1. Katerina Izmailova and Katerina Kabanova - merchant wives.
2. The image of Katerina Izmailova.
3. The image of Katerina Kabanova.
4. Similarities and differences of heroines.
A. N. Ostrovsky in his works depicted the life of the Russian merchants. Thanks to these works, we think about how tragic a woman’s life could be in the atmosphere of a patriarchal merchant environment. N. S. Leskov also addressed the merchant class in his works. And the story “Lady Macbeth” is very interesting for us. Mtsensk district" The main character of this work is called Katerina, she is the mother of the main character of Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”. And both of them are merchant wives. But the similarities between Izmailova and Kabanova end there. Katerina from Leskov's story and Katerina from Ostrovsky's play differ from each other as much as possible. Leskov is rightly called a realist writer. He actually depicts real life, draws objectively human characters. But the characters of seemingly ordinary people turn out to be such that the reader has many questions. What a monster a person can be! These are the thoughts that arise after reading the story, the main character of which is Katerina Izmailova. At the beginning of the story, the reader learns that Izmailova is an ordinary merchant’s wife, a young, beautiful woman. Her husband is old and unattractive. Katerina is bored, her life is eventless and monotonous. Katerina Kabanova, the heroine of Ostrovsky's play, is also bored. Her life is just as dull and monotonous.
Patriarchal merchant society does not welcome entertainment and fun. And, of course, no one thinks about how sad and bored young women can be. Two Katerinas are trying as best they can to brighten up their gray existence. Love becomes the salvation from wretchedness, vulgarity and dullness. Love, like a bright flash, illuminates the life of Katerina Kabanova. The same thing happens with Katerina Izmailova.
Young women forget about everything in the world and completely surrender to the all-consuming feeling. However, Katerina Izmailova commits crimes for the sake of her happiness. She kills several people - her husband, father-in-law and even her little nephew. Izmailova strives for freedom and is ready to do anything for it. A woman is not tormented by her conscience, she does not think that she will have to pay for her atrocities either in this world or in the next. Katerina simply does not think about the consequences of her actions. Her impulsive nature is capable of acting first and not thinking. Katerina Kabanova is completely different. This is an impressionable, easily wounded nature. She remembers her childhood, which was happy, remembers the smallest details of her past. Izmailova does not remember the past, she lives only in the present.
For Izmailova, love is, first of all, passion, for the sake of which she is capable of destroying everyone who gets in her way. Kabanova is more romantic, she idealizes her lover, considers him kind, smart, good. The heroine Leskova does not think about how good her lover is. It is enough for her that he is handsome and young. She fell in love with him precisely for this, she was tired of living with an old and unattractive husband. Katerina Kabanova suffers, realizing the sinfulness of her feelings. She believes that retribution will certainly follow. Katerina feels unhappy and repents of her sin. Katerina Izmailova does not condemn herself; she is driven by the instinct of self-preservation and the desire to get what she wants. Katerina Izmailova forgets about decency, duty, nobility. Of course, she has a strong and extraordinary character. But all the strength of her nature is directed towards evil. When she kills her husband and father-in-law, the reader's attitude towards her can no longer be good. The heroine of the story does not evoke sympathy and pity, unlike the heroine of Ostrovsky's play. Katerina Kabanova is a defenseless, naive creature. It is impossible not to feel sympathy for her. She is not capable of causing harm to anyone, but she turns out to be ruthless towards herself. Katerina Kabanova is merciless to herself, cursing herself for her momentary weakness. Katerina Izmailova is alien to such behavior. Even in hard labor she did not repent. It is also significant that Izmailova is completely indifferent to her child, born from a loved one. Leskov himself says that such passionate natures, like Katerina, completely surrender to love, but children leave them indifferent. Indifference to her child could still be forgiven, given that Katerina would never see him again. But the fact that she killed her little nephew, thinking solely about getting rich, generally deprives Ostrovsky’s heroine of the right to any sympathy. The Izmailovs’ nephew did not interfere with Katerina in any way. She decides to kill him solely for the sake of enrichment, because the boy was the direct heir of her husband. Katerina Kabanova never thought about getting rich at all. Throughout the entire work, Katerina Kabanova did not even think about money. The same cannot be said about Katerina Izmailova.
Katerina Kabanova is very religious, Katerina Izmailova generally lacks faith in God. And the lack of a moral principle has a lot to do with this. Izmailova lives guided solely by her desires. And they, that is, desires, frighten with their animal simplicity. Katerina Izmailova is strong and determined. There is nothing bright in her image; this fundamentally distinguishes her from the poetic nature of Katerina Kabanova.
Katerina Izmailova commits suicide, while she destroys another life - she takes with her into the waves the one that her lover noticed. And before her death, she “wants to remember the prayer and moves her lips.” But she remembers not a prayer, but a vulgar and terrible song.
The two Katerinas were representatives of the merchant class. But in one they united exclusively dark sides human nature, the other, on the contrary, is light and poetic. Such different people were brought up in the same environment. We know about the morals of the patriarchal merchants thanks to the works of Ostrovsky. And we can say with confidence that among the merchants it was not customary to treat each other with respect and attention. This means that in an atmosphere of cruelty, hypocrisy and hypocrisy, people like Katerina Izmailova can appear. Cruelty begets cruelty. Katerina Kabanova was rather an exception. In addition, we know that Katerina Kabanova’s childhood was bright and joyful. We don’t know what Izmailova’s childhood was like. Perhaps she did not see anything good in life, which is why the dark sides of her nature got the better of her.
Of course, Katerina Kabanova and Katerina Izmailova cannot be called typical representatives of the Russian merchants. They are rather the exception, rare and amazing. And that is why works in which they are the main characters continue to interest readers.
Russian literature
Victor Eremin
Katerina Lvovna Izmailova
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov is a man of great passion, great contradictions, great Conscience and great patriotism. No wonder A.M. Gorky, who read in 1909-1911. on the island of Capri a series of lectures under common name“The History of Russian Literature,” stated then that Leskov wrote “not about a peasant, not about a nihilist, not about a landowner, but always about a Russian person, about a person of a given country. Each of his heroes is a link in a chain of people, in a chain of generations, and in each of Leskov’s stories you feel that his main thought is not about the fate of an individual, but about the fate of Russia.”*
_________________________
* IMLI RAS. Archive of A.M. Gorky. T.1. History of Russian literature. M.: Goslitizdat, 1939.
