The story of the creation of the story poor Liza Karamzin. Analysis of "Poor Liza" Karamzin

The history of the creation of "Poor Liza"

karamzin liza story literature

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is one of the most educated people of his time. He preached advanced educational views, widely promoted Western European culture in Russia. The personality of the writer, multifacetedly gifted in various fields, played a significant role in the cultural life of Russia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Karamzin traveled a lot, translated, wrote original works of art engaged in publishing activities. His name is associated with the formation of professional literary activity.

In 1789-1790. Karamzin traveled abroad (to Germany, Switzerland, France and England). Upon the return of N.M. Karamzin began publishing the Moscow Journal, in which he published the story Poor Liza (1792), Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791-92), which placed Karamzin among the first Russian writers. In these works, as well as in literary critical articles, the aesthetic program of sentimentalism was expressed with its interest in a person, regardless of class, his feelings and experiences. In the 1890s, the writer's interest in the history of Russia increased; he gets acquainted with historical works, the main published sources: chronicle monuments, notes of foreigners, etc.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, in the 1790s the writer lived in a dacha near Beketov near the Simonov Monastery. The environment played a decisive role in the concept of the story "Poor Lisa". The literary plot of the story was perceived by the Russian reader as vital and real, and the characters as real people. After the publication of the story, walks in the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery, where Karamzin settled his heroine, and to the pond, into which she rushed and later received the name "Lizina Pond", became fashionable. As the researcher V.N. Toporov, defining the place of Karamzin's story in the evolutionary series of Russian literature: "For the first time in Russian literature, fiction created such an image of true life, which was perceived as stronger, sharper and more convincing than life itself."

"Poor Liza" twenty-five-year-old Karamzin brought real fame. A young and previously unknown writer suddenly became a celebrity. "Poor Lisa" was the first and most talented Russian sentimental story.

Lisa is the main character in N. M. Karamzin's story "Poor Liza", a poor young peasant woman from a village near Moscow. Liza was left early without her father, who was the breadwinner of the family. After his death, he and his mother quickly became impoverished. Lisa's mother was a kind, sensitive old woman, but already unable to work. Therefore, Lisa took on any job and worked without sparing herself. She wove canvases and knitted stockings, picked berries and flowers, and then sold them in the city. The main character traits of Lisa are sensitivity, naivety, purity and the ability to love devotedly. She sees only the good in people, although her mother warned her that there are also “evil” people who can offend.

One day, while selling flowers in Moscow, she met a young rich nobleman who asked to continue selling her products only to him. Lisa's mother was pleased with this news, because her daughter would no longer have to travel to the city so often. Lisa's new acquaintance named Erast begins to visit the girl often and the young people fall in love. They often meet and walk by the pond. However, Erast subsequently betrays Lisa. Having said that he is leaving for the service, he no longer returns to her. During his service, he played cards a lot and lost his entire fortune. As a result, he had to marry a rich widow. Lisa's heart could not stand such news, and the girl drowned herself in a deep pond.

After her death, other girls, unhappy in love, began to come to the grave of the girl. Erast was unhappy until the end of his life and considered himself guilty of Lisa's death.

Karamzin did not accidentally attribute the action of the story to the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery. He knew this outskirts of Moscow well. Sergius Pond, according to legend dug by Sergius of Radonezh, became a place of pilgrimage for couples in love, it was renamed Lizin Pond.

Literary direction

Karamzin is an innovative writer. He is rightfully considered the founder of Russian sentimentalism. Readers accepted the story enthusiastically, because society has long yearned for something like this. The classical trend that preceded sentimentalism, which was based on rationalism, tired readers with sermons. Sentimentalism (from the word feelings) reflected the world of feelings, heart life. Many imitations of "Poor Lisa" appeared, a kind of mass literature that was in demand by readers.

Genre

"Poor Lisa" is the first Russian psychological story. The feelings of the characters are revealed in dynamics. Karamzin even invented a new word - sensitivity. Lisa's feelings are clear and understandable: she lives by her love for Erast. Erast's feelings are more complex, he himself does not understand them. At first he wants to fall in love simply and naturally, as he read in novels, then he discovers a physical attraction that destroys platonic love.

Issues

Social: the class inequality of lovers does not lead to a happy ending, as in old novels, but to tragedy. Karamzin raises the problem of the value of a person, regardless of class.

Moral: a person's responsibility for those who trust him, "unintentional evil" that can lead to tragedy.

Philosophical: a self-confident mind tramples on natural feelings, which the French Enlightenment spoke about at the beginning of the 18th century.

Main characters

Erast is a young nobleman. His character is written in many ways. Erast cannot be called a scoundrel. He is just a weak-willed young man who does not know how to resist life's circumstances, to fight for his happiness.

