Pushkin is the founder of one of the greatest literature world, the founder of Russian realism with its advanced, democratic, humanistic traditions. He created classical Russian literary language. According to N.V. Gogol, “at the name of Pushkin, the thought of a Russian national poet immediately dawns on me. In it, Russian nature, Russian soul, Russian language, Russian character were reflected in the same purity, in such purified beauty as the surrounding bodies are reflected on the convex surface of optical glass.”

The variety of developed genres and styles, the lightness, grace and accuracy of verse, the relief and strength of characters, “enlightened humanism”, the universality of poetic thinking and the very personality of Pushkin predetermined his paramount importance in Russian literature: Pushkin raised it to the world level.

In the novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin” recreated the lifestyle and spiritual and moral ideals of his contemporary, a native of the capital’s nobility. In this novel and in many other works, Pushkin addresses the problem of individualism, the boundaries of freedom, posed in “Gypsies.”

Pushkin was the first to identify many of the leading problems of Russian literature of the 19th century century. “Little Tragedies” raises issues of love, friendship, creative vocation, meaning and justification of existence, death and immortality. In “Andrei Chenier”, “The Prophet”, the problems of the unity of poetry and freedom, poetry and politics, poetry and modernity are raised. The lack of a solid social status determined such motifs in Pushkin’s work as loneliness, the meaninglessness of existence, human defenselessness in the face of nature, fate, despotism (“Anchar”, “Road Complaints”, “A Vain Gift, an Accidental Gift”). Hence the motives of hope and saving love (“Memory”, “I loved you.”, “Premonition”).

But still, the most important issue in Pushkin’s work is the question of complex, fraught with catastrophe, relations between power, the nobility and the people, the state and the individual, the role of the individual in history (the tragedy “Boris Godunov”, the poems “Poltava”, “The Bronze Horseman”) .

The most important, determining Pushkin’s position in prose, was the historical novel “The Captain’s Daughter,” written in the form of memoirs.

The idea for “The Captain's Daughter” arose when Pushkin began working on “The History of Pugachev.” It turned out that there is no point in inventing unprecedented plots, endowing paper heroes with fatal passions, when real Russian history is a living treasure trove of plots and heroes. Pushkin discovered the events of sixty years ago, just as Columbus discovered America. Events and people appeared before him that you couldn’t read about and couldn’t make up out of your head.

Pushkin's interest in XVIII century was constant and unquenchable. It was in this century that the Russian nobility was forged, and with it the entire Russian society. Everything that was dear and hateful, scary and funny to the poet in Russia had its roots in the “grandfather’s” century. Therefore, he turns to a new genre of historical novel. In Western European literature, this genre was already being diligently developed, and Pushkin highly valued the novels of Walter Scott. But Pushkin would not have been Pushkin if he had blindly followed models, even the best. He took the idea of ​​the novel as a genre in which private fate is shown through history, and history through private fate: “In our time, by the word “novel” we mean historical era, developed on a fictional narrative." But Pushkin avoided “romantic ideas”: excessive entertainment at the expense of the truth of the story and the truth of the characters, crackling efficiency, plot twists in order to intrigue the reader. “The Captain's Daughter” is strict, artless and outwardly more reminiscent of a document than a work of art.

In 1833, Pushkin went to the Volga and the Orenburg steppes to collect materials for the historical work he had planned - “The History of Pugachev.” At the same time, the idea of ​​a future novel is maturing. At first, Pushkin wanted to make the main character an officer who went over to Pugachev’s side. But what he learned, read in the archives and heard from eyewitnesses, strengthened him in the idea that such an act for a nobleman was completely atypical. There were no Dubrovskys in Pugachev’s army. The Pugachev rebellion precisely marked the gap between two Russias - noble and peasant. In a note addressed to Nicholas I, Pushkin wrote: “All the black people were for Pugachev. The clergy were kind to him. Only the nobility was openly on the side of the government.”

But The Captain's Daughter is a novel, not a historical study. The story in “The Captain's Daughter” is about small human destinies intertwined with the history of the people and the country.

Pushkin chose the title for his novel only in the fall of 1836. In any case, the name “The Captain's Daughter” appeared for the first time, as far as the surviving papers allow us to judge, in October 1836, when the writer sent the novel to the censor; Until that time, when mentioning “The Captain’s Daughter” in his letters, Pushkin called his story simply a novel.

In “The Captain's Daughter,” Pushkin wanted, first of all, to show how the fate of the characters in the story turned out, caught in the cycle of historical upheavals. That is why, unlike other characters, whose characters are presented in the story without any changes, as a certain given (be it Pugachev, Grinev the father, Savelich, Captain Mironov and some others), Grinev the son and the captain’s daughter are shown in development characters in the process of developing their personality.

The work was published in 1836. Its appearance meant the birth of the Russian novel. The Russian novel is a whole chapter in the book of world literature. And Pushkin began this chapter. The novel did not immediately receive universal recognition; but the further time passed, the more undeniable the opinion about the artistic perfection of Pushkin’s historical novel became. But how many different ideological and artistic perfections were found in him! Over the past centuries, "The Captain's Daughter" has become an integral part of Russian culture, not only in itself, but also for the role that it was destined to play in the intense literary and social struggle of subsequent eras. “The Captain’s Daughter” became for Russian prose what Homer’s poems were for the Greeks. “Compared to The Captain’s Daughter, all our novels and stories,” wrote N.V. Gogol, “seem like cloying rubbish. For the first time, true Russian characters appeared: a simple commandant of the fortress, a captain’s wife, a lieutenant; the fortress itself with a single cannon, the confusion of time and the simple greatness of ordinary people, everything is not only the very truth, but even, as it were, better than it.” Belinsky compared both Pushkin novels and assessed their characters: “The Captain’s Daughter” is something like “Onegin” in prose. The poet depicts in it the mores of Russian society during the reign of Catherine, which determined the inviolable moral ideals that Pushkin accepts and affirms.

You can survive many troubles and hardships, but you cannot come to terms with the decay of morality. Loss of honor is a decline in moral principles, which is always followed by punishment. The concept of honor is brought up in a person from childhood. Thus, using the example of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s novel “The Captain’s Daughter,” it is clearly visible how this happens in life and what results it leads to.

Take care of your honor from a young age. The proverb, taken by Pushkin as an epigraph to the entire novel, draws the reader’s attention to the ideological and moral content of the work: one of the most important problems of “The Captain’s Daughter” is the problem moral education, the formation of the personality of Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, the main character of the novel.

The epigraph to the novel “The Captain's Daughter” is an abbreviated version of the proverb: “Take care of your dress again.” Grinev the father recalls this proverb in full when admonishing his son going into the army: “Take care of your dress again, but take care of your honor from a young age,” according to the author’s wishes, not by chance.

Because the problem of moral education of a young man of his time deeply worried Pushkin; it confronted the writer with particular poignancy after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, which in Pushkin’s mind was perceived as a tragic denouement in the life path of his best contemporaries. The accession of Nicholas I led to a sharp change in the moral “climate” of noble society, to the oblivion of the educational traditions of the 18th century. Under these conditions, Pushkin felt an urgent need to compare the moral experience of different generations and to show the continuity between them. He perceives fidelity to educational ideals and high moral standards as the only salvation from official government morality, which was intensively instilled in the years of the post-December reaction. Representatives of " new nobility“Pushkin contrasts people who are morally whole, not affected by the thirst for ranks, orders and profit. And the epigraph allows us to reveal to what extent this or that hero from “The Captain’s Daughter” embodies the ideals of honor and high moral standards.

Pushkin reveals different facets of the ideal of honor through the mouths of different heroes:

Ivan Kuzmich was an uneducated and simple man, but the most honest and kind (author-storyteller);

The best and most lasting changes come from improving morals, without any violent upheaval (author-narrator);

Ivan Kuzmich was the most straightforward and truthful person (author-storyteller);

But aren’t husband and wife one spirit and one flesh (Vasilisa Egorovna);

They are ready to cut themselves and sacrifice not only their lives, but also their conscience and well-being (Masha Mironova with condemnation);

It is our duty to defend the fortress until our last breath. There is nothing to say about this (Petr Grinev);

Duty demanded that I appear where my service could still be useful to the fatherland in the present difficult circumstances. (Petr Grinev);

Well, kids, today let’s stand up for Mother Empress and prove to the whole world that we are brave people and jurors! (Ivan Kuzmich);

Baba (Vasilisa Egorovna) is not a timid ten (Ivan Kuzmich);

Vasilisa Egorovna the very brave lady (Shvabrin);

Welcome; honor and place, you are welcome (Pugachev);

He (Grinev) accosted the impostor not out of ignorance and gullibility, but as an immoral and harmful scoundrel (the empress).

For the first time, Pushkin refers to the epigraph in the introduction to “The Captain’s Daughter,” which was not included in the final text (Peter Grinev’s letter to his grandson):

“My dear grandson Petrusha!

I often told you some incidents of my life, and I noticed that you always listened to me with attention, despite what happened to me, maybe retelling one thing for the hundredth time. I never answered some questions, promising to satisfy your curiosity over time. Now I have decided to fulfill my promise. - I begin my notes for you, or better yet, a sincere confession, with full confidence that my confessions will serve to your benefit. You know that, despite your pranks, I still believe that you will be of use, and I consider the main proof of this to be the similarity of your youth with mine. Of course, your father never caused me such grief as your parents suffered from you. - But you were born not like him, but like your grandfather, and, in my opinion, this is not a problem. You will see that, lured by the ardor of my passions into many delusions, finding myself several times in the most difficult circumstances, I finally emerged, and, thank God, lived to an old age, having earned the respect of my neighbors and good friends. I prophesy the same to you, dear Petrusha, if you preserve in your heart two wonderful qualities that I noticed in you: kindness and nobility.”

The main character of the novel, Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, has been brought up since childhood in an environment of high everyday morality. In Grinev, the kind, loving heart of his mother seemed to be combined with honesty, directness, courage - qualities that are inherent in his father. According to Pushkin, the nobility was divided into two different layers - the old independent nobility with unshakable moral principles and the new nobility, which rose to prominence in the 18th century, in an era of stormy palace coups and favoritism. All of Pushkin’s sympathies were on the side of the old noble families, who, as the writer believed, were not affected by the corrupting influence of court life and remained faithful to ancient customs and traditions. It was in this environment that Pushkin found his hero - Grinev the father; The moral character of this man, unselfish and principled, who refused to serve the empress, determined the scale of moral assessments in “The Captain’s Daughter.” Andrei Petrovich Grinev has a negative attitude towards easy but dishonest ways to make a career at court. That is why he did not want to send his son Petrusha to serve in St. Petersburg, in the guard: “What will he learn by serving in St. Petersburg? Wander and hang out? - Andrei Petrovich says to his wife. “No, let him serve in the army, let him pull the strap, let him smell gunpowder, let him be a soldier, not a chamaton.” In his parting words to his son, Grinev especially emphasizes the need to maintain honor: “Serve faithfully to whom you swear allegiance, obey your superiors; Don’t chase their affection; don’t ask for service; don’t talk yourself out of serving and remember the proverb: take care of your dress again, but take care of your honor from a young age.” This parting word from his father stays with Grinev for the rest of his life and helps Petrushi not to stray from the right path.

Pyotr Grinev knows that his father is responsible for him and therefore, relying on him, unquestioningly obeys his father’s instructions, even at the moment when Andrei Petrovich refused to bless the marriage of Pyotr and Masha Mironova: “. Not only do I not intend to give you either my blessing or my consent. " But after the death of Masha’s parents, the Grinev couple joyfully accepted Masha: “They saw the grace of God in the fact that they had the opportunity to shelter and caress a poor orphan. Soon they became sincerely attached to her, because it was impossible to recognize her and not love her.” The love of Pyotr Grinev and Masha “no longer seemed like an empty whim to the priest; and mother only wanted her Petrusha to marry the captain’s sweet daughter.”

Conclusion: thanks to the epigraph, in the person of Andrei Petrovich Grinev, the character traits of the Russian nobleman are revealed: loyalty to parental duty, loyalty to religious Christian ideals, generosity, kindness and nobility.

