What good feelings the story awakens poor Lisa. Literature assignment

The story " Poor Lisa", written by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, became one of the first works of sentimentalism in Russia. The love story of a poor girl and a young nobleman won the hearts of many of the writer’s contemporaries and was received with great delight. The work brought unprecedented popularity to the then completely unknown 25-year-old writer. However, with what descriptions does the story “Poor Liza” begin?

History of creation

N. M. Karamzin was distinguished by his love for Western culture and actively preached its principles. His role in the life of Russia was enormous and invaluable. This progressive and active person He traveled a lot around Europe in 1789-1790, and upon his return he published the story “Poor Liza” in the Moscow Journal.

Analysis of the story indicates that the work has a sentimental aesthetic orientation, which is expressed in interest in people, regardless of their social status.

While writing the story, Karamzin lived at his friends’ dacha, not far from which he was located. It is believed that he served as the basis for the beginning of the work. Thanks to this, the love story and the characters themselves were perceived by readers as completely real. And the pond not far from the monastery began to be called “Liza’s Pond.”

“Poor Liza” by Karamzin as a sentimental story

“Poor Liza” is, in fact, a short story, a genre in which no one had written in Russia before Karamzin. But the writer’s innovation is not only in the choice of genre, but also in the direction. It was this story that secured the title of the first work of Russian sentimentalism.

Sentimentalism arose in Europe back in the 17th century and focused on the sensual side human life. Issues of reason and society faded into the background for this direction, but emotions and relationships between people became a priority.

Sentimentalism has always strived to idealize what is happening, to embellish it. Answering the question about what descriptions the story “Poor Liza” begins with, we can talk about the idyllic landscape that Karamzin paints for readers.

Theme and idea

One of the main themes of the story is social, and it is connected with the problem of the attitude of the noble class towards the peasants. It is not for nothing that Karamzin chooses a peasant girl to play the role of bearer of innocence and morality.

Contrasting the images of Lisa and Erast, the writer is one of the first to raise the problem of contradictions between the city and the countryside. If we turn to the descriptions with which the story “Poor Liza” begins, we will see a quiet, cozy and natural world that exists in harmony with nature. The city is frightening, terrifying with its “huge houses” and “golden domes.” Lisa becomes a reflection of nature, she is natural and naive, there is no falsehood or pretense in her.

The author speaks in the story from the position of a humanist. Karamzin depicts all the charm of love, its beauty and strength. But reason and pragmatism can easily destroy this wonderful feeling. The story owes its success to its incredible attention to a person’s personality and his experiences. “Poor Liza” aroused sympathy among its readers thanks to Karamzin’s amazing ability to depict all the emotional subtleties, experiences, aspirations and thoughts of the heroine.

Heroes

A complete analysis of the story “Poor Liza” is impossible without a detailed examination of the images of the main characters of the work. Lisa and Erast, as noted above, embodied different ideals and principles.

Lisa is an ordinary peasant girl, main feature which is the ability to feel. She acts according to the dictates of her heart and feelings, which ultimately led to her death, although her morality remained intact. However, there is little peasant in the image of Lisa: her speech and thoughts are closer to book language, but the feelings of a girl who has fallen in love for the first time are conveyed with incredible truthfulness. So, despite the external idealization of the heroine, her inner experiences are conveyed very realistically. In this regard, the story “Poor Liza” does not lose its innovation.

What descriptions does the work begin with? First of all, they are in tune with the character of the heroine, helping the reader to recognize her. This is a natural, idyllic world.

Erast appears completely different to the readers. He is an officer who is only puzzled by the search for new entertainment; life in society tires him and makes him bored. He is intelligent, kind, but weak in character and changeable in his affections. Erast truly falls in love, but does not think at all about the future, because Lisa is not his circle, and he will never be able to take her as his wife.

Karamzin complicated the image of Erast. Typically, such a hero in Russian literature was simpler and endowed with certain characteristics. But the writer makes him not an insidious seducer, but a sincerely in love with a person who, due to weakness of character, could not pass the test and preserve his love. This type of hero was new to Russian literature, but immediately took root and later received the name “ extra person».

