What is main idea works and what words from the text can it be expressed? The Tale of Poor Lisa
Answer:
Main idea " Poor Lisa“- an unspoiled, pure person who, following his feelings, which is the only true option for him, is faced with the tragedy of the real world. "And peasant women know how to love"
After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments were passed with the intent of establishing equality under the law for freed slaves, or so the story goes. The fact is that slavery was - and still is - completely legal in the United States, just in a completely different form. The institution of slavery, as we understand it, has actually survived evolution. Instead of outright enslavement of blacks, with an entire apparatus used to keep slaves in their condition, certain elements of the state apparatus were phased in over time to enslave blacks, namely the legal and penal systems.
Similar questions
- Write an essay-reasoning, revealing the meaning of the statement of linguist Alexander Ivanovich Gorshkov: “Expressiveness is the property of what is said or written with its semantic form to attract special attention of the reader, to make a strong impression on him.” Do you agree with the scientist’s opinion? Using A. Gorshkov’s words as a thesis, write an argumentative essay, using examples from V. Belov’s text as arguments. In the spacious fields, a blue cobweb floats above the dew, and the overworked earth slowly cools. In the transparent depths of river pools, fish lazily move, barely moving their fins. The haystacks, surrounded by late green grass, had long since faded and faded from the September rains. But the emerald-gray winter stripes are dazzling, and the ruby bursts of rowan trees glow silently and brightly at the edge. The forest is unusually quiet. Everything froze, holding its breath, and as if waiting for some kind of inevitable punishment, or maybe forgiveness and rest. It blows on the forests, pouring a wet wind over them, and then a dull, dissatisfied roar spreads like waves for thousands of miles. The winds blow away the reserved blue from the bosom of countless lakes, rippling and showering the reaches of the great northern rivers with dead leaves. The breath of these winds either covers the taiga with swamp gray hair, or weaves golden, orange and silver-yellow strands into it. But the pine and spruce ridges don’t care at all, and they are still arrogantly silent, or they hum menacingly and terribly, raising their indignant manes, and then a mighty noise again rolls across the endless taiga. (According to V. Belov
the main idea of the work is poor Lisa
Consequently, enslavement itself changed as black prisoners were no longer the slaves of individual masters, but rather were enslaved by the companies they rented out. To create this system required not only the participation of the southern judicial system and individual northern and southern elites, but also the participation and restoration of slavery in a corporate context.
To achieve a full understanding of the convict lease system, it is first necessary to review the 13th Amendment. History books and classrooms across America say that this amendment ended slavery, but that is completely false. The 13th Amendment states: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime of which the party has been duly convicted, exists within the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Thus, slavery is completely and completely legal if it is part of the punishment for someone who was and has been found guilty of a crime.
- Sentimentalism is based on a new view of man as a sensitive being, and a new idea for literature about his happiness. You can get a complete picture of sentimentalism by reading Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza.”
Lisa is a child of nature and patriarchal upbringing, the ideal of a “natural person”. She is pure, naive, unselfish: “...only Liza, not sparing her tender youth, not sparing her rare beauty, worked day and night - weaving canvas, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring...”
When the 13th Amendment was discussed, many in Congress were not thinking about slaves, but rather about white labor, as Senator Henry Wilson said: The same influences that go to restrain and suppress the rights of the poor black man, restrain and oppress the poor white laborer . Senator Richard Yates from Illinois was very cruel, saying that “had never had blacks in the brain” when discussing the amendment. Such concepts are absurd! Wilson is right to the extent that he argues that both slave and white labor are oppressed by the same system; both are oppressed by being manipulated and played by the elites of the North and South.
The village itself and the entire nature surrounding it is a center of moral purity, including the main symbol of the purity of love, in my opinion, in Karamzin’s works are flowers: “... you had fun with them in the morning, and a pure, joyful soul shone in your eyes, like like the sun shines in the drops of heavenly dew.” All this proves such a feature of sentimentalism - the cult of innate moral purity and purity.
However, Wilson ignores the fact that white labor was much less oppressed than black slave labor because white workers were considered human beings deserving at least a minimal degree of dignity and respect, rather than being viewed and treated less than animals. White workers were free to do as they pleased without worrying about having papers on their person to prove their freedom.
Therefore, the passage of the 13th Amendment must be seen in the context economic competition between the black slave owner and free white labor. The South's economy was built around slave labor, and the ability to have slaves produce more than they were "worth", seeing how slaves were viewed as not just common property, but long-term economic investments that helped the Southern plantation elite However, due to by the existence of slavery, white labor indirectly suffered, since not only did they lose the income they had been making when slavery was first introduced - in addition to any potential future income - but, in addition, white labor was unable to make progress in the South since slavery provided a source of labor that was less expensive in the long run.
Also in this work, the rich spiritual world of the common people is clearly shown - one of the main discoveries of sentimentalism. Rudeness and bad manners of souls are not always the lot of the poor, Karamzin shows us. Both natures are capable of rich emotional experiences: “She loved to talk with him about her late husband, about how she first met her dear Ivan, how he fell in love with her and in what love, in what harmony he lived with her.”