Since childhood, Grinev has been greatly influenced by his faithful servant, but at the same time also by his friend, the serf Savelich. Savelich considers it his duty to serve Petrusha and be devoted to him from beginning to end. His devotion to his masters is far from slavish: “The ladder of perfection rises upward, a string of titanic images, and below lurks the vile, but undoubtedly genuine Savelich. A zealous servant, “not a flatterer,” faithful to his masters, proud of them, but capable of telling them to their faces, with servile rudeness, which the masters will forgive, and words of truth, always directed to the master’s, and not to his own interest. After all, that’s why the gentlemen forgive the rudeness of the old slave Savelich, because it is all for the master’s benefit.” Savelich’s loyalty to the Grinev family is deeply human, it has the character of a long-term family affection of an old man, for whom Andrei Petrovich and Avdotya Vasilievna are “father” and “mother”, and their power, given by god, indestructible: “And you deign to write that you will send me to graze pigs, and that is your boyar will. For this I bow slavishly. Your faithful servant Arkhip Savelyev.”

In Petrusha's childhood, Savelich not only teaches him to write and judge the merits of a greyhound dog, but he also gives Grinev important tips, who helped Peter in the future. With these words, for example, an old servant educates his ward Pyotr Grinev, who got drunk for the first time and behaved unsightly: “It seems that neither the father nor the grandfather were drunkards; there’s nothing to say about mother.” Thus, Grinev’s father and his faithful servant Savelich raised Peter from childhood to be a nobleman who did not consider it possible to change his oath and go over to the side of his enemies for his own good.

The first time, Pyotr Grinev acted honorably, returning the gambling debt, although in that situation Savelich tried to persuade him to evade payment. But nobility prevailed. It would seem like such a small thing, but it’s with these little things that everything begins.

A man of honor, in my opinion, is always kind and selfless in his interactions with others. For example, Pyotr Grinev, despite Savelich’s dissatisfaction, thanked the tramp for his service by giving him a hare sheepskin coat. This act saved both of their lives in the future. This episode seems to say that fate itself protects a person who lives by honor. But, of course, it’s not a matter of fate, but simply there are more people on earth who remember good than evil, which means that a noble person has a better chance of everyday happiness.

If it were not for Savelich’s intervention at the time of trial and oath, Grinev would have been hanged. Grinev himself spoke about this scene: “Suddenly I heard a cry: “Wait, you damned ones!” Wait!” The executioners stopped. I look: Savelich is lying at Pugachev’s feet. “Dear father! - said the poor guy - what do you want in the death of the master’s child? Let him go; They will give you a ransom for it; and for the sake of example and fear, order them to hang even me as an old man!” Pugachev gave a sign, and they immediately untied me and left me.” In this episode, Savelich accomplished a real feat. He always fussed and cared about his “master,” and Grinev did not take this into account, as if this was how everything should be, and yet Savelich saved his life for the second time. This is what it meant for Savelich to be truly devoted and to observe his duty.

Conclusion: thanks to the ideological and semantic load of the epigraph, the character traits of the serf Savelich are revealed: devotion to the owners, loyalty to religious and Christian ideals, responsibility for his own and his pupil’s actions.

Other facets of the honor and dignity of a nobleman are revealed by Pushkin in the person of the Mironovs, whom Grinev met in the Belogorsk fortress, where he served. “Unsung heroes and heroines, Captain Mironov and his wife, serve as a justification for faith in the good meaning of life, to which is attached the measure not of external beauty, but of goodness and honor, or, better to say, good and honest have one common root. While reverently before the shrine of beauty, goodness is also seen. ". The Mironovs’ concept of honor and duty does not go beyond the scope of the charter, but you can always rely on such people. They are right in their own way: honor and duty in their understanding are above all.

Mironov is characterized by a sense of loyalty to duty, word, oath. He is not capable of treason and betrayal for the sake of his own well-being - he will accept death, but will not change, will not renounce his service: “Captain Mironov, related not only in rank, but also in spirit to Staff Captain Maxim Maksimych and Captain Tushin, in the completeness and integrity of his worldview best embodies this modest greatness, this supreme heroism you just. Not to mention his own tragic end, to what heights does he elevate himself when, during Pugachev’s attack on Belogorsk fortress speaks to the timid garrison these simple, these great words: “Why are you, kids, standing there? To die like this, to die, is a service!” (Aikhenvald Yu. Pushkin. 2nd edition, significantly expanded, M., 1916, p. 152). His courage, loyalty to duty and oath, his moral value and deep humanity are traits of a true Russian character. The image of Captain Mironov opens in Russian literature a gallery of ordinary military people who received officer rank for military merits, among which we meet staff captain Maxim Maksimych (“Hero of Our Time”) and Captain Tushin (“War and Peace”).

Conclusion: thanks to the epigraph, the character traits of the commandant of the Belogorsk fortress, Captain Mironov, are revealed: loyalty to military and parental duty, nobility, kindness, generosity and loyalty to religious-Christian ideals, decency and purity of soul.

Vasilisa Egorovna is a representative of the small impoverished nobility: “In the middle of a clean room, decorated in the old-fashioned way, sat an old woman in a padded jacket with a scarf on her head, declaring herself the mistress of Captain Mironov.” It is no coincidence that the captain’s character traits are revealed thanks to Grinev, who was brought up on the principles of loyalty to honor and duty.

Vasilisa Yegorovna received everyone “easily and cordially, not forgetting to object to the captain of the fortress: “I should sit at home and pray to God.” He mentions his civic feat casually: “20 years ago we were transferred here from the regiment.” Each of her actions corresponds to the will of God: “Lord, my God,” “Lord, Master, what have we lived to!” Vasilisa Egorovna, being the wife of a military man (“we’ve been in the service for forty years and, thank God, we’ve seen enough”), is ready to fulfill military duty after Ivan Kuzmich. Showing real courage, Vasilisa Egorovna remains in the fortress during the siege of Pugachev: “Don’t ask me in a dream: I won’t go. There is no reason for me to part with you in my old age and look for a lonely grave on a strange side. Live together, die together." These words are like a hymn to her devotion to her husband, to her military duty, and to her empress.

The more terrible the execution scene, the more helpless Vasilisa Yegorovna turns out to be in the face of the robbers: “At that moment a woman’s scream was heard. Several robbers dragged Vasilisa Yegorovna onto the porch, disheveled and stripped naked.” In the face of death, she laments not about herself, but about her unfortunate husband: “Villains! What did you do to him? You are my light, Ivan Kuzmich, you brave little soldier! Neither Prussian bayonets nor Turkish bullets touched you; You didn’t lay down your belly in a fair fight, but perished from an escaped convict!” Dying, like a true defender of the Fatherland, from the saber of a young Cossack, “she fell dead on the steps of the porch.” Vasilisa Egorovna remained true to her ideals to the last: honor and duty.

Conclusion: thanks to the epigraph, the character traits of Vasilisa Egorovna are revealed: loyalty to the honor and duty of a wife and mother, heroism, simplicity, piety, kindness, responsibility for family and friends.

In the person of young Masha Mironova, the daughter of Captain Mironov, Pushkin shows a manifestation of the honor and dignity of female nature.

". Where is Masha?” Then a girl of about eighteen came in, chubby, ruddy, with light brown hair combed smoothly behind her ears, which were on fire.” External portrait Masha Mironova is unremarkable. Pushkin seems to deliberately emphasize its ordinariness, depriving it of any individual characteristics; She is not particularly beautiful and does not shine with intelligence. The heroine is the obedient daughter of her parents, accustomed from childhood to the unshakable norms of patriarchal morality. As the narrative unfolds, the best sides her extraordinary nature - straightforwardness, loyalty, honor and duty, the ability to endure sudden losses and everyday hardships with dignity. The tenacity of the captain's daughter's character manifests itself with particular force at the end of the novel, in her decision to come to the aid of her loved one in trouble.

In trouble, Masha discovered such spiritual depths that no one could have imagined at the beginning of the story in a young girl who blushed every time at the mere mention of her name. It would seem that Masha is so weak. But, deciding that she will never marry the vile Shvabrin in her life, she gathers courage and for the sake of her lover goes all the way to the empress herself to defend her love. These are her principles that she will not compromise: “Masha Mironova is a beautiful, unpretentious image of a simple Russian girl, an “honest daughter of an honest father,” who, in difficult life trials, managed to show true fortitude, courage and heroic readiness to fight to the end, appealing to supreme authority and justice" (Reizov B.G. The Works of Walter Scott. M. -L., "Fiction", 1965, p. 39).

Conclusion: thanks to the epigraph, the character traits of Masha Mironova are revealed: modesty, nobility, spiritual purity, loyalty to religious Christian ideals, selflessness.

The key figure in the novel is Pyotr Grinev. The author allows him to talk about the trials that befell not only his lot, but also the lot of other heroes. The author traces it life path- the path of spiritual and moral formation of a nobleman who reaches the degree of spiritual morality in accordance with the formula of the epigraph. Peter combines the facets of the character of other heroes: loyalty to military duty and the nobility of his father, Masha’s simplicity and ease of communication, the courage and bravery of the Mironovs, the thirst for justice and sincerity of Pugachev.

Grinev cannot allow unfair lies against Masha and challenges Shvabrin to a duel: “You are lying, you bastard! You lie in the most shameless way." Peter does not care about his own life and refuses to swear allegiance to Pugachev. After all, by swearing allegiance to Pugachev, the killer of Masha’s parents, Petrusha became an accomplice in the crime. To kiss the hand of an impostor meant to betray all life's ideals - to betray honor. It was better to die, but to die a hero.

At dinner, a verbal duel breaks out between Pugachev and Grinev. But unexpectedly for Peter himself, a warrior awakens in Grinev the child. He stands up for his ideals with dignity: “I was not able to recognize a tramp as a sovereign: it seemed to me unforgivable cowardice.”

Peter loves Masha Mironova, and his love is so strong that he asks Pugachev himself to free her from the fortress, whose commander is now Shvabrin. After Masha’s release, Pugachev wants to marry them, but Grinev refuses him, since this act contradicts his life concepts: “Just don’t demand what is contrary to my honor and Christian conscience.”

After the capture of Pugachev during the execution, Peter with deep bitterness and annoyance regrets such an unheroic death of the man who spared him and rescued Masha from the hands of the vile Shvabrin: “Emelya, Emelya! Why didn’t you stumble on a bayonet or turn under buckshot? You couldn’t think of anything better.”

It would seem that a connection with the rebellious ataman would become fatal for Grinev. He is actually arrested based on a denunciation. He faces the death penalty, but Grinev decides, for reasons of honor, not to name his beloved, otherwise Masha would be brought to trial: “I wanted to continue as I began, and explain my connection with Marya Ivanovna as sincerely as everything else. But suddenly I felt an irresistible disgust. It occurred to me that if I named her, the commission would demand her to answer; and the idea of ​​entangling her name among the vile reports of villains and bringing her herself into a confrontation with them - this terrible thought struck me so much that I hesitated and became confused.” If he had told the whole truth about such a situation, he would probably have been acquitted. But at the very last moment, justice triumphed.

Masha asks a lady close to the Empress to pardon Grinev. The lady takes the poor girl at her word. This fact suggests that in a society where the majority of people live according to honor and justice, it is always easier to triumph. The lady turns out to be the empress herself, and the fate of her beloved Masha is decided for the better.

Grinev remains a man of honor to the end. His character reflects various facets of the manifestation of honor and dignity, previously discovered in other heroes.

Peter proved himself worthily from the very beginning of the novel in all the trials that befell him. In all his actions, he was guided by his convictions, followed the laws of officer honor and remained faithful to the military oath: “Finally (and I still remember this moment with self-satisfaction) a sense of duty triumphed in me over human weakness.” Grinev at such an early age (17 years old) is an example of serving the ideals of honor and duty.

Conclusion: thanks to the ideological and semantic load of the epigraph, the character traits of the young Russian officer Pyotr Grinev were revealed: loyalty to military duty, honor and one’s own life ideals, generosity, courage, fearlessness, sense of justice, decency and nobility.

