The character of Mozart in the work Mozart and Salieri. Comparative characteristics of the images of Mozart and Salieri (based on the tragedy of A. S. Pushkin “Mozart and Salieri”). Historical figures in the tragedy

Geniuses and villainy -

Two things are incompatible.

A. Pushkin. Mozart and Salieri

Pushkin’s “little tragedy” about Mozart and Salieri is based on the famous legend about the death of the famous composer at the hands of a musician friend who was jealous of his fame and talent.

Before us are two people whose lives are closely connected with music, but the goals and motives of creativity are different. Salieri became interested in music from childhood and set himself the goal of understanding the secret of the wonderful sounds that make people cry and laugh. But, studying hard, trying to give his fingers “obedient, dry fluency and fidelity to the ear,” he chose the path of craft:

Having killed the sounds, I tore apart the music like a corpse. I believed harmony with algebra.

Only having achieved the intended results, the musician “dared... to indulge in the bliss of a creative dream.” Having endured many hardships and hardships during his studies, Salieri regards writing works as hard, painstaking work, the well-deserved reward for which is success and fame.

With strong, intense constancy I finally reached a high degree in boundless art. Glory smiled at me...

That is why he does not accept Mozart’s “frivolous” attitude towards his great talent. But for Mozart, music is always the joy of creativity, inner freedom. He is independent of the opinions of others. Magic art is given to him easily, without coercion, causing Salieri to envy and irritate:

Where is rightness when a sacred gift, When an immortal genius is not sent as a reward of burning love, selflessness, labor, diligence, prayers - but illuminates the head of a madman, idle revelers?..

It is incomprehensible to the self-loving and proud Salieri that a composer endowed with a divine gift can stop to listen to the artless playing of a blind street musician and still find pleasure in it. Salieri is discouraged and annoyed by Mozart’s offer to share his joy:

I don’t find it funny when a worthless painter stains Raphael’s Madonna for me, I don’t find it funny when a despicable buffoon dishonors Alighieri with a parody.

Pushkin contrasts Salieri’s moral limitations with his direct and cheerful perception of Mozart’s life, which leads him to the idea of poisoning the great composer. Salieri justifies his envy and jealousy with false concern about the fate of art, which, having been raised by Mozart to unattainable heights, will be doomed to fall down again after his death: Material from the site

I was chosen to Stop him - otherwise we all perished, We are all priests, ministers of music, I’m not the only one with my dull glory...

Salieri's position is contrasted with Mozart's conviction that “genius and villainy are two incompatible things.” Mozart is alien to narcissism and pride; he does not exalt, but equates himself with everyone who knows how to feel the “power of harmony”:

We are a few chosen ones, happy idle ones, Neglecting the despicable benefits, One beautiful priests.

I think that it is true talent and inner freedom that put Mozart above Salieri, who will forever remain a loser after the death of his wonderful friend, because with a guilty conscience he will never touch the secrets of the superhuman...

Comparative characteristics of the images of Mozart and Salieri
(based on A. S. Pushkin’s tragedy “Mozart and Salieri”)

Genius and villainy Two things are incompatible.

A. Pushkin. Mozart and Salieri

people cry and laugh. But, studying hard, trying to give his fingers “obedient, dry fluency and fidelity to the ear,” he chose the path of craft:

Killing the sounds

I tore apart the music like a corpse. Believed

I algebra harmony.

"dared... to indulge in the bliss of a creative dream." Having endured many hardships and hardships during his studies, Salieri regards writing works as hard, painstaking work, the well-deserved reward for which is success and fame.

I'm finally in limitless art

Reached a high level. Glory

She smiled at me...

Mozart's "frivolous" attitude towards his great talent. But for Mozart, music is always the joy of creativity, inner freedom. He is independent of the opinions of others. Magic art is given to him easily, without coercion, causing Salieri to envy and irritate:

Where is rightness, when a sacred gift,

When immortal genius is not a reward

Burning love, selflessness,

Works, zeal, prayers sent

And it illuminates the head of a madman,

Idle revelers?..

I don't find it funny when the painter is worthless

I don't find it funny when the buffoon is despicable

Alighieri is dishonored by parody.

Stop it or we'll all die

We are all priests, ministers of music.

I'm not alone with my dull glory...

"Genius and villainy are two incompatible things." Mozart is alien to narcissism and pride; he does not elevate, but equates himself with everyone who knows how to feel the “power of harmony”:

We are few chosen ones, happy idle ones,

Neglecting despised benefits,

One beautiful priest.

