature.

Sentimentalism- this is an attitude and a tendency of thinking aimed at identifying, strengthening, emphasizing the emotional side of life.

In full accordance with Karamzin’s plan, it is no coincidence that the narrator says: “I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow!”

The description in the exhibition of the decayed Simonov Monastery, with its destroyed cells, as well as the crumbling hut in which Lisa and her mother lived, introduces the theme of death into the story from the very beginning, creating the gloomy tone that will accompany the story. And at the very beginning of the story, one of the main themes and favorite ideas of the figures of the Enlightenment sounds - the idea of ​​​​the extra-class value of man. And it will sound unusual. When the narrator talks about the story of Liza’s mother, about the early death of her husband, Liza’s father, he will say that she could not be consoled for a long time, and will utter the famous phrase: “...for even peasant women know how to love”.

Now this phrase has become almost a catchphrase, and we often do not correlate it with the original source, although in Karamzin’s story it appears in a very important historical, artistic and cultural context. It turns out that the feelings of common people and peasants are no different from the feelings of noble people, nobles, peasant women and peasants are capable of subtle and tender feelings. This discovery of the extra-class value of a person was made by figures of the Enlightenment and becomes one of the leitmotifs of Karamzin’s story. And not only in this place: Lisa will tell Erast that nothing can happen between them, since she is a peasant. But Erast will begin to console her and say that he does not need any other happiness in life except Lisa’s love. It turns out that, indeed, the feelings of ordinary people can be as subtle and refined as the feelings of people of noble birth.

At the beginning of the story another very important topic will be heard. We see that in the exhibition of his work Karamzin concentrates all the main themes and motifs. This is the topic of money and its destructive power. When Lisa and Erast meet for the first time, the guy will want to give her a ruble instead of the five kopecks Lisa requested for a bouquet of lilies of the valley, but the girl will refuse. Subsequently, as if paying off Liza, from her love, Erast will give her ten imperials - one hundred rubles. Naturally, Liza will automatically take this money, and then try through her neighbor, the peasant girl Dunya, to transfer it to her mother, but her mother will have no use for this money either. She will not be able to use them, since upon news of Lisa’s death she herself will die. And we see that, indeed, money is the destructive force that brings misfortune to people. It is enough to recall the sad story of Erast himself. For what reason did he abandon Lisa? Leading a frivolous life and having lost at cards, he was forced to marry a rich elderly widow, i.e. he, too, is actually sold for money. And it is this incompatibility of money as an achievement of civilizations with the natural life of people that Karamzin demonstrates in “Poor Liza.”

Despite a fairly traditional literary plot - a story about how a young rake-nobleman seduces a commoner - Karamzin still solves it in a not entirely traditional way. It has long been noted by researchers that Erast is not at all such a traditional example of an insidious seducer; he really loves Lisa. He is a man with a kind mind and heart, but weak and flighty. And it is this frivolity that destroys him. And he, like Lisa, is destroyed by too much sensitivity. And here lies one of the main paradoxes of Karamzin’s story. On the one hand, he is a preacher of sensitivity as a way of moral improvement of people, and on the other hand, he also shows how excessive sensitivity can bring disastrous consequences. But Karamzin is not a moralist, he does not call to condemn Liza and Erast, he calls on us to sympathize with their sad fate.

Karamzin also uses landscapes in his story in an unusual and innovative way. For him, the landscape ceases to be just a scene of action and a background. The landscape becomes a kind of landscape of the soul. What happens in nature often reflects what happens in the souls of heroes. And nature seems to respond to the heroes’ feelings. For example, let us remember the beautiful spring morning when Erast first sails down the river on a boat to Lisa’s house, and vice versa, the gloomy, starless night, accompanied by storm and thunder, when the heroes fall into sin (Fig. 8). Thus, the landscape also became an active artistic force, which was also Karamzin’s artistic discovery.

Rice. 8. Illustration for the story “Poor Lisa” ()

But the main artistic discovery is the image of the narrator himself. All events are presented not objectively and dispassionately, but through his emotional reaction. He turns out to be a genuine and sensitive hero, because he is able to experience the misfortunes of others as if they were his own. He mourns his overly sensitive heroes, but at the same time remains true to the ideals of sentimentalism and a staunch supporter of the idea of ​​sensitivity as a way to achieve social harmony.

