“Distinctive features of the romantic images of Maxim Gorky. Early romantic works of M

Purpose of the lesson: to introduce students to the milestones of Gorky’s biography and creativity; show the features of Gorky's romanticism. To trace how the writer’s intention is revealed in the composition of the stories.

Methodological techniques: abstract, lecture, analytical conversation, expressive reading.

Lesson equipment: portrait and photographs of A.M. Gorky from different years.

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Progress of the lesson.

The teacher's water word.

The name of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky (Peshkov) is known to everyone in our country. Several generations have studied his work since school. Certain ideas have developed about Gorky: he is the founder of the literature of socialist realism, the “petrel of the revolution,” a literary critic and publicist, the initiator of the creation and first chairman of the Union of Writers of the USSR.

Abstract on the biography of Gorky.

Characteristics of the early stage of the writer’s creativity.

Gorky's early stories are romantic in nature.

Romanticism is a special type of creativity, the characteristic feature of which is the display and reproduction of life outside the real concrete connections of a person with the surrounding reality, the image of an exceptional individual, often lonely and not satisfied with the present, striving for a distant ideal and therefore in sharp conflict with society, with people .

At the center of Gorky's narrative is usually a romantic hero - a proud, strong, freedom-loving, lonely man, the destroyer of the sleepy vegetation of the majority. The action takes place in an unusual, often exotic setting: in a gypsy camp, in communication with the elements, with the natural world - the sea, mountains, coastal cliffs. Often the action is transferred to legendary times.

The distinctive features of Gorky's romantic images are proud disobedience to fate and daring love of freedom, integrity of nature and heroic character. The romantic hero strives for unfettered freedom, without which there is no true happiness for him and which is often dearer to him than life itself. The romantic stories embody the writer's observations of the contradictions of the human soul and the dream of beauty.

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 world is formed: the principle of romantic duality. The ideal world of the hero is opposed to the real, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between the romantic and the world around him is a fundamental feature of this literary movement.

These are precisely the heroes of Gorky’s early romantic stories.

The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader in a romantic landscape.

Give examples to prove this.

The hero is surrounded by “cold waves of wind,” “the darkness of the autumn night,” which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment a boundless steppe on the left, and an endless sea on the right.” Let us pay attention to the animation of the landscape, to its breadth, which symbolizes the boundlessness of the hero’s freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything.

The main character of the story “Old Woman Izergil” (1894) also appears in the romantic landscape: “The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving rise to strong gusts, fluttered the women’s hair into fantastic manes billowing around them. heads This made women strange and fabulous. They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully.”

In the story “Chelkash” (1894), the seascape is described several times. In the light of the hot sun: “The waves of the sea, chained in granite, are suppressed by huge weights sliding along their ridges, hitting the sides of ships, the shores, beating and grumbling, foamed, polluted with various rubbish.” And on a dark night: “thick layers of shaggy clouds moved across the sky, the sea was calm, black and thick, like oil. It breathed a damp, salty aroma and sounded tenderly, splashing against the sides of the ships, on the shore, slightly rocking Chelkash’s boat. The dark skeletons of ships rose from the sea to a distant space from the shore, piercing into the sky sharp dreams with multi-colored lanterns on top. The sea reflected the lights of the lanterns and was dotted with a mass of yellow spots. They fluttered beautifully on his velvet, soft, matte black. The sea slept in the healthy, sound sleep of a worker who was very tired during the day.”

Let us pay attention to the extensive metaphorical nature of Gorky’s style and the vivid sound design.

It is in such a landscape – seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful – that Gorky’s heroes can realize themselves. It is said about Chelkash: “At sea, a wide, warm feeling always rose in him - embracing his entire soul, it cleansed him a little from everyday filth. He appreciated this and loved to see himself as the best here, among the water and air, where thoughts about life and life itself always lose - the former - their sharpness, the latter - their value. At night, the soft sound of his sleepy breath flutters over the sea, this immense sound infuses calm into a person’s soul and, gently taming its evil impulses, gives birth to powerful dreams in it...”

Conversation on the romantic stage of M. Gorky's work.

What are the main character traits of Gorky's romantic heroes?

(Makar Chudra has in his character the only principle that he considers most valuable: the desire for freedom. The same principle is in the character of Chelkash with “his ebullient, nervous nature, greedy for impressions.” The author introduces Chelkash to the reader as follows: “an old poisoned wolf, good familiar to the Havana people, an avid drunkard and a clever, brave thief.” A distinctive feature of Izergil is her confidence that her whole life was subordinated to love for people, but freedom was above all else for her.

The heroes of legends, the old women Izergil - Danko and Larra - also embody a single trait: Larra is extreme individualism, Danko is an extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people.)

What is the motivation of the characters' characters?

(Danko, Rada, Zobar, Chelkash are like this in their essence, like this from the very beginning.

