The concept of "romanticism" is often used as a synonym for the concept of "romance". This refers to the tendency to view the world through pink glasses and an active life position. Or they associate this concept with love and any actions for the sake of their loved one. But romanticism has several meanings. The article will discuss the narrower understanding that is used for the literary term, and the main character traits of the romantic hero.
Characteristic features of the style
Romanticism is a movement in literature that arose in Russia at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. This style proclaims the cult of nature and natural human feelings. New characteristics romantic literature freedom of expression, the value of individualism and the original character traits of the main character become. Representatives of the movement abandoned rationalism and the primacy of the mind, which were characteristic of the Enlightenment, and put the emotional and spiritual aspects of man at the forefront.
In their works, the authors depict not the real world, which was too vulgar and base for them, but the inner universe of the character. And through the prism of his feelings and emotions, the outlines of the real world are visible, the laws and thoughts of which he refuses to obey.
Main conflict
The central conflict of all works written in the era of romanticism is the conflict between the individual and society as a whole. Here the main character goes against the established rules in his environment. Moreover, the motives for such behavior can be different - actions can either be for the benefit of society or have a selfish plan. In this case, as a rule, the hero loses this fight, and the work ends with his death.
A romantic is a special and in most cases very mysterious person who tries to resist the power of nature or society. At the same time, the conflict develops into internal struggle contradictions that occur in the soul of the main character. In other words, the central character is built on antitheses.
At least in this literary genre and the individuality of the protagonist is valued, but still literary scholars have identified which features of romantic heroes are the main ones. But, even despite the similarities, each character is unique in its own way, since they are only general criteria highlighting style.
Ideals of society
The main feature of a romantic hero is that he does not accept the generally known ideals of society. The main character has his own ideas about the values of life, which he tries to defend. He seems to challenge the entire world around him, and not an individual person or group of people. Here we're talking about about the ideological confrontation of one person against the whole world.
Moreover, in his rebellion, the main character chooses one of two extremes. Or these are unattainable, highly spiritual goals, and the character is trying to become equal to the Creator himself. In another case, the hero indulges in all sorts of sins, without feeling the extent of his moral fall into the abyss.
Bright personality
If one person is able to withstand the whole world, then it is as large-scale and complex as the whole world. Main character Romantic literature always stands out in society both externally and internally. In the character’s soul there is a constant conflict between the stereotypes already laid down by society and his own views and ideas.
Loneliness
One of the saddest traits of a romantic hero is his tragic loneliness. Since the character is opposed to the whole world, he remains completely alone. There is no person who would understand him. Therefore, he either himself flees from the society he hates, or he himself becomes an exile. Otherwise, the romantic hero would no longer be like that. Therefore, romantic writers focus all their attention on psychological portrait central character.
Either the past or the future
The traits of a romantic hero do not allow him to live in the present. The character is trying to find his ideals in the past, when religious feeling was strong in the hearts of people. Or he consoles himself with happy utopias that supposedly await him in the future. But in any case, the main character is not satisfied with the era of dull bourgeois reality.
Individualism
As already said, distinctive feature The romantic hero is his individualism. But it’s not easy to be “different from others.” This is a fundamental difference from all the people who surround the main character. Moreover, if a character chooses a sinful path, then he realizes that he is different from others. And this difference is taken to the extreme - the cult of personality of the protagonist, where all actions have an exclusively selfish motive.
The era of romanticism in Russia
The founder of Russian romanticism is considered to be the poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. He creates several ballads and poems (“Ondine”, “The Sleeping Princess” and so on), in which there is a deep philosophical meaning and the desire for moral ideals. His works are imbued with his own experiences and reflections.
Then Zhukovsky was replaced by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. They put on public consciousness, impressed by the failure of the Decembrist uprising, an imprint of an ideological crisis. For this reason, the creativity of these people is described as disappointment in real life and an attempt to go into my own fictional world, filled with beauty and harmony. The main characters of their works lose interest in earthly life and come into conflict with the outside world.
One of the features of romanticism is its appeal to the history of the people and their folklore. This is most clearly seen in the work “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov” and a cycle of poems and poems dedicated to the Caucasus. Lermontov perceived it as the homeland of free and proud people. They opposed a slave country that was under the rule of Nicholas I.
The early works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin are also imbued with the idea of romanticism. An example would be “Eugene Onegin” or “The Queen of Spades”.
What do you need to do to look at the world in a new way? Been through an important event, visit an unknown place. But how to get acquainted with a different attitude to life? Gorky's story "Makar Chudra" solves all the questions raised. This early work of the writer goes beyond the scope of a romantic sketch, as it is traditionally considered to be. This creation has philosophical overtones and remains relevant to this day.
Download:
Preview:
Lesson topic: Romanticism of M. Gorky in the story “Makar Chudra”
Lesson objectives:
1.Subject:
- form the concept of neo-romanticism and the new romantic hero on the basis of the familiar concepts of “romanticism”, “romantic hero”;
- develop the ability to analyze works fiction in the unity of form and content;
●develop students’ ability to conduct a discussion and defend their point of view;
●to foster independent thinking;
●form an active civil position, humanistic worldview;
3. Personal:
●development of independence and personal responsibility for one’s actions based on ideas about moral standards, social justice and freedom.
Lesson type: artistic perception lesson.
You go, well, go your own way, without turning to the side.
Go straight ahead. Maybe you won’t lose your life in vain.