Mozart:

Wait, here you go

Drink to my health.

But my deity got hungry.

He's a genius, like you and me.

And genius and villainy are two incompatible things.

Health, friend.

For a sincere union,

Binder Mozart and Salieri,

Two sons of harmony.

If only everyone felt so strong

Harmony! But no: then I couldn’t

And the world to exist;

Nobody would

Take care of the needs of low life;

Everyone would indulge in free art.

We are few chosen ones, happy idle ones,

Neglecting despised benefits,

One beautiful priest.

Salieri:

Everyone says: there is no truth on earth. But there is no truth - and above.

I set it at the foot of art;

I became a craftsman: fingers

Gave obedient dry fluency

And loyalty to the ear. Killing the sounds

I devoured the music like a corpse. And now - I’ll say it myself - I’m now

Envious.

I envy; deep,

I'm painfully jealous. - Oh heaven!

Where is rightness, when a sacred gift,

When immortal genius is not a reward

Burning love, selflessness,

Works, zeal, prayers are sent - And illuminates the head of a madman,

Idle revelers?.. It’s not funny to me when the painter is worthless

Raphael's Madonna gets dirty for me;

I don't find it funny when the buffoon is despicable

Alighieri is dishonored by parody.

Let's go, old man. You, Mozart, are God, and you don’t know it yourself. I know, I do.

I was chosen to

Stopping is not it, we are all dead,

We are all priests, ministers of music...

But is he right?

And I'm not a genius?

Genius and villainyTwo things are incompatible. Not true:

And Bonarotti? or is it a fairy tale

Dumb, senseless crowd - and was not

The creator of the Vatican was a murderer?

MOZART is the central character of A.S. Pushkin’s tragedy “Mozart and Salieri” (1830). Pushkinsky M. is as far from the real Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) as the entire plot of the tragedy, based on the legend (now refuted) that Mozart was poisoned by Antonio Salieri, who had a burning envy towards him. Pushkin’s comment regarding the intrigue of the tragedy is known: “An envious person who could boo Don Juan could poison its creator.” In this statement, the key word is the hypothetical “could,” indicating fiction. A similar indication is contained in Pushkin’s “mistakes” regarding Mozart’s works mentioned in the tragedy (for example, after the words “a blind violinist played voi che sapete in a tavern,” the remark follows “the old man plays an aria from Don Giovanni”; in fact, this is a line from Cherubino’s aria from "The Marriage of Figaro")

Regardless of the origin of such errors (whether they are accidental or intentional), the effect they create disavows the documentary nature of what is being depicted. The image of M. is presented in the tragedy in two ways: directly in action and in the monologues of Salieri, who only thinks about him, left alone with himself, corroded by envy of the “idle reveler”, illuminated by the immortal genius “not as a reward” for his work and diligence. M., as he appears in action, is close to the verbal portrait compiled by Salieri. He is both a reveler and a “madman”, a musician who creates spontaneously, without any mental effort. M. does not have even a shadow of pride regarding his genius, there is no feeling of his own chosenness, which overwhelms Salieri (“I am chosen...”). Salieri's pathetic words: “You, Mozart, are a god” - he counters with an ironic remark that “my deity is hungry.” M. is so generous to people that he is ready to see geniuses in almost everyone: in Salieri, and in Beaumarchais, and for company in himself. Even the absurd street violinist is a miracle in M.’s eyes: he feels wonderful about this game, Salieri is wonderful about M.’s inspiration for the despicable buffoon. M.'s generosity is akin to his innocence and childish gullibility. The childishness in Pushkin’s M. has nothing in common with the mannered childishness of the hero of P. Schaeffer’s play “Amadeus,” which was fashionable in the 80s, in which M. was portrayed as a capricious and quarrelsome child, annoying with rudeness and bad manners. In Pushkin, M. is childishly open and artless. A notable feature is that M. does not have aparte remarks, pronounced “to the side” and usually expressing “second thoughts.” M. does not have such thoughts in relation to Salieri, and he, of course, does not suspect that the “cup of friendship” offered by him is poisoned. In the image of M., Pushkin’s ideal of a “direct poet” was expressed, who “laments his soul at the magnificent games of Melpomene and smiles at the fun of the square and the freedom of the popular print scene.” It was the “straightforward poet” in the person of M. who was given the highest wisdom that “...genius and villainy are two incompatible things” - a truth that Salieri never understood.