Larra is the son of an eagle, embodying the ideal of strength and will. Let us pay attention to the unusual and sonorous nature of the characters’ names.

The action of the legends takes place in ancient times - it is as if the time preceded the beginning of history, the era of first creations. Therefore, in the present there are traces directly related to that era - these are the blue lights left from Danko’s heart, the shadow of Lara that Izergil sees, the images of Rada and Loiko Zobar, woven before the narrator’s gaze in the darkness of the night.)

What is the meaning of the contrast between Danko and Lara?

(Larra is likened to a mighty beast: “He was dexterous, predatory, strong, cruel and did not meet people face to face”; “he had no tribe, no mother, no cattle, no wife, and he did not want any of this” As the years pass, it turns out that this son of an eagle and a woman was deprived of a heart: “Larra wanted to stab himself with a knife, but the knife broke - as if they had struck a stone with it. The punishment that befell him is terrible and natural - to be a shadow: “He does not understand a word. people, nor their actions - nothing.” The image of Lara embodies an anti-human essence.

Danko carries within himself an inexhaustible love for those who were like animals, like wolves, surrounding him, so that it would be easier for them to capture and kill Danko. One desire possessed him - to displace darkness, cruelty, fear of the dark forest from their consciousness, from there “something terrible, dark and cold was looking at those walking.” Danko’s heart caught fire and burned to dispel the darkness not only of the forest, but also of the soul. The saved people did not pay attention to the proud heart that fell nearby, and one cautious person noticed this and, fearing something, stepped on the proud heart with his foot.”

Let's think about what the cautious man was afraid of.

Let us note the symbolic parallels: light and darkness, sun and swamp cold, fiery heart and stone flesh.

Selfless service to people is contrasted with Lara's individualism and expresses the ideal of the writer himself.)

V. Conversation.

The composition (construction of a work of art) is subordinated to one goal - to most fully reveal the image of the main character, who is the exponent of the author's idea.

How are the images of the heroes revealed in the composition?

(The composition “Makar Chudra” and “Old Women Izergil” is a story within a story. This technique is often found in literature. By telling the legends of their people, the heroes of the stories express their ideas about people, about what they consider valuable and important in life. They seem to create coordinates by which one can judge about them.

Portrait characteristics play an important role in the composition. The portrait of the Rada is given indirectly. We learn about her extraordinary beauty from the reactions of the people whom she amazed. (Description of the Rada.) The proud Rada rejected both the money and the offer to marry the tycoon. Pride and beauty are equal in this heroine.

But Loiko’s portrait is drawn in detail. (Description of Loiko.)

- What is the conflict in the work and how is it resolved?

(Talking about the love of Rada and Loiko, Makar Chudra believes that this is the only way a real person should perceive life, only this way one could preserve one’s own freedom. The conflict between love and pride is resolved by the death of both -

no one wanted to submit to their loved one.)

(The image of the narrator is one of the most inconspicuous; he usually remains in the shadows. But the look of this person traveling around Rus', meeting with different people, is very important. The perceiving consciousness (the hero-narrator) is the most important subject of the image, the criterion of the author’s assessment of reality, a means expressions of the author’s position. The narrator’s interested gaze selects the most striking characters, the most significant, from his point of view, episodes and tells about them. This is the author’s assessment - admiration for strength, beauty, poetry, pride.)

(In “The Old Woman Izergil” the author juxtaposes in the legends the ideal that expresses love for people, self-sacrifice, and the anti-ideal, individualism taken to the extreme. These two legends seem to frame the narrative of the life of the old woman Izergil herself. Condemning Lara, the heroine thinks that her fate is closer to Danko - she is also dedicated to love. But from the stories about herself, the heroine appears rather cruel: she easily forgot her old love for the sake of a new one, her indifference is striking.)

What role does the portrait of Old Woman Izergil play in the composition?

(The portrait of the heroine is contradictory. From her stories one can imagine how beautiful she was in her youth. But the portrait of the old woman is almost disgusting, anti-aesthetic features are deliberately intensified. (Description of the Old Woman.) The features of the portrait of Lara bring these heroes together. (Description of Lara.))

How do romanticism and realism compare in the story?

(The autobiographical hero is the only realistic image in Gorky’s early romantic stories. His realism lies in the fact that his character and fate reflected the typical circumstances of Russian life in the 1890s. The development of capitalism led to the fact that millions of people were torn from their places, many of whom they made up an army of tramps, vagabonds, who had lost touch with their past life and had not found a place for themselves in new conditions. Gorky’s autobiographical hero belongs to such people.)

How does the composition reveal the image of the romantic hero in the story “Chelkash”?