That's it, falcon! M. Gorky
During the classes
Teacher: You're on the threshold adult life. And life in society imposes certain responsibilities on an adult. Children are always carriers of certain values. Moving from one community to another, from one team to another, a person brings his own systems of values and requirements into the world of people. Do you know that every action, every desire is reflected in people? Do you check your actions with your consciousness: am I causing harm, trouble, or inconvenience to people? Can I do good unselfishly? And today neo-romanticism is very modern, preaching a return to literature real hero who makes his own choice life path in favor of heroic deeds. It depends only on the person himself how he will live his life - boring, ordinary, uninteresting or bright, sublime, beautiful. And M. Gorky said this very accurately (epigraph).
I. Organizing time. Setting goals and objectives for the lesson.
1. What are our activities today?
2. What are your expectations from our conversation?(Using the AMO technique)
II. Intellectual warm-up:
Interpret the terms:
1.Romanticism – a special type of worldview; at the same time – an artistic direction. Romanticism arose as a kind of reaction to rationalism and unmotivated optimism of classicism.
2. Romantic tradition - historically established customs, orders, and rules of behavior passed on from generation to generation; Name the representatives.
3. Main features of romanticism:
- proclamation human personality, complex, deep;
- affirmation of the inner infinity of human individuality;
- a look at life “through the prism of the heart”;
- interest in everything exotic, strong, bright, sublime;
- attraction to fantasy, conventional forms, a mixture of low and high, comic and tragic, ordinary and unusual;
- painful experience of discord with reality;
- refusal of the ordinary;
- the individual’s desire for absolute freedom, for spiritual perfection, an unattainable ideal, combined with an understanding of the imperfection of the world.
The hero is head and shoulders above other people who find themselves next to him; he rejects their company. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of the romantic, which he most often thinks of as a natural state, because people do not understand it and reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, sea, mountains, coastal rocks. Therefore, so great importance gets in romantic works landscape, devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the most indomitable essence of the element and its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape is thus animated and, as it were, expresses the originality of the hero’s character.
For the romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances is almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic is formed. art world: the principle of romantic dual worlds. The romantic, and therefore ideal, world of the hero is opposed to the real world, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The contrast between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is a fundamental feature of this literary movement.
4.The concept of romanticism;
III.Problem : provide a climate favorable for work in the classroom and psychologically prepare students for communication and the upcoming lesson.
Teacher: Try to draw a portrait of a romantic hero, just do it without a brush and paints, but with the help of words. Will Mtsyri, Makar Chudra and Loiko Zobar be like him?
Conclusion: The portraits may be different, but the similarities between the characters are truly striking. Each of them values freedom above all else; They treat money the same way as Radda, as the last thread that makes them at least temporarily in contact with human society.
IV.Assimilation of new knowledge.
Task : apply various ways activating the mental activity of students, including them in search work.
Work in pairs:
Identify signs of neo-romanticism.
Teacher: determine the features of the portrait of Radda and Loiko. What are they?
What are life values heroes of legend?
Loiko Zobar: “Who was he afraid of!”; “He didn’t have what was cherished - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only you felt good from him”; “With such a person you become a better person” (words of Makar Chudra about Loiko); "…I free man and I will live the way I want!”; “She loves her will more than me, and I love her more than my will...”
Radda: “I’ve never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. And I also love freedom! That’s it, Loiko, I love you more than you.”At the end of the story, Makar Chudra skeptically listens to the narrator - an autobiographical hero. At the end of the work, the narrator sees how the handsome Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of the old soldier Danila,“they circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not keep up with the proud Radda.”The narrator's words reveal author's position- admiration for the beauty of the heroes and their uncompromisingness, the strength of their feelings, an understanding of the impossibility for the romantic consciousness of the futility of such an outcome: after all, even after death, Loiko in his pursuit will not be equal to the proud Radda.
Conclusion: Gorky does not change the tradition of romanticism: through external beauty, he highlights the most important character traits of the hero - the desire for freedom. But, unlike other romantic works, in the story “Makar Chudra” we will not find a detailed verbal portrait, the only thing the author pays attention to is Loiko’s mustache, and about Radda he says that her beauty cannot be described if you only play the violin .
Teacher:
What conflict lies at the heart of the legend?
How is it resolved?
Makar Chudra has in his character the only principle that he believes to be true: a maximalist desire for freedom. The same single principle, brought to its maximum extent, is embodied by the heroes of the legend told by him. For Loiko Zobar, freedom, openness and kindness are also true values. Radda is the highest, exceptional manifestation of pride that even love cannot break.
Makar Chudra is absolutely sure that pride and love are two wonderful feelings, brought by the romantics to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled, because compromise is unthinkable for the romantic consciousness. The conflict between the feeling of love and the feeling of pride that the heroes experience can only be resolved by the death of both:
a romantic cannot sacrifice either love or knowing boundaries, nor absolute pride.
Does the hero-narrator agree with them?
How is his position expressed?
Teacher: How does Bitter create a romantic character? The role of landscape?
Makar Chudra is depicted against the backdrop of a romantic landscape:“A damp, cold wind blew from the sea, carrying across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of an incoming wave and the rustling of coastal bushes. Occasionally his impulses brought with them wrinkled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames; the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment the boundless steppe on the left, the endless sea on the right and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra ... "
The landscape is animated, the sea and the steppe are limitless, emphasizing the boundlessness of the hero’s freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything. The position of the protagonist is already outlined in the exposition; Makar Chudra talks about a person, from his point of view, who is not free:“They are funny, those people of yours. They huddled together and crushed each other. And there’s so much space on earth...”; “Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe clear? Talk sea wave does his heart rejoice? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that’s it!”