It is in these words that the essence of the modern misunderstanding of Leskov’s work is revealed. Nikolai Semyonovich is a writer of the fate of the Fatherland, and today in his works they often look for the quintessence of the Russian character, moreover, the image of the Russian people. And this is deeply wrong. Leskov is the brightest representative of raznochin literature, therefore, in his books (continued aristocratic literature XIX century) given a predominantly aristocratic idea of the Russian people, although richly decorated with great knowledge inner world a simple person. Unfortunately, knowledge is not truth, and the Russian people in Leskov’s works remain, on the one hand, a romantic dream, and on the other hand, the writer’s gloomy idea of them. Let us note that the works of all the heresiarchs of Great Russian literature suffer from this disease.
Leskov is often called the most Russian, the most national writer of all the writers of our land. This comes from that part of the domestic intelligentsia, which is usually called patriotic, professing mainly the Uvarov formula “Autocracy, Orthodoxy, nationality”, and therefore recognizing and even proclaiming the passive subordination of the people in relation to the autocracy (in general, any power) and Orthodoxy (church) that are irresponsible to them. hierarchy).
Nikolai Semyonovich himself repeatedly emphasized that he was best able to positive characters. However, the writer’s positive ones (especially over the years) are dominated by such human characteristics as humility, readiness to suffer unforgivingly from the villain in power, and humility before one’s prepared fate. That is, in continuation of aristocratic literature, Leskov welcomed the feminized face of the Russian man. After all, from time immemorial, the Orthodox intelligentsia of Russia proclaimed that, unlike God’s chosen people - the Jews, the Russian people are a God-bearing people, under the Protection of the Veil. Mother of God, and Russia is its vale, therefore, the Divine face of the Russian people is a woman humbly suffering and trusting only in God.
_________________
* Yudol is a place of suffering.
Let's face it, this understanding of the Russian people is a purely aristocratic and intellectual fiction that has nothing to do with reality. Intellectuals wanted and still want to see the people in such a way that gradually they could fully feel themselves masters, supermen and saviors, but the pretext for this was, as always, God and faith in him. Russian history itself, and even more so the most important part of it - Russian literature (despite many of its great creators) and its heroes, have refuted the image of submissive, pleading and silent Russians imposed on us a thousand times over. Leskov’s heroes were no exception, in whose works even eldership is a form of active struggle against earthly villainy for the triumph of Divine good.
Nikolai Semenovich Leskov
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born on February 4, 1831 in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province. His mother, Maria Petrovna Leskova (née Alferyeva) (1813-1886), was one of the impoverished Oryol nobles. Father, Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov (1789-1848), came from a priestly background, served as a noble assessor of the Oryol Criminal Chamber (criminal investigator). Nikolai became the eldest of the seven Leskov children.
In 1839, the father resigned with a scandal, and the family moved to live on a recently purchased estate - the Panin farm in Kromsky district. In 1841, Nikolai entered the Oryol gymnasium, but studied unevenly and in 1846 failed the transfer exams. However, by the time he was expelled from the gymnasium, he was already working as a scribe in the Oryol State Chamber and was actively moving in the circle of the Oryol intelligentsia.
It was then that Leskov had the opportunity to meet the exiled Little Russian writer, ethnographer and folklorist Afanasy Vasilyevich Markevich (1824-1867), under whose influence young Leskov chose his life path— the young man firmly decided to become an ethnographer.
After the sudden death of his father in 1849, Nikolai was transferred for service to Kyiv as an official of the treasury chamber. There he lived in the family of his maternal uncle, professor-therapist at Kyiv University Sergei Petrovich Alferyev (1816-1884).
In Kyiv in 1853, Nikolai Semenovich married the daughter of a wealthy Kyiv homeowner and businessman, Olga Vasilievna Smirnova (c. 1831-1909). And soon the Crimean War began (1854-1856), which upended all the foundations of the life of Russian society.
In May 1857, Leskov retired and got a job at the private company Shcott and Wilkens, which was headed by the husband of his aunt Alexandra Petrovna (1811-1880), the Russified Englishman Alexander Yakovlevich (Jamesovich) Shcott (c. 1800-1860). Nikolai Semyonovich was involved in the resettlement of peasants to fertile lands, the organization of enterprises in the provinces, agriculture. The writer himself subsequently called three years of service in his uncle’s company the happiest time of his life. Then Leskov traveled almost the entire European part of Russia, saw and understood a lot, the collected vital material was enough for him to long years fruitful literary work.
Unfortunately, the company's business was not going well, and in April 1860 it had to be closed. Leskov returned to Kyiv and entered the service - in the office of the Governor General. At the same time, he took up journalism. On June 18, 1860, his first article was anonymously published in the journal “Economic Index” - about the speculation of booksellers in the Gospel. However, Leskov himself considered the beginning of his literary activity to be the publication in February 1861 on the pages of “Domestic Notes” of “Essays on the Distillery Industry (Penza Province).”
This was a turning point in the life of the aspiring writer. Leskov’s wife left him, he moved to live in St. Petersburg, and was recognized as a talented publicist...
And in 1862, Nikolai Semyonovich for the first time had to feel his foreignness in St. Petersburg society. In the spring, a wave of fires swept through the capital. Rumor attributed the arson to nihilistic students. Outraged by these rumors, Leskov published an article in the Northern Bee calling on the St. Petersburg mayor to look into this issue and, if the students are guilty, punish them, and if not, stop the slanderous chatter. The writer found ill-wishers who began to spread gossip around St. Petersburg that Leskov was calling for reprisals against progressive-minded youth. Few people read the article itself, but the condemnation of the innocent journalist turned out to be universal. Even Alexander II was indignant against Nikolai Semyonovich. It was just cancelled. serfdom(1861), democratic reforms were actively introduced, and society was in a state of delight in its own liberalism. Freedom fighters craved a retrograde victim. And the provincial journalist who so conveniently turned up was chosen as such.
