There are almost no works in Russian literature that lack landscape. Writers sought to include this extra-plot element in their works with the most different purposes. So, for example, in the story “ Poor Lisa Karamzin's picturesque pictures of nature, at first glance, can be considered random episodes that are just a beautiful background for the main action. But landscapes are one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the characters. In addition, they serve to convey the author’s attitude to what is happening.
At the beginning of the story, the author describes Moscow and the “terrible mass of houses,” and immediately after that he begins to paint a completely different picture: “Below... along the yellow sands, a fresh river flows, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats... On the other side of the river one can see oak grove, near which numerous herds graze...” Karamzin takes the position of defending the beautiful and natural, the city is unpleasant to him, he is drawn to “nature”. Thus, here the description of nature serves to express author's position.
Most of the landscapes in the story are aimed at conveying state of mind and experience main character. It is she, Lisa, who is the embodiment of everything natural and beautiful, this heroine is as close as possible to nature: “Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists... but soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation..."
The heroine is sad because a new, hitherto unknown feeling is born in her soul, but for her it is beautiful and natural, like the landscape around her. Within a few minutes, when an explanation takes place between Lisa and Erast, the girl’s experiences dissolve in the surrounding nature, they are just as beautiful and pure. And after the lovers separate, when Liza feels like a sinner, a criminal, the same changes occur in nature as in Liza’s soul. Here the picture of nature reveals not only Lisa’s state of mind, but also foreshadows the tragic ending of this story.
One of the main landscape functions in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” is to more fully and deeply reveal the personality of the main character, Pechorin. His character is reflected in his descriptions of nature (“Fatalist”, “Taman”, “Princess Mary”).
Pechorin is able to feel the movement of air, the movement of tall grass, and admire the “foggy outlines of objects,” revealing spiritual subtlety and depth. For him, a lonely person, nature helps him maintain peace of mind in difficult moments. “I greedily swallowed the fragrant air,” writes Pechorin after an emotionally intense meeting with Vera.
Nature in the novel is constantly contrasted with the world of people with their petty passions, and Pechorin’s desire to merge with the harmonious world of nature turns out to be futile. The landscapes written by the protagonist are full of movement - such descriptions emphasize the hero’s internal energy, his constant tension, thirst for action, and reflect the dynamics of his mental states.
Thus, landscapes in a work of art help to penetrate deeply into the soul of the characters and their experiences, and to better understand the author’s ideological intent.
In this lesson we will get acquainted with the story by N.M. Karamzin "Poor Liza". We will find out why this work has a special place among other works of Russian literature, and we will also analyze the role of landscape in this story.
Topic: LiteratureXVIIIcentury
Lesson: “Poor Lisa.” The inner world of heroes. The role of landscape
In the last lesson, we talked about the unity of everything that Karamzin wrote, about one thought that permeates everything that Karamzin wrote, from beginning to end. This idea is to write the history of the soul of the people along with the history of the state.
Everything written by Karamzin was intended for a narrow circle of readers. First of all, for those with whom he was personally acquainted and with whom he communicated. This is the part high society, St. Petersburg and Moscow nobility, who were involved in literature. And also for a certain part of the people, the number of which was measured by the number of seats in the imperial theater. As a matter of fact, those one and a half to two thousand people who gathered at the performances of the imperial theaters made up the entire audience to which Karamzin addressed. These were people who could see each other, see each other, first of all, in the theater, at balls, meetings of high society, which were sometimes official, sometimes not. But these meetings always represented the circle of communication and interests that shaped the future of Russian literature.
Everything that Karamzin wrote is addressed to a circle of people whom he calls friends. If we open “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” we read the very first phrase - an appeal to friends: “I broke up with you, dears, I broke up! My heart is attached to you with all the tenderest feelings, but I am constantly moving away from you and will continue to move away!” 18 months later, returning from a trip, Karamzin ends “Letters of a Russian Traveler” again with an appeal to his friends: “Coast! Fatherland! I bless you! I am in Russia and in a few days I will be with you, my friends!..” And further: “And you, dear ones, quickly prepare for me a neat hut in which I could freely have fun with the Chinese shadows of my imagination, be sad with my heart and take comfort with friends." An appeal to friends, as a cross-cutting motif, is constantly present in the text, and in the text of any work by Karamzin.
Rice. 2. Title page of “Letters of a Russian Traveler” ()
About the landscape
The story “Poor Liza” consists of fragments connected by a story about the author’s experiences, and these are fragments of two kinds. The first of them (and this is where the story begins) is a description of nature. A description of nature, which serves Karamzin solely as a reflection of the internal state of the author-narrator. There is some idea about the person who writes the text. It turns out that it is impossible to read without this idea. In order to read the text, you need to step into the shoes of the one who wrote it, you need to merge with the author and see through his eyes what he saw, and feel for him what he felt. This is a special kind of landscape, which Karamzin apparently appears for the first time in Russian literature. Here is the beginning: “... no one is in the field more often than I am, no one more than me wanders on foot, without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through meadows and groves, over hills and plains. Every summer I find new pleasant places or new beauty in old ones.”
Karamzin does not dwell on details, he does not describe color, he does not convey sound, he does not talk about some small details, objects... He talks about impressions, about the trace visible objects (their colors and sounds) leave in his soul . And this in some way tunes the reader and makes him think and feel in unison with how the author thinks and feels. And Karamzin wanted it or not, whether he did it intentionally or by accident, it appeared. But this is precisely what became such a material feature of Russian prose for several centuries to come.