Shvabrin is the complete opposite of Grinev. He is a selfish and ungrateful person. For the sake of his personal goals, Shvabrin is ready to commit any dishonorable act. This shows up in everything. Shvabrin, as it later turned out, wooed Masha, but was refused. Even during the fight, Shvabrin did not hesitate to take advantage of a dishonorable situation to strike. The duel almost ended with the death of Grinev due to Shvabrin’s meanness, if not for Savelich. Having recovered, Grinev learned that it was Shvabrin, once his best friend, who wrote a denunciation against him to Grinev’s father. No wonder they say: “Never talk bad about yourself, your friends will tell you everything themselves.” Naturally, this aroused in Peter hatred of his enemy. Shvabrin was always a “stone” in Grinev’s path. However, fate did not deprive Shvabrin of its attention for his sins. He got what he deserved: he will join Pugachev, and he will be condemned as a traitor.

Shvabrin was filled with indifference and contempt for the common people and honest, petty service people, for Captain Mironov, who was fulfilling his duty and morally standing above Shvabrin. The sense of honor in Shvabrin is very poorly developed. Shvabrin, as one would expect, went over to Pugachev’s side, but did not do so out of ideological convictions: he hoped to save his life, hoped to make a career with him if Pugachev was successful, and most importantly, he wanted, having dealt with his enemy, to forcibly marry Masha who didn't love him.

Shvabrin simply tried to forget about such important concepts for a Russian officer as duty to the fatherland, honor, and loyalty to the oath. Perhaps, deep down in his soul, he knew that such noble feelings existed, but they were alien to him. In extreme situations, he, first of all, wanted to survive, even through humiliation and betrayal: “Shvabrin fell to his knees. At that moment, contempt drowned out all feelings of hatred and anger in me. I looked with disgust at the nobleman lying at the feet of the runaway Cossack.”

External culture has little influence on the development of a person’s personality and character. After all, Shvabrin was more educated than Grinev. He read French novels and was an intelligent conversationalist. Shvabrin even got Grinev addicted to reading. Apparently, the family in which a person is raised is of decisive importance. And this once again proves that Grinev was educated in the spirit of the best noble traditions.

In the life of every person there is an intersection of two roads, and at the crossroads there is a stone with the inscription: “If you walk through life with honor, you will die. If you go against honor, you will live.” It was in front of this stone that the inhabitants of the fortress stood, including Grinev and Shvabrin. During the Pugachev rebellion, the moral qualities of some of the novel's heroes and the baseness of the feelings of others were especially evident.

Conclusion: thanks to the ideological and semantic load of the epigraph, the characteristics of Shvabrin’s character were revealed: rudeness, cruelty, cynicism, betrayal, cowardice, ability to violence and cowardice.

No less significant, but problematic is the figure of Pugachev. Pushkin has an ambivalent attitude towards Pugachev and therefore shows him from different sides: he is either a counselor to whom the kind Grinev gives a bunny sheepskin coat, or an impostor posing as Emperor Peter III, or a criminal imprisoned in an iron cage. From these scattered pictures, the author creates the image of the leader of a popular uprising, a man of violent temperament and strong will, torn apart by internal contradictions.

Pugachev showed generosity towards the young officer Grinev not only out of gratitude for the old favor. Pugachev and Grinev were even for a long time: Pugachev gave Grinev a ride home, and in gratitude he gave him a sheepskin coat. Pugachev equally appreciated Grinev as a man of honor. The leader of the popular uprising himself set noble goals: the liberation of serfs and the struggle for their personal independence. Therefore, Pugachev was not alien to the concepts of honor.

During a conversation between Grinev and Pugachev, a disagreement arises. And suddenly a man wakes up in Pugachev the robber. He begins to understand Petrusha: “But he’s right! He is a man of honor. It doesn’t matter that he’s still young, and most importantly, he doesn’t evaluate life like a child!” It was at this stage that Pugachev and Grinev found a common language. Their souls seemed to merge into a single whole and mutually enriched.

Grinev's morality aroused respect and trust from Pugachev. The chieftain told the officer a parable he had heard from an old Kalmyk woman, in which it was said that it was better to drink blood once than to eat carrion for three hundred years. Of course, the fairy eagle and the raven argued, solving a purely human problem. Discussing this fairy tale, Pugachev and Grinev express their position in life. Wanting to show the magnitude of Pugachev’s personality, Pushkin said with the words: “Pugachev looked at me in surprise and did not answer anything” - as if making it clear to the reader that the leader of the uprising knew how to listen to judgments that ran counter to his own ideas, that he was struck by the humanity of moral principles Grineva.

Pugachev has no choice, he cannot live otherwise, for him rebellion is the meaning of life, for Grinev: “. to live by murder and robbery means, for me, to peck at carrion.” The heroes do not agree on the definition of the basis of life and, nevertheless, are friendly to each other. After their conversation, Pugachev plunges into deep thoughts. Therefore, deep down, Pugachev had noble roots.

When Pugachev freed Masha Mironova, he invited Grinev to get married right away, and he himself wanted to be his imprisoned father. However, Grinev politely refused, and Pugachev managed to understand him and let him go. This episode reveals the amazing humanity of Pugachev’s morality. Having learned that two young people loved each other, he sought to promote their happiness. Do you like it? Then get together, get married, be happy: “Take your beauty; take her wherever you want, and God give you love and advice!”

Shvabrin, too, was powerless in implementing his insidious and selfish plans. Pugachev not only did not support him, but also clearly made it clear that he was dishonest and therefore not a competitor to Grinev. Through his actions, Pugachev became a kind of “manifestation” of the true nature of the characters, the worst traits of Shvabrin and the best of Grinev.

Conclusion: thanks to the epigraph, the features of the contradictory character of the leader of the peasant uprising Emelyan Pugachev are revealed: on the one hand, this is generosity, loyalty to one’s ideals, breadth of soul, nobility and justice; on the other hand, brutality, cruelty and mercilessness.

With the help of the epigraph, manifestations of morality and immorality of the heroes of the novel “The Captain's Daughter” are revealed, which is reflected in the table.

CONCLUSION

The key figure in the novel is Grinev. Using his character as an example, with the help of an epigraph, the author showed the manifestation of the most different facets of honor and dignity. The antipode to Grinev is Shvabrin, devoid of the principles of honor and dignity. No less significant, but problematic, is the figure of Pugachev, whose actions reflected both moral and immoral manifestations of character, which was the reason for Pushkin’s ambiguous attitude towards Pugachev. The Grinev and Mironov couple, Masha and Savelich make up the group of the author’s favorite heroes. Thanks to the epigraph to the novel, Pushkin asserts his own idea of ​​honor and dignity.

“The Captain's Daughter” is a coming-of-age novel. This is the story of the coming of age of Pyotr Grinev, who transforms from a “green” youth into a responsible man, having gone through severe life trials. He had a chance to take a direct part in the Pugachev uprising, and all his principles were thoroughly tested. He passed it, maintaining his dignity and remaining faithful to the oath. The story is told in the form of memoirs, and the hero himself sums up his life from the height of his own experience.

Many readers think that “The Captain's Daughter” is just a story, but they are mistaken: a work of such length cannot belong to short prose. But whether it’s a story or a novel is an open question.

The writer himself lived in a time when full-fledged large epic genres included only those multi-volume works that were comparable in volume to “Anna Karenina,” for example, or “The Nest of the Nobles,” so he without a doubt called his creation a story. In Soviet literary criticism this was also considered.

However, the work has all the hallmarks of a novel: the action covers a long period of time in the lives of the characters, the book contains many minor characters described in detail and not directly related to the main storyline, and throughout the story the characters experience spiritual evolution. In addition, the author shows all the stages of Grinev’s growing up, which also clearly indicates the genre. That is, we have before us a typical historical novel, since the writer, while working on it, took as a basis facts from the past and the scientific research that he undertook to understand the phenomenon of the peasant war and convey it to descendants in the form of objective knowledge.

But the mysteries don’t end there; we have to decide what kind of direction lies at the origins of the work “The Captain’s Daughter”: realism or romanticism? Pushkin's colleagues, in particular Gogol and Odoevsky, argued that his book more than any other influenced the development of realism in Russia. However, what speaks in favor of romanticism is the fact that historical material is taken as a basis, and the reader’s focus is on the contradictory and tragic figure rebel Pugachev - exactly romantic hero. Therefore, both answers will be correct, because after the successful literary discovery of the sun of Russian poetry, Russia was swept by the fashion for prose, and realistic one at that.

History of creation

Pushkin was partly inspired to create The Captain's Daughter by Walter Scott, the master of the historical novel. His works began to be translated, and the Russian public was delighted with the adventurous plots and mysterious immersion in another era. At that time, the writer was just working on a chronicle of the uprising, a scientific work dedicated to the peasant revolt of Pugachev. He has accumulated a lot of useful material for the realization of his artistic plan to reveal to the reader a treasure trove of eventful Russian history.

At first, he planned to describe precisely the betrayal of a Russian nobleman, and not a moral feat. The author wanted to focus on the personality of Emelyan Pugachev, and at the same time show the motives of the officer who broke the oath and joined the riot. The prototype would be Mikhail Shvanvich, a real person who, out of fear for his fate, was attached to the rebel’s office, and then also testified against him. However, for censorship reasons, the book could hardly be published, so the writer had to step on the throat of his own song and depict a more patriotic plot, especially historical examples he had enough valor. But a negative example was suitable for creating the image of Shvabrin.

The book was published a month before the author’s death in his own magazine Sovremennik, published on behalf of Grinev. Many noted that the style of narration of that time was conveyed by the writer, so many readers were confused and did not understand who the true creator of the memoirs was. By the way, censorship still took its toll, removing from public access the chapter about the peasant revolt in the Simbirsk province, where Peter himself was from.

Meaning of the name

The work, oddly enough, is not titled in honor of Grinev or Pugachev, so you can’t immediately tell what it’s about. The novel is called "The Captain's Daughter" in honor of Maria Mirova, the main character of the book. Pushkin, thus, pays tribute to the girl’s courage, which no one expected from her. She dared to ask the Empress herself for the traitor! And she begged forgiveness for her savior.

In addition, this story is also called so because Marya was driving force narratives. Out of love for her, the young man always chose a feat. Until she occupied all his thoughts, he was pathetic: he didn’t want to serve, he was losing large amounts playing cards, behaved arrogantly with the servant. As soon as a sincere feeling awakened courage, nobility and boldness in him, the reader did not recognize Petrusha: he turned from an undergrowth into a responsible and brave man, to whom patriotism and awareness of his own self came through strong emotions addressed to a woman.

Historical background

The events in the work took place during the reign of Catherine II. Historical phenomenon in the novel “The Captain's Daughter” it is called “Pugachevism” (this phenomenon was studied by Pushkin). This is Emelyan Pugachev's rebellion against tsarist power. It occurred in the 18th century. The described actions take place in the Belgorod fortress, where the rebel went, gathering strength to storm the capital.

The Peasant War of 1773 - 1775 unfolded in the southeast Russian Empire. It was attended by serfs and factory peasants, representatives of national minorities (Kyrgyz, Bashkirs) and Ural Cossacks. All of them were outraged by the predatory policies of the ruling elite and the increasing enslavement common people. People who did not agree with the fate of slaves fled to the outskirts of the country and formed armed gangs for the purpose of robbery. The fugitive “souls” were already outlaws, so there was nothing else left for them. The author reflects on their tragic fate, portraying the leader of the uprising, not devoid of virtue and commendable character traits.

But Catherine the Second demonstrates a tough temper and remarkable cruelty. The Empress, according to historians, was indeed a strong-willed person, but she did not shy away from tyranny and other delights of absolute power. Her policy strengthened the nobility, giving it all sorts of privileges, but the common people were forced to bear the burden of these benefits. The royal court lived in grand style, and not noble people starved, endured violence and humiliation of the slave position, lost, and were sold under the hammer. Naturally, social tension only grew, and Catherine did not enjoy popular love. A foreign woman was involved in a conspiracy and, with the help of the military, overthrew her husband, the legitimate ruler of Russia. Downtrodden and squeezed in the grip of injustice, the serfs believed that the murdered Peter the Third was preparing a decree for their release, and his wife killed him for this. Emelyan Pugachev, a Don Cossack, took advantage of superstition and rumors and declared himself a saved tsar. He fueled the discontent of the armed Cossacks, whose petitions were not listened to, and inspired the peasants, tortured by tyranny and corvée, to revolt.

