The chapter “Last One” shifted the focus of truth-seekers to the people’s environment. The search for peasant happiness (Izbytkovo village!) naturally led the men to the “lucky” “governor,” the peasant woman Matryona Korchagina. What is the ideological and artistic meaning of the chapter “Peasant Woman”?
In the post-reform era, the peasant woman remained just as oppressed and powerless as before 1861, and looking for a happy one among the peasant women was, obviously, a ridiculous idea. This is clear to Nekrasov. In the outline of the chapter, the “lucky” heroine says to the wanderers:
I think so
What if between women
Are you looking for a happy one?
You're just so stupid.
But the author of “Who Lives Well in Rus',” while artistically reproducing Russian reality, is forced to reckon with folk concepts and ideas, no matter how wretched and false they may be. He only reserves the copyright to dispel illusions, form more correct views of the world, and cultivate higher demands for life than those that gave rise to the legend of the happiness of the “governor”. However, rumor flies from mouth to mouth, and the wanderers go to the village of Klin. The author gets the opportunity to contrast the legend with life.
“The Peasant Woman” begins with a prologue, which plays the role of an ideological overture to the chapter, preparing the reader to perceive the image of the peasant woman of the village of Klin, the lucky Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina. The author paints “thoughtfully and affectionately” a noisy grain field, which was moistened “Not so much by warm dew, / Like sweat from a peasant’s face.” As the wanderers move, the rye is replaced by flax, fields of peas and vegetables. The kids are frolicking (“children are running around / Some with turnips, some with carrots”), and “women are pulling beets.” The colorful summer landscape is closely linked by Nekrasov with the theme of inspired peasant labor.
But then the wanderers approached the “unenviable” village of Klin. The joyful, colorful landscape is replaced by another, gloomy and dull:
No matter the hut - with support,
Like a beggar with a crutch.
Comparison of "wretched houses" with skeletons and orphaned jackdaw nests on bare autumn trees further enhances the tragedy of the impression. The charms of rural nature and the beauty of creative peasant labor in the prologue of the chapter are contrasted with a picture of peasant poverty. With the landscape contrast, the author makes the reader internally wary and distrustful of the message that one of the workers of this poor village is the true lucky one.
From the village of Klin, the author leads the reader to an abandoned landowner's estate. The picture of its desolation is complemented by images of numerous servants: hungry, weak, relaxed, like frightened Prussians (cockroaches) in the upper room, they crawled around the estate. This “whining mongrel” is contrasted with the people who, after working day(“people in the fields are working”) returns to the village singing. Surrounded by this healthy labor collective, outwardly almost not standing out from it (“Good path! And who is Matryona Timofeevna?”), forming part of it, appears in the poem by Matryona Korchagin.
The portrait description of the heroine is very meaningful and poetically rich. The first idea of Matryona’s appearance is given by a remark from the peasants of the village of Nagotina:
Kholmogory cow,
Not a woman! Kinder
And there is no smoother woman.
The comparison - “a Kholmogory cow is not a woman” - speaks of the health, strength, and stateliness of the heroine. It is the key to further characterization, it fully corresponds to the impression that Matryona Timofeevna makes on the truth-seekers.
Her portrait is extremely laconic, but gives an idea of the strength of character, self-esteem (“a dignified woman”), and of moral purity and exactingness (“big, stern eyes”), and of the hard life of the heroine (“gray hair” in 38 years old), and that the storms of life did not break her, but only hardened her (“severe and dark”). The stern, natural beauty of the peasant woman is even more emphasized by the poverty of her clothes: a “short sundress” and a white shirt, setting off the heroine’s dark skin color from tanning. In Matryona’s story, her whole life passes before the reader, and the author reveals the movement of this life, the dynamics of the character portrayed through change portrait characteristics heroines.
“Thinking”, “twirling”, Matryona recalls the years of her girlhood and youth; It’s as if she sees herself in the past from the outside and can’t help but admire her former girlish beauty. Gradually, in her story (“Before Marriage”), the well-known folk poetry generalized portrait of a rural beauty. As a girl, Matryona had “clear eyes”, a “white face” that is not afraid of the dirt of field work. “You’ll work in the field for a day,” says Matryona, and then, after washing in the “hot bath,”
White again, fresh,
Spinning with friends
Eat until midnight!