Bibliography

1. Korovina V.Ya., Zhuravlev V.P., Korovin V.I. Literature. 9th grade. M.: Education, 2008.
2. Ladygin M.B., Esin A.B., Nefedova N.A. Literature. 9th grade. M.: Bustard, 2011.
3. Chertov V.F., Trubina L.A., Antipova A.M. Literature. 9th grade. M.: Education, 2012.

1. Internet portal “Lit-helper” ()
2. Internet portal "fb.ru" ()
3. Internet portal "KlassReferat" ()

Homework

1. Read the story "Poor Liza."
2. Describe the main characters of the story “Poor Lisa”.
3. Tell us what Karamzin’s innovation is in the story “Poor Liza.”

Rated the book

"Poor Lisa"
What a naive story. If in some incomprehensible way you managed to avoid knowledge of the fate of poor Lisa, then from the first lines it is still completely clear what will happen next and why. But do you know what feeling you get when reading? Tenderness. Was there really such naivety, could there really be such love? And one more thing... if Lisa is such a pure and noble girl, how could she doom her mother to a lonely old age? In general, the most interesting thing when reading this story was drawing up in my head the image of an ideal woman according to Karamzin. What is she like? It seemed to me that it was something like this: love a man with all your heart, trust him in everything, don’t care about everyone else, be innocent, modest, etc. Are there such things? Definitely not  Poor Karamzin...
"Natalia, boyar's daughter"
I heard somewhere that when Catherine the Great was brought a newspaper, which, on her orders, was printed in St. Petersburg, she was indignant that journalists were describing what was bad and said something like: “Why do you write only about bad things? I already know what’s wrong with us. You’d better write what’s good about us!” I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the quote, but I conveyed the meaning correctly. We won’t talk about the literalness of the perception of her words, and several centuries later we won’t talk now, and it’s not so clear, let’s talk about something else. Karamzin writes about good things. Firstly: the whole story is simply permeated with love for Russia, faith in the Tsar, longing for real and specifically Russian people. Secondly: the images of the heroes of the story are so ideal that it is difficult to believe in the reality of their existence, and it is not necessary. Thirdly: faith in justice and in pure, eternal love is a leitmotif that, despite all the fabulousness, captivates even a very cynical modern writer. It seems to me that this story by Karamzin should be perceived as a fairy tale, and a fairy tale, as we know, should not be believable, much less real. She should just be kind and talk about something good (having a princess and a prince, whoever they are, is a must).
"Martha the Posadnitsa"

Wild peoples love independence, wise peoples love order, and there is no order without autocratic power

And the people of free Novgorod could listen to the royal messenger, but they liked listening more to a woman offended by fate. And offended, and especially lonely women, are bad advisers. Thanks to the advice of the “freedom-loving” Madame Marfa, she was not the only one who became lonely; almost all the women of Veliky Novgorod added to her loneliness, and all together it was no longer so sad. Hmm... When the free inhabitants starved, fought with the royal army and drank hard, they became uninterested in free life and they joyfully greeted Ivan the Terrible, who decided on this very Martha and her daughter (apparently for sure). So, no matter how you look at it, all roads lead to autocracy, no matter how formidable it may be.

Rated the book

About "Martha the Posadnitsa..."
And I liked this “fairy tale,” especially after we examined this work from different points of view during lectures on the history of Russian culture.
In my opinion, this historical story has every chance of success, so to speak - it is interesting, very dynamic, and the language is quite digestible even for a modern reader. However, there is a significant drawback (which, of course, should be written down not for Karamzin, but for the modern reader) - anyone who wants to get acquainted with “Martha the Posadnitsa” must become familiar with real historical events. After this, reading will become even more interesting, because comparing reality and fiction is always interesting, especially if the author does not position his work as a purely historical chronicle.
In addition, in addition to the historical action, Karamzin’s point of view on various aspects of life (wealth, for example) is also interesting.
Plus, this story is purely oppositional for its time, which also cannot leave anyone indifferent. Karamzin's idea that the only correct form of government for Russia is autocracy cannot fail to attract the attention of an enlightened and interested public. (5/5)

About "Poor Lisa".
To understand and perceive this work without an aching jaw and exclamations of “God, what an idiot,” you need to be a man of your time. I'm terribly sentimental, but this piece gave me a creepy reaction. Precisely because I live in a different time, which means I simply cannot understand many of the actions and thoughts of those times. Romanticism - yes, but not sentimentalism. (2/5)

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) greatly influenced the development of Russian literature, transforming the Russian language, freeing it from complex Latin constructions and Slavicisms, bringing it closer to living human speech.