What is the work about?

We meet Petrusha the underage, who can only “sensibly judge the properties of a greyhound dog.” All his aspirations lie in “dust-free service” in St. Petersburg. However, we see that the father has a huge influence on the young man. He teaches his son to serve the fatherland, cherish family traditions, and not attach much importance to awards. Having received such a strict upbringing, the young man goes to serve. What is told in his “tale of bitter torments” is the plot outline of the work. The fact is that we learn all this from the lips of the venerable old nobleman that Peter became.

There, far from his father's house, the hero goes through a harsh school of life: first he loses at cards and offends a faithful servant, experiencing pangs of conscience. Later, he falls in love with Maria Mironova and risks his life in a duel with Shvabrin, defending the honor of his beloved. The father, having learned about the reason for the fight, refuses to bless the marriage with the dowry. After the capture of the Belogorsk fortress, Peter remains faithful to the oath, and his nobility grants him Pugachev’s leniency: he respects the young man’s choice and does not touch him. The rebel’s decision was influenced by the kindness of the captive: once on the road he gave the Cossack a sheepskin coat and treated him very kindly. The common man appreciated the master's mercy and returned the favor. Pushkin confronts them more than once, and the nobleman is always saved by his straightforwardness and generosity.

His trials did not end there: life presented him with a choice between saving his beloved and serving, and the good name of an officer. Then the hero chooses love and disobeys the boss’s order, freeing his beloved on his own from Shvabrin’s hands. Alexey forced the girl to marry him. Pugachev again shows respect for the daredevil and releases the captive. However, the autocratic government does not forgive free will, and Grinev is arrested. Fortunately, Masha managed to beg clemency from Catherine II. This is what is said in the novel "The Captain's Daughter", which ended happy ending: Young people marry with the blessing they have received. But now the leader of the uprising is sentenced to quartering.

The main characters and their characteristics

The main characters of the novel are Pyotr Grinev, Maria Mironova, Emelyan Pugachev, Arkhip Savelyev, Alesey Shvabrin and Catherine the Second. The characters are so numerous that their description would take more than one article, so we neglect them.

1. - nobleman, officer, main character. He received a strict upbringing in the house of his father, a retired military man. He is only 16 years old, but his parents felt that he was ready for service. He is poorly educated, does not particularly strive for anything and is in no way like ideal man. Setting off on a journey, the young man bears little resemblance to a soldier: good-natured, gullible, unstable to temptation and ignorant of life. He is spoiled, because at first he loses a significant amount at cards and does not understand why Savelich (his servant) reacts emotionally to this. He does not know the value of money, but he shows arrogance and rudeness towards his devoted servant. However, his innate conscientiousness does not allow him to continue to be carried away by garrison pity. Soon he seriously falls in love with the daughter of the captain of the fortress, and from that moment his growing up begins: he becomes brave, courageous and courageous. For example, in a duel with Shvabrin, the young man fought honestly and bravely, unlike his opponent. Next we see an ardent and passionate lover in his face, and after some time he is ready to risk his life for the sake of honor, refusing to swear allegiance to Pugachev. This act reveals him as a highly moral person who is firm in his convictions. Later, he will show valor more than once while fighting the enemy, but when the fate of his beloved is at stake, he will disregard caution and set out to save her. This reveals the depth of feeling in him. Even in captivity, Peter does not blame the woman and is ready to accept unfair punishment, as long as everything is fine with her. In addition, one cannot help but note the self-criticism and maturity of judgment inherent in Grinev in old age.
2. Marya Mironova– daughter of the captain of the fortress, the main character. She is 18 years old. Masha’s appearance is described in detail: “...Then a girl of about eighteen came in, chubby, ruddy, with light brown hair, smoothly combed behind her ears, which were on fire...”. In addition, it is mentioned that she has an “angelic” voice and a kind heart. Her family is poor, owns only one serf, so she cannot possibly qualify for marriage with Peter (who has 300 souls). But the young charmer is distinguished by prudence, sensitivity and generosity, because she sincerely worries about the fate of her lover. Naturalness and gullibility make the heroine an easy prey for the wicked Shvabrin, who is trying to gain her favor through meanness. But Marya is careful and not stupid, so she easily recognizes the falseness and depravity in Alexei and avoids him. She is also characterized by loyalty and courage: the girl does not betray her beloved and bravely travels to an unfamiliar city to achieve an audience with the empress herself.
3. Pugachev in the novel “The Captain's Daughter” appears before readers in two guises: a brave and noble person who is able to appreciate loyalty and honor, and a cruel tyrant who carries out executions and massacres without restraint. We understand that the rebel’s message is noble; he wants to defend the rights of ordinary people. However, the way he fights lawlessness does not justify it in any way. Although we sympathize with Pugachev - decisive, brave, intelligent - his cruelty makes us doubt the correctness of his path. In the episode of the first meeting, we see a smart and cunning governor, in a dialogue with Grinev - an unhappy man who knows that he is doomed. The Kalmyk fairy tale told by Pugachev reveals his attitude towards life: he wants to live it freely, albeit fleetingly. It is impossible not to note his personal qualities: he is a leader, first among equals. They obey him unconditionally, and this corrupts his nature. For example, the scenes of the capture of the fortress demonstrate the cruelty of Pugachev’s power; such despotism is unlikely to lead to freedom (the death of the Mironovs, the kidnapping of Masha, destruction). Idea of ​​the image: Pugachev is naturally endowed with a heightened sense of justice, intelligence and talent, but he does not pass the test of war and unlimited power: the people's choice has become as much a tyrant as the empress against whom he rebelled.
4. Catherine II. A sweet woman in a house dress turns into an unyielding ruler when she listens to a request for a state traitor. Masha Mironova, at Catherine’s reception, tries to talk about Peter’s mitigating circumstances, but the Empress does not want to hear reasonable arguments and evidence, she is only interested in her own opinion. She condemned the “traitor” without trial, which is very indicative of an autocratic government. That is, its monarchy is hardly better than Pugachevism.
5. Alexey Shvabrin- Officer. Peter and Alexey seem to be similar in their social status and age, but circumstances put them on opposite sides of the barricades. After the first test, Shvabrin, unlike Grinev, commits a moral decline, and the more rapidly the plot develops, the more obvious it is that Alexey is a vile and cowardly person who achieves everything in life by cunning and meanness. The peculiarities of his character are revealed during a love conflict: he wins Masha’s favor through hypocrisy, secretly slandering her and her family. The capture of the fortress finally puts everything in its place: he was ready for betrayal (he found a peasant dress, cut his hair), and Grinev would rather prefer death to breaking the oath. The final disappointment in him comes when the hero tries to force the girl to marry him by force and blackmail.
6. Savelich (Arkhip Savelyev)- an elderly servant. He is kind, caring and devoted to the young master. It is his resourcefulness that helps Peter avoid reprisals. Risking his life, the peasant stands up for the master and speaks with Pugachev himself. He is distinguished by thriftiness, a sober lifestyle, stubbornness and a tendency to read notations. He is distrustful, loves to grumble, argue and bargain. Knows the value of money and saves it for the owner.

Pushkin in the novel “The Captain's Daughter” gives a detailed description of the characters, giving the reader the opportunity to understand their likes and dislikes for themselves. There is no author's assessment of what is happening in the book, because one of the characters is the memoirist.

Theme of the story

• Themes come to the fore in the work moral choice, decency, dignity. Grinev demonstrates high moral values, and Shvabrin demonstrates their absence, and we see the influence of these circumstances on their destinies. Thus, Pushkin shows that moral superiority always gives a person an advantage, even though he disdains cunning that would lead him to his goal faster. Despite the fact that Alesey used all his resourcefulness, the victory still remained with Peter: Maria remained with him as a good name.
• Honor and dishonor. Each hero faced a choice between honor and dishonor, and everyone made it differently: Maria chose devotion over a profitable marriage (Peter’s father initially did not agree to the marriage, so she risked remaining an old maid, driving Alexei away), Grinev more than once decided in favor of moral duty, even when it came to life and death, but Shvabrin always chose benefit, shame was not afraid of him. We examined this question in detail in the essay “”.
• Theme of education. The example of the main character will help you understand what good means family education, that is, what dishonest people lack, and how this affects their lives. Shvabrin's childhood passed us by, but we can say with confidence that he did not receive the most important spiritual foundations on which nobility is built.
• The main themes include love: the union of Peter and Mary is an ideal for loving hearts. Throughout the novel, the hero and heroine defended their right to live together, even against their parents’ will. They were able to prove that they were worthy of each other: Grinev repeatedly stood up for the girl, and she saved him from execution. The theme of love is revealed with the sensitivity characteristic of Pushkin: young people vow to each other eternal devotion, even if fate never brings them together again. And they fulfill their obligations.
• Examples from “The Captain’s Daughter” will be useful for the topics “man and state”, “power and man”. They illustrate the violent nature of power, which cannot but be cruel by definition.

Main problems

• The problem of power. Pushkin discusses which government is better and why: anarchic, spontaneous Pugachevism or Catherine’s monarchy? It is obvious that the peasants preferred the first to the second, risking own life. The nobles, on the contrary, defended the order that was convenient for them. Social contradictions divided united people into two opposing camps, and each, it turns out, has its own truth and its own charter. Historical issues also include questions about the justice of the rebellion, the moral assessment of its leader, the legality of the empress’s actions, etc.
• The problem of man and history. What role do historical events play in the fate of a person? Obviously, the rebellion put Peter in a difficult position: he was forced to test his character to the limit. Surrounded by enemies, he did not change his convictions and risked openly not taking their side. He was threatened with certain death, but he chose honor over life, and retained both. Pugachevism is the dark side of history, with the help of which Pushkin shaded the fate of the characters. Even the title of the novel “The Captain's Daughter” speaks about this: the author named it after a fictional heroine, and not Pugachev or Catherine.
• The problem of growing up and raising a person. What must a person go through to become an adult? Thanks to Pugachev's rebellion, the young man matured early and became a real warrior, but the price of such an evolution can be called too expensive.
• The problem of moral choice. The work has antagonistic heroes Shvabrin and Grinev, who behave differently. One chooses betrayal for his own good, the other puts honor above personal interests. Why is their behavior so different? What influenced their moral development? The author comes to the conclusion that the problem of immorality can only be solved individually: if morality is respected in a family, then all its representatives will follow duty, and if not, then the person will not stand the test and will only grovel and cheat, and not take care of honor.
• The problem of honor and duty. The hero sees his destiny in serving the empress, but in reality it turns out that she is not worth much in the eyes of Catherine. And the duty, if you look at it, is very doubtful: while the people were rebelling against tyranny, the army helped to suppress it, and the question of the honor of participating in this violent act is very doubtful.
• One of the main problems of the work “The Captain's Daughter” is social inequality. It was this that stood between the citizens of one country and directed them towards each other. Pugachev rebelled against him and, seeing Grinev’s friendly gesture, spared him: he didn’t hate the nobles, but their arrogance towards the people who fed the entire state.

The meaning of the work

Any power is hostile towards to the common man, be it the imperial crown or military leaders. It always involves the suppression of the individual and a harsh regime that is contrary to human nature. “God forbid we see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless,” sums up Pushkin. This is the main idea of ​​the work. Therefore, serving the fatherland and the tsar are not the same thing. Grinev honestly fulfilled his duty, but he could not leave his beloved in the hands of a scoundrel, and his essentially heroic actions were regarded by the empress as betrayal. If Peter had not done this, he would have already been served, become a weak-willed slave of a system to which human life is alien. Therefore, mere mortals, who are not given the opportunity to change the course of history, must maneuver between orders and their moral principles, otherwise a mistake will be too costly.

Beliefs determine a person’s actions: Grinev was raised as a decent nobleman and behaved accordingly, but Shvabrin did not pass the test, his life values ​​were limited to the desire to remain a winner at any cost. This is also where Pushkin’s idea is felt - to show how to preserve honor if temptations are frolicking on all sides. According to the author, it is necessary to instill in boys and girls from childhood an understanding of morality and true nobility, expressed not in the panache of a dress, but in worthy behavior.