(Formally, the story consists of a prologue and three parts. The prologue outlines the scene of action - the port: “The ringing of anchor chains, the roar of clutches of cars delivering cargo, the metallic scream of iron sheets falling from somewhere on the stone pavement, the dull knock of wood, the rattling of cab carts, the whistles of steamships, then dull roars, the cries of loaders, sailors and customs soldiers - all these sounds merge into the deafening music of a working day...”Let us note the techniques with which this picture is created: first of all, sound writing (assonance and alliteration) and non-union, which gives dynamism to the description.)

What is the role of the portrait of the characters in the story?

(The portrait of the hero in the first part reveals his character: “dry and angular hands, covered with brown skin”; “tangled black and gray hair”; “crumpled, sharp, predatory face”; “long, bony, slightly stooped”; with a “hunchbacked , predatory

nose" and "cold gray eyes." The author directly writes about his similarity “with the steppe hawk in his predatory thinness and this aiming gait, smooth and calm in appearance, but internally excited and vigilant, as old as the bird of prey that he resembled.”)

What is the meaning of the word "predator"?

(Let us note how many times the epithet “predatory” was encountered. Obviously, it reveals the essence of the hero. Let us remember how often Gorky likens his heroes to birds - an eagle, a falcon, a hawk.)

What is Gavrila's role in the story?

(Chelkash is contrasted with Gavrila, a rustic village guy. The portrait of Gavrila is constructed in contrast with the portrait of Chelkash himself: “childish blue eyes” look “trusting and good-natured”, movements are clumsy, his mouth is either wide open, or “slaps his lips.” Chelkash feels like the master of life Gavrila, who fell into his wolf's clutches, is mixed with a fatherly feeling. Looking at Gavrila, Chelkash recalls his village past: “He felt lonely, torn out and thrown out forever from the order of life in which the blood that flows into him was developed. veins.")

When does the denouement of the story “Chelkash” take place?

(In the third part, in the dialogue between Chelkash and Gavrila, it finally becomes clear how different these people are. For the sake of profit, the cowardly and greedy Gavrila is ready for humiliation, crime, murder: he almost killed Chelkash. Gavrila evokes contempt and disgust in Chelkash.Finally, the author separates the characters like this: Gavrila “took off his wet cap, crossed himself, looked at the money clutched in his palm, sighed freely and deeply, hid it in his bosom and with wide, firm steps walked along the bank in the direction opposite to where Chelkash had disappeared.”.)

VI Questions on the early romantic stories of M. Gorky.

How do you understand the principle of “romantic dual worlds” in Gorky’s works?
What are the features of landscape in Gorky's early romantic stories? What is the role of landscape?
How do you understand the words of the heroine of Gorky’s story “Old Woman Izergil”: “And I see that people are not living, but everyone is trying on”?
What was the “cautious man” from the story “Old Woman Izergil” afraid of when he stepped on Danko’s “proud heart”?
What literary characters can this “cautious man” be compared to?
What is the ideal of a person in Gorky's early romantic stories?
What do you think is the meaning of contrasting Gorky’s heroes – Chelkash and Gavrila?
What do you see as the features of Gorky’s romanticism?

Lesson topic: M. Gorky “Old Woman Izergil”, “Makar Chudra”. Romantic pathos of early creativity

Objective of the lesson: continue to introduce students to the life and work of M. Gorky.

Lesson objectives: show the artistic originality of the writer’s early romantic works; introduce early romantic stories “Old Woman Izergil”, “Makar Chudra”, “On the Salt”, “The Birth of Man”;

Develop analytical and imaginative thinking, memory, speech;

Foster humanism and respect for the human person; to form aesthetic taste and a reading culture.

Lesson progress

I . Organizational stage

II . Update

1. Conversation

How can one explain the pseudonym that A.M. took? Peshkov, starting to publish his works?

Witness what historical events of the endXIX– started XXcentury became Gorky? What was the writer's attitude towards these events?

2. “Literary Pantry.” Creative work to repeat what you have learned “Catch a mistake” (critical thinking skills when solving problems). There are errors in the literature questions, find them.

1. Dates of life of the writer and doctor A.P. Chekhov 1860-1904 – Yes

2. The 1898 trilogy “Man in a Case”, “Gooseberry”, “About Love” brought fame to Leonid Andreev - No, A.P. Chekhov

3. Who is to blame (or what is to blame) for the fact that the young, full of strength and vitality Dmitry Startsev is turning into Danko. - No, in Ionycha, the environment is stuck, it’s difficult to remain a person, even knowing what he should be.

4. Kuprin’s personality in the memoirs of contemporaries “Young, similar to a young Bacchus, quiet, slow, stocky, with a bull’s neck and strong arms, muscular, pleasant” - Yes.

5. “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! - these are lines from the story of I.A. Bunin "Easy Breathing" – No, from the story of A.I. Kuprin "Garnet Bracelet".