In her own family, the girl blooms “like the flower of poppies,” she is a “good worker” and a “singing and dancing huntress.” But now comes the fateful hour of farewell to the girl’s will... The mere thought of the future, of the bitter life in “someone else’s God-given family” makes the bride’s “white face fade.” However, her blooming beauty and “prettyness” last for several years. family life. No wonder manager Abram Gordeich Sitnikov “bothers” Matryona:
You are a written kralek,
You are a berry!
But the years go by, bringing more and more troubles. For a long time, the harsh darkness had replaced a scarlet blush on Matryona’s face, petrified with grief; “clear eyes” look at people sternly and sternly; hunger and overwork took away the “portility and beauty” accumulated during the years of girlhood. Emaciated, fierce in the struggle for life, she no longer resembles a poppy, but a hungry she-wolf:
That she-wolf Fedotova
I remembered - I was hungry,
Similar to the kids
I was on it!
So socially, by the conditions of life and work (“The horse’s efforts / We carried ...”), as well as psychologically (the death of the first-born, loneliness, the hostility of the family), Nekrasov motivates changes in the appearance of the heroine, while at the same time affirming the deep internal connection between images of the red-cheeked laughing woman from the chapter “Before Marriage” and the graying, dignified woman greeted by wanderers. Cheerfulness, spiritual clarity, inexhaustible energy, inherent in Matryona from her youth, help her to survive in life, maintain the majesty of her posture and beauty.
In the process of working on the image of Matryona, Nekrasov did not immediately determine the age of the heroine. From variant to variant there was a process of “rejuvenation” by its author. The author is driven by the desire for life and artistic truthfulness to “rejuvenate” Matryona Timofeevna. The woman in the village grew old early. The indication of 60 and even 50 years of age conflicted with the portrait of the heroine, general definition“beautiful” and such details as “big, stern eyes”, “rich eyelashes”. Last option eliminated the discrepancy between the heroine’s living conditions and her appearance. Matryona is 38 years old, her hair has already turned gray - evidence of a difficult life, but her beauty has not yet faded. The “rejuvenation” of the heroine was also dictated by the requirement of psychological authenticity. Since the marriage and death of Matryona’s first-born, 20 years have passed (if she is 38 and not 60!), and the events of the chapters “She-Wolf”, “Governor” and “Difficult Year” are still very fresh in her memory. That’s why Matryona’s speech sounds so emotional, so excited.
Matryona Timofeevna is not only beautiful, dignified, and healthy. A woman is smart, brave, with a rich, generous, poetic soul, she is created for happiness. And she was very lucky in some ways: “good, non-drinker” family of origin(not everyone is like this!), marriage for love (how often did this happen?), prosperity (how not to envy?), patronage of the governor’s wife (what happiness!). Is it any wonder that the legend of the “governor’s wife” went for a walk through the villages, that her fellow villagers “glorified” her, as Matryona herself says with bitter irony, as a lucky woman.
And using the example of the fate of the “lucky girl”, Nekrasov reveals the whole terrible drama of peasant life. Matryona's entire story is a refutation of the legend about her happiness. From chapter to chapter the drama increases, leaving less and less room for naive illusions.
In the plot of the main stories of the chapter “Peasant Woman” (“Before Marriage”, “Songs”, “Demushka”, “She-Wolf”, “Difficult Year”, “Woman’s Parable”) Nekrasov selected and concentrated the most ordinary, everyday and at the same time the most events characteristic of the life of a Russian peasant woman: work from an early age, simple girlish entertainment, matchmaking, marriage, a humble position and difficult life in someone else’s family, family quarrels, beatings, the birth and death of children, caring for them, backbreaking labor, hunger in lean years, the bitter fate of a soldier mother with many children. These events determine the range of interests, the structure of thoughts and feelings of the peasant woman. They are recalled and presented by the narrator in their time sequence, which creates a feeling of simplicity and ingenuity, so inherent in the heroine herself. But despite all the external everydayness of events, the plot of “The Peasant Woman” is full of deep internal drama and social acuity, which are determined by the originality of the heroine herself, her ability to deeply feel and emotionally experience events, her moral purity and exactingness, her rebellion and courage.
