A clear conscience is the best pillow.
G. Ibsen
Among the vast heritage of Saltykov-Shchedrin, his fairy tales are the most popular. In them, fantasy is intertwined with reality, the comic is combined with the tragic. The fairy tale “Conscience Lost” tells how life changed when conscience disappeared from it. Everything seemed to remain the same, but “some kind of pipe stopped playing in the orchestra of life.” It has become easier to deceive, to be cunning, to make false claims, to grovel, it has become more dexterous to trip one’s neighbor, it has become more convenient to flatter.
In the fairy tale, conscience turned into a “worthless rag”, which everyone tried to get rid of as quickly as possible. And Shchedrin also called her “an annoying hanger-on.” “What happened to people?” - asks the author. And he answers his own question: people are “Oster-Veneli”. Robberies and robberies began, and general devastation began.
The “worthless rag” was lying on the road, and everyone who was not too lazy to throw it away until some drunkard picked up this useless thing in the hope of getting a scale. He picked it up and his head cleared, and his whole life began to seem like “a complete ugly crime.” But, alas, this made him completely sick. And he sold this burden to Prokhorych, who was selling in a drinking establishment. “It’s bad to make poor people drunk,” his conscience began to whisper to him. The distraught innkeeper began to prove to visitors that wine was the source of all their misfortunes. Prokhorych was about to break all the dishes and pour the wine into the ditch, but then his wife, who had not been touched by such grace as conscience, intervened. Having stolen her husband’s conscience, she stuffed the burdensome rag into the pocket of a neighborhood overseer named Trapper. The catcher, as the author puts it, was “a little guy, not exactly shameless, but he didn’t like to embarrass himself and moved his paw quite freely.” And then he walked through the market, didn’t take anything, and returned home empty-handed. And he kept repeating one phrase: “In the face of my conscience, I testify...” The catcher, having distributed all the money, asked for forgiveness, brought the beggars to his yard and ordered them to feed.
After checking the pockets of her husband's coat, the wife found a dirty rag - her conscience. Putting
her in an envelope, she sent her conscience to the “financier and railway inventor”
Brzhotsky. The “financier’s” family was sitting at dinner when the owner received the envelope.
He quickly found a solution: he decided to make a donation. Taking out my conscience with tweezers,
Brzhotsky transferred it to another envelope, added a hundred-dollar note and took it to
the world, and no one wanted to shelter her, everyone was only thinking about satisfying their conscience
hands Conscience prayed and asked the poorest man who traded
dust in the passage yard, find a small child, maybe he will later become a person with a conscience
it will come out... That's how it all happened. A little child grows, and with him grows in him
conscience. Shchedrin ends the tale with encouraging words: “And they will disappear... everyone
untruth, deceit and violence, because the conscience will not be timid and will want to manage everything itself.”
This is the truth of life in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “Conscience Lost.” Unfortunately, everything that the author talked about has a continuation in our lives. There is almost nothing funny in the fairy tale, and the tragic is in the title itself. And we should all think about this fairy tale and understand: conscience has disappeared... - this is a tragedy both for a person and for society!
In the text proposed for analysis by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin raises the problem of attitude towards conscience. This is exactly what he is thinking about.
This problem of a social and moral nature cannot but worry modern people.
The writer reveals this problem using the example of people who lost their conscience, what happened to them after that: “It became more cunning to expose one’s neighbor’s foot, it became more convenient to flatter, grovel, deceive, gossip and slander.
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All pain suddenly disappeared. Nothing upset them, nothing made them think.” Nobody needed conscience, because people drove it out, thereby forgetting about morality and spiritual qualities.
And the writer also gives the example of a pathetic drunkard who gained a conscience and recalled his shameful past with horror: “- Fathers! I can’t... it’s unbearable! - the pathetic drunkard screams, and the crowd laughs and mocks him. She doesn’t understand that the drunkard has never been so free from wine fumes as at this moment, that he simply made an unfortunate discovery that is tearing his poor heart apart.”
The author's position is clear: M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin believes that the person in whom his conscience has awakened experiences his own imperfection and the injustice of the world more acutely, tries to correct his mistakes, and becomes better morally.
I completely agree with the author’s position and also believe that people who do not listen to the voice of conscience forget about morality, live without analyzing their actions, do not correct them, and because of all this, through their fault, untruth and deceit will not be eradicated from society and violence.
This problem is reflected in fiction. For example, in the comedy N.V. Gogol "The Inspector General". Here we clearly see what can happen if there is an unscrupulous government. In the institutions of the city of N, chaos is happening: bribery, embezzlement, neglect of one's duties, vanity and passion for gossip, envy and gossip, boasting and stupidity, petty vindictiveness and stupidity are flourishing.