Teacher:
The peculiarity of the composition of this story, as already mentioned, is that the author puts a romantic legend into the mouth of the main character. It helps us to better understand his inner world and value system. For Makar Chudra, Loiko and Rudd are ideals of love of freedom. He is sure that two beautiful feelings, pride and love, brought to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled. A person worthy of emulation, in his understanding, must preserve his personal freedom at the cost of his own life. Another feature of the composition of this work is the presence of the image of the narrator. It is almost invisible, but we can easily recognize the author himself in it. He doesn't quite agree with his hero. We do not hear any direct objections to Makar Chudra. The independence and pride of these people, of course, amazes and attracts
They scoff, but these same traits doom them to loneliness and the impossibility of happiness. They are slaves to their freedom, they are not able to sacrifice even for the people they love.
To express the feelings of the characters and his own, the author widely uses the technique of landscape sketches. Seascape is a kind of frame for the whole storyline story. The sea is closely connected with state of mind heroes: at first it is calm, only the “damp, cold wind” carries “across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of a wave running onto the shore and the rustling of coastal bushes.” But then it began to rain, the wind became stronger, and the sea rumbled dully and angrily and sang a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud couple of handsome gypsies. In general, a characteristic feature of this story is its musicality. Music accompanies the entire story about the fate of the lovers. “You can’t say anything about her, this Radda, in words. Perhaps its beauty could be played on a violin, and even then to someone who knows this violin like his own soul.”
Group work: I invite you to think...
Goal: to promote the development of emotional and creative freedom in the group based on solving a common problem.
Examination
Reflection: You define our society. Those, historical events that fill our days. You can overcome doubts only by buildingyour path to the truth. What is it like for you after coming into contact with the fate of M. Gorky’s heroes?
Exercise. Problematic question. Why does the story telling the story of Loiko and Radda bear the name of the narrator - “Makar Chudra”?
Answer . The consciousness and character of Makar Chudra become the main subject of the image. For the sake of this hero, the story was written, and he needs the artistic means used by the author in order to show the hero in all his complexity and inconsistency, in order to explain his strength and weakness. Makar Chudra is at the center of the story and receives the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives him the right to talk about himself, freely expressing his views. The legend he told, while possessing undeniable artistic independence, nevertheless serves primarily as a means of revealing the image of the main character, after whom the work is named.
Current page: 9 (book has 34 pages total) [available reading passage: 23 pages]
Such problematics of Gorky’s epic also determined new artistic forms of its embodiment. One of them was the pairing in each epic work of the artist of two objects of image: objective reality - and consciousness central character, this reality of the perceiver. In particular, the narrator became such a hero (early romantic stories, the cycle “Across Rus'”), main character(“Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”, “Life of Klim Samgin”, autobiographical trilogy). The interaction of these two objects of the image forms the conflict between reality and its perception and, ultimately, the problematic of the work.
Romantic stories of Gorky
In their early works Gorky appears before the reader as a romantic writer. (Clarify your ideas about romanticism as a literary movement.) Romanticism presupposes the affirmation of an exceptional personality, standing alone with the world, approaching reality from the position of its ideal, making exceptional demands on it. The hero is head and shoulders above the people around him; their society is rejected by him. This explains the loneliness that is so typical of the romantic hero, which is most often thought of by him as a natural state, because people do not understand him and do not accept his ideals. The romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the natural world.
Remember the romantic works of Pushkin and Lermontov.
That's why it's so big role plays in romantic works a landscape, usually devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the indomitable power of the elements, its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape, thus, becomes animated and, as it were, emphasizes the originality of the character of the hero. Attempts to bring the romantic hero closer to real world most often unpromising: reality does not accept the romantic ideal of the hero due to its exclusivity.
The relationship between characters and circumstances in romanticism
For the romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances is almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic artistic world is formed - the principle of romantic duality. The romantic, and therefore ideal, world of the hero is opposed to the real world, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is the main feature of this literary movement.
This is how we see the heroes of the early romantic stories Gorky. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader in romantic landscape: he is surrounded by “the darkness of the autumn night,” which “shuddered and, fearfully moving away, revealed for a moment the boundless steppe on the left, and the endless sea on the right.”
Pay attention to the animation of the landscape, to the boundlessness of the sea and the steppe, which seem to emphasize the boundlessness of the hero’s freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything.
A few lines later, Makar Chudra will directly state this position, talking about a person, from his point of view, who is not free: “Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe clear? Does the sound of the sea wave make his heart happy? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that’s it!”
Against the background of a romantic landscape, the old woman Izergil is depicted: “The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving birth to a strong gust, fluttered the women’s hair into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads.”
It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful - that Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil, the main characters of these stories, can realize themselves. Their consciousness and characters, with their sometimes mysterious contradictions, become the main subject of the image. It is for the sake of these heroes that the stories are written, and he needs the artistic means used by the author in order to show the heroes in all their complexity and inconsistency, in order to explain their strength and weakness. Makar Chudra and Izergil, being at the center of the story, receive the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives them the right to talk about themselves, to freely express their views. The legends they tell, while possessing undoubted artistic independence, nevertheless serve primarily as a means of revealing the image of the main character, after whom the work is named.