Matryona not only introduces wanderers (and the reader!) to the story of her life, she “opens her whole soul” to them. The tale form, a first-person narration, gives it a special liveliness, spontaneity, life-like persuasiveness, and opens up great opportunities for revealing the most intimate depths of the inner life of a peasant woman, hidden from the eyes of an outside observer.
Matryona Timofeevna talks about her hardships simply, restrainedly, without exaggerating the colors. Out of inner delicacy, she even keeps silent about her husband’s beatings, and only after the strangers ask: “As if he didn’t beat you?”, embarrassed, she admits that such a thing happened. She is silent about her experiences after the death of her parents:
Have you heard the dark nights?
We heard the violent winds
Orphan's sadness,
And you don't need to tell...
Matryona says almost nothing about those minutes when she was subjected to the shameful punishment of lashes... But this restraint, in which the inner strength of the Russian peasant woman Korchagina is felt, only enhances the drama of her narrative. Excitedly, as if reliving everything again, Matryona Timofeevna talks about Philip’s matchmaking, her thoughts and worries, the birth and death of her first-born. Child mortality in the village was colossal, and given the oppressive poverty of the family, the death of a child was sometimes perceived with tears of relief: “God has tidied up,” “one less mouth to feed!” Not so with Matryona. For 20 years, the pain of her mother’s heart has not subsided. Even now she has not forgotten the charms of her firstborn:
How written Demushka was!
Beauty taken from the sun... etc.
In Matryona Timofeevna’s soul, even 20 years later, anger boils against the “unjust judges” who sensed prey. That is why there is so much expression and tragic pathos in her curse to the “villain executioners”...
Matryona is first and foremost a woman, a mother who devoted herself entirely to caring for her children. But, subjectively caused by maternal feelings and aimed at protecting children, her protest takes on a social connotation; family adversity pushes her onto the path of social protest. Matryona will enter into an argument for her child and with God. She, a deeply religious woman, was the only one in the entire village who did not listen to the prude wanderer who forbade breastfeeding on fasting days:
If you endure, then mothers,
I am a sinner before God,
And not my child
The mood of anger and protest that sounded in Matryona’s curse to the “villain executioners” does not die out in the future, but manifests itself in forms other than tears and angry cries: she pushed the headman away, tore Fedotushka from his hands, trembling like a leaf, and lay down silently under the rods (“She-Wolf”). But year after year, barely restrained pain and anger accumulate in the soul of the peasant woman.
For me, grievances are mortal
Gone unpaid... -
admits Matryona, in whose mind, apparently not without the influence of grandfather Savely (she runs to his little hole in difficult moments of life!), the thought of retribution, retribution, is born. She cannot follow the advice of the proverb: “Keep your head bowed, your heart submissive.”
I have my head down
I carry an angry heart! —
She paraphrases the proverb in relation to herself, and in these words is the result ideological development heroines. In the image of Matryona, Nekrasov generalized and typified the awakening he observed in the 60-70s national consciousness, a mood of nascent social anger and protest.
The author builds the plot of the chapter “Peasant Woman” in such a way that life path The heroine faces more and more difficulties: family oppression, the death of her son, the death of her parents, “ terrible year"lack of bread, the threat of Philip's conscription, twice a fire, three times anthrax... Using the example of one fate, Nekrasov gives a vivid idea of the deep tragic circumstances the life of a peasant woman and the entire working peasantry in “liberated” Russia.
