Poor Lisa. The image of Liza in the story "Poor Liza" by Karamzin

based on the story “Poor Lisa” by Karamzin N.M.

Liza (Poor Liza) is the main character of the story, which, along with other works published by Karamzin in the Moscow Journal (Natalya, the Boyar's Daughter, Frol Silin, a Benevolent Man, Liodor, etc.), is not just brought literary fame to its author, but produced complete revolution in the public mind of the eighteenth century. Karamzin, for the first time in the history of Russian prose, turned to a heroine endowed with emphatically mundane features. His words "... and peasant women know how to love" became winged.

The poor peasant girl Liza is left an orphan early. She lives in one of the villages near Moscow with her mother, "a sensitive, kind old woman", from whom she inherits her main talent - the ability to love. To support himself and his mother, L. takes on any job. In the spring she goes to town to sell flowers. There, in Moscow, L. meets the young nobleman Erast. Tired of the windy secular life, Erast falls in love with a spontaneous, innocent girl with the "love of a brother." So it seems to him. However, soon platonic love turns into sensual. L., “completely surrendering to him, she only lived and breathed them.” But gradually L. begins to notice the change taking place in Erast. He explains his cooling by the fact that he needs to go to war. To improve things, Erast marries an elderly rich widow. Upon learning of this, L. drowns himself in the pond.

Sensitivity - so in the language of the late XVIII century. determined the main merit of Karamzin's stories, meaning by this the ability to sympathize, to discover "the tenderest feelings" in the "bends of the heart", as well as the ability to enjoy the contemplation of one's own emotions. Sensitivity is also a central character trait of L. She trusts the movements of her heart, lives by "gentle passions." Ultimately, it is ardor and ardor that lead L. to death, but morally it is justified.

Karamzin was one of the first to introduce the opposition of the city and the countryside into Russian literature. In Karamzin's story, a village man - a man of nature - turns out to be defenseless, falling into an urban space, where laws operate that are different from the laws of nature. It is not for nothing that L.'s mother says to her (thereby indirectly predicting everything that will happen later): “My heart is always out of place when you go to the city; I always put a candle in front of the image and pray to the Lord God that he save you from all trouble and misfortune.

It is no coincidence that the first step on the road to disaster is the insincerity of L.: for the first time she “retreats from herself”, hiding, on the advice of Erast, their love from her mother, to whom she had previously confided all her secrets. Later, it was in relation to his dearly beloved mother that L. would repeat the worst act of Erast. He tries to "pay off" L. and, driving her away, gives her one hundred rubles. But L. does the same, sending her mother, along with the news of her death, those "ten imperials" that Erast gave her. Naturally, L.'s mother needs this money just as much as the heroine herself: "Lizina's mother heard about the terrible death of her daughter, and her blood cooled with horror - her eyes closed forever."

The tragic outcome of the love of a peasant woman and an officer confirms the correctness of her mother, who warned L. at the very beginning of the story: “You still don’t know how evil people can offend the poor girl." General rule turns into a concrete situation, poor L. herself takes the place of the impersonal poor girl, and the universal plot is transferred to Russian soil, acquires a national flavor.

For the arrangement of characters in the story, it is also essential that the narrator learns the story of poor L. directly from Erast and himself often comes to be sad at Liza's grave. The coexistence of the author and the hero in the same narrative space before Karamzin was not familiar to Russian literature. The narrator of "Poor Liza" is mentally involved in the relationship of the characters. Already the title of the story is built on the connection own name the heroine with an epithet characterizing the sympathetic attitude of the narrator towards her, who at the same time constantly repeats that he has no power to change the course of events (“Ah! Why am I writing not a novel, but a sad story?”).

"Poor Lisa" is perceived as a story about true events. L. belongs to the characters with a "registration". “... Increasingly, it draws me to the walls of the Si...nova monastery - the memory of the deplorable fate of Liza, poor Liza" - this is how the author begins his story. For a gap in the middle of a word, any Muscovite guessed the name of the Simonov Monastery, the first buildings of which date back to the 14th century. (to date, only a few buildings have survived, most of them were blown up in 1930). The pond, located under the walls of the monastery, was called Lisiny Pond, but thanks to the story of Karamzin, it was popularly renamed Lizin and became a place of constant pilgrimage for Muscovites. In the minds of the monks of the Simonov Monastery, who zealously guarded the memory of L., she was, first of all, a fallen victim. In essence, L. was canonized by sentimental culture.