The legends express the ideas of Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil about the ideal and anti-ideal in man, i.e., the romantic ideal and the anti-ideal are presented. Talking about Danko and Larra, about Radda and Loiko Zobar, Izergil and Chudra talk more about themselves. The author needs these legends so that Izergil and Chudra can express their own views on life in the most accessible form for them. Let's try to determine the main qualities of these characters.
Makar Chudra, like any romantic, has in his character the only beginning which he believes to be valuable: the maximalist desire for freedom. Izergil is sure that her whole life was subordinated to only one thing - love for people. The same single principle, brought to the maximum extent, is embodied by the heroes of the legends told by them. For Loiko Zobar, the highest value is also freedom, openness and kindness. Radda is the highest, exceptional manifestation of pride, which even love for Loiko Zobar cannot break. The insoluble contradiction between two principles in romantic character- love and pride - is thought of by Makar Chudra as completely natural, and it can only be resolved the way it was resolved - by death. The only character trait in its maximum manifestation is carried by Danko and Larra, about whom the old woman Izergil talks. Danko embodies the extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people, Larra - extreme individualism.
Romantic character motivation
Larra's exceptional individualism is due to the fact that he is the son of an eagle, who embodies the ideal of strength and will. There is simply no need to talk about the motivation of the characters of Danko, Radda or Zobar - they are like that in their essence, that’s what they were from the very beginning.
The action of the legends takes place in chronologically indefinite ancient times - this is, as it were, the time preceding the beginning of history, the era of first creations. However, in the present there are traces directly related to that era - these are the blue lights left from Danko’s heart, the shadow of Larra, which Izergil sees; Handsome Loiko and proud Radda circling smoothly and silently in the darkness of the night.
Composition of romantic stories
Composition of the narrative in romantic stories entirely subordinated to one goal: to most fully show the image of the main character, be it Izergil or Makar Chudra. By forcing them to tell the legends of their people, the author presents a system of values, their understanding of the ideal and anti-ideal in human character, shows which personality traits, from the point of view of his heroes, are worthy of respect or contempt. In other words, the heroes thus seem to set a coordinate system, based on which they themselves can be judged.
So, a romantic legend is the most important means of creating the image of the main character. Makar Chudra is absolutely sure that pride and love, two beautiful feelings brought to their highest expression by the romantics, cannot be reconciled, because compromise is generally unthinkable for the romantic consciousness. The conflict between the feeling of love and the feeling of pride that Radda and Loiko Zobar experience can only be resolved by the death of both: a romantic cannot sacrifice either love that knows no boundaries or absolute pride. But love presupposes humility and the mutual ability to submit to the beloved. This is something neither Loiko nor Radda can do.
How does Makar Chudra evaluate this position? He believes that this is how he should perceive life real man worthy of imitation, and that only with such life position You can maintain your own freedom.
But does the author agree with his hero? What is the author's position and what are the artistic means of expressing it? To answer this question we must turn to such an important compositional features Gorky's early romantic stories, like the presence the image of the narrator. In fact, this is one of the most inconspicuous images; it hardly shows itself in action. But it is precisely the look of this man, wandering around Rus' and meeting on his way many of the most different people, is very important for a writer. In the compositional center of any Gorky epic work there will always be a perceiving consciousness - negative, distorting real picture life, or positive, fulfilling being highest meaning and content. It is this perceiving consciousness that is ultimately the most important subject of the image, the criterion for the author’s assessment of reality and the means of expressing the author’s position.
In the later cycle of stories “Across Rus',” Gorky will call the hero-narrator not a passer-by, but passing by emphasizing his caring view of reality. The fate and worldview of the “passing person” reveal the features of Gorky himself. Therefore, many researchers suggest talking about Gorky’s narrator in these stories as autobiographical hero.
It is the close, interested gaze of the autobiographical hero that snatches the most interesting and ambiguous characters from the meetings given to him by fate - they turn out to be the main subject of depiction and research. In them the author sees a manifestation folk character turn of the century, tries to explore its strengths and weaknesses. The author's attitude towards them is admiration for their strength and beauty (as in the story “Makar Chudra”), or poetry, a penchant for aesthetic perception world (as in “Old Woman Izergil”), but at the same time disagreement with their position, the ability to see contradictions in their characters. Such a complex relationship is expressed in stories not directly, but indirectly, using a variety of artistic means.
Makar Chudra only skeptically listens to the objection of the autobiographical hero: what, in fact, their disagreement is remains, as it were, behind the scenes of the narrative. But the end of the story, where the narrator, looking into the darkness of the steppe, sees how the handsome gypsy Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of the old soldier Danila, “were spinning in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda,” reveals him position. These words convey the author’s admiration for their beauty and uncompromisingness, the strength of their feelings, and an understanding of the impossibility of any other resolution to the conflict for the romantic consciousness. At the same time, this is an awareness of the futility of such an outcome of the matter: after all, even after death, Loiko in his pursuit will not be equal to the proud Radda.