Poor Leskov was shocked by both the slander and such monstrously general rejection of an article that no one had read. Nobody wanted to hear his explanations - he was guilty and that was all! In the end, Nikolai Semyonovich was forced to go abroad for a while - as a correspondent for the Northern Bee, he visited Austria (Bohemia), Poland, France...
And when he returned, contrary to many expectations, not only did he not repent - there was nothing to repent of, but he had the audacity to rush into battle against St. Petersburg society with its liberal demagoguery. In 1863, the writer published his first stories - “The Life of a Woman” and “Musk Ox”; Leskov published the collection “Three Stories by M. Stebnitsky*”, which was followed in 1864 by the anti-nihilistic novel “Nowhere”.
______________________
* M. Stebnitsky is a pseudonym for the first years of N.S.’s literary work. Leskova.
To say that this novel became a social bomb means to say nothing. For the first time in Russian literature (great prophetic works on this topic were written much later), albeit slightly, albeit only in some features, only in the third part of the novel, however, it was condemned (!) revolutionary movement. The hysteria of the democratic press, which was then essentially exercising a dictatorship in the literary field of Russia, had no boundaries. The apogee of the scandal was the article by the idol of the revolutionary youth of those years, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev (1848-1869), “A Walk through the Gardens of Russian Literature,” which he wrote in a cell at the Peter and Paul Fortress, which gave the writings of a mentally ill critic a special aura of a sufferer. It was in this article that there were famous words that have forever entered the history of Russian and world literature as a shameful stain: “I am very interested in the following two questions: 1) Is there now in Russia - besides Russky Vestnik - at least one magazine that would dare to publish on its pages, anything coming from the pen of Mr. Stebnitsky and signed with his last name? 2) Is there at least one honest writer in Russia who will be so careless and indifferent to his reputation that he will agree to work in a magazine that adorns itself with the stories and novels of Mr. Stebnitsky? — These questions are very interesting for the psychological assessment of our literary world"*. In fact, Pisarev shouted: “Atu!” - at Leskov, and the democratic crowd rushed to persecute him.
___________________
* D.I. Pisarev. Literary criticism in 3 volumes. T. 2. Articles 1864-1865. L., “Art. literature", 1981.
However, to our common happiness, there were both magazines and writers for whom the absurd Pisarev was not a decree. And the first among them was the journal of the recent convict Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Pisarev’s article appeared in Russky Vestnik in March 1865, and was published in the same month last number magazine of the Dostoevsky brothers “Epoch”, on the pages of which Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov’s masterpiece was published - the essay “Lady Macbeth of our County”*.
_________________
* It was only in the 1867 edition of “Tales, Essays and Stories by M. Stebnitsky,” vol. I, that the essay first received its current name: “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District.”
Essays in the 19th century. called and strictly works of art. “Lady Macbeth...” became the first essay in the planned series. Leskov himself wrote to the famous Russian philosopher and literary critic, and at the same time to the leading employee of “Epoch” Nikolai Nikolaevich Strakhov (1828-1896): “... I ask you for your attention to this small work. “Lady Macbeth of Our Country” constitutes the first of a series of essays exclusively on typical female characters our (Oka and part of the Volga) area. I propose to write twelve such essays..."*.
____________________
* V.A. Gebel. N.S. Leskov. In the creative laboratory. M.: Soviet writer, 1945.
The main character Katerina Lvovna Izmailova does not have a prototype, although they never stop looking for one. “Lady Macbeth...” is a purely artistic work, composed by the author “out of his head,” and rumors that a similar tragedy occurred in Leskov’s childhood are groundless.
The writer was working on an essay in Kyiv, in heavy state of mind, caused by widespread public obstruction, which inevitably affected the work itself. In a later conversation with famous writer Vsevolod Vladimirovich Krestovsky (1839-1895) Nikolai Semenovich recalled: “But when I wrote my “Lady Macbeth,” under the influence of tense nerves and loneliness I almost reached the point of delirium. At times I felt unbearably creepy, my hair stood on end, I froze at the slightest rustle, which I myself made by moving my leg or turning my neck. These were difficult moments that I will never forget. Since then I have avoided describing such horrors.”*
_________________________
* How Leskov worked on “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” Sat. articles for the production of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by the Leningrad State Academic Maly Theater. L.: 1934.
The essay turned out to be millions of times more anti-nihilistic and anti-revolutionary than any other work of Leskov. Only no one noticed or understood this - after all, Nikolai Semyonovich Pisarev himself (!) was declared an outlaw reactionary. “Lady Macbeth of our district” was chosen not to be noticed!
And in vain, although it must be admitted that Katerina Izmailova has not been recognized by our literary criticism to this day. But it is precisely this that is the central connecting thread that stretches from “The Captain’s Daughter” and Nekrasov’s peasant women to the great pentateuch of Dostoevsky, to “Anna Karenina” and “ Quiet Don"; it was she who, having absorbed all the willfulness and unbridled licentiousness of Pushkin’s Emelka Pugachev and the power of the one who “stops a galloping horse, In a burning the hut will enter" from the poem "Frost, Red Nose", became an integral, if not the main component of almost every hero of the latest novels of Fyodor Mikhailovich (primarily Nastasya Filippovna, Parfena Rogozhina, Dmitry and Ivan Karamazov) or Sholokhov’s Grigory Melekhov and Aksinya.
Why? Yes, because it was in the image of Katerina Izmailova that for the first time in history (in the most perfect artistically form) the individual, personal embodiment of that very nationwide, purely national philosophical thought A.S. Pushkin: “God forbid that we see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless!”*. After Katerina Izmailova, the theme of a personal, merciless, very selfish, and often senseless Russian rebellion became almost the main one in our national literature and replaced the theme extra person. And it was precisely this personal rebellion on the pages of Great Russian literature that involuntarily created the idea of the Russian people as a people living in constant stress, a people inextricably welded together by uncontrollable daring and recklessness, spiritual freedom and naive, but unjustified cruelty, etc. Nowadays, mediocre intellectuals from cinema don’t even know how to show the Russian people anything other than as showy, rollicking, reckless victims of their own boundless passions. This is already a stable stencil, a brand of belonging to everything Russian.