Senator Henry Williams illustrates these points and other problems that white labor had with slavery. Slavery was evil because it destroyed much of the richest land in the south; it degraded labor and the meaning of labor for poor white workers in the South; he robbed the south of culture, humiliating the efforts of the workers; and this allowed southern aristocrats to further insult northern white workers by denigrating their labor efforts as crabs and evils. It was the connection between labor and slavery in the minds of southern aristocrats who disparaged the efforts of hardworking northern workers.
Karamzin’s work “Poor Liza” contains all the features of sentimentalism. Reading this book, we, together with the characters, experience the feelings that surround them.
- But he fell in love with her when Lisa was supposedly a peasant. This is big, unselfish love.
- Karamzin's story Poor Liza, written in 1792 and dedicated to the theme of love, the story of two loving hearts, gained particular popularity among his contemporaries. His heroes seek happiness in love, but they are surrounded by a big and cruel world with its inhuman and terrible laws. This world deprives Karamzin’s heroes of happiness, makes them victims, brings them constant suffering and dooms them to death.
Lisa lived with her mother in the Moscow region, in a small house on the banks of the Moscow River, not far from the Simonov Monastery. Both the mother and the late father tried to instill in their daughter high moral qualities. Since childhood, she was taught that nothing in this life comes for free, you need to achieve everything yourself. They themselves adhered to the same principles: their father loved work, plowed the land well and always led sober life, and the mother remained faithful to her husband’s memory and continued to shed tears for him for many years, for even peasant women know how to love! Liza, brought up in strictness, worked day and night, weaving canvas, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and in the summer she took berries and sold all this in Moscow.
Thus, slavery brought white workers down in two ways: one, by direct competition with slave labor in the South, and two, by linking all the industrious efforts of the workers with the slaves of degraded slaves. Thus, the only way to defeat white labor in the fight for rights such as fair wages and regular working hours was through the abolition of slavery. White labor had a direct interest in the abolition of slavery. However, there was a difference of opinion in the minds of southern elites who wanted to continue slavery, but in different terms.
We see that the author’s ardent sympathies invariably accompany the heroine, and he is on her side in resolving the main conflict. A simple peasant girl with a selfless character (with all the respect and love for her mother, Liza never told her about her relationship with Erast) fell in love with a kind but spoiled gentleman who was not able to think about the consequences of his actions. Her feelings were unusually deep, constant, and most importantly, selfless. Lisa understood perfectly well that she could never become the wife of her loved one, because he was a gentleman, but, despite this, she continued to selflessly love Erast, completely surrendering to him, she only lived and breathed for him... and she placed her happiness in his pleasure, without thinking at all about myself.
Before discussing Southern elites, we first need to examine them in the context of the post-Civil War Southern economy. It was completely in ruins; In fact, it could be argued that he was destroyed and destroyed in almost every way imaginable. The entire economy of the South was built on the institution of slavery and agriculture. With the end of the Civil War, not only did the Southern economy suffer from the emancipation of black slaves, but the land was deeply damaged and damaged, thereby creating an immediate economic problem.
However, in the midst of all this, an opportunity has arisen to refocus and reconstruct the economy around a new source of labor, as cheap labor will certainly be needed to rebuild the region. It is also necessary to study the social order. While slaves were now free and free to do as they pleased, there was still deep-seated racism in the minds of Southern whites. The fact that blacks fought in the Civil War did not mean a sudden change in the perception of blacks; rather, to the southern elites, they still viewed blacks as inferior and only good for labor, seeking to perpetuate the slave system within a new industrial structure that would transcend the broken agricultural structure.
Karamzin described the relationship between Lisa and Erast in pastoral, idyllic tones, emphasizing that the tragic end of their relationship was the result of the prevailing circumstances and the frivolous nature of the protagonist, and the reason was not at all social inequality. Erast is a rather rich nobleman with a kind nature, but a weak and flighty heart. He led a distracted life, thinking only about his own pleasure. At first, Erast thought only about pure joys and wanted to live with Liza like brother and sister, but he overestimated his strength. Then, as usual, fed up with the boring relationship, he wanted to free himself from it. For Lisa, the loss of Erast was tantamount to the loss of Life. Existence without Erast makes no sense for her, so she commits suicide.
This new system was to be found in the leasing contract. He argued that Blue River could build its own trail in the nearby Jones Valley using slave labor. However, in Milner's mind this slave labor must be controlled by whites.
He took these prisoners and put them in the coal mines, treating them barbarously. Records of Milner's various mines and slave farms in southern Alabama, some of which belonged to one of his business partners - a cousin investor in the Bibb Steam Mill - tell stories of black women, naked and whipped, from hundreds of people starved, altered and beaten , from workers, constantly lice-ridden and barely dressed.