6. The critic Adamovich said about Bunin: “With age, he became more beautiful and, as it were, more thoroughbred. Gray hair suited him. Something majestic, Roman senatorial appeared in his appearance. He was extremely smart." Yes.

7. Olya Meshcherskaya is the main character of the story “Dark Alleys”. – No, “Easy Breathing”

8. Maxim Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod, in the family of a cabinetmaker. - Yes

9. L. Andreev’s creative path began with the publication in September 1892 of the story “Makar Chudra” in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus”. – No, M. Gorky

10. M. Gorky’s early romantic stories include “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”. Yes.

11. In the story “Judas Iscariot” three parts are clearly distinguished: the legend of Larra, Izergil’s story about his life and the legend of Danko. - No, in the story “Old Woman Izergil.”

12. Died in Finland in 1919 from a heart attack with deep homesickness “No Russia. There is no creativity either” Leonid Andreev. - Yes.

13. In 1933, the first Russian poet A.I. received the Nobel Prize. Kuprin. - No, I.A. Bunin.

14. “Son of an eagle and a woman. He had no tribe, no mother, no cattle, no wife, and he didn’t want it.” Danko. - No, Larra.

15. Maxim Gorky, member of the Imperial Academy, chairman of the First All-Union Congress of Writers, awarded the Order of Lenin. - Yes.

III . Formation of new concepts and methods of action.

3. Teacher's word

You and I know that the writer’s creative path began with the publication of the story “Makar Chudra” in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” in September 1892. At the same time, a literary pseudonym appeared - Maxim Gorky. In 1895, the story “Old Woman Izergil” was published. Gorky was immediately noticed, and enthusiastic responses appeared in the press.

Gorky's early stories are romantic in nature.

Remember what romanticism is. Name the romantic features of the stories you read.

Romanticism – an artistic method, the characteristic feature of which is the display and reproduction of life outside the real-specific connections of a person with the surrounding reality, the image of an exceptional personality, often lonely and not satisfied with the present, striving for a distant ideal and therefore in sharp conflict with society, with people.

At the center of the narrative in Gorky's early works is usually a romantic hero - a proud, strong, freedom-loving, lonely man, the destroyer of the sleepy vegetation of the majority. About Loika Zobar, for example, it is said: “With such a person you become a better person.” The action takes place in an unusual, often exotic setting: in a gypsy camp, in communication with the elements, with the natural world: sea, mountains, coastal cliffs. Often the action is transferred to legendary times. (Let us remember the romantic works of Pushkin and Lermontov.)

The distinctive features of Gorky's romantic images are proud disobedience to fate and daring love of freedom, integrity of nature and heroic character. Romantic hero strives To unfettered freedom, without which there is no true happiness for him and which is often dearer to him than life itself.

Romantic stories embody the dream of beauty and the writer’s observations of the contradictions of the human soul. Makar Chudra says: “They are funny, those people of yours. They are huddled together and crushing each other, and there is so much space on earth...” Old woman Izergil almost echoes him: “And I see that people are not living, but everyone is trying on.”

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 ideal world of the hero is opposed to the real, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between the romantic and the world around him is a fundamental feature of this literary movement.

These are precisely the heroes of Gorky’s early romantic stories. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader in a romantic landscape.

Give examples to prove your words.

The hero is surrounded by “cold waves of wind”, “the darkness of the autumn night”, which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment a boundless steppe on the left, an endless sea on the right.”

Let us pay attention to the animation of the landscape, to its breadth, which symbolizes the boundlessness of the hero’s freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything.

The main character of the story “Old Woman Izergil” also appears in the romantic landscape: “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. This made women strange and fabulous. They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully.”

Let us pay attention to the extensive metaphorical nature of Gorky’s style and the vivid sound design.

It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful - that Gorky's heroes can realize themselves.

What are the main character traits of Gorky's romantic heroes?

Makar Chudra has in his character the only principle that he considers most valuable: the maximalist desire for freedom.

A distinctive feature of Izergil is her confidence that her whole life was subordinated to love for people, but freedom was above all for her.

The heroes of the legends told by Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil also embody the desire for freedom. Freedom and freedom are more valuable to them than anything in the world.

Radda is the highest, exceptional manifestation of pride, which even love for Loiko Zobar cannot break: “I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. And I also love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love more than you.” The insoluble contradiction between two principles in a romantic character - love and pride - is considered by Makar Chudra as completely natural, and it can only be resolved by death.

The heroes of the legends of the old woman Izergil - Danko and Larra - also embody a single trait: Larra is extreme individualism, Danko is an extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people.

What is the motivation of the characters' characters?

Danko, Radda, Zobar are like this in their essence, like this from the very beginning. Larra is the son of an eagle, embodying the ideal of strength and will. Let us pay attention to the unusual and sonorous nature of the characters’ names.