Rice. 3. Illustration for the story “Poor Liza.” G.D. Epifanov (1947) ()
And “Poor Liza” finds itself in a special place among these works. The fact is that friendly meetings of Karamzin’s time represented a very clear line between male and the female part society. Men, as a rule, communicated separately. If it's not a ball, don't children's party, then most often in the meeting where future or current Russian writers met, only men were present. The appearance of a woman was still impossible. Nevertheless, women were the subject of men's conversations, men's interests, and women were most often addressed by what men wrote. Karamzin already noted that the Russian reader at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries was predominantly women. And his story, dedicated to a woman, the main character of which was a woman, was addressed primarily to the reader, and not to the reader. Karamzin later addressed the male reader in his multi-volume “History of the Russian State.” He addressed the female reader at the very moment when, apparently, the idea of the unity of the history of the country and the history of the soul was born. Exactly female soul was of particular interest.
We must understand that in the system of education, in the system of communication that existed in that era (both the separate education of boys and girls, and the separate communication of men and women) was a very important part. And in this sense, in the male community of writers, women were something of an ideal, which they served, which they worshiped, and to which the texts they wrote addressed.
Rice. 4. “Poor Lisa.” O.A. Kiprensky (1827) ()
"Poor Lisa" is the embodiment of that feminine ideal, which Karamzin and his circle of friends see. At the same time, one must understand that the fictionality, some kind of artificiality, and the sketchiness of the entire plot of “Poor Lisa” is a completely natural thing for that time.
There is a gulf between the nobleman and the peasant, there is a gulf between the master and his slave. Love story between a rich and noble man named Erast and a poor peasant girl named Lisa - this is quite true story. And in the circle of acquaintances to whom Karamzin addresses his story, most should have recognized real prototypes - those people whose story Karamzin tells in his story. Everyone else who did not personally know about these circumstances could guess that the characters were behind real people. And Karamzin doesn’t finish the story, doesn’t give any factual instructions, any hints about those who really stand behind these characters. But everyone realizes that the story is not fictional, the story is in fact the most ordinary and traditional: the master seduces a peasant woman and then abandons her, the peasant woman commits suicide.
Rice. 5. Illustration for the story “Poor Liza.” M.V. Dobuzhinsky (1922) ()
This standard situation is now for us, for those who look at this history from the height of two centuries that have passed since then. There is nothing unusual or mysterious about it. In essence, this is the story of a television series. This is a story that is repeatedly rewritten in notebooks, and now these notebooks have migrated to the Internet and are called blogs, and there, in essence, they tell exactly the same heart-warming stories that girls have been accustomed to since the time of Karamzin. And these stories are still incredibly popular. What's special? What holds our attention in this story now, two centuries later? From this point of view, it is very interesting to look at the reviews and comments left on the Internet by modern readers who have just read the story “Poor Liza.” They, it turns out, try this story on themselves. They put themselves in Lisa's shoes and talk about what they would do in similar circumstances.
The men in this story imagine themselves completely differently. None of the readers identify themselves with Erast and try to take on this role. A completely different male gaze, a completely different idea of the text, completely different thoughts, completely different feelings for men.
Apparently, then in 1792 Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin discovered Russian literature as women's literature. And this discovery still continues to be important and relevant. The successors of this women's story, and then women's novel, which Karamzin created, can be found quite often these days, and book counters display a wide selection women's stories and novels. And they are not always composed by women; more often they are composed by men. But, nevertheless, these novels are still very popular.
Women's literature. Modern women's stories. The pattern of development of Russian literature: a woman as a judge to a man
Following the landscapes, the second element, the second part of the texts that are included in the story are conversations. These are conversations that, as a rule, give only a hint, an outline. They are completely different from the real conversations that people have with each other. Both now and in the 18th century, when Karamzin’s story was written, people spoke differently. Those dialogues that Karamzin reproduces, they rather outline, give some hints, short indications of the feelings that people experience when they pronounce these words. The words themselves are not important, what matters are the feelings behind them. Here is Lisa’s mother talking about the impression that Erast makes on her:
“What should we call you, kind, gentle gentleman?” - asked the old woman. “My name is Erast,” he answered. “Erastom,” said Lisa quietly, “Erastom!” She repeated this name five times, as if trying to solidify it. Erast said goodbye to them and left. Lisa followed him with her eyes, and the mother sat in thought and, taking her daughter by the hand, said to her: “Oh, Lisa! How good and kind he is! If only your groom were like that!” Liza’s whole heart began to tremble. "Mother! Mother! How can this happen? He’s a gentleman, and among the peasants...” - Lisa didn’t finish her speech.”
Perhaps this is the first case in the entire history of Russian literature when a character’s broken speech gives more than its continuation. What Lisa is silent about is more important than what she says. The technique of silence, when an unspoken word has a much stronger effect and is perceived much brighter than a spoken word, was known in poetry. As a matter of fact, Karamzin also has a poem “Melancholy”, where he uses this. This is an imitation of Delisle, which ends with the words: “There is a feast there... but you don’t see, you don’t listen, and you lower your head into your hand; Your joy is to be silent, thoughtful, and turn a gentle gaze to the past.” In a poem, trying to convey feelings through silence is something like what a pause does in music. When the voice stops or musical instrument, the listener has a pause, a time appears when he can experience, feel what he has just heard. Karamzin gives the same thing: he interrupts Lisa’s monologue, and she does not talk about what worries her most. She is worried about the gap between her and her lover. She is worried that their marriage is impossible.
Lisa sacrifices herself, she refuses the rich peasant groom who proposed to her. And here she is silent about what is most important for the reader. Karamzin largely discovered this ability to let the reader hear, feel, understand what cannot be conveyed in words as a possibility in literature.
Speaking of the fact that “Poor Lisa” begins women's literature in Russia, you need to understand that women's literature is not at all prohibited for men. And when we talk about the fact that the heroes do not identify with negative character This story, we do not mean at all that this story causes disgust in the male reader. We're talking about the male reader identifying with another character. This hero is an author-narrator.
A man who, while walking around the outskirts of Moscow, came across a hut where Liza lived with her mother and tells this whole story not at all in order to edify his descendants and contemporaries to read another moral. No. He talks about his experiences, about what touched him. Please note: the words “touch” and “feel” are among those that Karamzin used in the Russian language for the first time.