There is drama not only for Lisa, but also for Erast. After all, condemning yourself to moral torment for the rest of your life is no less a punishment than being condemned by others. The words of the author himself speak about Erast’s spiritual drama: Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. Having learned about Lizina’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer. Karamzin does not consider his hero typical: People do a lot of evil, no doubt, but there are few villains; delusion of the heart, recklessness, lack of enlightenment due to bad deeds...
Black Americans, many of whom were former slaves, were essentially enslaved, but in the context corporate structure, characterized by the union of the state and the corporation. Besides, judicial system was largely involved in allowing this to happen, from laws passed on to sheriffs selling convicts to companies.
To allow the convict leasing system to exist, and for blacks to be reduced to their former status as a source of labor, targeted laws were required to limit the rights of "newly freed" blacks. The goal was to criminalize black life to the point where blacks could be incarcerated for the most frivolous of crimes. Such laws took the form of "Black Codes".
The Russian public, accustomed in old novels to consoling endings in the form of weddings, who believed that virtue is always rewarded and vice is punished, met for the first time in this story the bitter truth of life.
- Karamzin wanted to show “that even peasant women can love”
- Karamzin, as a follower of naturalism and sentimental tradition, shared the real, natural world, feeling was the main thing for him, unlike classical tradition, for which reason was the dominant principle. Karamzin affirmed the cult of feelings, sensitivity, and compassion. So the main idea of the work “Poor Lisa” is an unspoiled, pure person who, following his feelings, which is the only true option for him, faces tragedy real world. But we should not forget that the work is, first of all, entertaining in nature, and the world in which Lisa, her mother and Erast live is idyllic and it is impossible to apply the parameters of real, objective reality to it.
- the main idea is that peasant women know how to love! Moreover, the very title of the work is ambiguous: on the one hand, “Poor Liza,” because she has no money, and on the other, because her loved one did this to her. In short, you can talk for hours...
The history of the creation of Karamzin’s work “Poor Liza”
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is one of the most educated people of his time. He preached advanced educational views and widely promoted Western European culture in Russia. The personality of the writer, multifacetedly gifted in a variety of directions, played a significant role in cultural life Russia late XVIII - early XIX centuries. Karamzin traveled a lot, translated, wrote original works of art, was engaged in publishing activities. The development of professional literary activity is associated with his name.
In 1789-1790 Karamzin took a trip abroad (to Germany, Switzerland, France and England). Upon the return of N.M. Karamzin began publishing the Moscow Journal, in which he published the story “Poor Liza” (1792), “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791-92), which placed him among the first Russian writers. These works, as well as literary critical articles, expressed the aesthetic program of sentimentalism with its interest in a person, regardless of class, his feelings and experiences. In the 1890s. the writer's interest in the history of Russia increases; he meets historical works, the main published sources: chronicles, notes of foreigners, etc. In 1803, Karamzin began work on the “History of the Russian State,” which became the main work of his life.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, in the 1790s. the writer lived at Beketov’s dacha near the Simonov Monastery. The environment played a decisive role in the concept of the story “Poor Liza.” The literary plot of the story was perceived by the Russian reader as a life-like and real plot, and its characters - as real people. After the publication of the story, walks in the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery, where Karamzin settled his heroine, and to the pond into which she threw herself and which was called “Lizin’s Pond” became fashionable. As researcher V.N. accurately noted. Toporov, defining the place of Karamzin’s story in the evolutionary series of Russian literature, “for the first time in Russian literature, artistic prose created such an image of authentic life, which was perceived as stronger, sharper and more convincing than life itself.” “Poor Lisa” is the most popular and best story- brought Karamzin, who was then 25 years old, real fame. Young and no one knows before famous writer suddenly became a celebrity. “Poor Liza” was the first and most talented Russian sentimental story.
Genre, genre, creative method
In Russian literature of the 18th century. Multi-volume classic novels became widespread. Karamzin was the first to introduce the genre of short novella - a “sensitive story”, which enjoyed particular success among his contemporaries. The role of the narrator in the story “Poor Lisa” belongs to the author. The small volume makes the plot of the story clearer and more dynamic. Karamzin’s name is inextricably linked with the concept of “Russian sentimentalism.”
Sentimentalism is a movement in European literature and the culture of the second half of the 17th century, highlighting human feelings rather than reason. Sentimentalists focused on human relationships and the opposition between good and evil.
In Karamzin's story, the life of the heroes is depicted through the prism of sentimental idealization. The images of the story are embellished. Lisa's deceased father exemplary family man, because he loved work, plowed the land well and was quite prosperous, everyone loved him. Liza’s mother, “a sensitive, kind old woman,” weakens from incessant tears for her husband, for even peasant women know how to feel. She touchingly loves her daughter and admires nature with religious tenderness.