The action of the legends takes place in ancient times - it is as if the time preceded the beginning of history, the era of first creations. Therefore, 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 that Izergil sees, the images of Radda and Loiko Zobar, woven before the narrator’s gaze in the darkness of the night.

What is the meaning of the contrast between Danko and Larra?

Larra is likened to a mighty beast: “He was dexterous, predatory, strong, cruel and did not meet people face to face”; “He had no tribe, no mother, no cattle, no wife, and he didn’t want any of this.” As the years pass, it turns out that this son of an “eagle and a woman” was deprived of a heart: “Larra wanted to stab himself with a knife, but “the knife broke - it was as if they had hit a stone with it.” The punishment that befell him is terrible and natural - to be a shadow: “He understands neither the speech of people, nor their actions - nothing.” The image of Larra embodies an anti-human essence.

Danko carries within himself an inexhaustible love for those who are “like wolves” who surrounded him, “to make it easier for them to capture and kill Danko.” One desire possessed him - to oust from their consciousness the darkness, cruelty, fear of the dark forest, from where “something terrible, dark and cold was looking at those walking.”

Danko’s heart caught fire and burned to dispel the darkness not only of the forest, but also of the soul. The rescued people did not pay attention to the “proud heart” that had fallen nearby, and one “cautious person noticed this and, fearing something, stepped on the proud heart with his foot.”

What do you think the “cautious man” was afraid of?

Pay attention to the symbolic parallels: light and darkness, sun and swamp cold, fiery heart and stone flesh.

Selfless service to people is contrasted with Larra’s individualism and expresses the ideal of the writer himself.

IV . Application. Formation of skills and abilities

4. Creative matching task to test knowledge of the text of the story “Old Woman Izergil”

“And this young man, rejected, thrown out, laughed after the people who abandoned him, laughed, remaining alone, free, like his father. But his father was not a man. And this one was a man.” – Larra

“Young handsome man. Beautiful people are always brave. He is the best of all, because a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes” - Danko

“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” - Old Woman Izergil

“He has now become like a shadow. 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!...” - the legend of Larra

“But one day a thunderstorm burst over the forest, the trees whispered dully, menacingly. And then it became so dark in the forest, as if all the nights had gathered in it at once, how many there were in the world...” - the legend of Danko

“The old woman was dozing. I looked at her and thought: “How many more fairy tales and memories remain in her memory?” - Old woman Izergil

“Perhaps its beauty can be played on a violin, and even then by someone who knows this violin as his own soul”; “One tycoon saw her and was dumbfounded; he sat and looked, trembling, as if in a fire.” – Radda

“Her black eyes were dull. The moon illuminated her dry, cracked lips, her pointed chin with gray hair on it, and her wrinkled nose, curved like the beak of an owl. Where her cheeks used to be, there were black pits, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair, escaping 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 I could expect that this dry skin would rip all apart, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand in front of me” - Izergil

“The mustache lay on the shoulders and mixed with the curls, the eyes glow like clear stars, and the smile is the whole sun. With such a person you become a better person. And he was as wise as an old man, and knowledgeable in everything, and understood Russian and Magyar literacy.” - Loiko.

Dates of life: 1860-1904 = A.P. Chekhov

1870-1938 = A.I. Kuprin

1870-1953 = I.A. Bunin

1871-1919 = L.N. Andreev

1868-1936 = M. Gorky

5. Analytical conversation

Features of the composition of Gorky's romantic stories.

- Composition (construction of a work of art) is subordinated to one goal - to most fully reveal the image of the main character, who is the exponent of the author's idea.

How are the images of the heroes revealed in the composition?

The composition “Makar Chudra” and “Old Woman Izergil” is a story within a story. This technique is often found in the literature.

By telling the legends of their people, the heroes of the stories express their ideas about people, about what they consider valuable and important in life. They seem to create a coordinate system by which one can judge them.

Portrait characteristics play an important role in the composition. Radda's portrait is given indirectly. We learn about her extraordinary beauty from the reactions of the people whom she amazed. “Perhaps its beauty can be played on a violin, and even then by someone who knows this violin as well as his own soul”; “one tycoon,” “saw her and was dumbfounded.” Proud Radda rejected both the money and the offer to marry that tycoon: “if an eagle entered the raven’s nest of her own free will, what would she become?” Pride and beauty are equal in this heroine.

But the portrait of Loiko is drawn in detail: “The mustache lay on his shoulders and mixed with his curls, his eyes glow like clear stars, and his smile is the whole sun, by God! It’s as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse.” The image is not just romantic - fabulous.

Talking about the love of Radda and Loiko Zobar, Makar Chudra believes that this is the only way a real person should perceive life, the only way it was possible to preserve one’s own freedom. The conflict between love and pride is resolved by the death of both - neither wanted to submit to their loved one.