The position of the autobiographical hero in “Old Woman Izergil” is more complexly expressed. Creating an image main character, Gorky, through compositional means, gives her the opportunity to present a romantic ideal that expresses highest degree love for people (Danko), and an anti-ideal that embodied individualism and contempt for others brought to its apogee (Larra). The ideal and the anti-ideal, the two romantic poles of the narrative, expressed in legends, set the coordinate system within which Izergil herself wants to place herself. The composition of the story is such that two legends seem to frame the narrative of her own life, which constitutes the ideological center of the narrative. Of course, condemning Larra’s individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and destiny tend more toward Danko’s pole, which embodies the highest ideal of love and self-sacrifice. In fact, her life, like Danko’s life, was entirely devoted to love - the heroine is absolutely sure of this. But the reader immediately draws attention to how easily she forgot her former love for the sake of a new one, how simply she left the people she once loved. They ceased to exist for her when the passion passed.
Her indifference to her once beloved people amazes the narrator: “I left then. And I never met him again. I was happy about this: I never met those I once loved again. These are not good meetings, it’s like meeting dead people.”
In everything - in the portrait, in the author's comments - we see a different point of view on the heroine. It is through the eyes of the autobiographical hero that the reader sees Izergil. Her portrait immediately reveals a very significant aesthetic contradiction. A young girl or a young woman full of strength should be talking about beautiful sensual love. Before us is a very old woman, in her portrait anti-aesthetic features are deliberately intensified: “Time bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched, as if the old woman was speaking with bones.”
Izergil is sure that her life, full of love, passed completely differently from the life of the individualist Larra; she cannot even imagine anything in common with him, but the gaze of the autobiographical hero finds this commonality, paradoxically bringing their portraits closer together. “He has already become like a shadow - it’s time! He lives for thousands of years, the sun dried his body, blood and bones, and the wind scattered them. This is what God can do to a man for pride!..” – Izergil says about Larra. But the narrator sees almost the same features in the ancient old woman Izergil: “I looked into her face. Her black eyes were still dull, they were not revived by the memory. The moon illuminated her dry, cracked lips, her pointed chin with gray hair it also has a wrinkled nose, curved like the beak of an owl. In place of her cheeks there were black pits, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair that had escaped from under the red rag that was wrapped around her head. The skin on the face, neck and hands is all cut up with wrinkles, and with every movement of old Izergil, one could expect that this dry skin would all rip, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand in front of me.”
Everything in the image of Izergil reminds the narrator of Larra - first of all, of course, her individualism, taken to the extreme, almost approaching Larra’s individualism, her antiquity, her stories about people who have long ago passed their circle of life: “And all of them are just pale shadow, and the one they kissed sits next to me, alive, but withered by time, without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire - also almost a shadow,” remember that Larra turned into a shadow.
The fundamental distance between the position of the heroine and the narrator forms the ideological center of the story and determines its problematics. The romantic position, for all its beauty and sublimity, is denied by the autobiographical hero. He shows its futility and affirms the relevance of a more sober, realistic position.
In fact, the autobiographical hero is the only realistic image in Gorky’s early romantic stories. His realism is manifested in the fact that his character and fate reflected the typical circumstances of Russian life in the 1890s. The development of Russia along the capitalist path led to the fact that millions of people were torn from their places, forming an army of tramps, vagabonds, as if “broken out” (B.V. Mikhailovsky) from the previous social framework and have not acquired new strong social ties. Gorky's autobiographical hero belongs to precisely this layer of people.
Despite all the drama of this process, it was positive: the outlook and worldview of the people who set off on a journey through Rus' was incomparably deeper and richer than that of previous generations; completely new aspects of national life were revealed to them. Russia seemed to be getting to know itself through these people. That is why the view of the autobiographical hero is realistic, he can understand the limitations of a purely romantic worldview, which dooms Makar Chudra to loneliness and leads Izergil to complete exhaustion.
What features of romanticism were reflected in “Song of the Falcon” (1895, second edition – 1899)? in "Song of the Petrel" (1901)? How can you determine the genre of these works? What is an allegory? How is the conflict embodied? What is the role of landscape? What are the artistic means of creating images? How is the author's position expressed?
Drama "At the Bottom"
Remember what is unique about drama as a form of literature.
Drama, by its very nature, is meant to be staged. Focus on stage interpretation limits the artist's means of expressing the author's position. Unlike the author of an epic work, he cannot directly express his position - the only exceptions are the author's remarks, which are intended for the reader or actor, but which the viewer will not see. The author's position is expressed in the monologues and dialogues of the characters, in their actions, and in the development of the plot. In addition, the playwright is limited in the volume of the work (the play can run for two, three, or at most four hours) and in the number of characters(all of them must “fit” on stage and have time to realize themselves in the limited time of the performance and the space of the stage).
That is why in drama a special burden falls on conflict, an acute clash between characters over a very significant and significant issue for them. Otherwise, the heroes simply will not be able to realize themselves in the limited volume of drama and stage space. The playwright ties such a knot, when unraveling it, a person shows himself from all sides. At the same time, there cannot be “extra” heroes in a drama - all heroes must be included in the conflict, the movement and course of the play must capture them all. Therefore, sharp conflict situation, playing out in front of the viewer, turns out to be the most important feature of drama as a type of literature.
The subject of depiction in Gorky’s drama “At the Bottom” (1902) is the consciousness of people thrown to the bottom of life as a result of deep social processes. In order to embody such a subject of depiction by stage means, the author needed to find an appropriate situation, an appropriate conflict, as a result of which the contradictions in the consciousness of the night shelters, its strong and weak sides. Is social conflict suitable for this?