The name Lisa itself until the early 80s. XVIII century almost never found in Russian literature, and if it did, it was in its foreign language version. By choosing this name for his heroine, Karamzin set out to break a fairly strict canon that had developed in literature and predetermined in advance what Liza should be like and how she should behave. This behavioral stereotype was defined in European literature in the 16th and 18th centuries. in that the image of Lisa, Lisette (OhePe), was associated primarily with comedy. The Lisa of a French comedy is usually a maid-servant (chambermaid), the confidante of her young mistress. She is young, pretty, quite frivolous and understands everything related to a love affair at a glance. Naivety, innocence, and modesty are the least characteristic of this comedic role. By breaking the reader's expectations, removing the mask from the heroine's name, Karamzin thereby destroyed the foundations of the very culture of classicism, weakened the connections between the signified and the signified, between the name and its bearer in the space of literature. Despite the conventionality of the image of Lisa, her name is associated precisely with her character, and not with the role of the heroine. Establishing a relationship between “internal” character and “external” action became a significant achievement of Karamzin on the path to the “psychologism” of Russian prose.
Subjects
An analysis of the work shows that Karamzin’s story identifies several themes. One of them is an appeal to the peasant environment. The writer portrayed as the main character a peasant girl who retained patriarchal ideas about moral values.
Karamzin was one of the first to introduce the contrast between city and countryside into Russian literature. The image of the city is inextricably linked with the image of Erast, with the “terrible bulk of houses” and the shining “golden domes.” The image of Lisa is associated with a beautiful life natural nature. In Karamzin's story, a village man - a man of nature - finds himself defenseless when he finds himself in an urban space, where laws different from the laws of nature apply. No wonder Lisa’s mother tells her (thus indirectly predicting everything that will happen later): “My heart is always in the wrong place when you go to town; I always put a candle in front of the image and pray to the Lord God that he will protect you from all troubles and misfortunes.”
The author in the story raises not only the topic “ little man" And social inequality, but also such topics as fate and circumstances, nature and man, love-sorrow and love-happiness.
With the voice of the author, the theme enters into the private plot of the story great history fatherland. The comparison of the historical and the particular makes the story “Poor Liza” a fundamental literary fact, on the basis of which the Russian socio-psychological novel will subsequently arise.
The story attracted the attention of contemporaries with its humanistic idea: “even peasant women know how to love.” The author's position in the story is that of a humanist. Before us is Karamzin the artist and Karamzin the philosopher. He sang the beauty of love, described love as a feeling that can transform a person. The writer teaches: the moment of love is wonderful, but long life and only reason gives strength.
“Poor Liza” immediately became extremely popular in Russian society. Humane feelings, the ability to sympathize and be sensitive turned out to be very consonant with the trends of the time, when literature moved from civil themes, characteristic of the Enlightenment, to the topic of personal, private life of a person and the main object of its attention became inner world an individual.
Karamzin made another discovery in literature. With “Poor Lisa”, such a concept as psychologism appeared, that is, the writer’s ability to vividly and touchingly depict the inner world of a person, his experiences, desires, aspirations. In this sense, Karamzin prepared the ground for writers of the 19th century.
Nature of the conflict
The analysis showed that there is a complex conflict in Karamzin’s work. First of all, this is a social conflict: the gap between a rich nobleman and a poor village woman is very large. But, as you know, “peasant women know how to love.” Sensitivity - the highest value of sentimentalism - pushes the heroes into each other's arms, gives them a moment of happiness, and then leads Lisa to death (she “forgets her soul” - commits suicide). Erast is also punished for his decision to leave Lisa and marry someone else: he will forever reproach himself with her death.
The story “Poor Liza” is written on a classic plot about the love of representatives of different classes: its heroes - the nobleman Erast and the peasant woman Liza - cannot be happy not only because moral reasons, but also according to social living conditions. The deep social root of the plot is embodied in Karamzin’s story at its most external level as a moral conflict " beautiful soul and body" of Lisa and Erast - "a rather rich nobleman with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty." And, of course, one of the reasons for the shock produced by Karamzin’s story in literature and the reader’s consciousness was that Karamzin was the first of the Russian writers who addressed the theme of unequal love, who decided to resolve his story in the way that such a conflict would most likely be resolved in real conditions Russian life: the death of the heroine.
The main characters of the story “Poor Lisa”
Lisa - main character stories by Karamzin. For the first time in the history of Russian prose, the writer turned to a heroine endowed with emphatically ordinary features. His words “...even peasant women know how to love” became popular. Sensitivity is a central character trait of Lisa. She trusts the movements of her heart, lives with “tender passions.” Ultimately, it is ardor and ardor that lead to Lisa’s death, but she is morally justified.
Lisa doesn't look like a peasant woman. " Beautiful body and the soul of a settler,” “tender and sensitive Liza,” loving her parents dearly, cannot forget about her father, but hides her sadness and tears so as not to disturb her mother. She takes tender care of her mother, gets her medicine, works day and night (“she wove canvas, knitted stockings, picked flowers in the spring, and in the summer she took berries and sold them in Moscow”). The author is sure that such activities will fully provide for the life of the old woman and her daughter. According to his plan, Lisa is completely unfamiliar with the book, but after meeting Erast, she dreams of how good it would be if her beloved “was born as a simple peasant shepherd...” - these words are completely in the spirit of Lisa.