Another example is the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". Rodion Raskolnikov did something irreparable because of his theory of dividing people into “trembling creatures” and “those who have the right.” After he committed the crime, his conscience awoke in him: he suffered for a long time, as a result he fell ill, and wanted to confess several times. Thanks to Sonya Marmeladova, he was able to get rid of the stone that was in his soul.
Thus, we can draw the following conclusion: it depends on the person himself what kind of society he should live in: in order to be surrounded by honest, fair, conscientious people, you first need to become one, learn to analyze your actions.
Updated: 2017-06-06
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This article examines in detail Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work “Conscience Lost.” Summary and the analysis will touch those special moral strings of the soul of man and society as a whole. A question that has interested people for centuries, which should first of all be understood: “What is conscience?” Censor, controller, inner voice? Why is it needed if it becomes so calm without it? This and much more is discussed in an article devoted to such a difficult topic, touched upon in the work of the outstanding Russian writer M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Conscience is Missing.”
About the writer
To begin with, I would like to say a few words about the writer himself, whose merits are significant and great, and the works he wrote throughout his life put him on a par with the great minds of Russia: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov.
So, Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in 1826 on January 27 (15 according to the old style) into a noble family of an old family. Giftedness, intelligence, and incredible hard work have been the writer’s faithful companions since childhood. At the age of 10 he was sent to the Moscow Noble Institute, and two years later he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum for excellent studies. “For freethinking” he was exiled to Vyatka for 8 years. In 1856, due to the death of Nicholas I, the young writer returned back and resumed his writing activity. Participation in the peasant reform, the position of governor of the province and work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs became an integral part of life for the writer.
After retiring, he becomes editor-in-chief of Sovremennik magazine. Agree, an impressive list of achievements! A talented writer, satirist, statesman, and artist left an unforgettable mark on the history of his country; Saltykov-Shchedrin’s works are topical and have not lost their relevance today.
The problem of one's own imperfection
The writer more than once refers to the theme of fairy tales in his works. And now the reader is faced with an unusual situation - conscience disappears from the life of society. What happened to people? They began to feel freer, but one should not be mistaken and confuse the inspiring feeling of freedom with the feeling of permissiveness, which gives rise to chaos, aggression and anger. The human in man himself disappears, precisely what should distinguish him as a thinking, creative being, alien to destruction and collapse.
What happened to conscience? Notice how the author calls her: “annoying hanger-on,” and this is not accidental. In this way, the author makes it clear to the reader that conscience is like something living and real, in need of nourishment and care, which in turn will thank its “owner” with a grace-filled feeling of peace and self-satisfaction. And without a person, she turns into that unnecessary appendage and becomes that “annoying hanger-on.”
Further, in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, as an example, one can observe the peaceful sleep of the owner of a drinking establishment, who, perhaps for the first time in his life, behaved as a responsible person for his actions. Or, let’s say, the very first “master” of conscience is a drunkard who freed himself from the oppression of a wine stupor and realized all his worthlessness of existence, which is why he feels fear. But the bitter drunkard destroys only himself, he is responsible only for his actions, unlike Prokhor, the owner of a drinking establishment, who destroys so many people with his potion. Conscience gives Prokhor a feeling of relief, since for the first time in his life he acts according to his conscience. What does the author want to tell us?
The summary of “Conscience Lost” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, which we analyze in this material, covers important aspects of the life of human society. If there were a conscience nearby, there would be no drunkards in the world, and the owners of pubs would start baking bread and buns. Adults will definitely smile in this place, since each of them knows how complex our world is. But that’s why it’s a fairy tale, you might think. The fairy tale “Conscience Is Missing” is a kind of reminder for adults and a lesson for children.
Your own choice, or the power of one drop
The journey of conscience continues, but most likely it was an ordeal, which brings with it suffering and wanderings. Conscience goes to the Trapper. The author does not give a name to his character, but limits himself only to a nickname, thereby emphasizing the essence of this person. What is his fault? Unlike the first two characters, one of whom destroyed himself, and the other - others, in this case the Trapper’s sin is great and serious, he is a bribe-taker.
The next owner of conscience is a completely different person, the author paints a picture of a prosperous family of a banker, but extreme prudence is the hero’s vice, which even sells his conscience on the sly. The fairy tale “Conscience Is Missing” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, the analysis of which makes one involuntarily think about the globality and depth of the question, about whether there is a place for conscience in our world at all? How simple and difficult it is to act according to your conscience at the same time, but how easy it becomes in your soul when it is pure. How to breathe, how to live in a new way!
Understanding the concept of conscience
Turning to dictionaries, we find a definition of the concept of conscience. Conscience is a feeling and a concept at the same time; a sense of responsibility for one’s actions is woven together with an awareness of the moral principles on which the health of society should rest. This ability to distinguish between good and bad must be instilled from infancy. Parents are a kind of guides to the world who teach the child to love good and hate evil, and children, in turn, afraid of losing the love and favor of their parents, clearly and quickly absorb and assimilate exactly those concepts that are given by their father and mother.