Lisa is a peasant girl. Her image is not spelled out in such detail and contradictory, remains in the canons of classicism. The author sympathizes with the heroine. She is a hardworking, loving daughter, chaste and ingenuous. On the one hand, Liza does not want to upset her mother by refusing to marry a rich peasant, on the other hand, she submits to Erast, who asks her not to tell her mother about their relationship. First of all, Lisa thinks not about herself, but about the fate of Erast, who will be dishonored if he does not go to war.

Lisa's mother is an old woman who lives with love for her daughter and the memory of her dead husband. It was about her, and not about Liza, that Karamzin said: “Even peasant women know how to love.”

Plot and composition

Although the writer's attention is focused on the psychology of the characters, external events that lead the heroine to death are also important for the plot. The plot of the story is simple and touching: the young nobleman Erast is in love with the peasant girl Lisa. Their marriage is impossible due to class inequality. Erast is looking for pure brotherly friendship, but he does not know his own heart. When the relationship develops into an intimate one, Erast grows cold towards Lisa. In the army, he loses fortune at cards. The only way to improve things is to marry a wealthy elderly widow. Lisa accidentally meets Erast in the city and thinks that he has fallen in love with another. She cannot live with this thought and drowns herself in the very pond near which she met her beloved. Erast realizes his guilt and suffers for the rest of his life.

The main events of the story take about three months. Compositionally, they are decorated with a frame associated with the image of the narrator. At the beginning of the story, the narrator reports that the events described by the lake happened 30 years ago. At the end of the story, the narrator returns to the present again and recalls the unfortunate fate of Erast at Lisa's grave.

Style

In the text, Karamzin uses internal monologues, the voice of the narrator is often heard. Landscape sketches are in harmony with the mood of the characters and are in tune with the events.

Karamzin was an innovator in literature. He was one of the creators modern language prose, close to the colloquial speech of an educated nobleman. So say not only Erast and the narrator, but also the peasant woman Lisa and her mother. Sentimentalism did not know historicism. The life of the peasants is very conditional, they are some kind of free (not serfs) pampered women who cannot cultivate the land and buy rose water. Karamzin's goal was to show feelings that are equal for all classes, which a proud mind cannot always control.

How and why did “Poor Liza” by N. M. Karamzin appear?
At the end of the 18th century, noticeable changes are outlined in Russian literature - it becomes more accessible to a wide range of people, thanks to the simplification of the language and the rejection of Old Church Slavonic. More realistic works appear in it, simple in style, but closer to the human soul, without the edifying, cruel character of classicism. In them, one could empathize with all the heroes, without fear of stumbling upon a moral or an obvious moral lesson. Such works include "Poor Lisa", the author of which was Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.

The essence and publication of the story

"Poor Liza" refers to classical sentimentalism. This is the first work of this nature in Russia. N. M. Karamzin after writing, in 1792 published it in one of the editions of the Moscow Journal. By the way, he was its editor. The story was such a stunning success that four years later, in 1976 year, it was released as a separate book.
The plot of the story itself is quite simple for a modern sophisticated viewer - a peasant girl, the daughter of a deceased wealthy peasant, could barely make ends meet. To earn at least some money, she sold flowers and berries in the city. She was naive and pure of evil thoughts as a "child of nature." In one of her campaigns, she met the young nobleman Erast.
The man was handsome, smart and educated, so Lisa falls in love with him. He also does not bypass the girl, and pure and sincere love flares up between them, in a fit of which Erast deprives the main character of innocence. Subsequently, he loses his fortune in cards and, in order not to lose his status, marries a rich widow. Lisa, who wanted only one thing, to be with her beloved, even if he was a shepherd, decides to commit suicide. This is where the story ends - the girl drowns herself in the pond, Erast suffers from this all her life, and the main narrator, on whose behalf the reader learns the whole story, yearns for the bitter fate of a pure and kind girl.

How did the idea of ​​"Poor Lisa" come to N.M. Karamzin

Nikolai Mikhailovich does not come up with the idea of ​​this story himself. The writer often encounters her when traveling around Europe. There, literature began to actively move away from the old motifs of classicism, approaching the tenderness and sensuality of sentimentalism. Numerous trips of Karamzin lead him to the conclusion that the Russian reader will also not be alien to the love story of young people of different classes.
At the same time, the author does not leave foreign history in its original form. From the first lines it is clear that the main characters are Russian and live in Moscow and around it. The nature of the characters is also quite typical. At the same time, in the best traditions of sentimentalism, everything is grotesquely exaggerated - Lisa is so pure and naive due to her unity with nature that bad thoughts simply cannot arise in her head. Against the influence rural life Karamzin paints the city as a monster, ready to devour innocent souls, spoil and distort them. All this sensually brings the plot and the main characters of the story closer to the reader, makes them empathize.
The bad end of the work was also new for Russian literature - the average reader of that time was used to the fact that good always wins in the end. The death of the main character generated a wave of sympathy, especially among the weaker sex. Moreover, educated and sensual women began to imitate her.
It can be concluded that N.M. Karamzin took the main plot from European sentimental stories. At the same time, he reworked it in many ways, taking truly Russian characters and local landscapes. All this made "Poor Lisa" one of the most popular stories of its time.