A person’s growing up is inevitably associated with trials that determine his moral maturity. There is no need to be afraid of them; they must be overcome with courage and dignity. This is also the main idea of ​​the novel “The Captain's Daughter”. If Peter had remained an “expert in greyhound cables” and an official in St. Petersburg, then his life would have turned out ordinary and, most likely, he would never have understood anything about it. But the adventures that his stern father pushed him on quickly raised the young man to be a man who understood military affairs, love and the people around him.

What does it teach?

The novel has a pronounced edifying tone. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin calls on people to take care of their honor from a young age and not to succumb to temptations to turn from an honest path onto a crooked path. A momentary advantage is not worth the loss of a good name; this statement is illustrated by a love triangle, where the main character chooses the worthy and virtuous Peter over the cunning and inventive Alexei. One sin inevitably leads to another, and a series of falls ends in complete collapse.

Also in “The Captain's Daughter” there is a message to love faithfully and not give up on your dreams, no matter what happens. Marya is without a dowry, and any marriage proposal should have been a great success in her case. However, she rejects Alexei over and over again, although she risks being left with nothing. Peter was denied an engagement, and he would hardly have gone against his parents' blessing. But the girl rejected all rational arguments and remained faithful to Grinev, even when there was no reason for hope. Her lover was the same. For their constancy, both heroes were rewarded by fate.

Criticism

V. F. Odoevsky in a letter to Pushkin expressed his admiration for the story, he especially liked Savelich and Pugachev - they were “masterfully drawn.” However, he considered the image of Shvabrin unviable: he was not ardent and stupid enough to take the side of the rebels and believe in their success. In addition, he demanded marriage from the girl, although he could have used her at any moment, since she was only a captive: “Masha has been in his power for so long, but he does not take advantage of these minutes.”

P. A. Katerinin calls the historical novel “natural, alluring and intelligent,” noting its similarity to “Eugene Onegin.”

V. A. Sollogub highly valued the restraint and logic of the narrative, rejoicing that Pushkin “overcame himself” and did not indulge in lengthy descriptions and “impulses.” He spoke about the style of the work as follows: “calmly distributed all parts of his story in due proportions, established his style with dignity, calmness and laconicism of history and conveyed the historical episode in a simple but harmonious language.” The critic believes that the writer has never been so elevated in the value of his books.

N.V. Gogol said that “The Captain’s Daughter” is much better than anything that was previously published in the world of prose. He said that reality itself seems like a caricature compared to what the writer depicted.

V. G. Belinsky was more restrained in his praise and singled out only minor characters, whose description is “a miracle of perfection.” The main characters did not make any impression on him: “The insignificant, colorless character of the hero of the story and his beloved Marya Ivanovna and the melodramatic character of Shvabrin, although they belong to the sharp shortcomings of the story, do not prevent it from being one of the remarkable works of Russian literature.” P.I. Tchaikovsky also spoke out about the spinelessness of Masha Mironova, who refused to write an opera based on this novel.

A. M. Skabichevsky also analyzed the work, speaking about the book with unwavering respect: “... you see historical impartiality, the complete absence of any patriotic praise and sober realism ... in Pushkin’s “The Captain's Daughter.” He, unlike Bellinsky, praised the image of the main character and noted his exceptional truthfulness and typical features for the depicted era.

Conflicting characteristics were given by critic N.N. Strakhov and historian V.O. Klyuchevsky. The first criticized Pushkin for the fact that his historical story has nothing to do with history, but is a chronicle of the fictional Grinev family. The second, on the contrary, spoke about the exceptional historicism of the book and that even in the author’s research less is said about Pugachevism than in a historical work.

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Analysis of the story by A.S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"

In terms of the significance of the theme, the breadth of reality, and artistic perfection, the historical story “The Captain's Daughter” is a masterpiece, the pinnacle achievement of Pushkin the realist. This is the last of his major works, completed by him just over three months before his death.

“The Captain's Daughter” is devoted to the development of an extremely important theme for this time - the peasant uprising, the peasant war.

Studying the history of Pugachev's uprising made it possible for Pushkin to accurately and truthfully talk about the events that he depicts in the story.

Andrei Petrovich Grinev had a negative attitude towards easy but dishonest ways to make a career at court. That’s why he didn’t want to send his son Petrusha to serve in St. Petersburg, in the guard: “What will he learn while serving in St. Petersburg? Wander and hang out? - Andrei Petrovich says to his wife. “No, let him serve in the army, let him pull the strap, let him smell gunpowder, let him be a soldier, not a shamaton,” that is, a slacker, a slacker, an empty person.

Grinev the father is not without negative traits inherent in him as a representative of his time. Let us remember his harsh treatment of his loving and uncomplaining wife, Petrusha’s mother, his harsh reprisal against the French teacher, and especially the outrageously rude tone of his letter to Savelich: “Shame on you, old dog... I hate you, old dog! I’ll send the pigs to graze...” In this episode we have before us a typical nobleman-serf owner.

But Grinev the father also has positive qualities: honesty, straightforwardness, strength of character. These traits evoke the reader’s involuntary and natural sympathy for this stern, strict person towards himself and others.

The character of the young sixteen-year-old boy Pyotr Andreevich Grinev is wonderfully shown by Pushkin in his movement and development under the influence of the life conditions in which he is placed.

At first, Petrusha is a careless and frivolous landowner's son, a slacker urchin, almost like Fonvizin's Mitrofanushka, dreaming of an easy life full of all sorts of pleasures as a metropolitan guards officer.

In Petrusha Grinev, the kind, loving heart of his mother seemed to be combined with honesty, straightforwardness, courage - qualities that are inherent in his father. Grinev the father strengthened these qualities in his firm parting words: “Serve faithfully to whom you swear allegiance; obey your superiors; Don’t chase their affection; don’t ask for service; don’t talk yourself out of serving and remember the proverb: take care of your dress again, but take care of your honor from a young age.”

Petrusha’s kindness was manifested in a generous gift to a “little man” unknown to him, who showed the way during a snowstorm and who later played a decisive role in his entire future fate. And how, risking everything, he rushed to the rescue of the captured Savelich. The depth of Petrusha Grinev’s nature was reflected in the great and pure feeling that arose in him throughout his life for Masha Mironova.

By his behavior in the Belogorsk fortress and later, Pyotr Andreevich Grinev proved his loyalty to his father’s covenants and did not betray what he considered his duty and his honor.

The good traits and inclinations inherent in the nature of Grinev the son were strengthened, tempered and finally triumphed under the influence of that harsh school of life to which his father sent him, sending him instead of Petersburg and the guard to the remote steppe outskirts. The major historical events of which he became a participant did not allow him, after great personal grief - his father’s refusal to give permission to marry Masha Mironova - to lose heart and despair; they gave his soul a “strong and good shock.”

The complete opposite of the honest and straightforward Grinev is his rival Alexey Ivanovich Shvabrin. The author does not deprive Shvabrin of famous positive traits. He is educated, smart, observant, sharp-tongued, and an interesting conversationalist. But for the sake of his personal goals, Shvabrin is ready to commit any dishonorable act. He slanderes Masha Mironova; casually casts a shadow on her mother. He inflicts a treacherous blow on Petrusha Grinev in a duel and, in addition, writes a false denunciation of him to Grinev’s father. Shvabrin goes over to Pugachev’s side not out of ideological convictions: he expects to save his life, hopes to make a career with him if Pugachev succeeds, and most importantly, he wants, having dealt with his rival, to forcefully marry a girl who is not his loves.

The rank-and-file officers, closely connected with the mass of soldiers, included the crooked garrison lieutenant Ivan Ignatievich, and Captain Mironov himself, who was not even a nobleman by birth, “who became an officer from among soldiers’ children.”

Both the captain, his wife Vasilisa Yegorovna, and the crooked lieutenant were uneducated people, with a very limited outlook, which did not give them any opportunity to understand the events taking place - the reasons and goals of the popular uprising. They were not without the usual shortcomings of that time. Let us at least remember the peculiar “justice” of the energetic captain: “Sort out Prokhorov and Ustinya, who is right and who is wrong. Punish both of them."

But at the same time, these were simple and kind people, devoted to their duty, ready, like Grinev the father, to fearlessly die for what they considered “their shrine.” conscience."

With special sympathy and warmth, Pushkin creates the image of the captain's daughter, Masha Mironova. Beneath the tenderness of her appearance, she conceals perseverance and strength, revealed in her sincere love for Grinev, in her decisive resistance to Shvabrin, in whose power she found herself completely, and finally, in her brave trip to the Empress herself in St. Petersburg in order to save her fiancé.

The author very truthfully shows the image of the serf peasant, Uncle Grinev-Savelich. His devotion to his masters is far from slavish. Let us remember his words in a letter to Father Grinev in response to the latter’s rude and unfair reproaches: “. I am not an old dog, but your faithful servant, I obey my master’s orders and have always served you diligently and lived to see my gray hair.”

In the letter, Savelich himself calls himself a “slave,” as was customary then when serfs addressed their masters, but the tone of his letter is imbued with a sense of great human dignity. The inner nobility and spiritual richness of his nature are fully revealed in the completely unselfish and deeply human affection of a poor, lonely old man for his pet.

In the 30s, Pushkin intensively studied the history of Pugachev. The author’s image of the leader of the uprising in “The Captain’s Daughter” differs sharply from previous images of Pugachev.

The image of the leader of the popular revolt is given by Pushkin without any embellishment, in all its harsh, sometimes cruel, reality. Pugachev, in his portrayal of the writer, is distinguished by his exceptional “sharpness” - clarity of mind, free and rebellious spirit, heroic composure and daring, and eagle-like breadth of nature. Let us remember the tale he told Grinev about the eagle and the raven, the meaning of which is that a moment of free and bright life is better than many years of vegetation. Let us remember the folk song, Pugachev’s favorite song, “Don’t make noise, mother green oak tree,” which he and his comrades sing in chorus. Let us remember the words of Pugachev: “To execute is to execute, to be pardoned is to be pardoned: this is my custom.”

Pushkin himself called “The Captain's Daughter” a story. Indeed, it is small in volume. But within these tight frameworks the author has placed enormous vital content. Among the characters in The Captain's Daughter, there is not a single random person who appears and disappears.

The end of the story seems to return us to its beginning. In the last chapter we are back in noble nest Grinev. Before us again is the same estate setting, Grinev the father with the same “Court Calendar” in his hands; next to him is his wife, Petrusha’s mother. This parallelism of beginning and end, which gives the composition of the story harmony and completeness, is emphasized by the similarity of the text of the corresponding places.

In the first chapter: “One autumn, mother was making honey jam in the living room... Father was reading the Court Calendar by the window.”

In the last chapter: “One evening the priest was sitting on the sofa, turning over the sheets of the Court Calendar... Mother was silently knitting a woolen sweatshirt.” But the author adds new touches. Father Grinev flips through his calendar absentmindedly; “... his thoughts were far away, and reading did not produce its usual effect on him.” This time the mother does not make honey jam, but knits a woolen sweatshirt, of course for Petrusha, exiled to “the remote region of Siberia for eternal settlement” - the talkative Avdotya Vasilievna knitted “silently... and tears occasionally fell on her work.” The family idyll gave way to a difficult family drama.

A remarkable aspect of The Captain's Daughter is the language in which it is written. Pushkin endows each character in the story with a special manner of language that corresponds to his mental outlook, his level of development, his social status, and his character. Therefore, from the speeches of the characters, from their remarks and statements, unusually convex and lively images appear before the readers. human images, which summarize various characteristic aspects of Russian life of that time.

“Compared to The Captain’s Daughter,” N.V. Gogol admiringly noted, “all our novels and stories seem like cloying rubbish. Purity and artlessness rose to such an extent in her high degree that reality itself seems artificial and caricatured before her...”

Pushkin’s greatest art as a realist writer lies in this modern artlessness, high artistic simplicity.