Hopes placed
In the work, Saltykov-Shchedrin gives voice to his main character- conscience. What does she ask for, what does she want? She asks to find her a little Russian child so that she can dissolve in his heart. “Why exactly in the heart of a child?” - you ask. The author thus wants to make it clear to the reader how important it is to place hopes in the younger generation, and it should be remembered that children are innocent and pure, and it will depend only on adults what colors will be filled with them. future world, conscience, life. The problem “Conscience is gone” by Saltykov-Shchedrin concerns that side of the human soul where the awareness of good and evil, truth and hope occurs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, summing up what has been said, I would like to note that the author immortal work wanted to emphasize the importance of conscience in a person’s life, to show the reader conscience as the guardian of all those human qualities on which it was built best part civilization. The summary of “Conscience Lost” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, analyzed in our article, we hope, will give food for thought and touch the strings of your soul, will help you do right choice, will give peace.
This article examines in detail Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work “Conscience Lost.” The summary and analysis will touch upon those special moral strings of the soul of a person and society as a whole. A question that has interested people for centuries, which should first of all be understood: “What is conscience?” Censor, controller, inner voice? Why is it needed if it becomes so calm without it? This and much more is discussed in an article devoted to such a difficult topic, touched upon in the work of the outstanding Russian writer M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Conscience is Missing.”
About the writer
To begin with, I would like to say a few words about the writer himself, whose merits are significant and great, and the works he wrote throughout his life put him on a par with the great minds of Russia: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov.
So, Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in 1826 on January 27 (15 according to the old style) into a noble family of an old family. Giftedness, intelligence, and incredible hard work have been the writer’s faithful companions since childhood. At the age of 10 he was sent to the Moscow Noble Institute, and two years later he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum for excellent studies. “For freethinking” he was exiled to Vyatka for 8 years. In 1856, due to the death of Nicholas I, the young writer returned back and resumed his writing activity. Participation in the peasant reform, the position of governor of the province and work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs became an integral part of life for the writer.
After retiring, he becomes editor-in-chief of Sovremennik magazine. Agree, an impressive list of achievements! A talented statesman and artist left an unforgettable mark on the history of his country; Saltykov-Shchedrin’s works are topical and have not lost their relevance today.
The problem of one's own imperfection
The writer more than once refers to the theme of fairy tales in his works. And now the reader is faced with an unusual situation - conscience disappears from the life of society. What happened to people? They began to feel freer, but one should not be mistaken and confuse the inspiring feeling of freedom with the feeling of permissiveness, which gives rise to chaos, aggression and anger. The human in man himself disappears, precisely what should distinguish him as a thinking, creative being, alien to destruction and collapse.
What happened to conscience? Notice how the author calls her: “annoying hanger-on,” and this is not accidental. In this way, the author makes it clear to the reader that conscience is like something living and real, in need of nourishment and care, which in turn will thank its “owner” with a grace-filled feeling of peace and self-satisfaction. And without a person, she turns into that unnecessary appendage and becomes that “annoying hanger-on.”
Further, in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, as an example, one can observe the peaceful sleep of the owner of a drinking establishment, who, perhaps for the first time in his life, behaved as a responsible person for his actions. Or, let’s say, the very first “master” of conscience is a drunkard who freed himself from the oppression of a wine stupor and realized all his worthlessness of existence, which is why he feels fear. But the bitter drunkard destroys only himself, he is responsible only for his actions, unlike Prokhor, the owner of a drinking establishment, who destroys so many people with his potion. Conscience gives Prokhor a feeling of relief, since for the first time in his life he acts according to his conscience. What does the author want to tell us?
The summary of “Conscience Lost” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, which we analyze in this material, covers important aspects of the life of human society. If there were a conscience nearby, there would be no drunkards in the world, and the owners of pubs would start baking bread and buns. Adults will definitely smile in this place, since each of them knows how complex our world is. But that’s why it’s a fairy tale, you might think. The fairy tale “Conscience Is Missing” is a kind of reminder for adults and a lesson for children.
Your own choice, or the power of one drop
The journey of conscience continues, but most likely it was an ordeal, which brings with it suffering and wanderings. Conscience goes to the Trapper. The author does not give a name to his character, but confines himself to only a nickname, thereby emphasizing the essence of this person. What is his fault? Unlike the first two characters, one of whom destroyed himself, and the other - others, in this case the Trapper’s sin is great and serious, he is a bribe-taker.