Another thing is that he borrowed these words from French and sometimes he simply used French words, replacing French roots with Russian ones, sometimes without changing them. Nevertheless, readers (both men and women) remain readers of Karamzin, because it is important for them to follow the movement of the soul, which makes up the meaning, which makes up the core, the essence of the narrative.
This discovery of Karamzin is much more important than his discoveries in literature and history. And the discovery of the soul, the discovery of the opportunity to look deep into a person, as an opportunity to look into the soul of another person and look into one’s own soul and read something there that was previously unknown - this is Karamzin’s main discovery. A discovery that largely determined the entire future course of Russian literature.
1. Korovina V.Ya., Zhuravlev V.P., Korovin V.I. Literature. 9th grade. M.: Education, 2008.
2. Ladygin M.B., Esin A.B., Nefedova N.A. Literature. 9th grade. M.: Bustard, 2011.
3. Chertov V.F., Trubina L.A., Antipova A.M. Literature. 9th grade. M.: Education, 2012.
1. What was the audience to which N.M. addressed? Karamzin? Describe the circle of its readers.
2. Which work by N.M. Karamzin is predominantly addressed to the male reader, and which one is addressed to the female reader?
3. Which character from N.M.’s story? Karamzin's "Poor Liza" is often identified by male readers?
4. To what extent does the technique of silence used by N.M. contribute to understanding the emotional state of the characters? Karamzin?
5. * Read the text “Poor Lisa” by N.M. Karamzin. Tell us about your impressions.
The story "Poor Liza" is best work N. M. Karamzin and one of the most perfect examples of Russian sentimental literature. It contains many wonderful episodes describing subtle emotional experiences.
The work contains beautifully picturesque pictures of nature that harmoniously complement the narrative. At first glance, they can be considered random episodes that are just a beautiful background for the main action, but in reality everything is much more complicated. Landscapes in “Poor Liza” are one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the characters.
At the very beginning of the story, the author describes Moscow and the “terrible mass of houses,” and immediately after that he begins to paint a completely different picture: “Below... along the yellow sands, a light river flows, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats... On the other side of the river an oak grove is visible, near which numerous herds graze; there young shepherds, sitting under the shade of trees, sing simple, sad songs..."
Karamzin immediately takes the position of everything beautiful and natural. The city is unpleasant to him, he is drawn to “nature.” Here the description of nature serves to express the author’s position.
Further, most descriptions of nature are aimed at conveying the state of mind and experiences of the main character, because it is she, Lisa, who is the embodiment of everything natural and beautiful. “Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists... silence reigned everywhere, but soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation: the groves, bushes came to life, the birds fluttered and began to sing, the flowers raised their heads to be saturated with the life-giving rays of light.”
Nature at this moment is beautiful, but Lisa is sad because a new feeling is born in her soul, something she has never experienced before.
Despite the fact that the heroine is sad, her feeling is beautiful and natural, like the landscape around her.
A few minutes later there is an explanation between Lisa and Erast. They love each other, and her feelings immediately change: “What a beautiful morning! How fun everything is in the field! Never have larks sung so well, never has the sun shone so brightly, never have flowers smelled so pleasant!”
Her experiences dissolve in the surrounding landscape, they are just as beautiful and pure.
A wonderful romance begins between Erast and Lisa, their attitude is chaste, their embrace is “pure and immaculate.” The surrounding landscape is also pure and immaculate. “After this, Erast and Liza, fearing not to keep their word, saw each other every evening... most often under the shade of hundred-year-old oaks... - oaks that shade the deep, clean pond, fossilized in ancient times. There, the quiet moon, through the green branches, silvered Liza’s blond hair with its rays, with which the zephyrs and the hand of a dear friend played.”
The time of innocent relationships passes, Lisa and Erast become close, she feels like a sinner, a criminal, and the same changes occur in nature as in Liza’s soul: “... not a single star shone in the sky... Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder struck...” This picture not only reveals Lisa’s state of mind, but also foreshadows the tragic ending of this story.
The heroes of the work are parting, but Lisa does not yet know that this is forever. She is unhappy, her heart is breaking, but there is still a faint hope glimmering in it. The morning dawn, which, like a “scarlet sea,” spreads “across the eastern sky,” conveys the heroine’s pain, anxiety and confusion and testifies to an unkind ending.
Lisa, having learned about Erast's betrayal, ended her unhappy life. She threw herself into the very pond near which she had once been so happy; she was buried under the “gloomy oak tree,” which witnessed the happiest moments of her life.
The examples given are quite sufficient to show how important the description of pictures of nature in a work of art is, how deeply they help to penetrate into the soul of the characters and their experiences. It is simply unacceptable to consider the story “Poor Liza” and not take into account the landscape sketches, because they are the ones that help the reader understand the depth of the author’s thoughts, his ideological plan.
Master class
Kontsur Yu.O., teachers of the Moscow School of EducationI- IIsteps No. 20
Topic: Analysis of the landscape in N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”
Goals: 1) give the concept of landscape as an element of composition; 2) analyze the role of landscape in N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”
Forms of work: group
1. Introduction
Writers very often turn to description in their works.
the literary direction (current) with which it is associated, the writer’s method, as well as the type and genre of the work. Landscape can create an emotional background against which actions unfold. The landscape, as a part of nature, can emphasize a certain state of mind of the hero, highlight one or another feature of his character by recreating consonant or contrasting pictures of nature.
The story “Poor Liza” contains beautifully picturesque pictures of nature that harmoniously complement the story. At first glance, they can be considered random episodes that are just a beautiful background for the main action. But everything is much more complicated. Landscapes in “Poor Liza” are one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the characters.