The compositional structure of the chapter (gradual escalation of dramatic situations) helps the reader understand how Matryona Timofeevna’s character develops and strengthens in the fight against life’s difficulties. But for all the typicality of Matryona Korchagina’s biography, there is something in it that sets her apart from others. After all, Matryona was glorified as a lucky woman, the whole district knows about her! The impression of unusualness, originality, life-like uniqueness of fate and, most importantly, the originality of her nature is achieved by the introduction of the chapter “The Governor”. What a lucky woman, whose son the governor herself baptized! There is something to marvel at fellow villagers... But even greater surprise (already for the reader!) is caused by Matryona herself, who, not wanting to bow to fate, sick, pregnant, runs at night to a city unknown to her, “reaches” the governor’s wife and saves her husband from conscription . The plot situation of the chapter “The Governor’s Lady” reveals the strong-willed character, determination of the heroine, as well as her heart that is sensitive to goodness: the sympathetic attitude of the governor’s wife evokes in her a feeling of deep gratitude, the abundance of which Matryona praises the kind lady Elena Alexandrovna.
However, Nekrasov is far from the idea that “the secret of the people’s contentment” lies in lordly philanthropy. Even Matryona understands that philanthropy is powerless in the face of the inhuman laws of the existing world. public order(“peasant / Orders are endless...”) and sneers at her nickname “lucky”. While working on the chapter “The Governor,” the author obviously sought to make it less significant influence meeting with the governor's wife at future fate heroines. In the draft versions of the chapter it was indicated that Matryona, thanks to the intercession of the governor’s wife, happened to help out her fellow villagers, that she received gifts from her benefactress. In the final text, Nekrasov omitted these points.
Initially, the chapter about Matryona Korchagina was called “The Governor”. Apparently, not wanting to make the episode with the governor’s wife too of great importance, Nekrasov gives the chapter a different, broadly general title - “Peasant Woman”, and pushes the story about Matryona’s meeting with the governor’s wife (it is needed to emphasize the unusualness of the heroine’s fate) and makes it the penultimate plot episode of the chapter. As the final chord of the confession of the peasant woman Korchagina, there is a bitter “woman’s parable” about the lost “keys to women’s happiness,” a parable that expresses the people’s view of women’s fate:
The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
From God himself!
The bitter experience of her own life forces Matryona to remember this hopeless legend told by a visiting wanderer.
And you came looking for happiness!
It's a shame, well done! —
she reproaches the wanderers.
The legend about the happiness of the peasant woman Korchagina has been dispelled. However, with the entire content of the chapter “Peasant Woman,” Nekrasov tells the contemporary reader how and where to look for lost keys. Not “the keys to women’s happiness”... There are no such special, “female” keys for Nekrasov, the fate of a peasant woman for him is inextricably linked with the fate of the entire working peasantry, the question of women’s liberation is only part general issue about the struggle for the liberation of the entire Russian people from social oppression and lawlessness.
The hero of the poem is not one person, but the whole people. At first sight folk life seems sad. The very listing of villages speaks for itself: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino... and how much human suffering there is in the poem! All post-reform Rus' cries and groans on the pages of the poem, but there are also many jokes and jokes: “Rural fair”, “ drunken night" It couldn't be otherwise. In life itself, grief and joy go hand in hand. There is a lot in the poem folk images: Saveliy, Yakim Nagoy, Ermila Girin, Matryona Korchagina. All of them managed to defend their human dignity in conditions of slavery and lawlessness.