The next owner of conscience is a completely different person, the author paints a picture of a prosperous family of a banker, but extreme prudence is the hero’s vice, which even sells his conscience on the sly. The fairy tale “Conscience Is Missing” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, the analysis of which makes one involuntarily think about the globality and depth of the question, about whether there is a place for conscience in our world at all? How simple and difficult it is to act according to your conscience at the same time, but how easy it becomes in your soul when it is pure. How to breathe, how to live in a new way!
Understanding the concept of conscience
Turning to dictionaries, we find a definition of the concept of conscience. Conscience is a feeling and a concept at the same time; a sense of responsibility for one’s actions is woven together with an awareness of the moral principles on which the health of society should rest. This ability to distinguish between good and bad must be instilled from infancy. Parents are a kind of guides to the world who teach the child to love good and hate evil, and children, in turn, afraid of losing the love and favor of their parents, clearly and quickly absorb and assimilate exactly those concepts that their father and mother give.
Hopes placed
In the work, Saltykov-Shchedrin gives a voice to his main character - conscience. What does she ask for, what does she want? She asks to find her a little Russian child so that she can dissolve in his heart. “Why exactly in the heart of a child?” - you ask. The author thus wants to make it clear to the reader how important it is to place hopes in the younger generation, and it should be remembered that children are innocent and pure, and only adults will determine what colors their future world, conscience, and life will be filled with. The problem “Conscience is gone” by Saltykov-Shchedrin concerns that side of the human soul where the awareness of good and evil, truth and hope occurs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, summing up what has been said, I would like to note that the author of the immortal work wanted to emphasize the importance of conscience in human life, to show the reader conscience as the guardian of all those human qualities on which the best part of civilization was built. The summary of “Conscience Lost” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, analyzed in our article, we hope, will give food for thought and touch the strings of your soul, help you make the right choice, and give you peace.
A fairy tale, nothing more than a fairy tale,
and meanwhile high tragedy...
I. Kramskoy
M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was a multi-talented writer. He wrote novels, stories, essays, chronicles, and articles. Shchedrin's fairy tales made him especially popular among the people.
The tales are subtitled “For Children of considerable age", and this suggests that the fabulous allegorical form was chosen in order to be able to express thoughts that are dangerous to express in another form. Pretending to be a simpleton, the satirist talks about things that are not at all fabulous.
Fairy tales were written by Shchedrin at the end of his life and seemed to sum up the results of his many years literary work. They combined the fantastic and the real, the comic and the tragic, hyperbole and Aesopian language.
In the writer’s fairy tales there are also fierce, ignorant rulers (“Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Eagle Patron”, “ Wild landowner"), and a hardworking people, submissive to their exploiters ("The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals", "Horse"), and a people awakening and truth seeker(“The Raven Petitioner”).
Many fairy tales convey a belief in the triumph of positive ideals. Thus, the fairy tale “Conscience Lost” tells how conscience was expelled from the world of people. She was thrown away like a useless old rag. The writer expresses confidence that only after getting into the cradle where he lies Small child, conscience will finally find its defender.
The writer widely uses the technique of allegory: under the guise of animals and birds he depicts representatives of various social classes and groups. Based on folk tradition, using images and folk speech, filled with folk humor, Shchedrin created works whose goal is to awaken the people. The great satirist sought to make sure that “children of a fair age” would cease to be children. The unusualness of the writer’s fairy tales is that he does not offer readers understandable comparisons, but brings together aspects of human and animal life that no one had noticed before. Sometimes it is simply impossible to understand who we are talking about: “Crucian carp is a quiet fish and prone to idealism.”
For Shchedrin, the fairy tale turned into political satire. Each image was directed against the reigning eagles, the beautiful-hearted crucian carp, the moderately liberal minnows.
The writer speaks with sadness and sympathy about the long-suffering of the people, about their naive political illusions. He wants to show that it is impossible for a peasant to get along with the voracious pikes and bears in the province, and to explain to the oppressed people that they themselves are a powerful and formidable force to repel the reigning predators and fight them.
Unfortunately, in life, evil often wins, not good, and this is the true tragedy of the fairy tale “Crucian the Idealist,” after reading which the artist I. Kramskoy said: “A fairy tale, nothing more than a fairy tale, and yet a high tragedy.” Material from the site
The tragic situation of an enslaved, robbed and disenfranchised people, their hard labor, the fruits of which go to the “idle dancers,” is shown in the fairy tale “The Horse.” The image of Konyaga is a symbol of the oppressed, tormented people, to whom the author treats with the greatest sympathy. It is on him that he pins his hopes new life: “From century to century, the menacing, motionless bulk of the fields grows numb, as if it were guarding a fairy-tale power in captivity. Who will free this force from captivity? Who will bring her into the world? This task fell to two creatures: the peasant and the Horse,” the author writes confidently.
The fairy tales of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin have been carrying the undying ideas of satire for more than a hundred years. They are still read with great interest today, because even today their characters live among us.
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