With a small knapsack on his back, Karamzin went off for whole days to wander without a goal or plan through the lovely forests and fields of the Moscow region, close to the white-stone outposts. He was especially attracted by the surroundings of the old monastery, which towered above the Moscow River. Karamzin came here to read his favorite books. Here he had the idea to write “Poor Liza” - a story about the sad fate of a peasant girl who fell in love with a nobleman and was abandoned by him. The story “Poor Liza” excited Russian readers. From the pages of the story they saw an image well known to every Muscovite. They recognized the Simonov Monastery with its gloomy towers, the birch grove where the hut stood, and the monastery pond surrounded by old willows - the place where poor Lisa died. Accurate descriptions gave some special authenticity to the whole story. The surroundings of the Simonov Monastery became a favorite walking place for melancholic readers. The name “Lizin Pond” was established behind the pond.
We will try to analyze the landscape against which Lisa’s tragic fate unfolded. It is important for us to prove that it is not a dispassionate background for the development of events, but a recreation of living nature, deeply perceived and felt.
(During the analysis process, slides depicting the Simonov Monastery, “Liza’s Pond,” and the scene of Lisa’s death are shown on the interactive board).
2. Analysis of landscape sketches in the story “Poor Lisa”
Here are excerpts from “Poor Lisa,” that part of the story that describes the heroine’s subtle emotional experiences. When analyzing landscape sketches, stick to the following plan:
1. Determine the lexical means used by the author.
2. The tone of the episodes.
3. Images and symbols characteristic of sentimental prose.
4. The relationship between the description of nature and the heroine’s state of mind.
5. Draw a conclusion.
(Work takes place in three groups)
First group
Maybe no one living in Moscow knows the surroundings of this city as well as I do, because no one is in the field more often than I am, no one more than me wanders on foot, without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through the meadows and groves , over hills and plains. Every summer I find new pleasant places or new beauty in old ones.
But the most pleasant place for me is the place where the gloomy, Gothic towers of the Sin...nova Monastery rise. Standing on this mountain, you see almost the entire Moscow, this a terrible mass of houses and churches, which appears to the eye in the image of a majestic amphitheater: magnificent picture, especially when the sun shines on it, when its evening rays glow on countless golden domes, on countless crosses ascending to the sky! Below are the fat ones, deep green flowering meadows, and behind them, yellow sands, flows bright river, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats or rustling under the helm of heavy plows that sail from the most fruitful countries of the Russian Empire and endow greedy Moscow bread. On the other side of the river one can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze; there young shepherds, sitting under the shade of trees, sing simple, sad songs and shorten themes summer days, so uniform for them. Further away, in the dense greenery of ancient elms, shines golden-headed Danilov Monastery; even further, almost at the edge of the horizon, turn blue Vorobyovy Gory. On the left side you can see vast fields covered with grain, forests, three or four villages and in the distance the village of Kolomenskoye with its high palace.
I often come to this place and almost always see spring there; I come there too dark days autumn to grieve with nature. The winds howl terribly within the walls of the deserted monastery, between the coffins overgrown with tall grass, and in the dark passages of the cells. There, leaning on the ruins tombstones, I listen to the deaf I moan times, swallowed up by the abyss of the past - a groan from which my heart shudders and trembles. Sometimes I enter cells and imagine those who lived in them - sad pictures! Here I see a gray-haired old man, kneeling before the crucifix and praying for a quick release from his earthly shackles, for all the pleasures in life had disappeared for him, all his feelings had died, except for the feeling of illness and weakness. There is a young monk - with pale face, With with a languid gaze- looks into the field through the window bars, sees funny birds freely floating in the sea of air, sees - and sheds bitter tears from your eyes. He languishes, withers, dries up - and the sad ringing of a bell announces to me his untimely death. Sometimes on the gates of the temple I look at the image of miracles that happened in this monastery, where fish fall from the sky to feed the inhabitants of the monastery, besieged by numerous enemies; here the image of the Mother of God puts the enemies to flight. All this renews the history of our fatherland in my memory - sad story those times when the ferocious Tatars and Lithuanians devastated the environs of the Russian capital with fire and sword and when unfortunate Moscow, like a defenseless widow, expected help from God alone in fierce their disasters.
Second group
Night came - the mother blessed her daughter and wished her a gentle sleep, but this time her wish did not come true: Lisa was sleeping Very bad. The new guest of her soul, the image of Erastov, seemed to her so vividly that she almost every minute woke up, woke up and sighed. Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists that were agitated in the air and, rising upward, left shiny drops on the green cover of nature. Silence reigned everywhere. But soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation: groves, bushes perked up, the birds fluttered and sang, the flowers raised their heads to be saturated with the life-giving rays of light. But Lisa was still sitting having become sad. Oh, Lisa, Lisa! What happened to you? Until now, waking up with the birds, you are with them had fun in the morning, and a pure, joyful soul shone in your eyes, like the sun shines in drops of heavenly dew; but now you thoughtful, and the general joy of nature is alien to your heart. - Meanwhile, a young shepherd was driving his flock along the river bank, playing the pipe. Lisa fixed her gaze on him and thought: “If the one who now occupies my thoughts was born a simple peasant, a shepherd, - and if he were now driving his flock past me: ah! I would bow to him with a smile and say affably: “Hello, dear shepherd!” Where are you driving your flock? And here green grass grows for your sheep, and here flowers grow red, from which you can weave a wreath for your hat.” He would look at me with an affectionate look - maybe he would take my hand... A dream! A shepherd, playing the flute, passed by and disappeared with his motley flock behind a nearby hill.
Third group
She threw herself into his arms - and at this hour her integrity had to perish! - Erast felt an extraordinary excitement in his blood - Liza had never seemed so charming to him - never had her caresses touched him so much - never had her kisses been so fiery - she knew nothing, suspected nothing, was afraid of nothing - the darkness of the evening fed desires - not a single star shone in the sky - no ray could illuminate the delusions. - Erast feels awe in himself - Liza also, not knowing why - not knowing what is happening to her... Oh, Lisa, Lisa! Where is your guardian angel? Where is your innocence?