First of all, the same unfortunate girls in love as L. herself came to cry at the place of Liza's death. According to eyewitnesses, the bark of the trees growing around the pond was mercilessly cut with the knives of the "pilgrims". The inscriptions carved on the trees were both serious (“In these streams, poor Liza passed away for days; / If you are sensitive, a passerby, take a breath”), and satirical, hostile to Karamzin and his heroine (the following couplet gained special fame among such “birch epigrams”: "Erast's bride died in these streams. / Drown yourself, girls, there is enough space in the pond").

Karamzin and his story were certainly mentioned when describing the Simonov Monastery in guidebooks around Moscow and special books and articles. But gradually these references began to take on an increasingly ironic character, and already in 1848 in the famous work of M.N. heroine. As sentimental prose lost the charm of novelty, "Poor Lisa" ceased to be perceived as a story about true events, and even more so as an object for worship, but became in the minds of most readers (primitive fiction, a curiosity, reflecting the tastes and concepts of a bygone era.

The image of "poor L." immediately sold out in numerous literary copies of Karamzin's epigones (compare at least Dolgorukov's "Unfortunate Lisa"). But the image of L. and the ideal of sensitivity associated with it received serious development not in these stories, but in poetry. The invisible presence of "poor L." tangibly in Zhukovsky's Rural Cemetery, published ten years after Karamzin's story, in 1802, which laid, according to V. S. Solovyov, "the beginning of truly human poetry in Russia". Three major poets of the Pushkin era turn to the very plot of a seduced peasant woman: E. A. Baratynsky (in the plot poem "Eda", 1826, A. A. Delvig (in the idyll "The End of the Golden Age", 1828) and I. I. Kozlov (in the "Russian story" "Mad", 1830).

In Belkin's Tales, Pushkin twice varies the plot outline of the story about "poor L.", reinforcing its tragic sound in " stationmaster” and turning it into a joke in “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”. The connection between "Poor Lisa" and "The Queen of Spades", whose heroine is named Lizaveta Ivanovna, is very complex. Pushkin develops the Karamzin theme: his “poor Liza” (like “poor Tanya”, the heroine of “Eugene Onegin”) is experiencing a catastrophe: having lost hope for love, she marries another, quite worthy person. All the heroines of Pushkin, who are in the "force field" of the heroine of Karamzin, are destined to be happy or unhappy - but life. “Back to the Origins,” P. I. Tchaikovsky returns Pushkin’s Lisa to Karamzin, in whose opera The Queen of Spades, Liza (no longer Lizaveta Ivanovna) commits suicide by throwing herself into the Winter Canal.

The fate of L. in different versions of its resolution is carefully spelled out by F. M. Dostoevsky. In his work, both the word "poor" and the name "Lisa" acquire a special status from the very beginning. The most famous among his heroines - the namesakes of the Karamzin peasant woman - are Lizaveta ("Crime and Punishment"), Elizaveta Prokofievna Yepanchina ("Idiot"), Blessed Lizaveta and Liza Tushina ("Demons"), and Lizaveta Smerdyasha ("The Brothers Karamazov"). But the Swiss Marie from The Idiot and Sonechka Marmeladova from Crime and Punishment would also not exist without Lisa Karamzin. The Karamzin scheme also forms the basis of the history of the relationship between Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova - the heroes of Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection".

In the XX century. "Poor Lisa" has by no means lost its significance: on the contrary, interest in Karamzin's story and his heroine has increased. One of the sensational productions of the 1980s. became the theatrical version of "Poor Lisa" in the theater-studio of M. Rozovsky "At the Nikitsky Gates".

Karamzin's story tells about the love of the main characters of Poor Lisa. A young girl, a peasant woman, fell in love with a rich nobleman. The description of the unhappy love of people of different social status, according to the genre, is a short story. A sentimental story lay in the plot of the work, and already the first publication of this new work brought unheard of popularity. young writer who is barely 25 years old. The main motives for creating a story about love awakened in the writer the walls of the Simonov Monastery, next to which he was visiting a friend in the country.

Characteristics of the heroes "Poor Lisa"

Main characters

Minor characters

The story of a touching and unhappy love of a peasant girl for a person of a different circle has become an example of a new trend in literature, called "sentimentalism".

The list of characters from Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" and the characteristics of the characters can be used for the reader's diary.

Artwork test

The story "Poor Lisa", which became an example of sentimental prose, was published by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin in 1792 in the publication "Moscow Journal". It is worth noting Karamzin as an honored reformer of the Russian language and one of the most highly educated Russians of his time - this is important aspect that allows you to further evaluate the success of the story. Firstly, the development of Russian literature had a "catching up" character, since it lagged behind European literature by about 90-100 years. While in the West sentimental novels were being written and read with might and main, clumsy classical odes and dramas were still being composed in Russia. Karamzin's progressiveness as a writer consisted in "bringing" sentimental genres from Europe to his homeland and developing a style and language for further writing such works.