Plot and originality

The plot of the work is quite simple. This is history tragic love a peasant woman and a nobleman, which resulted in the death of Lisa.

What descriptions does the story “Poor Liza” begin with? Karamzin draws a natural panorama, the bulk of the monastery, a pond - it is here, surrounded by nature, that he lives main character. But the main thing in a story is not the plot or descriptions, the main thing is feelings. And the narrator must awaken these feelings in the audience. For the first time in Russian literature, where the image of the narrator has always remained outside the work, a hero-author appears. This sentimental narrator learns a love story from Erast and retells it to the reader with sadness and sympathy.

Thus, there are three main characters in the story: Lisa, Erast and the author-narrator. Karamzin also introduces the technique landscape descriptions and somewhat lightens the ponderous style of the Russian literary language.

The significance of the story “Poor Lisa” for Russian literature

Analysis of the story, thus, shows Karamzin’s incredible contribution to the development of Russian literature. In addition to describing the relationship between city and village, the appearance of the “extra person,” many researchers note the emergence of “ little man- in the image of Lisa. This work influenced the work of A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, who developed the themes, ideas and images of Karamzin.

The incredible psychologism that brought Russian literature world fame, also spawned the story “Poor Liza.” What descriptions does this work begin with! There is so much beauty, originality and incredible stylistic lightness in them! Karamzin’s contribution to the development of Russian literature cannot be overestimated.

Karamzin’s best story is rightly recognized as “Poor Liza” (1792), which is based on the educational thought about the extra-class value of the human personality. The problems of the story are of a social and moral nature: the peasant woman Liza is opposed to the nobleman Erast. The characters are revealed in the heroes' attitude to love. Lisa’s feelings are distinguished by their depth, constancy, and selflessness: she understands perfectly well that she is not destined to be Erast’s wife. Twice throughout the story she talks about this. Lisa loves Erast selflessly, without thinking about the consequences of her passion. No selfish calculations can interfere with this feeling. During one of the dates, Lisa tells Erast that the son of a rich peasant from a neighboring village is wooing her and that her mother really wants this marriage.

Erast is not portrayed in the story as a treacherous deceiver-seducer. This decision social problem it would be too rude and straightforward. He was, according to Karamzin, “a fairly rich nobleman” with a “naturally kind” heart, “but weak and flighty... He led an absent-minded life, thinking only about his own pleasure...”. Thus, the integral, selfless character of the peasant woman is contrasted with the character of a kind, but spoiled idle life a master who is unable to think about the consequences of his actions. The intention to seduce a gullible girl was not part of his plans. At first he thought about “pure joys” and intended to “live with Liza like brother and sister.” But Erast did not know his own character well and overestimated his moral strength. Soon, according to Karamzin, he “could no longer be satisfied with being... just pure hugs. He wanted more, more, and finally he couldn’t want anything.” Satiety sets in and a desire to free oneself from a boring connection sets in.

It should be noted that the image of Erast is accompanied by a very prosaic leitmotif - money, which sentimental literature always caused a condemnatory attitude towards themselves. True, sincere help is expressed by sentimentalist writers in selfless actions. Let us remember how Radishchev’s Anyuta resolutely rejects the hundred rubles offered to her. The blind singer behaves in exactly the same way in the chapter “The Wedge,” refusing the “ruble note” and accepting only a neckerchief from the traveler.

At the very first meeting with Liza, Erast strives to amaze her with his generosity, offering a whole ruble for lilies of the valley instead of five kopecks. Lisa resolutely refuses this money, which is completely approved by her mother. Erast, wanting to win over the girl’s mother, asks only him to sell her products and always strives to pay ten times more, but “the old lady never took too much.” Lisa, loving Erast, refuses the wealthy peasant who wooed her. Erast, for the sake of money, marries a rich elderly widow. At the last meeting with Lisa, Erast tries to pay her off with “ten imperials.” This scene is perceived as blasphemy, as an outrage against Lisa’s love: on one side of the scale - all life, thoughts, hopes, on the other - “ten imperials”. A hundred years later, Leo Tolstoy would repeat it in his novel “Resurrection.”