_____________________
* A.S. Pushkin. Collection op. in 10 volumes. T.5. M.: State Publishing House of Fiction, 1960.
However, in Russian literature, personal rebellion always has a great background: no matter what forms it is expressed, it is initially always directed against injustice, and it is always preceded by a long-suffering expectation of Justice.
Katerina Izmailova was married from the poor with one purpose - to give birth to a child and bring an heir to the Izmailovs’ house. Her entire way of life, as was customary in Russian merchant families, was built and organized to raise a successor to the family. But Katerina remained a non-relative for five (!) years. Many years of infertility became the root cause of her rebellion: on the one hand, the woman innocently turned out to be the greatest obstacle for her husband, since the absence of an heir for a merchant is a catastrophe of his entire life, and Katerina was constantly blamed for this; on the other hand, for a childless young merchant's wife, loneliness in a golden cage is mortal boredom, from which it is time to go mad. Katerina rebelled, and her rebellion spontaneously resulted in an insane passion for the insignificant, pretty clerk Sergei. The worst thing is that Katerina Lvovna herself would never be able to explain what she was rebelling against, a dark carnal passion simply went wild in her, provoked by a kindly thief*, and then events developed against anyone’s will, in full accordance with the epigraph-proverb that preceded the essay “When I started to sing the first song.”
_____________________
* Firth (obsolete) - a dashing, dapper and cheeky, self-satisfied person.
Crimes were committed by the merchant's wife on an increasing scale: at first Katerina sinned; then she secretly poisoned her old father-in-law with rat poison, who learned about her adultery; then she forced her lover to participate in the murder of her husband, so as not to interfere with them leading a free life; and only then the two of them, for the sake of capital, strangled their husband’s little nephew, and were caught and exposed by people...
And here Leskov brought us to another theme given only to the Russian world (apparently as a general philosophical national one) - the theme of flour and violent death innocent baby. IN real story the death of two boys, terrible and unjustified, became the mystical root cause of two of the greatest Russian Troubles - the mysterious death of Tsarevich Dimitri Ioannovich on May 15, 1591 became the impetus for the Troubles of 1605-1612; The popular hanging in 1614 at the Serpukhov Gate of the Moscow Kremlin of three-year-old Ivashka Vorenok, the son of Maria Mnishek and False Dmitry II, became the unrepentant curse of the reigning house of the Romanovs, the mystical retribution for which was the extermination and expulsion of the family in 1917-1918.
In Russian literature, A.S. was the first to raise this topic. Pushkin in “Boris Godunov”:
...And the boys have bloody eyes...
And I’m glad to run, but there’s nowhere... terrible!
Yes, pitiful is the one whose conscience is unclean.
The murdered boy in Pushkin’s drama is the Supreme Judge, Conscience and the inevitability of the highest Retribution.
Leskov posed this question differently. For Katerina Izmailova, the murder of a child became the lowest point of fall, beyond which earthly retribution began, and much more terrible than human judgment. The woman suffered from her lover, seemingly refuting previous accusations that she was not a relative. But in fact, she only confirmed her infertility in an even more monstrous form: “... in the prison hospital, when they gave her her child, she just said, “Well, that’s it!” and, turning to the wall, without any groan, without any complaint, she collapsed with her chest on the hard cot.”* She already had the opportunity on earth to become convinced of the senselessness and monstrosity of what she had done; it was not for nothing that Katerina’s last earthly words, instead of a prayer, became a shameful lament for the one who mocked her ex-lover: “how you and I walked, sat through the long autumn nights, sent people away from the world with a cruel death.” And Leskov described the last earthly moments of this unrepentant, godless killer-monster as absolutely terrible, terrible: “... but at the same time, from another wave, Katerina Lvovna rose above the water almost waist-deep, rushed at Sonetka, like a strong pike at a soft-feathered flesh, and both didn’t show up again.”
___________________
* N.S. Leskov. Collection op. in 11 volumes. T.1. M.: State Publishing House of Fiction, 1956. The following text is quoted from this publication.
However, Katerina Lvovna is completely terrible not for her actions, but for the fact that she has become a mirror of the soul of the Russian intelligentsia of our days - a great mirror for the black souls of blurred morality.
By creating “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Leskov showed the dead-end path of personal rebellion for the sake of satisfying one’s own passions and nihilism as such in general, in contrast to the general rebellion for Justice. If a popular revolt is an earthly judgment against those in power who have gone too far, then a personal revolt is a dead end of infertility, an all-death loop of narcissistic egoism, which has no justification either in the atrocities of others or in one’s own misfortune. It was this terrible all-consuming difference that was later most fully revealed by F.M. Dostoevsky in Ivan Karamazov’s great monologue about a tortured child and a mother embracing the torturer who tore her son to pieces with dogs.
Through the efforts of the modern creative intelligentsia, Katerina Izmailova is now presented as the bearer of “innocent” and “undervalued” female love, as a victim-sufferer, but not because of the terrible atrocities and infanticide she committed, but because the lover to whom she devoted her whole life , betrayed her boundless passion. Comments are unnecessary: the preachers of this nonsense managed to fall spiritually even lower than Katerina herself.
In 1930, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906-1975) based on the essay wrote the brilliant opera “Katerina Izmailova” - the growing cacophony of reckless Russian rebellion, which was never understood by the domestic intelligentsia. To this day, the opera is interpreted as a story about the confrontation of a free, passionately loving person - Katerina - with the dictates of an ordinary-minded crowd! Leskov and Shostakovich must be turning over in their graves at such a high flight of thought among modern intellectuals.
The first film adaptation of the story, entitled “Katerina the Murderer,” was made in 1916. Director A.A. Arkatov.