Composition

The novel “The Captain's Daughter,” published in the fourth book of the Sovremennik magazine for 1836, is Pushkin’s final work. The “farewell” novel grew out of Pushkin’s works on the history of Russia. From the beginning of the 1830s. Pushkin’s focus was the 18th century: the era of Peter I (work was underway on “The History of Peter”) and the largest event of the era of Catherine II - the peasant revolt of 1773-1774. From materials about the riot, the “History of Pugachev” was formed, written in Boldin in the fall of 1833 and published in 1834 under the title “History of the Pugachev Rebellion” (changed by Nicholas I).

Historical work gave the novel a factual basis and a general concept, but Pushkin’s path to “The Captain’s Daughter” was not easy. By 1832-1833 include draft plans and sketches of a future historical work. According to Pushkin’s original plan, the central figure in it was to be a nobleman, Lieutenant Shvanvich, who went over to Pugachev’s side and served him “with all diligence.” Pushkin found information about this nobleman who “preferred a vile life to an honest death” in one of the paragraphs of the official legal document - the “Sentences” of the Senate (it also said about second lieutenant A.M. Grinev, who was arrested on suspicion of “communication with villains,” but during the investigation he was found not guilty).

Studying the materials of the riot during a trip to Kazan and Orenburg in the summer of 1833. corrected the original plan. Pushkin came to the conclusion that the nobility - the only one of all classes - remained loyal to the government and did not support the rebellion. The fate of the renegade nobleman could not serve as the basis for broad artistic generalizations. Shvanvich would have turned into the same lone hero as Vladimir Dubrovsky, the “noble robber”, avenger for the desecrated honor of the family, in the unfinished novel “Dubrovsky” (1833).

Pushkin found a new hero - he was not an ally, but Pugachev’s captive Basharin, pardoned by the impostor at the request of the soldiers. A form of narration was also found - the hero’s memoirs addressed to his grandson (“My dear grandson Petrusha...” - this is how the rough draft of the introduction began). In the winter of 1834-1835. a new version of the work arose: historical and everyday material and a love plot appeared in it. In 1835-1836 changed storylines, the names of the heroes. Thus, the prototype of the future Grinev Basharin became Valuev, then Bulanin (this surname remained in the “Missed Chapter”), and only on last stage works Pushkin called the memoirist Grinev. His antipode Shvabrin, who retained some of the features of the traitorous nobleman Shvanvich, also appeared in the final edition. The manuscript was rewritten completely by Pushkin himself on October 19, 1836. At the end of October, after the novel was submitted to the censor, it received the name “The Captain's Daughter.”

Working on a historical novel, Pushkin relied on the creative experience of the English novelist Walter Scott (among his many admirers in Russia was Nicholas I himself) and the first Russian historical novelists M.N. Zagoskin, I.I. Lazhechnikov. “In our time, the word novel means a historical era developed in a fictional narrative” - this is how Pushkin defined the main genre sign novel on a historical theme. The choice of era, heroes, and especially the style of “fictional narrative” made “The Captain’s Daughter” not only the best among the novels of V. Scott’s Russian followers. According to Gogol, Pushkin wrote “a one-of-a-kind novel” - “in its sense of proportion, in its completeness, in its style and in its amazing skill in depicting types and characters in miniature...” Pushkin the artist became not only a rival, but also a “winner » Pushkin the historian. As the outstanding Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky noted, in “The Captain’s Daughter” “ more history than in “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion,” which seems like a long explanatory note to the novel.”

The breadth of issues takes The Captain's Daughter beyond the genre of historical novel. The historical material served as a starting point for Pushkin to create a multifaceted work. “The Captain’s Daughter” is both a family chronicle of the Grinevs (critic N.N. Strakhov noted: “The Captain’s Daughter is a story about how Pyotr Grinev married the daughter of Captain Mironov”), and a novel-biography of the memoirist Pyotr Grinev himself, and a novel of education (the story of the formation of the character of a noble “minor”), and a novel-parable (the fate of the heroes is an expanded moral maxim that became the epigraph to the novel: “Take care of your honor from a young age”).

Unlike other prose works (the unfinished "Arap of Peter the Great", "Tales of Belkin", "The Queen of Spades"), in last novel Pushkin created, albeit by different means than in Eugene Onegin, a “free” narrative, open in historical time, not limited by the framework of the plot and the meaning of what is depicted. The historical “field” of the novel is wider than the described historical events (1772-1775) and biographical facts (the youth of the hero - the author of the notes, 17-19 years old). Based, as the writer himself emphasized, “on legend,” “The Captain’s Daughter” became a novel about the historical life of Russia. (Pay attention to the abundance of historical facts mentioned in the novel - from the Time of Troubles (Grishka Otrepiev) to the “meek reign” of Alexander I.)

The problems of the novel, its genre and plot-compositional features are determined by the type of narration chosen by Pushkin and the very figure of the narrator. The novel is written in the first person. These are autobiographical notes (memoirs, memoirs) of the Russian nobleman Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, who is a fictional figure. With the real-life A.M. Grinev, he is related only by his surname and the similarity of some situations: captivity by Pugachev and arrest on suspicion of treason. The notes do not have a specific addressee. Grinev's memories of his youth are part of a family chronicle and at the same time his confession. Unable to tell the whole truth at trial, so as not to tarnish the honor of Masha Mironova, he addresses his confession story about the “strange incidents” of his life to his descendants.

The main text of the novel consists of Grinev’s “notes.” In the afterword, the “publisher” indicates the source of the “manuscript.” It came to him from Grinev’s grandson, who learned that the “publisher” was engaged in “work dating back to the times described by his grandfather.” “Publisher” is Pushkin’s literary “mask”; by “work” we mean “The History of Pugachev”. In addition, the novel has an end date: “Oct 19. 1836” is a kind of “autograph” of Pushkin (the novel was published anonymously in Sovremennik, without the author’s signature). The afterword also indicates the degree of participation of the “publisher” in the work on the allegedly received manuscript: he decided not to include it in his work, but to publish it “specially, having found a decent epigraph for each chapter and allowing himself to change some of his own names.” Epigraphs, therefore, have a special meaning: they not only indicate the theme of the chapter and determine its narrative tone. Epigraphs are signs of the author's “presence” in the text of the novel. Each epigraph represents the author’s “image-summary” of the chapter.

The meaning of the afterword is that Pushkin, the creator of the novel, clearly separated himself from the fictional person - the author and main character of Grinev's notes, and at the same time deliberately correlated fiction with reality. One of the most important artistic principles of Pushkin the historical novelist is stated: the reader is invited to perceive everything told by Grinev as a reliable and sincere “human document.” The writer puts Grinev’s fictional notes on a par with the authentic documents included in “The History of Pugachev.”

In The Captain's Daughter, both the story of the narrator's life and his human, moral character are equally important. Grinev is a witness and participant in historical events. The story about one’s own fate, as it were, “certifies” the authenticity and objectivity of one’s “evidence.” Grinev's point of view dominates the narrative. The era, the rebellion, Pugachev are seen through the eyes of a nobleman who swore allegiance to the empress, faithful to his oath and duty as an officer. For him, a peasant uprising is lawlessness, rebellion, “fire.” Grinev calls Pugachevtsev a “gang”, “robbers”, and Pugachev himself - an “impostor”, “tramp”, “villain”, “fugitive Cossack”. His understanding of what is happening does not change: both in his youth and in adulthood, he condemns the “Russian rebellion.”

To consider this a manifestation of only the hero’s class prejudices is a clear simplification, because it is not only the nobles who evaluate the Pugachevism as a bloody rebellion. The serf peasant Savelich, the priest Father Gerasim and his wife Akulina Pamfilovna also see the Pugachevites as rebels and villains. The criterion for the attitude of these heroes to rebellion is not abstract sociological concepts, but blood, violence and death. Their assessments of Pugachev and his comrades, the unflattering words they find for the rebels, reflect their personal, living impressions. “Pugachevism” for Grinev is not a formula that consolidated the official view of the rebels, but a real human shock. He saw a riot, which is why he writes with genuine horror: “God forbid that we see a Russian riot, senseless and merciless!”

This statement by Grinev causes a lot of controversy. Some researchers find in it a reflection of the point of view of Pushkin himself, others - a manifestation of the hero’s social blindness. Of course, this issue can only be resolved by going beyond the text, turning to Pushkin’s direct statements (in the 1830s, the poet was opposed to any violence). Everything said by the hero reflects the point of view of the hero himself. One should not identify his opinion with the views of Pushkin. The author's position in the novel was manifested in the choice of the hero-memoirist, in the selection of historical situations, in how the destinies of the heroes are correlated with historical events.

The Pugachev riot is shown in the novel as a national tragedy. It's merciless Civil War, in which the rebels cannot win: Pugachev himself is well aware of his doom. The pacifiers of the rebellion do not consider themselves winners either (“We consoled ourselves in our inaction with the thought of a quick end to the boring and petty war with bandits and savages”). In this war there are only losers - Russian people fighting against the same Russian people.

In his novel, Pushkin contrasted not nobles and peasants, but people and power. For him, the people are not only Pugachev with his “gentlemen generals”, the “young Cossack” who hit Vasilisa Yegorovna on the head with a saber, the disfigured Bashkir, the crafty police officer Maksimych. The people are Captain Mironov, and Masha, and the priest, and Savelich, and the only serf of the Mironovs, Broadsword. The tragic boundary divides the novel's heroes precisely when they determine their attitude towards power. Catherine II and Pugachev are her symbols. “The people,” as the observant Grinev notes, relentlessly followed Pugachev and crowded around him. Some see Pugachev as a “people's king”, embodying their dream of a “miracle” - a strong, but wise and fair government, others - a robber and murderer. Both are drawing closer in their desire for true power, humane and merciful. It was the “unrighteous” power, stupid and cruel, which separated itself from the people, that brought Russia to the edge of the abyss. It is not the “Turk” or the “Swede” that the poorly trained “soldiers” have to go to, not to defend the Fatherland, but to fight in a “strange war”, after which the native land turns into ashes (“the state of the entire vast region where the fire raged was terrible...").

Vasilisa Egorovna’s dying words - crying for her hanged husband - can be seen as an accusation not only to the robber Pugachev, but also to the authorities: “Neither Prussian bayonets nor Turkish bullets touched you; You didn’t lay down your belly in a fair fight, but perished from an escaped convict!” Grinev's view of historical events in to a greater extent reflects not a narrow class, but a universal point of view. Grinev looks at the “robbers” with disgust, but condemns the careless defenders of the Velogorsk fortress, and especially the “Orenburg commanders” who doomed the city to extinction. In everything that is happening, he sees a bloody revelry and an orgy of violence, a true national disaster.

Grinev is a nobleman, bound to his class by vows of duty and honor, but he does not look at the world and people through class “glasses.” Grinev is, first of all, an honest and sincere person who tries to fully and truthfully convey everything he saw and heard. Much is recorded with protocol precision. Grinev is a brilliant viewer. He sees everything around him - the main participants in the events, the “extras,” and the details of the situation. Grinev not only conveys his impressions - he plastically recreates events. The hero's simple-minded, but by no means rustic and flat story reflects the highest level of skill of Pushkin as a narrator. The author of the novel needs Grinev not as a talking mannequin, a mouthpiece for his ideas. The narrator in “The Captain's Daughter” is a person with his own view of the world. He is able to see and capture in words what for another person may seem like a trifle unworthy of attention. Grinev vigilantly notices details, making them catch the eye (this is especially true for Pugachev). Grinev is a failed poet, although his poetic experiments were “fair,” but a wonderful prose writer. He lacks a poetic ear (see his poems “Destroying the thought of love ...” in the chapter “Duel”), but he looks at Myron with the gaze of a true artist.

Grinev trusts only his own impressions. Everything that he knows about by hearsay is specifically mentioned or omitted (see, for example, stories about the situation in the Orenburg province in the chapter “Pugachevism”, about the defeat of Pugachev in the chapter “Arrest”). This causes the gaps in the plot. “I have not witnessed everything that remains for me to notify the reader about...” - this is how the story about Masha’s trip to St. Petersburg begins. Grinev separates his “evidence” from “tradition,” “rumor,” and other people’s opinions.