For Lisa, the loss of Erast is tantamount to the loss of life. Further existence becomes meaningless, and she commits suicide. The tragic ending of the story testified to the creative courage of Karamzin, who did not want to reduce the significance of the socio-ethical problem he put forward with a successful ending. Where a great, strong feeling came into conflict with the foundations of the feudal world, there could be no idyll.

In order to maximize verisimilitude, Karamzin connected the plot of his story with specific places in the then Moscow region. Lisa's house is located on the banks of the Moscow River, not far from the Simonov Monastery. Lisa and Erast's dates take place near Simonov's Pond, which after the release of the story received the name "Liza's Pond." All these realities made a stunning impression on readers. The vicinity of the Simonov Monastery became a place of pilgrimage for numerous fans of the writer.

In the story “Poor Liza” Karamzin showed himself to be a great psychologist. He managed to masterfully reveal the inner world of his characters, primarily their love experiences. Before Karamzin, the experiences of the heroes were declared in the monologues of the heroes. The latter applies primarily to epistolary works. Karamzin found more subtle, more complex artistic means that help the reader, as it were, guess what feelings his characters are experiencing through their external manifestations. The lyrical content of the story is reflected in its style. In a number of cases, Karamzin’s prose becomes rhythmic and approaches poetic speech. This is exactly what Lisa’s love confessions to Erast sound like: “Without your eyes the bright month is dark, // without your voice the singing nightingale is boring; // without your breath the breeze is not pleasant to me.”

A detailed depiction of the characters’ feelings is one of the main features of N.M.’s story. Karamzin "Poor Lisa". This is a work written according to the laws of sentimentalism - a literary movement where in the conflict of “feelings and duty” feelings should win.

Poor Lisa's sentimentalism is expressed through the author's sympathies, which turn out to be on the side of those heroes who, at the behest of their hearts, and not their minds.

Erast's feelings: master of feelings

In the first part of the story, Karamzin pays the greatest attention to the feelings of Erast; at first it is he who is the main character. He is tired of the bustle of the city and human deceit, of falsehood and brilliance, so he is tenderly in love with the village girl Lisa, who seems to him the embodiment of everything that is pure, beautiful and real. The most important thing is that during meetings with Lisa, he does not even think about the carnal manifestation of love - his feelings are completely platonic, he thinks that he loves Lisa more as a sister, and not as a woman. He enjoys just being around her.

However, Erast, like any living person, finds it difficult to resist temptation, and Karamzin understands this. Physical love Erast and Lisa nevertheless come true, and after this, Erast’s feelings and his attitude towards the girl gradually change: Lisa ceases to be an immaculate ideal for him, she has now become like all the other women in his life. Such a girl can be left, which is what he does. Erast marries a rich woman, at the same time stepping on the throat of his feelings - he does not love her, but this marriage will be profitable.

Lisa's feelings: a victim of feelings

After their breakup, Karamzin’s story focuses on Lisa’s feelings. In general, her image was presented quite unexpectedly for Russian literature: Karamzin was the first of the authors to show that peasants can also have feelings and experiences, that “even peasant women know how to love”. Lisa behaves exactly as a suffering lyrical heroine should - her heart is broken, there is no point in living without love, which means there is no point in living.

Having learned about Erast’s marriage and reasoned In a similar way, the unfortunate girl threw herself into the river. Undoubtedly, she was driven solely by feelings, because from a rational point of view, nothing critical happened: she is not pregnant, her reputation is not spoiled, even her mother does not know anything... However, for Lisa there is no reason, for her there is only a heart. Broken heart.

Thus, penetrating into the souls of his heroes, Karamzin shows us the difference in their perception of love. The scene of their intimacy is the climax of the story: after this, Erast’s feelings slowly fade away and take him away from Lisa, and her feelings, on the contrary, flare up more strongly and lead to suicide when they meet coldness. It turns out that Lisa becomes a victim of feelings, while Erast is their master.