The image of the narrator is one of the most invisible; he usually remains in the shadows. But the look of this man traveling around Rus', meeting different people, is very important. The perceiving consciousness (in this case, the hero-narrator) is the most important subject of the image, the criterion of the author’s assessment of reality, and the means of expressing the author’s position. The narrator's interested gaze selects the brightest characters, the most significant, from his point of view, episodes and tells about them. This is the author’s assessment - admiration for strength, beauty, poetry, pride.

These two legends seem to frame the story of the life of the old woman Izergil herself. Condemning Larra, the heroine thinks that her destiny is closer to Danko’s pole - she is also dedicated to love. But from the stories about herself, the heroine appears rather cruel: she easily forgot her old love for a new one, left people she once loved. Her indifference is amazing.

What role does the portrait of the old woman Izergil play in the composition?

The portrait of the heroine is contradictory. From her stories you can imagine how beautiful she was in her youth.

But the portrait of the old woman almost evokes disgust; 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.” She has a toothless mouth, her hands tremble, and her fingers are crooked. “The moon illuminated her dry, cracked lips, her pointed chin with gray hair on it, and her 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 arms was cut into wrinkles, and with every movement of old Izergil one could expect that this dry skin would rip all apart, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand in front of me.”

The features of the portrait of Larra, which the old woman herself talks about, bring these heroes closer together: “He lives for thousands of years, the sun dried his body, blood and bones, and the wind scattered them.” The antiquity of the old woman, her individualism, her stories about people who have passed their life circle and turned into shadows, the old woman herself “without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire - also almost a shadow” remind the narrator of Larra (remember that Larra also turned into shadow).

Thus, with the help of a portrait, the images of Izergil and Larra are brought closer together, the essence of the heroes and the position of the author himself are revealed.

6. Detailed answer to the question

Students give a detailed answer in writing to the question “Why didn’t people notice Danko’s self-sacrifice?”

7. Creative work on filling out the comparison table

Comparison table

Larra's image

Danko's image

Origin

son of an eagle and a woman

"one of the people"

Appearance

A twenty-year-old young man, handsome and strong.

The eyes are “cold and proud, like those of the king of birds.”

“a handsome young man”, “a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes”

Attitude towards people

Arrogance, contempt: “he answered if he wanted, or was silent, and when the elders of the tribe came, he spoke to them as to his equals”

Altruism: “He loved people and thought that maybe they would die without him. And so his heart flared up with the fire of desire to save them, to lead them to the easy path.”

Actions

Killing the daughter of one of the elders, hit her and, when she fell, stood with his foot on her chest, so that blood splashed from her lips to the sky

Self-sacrifice: “He tore his chest with his hands and tore out his heart from it and raised it high above his head. It burned as brightly as the sun, and brighter than the sun, and the whole forest fell silent, illuminated by this torch of great love for people.”

8. Watching an excerpt from the film based on the stories “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”. "The camp goes to heaven"

V . Homework Information Stage

1. The history of the creation of the play “At the Depths” (messages from 3 people), pp. 262-266

3. Write out catchphrases from the play “At the Bottom.”

VI . Reflection stage

The originality of M. Gorky's early romantic stories (“Song of the Falcon”, “Old Woman Izergil”).
Romantic characters and their motivation in the stories “Makar Chudra”, “Khan and his son”.

Lesson objectives:

Educational: reveal the ideological content of M. Gorky's early romantic stories, show by what means the author achieves artistic perfection in romantic works.
Educational: contribute to the formation of a sense of beauty, help students “feel” the artistic word.
Developmental: develop logical thinking skills, analysis of such literary concepts as romanticism, romantic hero.

Lesson on the topic “The originality of M. Gorky’s early romantic stories” (“Song of the Falcon”, “Old Woman Izergil”)

Homework for the lesson:

a) Name the main features of romanticism as a literary movement.

b) What are the features of romanticism in M. Gorky’s “Song of the Falcon”?

Works to study and repeat:

"Song of the Falcon".
"Old Woman Izergil."

Lesson type: acquiring new knowledge with a repetition stage.

Basic method: heuristic conversation.

Lesson progress

1. Checking homework.

A) Exercise. Name the main features of romanticism as a literary movement.

Answer. Romanticism is a special type of worldview; at the same time – an artistic direction. Romanticism arose as a kind of reaction to the rationalism and unmotivated optimism of classicism.

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 society. 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.

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 character of the hero.

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 opposition between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is a fundamental feature of this literary movement.

Traits of Romanticism:

proclamation of the 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.

b) Exercise. What are the features of romanticism in “Song of the Falcon” by M. Gorky?

Answer. In the frame of “Song of the Falcon” a vivid image of spiritualized nature appears. Nature is not only the background against which the action unfolds. The narrator and the old man direct their thoughts towards her, her secrets. The beauty of nature, its power is the embodiment of life. It is no coincidence that the motives of God, eternal motion, harmony and mystery appear in the introductory part.