Hence the optimism of the poem:
People's power, mighty power - calm conscience, tenacious truth!The consciousness of this moral “people’s power,” foreshadowing certain victory in the struggle for future happiness, was the source of that joyful vigor that is felt even in the rhythms of the poem. The third part of the poem is devoted to the biography of the peasant woman Matryona Korchagina Timofeevna. “Matryona Timofeevna is a dignified woman, broad and dense, about thirty-eight years old. Beautiful; gray hair, large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark.” Wanderers are led to her by the fame of a lucky woman. Matryona agrees to “lay out her soul” when the men promise to help her in the harvest: the suffering is in full swing. Matryona's fate was largely suggested to Nekrasov by the autobiography of I. A. Fedoseeva. The narrative is based on her laments, as well as other folklore materials (songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov). Abundance folklore sources, often included practically unchanged in the text of “Peasant Women,” and the very name of this part of the poem, emphasize the typicality of Matryona’s fate: this is the usual fate of a Russian woman, indicating that the wanderers “have not started a business - to look for a happy woman among the women.” In her parents' house, in a good, non-drinking family, Matryona lived happily. When Matryona married Philip Korchagin, a stove maker, she found herself in real hell: all her husband’s relatives forced her to work for themselves, like a slave. However, she was lucky with her husband: only once did it come to beatings. But most of the time, Philip was at work and returned home only in winter. There was no one to stand up for Matryona except grandfather Savely, father-in-law. She has to endure the harassment of Sitnikov, the master's manager, which stopped only with his death. For the peasant woman, her first son Demushka becomes a consolation in all troubles, but due to Savely’s oversight, the child dies: he is eaten by pigs. An unjust trial is being carried out on a grief-stricken mother. Having not thought of giving a bribe to her boss in time, she witnesses the violation of her child’s body. For a long time, Matryona cannot forgive Savely for his irreparable mistake. Over time, the peasant woman has new children, “no time to think, no time to be sad.” The heroine's parents, Savely, die. New suffering awaits her - her son Fedot faces punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a she-wolf, and his mother lies under the rod in his place. Matryona is going through a lean year very hard. Pregnant, with children, she herself becomes like a wolf. Another misfortune befalls Matryona. Her husband is selected as a soldier out of turn. She is losing her last hope for survival. In Matryona's delirium, terrible pictures of the life of a soldier and soldiers' children are drawn. She leaves home and flees to the city to seek protection from the governor. Matryona returns home with her husband and newborn. After this incident, people began to call Matryona happy. Fate did not spare Matryona in the future: “they were burned twice, God visited with anthrax three times.” The “Woman’s Parable” sums up her tragic story: “The keys to women’s happiness, to our free will, are abandoned, lost to God himself!” But people’s opinion about Matryona Timofeevna’s happiness is not accidental: she survived, endured all the trials, saved her son from lashes, her husband from soldiering, preserved her own dignity, the strength that she needed for work, and her love for children.
Work:
Who can live well in Rus'?
Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina is a peasant woman. The third part of the poem is dedicated to this heroine.
M.T. - “A dignified woman, broad and dense, about 38 years old. Beautiful; hair streaked with gray, large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark.”
Among the people about M.T. goes the glory of the lucky one. She tells the wanderers who come to her about her life. Its narrative is told in the form of folk laments and songs. This emphasizes the typicality of M.T.’s fate. for all Russian peasant women: “It’s not a matter of looking for happiness among women.”
In the parental home of M.T. Life was good: she had a friendly, non-drinking family. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up “by her maiden will in hell.” The youngest in her husband's family, she worked for everyone like a slave. The husband loved M.T., but often went to work and could not protect his wife. The heroine had one protector left - grandfather Savely, her husband’s grandfather. M.T. She has seen a lot of grief in her life: she endured the harassment of the manager, she survived the death of her first-born Demushka, who, due to Savely’s oversight, was killed by pigs. M.T. It was not possible to claim the son’s body and it was sent for an autopsy. Later, the heroine’s other son, 8-year-old Fedot, faced a terrible punishment for feeding someone else’s sheep to a hungry wolf. The mother, without hesitation, lay down under the rods instead of her son. But in a lean year, M.T., pregnant and with children, herself becomes like a hungry wolf. In addition, the last breadwinner is taken away from her family - her husband is chosen as a soldier out of turn. In despair, M.T. runs into the city and throws himself at the feet of the governor. She helps the heroine and even becomes the godmother of M.T.’s born son. - Liodora. But an evil fate continued to haunt the heroine: one of her sons was taken into the army, “they were burned twice... God visited with anthrax... three times.” In “The Woman's Parable” M.T. sums up his sad story: “The keys to women’s happiness, From our free will, Abandoned, lost from God himself!”
The image of Matryona Timofeevna (based on the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”)
The image of a simple Russian peasant woman Matryona Timofeevna is surprisingly bright and realistic. In this image, Nekrasov combined all the features and qualities characteristic of Russian peasant women. And the fate of Matryona Timofeevna is in many ways similar to the fate of other women.
Matrena Timofeevna was born into a large peasant family. The very first years of my life were truly happy. All her life Matryona Timofeevna remembers this carefree time, when she was surrounded by the love and care of her parents. But peasant children grow up very quickly. Therefore, as soon as the girl grew up, she began to help her parents in everything. Gradually, the games were forgotten, less and less time was left for them, and hard peasant work took first place. But youth still takes its toll, and even after a hard day of work the girl found time to relax.