Liza not only speaks like a book, but also thinks. Nevertheless, the psychology of Lisa, who fell in love with a girl for the first time, is revealed in detail and in a natural sequence. Before throwing herself into the pond, Lisa remembers her mother, she took care of the old woman as best she could, left her money, but this time the thought of her was no longer able to keep Lisa from taking a decisive step. As a result, the character of the heroine is idealized, but internally integral.
Erast's character is much different from Lisa's character. Erast is depicted more in accordance with the one who raised him social environment than Lisa. This is a “rather rich nobleman,” an officer who led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in social amusements, but often did not find it, was bored and complained about his fate. Endowed with “a fair mind and a kind heart,” being “kind by nature, but weak and flighty,” Erast represented new type hero in Russian literature. For the first time, the type of disappointed Russian aristocrat was outlined in it.
Erast recklessly falls in love with Lisa, not thinking that she is a girl not in his circle. However, the hero does not stand the test of love.
Before Karamzin, the plot automatically determined the type of hero. In “Poor Liza,” the image of Erast is much more complex than that literary type, to which the hero belongs.
Erast is not a “cunning seducer”; he is sincere in his oaths, sincere in his deception. Erast is as much the culprit of the tragedy as he is the victim of his “ardent imagination.” Therefore, the author does not consider himself to have the right to judge Erast. He stands on a par with his hero - because he converges with him at the “point” of sensitivity. After all, it is the author who acts in the story as a “reteller” of the story that Erast told him: “..I met him a year before his death. He himself told me this story and led me to Lisa’s grave...”
Erast begins a long series of heroes in Russian literature, the main feature of which is weakness and inability to adapt to life, and for whom the label of “superfluous person” has been assigned for a long time in literary criticism.
Plot, composition
As Karamzin himself puts it, the story “Poor Liza” is “a very simple fairy tale.” The plot of the story is simple. This is the love story of a poor peasant girl Lisa and a rich young nobleman Erast. Social life and he was tired of secular pleasures. He was constantly bored and “complained about his fate.” Erast “read idyll novels” and dreamed of that happy time when people, unencumbered by the conventions and rules of civilization, would live carefree in the lap of nature. Thinking only about his own pleasure, he “looked for it in amusements.” With the advent of love in his life, everything changes. Erast falls in love with the pure “daughter of nature” - the peasant woman Lisa. Chaste, naive, joyfully trusting of people, Lisa seems to be a wonderful shepherdess. Having read novels in which “all people carelessly walked along the rays, swam in clean springs, kissed like turtle doves, rested under roses and myrtles,” he decided that “he found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time.” Lisa, although “the daughter of a rich villager,” is just a peasant woman who is forced to earn her own living. Sensuality - the highest value of sentimentalism - pushes the heroes into each other's arms, giving them a moment of happiness. The picture of pure first love is drawn in the story very touchingly. “Now I think,” says Lisa to Erast, “that without you life is not life, but sadness and boredom. Without your eyes the bright month is dark; without your voice the nightingale singing is boring...” Erast also admires his “shepherdess.” "All the brilliant fun big world seemed insignificant to him in comparison with the pleasures with which the passionate friendship of an innocent soul nourished his heart.” But when Lisa gives herself to him, the jaded young man begins to cool in his feelings for her. In vain does Lisa hope to regain her lost happiness. Erast goes on a military campaign, loses all his fortune at cards and, in the end, marries a rich widow. And Liza, deceived in her best hopes and feelings, throws herself into the pond near the Simonov Monastery.
The artistic originality of the analyzed story
But the main thing in the story is not the plot, but the feelings that it was supposed to awaken in the reader. Therefore, the main character of the story is the narrator, who talks with sadness and sympathy about the fate of the poor girl. The image of a sentimental narrator became a discovery in Russian literature, since previously the narrator remained “behind the scenes” and was neutral in relation to the events described. The narrator learns the story of poor Liza directly from Erast and often comes to be sad at “Liza’s grave.” The narrator of “Poor Lisa” is mentally involved in the relationships of the characters. Already the title of the story is based on the connection own name a heroine with an epithet characterizing the narrator’s sympathetic attitude towards her.
The author-narrator is the only intermediary between the reader and the life of the characters, embodied in his word. The narration is told in the first person, the constant presence of the author reminds of himself with his periodic appeals to the reader: “now the reader should know...”, “the reader can easily imagine...”. These formulas of address, emphasizing the intimacy of emotional contact between the author, characters and reader, are very reminiscent of the methods of organizing narrative in epic genres Russian poetry. Karamzin, transferring these formulas into narrative prose, ensured that the prose acquired a soulful lyrical sound and began to be perceived as emotionally as poetry. The story “Poor Liza” is characterized by short or extended lyrical digressions; at every dramatic turn of the plot we hear the author’s voice: “my heart is bleeding...”, “a tear is rolling down my face.”