The delusion passed in one minute. Lila did not understand her feelings, she was surprised and asked. Erast was silent - he searched for words and did not find them. “Oh, I’m afraid,” said Lisa, “I’m afraid of what happened to us! It seemed to me that I was dying, that my soul... No, I don’t know how to say this!.. Are you silent, Erast? Are you sighing?.. My God! What's happened?" - Meanwhile lightning flashed And thunder struck. Lisa all trembled. “Erast, Erast! - she said. - I'm scared! I’m afraid that thunder will kill me like a criminal!” Grozno the storm was roaring, the rain was pouring from the black clouds - it seemed that nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence. - Erast tried to calm Lisa down and walked her to the hut. Tears rolled from her eyes as she said goodbye to him. “Ah, Erast! Assure me that we will continue to be happy!” - “We will, Lisa, we will!” - he answered. - “God willing! I can’t help but believe your words: after all, I love you! Only in my heart... But it’s complete! Sorry! Tomorrow, tomorrow, see you."
Representatives of each group voice the results of their work. Next comes a conversation.
Questions for the first group
Why are the descriptions given at the beginning of the work? ( To evoke a certain mood in readers with which they learn about the fate of the heroes.)
What epithets predominate in the description of the surroundings of the Simonov Monastery? ( gloomy, Gothic towers, terrible bulk, greedy Moscow, sad songs, sad ringing, dull groan, sad pictures, pale face, languid gaze, bitter tears, fierce disasters).
Questions for the second group
Questions for the third group
What is the reason for the author’s use of numerous dashes as a connecting syntactic element? ( A similar syntax is used to depict the internal state of the heroine’s soul - her impulses, worries, rapid changes in mental states.)
Find words in the passage that indicate the author’s attitude towards the heroine. Please comment on them.
General questions
How does the word “poor” make you feel? ( Sadness, despondency.)
What is the role of landscape in the text? ( The landscape is in tune with the mood of the work, causing sadness.)
Emotionality is an important feature of works of sentimentalism. Is the text emotional? By what means is this transmitted?
The image of nature gives rise to a special mood, leading to the need to remember, dream, and reflect. What genre of lyricism arises in sentimentalism and becomes leading in romanticism? ( Elegy.) Is our work elegiac in mood?
The description of nature is aimed at conveying the state of mind and experiences of the main character. It helps the reader understand the depth of the author’s thoughts, his ideological plan. The author's introduction sets the reader up in a certain emotional mood that evokes empathy and sympathy.
The meaning of landscape in the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”
Content:
Introduction 3 – 5 pp.
Main part 6 – 13 pages.
Conclusion 14 pages
List of used literature 15 pages.
Introduction.
In the history of Russian literature at the end of the 10thVIII - early XIX century there is a transition period characterized by the coexistence various directions, movements and philosophical worldviews. Along with classicism, another literary direction– sentimentalism.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is the head of Russian sentimentalism. He became an innovator in the genre of the story: he introduced the image of the author-storyteller into the story, used new artistic techniques to characterize the characters and express the author’s position. To reflect changes in the worldview of a person at the beginning of XVIIIcentury, sentimentalism needed to create a new hero: “He is represented not only and not so much in actions dictated by “enlightened reason”, but in his feelings, moods, thoughts, searches for truth, goodness, beauty.” Therefore, the appeal to nature in the works of sentimentalists is natural: it helps in depicting the hero’s inner world.
The image of nature is one of the most important aspects of the very essence of the figurative reflection of the world, in all types of art, among all peoples and in all centuries. Scenery is one of the most powerful means for creating an imaginary, “virtual” world of a work, an essential component artistic space and time. Artistic images of nature are always saturated with spiritual, philosophical and moral meaning - after all, they are the “picture of the world” that determines a person’s attitude to everything around him. Moreover, the problem of depicting landscapes in art is filled with special religious content. Researcher of Russian icon painting N.M. Tarabukin wrote: “... The art of landscape is designed to reveal in an artistic image the content of nature, its religious meaning as a revelation of the Divine spirit. The problem of landscape in this sense is a religious problem...”
There are almost no works in Russian literature that lack landscape. Writers have sought to include this extra-plot element in their works for a variety of purposes.
Of course, when considering the evolution of landscape in Russian literature of the endXVIII- startedXIXc., the main attention of researchers is drawn to the work of N.M. Karamzin, who became for his contemporaries the head of a new literary school, the founder of the new - Karamzin - period in the history of Russian literature. Karamzin, in his literary landscapes, most consistently and vividly presented that new perception of the world that distinguished both sentimentalist and pre-romantic Russian literature.
The best work of N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”, written by him in 1792, is considered to be. It touches on all the main problems, the disclosure of which requires a deep analysis and understanding of Russian reality of the 18th century and the essence of human nature as a whole. Most contemporaries were delighted with “Poor Liza”; they completely correctly understood the idea of the author, who simultaneously analyzed the essence of human passions, relationships and the harsh Russian reality. It is in this story that the picturesque pictures of nature, at first glance, can be considered random episodes that are just a beautiful background for the main action. But Karamzin’s landscapes are one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the heroes. In addition, they serve to convey the author’s attitude to what is happening.
Purpose of the work.
The purpose of this work is:
Determine the meaning of landscape in the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”;
Determine how the state of nature is connected with the actions and spiritual world of the characters, how the landscape helps to reveal the ideological and artistic intent of the writer. Determine what opportunities this technique opens up and what are the limitations of its use by Karamzin;
Compare landscapes with descriptions of nature in the works of his predecessors Lomonosov M.V. “Morning reflection on God’s majesty” and “Evening reflection on God’s majesty in the event of the great northern lights” and Derzhavin G.R. "Waterfall".