Features of sentimentalism

The writer’s creativity cultivates feelings, calls for kindness and mercy. This is how a new direction in Russian literature was born - sentimentalism, which assigned the main role to the inner world of man.

Perhaps today the work “Poor Liza” seems somewhat distant from life, and the feelings of the characters seem unnatural. However, it should be remembered that Karamzin worked in And the work “Poor Liza,” written in 1792, served as a source of inspiration for subsequent Russian writers, being an excellent example of this genre. Sentimentalism is characterized by acute conflicts, often leading to the death of the hero, and “Poor Lisa” is no exception. The death of the girl shocks and makes many generations of readers empathize.



New name

In addition to a new genre, Karamzin gave our country a new name and made it popular. Translated, Elizabeth means “who worships God.” This was the name of the mother of the wife of the high priest Aaron. This name was practically not found among Russian writers until the 80s of the 18th century. It is worth noting that in European literature this name was often associated with the image of a maid, a servant, usually frivolous and flirtatious, and was used mainly in comedies. The image of Lisa in the story of the work (read below), however, does not follow this tradition. Breaking the usual framework of the meaning of the word, Karamzin also broke with classicism and its established definitions.

The image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” played an important role in the development of Russian literature as a whole, so I would like to dwell on it in more detail. You will see that she was a strong character, not at all the way European authors are used to portraying her. We propose to consider the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” with quotes and a summary of the work.



Characters, plot

But first, let us indicate the other characters in the story and briefly describe its main events. In addition to the peasant woman Lisa, the main characters include: her mother, Erast and the narrator. The plot of the work is generally not new: a man seduces a young girl and then abandons her. However, this story had its own characteristics. The author described a situation typical for Russia in the 18th century: a nobleman, a landowner, knowing his impunity and taking advantage of it, seduces a peasant woman, a young girl. What is striking about this story is that at that time, in this situation, society did not at all seek to condemn the landowner, and in any case the truth was on his side.

Already in the title one can guess the attitude of the author himself towards his heroine: he calls Lisa poor.



First meeting with the heroine

The story begins with a description of Moscow, where some events subsequently take place, and also in the vicinity of which the heroine was subsequently buried.

For the first time on the pages of the work, the author describes Lisa to us through the eyes of the narrator. When talking about her, he uses many epithets (“dear,” “beautiful,” etc.), so that the reader may even get the idea that the narrator loved Lisa. However, the ending of the story makes it clear that he simply feels sorry for her. It should be noted that in this story the narrator expresses the attitude of the author himself towards his heroine. Why does Karamzin love and feel sorry for Liza?

Lisa's past

Let's turn to the heroine's past and briefly describe the image of Lisa in the story "Poor Lisa". This girl is a peasant by birth, lives in a poor hut with her old mother. When our heroine was 15 years old, her father, a “wealthy villager,” died, and after his death the family became poor and was forced to rent out the land for a very small fee. Due to poor health, her mother was unable to work, and Lisa had to work very hard to somehow feed herself and her mother. The girl was engaged in various crafts - she knitted stockings, weaved canvas, collected and sold flowers in Moscow in the spring, and berries in the summer. We don’t know Lisa personally yet, but we already understand that she is selfless, ready to make sacrifices for the sake of her loved ones, and hardworking.



Lisa's character

As the plot develops, the character of the main character, the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” by N. M. Karamzin, is revealed. Poor Lisa is a very attractive heroine. We understand that this is a pure and deep soul with a receptive and soft heart. Lisa was often sad about her father’s death, but she tried not to show it to her mother and tried to appear “calm and cheerful.” The girl is timid and shy by nature. When she first met Erast, she “showed him the flowers and blushed.”

This is the image of Lisa in the story "Poor Lisa". The plan of this image is complemented by one more detail. It is necessary to note the honesty of the heroine. When Erast wanted to buy flowers from her and offered a ruble instead of five kopecks, she said that she didn’t want anything extra. Lisa is naive, sometimes to the extreme: she immediately tells a complete stranger where she lives.