Secondly, the assimilation of literature of the late 18th century by the public was such that at first they wrote for society how to live, and then society began to live according to what was written. That is, before the sentimental story, people read mostly hagiographic or church literature, where there were no living characters or lively speech, and the heroes of the sentimental story - such as Lisa - gave secular young ladies a real scenario of life, a guide of feelings.

Karamzin brought a story about poor Liza from his many trips - from 1789 to 1790 he visited Germany, England, France, Switzerland (England is considered the birthplace of sentimentalism), and upon his return he published a new revolutionary story in his own journal.

“Poor Lisa” is not an original work, since Karamzin adapted its plot for Russian soil, taking it from European literature. We are not talking about a specific work and plagiarism - there were many such European stories. In addition, the author created an atmosphere of amazing authenticity by drawing himself as one of the heroes of the story and masterfully describing the situation of events.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, shortly after returning from a trip, the writer lived in a dacha not far from the Simonov Monastery, in a picturesque, calm place. The situation described by the author is real - the readers recognized both the surroundings of the monastery and the "lizine pond", and this contributed to the fact that the plot was perceived as reliable, and the characters - as real people.

Analysis of the work

The plot of the story

The plot of the story is love and, according to the author, utterly simple. The peasant girl Lisa (her father was a prosperous peasant, but after his death the farm is in decline and the girl has to earn money by selling needlework and flowers) lives in the bosom of nature with her old mother. In a city that seems huge and alien to her, she meets a young nobleman, Erast. Young people fall in love - Erast out of boredom, inspired by pleasures and a noble lifestyle, and Liza - for the first time, with all the simple, ardor and naturalness " natural man". Erast takes advantage of the girl's gullibility and takes possession of her, after which, naturally, he begins to be weary of the girl's company. The nobleman leaves for the war, where he loses his entire fortune in cards. The way out is to marry a rich widow. Lisa finds out about this and commits suicide by throwing herself into a pond, not far from the Simonov Monastery. The author who has been told this story cannot remember poor Liza without holy tears of regret.

For the first time among Russian writers, Karamzin unleashed the conflict of a work by the death of the heroine - as, most likely, it would have been in reality.

Of course, despite the progressiveness of Karamzin's story, his characters differ significantly from real people, they are idealized and embellished. This is especially true of the peasants - Lisa does not look like a peasant woman. It is unlikely that hard work would have contributed to the fact that she remained “sensitive and kind”, it is unlikely that she would conduct internal dialogues with herself in an elegant style, and she could hardly keep up a conversation with a nobleman. Nevertheless, this is the first thesis of the story - "and peasant women know how to love."

Main characters

Lisa

The central heroine of the story, Liza, is the embodiment of sensitivity, ardor and ardor. Her mind, kindness and tenderness, the author emphasizes, are from nature. Having met Erast, she begins to dream not that he, like a handsome prince, will take her to his world, but that he should be a simple peasant or shepherd - this would equalize them and allow them to be together.

Erast differs from Liza not only in social terms, but also in character. Perhaps, the author says, he was spoiled by the world - he leads a typical lifestyle for an officer and a nobleman - he seeks pleasures and, having found them, cools to life. Erast is both smart and kind, but weak, incapable of action - such a hero also appears in Russian literature for the first time, a type of "disappointed aristocrat's life." At first, Erast is sincere in his love impulse - he does not lie when he tells Lisa about love, and it turns out that he is also a victim of circumstances. He does not stand the test of love, does not resolve the situation "like a man", but feels sincere torment after what happened. After all, it was he who allegedly told the author the story of poor Lisa and led him to Liza's grave.

Erast predetermined the appearance in Russian literature of a number of heroes of the type " extra people- weak and incapable of key decisions.

Karamzin uses "speaking names". In the case of Liza, the choice of the name turned out to be "double-sided". The fact is that classic literature provided for typing techniques, and the name Lisa was supposed to mean a playful, flirtatious, frivolous character. Such a name could have a laughing maid - a cunning comedy character, prone to love adventures, by no means innocent. Having chosen such a name for his heroine, Karamzin destroyed the classical typification and created a new one. He built a new relationship between the name, character and actions of the hero and outlined the path to psychologism in literature.

The name Erast was also not chosen by chance. It means "beautiful" in Greek. His fatal charm, the need for novelty of impressions lured and ruined the unfortunate girl. But Erast will reproach himself for the rest of his life.

Constantly reminding the reader of his reaction to what is happening (“I remember with sadness ...”, “tears are rolling down my face, reader ....”), the author organizes the narrative in such a way that it acquires lyricism and sensitivity.