Indeed, social conflict is presented on several levels in the play. Firstly, there is a conflict between the owners of the shelter, the Kostylevs, and its inhabitants. It is felt by the characters throughout the play, but it turns out to be static, devoid of dynamics, and non-developing. This happens because the Kostylevs themselves are not so far away from the inhabitants of the shelter in social terms. The relationship between the owners and the inhabitants can only create tension, but not become the basis of a dramatic conflict that can “start” the drama.
In addition, each of the heroes in the past experienced their own social conflict, as a result of which they found themselves at the “bottom” of life, in a shelter.
Remember what brought Satin, Baron, Kleshch, Bubnov, Actor, Nastya, and other heroes to the Kostylevs’ shelter. Try to reconstruct the backstory of these characters.
But these social conflicts are fundamentally taken off stage, pushed into the past and therefore do not become the basis of a dramaturgical conflict. We see only the result of social turmoil, which had such a tragic impact on people’s lives, but not these clashes themselves.
The presence of social tension is indicated already in the title of the play. After all, the very fact of the existence of the “bottom” of life also presupposes the presence of a “rapid stream,” its upper course, to which the characters strive. But this cannot become the basis of a dramatic conflict - after all, this tension is also devoid of dynamics, all attempts of the heroes to leave the “bottom” turn out to be futile. Even the appearance of the policeman Medvedev does not give impetus to the development of the dramatic conflict.
Perhaps the drama is orchestrated by a traditional love conflict? Indeed, such a conflict is present in the play. It is determined by the relationships between Vaska Pepla, Vasilisa, Kostylev’s wife, the owner of the shelter and Natasha.
Follow the development of the love plot in the drama “At the Bottom.”
The exposition of the love plot is the appearance of Kostylev in the rooming house and the conversation of the roommates, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the rooming house, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash. The beginning of the love conflict is the appearance of Natasha in the shelter, for whose sake Ashes leaves Vasilisa. As the love conflict develops, it becomes clear that the relationship with Natasha enriches Ash and revives him to a new life.
Follow the evolution that the hero experiences under the influence of his relationship with Natasha.
Climax The love conflict is fundamentally moved off stage: we do not see exactly how Vasilisa scalds Natasha with boiling water, we only learn about it from the noise and screams behind the stage and the conversations of the roomies. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be the tragic outcome of a love conflict.
Of course, a love conflict is also a facet of a social conflict. He shows that the anti-human conditions of the “bottom” cripple a person, and the most sublime feelings, even love, lead not to personal enrichment, but to death, mutilation and hard labor. Having thus unleashed a love conflict, Vasilisa emerges victorious and achieves all her goals at once: she takes revenge ex-lover Vaska Pepl and his rival Natasha, gets rid of her unloved husband and becomes the sole mistress of the shelter. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and her moral impoverishment shows monstrosity social conditions, in which both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners are immersed.
But a love conflict cannot organize stage action and become the basis of a dramatic conflict, if only because, unfolding before the eyes of the night shelters, it does not affect them themselves. They are keenly interested in the ups and downs of these relationships, but do not participate in them, remaining only outside spectators. Consequently, a love conflict also does not create a situation that could form the basis of a dramatic conflict.
Let us repeat once again: the subject of the image in Gorky’s play is not only and not so much social contradictions reality or possible ways their permissions; he is interested in the consciousness of the night shelters in all its contradictions. This type of image is typical for the genre philosophical drama. Moreover, he also demands non-traditional forms artistic expression: traditional external action(event series) gives way to the so-called internal action. Everyday life is reproduced on stage: minor quarrels occur between night shelters, some of the characters appear and disappear. But these circumstances are not the plot-shaping ones. Philosophical issues force the playwright to transform traditional forms dramas: the plot is manifested not in the actions of the characters, but in their dialogues; Gorky translates the dramatic action into an extra-event series.
In the exhibition we see people who, in essence, have come to terms with their tragic situation at the bottom of their lives. The beginning of the conflict is the appearance of Luke. Outwardly, it does not affect the lives of the shelters in any way, but in their minds hard work begins. Luka immediately becomes the center of their attention, and the entire development of the plot is concentrated on him. In each of the heroes he sees bright sides his personality, finds the key and approach to each of them. And this produces a true revolution in the lives of the heroes. Development internal action begins at the moment when the heroes discover in themselves the ability to dream about new and better life.
It turns out that those bright sides that Luke guessed in each character in the play constitute his true essence. It turns out that the prostitute Nastya dreams of beautiful and bright love; The actor, a drunken man, remembers his creativity and seriously thinks about returning to the stage; “hereditary” thief Vaska Pepel finds in himself a desire for an honest life, wants to go to Siberia and become a strong master there. Dreams reveal the true human essence of Gorky's heroes, their depth and purity. This is how another facet of the social conflict manifests itself: the depth of the heroes’ personality, their noble aspirations find themselves in blatant contradiction with their current social status. The structure of society is such that a person does not have the opportunity to realize his true essence.
Find confirmation of this in the text of the play. Show the dreams of other heroes. Is each of them ready to respond to Luke's words? What is Bubnov's position? Why does he refuse to dream?
From the first moment of his appearance in the shelter, Luka refuses to see the shelters as swindlers. “I respect swindlers too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: they’re all black, they all jump,” he says, justifying his right to call his new neighbors “honest people” and rejecting Bubnov’s objection: “I was honest, Yes, the spring before last.” The origins of this position are in Luke’s naive anthropologism, which believes that a person is initially good and only social circumstances make him bad and imperfect.