Main character's speech

Analyzing this, we can say that the image of Liza in the story “Poor Liza” was not worked out carefully enough: her speech is sometimes not like that of a peasant woman, but like that of a girl from high society. It is clear that an uneducated simple girl simply could not express herself like that. Despite this, the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Liza” by Karamzin is considered the first image of a woman from the lower class in Russian literature. The depiction of a girl from the people in the 18th century was very progressive and atypical, especially as the heroine of a romance novel. Karamzin put a deep meaning into the image of Liza in the story “Poor Liza”: before God and love there are no classes, all people are equal, “and peasant women know how to love.”

Later, A.S. Pushkin, in his work “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman,” continued this theme, but it was Karamzin who first introduced it into literature.



A new attitude towards women

Another innovation of the writer was his attitude towards women. After all, in the 18th century she was considered lower than a man, she had no freedom. A woman could not love whoever she wanted; her parents were looking for a chosen one for her daughter. Of course, in such a situation it was rare to meet happy married couples. Those who tried to love against the will of their parents were disgraced in the eyes of society; such love was considered immoral. The image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” by N. M. Karamzin clearly shows this. Later, the theme was developed by other writers, in particular Ostrovsky.

Lisa's crime was that she dared to fall in love contrary to public opinion. And Russian peasant women have always been able to love passionately, ardently and forever. Refusing to marry a rich peasant son from a neighboring village, Lisa devoted herself entirely to her lover.

Erast's betrayal

But Erast turned out to be a scoundrel, abandoning Lisa. The heroine only accidentally finds out about his betrayal. Having gone to Moscow to buy rose water, she accidentally runs into his carriage on the street. Lisa rushes towards her, but the carriage passes her and stops in the courtyard of a large house. The heroine runs up and hugs her lover, but he calmly announces that he is getting married (as it turns out later, he married a rich widow to improve his situation, since he lost almost all his money at cards during the campaign) and asks to leave him alone, trying pay off Lisa with money. And Karamzin does not justify his hero at all, but openly condemns him. Erast will be punished for his betrayal: he is destined to be unhappy for the rest of his life and blame himself for Lisa’s death. At the end of the work he dies.

Continuing to analyze the image of Lisa in Karamzin's story "Poor Liza", we must note one more important detail - she loved Erast, but at the same time did not forget about her mother, and it was caring for her that stopped Lisa from trying to go to war for her lover . Although the heroine was very worried about Erast, she was afraid that he would be killed in the war. After all, Lisa couldn’t even write messages to her lover, because she simply didn’t know how to do it.



The death of a poor girl

Lisa's suicide is a very important episode in revealing her character. After all, this girl seemed to be the embodiment of Christian virtues. How could such a pure soul decide to commit such a grave sin? The heroine decides to drown herself by throwing herself into the water. But one cannot blame Lisa - grief deprived her of her last strength, and the heroine simply could not stand it. Even before her death, she does not forget about her mother: going to the pond to drown herself, she gives a neighbor girl one hundred rubles with a request to give them to her mother and say that her daughter loved a man, and he cheated on her. Although the writer does not justify the heroine’s suicide, he still forgives Lisa. Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin believes that, despite the severity of the crime, Lisa’s soul will go to heaven.

The meaning of the story



Many writers of the 19th century (Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Ostrovsky, Goncharov, Tolstoy) drew inspiration from this image and created many bright female characters, as pure and selfless as the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa”.

In this story, the author touched upon important themes of the imperfection of the structure of society and the shortcomings of human nature. We cannot fix something on our own; we can only accept it as a fact, and it is pointless to condemn and reproach someone. There is no villain in the work, there is only a man belonging to a secular circle, acting in accordance with generally accepted opinions. Erast had a naturally kind heart, but the “artificial” upbringing and education he received spoiled his character. The writer sympathizes with him, since in this situation it is not the person who should be blamed, but the mores of the era and society under which the hero lived.

Immediately after its publication (in 1792), the work aroused great interest, which continued unabated for several decades. Even outright imitations appeared, for example, “Seduced Henrietta” by Svechinsky (1803), “Poor Masha” by Izmailov (1801).

The image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa,” a summary of which you have just reviewed, was remembered by readers for a long time. And even now it is not forgotten, because humanistic ideas are always relevant.