Theme, conflict of the story

Karamzin's story touches on several themes:

• The theme of the idealization of the peasant environment, the ideality of life in nature. The main character is a child of nature, and therefore, by default, she cannot be evil, immoral, insensitive. The girl embodies simplicity and innocence due to the fact that she comes from a peasant family, where eternal moral values ​​are kept.
• The theme of love and betrayal. The author sings of the beauty of sincere feelings and sadly talks about the doom of love, not supported by reason.
• The theme of the opposition of the village and the city. The city turns out to be evil, a great evil force capable of breaking a pure creature from nature (Lisa's mother intuitively feels this evil force and prays for her daughter every time she goes to the city to sell flowers or berries).
• Subject " little man". Social inequality, the author is sure (and this is an obvious glimpse of realism) does not lead to the happiness of lovers from different backgrounds. Such love is doomed.

The main conflict of the story is social, because it is precisely because of the gap between wealth and poverty that the love of the heroes dies, and then the heroine. The author exalts sensitivity as the highest value of a person, affirms the cult of feelings as opposed to the cult of reason.

Liza is a young innocent girl living near Moscow alone with her mother, who constantly shed tears for her husband who died early, and Liza had to do all the housework and take care of her. Lisa was very honest and naive, she used to believe people, she had a solid character, that is, if she gave herself to any feeling or deed, then she performed this action completely, to the end. At the same time, she did not know life at all, because all the time she lived with her God-fearing mother away from all sorts of noisy village entertainments.

The mother calls Lisa "amiable", "sweet": Karamzin puts these epithets into the mouth of the peasant woman, proving that the peasants also have a sensitive soul.

Liza believed the young handsome Erast, because she liked him very much, and besides, she had never met with such an elegant treatment. She fell in love with Erast, but her love was platonic love, she did not perceive herself as a woman at all. At first, this suited Erast, because after a depraved metropolitan life he wanted to take a break from constant sexual intrigues, but after that he inevitably became interested in Lisa as a woman, because she was very beautiful. Liza did not understand this, she only felt that something had changed in their relationship, and this disturbed her. material from the site

Erast's departure for the war was a real misfortune for her, but she could not even think that Erast had any plans of his own. When she saw Erast in Moscow and talked to him, she experienced a severe shock. All her credulity and naivety were deceived and thrown to dust. As an extremely impressionable nature, she could not withstand such a blow. Her whole life, which before that seemed clear and direct to her, turned into a monstrous heap of incomprehensible events. Lisa could not survive the change of Erast and committed suicide. Of course, such a decision was a desperate means to get away from solving the life problem that confronted her, and Lisa could not cope with it. Frightened real life and the need to get out of the illusory world, she preferred to die limply than to fight and try to understand life as it really is.

You can use a modern analogy that describes such situations very well: she was so immersed in the Matrix that real world turned out to be hostile to her and tantamount to the complete disappearance of personality.

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Lisa is a young innocent girl living near Moscow alone with her mother, who constantly shed tears for her husband who died early, and Lisa had to do all the housework and take care of her. Liza was very honest and naive, she used to believe people, she had a solid character, that is, if she gave herself to any feeling or deed, then she performed this action completely, to the end. At the same time, she did not know life at all, because all the time she lived with her God-fearing mother away from all sorts of noisy village entertainments.

The mother calls Lisa "amiable", "sweet": Karamzin puts these epithets into the mouth of a peasant woman, proving that peasant women also have a sensitive soul.

Lisa believed the young handsome Erast, because she liked him very much, and besides, she had never met with such elegant treatment. She fell in love with Erast, but her love was platonic love, she did not perceive herself as a woman at all. At first, this suited Erast, because after a depraved metropolitan life he wanted to take a break from constant sexual intrigues, but after that he inevitably became interested in Lisa as a woman, because she was very beautiful. Liza did not understand this, she only felt how something had changed in their relationship, and it worried her. Erast's departure for the war was a real misfortune for her, but she could not even think that Erast had any plans of his own . When she saw Erast in Moscow and talked to him, she experienced a severe shock. All her credulity and naivety were deceived and thrown to dust. As an extremely impressionable nature, she could not withstand such a blow. Her whole life, which before that seemed clear and direct to her, turned into a monstrous heap of incomprehensible events. Lisa could not survive the betrayal of Erast and committed suicide. Of course, such a decision was a desperate means to get away from solving the life problem that confronted her, and Lisa could not cope with it. Frightened by real life and the need to get out of the illusory world, she chose to die limply than to fight and try to understand life as it really is.

You can use a modern analogy that describes such situations very well: she was so immersed in the "Matrix" that the real world turned out to be hostile to her and tantamount to the complete disappearance of her personality.

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