How can you prove this with text? How does Luke's story of how he guarded the dacha confirm his belief in the inherent goodness of every person? Why did the crooks break into his house and want to rob him? How did Luke punish them? How did their relationship develop further? Why, according to Luke and in their own words, did they become thieves? Do you think it is possible to re-educate them as easily as Luke did?
This parable story by Luke clarifies the reason for his warm and friendly attitude towards all people - including those who find themselves at the “bottom” of life.
What are the artistic means of creating the image of Luke? What's happened speech characteristic? How does Luke's speech characterize him? What proverbs and sayings does he use? What role do the author’s remarks play in creating his image? How does Luke characterize his sermon? What characteristics does he receive from other heroes after his disappearance? What is self-characteristic? What is Luke's self-characteristic? How is his philosophical position justified? What role does the parable of the righteous land told by him play in its justification? How does it relate to the fate of the Actor? How is the author's position revealed in this relationship? Does Gorky agree with his hero or is there a tense argument between them throughout the play?
Luke's position appears very complex in the drama, and author's attitude looks ambiguous towards him. On the one hand, Luke is absolutely unselfish in his preaching and in his desire to awaken in people the best, hitherto hidden sides of their nature, which they did not even suspect - they contrast so strikingly with their position at the very bottom of society. He sincerely wishes the best to his interlocutors and shows real ways to achieve a new, better life. And under the influence of his words, the heroes really experience a metamorphosis. The actor stops drinking and saves money in order to go to a free hospital for alcoholics, not even suspecting that he does not need it: the dream of returning to creativity gives him the strength to overcome his illness. Ash subordinates his life to the desire to leave with Natasha for Siberia and get back on his feet there. The dreams of Nastya and Anna, Kleshch's wife, are completely illusory, but these dreams also give them the opportunity to feel happier. Nastya imagines herself as a heroine of pulp novels, showing in her dreams of the non-existent Raoul or Gaston feats of self-sacrifice of which she is truly capable; dying Anna, dreaming of afterlife, also partly escapes from the feeling of hopelessness. Only Bubnov and Baron, people completely indifferent to others and even to themselves, remain deaf to Luke’s words.
Luka’s position is revealed by the dispute about what truth is that he had with Bubnov and Baron, when the latter mercilessly exposes Nastya’s baseless dreams about Raul: “Here... you say - the truth... It is true - not always because of a person’s illness... You can’t always cure a soul with truth…” In other words, Luke affirms the charity of a comforting lie for a person. But is it only lies that Luke asserts?
Our literary criticism has long been dominated by the concept according to which Gorky unequivocally rejects Luke’s comforting sermon. But the writer's position is more complicated.
In fact, is Luke lying when he shows Ash and Natasha the path to an honest life? Is he lying when he gives the Actor confidence in his strength? And if he convinces Anna of the existence of an afterlife (which, in essence, also cannot be considered a lie, but is a matter of faith and religious beliefs), then are his words really so bad - aren’t there more humanity in them than in despair? The mite and vulgarity of Baron and Bubnov? How would you answer these questions yourself?
The author's position is expressed primarily in the development of the plot. After Luke leaves, everything happens completely differently from what the heroes expected and what Luke convinced them of. Vaska Pepel will indeed go to Siberia, but not as a free settler, but as a convict convicted of the murder of Kostylev. The actor, who has lost faith in his own abilities, will exactly repeat the fate of the hero of the parable about the righteous land, told by Luke. Trusting the hero to tell this plot, Gorky himself will beat him in the fourth act, drawing exactly the opposite conclusions. Luke, having told a parable about a man who, having lost faith in the existence of a righteous land, hanged himself, believes that a person should not be deprived of hope, even illusory. Gorky, through the fate of the Actor, assures the reader and viewer that it is false hope that can lead a person to a noose. But let’s return to the previous question: how did Luka deceive the inhabitants of the shelter?
The actor accuses him of not leaving the address of the free hospital. All the heroes agree that the hope that Luke instilled in their souls is false. But he did not promise to bring them out of the bottom of life - he simply supported their timid faith that there was a way out and that it was not closed to them. The self-confidence that awoke in the minds of the night shelters turned out to be too fragile and with the disappearance of the hero who was able to support it, it immediately faded away. The whole point is in the weakness of the heroes, in their inability and unwillingness to do at least a little in order to resist the ruthless social circumstances that doom them to existence in the Kostylevs' shelter.
Therefore, the author addresses the main accusation not to Luke, but to the heroes who are unable to find the strength to oppose their will to reality. So Gorky manages to open one of the characteristic features Russian national character: dissatisfaction with reality, a sharply critical attitude towards it and a complete unwillingness to do anything to change this reality. That is why Luke finds such a warm response in their hearts: after all, he explains the failures of their lives by external circumstances and is not at all inclined to blame the heroes themselves for their failed lives. And the thought of trying to somehow change these circumstances does not occur to either Luke or his flock. That is why the heroes experience Luke’s departure so dramatically: the hope awakened in their souls cannot find internal support in their characters; they will always need external support, even from such a helpless person in a practical sense as the “patchless” Luka.
The role of landscape in early romantic stories
Maxim Gorky.
In his early works, Maxim Gorky appears as a romantic. Romanticism presupposes the affirmation of an exceptional personality, confronting the world one on one, approaching reality from the standpoint of his ideal, making exceptional demands on others. The hero is head and shoulders above other people who find themselves next to him; he rejects their company. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of the romantic, which he most often thinks of as a natural state, because people do not understand it and reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, sea, mountains, coastal rocks.