Tasks.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:
Get acquainted with literary and critical works.
Determine the purpose for which landscapes are introduced into works.
Work structure.
The work consists of an introduction, main part, conclusion and list of references.
The 18th century, as a transitional era in the development of Russian literature, gave rise to several types of literary landscape. Classicism was characterized by a conventional vision of nature and the genre fixation of one or another type of “ideal” landscape. The landscape of the “high” genres of classicism, saturated with allegories and emblems, especially the solemn ode, had its own stable features. Prayerful and reverent admiration for nature - the Universe, God's creation was heard in poetic transcriptions of the texts of the Holy Scriptures, primarily in transcriptions of psalms. There was also a system of landscape descriptions in the idyllic-bucolic, pastoral genres, in the love lyrics of classicism, especially in the early elegy XV III century.
Thus, Russian classicism partly created and partly inherited from its literary “samples” a fairly rich palette of landscape images. However, the conquest of sentimentalism can be called new look on the world around us. Nature is no longer regarded as a standard, as a totality perfect proportions; rational comprehension of the universe, the desire to understand the harmonious structure of nature with the help of reason is no longer placed in the foreground, as it was in the era of classicism. In the works of sentimentalists, nature has its own spirit of harmony. Man, being a part of nature, turns to it as a link with the Creator in search of true existence, which is opposed to meaningless social life. Only alone with nature can a person think about his place in this world, understand himself as part of the universe. The action takes place, as a rule, in small towns, in the countryside, in secluded places conducive to reflection, while a lot of attention is paid to the description of nature, which is associated with the emotional experiences of the author and his characters, interest is shown in folk life and poetry. That is why in the works of sentimentalists close attention is paid to both the description rural life, and rural landscapes.
The story “Poor Liza” begins with a description of Moscow and the “terrible bulk of houses and churches,” and immediately after this the author begins to paint a completely different picture: “Lush, densely green, flowering meadows spread below, and behind them, along the yellow sands, a fresh river flows, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats... On the other side of the river you can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze..." Karamzin takes the position of defending the beautiful and natural; the city is unpleasant to him, he is drawn to “nature.” Thus, here the description of nature serves to express the author’s position.
Most of the landscapes in the story are aimed at conveying the state of mind and experience of the main character. It is she, Lisa, who is the embodiment of everything natural and beautiful, this heroine is as close as possible to nature: “Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists... but soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation..."
Nature at this moment is beautiful, but the heroine is sad, because a new, hitherto unknown feeling is born in her soul, it is beautiful and natural, like the landscape around her. Within a few minutes, when an explanation takes place between Lisa and Erast, the girl’s experiences dissolve in the surrounding nature, they are just as beautiful and pure. “What a beautiful morning! How fun everything is in the field! Never have larks sung so well, never has the sun shone so brightly, never have flowers smelled so pleasant!”
A wonderful romance begins between Erast and Lisa, their attitude is chaste, their embrace is “pure and immaculate.” The surrounding landscape is also pure and immaculate. “After this, Erast and Lisa, afraid not to keep their word, saw each other every evening... most often under the shade of hundred-year-old oaks... oaks overshadowing a deep, clear pond, fossilized in ancient times. There, the quiet moon, through the green branches, silvered Liza’s blond hair with its rays, with which the zephyrs and the hand of a dear friend played.”
The time of innocent relationships passes, Lisa and Erast become close, she feels like a sinner, a criminal, and the same changes take place in nature as in Liza’s soul: “Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder roared... The storm roared menacingly, rain poured from black clouds - it seemed that nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence,” This picture reveals not only Lisa’s state of mind, but also foreshadows the tragic ending of this story.
The heroes of the work are parting, but Lisa still does not know that this is forever, she is unhappy, her heart is breaking, but there is still a faint hope glimmering in it. “The morning dawn, which, like a “scarlet sea,” spreads “across the eastern sky,” conveys the pain, anxiety and confusion of the heroine and also indicates an unkind ending.
Lisa, having learned about Erast’s betrayal, ended her unhappy life, she threw herself into the very pond near which she had once been so happy, she was buried under the “gloomy oak tree,” which witnessed the happiest moments of her life.
Before the development of the plot begins, the themes of the main characters of the story are clearly indicated in the landscape - the theme of Erast, whose image is inextricably linked with the “terrible bulk of houses” of “greedy” Moscow, shining with the “golden domes”, the theme of Lisa, coupled with an inextricable associative connection with life beautiful natural nature, described using the epithets “blooming”, “light”, “light”, and the theme of the author, whose space is not physical or geographical, but spiritual and emotional in nature: the author acts as a historian, chronicler of the lives of his heroes and keeper of the memory of them.
The image of Lisa is invariably accompanied by a motif of whiteness, purity and freshness: on the day of her first meeting with Erast, she appears in Moscow with lilies of the valley in her hands; when Erast first appears under the windows of Lisa’s hut, she gives him milk, pouring it from a “clean jar covered with a clean wooden mug” into a glass wiped with a white towel; on the morning of Erast’s arrival for the first date, Liza, “distressed, looked at the white mists that were agitated in the air”; After the declaration of love, it seems to Lisa that “never has the sun shone so brightly,” and during subsequent dates, “the quiet moon silvered Liza’s blonde hair with its rays.”
Each appearance of Erast on the pages of the story is in one way or another connected with money: at the first meeting with Lisa, he wants to pay her a ruble for lilies of the valley instead of five kopecks; when buying Liza’s work, he wants to “always pay ten times the price she sets”; before leaving for the war, “he forced her to take some money from him”; in the army, “instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost almost all his estate,” which is why he is forced to marry “an elderly rich widow” (we involuntarily compare Lisa, who refused the “son of a rich peasant” for Erast’s sake). Finally, when last meeting with Lisa, before kicking her out of his house, Erast puts one hundred rubles in her pocket.