Pushkin masterfully uses a feature of any memoir narrative: the distance that arises between the memoirist and the object of his memories. In Grinev’s notes, the memoirist himself is the focus, so we have before us, as it were, “two Grinevs”: Grinev, a seventeen-year-old youth, and Grinev, a fifty-year-old author of the notes. There is an important difference between them. Young Grinev absorbs diverse impressions, changes under the influence of circumstances, his character develops. Grinev the memoirist is a man who has lived his life. His beliefs and assessments of people are time-tested. He can look at everything that happened to him in his youth (in “my century”) from the height of his everyday experience and the morals of the new era. The innocence of young Grinev and the wisdom of Grinev the memoirist complement each other. But most importantly, it is Grinev the memoirist who reveals the meaning of what he experienced during the riot. Pay attention to the time frame of his notes. Only part of the “plot” of his life became the plot of the notes. The first chapters (from one to five) are an “overture” to the story of the Pugachev era. The most memorable thing in his life is the riot and Pugachev. Grinev's notes are interrupted when the story about “unexpected incidents” that influenced his whole life ends.

The ending of the novel remained “open”: the memoirist does not say anything about the subsequent events of his life - they no longer come into contact with history, fitting into the framework of the private life of a poor Simbirsk landowner. The only biographical detail of Grinev, which the “publisher” reports in the afterword, is the presence of the author of the “notes” at Pugachev’s execution. Grinev’s personal biographical detail, which the “publisher” reports in the afterword, is the presence of the author of the “notes” at Pugachev’s execution. But the significance of this detail, perhaps, lies in something else: it “completes” the image of Pugachev. A few moments before the execution, the impostor recognized Grinev in a crowd of thousands, nodded to him - this indicates enormous power spirit, self-control, consciousness of being right, inherent in Pugachev.

The biography of Grinev is the basis of the chronicle plot of the novel. The formation of the personality of a young nobleman is a continuous chain of tests of his honor and human decency. Having left home, he continually finds himself in situations of moral choice. At first, they are no different from those that happen in every person’s life (losing a hundred rubles to Zurin, a snowstorm, a love conflict). He is absolutely unprepared for life and must rely only on his moral sense. The memoirist ironically looks at his childhood and family upbringing, imagining himself as the narrow-minded Mitrofanushka, an arrogant nobleman. Self-irony is the look of an experienced person who realized that his family could not give him the most important thing - knowledge of life and people. The instructions of the stern father received before leaving, and he limited himself to life experience.

The hero's moral potential was revealed during the riot. Already on the day of the capture of the Belogorsk fortress, he several times had to choose between honor and dishonor, and in fact between life and death. The most difficult situations in Grinev’s life arise when he is persuaded to compromise: after Pugachev “pardoned” Grinev, he had to kiss his hand, that is, in fact, recognize him as the tsar. In the chapter “The Uninvited Guest,” Pugachev himself arranges a “test of compromise,” trying to get a promise from Grinev to “at least not fight” against him. In all these cases, the hero, risking his life, shows firmness and intransigence. But the most important moral test was ahead. In Orenburg, having received Masha’s letter, Grinev had to make a decisive choice: a soldier’s duty demanded to obey the general’s decision, to remain in the besieged city - a duty of honor demanded to respond to Masha’s desperate call: “you are my only patron; intercede for poor me." Grinev the man defeated Grinev the soldier, who had sworn allegiance to the empress; he decided to leave Orenburg and then use Pugachev’s help.

Grinev understands honor as human dignity, an alloy of conscience and a person’s inner conviction that he is right. We see the same “human dimension” of honor and duty in his father, who, having learned about his son’s alleged betrayal, speaks of his ancestor who died for what he “considered sacred to his conscience.” The desire not to tarnish Masha’s honor was dictated by Grinev’s refusal to name her during the investigation (the very “idea of ​​entangling her name among the vile reports of villains” seemed “terrible” to him). Grinev emerged from all the trials with honor, retaining his human dignity.

All the main characters of the novel go through moral tests. Not only the defenders of the Belogorsk fortress, Masha Mironova, but also Pugachev and his associates have their own ideas about honor. For example, one of Pugachev’s “enars” Khlopush, in a dispute with Beloborodov, formulates the “code” of the robber’s honor as follows: “And this hand is guilty of the shed Christian blood. But I destroyed the enemy, not the guest; at a free crossroads and in dark forest, not at home, sitting at the stove; with a flail and a butt, and not with a woman’s slander.” Honor in Pushkin's novel became a measure of humanity and decency of all heroes. The attitude towards honor and duty separated Grinev and Shvabrin. Grinev’s sincerity, openness and honesty attracted Pugachev to him (“My sincerity struck Pugachev,” the memoirist notes).

Pushkin set in the novel one of the most complex issues- the question of the dependence of people's lives on the course of history. The memoirist constantly approaches the main “strangeness” of his life, but stops, speaking only about “strange incidents”, “a strange combination of circumstances”: “a children’s sheepskin coat, given to a tramp, saved me from the noose, and a drunkard, staggering around inns, besieged fortresses and shook the state! The fate of Grinev and the fate of other characters in the novel allow us to draw conclusions about how Pushkin understood man’s dependence on history.

Until the sixth chapter, Grinev’s life is the life of a private person, flowing outside of history. Only distant echoes of a terrible historical storm reach him (information about the disturbances of the Cossacks and “semi-savage peoples”). All the other heroes of the novel live outside of history. These are ordinary people for whom military service the same “habitual thing” as pickling mushrooms or writing love couplets (these are the inhabitants of the Belogorsk fortress in the first chapters of the novel). A symbolic harbinger of menacing historical events was a snowstorm and a terrible dream seen by Grinev (chapter “Counselor”). During the Pugachev war, the secret meaning of what happened in this chapter was revealed.

History - a force beyond the control of people, a force hostile to them, commensurate with fate - destroyed life, which seemed unshakable, and pulled Grinev and all the inhabitants of the Belogorsk fortress into its whirlpool. She subjected the novel's heroes to severe tests, testing their will, courage, loyalty to duty and honor, and humanity. During the riot, Masha’s parents died, Ivan Ignatievich, who is connected with me.” But the heroes themselves had to show their best qualities in order to achieve their goal.

Pushkin showed the dark and light faces of history in the novel. It can destroy a person, but it can give his soul a “strong and good shock.” Historical trials reveal hidden volitional qualities in a person (Masha Mironova). Meanness and baseness make him a complete scoundrel (Shvabrin). History gives a chance to escape even in difficult trials to those who are honest, humane and merciful. Tough and capricious, historical reality does not exclude “miraculous” chance. It seems that history itself not only punishes and destroys, but also elevates people and is merciful to them.

This was especially clearly manifested in the fate of Masha Mironova. The main trials in Masha’s life, as in Grinev’s life, begin when rumors of an impostor reach the Belogorsk fortress. In an effort to protect their daughter from “Pugachevism,” the parents want to send her to a safe place. But fate again has its own way: Masha is forced to remain in a besieged fortress, amid the fire and horrors of a “senseless and merciless” rebellion. On the day of the capture of the fortress, misfortune befalls her - terrible death parents. Masha remains an orphan. Her only defender, Grinev, miraculously escaped the gallows, goes to Orenburg, and she, sick and helpless, finds herself in the hands of the new commandant of the fortress, the traitor Shvabrin.

Poor, unfortunate Masha had to endure so much humiliation and suffering that any other girl, in her place, would hardly have been able to endure. Shvabrin kept her in a closet with bread and water, thus seeking consent to become his wife. In the novel, perhaps, there is no other hero who suffered more than her. Honest, smart and sincere, Masha categorically refuses to marry an unloved man, who also sided with the killers of her parents: “It would be easier for me to die than to become the wife of such a person as Alexey Ivanovich.”

Arriving at the Velogorsk fortress, Grinev and Pugachev found Masha sitting on the floor, “in a ragged peasant dress,” “with disheveled hair.” In front of the poor girl stood a jug of water covered with a slice of bread. At that moment the heroine saw Pugachev, who had come to free her, but this same man, who became her savior, deprived her of the most precious thing in life - her parents. She didn’t say a word, she just covered her face with both hands and, as the shocked Grinev recalls, “fell unconscious.” And again Shvabrin almost prevented the lovers: he nevertheless told Pugachev who Masha really was. But, showing generosity, the impostor forgave Grinev for his forced deception and even volunteered to be seated by his father at the wedding of Masha and Grinev.

It would seem that Masha’s fate began to develop happily from that moment on. Grinev sends her and Savelich to his estate. Now Masha needed to please her lover’s parent, and this task turned out to be not a difficult one - soon they “sincerely became attached” to the “dear captain’s daughter” and did not want any other bride for their son except Masha. Not far off was the goal of the lovers - a wedding and a happy family life. Soon the riot was suppressed and the impostor was caught.

But again, omnipotent fate is preparing a new and, perhaps, most difficult obstacle for Masha: Grinev is arrested and accused of treason. It seems to Masha that it was she who became the cause of the misfortunes of her beloved, who for her sake had to resort to the help of an impostor. During the investigation, explaining his behavior during the riot, Grinev himself did not name Masha, not wanting the name of the “captain’s daughter” to even indirectly appear in the treason case.

A turning point is coming in Masha’s fate: after all, the future of her lover and her own family happiness now depend only on her. She decided to go to the empress herself to ask for Grinev. This decision was not easy for the “coward” Masha. For the first time, she takes on such responsibility: this is responsibility not only for herself, but also for the future, for the honor of Pyotr Grinev and his family.

Masha's honesty and sincerity helped melt the cold heart of the majestic empress and gain forgiveness for Grinev. It was almost more difficult for Masha to achieve this than for Grineva to convince Pugachev of the need to help Masha herself, Shvabrin’s captive.

Masha Mironova was eventually able to overcome all obstacles and arrange her destiny, her happiness. The quiet and timid "captain's daughter" in the most difficult circumstances managed to cope not only with external obstacles. She overcame herself, feeling in her heart that honesty and moral purity are capable of crushing mistrust, injustice and betrayal, helping a person to gain the upper hand in his unequal confrontation with the formidable forces of history.

From under its mysterious covers, history seemed to bring Pugachev out, making him a symbolic figure, eerie in its reality and at the same time magical, almost fabulous. The prototype of Pushkin's Pugachev is a real historical figure, an impostor, the head of the rebels. The historicity of Pugachev is secured in the novel by a government order for his capture (see the chapter “Pugachevism”), by genuine historical facts mentioned by Grinev.

But Pugachev in Pushkin’s novel is not identical to his historical prototype. The image of Pugachev is a complex alloy of historical, real-life, symbolic and folklore elements; it is an image-symbol, unfolding, like any symbolic image, in several, sometimes mutually exclusive, semantic planes. Pugachev is a character in the novel, a participant in the plot action. He is seen through the eyes of Grinev. As a character, he appears only when his life intersects with the life of the memoirist. Pugachev's appearance is physically concrete, the narrator is quite clear and his social status: he is a Cossack, a “tramp”, the leader of a “gang of robbers”.

Despite his realism, Pugachev differs sharply from other heroes. With his appearance in the novel, an alarming, mysterious atmosphere arises. Both in the chapter “Counselor” and during the riot we see a man whose appearance is expressive, but deceptive. The inner, hidden in him seems more significant and mysterious than what is accessible to Grinev’s gaze. Pugachev's human appearance is complex and contradictory. It combines cruelty and generosity, cunning and directness, the desire to subjugate a person and the willingness to help him. Pugachev can frown menacingly, put on an “important air” and smile and wink good-naturedly.

Pugachev is unpredictable - he is a force of nature. The most important principle of creating the image of Pugachev is transformation, metamorphosis. He constantly reincarnates, as if escaping unambiguous definitions. His very position as a “werewolf” is already dual: he is a Cossack - a man with a true name, and an impostor who appropriated someone else’s - the name of the late Peter III (the name for Pugachev is the main attribute of power). In the plot of the novel, from a “tramp” he turns into a “great sovereign.” The features of a roguish Cossack, then the wisdom of a people's leader and commander appear in him. In some episodes (see the chapters “The Uninvited Guest”, “The Rebel Settlement” and “The Orphan”) metamorphoses follow one after another: the powerful and formidable “sovereign” turns into a sincere and merciful savior of “his nobility” and the “red maiden”; an impatient and quick to kill person - reasonable and reconciling (chapter “Rebel Settlement”). The motive for transformation came into the novel from folklore (myth and fairy tales).