In their aesthetic unity three central image The stories - the author-narrator, poor Liza and Erast - with a completeness unprecedented in Russian literature, realized the sentimentalist concept of the individual, valuable for his extra-class moral virtues, sensitive and complex.
Karamzin was the first to write smoothly. In his prose, words were intertwined in such a regular, rhythmic way that the reader was left with the impression of rhythmic music. Smoothness is to prose what meter and rhyme are to poetry.
Karamzin introduces the rural literary landscape into the tradition.
Meaning of the work
Karamzin laid the foundation for a huge cycle of literature about “little people” and opened the way for the classics of Russian literature. The story “Rich Liza” essentially opens the theme of the “little man” in Russian literature, although social aspect in relation to Lisa and Erast is somewhat muted. Of course, the gap between a rich nobleman and a poor village woman is very large, but Lisa is least like a peasant woman, more like a sweet society young lady brought up on sentimental novels. The theme of “Poor Lisa” appears in many works by A.S. Pushkin. When he wrote “The Peasant Young Lady,” he was most definitely guided by “Poor Liza,” turning the “sad story” into a novel with a happy ending. IN " Stationmaster“Dunya is seduced and taken away by a hussar, and her father, unable to bear the grief, becomes an alcoholic and dies. In “The Queen of Spades,” the further life of Karamzin’s Liza is visible, the fate that would have awaited Liza if she had not committed suicide. Lisa also lives in the novel “Sunday” by L.N. Tolstoy. Seduced by Nekhlyudov, Katyusha Maslova decides to throw herself under the train. Although she remains to live, her life is full of dirt and humiliation. The image of Karamzin’s heroine continued in the works of other writers.
It is in this story that the sophisticated psychologism of Russian culture, recognized throughout the world, originates. literary prose. Here Karamzin, opening the gallery of “extra people,” stands at the source of another powerful tradition - the depiction of smart slackers, for whom idleness helps maintain a distance between themselves and the state. Thanks to blessed laziness " extra people"always in opposition. If they had served their fatherland honestly, they would not have had time to seduce Liz and make witty asides. In addition, if the people are always poor, then the “extra people” always have money, even if they squandered it, as happened with Erast. He has no affairs in the story except love.
This is interesting
“Poor Lisa” is perceived as a story about true events. Lisa belongs to the characters with “registration”. “...More and more often I am attracted to the walls of the Si...nova Monastery - the memory of the deplorable fate of Lisa, poor Lisa,” - this is how the author begins his story. With a gap in the middle of a word, any Muscovite could guess the name of the Simonov Monastery, the first buildings of which date back to the 14th century. The pond, located under the walls of the monastery, was called the Fox Pond, but thanks to Karamzin’s story it was popularly renamed Lizin and became a place of constant pilgrimage for Muscovites. In the 20th century along Lizino Pond were named Lizino Square, Lizino Dead End and Lizino Railway Station. To date, only a few buildings of the monastery have survived; most of them were blown up in 1930. The pond was filled up gradually, and it finally disappeared after 1932.
At the place of Liza’s death, those who came to cry, first of all, were the same unhappy girls in love, like Liza herself. According to eyewitnesses, the bark of the trees growing around the pond was mercilessly cut by the knives of the “pilgrims.” The inscriptions carved on the trees were both serious (“In these streams, poor Liza passed away her days; / If you are sensitive, passer-by, sigh”), and satirical, hostile to Karamzin and his heroine (the couplet acquired particular fame among such “birch epigrams”: “Erast’s bride perished in these streams. / Drown yourself, girls, there’s plenty of room in the pond.”
Celebrations at the Simonov Monastery were so popular that descriptions of this area can be found on the pages of the works of many writers of the 19th century: M.N. Zagoskina, I.I. Lazhechnikova, M.Yu. Lermontov, A.I. Herzen.
Karamzin and his story were certainly mentioned when describing the Simonov Monastery in guidebooks to Moscow and special books and articles. But gradually these references began to be more and more ironic, and already in 1848 in the famous work of M.N. Zagoskin “Moscow and Muscovites” in the chapter “Walk to the Simonov Monastery” did not say a word about Karamzin or his heroine. As sentimental prose lost the charm of novelty, “Poor Liza” ceased to be perceived as a story about true events, much less as an object of worship, but became in the minds of most readers a primitive fiction, a curiosity reflecting the tastes and concepts of a bygone era.
Good DD. Russian history literature XVIII century. - M., 1960.
WeilP., GenisA. Native speech. The legacy of “Poor Liza” Karamzin // Zvezda. 1991. No. 1.
ValaginAL. Let's read it together. - M., 1992.
DI. Fonvizin in Russian criticism. - M., 1958.
History of Moscow districts: encyclopedia / ed. K.A. Averyanova. - M., 2005.
Toporov VL. “Poor Liza” by Karamzin. M.: Russkiy Mir, 2006.
Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" became key work of its time. The introduction of sentimentalism into the work and the presence of many themes and problems allowed the 25-year-old author to become extremely popular and famous. Readers were absorbed by the images of the main characters of the story - the story about the events of their lives became an occasion to rethink the features of humanistic theory.
History of writing
In most cases, unusual works of literature have unusual creation stories, however, if “Poor Lisa” had such a story, it was not provided to the public and was lost somewhere in the wilderness of history. It is known that the story was written as an experiment at the dacha of Peter Beketov, which was located not far from the Simonov Monastery.
Data on the publication of the story are also quite scarce. “Poor Liza” was first published in the Moscow Journal in 1792. At that time, N. Karamzin himself was its editor, and 4 years later the story was published a separate book.
Heroes of the story
Lisa is the main character of the story. The girl belongs to the peasant class. After her father's death, she lives with her mother and earns money by selling knitwear and flowers in the city.
Erasmus – main character stories. The young man has a soft character, he is not able to defend his position in life, which makes both him and Lisa, who is in love with him, unhappy.
Lisa's mother is a peasant by birth. She loves her daughter and wants the girl to live her life later life without difficulties and sorrows.
We suggest following which was written by N. Karamzin.
Plot of the story
The action of the story takes place in the vicinity of Moscow. The young girl Lisa lost her father. Because of this, her family, consisting of her and her mother, began to gradually become poor - her mother was constantly sick and therefore could not work fully. The main workforce in the family was Lisa - the girl actively weaved carpets, knitted stockings for sale, and also collected and sold flowers. One day, a young aristocrat, Erasmus, approached the girl; he fell in love with the girl and therefore decided to buy flowers from Lisa every day.
However, the next day Erasmus did not come. Distressed Lisa returns home, but fate gives the girl new gift– Erasmus comes to Lisa’s house and says that he can come for flowers himself.
From this moment a new stage in the girl’s life begins - she is completely captivated by love. However, despite everything, this love adheres to the framework of platonic love. Erasmus is captivated by the girl’s spiritual purity. Unfortunately, this utopia did not last long. Mother decides to marry Lisa off - a rich peasant decided to woo Lisa. Erasmus, despite his love and admiration for the girl, cannot claim her hand - social norms strictly regulate their relationship. Erasmus belongs to the nobles, and Lisa belongs to simple peasants, so their marriage is a priori impossible. Lisa goes on a date with Erast in the evening as usual and tells the young man about the upcoming event in the hope of support.
The romantic and devoted Erast decides to take Lisa to his house, but the girl cools his ardor, noting that in this case he will not be her husband. That evening the girl loses her purity.
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After this, the relationship between Lisa and Erasmus was no longer the same - the image of an immaculate and holy girl faded away in the eyes of Erasmus. The young man begins military service, and the lovers part. Lisa sincerely believes that their relationship will retain its former fervor, but the girl is in for a huge disappointment: Erasmus is addicted to playing cards and does not become a successful player - marriage with a rich old woman helps him avoid poverty, but does not bring happiness. Lisa, having learned about the wedding, committed suicide (drowned in the river), and Erasmus forever acquired a feeling of guilt for her death.
The reality of the events described
The features of the artistic construction of the plot and the description of the background of the work suggest the reality of the events taking place and the literary reminiscence of Karamzin. After the publication of the story, the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery, near which, based on Karamzin’s story, Lisa lived, became especially popular among young people. Readers also took a liking to the pond in which the girl allegedly drowned and even sweetly renamed it “Lizin.” However, there is no information about the real basis of the story; it is believed that its characters, as well as the plot, were the fruit of the author’s imagination.
Subjects
A story as a genre does not imply the presence of a huge number of topics. Karamzin fully complies with this requirement and is limited in fact to just two topics.
The theme of peasant life
Using the example of Lisa’s family, the reader can become widely acquainted with the peculiarities of the life of peasants. Readers are presented with a non-generalized image. From the story you can learn about the details of the life of peasants, their everyday and not only everyday difficulties.
Peasants are people too
In literature one can often find the image of peasants as a generalized one, devoid of individual qualities.
Karamzin shows that the peasants, despite their lack of education and lack of familiarity with art, are not devoid of intelligence, wisdom, or moral character.
Lisa is a girl who can carry on a conversation; of course, these are not topics about innovations in the field of science or art, but her speech is structured logically, and its content makes us associate the girl as an intelligent and talented interlocutor.
Issues
The problem of finding happiness
Every person wants to be happy. Lisa and Erasmus are also no exception. Platonic love, which arose between young people, allowed them to realize how it is to be happy and at the same time how it is to be deeply unhappy. The author in the story raises an important question: is it always possible to become happy and what is needed for this.
The problem of social inequality
One way or another, our real life is subject to certain unspoken rules and social stereotypes. Most of them arose on the principle of social distribution into layers or castes. It is precisely this moment that Karamzin acutely personifies in the work - Erasmus is by origin an aristocrat, a nobleman, and Liza is a poor girl, a peasant woman. Marriage between an aristocrat and a peasant woman was unthinkable.