Matryona Timofeevna recalls her youth. She was pretty, hardworking, active. It's no surprise that guys were staring at her. And then the betrothed appeared, to whom the parents gave Matryona Timofeevna in marriage. Marriage means that the girl’s free and free life is now over. Now she will live in someone else's family, where she will be treated far from in the best possible way. When a mother gives her daughter in marriage, she grieves for her and worries about her fate:
The mother cried:
“...Like a fish in a blue sea
You'll scurry away! like a nightingale
You'll fly out of the nest!
Someone else's side
Not sprinkled with sugar
Not drizzled with honey!
It's cold there, it's hungry there,
There's a well-groomed daughter there
Violent winds will blow around,
The shaggy dogs bark,
And people will laugh!”
In these lines one can clearly read the sadness of the mother, who perfectly understands all the hardships of life that will befall her. married daughter. In someone else's family, no one will show concern for her, and the husband himself will never stand up for his wife.
Matryona Timofeevna shares her sad thoughts. She did not at all want to exchange her free life in her parents' home for life in a strange, unfamiliar family.
From the very first days in her husband’s house, Matryona Timofeevna realized how hard it would be for her now:
The family was huge
Grumpy... I'm in trouble
Happy maiden holiday to hell!
Relationships with father-in-law, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law were very difficult, in new family Matryona had to work a lot, and at the same time no one said a kind word to her. However, even in such a difficult life that the peasant woman had, there were some simple and simple joys:
In winter Philippus came,
Brought a silk handkerchief
Yes, I went for a ride on a sled
On Catherine's day,
And it was as if there was no grief!
Sang as I sang
In my parents' house.
We were the same age
Don't touch us - we're having fun
We always get along.
The relationship between Matryona Timofeevna and her husband was not always cloudless. A husband has the right to beat his wife if something does not suit him in her behavior. And no one will come to the poor woman’s defense; on the contrary, all the relatives in her husband’s family will only be happy to see her suffering.
This was the life of Matryona Timofeevna after marriage. The days dragged on, monotonous, gray, surprisingly similar to each other: hard work, quarrels and reproaches of relatives. But the peasant woman has truly angelic patience, therefore, without complaining, she endures all the hardships that befall her. The birth of a child is the event that turns her whole life upside down. Now the woman is no longer so embittered towards the whole world, love for the baby warms and makes her happy.
Philip at the Annunciation
He left and went to Kazanskaya
I gave birth to a son.
How written was Demushka
Beauty taken from the sun,
The snow is white,
Maku's lips are red,
The sable has a black eyebrow,
In Siberian sable,
The hawk has eyes!
All the anger from my soul, my handsome man
Driven away with an angelic smile,
Like the spring sun
Clears the snow from the fields...
I didn't worry
Whatever they tell me, I work,
No matter how much they scold me, I remain silent.
The peasant woman's joy at the birth of her son did not last long. Working in the field requires a lot of effort and time, and then there’s a baby in your arms. At first, Matryona Timofeevna took the child with her to the field. But then her mother-in-law began to reproach her, because it is impossible to work with a child with complete dedication. And poor Matryona had to leave the baby with grandfather Savely. One day the old man neglected to pay attention and the child died.
The death of a child is a terrible tragedy. But peasants have to put up with the fact that very often their children die. However, this is Matryona’s first child, so his death was too difficult for her. And then there’s an additional problem - the police come to the village, the doctor and the police officer accuse Matryona of killing the child in collusion with the former convict Grandfather Savely. Matryona Timofeevna begs not to perform an autopsy in order to bury the child without desecration of the body. But no one listens to the peasant woman. She almost goes crazy from everything that happened.
All the hardships of a hard peasant life, the death of a child, still cannot break Matryona Timofeevna. Time passes and she has children every year. And she continues to live, raise her children, do hard work. Love for children is the most important thing a peasant woman has, so Matryona Timofeevna is ready to do anything to protect her beloved children. This is evidenced by the episode when they wanted to punish her son Fedot for an offense.