______________________
* Alexander Arkadyevich Arkatov (Mogilevsky) (1888-1961) - classic director of world silent cinema. In 1922 he emigrated from Soviet Russia in the USA and ended his film career. Arkatov's fame was brought to him by films about the fate of Jews in pre-revolutionary Russia.
The last film adaptation of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” was made in 1989 by director R.G. Balayan. The role of Katerina Izmailova was played by actress N.E. Andreichenko.
______________________
* Roman Gurgenovich Balayan (b. 1941) - famous domestic film director; creator of 14 films, including “Flights in a dream and in reality”, “Keep me safe, my talisman”, “Filer”, etc.
** Natalya Eduardovna Andreichenko (b. 1956) - domestic theater and film actress. She played leading roles in many classic works of our cinema, but is best known for her role as Mary Poppins in the television film “Goodbye Mary Poppins!”
Lady Macbeth is undoubtedly a strong person who would be better off using her strength for something better.
Leskov describes Catherine "Macbeth" beautiful woman- stately with dark eyes, long eyelashes, dark hair. She has everything, as they say, in place - beautiful figure, smooth skin. She's young and healthy woman. But there are no children, and my husband is a very busy person, constantly busy with his own affairs, and often leaves. Katerina simply has nowhere to apply her strength or direct her energy. She is bored... She also has unspent feelings that her serious husband does not need at all.
And so she finds herself a lover... She simply grabs onto this handsome guy as the meaning of life. But he still uses it. Basically, without much love for her, he has an affair with her. (And then, already in exile, he starts an affair with another...) Katerina is overwhelmed by her feelings - she can hide them, but she is ready to do anything for the sake of her lover. She's not very picky about people. If only she could fall in love with a worthy man who would not put her on trial, for a crime for his own benefit.
She is simply blinded by her passion. Katerina thinks that her lover will also do everything for her, if anything... But he’s definitely not ready for that. And so, for his sake, she is poisoning her father-in-law, her husband, and almost her child, her husband’s heir. Fortunately, people save the child. She allows herself to be used, forgets about her soul. But she also experiences remorse - it’s not for nothing that the ghost of her father-in-law appears to her and almost strangles her. She understands that she has done something terrible... But she only needs a return from her lover, who cannot give it to her. And she began to commit crimes in order not to end this connection. And also for her dear one to live in luxury.
Of course, it takes place in a Russian village with ordinary people, but that doesn’t make the passion here any less. Like Macbeth, the heroes suffer, make mistakes, and are tormented by their passions. The image of Katerina even evokes horror. It’s a pity for her, I would like to stop her before she does all this trouble. I think that her image is an example of a sinner blinded by her desires. She could go around the world with her lover, but she probably understood that then he would leave her.
Option 2
Katerina Izmailova in Leskov’s story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” does not have a specific prototype, rather it is collective image women who ended up in hard labor. Leskov himself at one time worked in the criminal chamber and saw enough of such criminals. In the title of the work, the author clearly refers to the Shakespearean heroine, who did not spare anyone on the way to her goal. Such is Katerina Izmailova.
At the beginning of the work, Katerina Izmailova is a rather quiet, peaceful woman, forced to marry an uninteresting but rich merchant. She herself is of low birth, penniless.
The young woman is terribly bored living in this uninteresting, tastelessly tidy house with her husband and father-in-law, who do not pay attention to her. Katerina's appearance is attractive, although she is not a beauty. She has beautiful dark eyes with long eyelashes. This woman has nothing to do, her father-in-law keeps a vigilant eye on the household, and she wanders around the house all day with nothing to do.
Perhaps the birth of an heir would bring her relief, but they have no children. This is how these people live in boredom and lack of basic respect for each other. Therefore, it is not surprising that Katerina Izmailova falls in love with the young clerk Sergei.
Katerina’s character is strong, she is an integral person, ready to go her own way. Love, or rather passion, a kind of insanity, makes it uncontrollable. For the sake of love, she is ready to do anything. Even for murder. Without blinking an eye, she and her lover send her own husband and father-in-law to their forefathers. This woman is essentially going crazy, since she doesn’t even spare her young nephew Fyodor. Leskova wrote that while describing the murder scene he felt uneasy.
However, God's judgment is being carried out. They are caught in the act and brought to justice. It’s also terrible that Katerina is pregnant at the time of the murder; she is not stopped even by the fact that everyone around is celebrating the religious holiday “Introduction of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple.”
She easily gets rid of her own child, who, by the way, is Sergei, because she believes that he can prevent her from “loving” the clerk. It seems that Katerina Izmailova has been possessed by demons. She doesn't care where she is or what she does. For her, only one love is important for Sergei, which she revels in.
Sergei, of course, is not in love with her. He was flattered to be the mistress’s lover; he is a subservient man. A strong character Katerina Izmailov suppresses and forces him to obey. But already in hard labor, he is trying to get rid of her.
For a woman, the behavior of the person she loves most in the world is tantamount to death. She does not understand that such passion is a heavy yoke for both herself and her partner. Deep down, he is afraid of her and wants to end the relationship as quickly as possible. And for Katerina, this is not just a betrayal, it is a death sentence.
Without love there can be no life. Deciding to commit suicide, she takes her rival with her. Both drown in the water.
In the work “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” Leskov clearly showed what passion is. This dark force, which in no way resembles love. Burning, passionate “love” is destructive for a person, while true love does not seek its own. She is long-suffering and abounding in mercy.
Essay Catherine Lady Macbeth
When reading Leskov’s work, Katerina evokes conflicting feelings.
Her fate is not easy. She was not a beauty, but she was still striking. A small, thin brunette with brown eyes. At the beginning of the work, the author draws his heroine with a calm character. It can be used as an example as a standard of behavior.
However, life presented the young girl with many challenges. She married a not quite young man whom she didn't love. The girl moved in with him, where she gradually began to fade. The husband paid practically no attention to Katerina. The girl lost her zest for life.
And then a young man, Sergei, stands in her way. The girl lost her head. Love and passion flowed into her life. However, everything secret ever becomes clear. Their relationship began to surface. The girl despairs and decides to commit a terrible act - murder.
Then the black stripe continues. One trouble follows another. In the end, the heroine cannot stand it and commits suicide.