The semantic leitmotifs set in the landscape sketches of the author's introduction are realized in the narration of images synonymous with them: the gold of the domes of greedy Moscow - the motif of money accompanying Erast; flowering meadows and a bright river of nature near Moscow - flower motifs; whiteness and purity surrounding the image of Lisa. Thus, the description of the life of nature extends extensively to the whole figurative system the story, introducing an additional aspect of the psychologization of the narrative and expanding its anthropological field by paralleling the life of the soul and the life of nature.
The entire love story of Lisa and Erast is immersed in a picture of the life of nature, constantly changing according to the stages of development of love feelings. Particularly obvious examples of such correspondence between the emotional content of a landscape sketch and the semantic content of a particular plot twist are given by melancholic autumn landscape introduction, foreshadowing the overall tragic denouement of the story, a picture of a clear, dewy May morning, in which Lisa and Erast declare their love, and a picture of a terrible night thunderstorm that accompanies the beginning of a tragic turning point in the heroine’s fate. Thus, “the landscape from an auxiliary device with “framework” functions, from a “pure” decoration and external attribute of the text turned into an organic part of an artistic structure that realizes the overall concept of the work”, became a means of producing reader emotions, acquired “a correlation with the inner world of a person as a kind of mirror souls."
The above examples show how important it is to describe pictures of nature in a work of art, how deeply they help to penetrate into the soul of the characters and their experiences.
Not only Karamzin, but also his predecessors M.V. Lomonosov and G.R. Derzhavin paid great attention to the depiction of nature.
M.V. Lomonosov used ceremonial occasions to create bright and majestic paintings of the universe.Lomonosov made his extensive knowledge in the field of science the subject of poetry. His “scientific” poems are not a simple translation into poetic form achievements of science. This is truly poetry born of inspiration, but only in contrast to other types of lyrics, here the poetic delight was aroused by the inquisitive thought of the scientist. Lomonosov devoted poems with scientific themes to natural phenomena, primarily to the space theme. Being a deist philosopher, Lomonosov saw in nature a manifestation of the creative power of the deity. But in his poems he reveals not the theological, but the scientific side of this issue: not the comprehension of God through nature, but the study of nature itself, created by God. This is how two closely related works appeared: “Morning Reflection on God’s Majesty” and “Evening Reflection on God’s Majesty on the Occasion of the Great Northern Lights.” Both poems were written in 1743.
In each of the “Reflections” the same composition is repeated. First, phenomena familiar to a person from his daily impressions are depicted. Then the poet-scientist lifts the veil over the invisible, hidden region of the Universe, introducing the reader into new worlds unknown to him. Thus, in the first stanza of “Morning Reflection” the sunrise, the onset of morning, the awakening of all nature are depicted. Then Lomonosov begins to talk about the physical structure of the Sun. A picture is drawn that is accessible only to the inspired gaze of a scientist, capable of speculatively imagining what the “perishable” human “eye” cannot see - the hot, raging surface of the sun:
There are fiery shafts rushing
And they don’t find the shores;
Fiery whirlwinds swirl there,
Fighting for many centuries;
There the stones, like water, boil,
The burning rains there are noisy.
Lomonosov appears in this poem as an excellent popularizer of scientific knowledge. He reveals the complex phenomena occurring on the surface of the Sun with the help of ordinary, purely visible “earthly” images: “fiery shafts,” “fiery whirlwinds,” “burning rains.”
In the second, “evening” reflection, the poet turns to the phenomena that appear to a person on firmament as night falls. At the beginning, just like in the first poem, a picture is given that is immediately accessible to the eye:
The day hides its face;
The fields were covered with gloomy night;<...>
An abyss full of stars opened;
The stars have no number, the bottom of the abyss.
This majestic sight awakens the inquisitive thoughts of the scientist. Lomonosov writes about the infinity of the universe, in which a person looks like a small grain of sand in a bottomless ocean. For readers who, according to the Holy Scriptures, are accustomed to considering the earth the center of the universe, this was a completely new look at the world around them. Lomonosov raises the question of the possibility of life on other planets and proposes a number of hypotheses about the physical nature of the northern lights.
G.R. Derzhavin takes a new step in depicting a person. In the poem “Waterfall,” dedicated to G. A. Potemkin, Derzhavin tries to draw people in all their complexity, depicting both their positive and negative sides.
At the same time, in Derzhavin’s work of these years, the image of the author significantly expands and becomes more complex. This is largely facilitated by the poet’s increased attention to the so-called Anacreontic songs - short poems written on the motives or “in the spirit” of the ancient Greek lyricist Anacreon. The basis of Derzhavin’s anacreontics is “the living and tender impression of nature,” in the words of Derzhavin’s friend and translator of Anacreon, N. A. Lvov. “This new and large section of Derzhavin’s poetry,” writes A. V. Zapadov, “served for him as an outlet into the joyful world of nature, allowed him to talk about a thousand small, but important things for a person, which had no place in the system of genres of classicist poetics Addressing Anacreon, imitating him, Derzhavin wrote his own, and the national roots of his poetry emerge “especially clearly” in Anacreon songs.
In the ode “Waterfall,” Derzhavin goes from a visual impression, and in the first stanzas of the ode, in magnificent verbal painting, the Kivach waterfall on the Suna River in the Olonets province is depicted:
Diamonds are falling down the mountain
From the heights of four rocks,
Pearls abyss and silver
Boils below, shoots up with mounds<...>
Noisy - and in the middle of the dense forest
Then gets lost in the wilderness<...> .