N. M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Lisa” was first published in the June issue of the Moscow Journal for 1792. It marked the beginning not only of the original Karamzin prose, but of all Russian classical literature. Until the appearance of the first novels and stories by Pushkin and Gogol, Poor Liza remained the most perfect work of art.

The story was very popular with Russian readers. Much later, critics will reproach the author for excessive "sentimentality" and "sweetness", forgetting about the historical era in which Karamzin lived.

"Poor Lisa" became a necessary transitional stage in the formation of the modern Russian language. The story is strikingly different from the ponderous style of the 18th century and anticipates the best examples of the golden age of Russian literature.

The meaning of the name

"Poor Liza" is the name and at the same time a figurative characteristic of the main character. The definition of "poor" refers not only to the financial situation of the girl, but also to her unfortunate fate.

The main theme of the work

The main theme of the work is tragic love.

Liza is an ordinary peasant girl who, after the death of her father, is forced to support herself and her mother. For farming, you need male power, so until Lisa got married, she takes on any feasible female work: weaving, knitting, picking and selling flowers and berries. The old mother is infinitely grateful to her only nurse and dreams that God will send her a good man.

The turning point in Lisa's life is the meeting with the young nobleman Erast, who begins to show signs of attention to her. For a simple peasant woman, an elegant and well-mannered young man seems to be a demigod, strikingly different from his fellow villagers. Lisa is not a fool after all, she does not allow a new acquaintance anything superfluous and reprehensible.

Erast is a windy and careless young man. He's been having fun for a long time. high society. Lisa becomes for him the embodiment of an unfulfilled dream of a patriarchal love idyll. At first, Erast really does not have any low thoughts about the girl. He is happy from innocent meetings with a naive peasant woman. Due to his carelessness, Erast does not even think about the future, about that insurmountable abyss that separates the nobleman and the commoner.

Erast's modest behavior and respectful attitude towards Lisa conquer the girl's mother. She treats the boy like good friend family, and does not even know about the romance that has arisen between young people, considering it impossible.

The purely platonic relationship between Lisa and Erast could not last forever. The reason for physical intimacy was the desire of the mother to marry her daughter. For lovers, this was a heavy blow of fate. Hugs, kisses and passionate vows of fidelity led to the fact that Lisa lost her innocence.

After the incident, the nature of the relationship between the lovers changes dramatically. For Lisa, Erast becomes the closest person, without whom she cannot imagine her future life. The nobleman "descended from heaven to earth." Lisa lost her former magical charm in his eyes. Erast began to treat her as a familiar source of sensual pleasure. He is not yet ready to abruptly cut off relations with Lisa, but he begins to see her less and less.

It is not difficult to predict the further course of events. Erast does not deceive Lisa that he is going to war. However, he returns soon enough and, forgetting his beloved, finds a rich bride, equal to him in social status.

Lisa continues to believe and wait for her loved one. A chance meeting with Erast, the news of his engagement and imminent wedding, and finally, a humiliating monetary alms for love inflict a huge mental trauma on the girl. Unable to survive her, Lisa commits suicide.

Thus ends a short romance between a nobleman and a peasant woman, which from the very beginning was doomed to a tragic ending.

Issues

Karamzin was one of the first writers to raise the problem of love between representatives of different classes. In the future, this topic has received great development in Russian literature.

Love, as you know, knows no boundaries. However, in pre-revolutionary Russia such borders existed and were strictly protected by law and public opinion. The physical connection of a nobleman with a peasant woman was not forbidden, but the fate of a seduced woman was unenviable. At best, she became a kept woman and could only hope for the adoption by the master of jointly acquired children.

At the beginning of the love story, Erast behaves simply stupidly, dreaming that he will “live with Lisa like a brother and sister”, take her to his village, etc. In the finale, he forgets about promises and does as he says he is of noble origin.

Deceived and dishonored, Lisa prefers to die and take her love and shameful secret to the grave.

Composition

The story has a clear classical structure: exposition (author's lyrical digression, smoothly turning into Lisa's story), plot (Lisa's meeting with Erast), climax (physical closeness between lovers) and denouement (Erast's betrayal and Lisa's suicide).

What does the author teach

The story of Lisa causes great pity for the unfortunate girl. The main culprit of the tragedy, of course, is the careless Erast, who should have seriously thought about the consequences of his love interest.