The author depicts Katerina in different ways in the situations that occurred. At first she is a fragile, gentle girl. Once married, she becomes a boring, gray stocking. Having acquired love, she blossomed like a rose. In extreme situations, her true nature emerges, devoid of any moral principles. She is a creepy, greedy egoist.
However, after thinking about Katerina’s fate, you can look at her behavior from the other side.
First of all, the young girl didn't know true love. She was driven into a corner and not accepted by society.
Secondly, any woman wants to love and be loved. Everyone dreams of experiencing awe in the soul, feeling care and love at least once in their life.
And here it is – happiness. Sergei filled Katerina’s soul with warmth with his presence. All the girl’s actions can be justified. This is not immorality. This is fear, the fear of losing the most intimate thing - love.
This is not selfishness. This is power. Only strong man able to account for your actions and understand why you are doing it. And Katerina was not ashamed of the committed act. She - Strong woman, which was not broken.
Lady Macbeth has been betrayed. And she couldn't stand it. Living without a loved one means not living at all.
Blind love is the fault of all her actions. The girl fell into the wrong hands. Like the husband who didn’t give her affection, like Sergei who took advantage of her.
There is a river in the central part of the canvas. Its waters are framed on one side by a sandy bank, and on the other side of the river the bank is covered with green trees and grass.
There are many outstanding athletes in the world who will forever remain in the history of world sports. One of these athletes is Vladimir Klitschko and, accordingly, his brother Vitaly.
The novel, known throughout the world, called “Hero of Our Time,” was written by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, a Russian writer and poet.
Vladimir Nikonov is practically our contemporary, he was born at the beginning of the second half of the previous century and worked as an artist, mainly creating miniatures
N.V. Gogol, in a letter to P.A. Pletnev, characterizes V.I. Dal as the author of “physiological essays”: “He is not a poet, does not master the art of fiction, does not even have the desire to produce creative creations; he sees business everywhere and looks at every thing from its practical side... Everything with him is true and taken as it is in nature. He should, without resorting to the beginning or the denouement, over which the novelist so racks his brains, take any incident that happened on Russian soil... so that the most interesting story emerges by itself... His works are living and true statistics of Russia... "(letters from Gogol).
Lady Macbeth of our district - under this title the essay was published in the magazine Epoch 1 in 1865. The essay reflected one of N. S. Leskov’s Oryol impressions. Once, an old neighbor who had lived for 70 years and went to rest under a blackcurrant bush on a summer day was poured boiling sealing wax into his ear by his impatient daughter-in-law. I remember how they buried him... His ear fell off... Then the executioner tormented her on Ilyinka. She was young, and everyone was surprised at how white she was. (How I learned to celebrate, from the childhood memories of N.S. Leskov) On the basis of some of my own observations, poignant chapters of the essay were written. As an employee of the Northern Bee magazine, he visited prisons
At times I felt unbearably creepy, my hair stood on end, I froze at the slightest rustle, which I myself made by moving my leg or turning my neck. These were difficult moments that I will never forget. Since then I have avoided describing such horrors. N.S. Leskov
“Sometimes in our places such characters are created that, no matter how many years have passed since meeting them, you will never remember some of them without trembling. Among such characters is the merchant’s wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, who played out a once terrible drama, after which our nobles, from someone light words, they began to call her Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk district.”
Shakespeare. “Macbeth” (Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth) Lady Macbeth is a bright personality. First of all, in Shakespeare's tragedy it is repeatedly emphasized that she is very beautiful, captivatingly feminine, and bewitchingly attractive. She and Macbeth are truly a wonderful couple worthy of each other. But unlike her husband, Lady Macbeth knows neither doubts nor hesitations, knows no compassion: she is in the full sense of the word “ The Iron Lady" And therefore she is not able to comprehend with her mind that the crimes committed by her (or at her instigation) are sins. Repentance is alien to her.
“They gave her in marriage to our merchant Izmailov from Tuskari, from the Kursk province, not out of love or any attraction, but because Izmailov wooed her, and she was a poor girl, and she did not have to go through suitors...” What other fate do they evoke? do you remember these lines? The fate of the merchant's wife Katerina Kabanova from Ostrovsky's play The Thunderstorm.
Is it possible to detect plot parallels in Ostrovsky’s drama and Leskov’s essay? 1) A young merchant’s wife breaks up with her husband, who is leaving home for a while; 2) during this marital separation, love comes to the heroines of Leskov and Ostrovsky; 3) both plots end with a tragic ending - the death of the heroines; 4) similar circumstances in the lives of two merchants: the boredom of a merchant’s house and a childless life with an unkind husband.
Katerina Izmailova Katerina Lvovna was not born a beauty, but she was a very pleasant woman in appearance. She was 24 years old; She was not tall, but slender, her neck looked like it was carved from marble, her shoulders were round, her chest was strong, her nose was straight and thin, her eyes were black, lively, her high white forehead and black, almost blue-black hair... Katerina Lvovna had an ardent character , and, living as a girl in poverty, she got used to simplicity and freedom: she would run with buckets to the river and swim in her shirt over the pier or sprinkle sunflower husks through the gate of a passing young man... Katerina Kabanova...I lived without worrying about anything, like a bird in the wild...I used to get up early...I’d go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me and that’s it, I’d water all the flowers in the house...Then I’ll go with my mother to church...until Death, I loved going to church! Exactly... I will enter heaven... And what dreams I had... what dreams! Unlike the young merchant Izmailova, Katerina Kabanova has a heightened poetic imagination. She suffers not so much from external restrictions as from an internal feeling of lack of freedom. Katerina Kabanova’s dreams and visions are second nature to her, almost more visible than the world around her.
How does love come to Katerina Lvovna? out of boredom: Why am I really gaping?...At least I’ll get up and walk around the yard or go into the garden... How does love come to Katerina Kabanova? Like some kind of dream: I keep imagining some kind of whisper: someone speaks to me so affectionately, as if he is doveing me, as if a dove is cooing….