The plot is based on a dispute between Falcon and Snake about the meaning of life. The dialogue of the characters shows the incompatibility of their life positions. This is an ideological conflict.

"Old Woman Izergil" (stage of acquiring new knowledge - heuristic conversation)

Problematic question. What is the purpose of the three-part composition of the story?

The action of the legends described in the story “Old Woman Izergil” 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.

A) The Legend of Larra.

What motivates Larra's character?

What understanding of freedom does he embody?

How are people depicted in the legend?

What is the meaning of Larra's punishment?

Conclusion. 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. Pride and contempt for others are the two principles that Larra’s image carries. The hero, in splendid isolation, confronts people and is not afraid of their judgment, because he does not accept it and despises judges. They wanted to sentence him to death, but they sentenced him to immortality: “And they left, leaving him. He lay face up and saw powerful eagles swimming high in the sky like black dots. There was so much melancholy in his eyes that it could have poisoned all the people of the world with it. So, from then on he was left alone. Free, awaiting death. And so he walks. He walks everywhere... You see, he has become like a shadow and will be like that forever! He doesn't understand any of the people's speech. Not their actions, nothing. And he keeps searching, walking, walking... there is no life for him, and death does not smile at him. And there is no place for him among people... That’s how the man was struck for his pride!”

b ) The Legend of Danko.

The legend of Danko ends with the words: “That’s where they come from, the blue sparks of the steppe that appear before a thunderstorm!” What sparks do you mean?

Perhaps the legend was told to explain where they come from "blue sparks" Do you agree with this opinion?

What action would you call a feat?

Who and in the name of what accomplishes the feat in the legend?

Is Danko's action reasonable or not?

How did Danko’s feat make you feel?

In the legend about Danko there are the words: “Only one cautious person noticed this and, fearing something, stepped on the proud heart with his foot.” What were you afraid of? "cautious person"?

Conclusion. Izergil has in her character the only principle that she considers most valuable: she is sure that her life was subordinated to only one thing - love for people. Also, the only beginning, brought to the maximum extent, is carried by the heroes of the legends told by her. Danko embodies the extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people, Larra - extreme individualism.

V) Old woman Izergil's story about her life.

- What role does the romantic landscape play in the legend?

The heroine of the story, the old woman Izergil, appears before us in a romantic landscape: “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 that billowed 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.”
It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful - that the main characters can realize their potential. 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.

How does Izergil evaluate the heroes of the legends she tells?

“Do you see how much everything there is in the old days?.. But now there is nothing like that - no deeds, no people, no fairy tales like in the old days... Why?.. Come on, tell me! You won't say... What do you know? What do you all know, young people? Ehe-he!.. If only we could look into the old days with vigilance, all the answers will be found there...<…>I see all sorts of people these days, but there are no strong ones! Where are they?.. And there are fewer and fewer handsome men.”
“In life... there is always room for exploits.”

How does Izergil’s life story reveal her aspiration towards the romantic ideal?

How does her portrait relate to the story about the search for high love?

Izergil 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.”

What brings Izergil and Larra together?

Izergil is sure that her life, full of love, was completely different from the life of the individualist Larra; she cannot even imagine anything in common with him. Everything in the image of the old woman reminds the narrator of Larra - first of all, 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.

Conclusion. By creating the image of the main character, Gorky, using compositional means, gives her the opportunity to present both a romantic ideal, expressing the extreme degree of love for people (Danko), and an anti-ideal, embodying individualism and contempt for others brought to its apogee (Larra). The composition of the story is such that two legends frame the narrative of her own life, which constitutes the ideological center of the narrative. Undoubtedly 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. 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.

In everything - in the portrait, in the author's comments - we see a different point of view on the heroine. 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.

Lesson on the topic “Romantic characters and their motivation in the stories “Makar Chudra”, “Khan and his son”

Homework for the lesson:

A) Problematic question

Works to study:

"Makar Chudra".
"Khan and his son."

Lesson type: obtaining and consolidating new knowledge.

Basic method: heuristic conversation.

Lesson progress

“Makar Chudra” (heuristic conversation with the stage of checking homework)

How does Bitter create a romantic character?

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 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 ... "

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? 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!”

What are the life values of the heroes of the 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 am a free person 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.”

How does the legend reveal Makar Chudra’s worldview?

Implementation of homework

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.

What is the understanding of freedom by the characters in the story?

What conflict lies at the heart of the legend?

How is it resolved?

Makar Chudra (like the old woman Izergil) carries 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, two beautiful feelings brought to their highest expression by the romantics, 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: the romantic cannot sacrifice either love that knows no boundaries or absolute pride.

Does the hero-narrator agree with them?

How is his position expressed?

The image of the narrator is very important in the work. The narrator expresses the author's point of view on the characters and events occurring in the story. The author’s attitude is admiration for the strength and beauty of the heroes of the story “Makar Chudra”, a poetic, aesthetic perception of the world in the story “Old Woman Izergil”.