The features of sentimentalism are manifested in the story in that the heroes are constantly moved, cry, experience other sublime feelings, which are given exaggerated importance, that these heroes are naive, and the action takes place against the backdrop of peaceful pastoral landscapes (landscapes characteristic of works depicting idyllic life in the bosom of nature of shepherds and shepherdesses).

Descriptions

“Poor Liza” begins with a description of Moscow and its environs, made in a pastoral spirit (“young shepherds sitting under the shade of trees ...”) with the addition of a romantic note (“gloomy, Gothic towers”, “this terrible mass of houses and churches” ).

The pictures of Moscow described by Karamzin have completely changed now. It is no longer possible to take in Moscow at a glance; there are no fishing boats floating along the Moscow River. Danilov Monastery is surrounded by houses, Sparrow Hills crowned by the building of Moscow State University, the palace in Kolomenskoye was destroyed long ago. The oak groves and fields disappeared. It’s a little sad that we can’t see the Moscow described by Karamzin, but someone two hundred years later will be sad that they can’t see Moscow beginning of the XXI century.

The description of Moscow not only introduces the reader to the scene of action, but also introduces him to the appropriate atmosphere - dreamy, intimate, a little mysterious, creating a mood that helps to perceive the main thoughts of the author. The second function of the description is compositional: at the beginning and at the end of the story we see the author visiting the Simonov Monastery, next to which is Lisa’s grave. Descriptions loop the action and give the story integrity and completeness.

Characteristics of Lisa

Lisa is a young innocent girl living near Moscow alone with her mother, who constantly shed tears for her early deceased husband, and Lisa had to do all the housework and take care of her. Lisa was very honest and naive, she was used to trusting people, she had an integral character, that is, if she surrendered to any feeling or deed, she performed this action completely, to the end. At the same time, she did not know life at all, because she lived all the time with her God-fearing mother, away from all sorts of noisy village entertainment.

The mother calls Liza “kind”, “sweet”: Karamzin puts these epithets into the peasant woman’s mouth, proving that peasant women also have a sensitive soul.

Lisa believed the young, handsome Erast, because she really liked him, and besides, she had never encountered such graceful treatment. She fell in love with Erast, but her love was platonic love, she did not perceive herself as a woman at all. Erast was fine with this at first, because after the depraved metropolitan life he wanted to take a break from constant sexual intrigue, but after that he inevitably became interested in Lisa as a woman, because she was very beautiful. Lisa didn’t understand any of this, she only felt how something had changed in their relationship, and it worried her.

Erast’s departure to war was a real misfortune for her, but she could not even think that Erast had any plans of his own. When she saw Erast in Moscow and talked to him, she experienced a severe shock. All her gullibility and naivety were deceived and turned to dust. As an extremely impressionable nature, she could not withstand such a blow. Her whole life, which had previously seemed clear and straightforward to her, turned into a monstrous pile of incomprehensible events. Lisa could not survive Erast's betrayal and committed suicide. Of course, such a decision was a desperate means to avoid the decision life problem, which stood in front of her, and Lisa could not cope with her. Scared real life and the need to get out illusory world, she chose to die weakly rather than fight and try to understand life as it really is.

We can use a modern analogy that describes such situations very well: she was so immersed in the Matrix that real world turned out to be hostile for her and tantamount to the complete disappearance of personality.

Exam: Russian literature of the 18th century

Analysis of the work!

The story "Poor Liza", which appeared in the Moscow Journal in 1792, is an example of Russian sentimentalism. was enthusiastically received by contemporaries. The youth began to walk around the Simonov Monastery, which the author mentions in his story. The pond in which Lisa drowned was called "Lizin's Pond."