Which words are about Kabanova, and which about Izmailova? Katerina Kabanova Motives of sin and repentance, guilt and punishment. For the heroine herself, a violation of the moral law becomes a sinful crime.) Katerina Izmailova There are no internal barriers to the heroine’s passion, and therefore, with all the strength given to her by nature, she eliminates external obstacles that arise in her path.
Who was the director of the Mtsensk tragedy? The thief has taken everything - in height, in face, in beauty, whatever kind of woman you want, now he, the scoundrel, will flatter her, and flatter her, and bring her to sin! Although the first murder is committed against his will, the thought of killing the merchant Zinovy Izmailov is persistently provoked by him: ... your husband will run over you, and you, Sergei Filipich, go away ... and watch how they will take you by the white hands and lead you to the bedchamber, I owe everything to bear this in my heart and, perhaps, even for myself, through this I will become a despicable person for a whole century... I’m not like others... I feel what love is like and how it sucks my heart like a black snake...
Murder 1. Father-in-law Boris Timofeevich And she keeps pestering her: let him go, let him go. “And if that’s the case,” says Boris Timofeich, “then here’s it for you: when your husband comes, we, an honest wife, will tear you out of the stable with our own hands, and tomorrow I’ll send him, the scoundrel, to prison.” That’s why Boris Timofeich decided; but only this decision did not take place. Boris Timofeich ate mushrooms and gruel at night, and he began to have heartburn; suddenly there was a feeling in the pit of his stomach; terrible vomiting began, and by morning he died, and just as the rats were dying in his barns, for which Katerina Lvovna always with her own hands prepared a special dish with a dangerous white powder entrusted to its storage. Katerina Lvovna rescued her Sergei from the old man’s stone storage room and, without any shame from human eyes, laid him down to rest from his mother-in-law’s beatings on her husband’s bed; and the father-in-law, Boris Timofeich, without hesitation, was buried according to Christian law. It was a marvelous thing that no one knew anything: Boris Timofeich died, and he died after eating mushrooms, as many die after eating them. They buried Boris Timofeich hastily, without even waiting for his son, because it was warm outside, and the messenger did not find Zinovy Borisych at the mill.
Murder 2. Zinovy Borisovich He silently moved his eyes and fixed them with an expression of anger, reproach and suffering on his wife, whose thin fingers tightly squeezed his throat. Zinovy Borisych did not defend himself; his hands, with tightly clenched fists, lay outstretched and twitched convulsively. One of them was completely free, Katerina Lvovna pressed the other to the floor with her knee. “Hold him,” she whispered indifferently to Sergei, turning to her husband. Sergei sat on the owner, crushed both his hands with his knees and wanted to grab Katerina Lvovna’s throat under his hands, but at that very moment he himself screamed desperately. At the sight of his offender, bloody revenge aroused all the last of his strength in Zinovy Borisych: he terribly rushed, pulled out his crushed hands from under Sergei’s knees and, clutching Sergei’s black curls with them, bit his throat with his teeth like an animal. But this was not for long: Zinovy Borisych immediately groaned heavily and dropped his head. Katerina Lvovna, pale, almost not breathing at all, stood over her husband and lover; in her right hand there was a heavy cast candlestick, which she held by the upper end, with the heavy part downwards. Scarlet blood ran down Zinovy Borisych’s temple and cheek like a thin cord. Zinovy Borisych wheezed. Katerina Lvovna bent down, squeezed Sergeev’s hands, which were lying on her husband’s throat, with her hands, and laid her ear against his chest. After five quiet minutes, she stood up and said: “That’s enough, he’ll have enough.”
Murder 3. Nephew Fedya. Katerina Lvovna grabbed the frightened child’s mouth, open in horror, with her palm and shouted: “Come on, hurry up; keep it straight so it doesn't hit you! Sergei took Fedya by the legs and arms, and Katerina Lvovna, in one movement, covered the sufferer’s childish face with a large down pillow and leaned heavily on it herself, firm breasts. For about four minutes there was grave silence in the room. “It’s over,” whispered Katerina Lvovna
Murder 4 and 5. Sonetka and Katerina Izmailova. Katerina Lvovna was trembling. Her wandering gaze concentrated and became wild. Hands once or twice reached out into space unknown where and fell again. Another minute - and she suddenly swayed all over, without taking her eyes off the dark wave, bent down, grabbed Sonetka by the legs and in one fell swoop threw her over the side of the ferry. Everyone was petrified with amazement. Katerina Lvovna appeared at the top of the wave and dived again; another wave carried out Sonetka. - Hook! throw the gaff! - they shouted on the ferry. A heavy hook on a long rope fluttered and fell into the water. Sonnetka was no longer visible. Two seconds later, quickly carried away by the current from the ferry, she raised her arms again; but at the same time, from another wave, Katerina Lvovna rose above the water almost waist-deep, rushed at Sonetka, like a strong pike at soft-feathered flesh, and neither of them showed up again.
The image of Lady Macbeth is well known in world literature. N.S. transferred the Shakespearean character to Russian soil. Leskov. His work “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” is popular to this day and has had many dramatizations and film adaptations.
“Lady Macbeth of Our County” - under this title the work first appeared in print in the magazine “Epoch”. Work on the first edition of the essay lasted about a year, from 1864 to 1865. The essay received its final title in 1867 after significant copyright edits.
It was assumed that this story would open a series of works about the characters of Russian women: landowner, noblewoman, midwife, but for a number of reasons the plan was not realized. “Lady Macbeth” is based on the plot of the widely circulated popular print “About a Merchant’s Wife and a Clerk.”
Genre, direction
The author's definition of the genre is essay. Perhaps Leskov with this designation emphasizes the realism and authenticity of the narrative, since this prose genre, as a rule, is based on facts from real life and is documentary. It is no coincidence that the first name of the county is ours; after all, this is how every reader could imagine this picture in his own village. In addition, it is the essay that is characteristic of the direction of realism, which was popular in Russian literature of that time.
From the point of view of literary criticism, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” is a story, as indicated by the complex, eventful plot and composition of the work.
Leskov’s essay has many similarities with Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm,” written 5 years before “The Lady...” The fate of the merchant’s wife worried both authors, and each of them offers his own version of the development of events.