Pugachev talks about the options for the development of his destiny: about a campaign against Moscow (“Give me time, or else I’ll go to Moscow”), about a possible triumph (“Perhaps it will succeed! Grishka Otrepiev reigned over Moscow after all”). Pleased with his military victories, he even plans to “compete” with the Prussian King Frederick himself. But none of these fate options came true.

Pugachev is a tragic figure. In life, he is as cramped as in a child’s bunny sheepskin coat given to him by Grinev (“My street is cramped; I have little will”). His power seems limitless, but he is aware of the tragedy of his fate - this is emphasized both in Pugachev’s favorite song (“Don’t make noise, mother green oak tree ...”), and in the Kalmyk fairy tale he told. Like any tragic hero, Pugachev appears in a heroic aura. Pardoning his opponents, he proudly rejects Grinev’s advice - “to resort to the mercy of the empress.” He is driven not by a feeling of exorbitant guilt, but by confidence in his indestructible rightness. He is the master of his own destiny and cannot accept what he generously gives to other people. Mercy for him is humiliating alms. Tragic fate Pugacheva is revealed in the folklore symbolism of songs and fairy tales.

Grinev is trying to understand the role of Pugachev in his fate, in the fate of Masha. The hare sheepskin coat and the well-known “debt is clear in payment” is too simple an explanation of everything that happened (the debt was paid, even with interest: Pugachev sent Grinev a sheepskin sheepskin coat, a horse and half a sum of money). The memoirist realizes that for some reason this person singled him out from the crowd, saved him, helped him, arranged his personal happiness (“I can’t explain what I felt when parting with this terrible person, a monster, a villain for everyone except me"). A significant role was played by the feeling of human closeness that arose between them (“Why not tell the truth? At that moment, strong sympathy attracted me to him”). But Grinev sees a different, higher meaning in their relationship. Pugachev seems to him to be an exceptional person, sent by fate itself. Thoughts about fate accompany every plot twist, every change in Grinev’s life associated with Pugachev. As an enlightened person, the memoirist is not inclined to believe in prophecies and miracles. But Pugachev is a special case for him, he is the living embodiment of a miracle. Pugachev emerged from a snowstorm that almost killed Grinev, from a dream in which his father unexpectedly appeared in the guise of a counselor. Pugachev became his “counselor” in life; he combined common sense and the logic of a miracle - the logic of myth.

Pugachev is both real and fantastic, inaccessible to understanding. He is the link that connected the ordinary person Grinev with the world of the mysterious and enigmatic: with fate and history. - a link that connected the ordinary person Grinev with the world of the mysterious and enigmatic: with fate and history. With the appearance of Pugachev in the chapter “Attack,” Grinev feels a mysterious relationship between the new circumstances of his life and the omens he received earlier. Pugachev destroys the usual one-dimensionality of his life. The narrative of Grinev's fate ceases to be a linear movement from episode to episode, in which a new event simply joins the previous one. Compositional and semantic parallels arise in the novel. All of them are connected specifically with the figure of Pugachev (we note the most important parallels: Grinev’s meeting with Pugachev in the Belogorsk fortress - Masha’s meeting with Catherine II in St. Petersburg; the “trial” of Grinev in Berdskaya Sloboda - the trial in Kazan; the failed execution of Grinev - the execution of Pugachev, about which is stated in the afterword; the defense of the Belogorsk fortress - the defense of Orenburg).

The image of Pugachev - central image novel, although Pugachev is not the main character. Pushkin’s thoughts about history and fate, about the relationship between a person’s private life and historical life are connected with it. The figure of Pugachev is comparable only with the figure of Peter I. Among the Russian historical figures of his era, Pushkin did not find a personality of such magnitude.

On the day when “The Captain’s Daughter” was completed, at a meeting with fellow lyceum students, the poet read his last poetic message to them: “It was time: our holiday is young...”. It sums up the era, about the beginning of which the memoirist Grinev enthusiastically wrote: “I cannot help but marvel at the rapid successes of enlightenment and the spread of the rules of philanthropy.” Pushkin also looked at his era with the gaze of an honest and caring “witness”:

Remember, O friends, from that time,
When our circle of fate was connected,
What, what were we witnesses to!
Games of the mysterious game,
Confused peoples rushed about;
And kings have risen and fallen;
And the blood of people is either glory or freedom,
Then pride stained the altars.

The majestic picture of European and Russian history of the first quarter of the 19th century, created in the message, is a kind of poetic “epilogue” to the novel about the senseless and merciless “Russian rebellion”, which, according to Pushkin, should not have been repeated in Russia...

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Can you BRIEFLY describe the story The Captain's Daughter? Main characters, plot, and your impressions and received the best answer

Answer from Mila Makarova[active]
Oh, we studied this last year)
In short, this work tells about a young officer, Pyotr Grinev, whom his father, accompanied by the faithful serf Savelich, sent to serve in a small fortress, where the hero met his lifelong love, the captain’s daughter named Masha. Then the troops of the false heir to the Russian throne, Emelyan Pugachev, attacked this fortress, captured it and killed almost the entire command and their families. Masha survived. A certain very harmful guy named Shvabrin betrayed his wife and went over to Pugachev’s side, who in turn made him the head of the captured fortress. Grinev, too, miraculously survived, even got upset with Pugachev, and went to a larger fortress for help, but achieved nothing there and decided to return for Masha, who was forced to marry him by Shvabrin. On the way back, he met Pugachev again and went with him to help Masha out and punish Shvabrin. That’s how it all happened, Grinev took Masha, took the orphan to his parents, and he himself went to fight for his Motherland. Then he was condemned for his connections with Pugachev, but Masha saved the situation by turning to Catherine 2.
Well, that's it, happy ending)
The story is interesting, but lengthy.
I apologize for not being concise, it didn’t work out better)

Answer from Rox[master]
Easily. This is a story about a captain and his daughter. The impressions are purely positive!

Answer from Oleg B.[active]
The young major Grinev is sent to serve in some village in the Orenburg region, and on the way he visits cafes and discos. After another drinking session, he loses control and loses his wheels. Then local Vasya came to his aid, did the tire fitting, well, our young major Grinev thanked him, adjusted his fashionable outfit in the cold cold, and said that there is a stove in my Rover, I don’t need this Turkish Italian fur coat.
Well, at a similar pace, he reached the village of Zalupenko, where there was a small wooden fortress, with one tamahawk, and a small garrison of brothers. The head of the gang received our major with wide arms and introduced him to another major, Shvabrin (who is a bitch by nature). The head had a daughter, a pretty hen, but she was not in status with Major Grinev. But as they say, he wants to eat, he began to divorce her, and fell in love.
Should I write a sequel?

Answer from Arzu Mamedova[active]
Doesn’t it bother you that “The Captain’s Daughter” is a novel and not a story?! This is how you differentiate between the concepts of novel and short story

Answer from Misha Selin[newbie]
story

Answer from Egor Sukurukov[newbie]
CHAPTER I. SERGEANT OF THE GUARD.
- Tomorrow he would be a captain of the guard.
- That’s not necessary; let him serve in the army.
- Well said! let him push...
- Who is his father?
- Prince.
My father Andrei Petrovich Grinev in his youth served under Count Minich, and retired as prime minister in 17.. Since then, he lived in his Simbirsk village, where he married the girl Avdotya Vasilyevna Yu., the daughter of a poor nobleman there. There were nine of us children. All my brothers and sisters died in infancy.
Mother was still pregnant with me, as I had already been enlisted in the Semenovsky regiment as a sergeant, by the grace of Major of the Guard Prince B., a close relative of ours. If, beyond all hope, the mother had given birth to a daughter, then the father would have announced the death of the sergeant who had not appeared, and that would have been the end of the matter. I was considered on leave until I finished my studies. At that time, we were not brought up like today. From the age of five I was given into the hands of the eager Savelich, who was granted my uncle status for his sober behavior. Under his supervision, in my twelfth year, I learned Russian literacy and could very sensibly judge the properties of a greyhound dog. At this time, the priest hired a Frenchman for me, Monsieur Beaupré, who was discharged from Moscow along with a year's supply of wine and Provençal oil. Savelich did not like his arrival very much. “Thank God,” he grumbled to himself, “it seems the child is washed, combed, and fed. Where should we spend the extra money, and hire monsieur, as if our people were gone!”
Beaupré was a hairdresser in his homeland, then a soldier in Prussia, then he came to Russia pour Étre outchitel, not really understanding the meaning of this word. He was a kind fellow, but flighty and dissolute to the extreme. His main weakness was his passion for the fair sex; Not infrequently, for his tenderness, he received pushes, from which he groaned for whole days. Moreover, he was not (as he put it) an enemy of the bottle, that is, (speaking in Russian) he loved to drink too much. But since we served wine only at dinner, and then only in small glasses, and the teachers usually carried it around, my Beaupre very soon got used to the Russian liqueur, and even began to prefer it to the wines of his fatherland, as it was much healthier for the stomach. We hit it off immediately, and although according to the contract he was obliged to teach me French, German and all sciences, he preferred to quickly learn from me how to chat in Russian - and then each of us went about our own business. We lived in perfect harmony. I didn't want any other mentor. But soon fate separated us, and for this reason:
The washerwoman Palashka, a fat and pockmarked girl, and the crooked cowwoman Akulka somehow agreed at the same time to throw themselves at mother’s feet, blaming themselves for their criminal weakness and complaining with tears about the monsieur who had seduced their inexperience. Mother didn’t like to joke about this, and complained to the priest. His reprisal was short. He immediately demanded the Frenchman's channel. They reported that Monsieur was giving me his lesson. Father went to my room. At this time, Beaupre was sleeping on the bed in the sleep of innocence. I was busy with business. You need to know that a geographical map was issued for me from Moscow. It hung on the wall without any use and had long tempted me with the width and goodness of the paper. I decided to make snakes out of it, and taking advantage of Beaupre's sleep, I set to work. Father came in at the same time as I was adjusting the bast tail to the Cape of Good Hope. Seeing my exercises in geography, the priest pulled me by the ear, then ran up to Beaupre, woke him up very carelessly, and began to shower him with reproaches. Beaupre, in confusion, wanted to get up, but could not: the unfortunate Frenchman was dead drunk. Seven troubles, one answer. Father lifted him out of bed by the collar, pushed him out of the door, and on the same day drove him out of the yard, to Savelich’s indescribable joy. That was the end of my upbringing.
I lived as a teenager, chasing pigeons and playing chakharda with the yard boys

Answer from Lexa panov[newbie]
The plot of the story “The Captain's Daughter” A young nobleman from a good noble family goes to serve in the garrison at the Belogorsk fortress. On the way, he lost 100 rubles to captain Zurin at billiards, which greatly upset his devoted servant Savelich.
Having set off on a long journey, they found themselves in a snowstorm, from where they were led out by a man to whom Grinev presented a hare sheepskin coat, much to Savelich’s displeasure. At the garrison, he meets the family of Captain Mironov and officer Shvabrin, who is secretly in love with Captain Mironov’s daughter Masha. They turn out to be rivals and fight a duel. Grinev is seriously wounded. Love flares up between Masha and Petrusha Grinev, but Petrusha’s parents do not give consent to the marriage. Pugachev captures the Belogorsk fortress, captain Mironov and his wife are executed.
Masha was saved by the priest. Grinev was also saved, Pugachev turned out to be the counselor to whom Pyotr Andreevich gave the hare sheepskin coat. Further events are developing in the relationship between Grinev and Pugachev. Pugachev had real respect for Grinev, which allowed him to use this respect to save his bride. After the defeat of the Pugachev uprising, Grinev was arrested following a denunciation by Shvabrin, who was convicted as a state criminal. Masha, having gone to the empress for mercy, and not for justice, seeks pardon for her fiancé. Pugachev was executed. Masha and Grinev are happy in their married life.