The tragic love story of the peasant woman Liza and the Moscow nobleman Erast, the genuine feelings of the heroes, the history of the development of their love - all this shocked the souls of their contemporaries. And the pictures of nature near Moscow are described so reliably that readers tried to find and did find the meeting places of Lisa and Erast. Erast told the narrator Lisa’s story 30 years after the misfortune happened. Young people of the 90s of the 18th century shed many tears when they imagined the aged Erast, immersed in his sadness near the Liza Pond. But the sweetest of all was Lisa herself, who could give herself over to feeling. "

In the era of realism, researchers paid attention to the “inconsistency with life’s realities” in the story. The peasant women, Lisa and mother, speak the same language as the nobleman Erast and the author himself. And Lisa’s earnings from selling flowers and knitting (on which peasant women live) could not provide financial support. But the writer’s goal is not to show life with realities, but to achieve compassion.

Only at the end of the 20th century did it become clear that Karamzin’s story contains many contradictions. Contrary to the principle of dividing characters into positive and negative heroes Erast, who killed Lisa, is not a villain, because at first he is seriously infatuated with the peasant woman. Erast’s feelings even found justification in sentimental novels. The narrator describes Erast’s ideas with irony: “He read novels, idylls, had a fairly vivid imagination and often mentally moved back to those times (former or not), in which, according to the poets, all people carelessly walked through meadows, bathed in clean springs , kissed like turtle doves, rested under roses and myrtles, and spent all their days in happy idleness."

The ideas described here were embodied in the works of the French thinker and sentimentalist writer Jean Jacques Rousseau. At the end of the 18th century, there was a well-known theory that people lived happier when there was no urban civilization. Erast, seeing Lisa, decides: “Nature calls me into her arms, to her pure joys.”

But life turns out to be more complicated than in the novels. The class wall between Lisa and her lover is insurmountable. Even the love of a free peasant woman could not destroy this barrier. With psychological subtlety unusual for that time, he shows how Erast’s love for Lisa is losing its purity. He can no longer be proud of his feeling. Erast’s marriage is the result of social inequality, as well as cooling young man to Lisa.

Innovation was also evident in the death of Lisa. It is known that suicide was condemned by the church. And in the story, the death of the heroine does not cause condemnation from the author. Were unexpected final words: “This is how she ended her life, beautiful in body and soul. When we see each other there, in a new life, I will recognize you, gentle Lisa!”

"Contemporary readers do not feel the degree of defiant blasphemy of these words, in which" new life“, that is, spiritual salvation, Karamzin, by his will, bestows on a suicide who ended her life without repentance and was buried in unconsecrated ground” (Lotman). According to Lotman, this type of suicide, such as drowning in a pond, evokes associations that lead more likely to pre-romantic literature than to Russian life.

In Karamzin’s story, it is not Lisa, not her mother, who has a subtle and deep understanding of life, but the narrator, which is a characteristic detail of sentimental literature. The author in the story is not a conventional figure. He empathizes with the heroes. The narrator did not have the opportunity to warn the heroes from wrongdoing, since he heard the story from Erast 30 years later. Nevertheless, he inserts his own reproaches that could stop the heroes: “Oh, Lisa, Lisa! Where is your guardian angel? Where is your innocence?”

The narrator's desire to help the characters is conveyed to the reader. Thus, sentimental story Karamzin teaches his reader “sensitivity.”

The narrator prefaces Lisa's story with an introduction, which was not typical of classicism. The author, describing the panorama that opened from the monastery hill, pays little attention appearance the Simonov Monastery itself. The main thing is the historical past of the monastery, the history of the fatherland. The hut of Lisa and her mother is located seventy fathoms from the Simonov Monastery. Having finished talking about “unhappy Moscow,” the author begins the story about Liza, also unhappy and defenseless.

Karamzin disputes in his story Rousseau's assumption about the idyllic past of humanity. As Lisa's example shows, following nature does not make a person happy. Closeness to nature cannot help Lisa in her trials. In some episodes, nature is the background of Lisa’s love; she forces the peasant woman to surrender to her feeling: “The darkness of the evening nourished desires.”

The bearer of morality and role model in the story is the narrator, who ardently sympathizes with the heroes and forgives them human weaknesses. In the reader's mind, the sentimental narrator is connected with the real author.

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