Loyalty in relationships
When reading the story, you understand that such sublime relationships between young people, if they were transferred to the plane of real time, would not exist forever - sooner or later the love fervor between Erasmus and Lisa would fade away - further development the public's position hampered it, and the resulting stable uncertainty provoked the degradation of romance.
Guided by the possibility of materially improving his situation, Erasmus decides to marry a rich widow, although he himself promised Lisa to always love her. While the girl faithfully awaits the return of her lover, Erasmus cruelly betrays her feelings and hopes.
The problem of urban orientation
One more global problem, which is reflected in Karamzin’s story, is a comparison of the city and the village. In the understanding of city residents, the city is the engine of progress, newfangled trends and education. The village is always presented as something backward in its development. The villagers, accordingly, are also backward in all understandings of this word.
Villagers also note differences between residents of cities and villages. In their concept, the city is the engine of evil and danger, while the village is a safe place that preserves the moral character of the nation.
Idea
The main idea of the story is to expose sensuality, morality and the influence of emerging emotions on a person’s fate. Karamzin leads readers to the concept: empathy is an important part of life. Compassion and humanity should not be deliberately abandoned.
Karamzin argues that a person’s morality is a factor that does not depend on class and position in society. Very often people with aristocratic ranks are lower in their moral development than simple peasants.
Direction in culture and literature
The story “Poor Liza” is indicated by the peculiarities of the direction in literature - sentimentalism was successfully embodied in the work, which was successfully embodied in the image of Liza’s father, who, according to Karamzin’s description, was ideal person within their social unit.
Lisa's mother also has multiple traits of sentimentalism - she experiences significant mental suffering after her husband leaves, and is sincerely worried about the fate of her daughter.
The main mass of sentimentalism falls on the image of Lisa. She is depicted as a sensual person who is so absorbed in her emotions that she is unable to engage in critical thinking - after meeting Erasmus. Lisa is so absorbed in new romantic experiences that apart from these feelings she does not take any others seriously - the girl is not able to sensibly evaluate her life situation, she cares little about her mother’s experiences and her love.
Instead of love for her mother (which was previously inherent in Lisa), now the girl’s thoughts are occupied by love for Erasmus, which reaches a critical egoistic apogee - Lisa perceives the tragic events in her relationship with a young man as an irrevocable tragedy of her whole life. The girl does not try to find a “golden mean” between the sensual and logical - she completely surrenders to emotions.
Thus, Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” became a breakthrough of its time. For the first time, readers were provided with an image of heroes that was as close to life as possible. The characters do not have a clear division into positive and negative. In every hero you can find positive and negative qualities. The work reflects the main social topics and problems that are inherently philosophical problems timeless - their relevance is not regulated by chronology.
"Poor Lisa"- a sentimental story by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, written in 1792. What is the main idea of the story Poor Lisa?
Main idea Poor Lisa
The main idea of "Poor Lisa"- an unspoiled, pure person who, following his feelings, which is the only true option for him, faces the tragedy of the real world. But we should not forget that the work is, first of all, entertaining in nature, and the world in which Lisa, her mother and Erast live is idyllic and it is impossible to apply the parameters of real, objective reality to it.
Main theme The theme of death appeared in the works of sentimentalist writers. And in this story, Lisa, having learned about Erast’s betrayal, committed suicide. The feelings of a simple peasant woman turned out to be stronger than the feelings of a nobleman. Lisa does not think about her mother, for whom the death of her daughter is tantamount to her own death; that suicide is a great sin. She is disgraced and cannot imagine life without her lover.
Poor Lisa summary
After the death of her father, a “prosperous villager,” young Lisa is forced to work tirelessly to feed herself and her mother. In the spring, she sells lilies of the valley in Moscow and there she meets the young nobleman Erast, who falls in love with her and is even ready to leave the world for the sake of his love. The lovers spend all evenings together, sharing a bed. However, with the loss of innocence, Lisa lost her attractiveness for Erast. One day he reports that he must go on a campaign with the regiment and they will have to part. A few days later, Erast leaves.
Several months pass. Liza, once in Moscow, accidentally sees Erast in a magnificent carriage and finds out that he is engaged (he lost his estate at cards and is now forced to marry a rich widow). In despair, Lisa throws herself into the pond.
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 influence 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 the 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
- The main character of the story is Lisa, a poor village girl. IN early age she lost her father and was forced to become a breadwinner for her family, agreeing to any job. The hardworking provincial woman is very naive and sensitive, she sees in people only good features and lives by his emotions, following the call of his 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.
- 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.
- 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 negative hero, because he admits his guilt. He read and was inspired by novels, was dreamy, looking at the world in pink 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 spiritual happiness and suffering common 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 rural areas, it is there that natural, sincere and good people who know no temptation. 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.
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, main idea The story “Poor Liza” is that you should not be afraid of your 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. 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, we 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.
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