“A damp, cold wind blew from the sea, carrying across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of a wave running onto the shore and the rustling of coastal bushes. Occasionally his gusts brought with them wrinkled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames; the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment the boundless steppe on the left, the endless sea on the right, and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra, an old gypsy...” (Gorky M. Selected Stories, Essays, Plays. - M., 1983.)
That is why the landscape, devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the most indomitable essence of the element and its beauty and exclusivity, receives such great importance in romantic works. The landscape is thus animated and, as it were, expresses the originality of the hero’s character.
“The sea continued to whisper with the shore, and the wind still carried its whisper across the steppe”;
“The sea quietly echoed the beginning of one of the ancient legends that may have been created on its shores”;
“The sea sounded dull and sad.” (Gorky M. Selected Stories, Essays, Plays. - M., 1983.)
For the romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances is almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic artistic world is formed: the principle of romantic duality. The romantic, and therefore ideal, world of the hero is opposed to the real world, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The contrast between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is a fundamental feature of this literary movement.
This is exactly how we see the heroes of Gorky’s early romantic stories: “Old Woman Izergil”, “Makar Chudra”. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader precisely in a romantic landscape: he is surrounded by “the darkness of the autumn night,” which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment the boundless steppe on the left, the endless sea on the right.”
So, the landscape is animated, the sea and the steppe are endless, they emphasize the boundlessness of the heroes’ freedom, their inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything. A little later, Makar Chudra will directly state this position, speaking about a person who, from his point of view, is not free: “Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe clear? Does the sound of the sea wave make his heart happy? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that’s it!” (Gorky M. Selected Stories, Essays, Plays. - M., 1983.)
In the romantic landscape, the heroine of another story, the old woman Izergil, appears before us: “The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible, and, giving birth to a strong gust, fluttering the women’s hair into fantastic manes billowing around their heads . This made women strange and fabulous. They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully.” (Gorky M. Selected Stories, Essays, Plays. - M., 1983.)
It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful - that Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil, the main characters of these stories, can realize themselves. Their consciousness, their character, its sometimes mysterious contradictions turn out to be the main subject of the image. The landscape is introduced to explore the complex and contradictory characters of the heroes, their strengths and weaknesses.
Characteristic features of the romantic poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov.
What themes and issues are important to the Romantic Poet?
Lermontov's lyrics and poems “Demon” and “Mtsyri” became the pinnacle of the development of Russian romanticism. Romanticism presupposes the affirmation of an exceptional personality, standing alone with the world, approaching reality from the position of its ideal, making exceptional demands on it. The hero is head and shoulders above the people around him; their society is rejected by him. This explains the loneliness that is so typical of the romantic hero, which is most often thought of by him as a natural state, because people do not understand him and do not accept his ideals. The romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the natural world. The soul of a romantic is directed beyond the boundaries of boring reality. A characteristic romantic dual world arises.
The romantic hero of Lermontov retains the most important signs in his works different years. The motif of loneliness is embodied in the youthful poem “Sail” (1832). The same motive is heard with almost unchanged intonations in one of Lermontov’s last poems, “The Leaf” (1841). It is interesting, however, that in “Sail” the dream of the romantic soul was a storm, and in a later poem “An oak leaf tore itself from its native branch / And rolled off into the steppe, driven by a cruel storm...” Now the indifferent world denies him the desired peace. The world is hostile to romance in all its forms. His soul cannot rest on anything. The hero is sad, mourns and suffers. Similar sentiments permeate the poems “Clouds” (1840), “Cliff” (1841). The poem “Three Palms” (1840) develops the idea of total discord with the world in plot form. Lonely but beautiful palm trees grumble that their beauty and capabilities are wasted without benefit to people. But the meeting with people becomes fatal: “And now everything is wild and empty all around - / The leaves with the rattling key do not whisper...”
In the works listed above, nature is personified, nature is the source of images, but the subject of the image, the object of attention, is, of course, the human soul. Lermontov addresses the world of human relations directly. The poems “Both boring and sad”, “How often, surrounded by a motley crowd...” (1840) express world grief. Nothing in the world where the hero is forced to be can be a source of joy:
Images of soulless people flash, masks pulled together with decency...
And a look into the depths of one’s own soul convinces that “joy, and torment, and everything there is insignificant...”.
Still, nature, at least sometimes, is for the poet a source of impressions that ease the soul, reconciling him, at least for a short time, with the world of people and with the higher world. This concept is the basis of the figurative system of the poem “When the yellowing field is agitated...” (1837). Communication with nature humbles the hero’s soul, which rebels against the imperfections of life:
And I can comprehend happiness on earth,
And in heaven I see God.
The theme of love is resolved in a very unique way in Lermontov's lyrics. The look at her is also generally influenced by a romantic attitude. In search of, if not perfection (it is impossible), then at least a moment of peace and oblivion, the romantic hero of the poem “How often, surrounded by a motley crowd...” turns to the past, memories of youthful love. However, even then he also loved not so much a real girl as “the creation of my dreams.” This is stated quite frankly in the poem “No, it’s not you I love so ardently...” (1841). Love is understood as a fatal battle of proud souls, a dramatic clash strong characters, the struggle of lonely and irreconcilable rivals.