The essence
The main events take place in merchant family. Katerina Izmailova, while her husband is away on business, starts an affair with the clerk Sergei. The father-in-law tried to stop debauchery in own home, but paid for it with his life. The husband who returned home also received a “warm welcome.” Having gotten rid of the interference, Sergei and Katerina enjoy their happiness. Soon their nephew Fedya comes to stay with them. He can lay claim to Katerina's inheritance, so the lovers decide to kill the boy. The scene of strangulation is seen by passersby coming from the church.
The main characters and their characteristics
- Katerina Izmailova- a very complex image. Despite her countless crimes, she cannot be considered solely negative character. Analyzing the character of the main character, one cannot ignore the unfair accusations of her infertility, the contemptuous attitude of her father-in-law and husband. All the atrocities were committed by Katerina for the sake of love; only in her did she see salvation from that nightmarish life, which was filled only with cowardice and boredom. This is a passionate, strong and gifted nature, which, unfortunately, was revealed only in crime. At the same time, we can note the intelligence, cruelty and unscrupulousness of a woman who raised her hand even to a child.
- Clerk Sergei, an experienced “girl,” cunning and greedy. He knows his strengths and is familiar with women's weaknesses. It was not difficult for him to seduce the rich mistress, and then cleverly manipulate her, just to take ownership of the estate. He loves only himself, and only takes advantage of women's attention. Even in hard labor, he looks for amorous adventures and buys them at the cost of his mistress’s sacrifice, begging her for what is valued in prison.
- Husband (Zinovy Borisovich) and father-in-law of Katerina (Boris Timofeevich)- typical representatives of the merchant class, callous and rude inhabitants who are only busy getting rich. Their harsh moral principles rest only on their reluctance to share their goods with anyone. The husband does not value his wife, he simply does not want to give away his property. And his father is also indifferent to the family, but he does not want unflattering rumors to circulate in the area.
- Sonetka. A cunning, resourceful and flirtatious convict who is not averse to having fun even in hard labor. What she has in common with Sergei is frivolity, because she has never had firm and strong attachments.
Themes
- Love - the main theme of the story. It is this feeling that pushes Katerina to commit monstrous murders. At the same time, love becomes the meaning of life for her, while for Sergei it is just fun. The writer shows how passion can not elevate, but humiliate a person, plunge him into the abyss of vice. People often idealize feelings, but the danger of these illusions cannot be ignored. Love cannot always be an excuse for a criminal, a liar and a murderer.
- Family. Obviously, Katerina did not marry Zinovy Borisovich out of love. Over the years of family life, proper mutual respect and harmony did not arise between the spouses. Katerina heard only reproaches addressed to her; she was called a “non-relative.” The arranged marriage ended tragically. Leskov showed what the neglect of interpersonal relationships within the family leads to.
- Revenge. For the order of that time, Boris Timofeevich quite rightly punishes the lustful clerk, but what is Katerina’s reaction? In response to the bullying of her lover, Katerina poisons her father-in-law with a lethal dose of poison. The desire for revenge drives the rejected woman in the episode at the crossing, when the current convict pounces on the homewrecker Sonetka.
Problems
- Boredom. This feeling arises in heroes for a number of reasons. One of them is lack of spirituality. Katerina Izmailova did not like to read, and there were practically no books in the house. Under the pretext of asking for a book, Sergei sneaks in to the hostess on the first night. The desire to bring some variety to a monotonous life becomes one of the main motives for betrayal.
- Loneliness. Katerina Lvovna spent most of her days completely alone. The husband had his own affairs, only occasionally he took her with him, going to visit his colleagues. There is also no need to talk about love and mutual understanding between Zinovy and Katerina. This situation was aggravated by the absence of children, which also saddened the main character. Perhaps, if her family had given her more attention, affection, and participation, then she would not have responded to her loved ones with betrayal.
- Self-interest. This problem clearly indicated in the image of Sergei. He masked his selfish goals with love, trying to evoke pity and sympathy from Katerina. As we learn from the text, the careless clerk already had the sad experience of courting a merchant’s wife. Apparently, in the case of Katerina, he already knew how to behave and what mistakes not to make.
- Immorality. Despite their ostentatious religiosity, the heroes stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Treason, murder, attempt on the life of a child - all this fits into the head of an ordinary merchant's wife and her accomplice. It is obvious that the life and customs of the merchant province corrupt people secretly, because they are ready to commit sin so that no one finds out about it. Despite the strict patriarchal foundations that reign in society, the heroes easily commit crimes, and their conscience does not torment them. Moral issues opens before us the abyss of personal decline.
the main idea
With his work, Leskov warns of the tragedy that an ossified patriarchal way of life and the lack of love and spirituality in the family can lead to. Why did the author choose merchant environment? There was a very large percentage of illiteracy in this class; merchants followed centuries-old traditions that could not fit into the modern world. The main idea of the work is to point out the catastrophic consequences of lack of culture and cowardice. The lack of internal morality allows the heroes to commit monstrous crimes, which can only be atone for by their own death.
The heroine’s actions have their own meaning - she rebels against conventions and boundaries that prevent her from living. The cup of her patience is full, but she doesn’t know how or with what to draw it out. Ignorance is aggravated by debauchery. And so the very idea of protest turns out to be vulgarized. If at first we empathize with a lonely woman who is not respected and insulted in her family, then in the end we see a completely decomposed person who has no way back. Leskov calls on people to be more selective in their choice of means, otherwise the goal is lost, but the sin remains.
What does it teach?
"Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" teaches one main folk wisdom: You cannot build your happiness on someone else’s misfortune. Secrets will be revealed, and you will have to answer for what you have done. Relationships created at the expense of other people's lives end in betrayal. Even the child, the fruit of this sinful love, becomes of no use to anyone. Although it used to seem that if Katerina had children, she could be quite happy.
The work shows that an immoral life ends in tragedy. The main character is overcome by despair: she is forced to admit that everything crimes committed were in vain. Before her death, Katerina Lvovna tries to pray, but in vain.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!