(Illustration by I. F. Rerberg)

Mozart and Salieri is the second work by A. S. Pushkin from the cycle of small tragedies. In total, the author planned to create nine episodes, but did not have time to implement his plan. Mozart and Salieri is written based on one of the existing versions of the death of the composer from Austria - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The poet had the idea of writing a tragedy long before the appearance of the work itself. He nurtured it for several years, collected material and thought about the idea itself. For many, Pushkin continued the line of Mozart in art. He wrote easily, simply, with inspiration. That is why the theme of envy was close to the poet, as well as the composer. The feeling that destroys the human soul could not help but make him think about the reasons for its appearance.

Mozart and Salieri are a work that reveals the lowest human traits, bares the soul and shows the reader the true nature of man. The idea of the work is to reveal to the reader one of the seven deadly human sins - envy. Salieri envied Mozart and, driven by this feeling, set out on the path of a murderer.

History of the creation of the work

The tragedy was conceived and preliminary sketched in the village of Mikhailovskoye in 1826. It is the second in a collection of small tragedies. For a long time, the poet’s sketches collected dust on his desk, and only in 1830 the tragedy was completely written. In 1831, it was first published in one of the almanacs.

When writing the tragedy, Pushkin relied on newspaper clippings, gossip and stories of ordinary people. That is why the work “Mozart and Salieri” cannot be considered historically correct from the point of view of truthfulness.

Description of the play

The play is written in two acts. The first action takes place in Salieri's room. He talks about whether there is true truth on earth, about his love for art. Mozart then joins his conversation. In the first act, Mozart tells his friend that he has composed a new melody. He evokes envy and a feeling of genuine anger in Salieri.

In the second act, events unfold more rapidly. Salieri has already made his decision and brings the poisoned wine to his friend. He believes that Mozart will no longer be able to bring anything to music; after him there will be no one who can also write. That is why, according to Salieri, the sooner he dies, the better. And at the last moment he changes his mind, hesitates, but it’s too late. Mozart drinks the poison and goes to his room.

(M. A. Vrubel "Salieri pours poison into Mozart's glass", 1884)

The main characters of the play

There are only three active characters in the play:

Old man with violin

Each character has its own character. Critics noted that the heroes have nothing in common with their prototypes, which is why we can safely say that all the characters in the tragedy are fictitious.

The secondary character is based on the former composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His role in the work reveals the essence of Salieri. In the work he appears as a cheerful, cheerful person with perfect pitch and a real gift for music. Despite the fact that his life is difficult, he does not lose his love for this world. There is also an opinion that Mozart was friends with Salieri for many years and it is possible that he could also be jealous of him.

The complete opposite of Mozart. Gloomy, gloomy, dissatisfied. He sincerely admires the composer's works, but the envy that creeps into his soul haunts him.

"....when a sacred gift,

When immortal genius is not a reward

Burning love, selflessness

Works, zeal, prayers are sent, -

And it illuminates the head of a madman,

Idle revelers!.. Oh Mozart, Mozart! ..."

Envy and the composer's words about the true servants of music give rise to Salieri's desire to kill Mozart. However, what he did does not bring him pleasure, because genius and villainy are incompatible things. The hero is a close friend of the composer; he is always nearby and communicates closely with his family. Salieri is cruel, mad, overcome with a feeling of envy. But, despite all the negative traits, in the last act something bright awakens in him and, in attempts to stop the composer, he demonstrates this to the reader. Salieri is far from society, he is lonely and gloomy. He writes music to become famous.

Old man with violin

(M. A. Vrubel "Mozart and Salieri listen to the playing of a blind violinist", 1884)

Old man with violin- the hero personifies true love for music. He is blind, plays with mistakes, this fact angers Salieri. The old man with the violin is talented, he does not see the notes and the audience, but continues to play. Despite all the difficulties, the old man does not give up his passion, thereby showing that art is accessible to everyone.

Analysis of the work

(Illustrations by I. F. Rerberg)

The play consists of two scenes. All monologues and dialogues are written in blank verse. The first scene takes place in Salieri's room. It can be called an exposition of tragedy.

The main idea of the work is that true art cannot be immoral. The play addresses the eternal issues of life and death, friendship, human relationships.

Conclusions of the play Mozart and Salieri

Mozart and Salieri are the famous work of A. S. Pushkin, which brings together real life, philosophical reflections, and autobiographical impressions. The poet believed that genius and villainy are incompatible things. One cannot exist with the other. In his tragedy, the poet clearly shows this fact. Despite its brevity, the work touches on important themes that, when combined with dramatic conflict, create a unique storyline.