Matryona throws herself at the feet of a passing landowner so that he can help save the boy from punishment. And the landowner ordered:
“Guardian of a minor
Out of youth, out of stupidity
Forgive... but the woman is impudent
Approximately punish!”
Why did Matryona Timofeevna suffer punishment? For his boundless love for his children, for his willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. The readiness for self-sacrifice is also manifested in the way Matryona rushes to seek salvation for her husband from conscription. She manages to get to the place and ask for help from the governor’s wife, who really helps Philip free himself from recruitment.
Matryona Timofeevna is still young, but she has already had to endure a lot, a lot. She had to endure the death of a child, a time of famine, reproaches and beatings. She herself speaks about what the holy wanderer told her:
“The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
God himself!”
Indeed, a peasant woman cannot be called happy. All the difficulties and difficult trials that befall her can break and lead a person to death not only spiritually, but also physically. Very often this is exactly what happens. The life of a simple peasant woman is rarely long; very often women die in the prime of life. It is not easy to read the lines telling about the life of Matryona Timofeevna. But nevertheless, one cannot help but admire the spiritual strength of this woman, who endured so many trials and was not broken.
The image of Matryona Timofeevna is surprisingly harmonious. The woman appears at the same time strong, resilient, patient and tender, loving, caring. She has to independently cope with the difficulties and troubles that befall her family; Matryona Timofeevna does not see help from anyone.
But, despite all the tragic things that a woman has to endure, Matryona Timofeevna evokes genuine admiration. After all, she finds the strength to live, work, and continues to enjoy those modest joys that befall her from time to time. And let her honestly admit that she cannot be called happy, she does not fall into the sin of despondency for a minute, she continues to live.
The life of Matryona Timofeevna is a constant struggle for survival, and she manages to emerge victorious from this struggle.
“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the final work of N. A. Nekrasov, in which the poet wanted to present everything he knew about the people. That is why one of the main themes of Nekrasov’s work is so organically included in this work - the fate of the Russian woman. It is presented especially thoroughly in the chapter “Peasant Woman” from the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia,” where the image of the wonderful Russian woman Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina is depicted. It is to her that the inhabitants of the surrounding villages send wandering men who are planning to find someone “who lives a happy, free life in Russia.” Why is this particular woman considered happy, and does the plot of this chapter confirm this opinion?
To answer the questions posed, it is necessary to determine the author’s position, since it is in accordance with it that the entire narrative is built. For Nekrasov, the Russian woman has always been the embodiment national character, the main bearer of the very foundations of the life of the people. That is why it was so important in the poem about the people's fate to show what the situation is in modern poet Russia Russian woman. After all, the happiness of a mother, wife, homemaker and eternal worker is the key to the well-being of any society at all times.
It is significant that in the poem we do not hear the author’s voice - it is Matryona Timofeevna herself’s story about her fate. This form made it possible to achieve special sincerity and authenticity of the image. At the same time, a clear contrast arises in Korchagina’s assessment of her life with the opinion of the people around her. Only lucky coincidence circumstances led to the fact that she and her unborn child did not die, and the governor’s wife miraculously became their patron - the godmother of little Liodorushka.
But this happiness was gained through the entire previous life. It included difficult trials: the forced life of a daughter-in-law in her husband’s family, “mortal grievances,” the whip, endless work, hunger, and the worst thing—the death of a child. And the terrible thing is that this is so typical of the fate of the Russian peasant woman! It is not for nothing that this chapter contains a lot of songs with folklore images and motifs, and in the episode associated with the death of Demushka, the poet used the lamentations (funeral laments) of the famous storyteller Irina Fedosova. All this allows us to come to a general conclusion, which sounds especially bitter in the mouth of Matryona Timofeevna: “The keys to women’s happiness, / From our free will / Abandoned, lost / From God himself!”
And yet the question of the happiness of a Russian woman is not so clear-cut. After all, numerous sorrows and troubles did not break her persistent spirit, did not undermine inner strength and the will to live. She managed to preserve her warmth and beauty, which were not lost even under the yoke of hard work and worries.