However, this landscape sketch immediately acquires the meaning of the symbol human life- open and accessible to the eye in its earthly phase and lost in the darkness of eternity after the death of a person: “Isn’t this the life of people for us // This waterfall depicts?” And then this allegory develops very consistently: the sparkling and thundering waterfall, open to the eye, and the modest stream that originates from it, lost in a dense forest, but feeding with its water all who come to its banks, are likened to time and glory: “Isn’t it time from heaven?” pours<...>// Honor shines, glory spreads?” ; “Oh glory, glory in the light of the mighty! // You are definitely this waterfall<...>»
The main part of the ode personifies this allegory in the comparison of lifetime and posthumous destinies two great contemporaries of Derzhavin, Catherine’s favoriteIIPrince Potemkin-Tauride and the disgraced commander Rumyantsev. It must be assumed that the poet, sensitive to words, was fascinated, among other things, by the possibility of contrasting play on their significant surnames. Derzhavin avoids calling Rumyantsev, who is in the darkness of disgrace, by his last name, but his image that appears in the ode is completely shrouded in the brilliance of luminous metaphors consonant with it: “like a ruddy ray of dawn,” “in a crown of lightning blushes.” On the contrary, Potemkin, brilliant, omnipotent, amazed his contemporaries with the luxury of his lifestyle, the brilliance extraordinary personality, in a word, who was visible during his life, in the ode “Waterfall” is plunged into darkness by an untimely death: “Whose corpse, like darkness at a crossroads, // Lies in the dark bosom of the night? The bright and loud fame of Potemkin during his lifetime, as well as his personality itself, are likened in Derzhavin’s ode to a magnificent but useless waterfall:
Marvel at the people around you
Always gathers in crowds, -
But if he uses his water
Conveniently doesn’t get everyone drunk<...>
The life of Rumyantsev, no less talented, but undeservedly bypassed by fame and honors, evokes in the poet’s mind the image of a brook, whose quiet murmur will not be lost in the stream of time:
Isn't it better than the less famous ones?
And to be more useful;<...>
And a quiet murmur in the distance
Attract offspring with attention?
The question of which of the two commanders is more worthy of living in the memory of posterity remains open for Derzhavin, and if the image of Rumyantsev, created by the poet in the ode “Waterfall,” is highly consistent with Derzhavin’s ideas about the ideal statesman(“Blessed is it when, striving for glory, // He preserved the common benefit” , then the image of Potemkin, overtaken by sudden death at the highest rise of his brilliant destiny, is covered with the author’s heartfelt lyrical emotion: “Aren’t you from the height of honor // Suddenly fallen among the steppes?” The solution to the problem of human immortality in the memory of descendants is given in a universal human sense and in an abstract conceptual manner:
Hear, waterfalls of the world!
O glory to the noisy heads!
Your sword is bright, purple is colored,
Since you loved the truth,
When they only had meta,
To bring happiness to the world.
The considered natural landscapes in the works of M.V. Lomonosov and G.R. Derzhavin are as beautiful as in the story “Poor Liza” by N.M. Karamzin, but they were introduced into the works for a different purpose. In Karamzin’s work, nature conveys the state of mind and mood of the characters depicted. Lomonosov glorifies the universe in his works. And Derzhavin compares the greatness of nature with the greatness of the glorified heroes, but does not convey their state of mind.
Conclusion.
The work we have done allows us to conclude that the reflection of nature in Russian literature of the late 18th - early 19th centuries has a multifaceted significance. The landscape, literally from the very beginning of the work, receives an emotional characteristic - it is not just a dispassionate background against which events unfold, and not the decoration that adorns the picture, but a piece of living nature, as if rediscovered by the author, felt by him, perceived not with the mind, not with the eyes, but with the heart .
In “Poor Liza,” the landscape is not only used to create an atmosphere and mood, but also carries a certain symbolic meaning and emphasizes the close connection between “natural man” and nature.
A special role belongs to the narrator, whose image was also new to literatureXVIIIcentury. The beauty of direct communication had a surprising effect on the reader, creating an inextricable emotional connection between him and the author, which develops into the replacement of fiction with reality. With Poor Liza, the Russian reading public received one important gift - the first place of literary pilgrimage in Russia. Having experienced for himself what emotional charge the effect of co-presence conceals, the writer accurately indicates the location of his story - the surroundings of the Simonov Monastery. Even Karamzin himself did not imagine what impact his innovations would have on the reader. Almost immediately, “Poor Lisa” began to be perceived by readers as a story about true events. Numerous pilgrims flocked to the modest pond near the monastery walls. The real name of the pond was forgotten - from now on it became Liza's Pond.
Actually, with “Poor Liza” a new era began in Russian literature, from now on the sensitive person becomes the main measure of everything.
Undoubtedly, N.M. Karamzin is one of the most significant figures in the history of Russian literature of the late 18th - early 19th centuries.
List of used literature:
G. Derzhavin. N. Karamzin. V. Zhukovsky. Poems. Stories. Journalism. – M.: Olimp; LLC Publishing House AST-LTD, 1997.
M.V. Lomonosov. Selected works. Northwestern book publishing house. Arkhangelsk 1978.
T.A. Kolganova. Russian literatureXVIIIcentury. Sentimentalism. – M.: Bustard. 2002.
Vishnevskaya G.A. From the history of Russian romanticism (Literary and theoretical judgments of N.M. Karamzin 1787-1792).M., 1964.
Tarabukin N.M. The problem of landscape. M., 1999.
Grigoryan K.N. Pushkin's elegy: National origins, predecessors, evolution. - L., 1990.
V. Muravyov Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. M., 1966.
Orlov P.A. Russian sentimental story. M., 1979.
Zapadov A.V. G. Derzhavin. N. Karamzin. V. Zhukovsky. Poems. Stories. Journalism. – M.: Olimp; LLC Publishing House AST-LTD, 1997. P. 119
G. Derzhavin. N. Karamzin. V. Zhukovsky. Poems. Stories. Journalism. – M.: Olimp; LLC Publishing House AST-LTD, 1997. P. 123