What is the meaning of the ending of the story?

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 the 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.

"Khan and his son"(consolidation and testing of knowledge)

Exercise. Make a table based on your knowledge of the text of M. Gorky’s story “Khan and His Son.”

	Signs of romanticism in the story “Khan and His Son”	Examples from the text
	The work has a narrator - a Tatar beggar, and there are heroes of the legend told by the Tatar. The principle of romantic dual worlds is observed.	“There was a khan of Mosolaima el Asvab in the Crimea, and he had a son Tolaik Algalla...” Leaning his back against the bright brown trunk of an arbutus, a blind beggar, a Tatar, began with these words one of the old legends of a peninsula rich in memories...”
	The setting in which the action takes place is unusual.	“...and around the narrator, on the stones - the ruins of the Khan’s palace destroyed by time - sat a group of Tatars in bright robes and skullcaps embroidered with gold.”
	The exotic setting, the action of the legend is transferred to the times of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.	“...the son of Algal will not lose the glory of the Khanate, prowling like a wolf across the Russian steppes and always returning from there with rich booty, with new women, with new glory...”
	Romantic landscape.	“It was evening, the sun was quietly sinking into the sea; its red rays pierced the dark mass of greenery around the ruins, falling in bright spots on the stones overgrown with moss, entangled in the tenacious greenery of ivy. The wind rustled in a compartment of old plane trees, their leaves rustled so much, as if streams of water invisible to the eye were flowing in the air.”
	Lots of comparisons.	women are “beautiful as spring flowers”; Alhalla has “eyes as black as the sea at night and burning like the eyes of a mountain eagle”; tears are like pearls; eyes like cornflowers; raised like a feather; the clouds are “dark and heavy, like the thoughts of the old khan”
	Metaphors.	“the caresses were tender and burning”; "tremor in the heart"; “my life is extinguished day by day”; the wounds “would drain my blood”; "my heart is breaking" “But she hugged her old eagle by the neck”; "death smiles"
		eagle eyes, sultry caresses, echo of son's voice
	The sublime speech of the heroes.	“Take my blood a drop per hour - I will die twenty deaths for you!”; “The last joy of my life is this Russian girl”
	Personifications.	“...and the wind, shaking the trees, seemed to sing and rustle the trees...”; “And here it is, the sea, in front of them, there, below, thick, black, without shores. Its waves sing dully at the very bottom of the cliff, and it’s dark down there, and cold and scary”; “Only the waves kept splashing there, and the wind hummed wild songs”
	The only beginning is in the position of the heroes.	“You love her more than her and me” (father about his son); “I can’t give it to you, I can’t,” said the khan”; “Neither one nor the other – is that what they decided? This is what the strong at heart should decide. I'm coming" (girl's words)
		“...the listeners were presented with a picture of past days, rich in the power of feeling”
	Your opinion about what you read.

Literature used

V.V. Agenosov Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade: Textbook for general education. Textbook Establishments. – M., 2001.
V.V. Agenosov Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11: Lesson developments. – M., 2000.
Gorky M. Favorites. – M., 2002.
Gorky M. Collection. Op. in 30 volumes. T. 2. – M., 1949.
Zolotareva V.I., Anikina S.M. Lesson developments in literature. 7th grade. – M., 2005.
Zolotareva V.I., Belomestnykh O.B., Korneeva M.S. Lesson developments in literature. 9th grade. – M., 2002.
Turyanskaya B.I., Komissarova E.V., Kholodkova L.A. Literature in 7th grade: Lesson by lesson. – M., 1999.
Turyanskaya B.I., Komissarova E.V. Literature in 8th grade: Lesson by lesson. – M., 2001.

Romanticism as a movement in literature arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and became most widespread in Europe in the period from 1790 to 1830. The main idea of romanticism was the affirmation of a creative personality, and its peculiarity was the violent depiction of emotions. The main representatives of romanticism in Russia were Lermontov, Pushkin and Gorky.

Gorky's romantic mood was prompted by growing discontent in society and the expectation of change. It was thanks to the protest against “stagnation” that images of heroes who were capable of saving the people, leading them out of darkness, and showing them the right path began to appear in the writer’s head. But this path seemed completely different to Gorky, different from his usual existence; the author despised everyday life and saw salvation only in freedom from social shackles and conventions, which was reflected in his early stories.

Historically, this period of Gorky’s work coincided with the flourishing of revolutionary movements in Russia, whose views the author clearly sympathized with. He sang the image of a selfless and honest rebel, consumed not by greedy calculations, but by romantic aspirations to change the world for the better and destroy an unjust system. Also, in his works of that time, a craving for freedom and unrealistic ideals was revealed, because the writer had not yet seen the changes, but only had a presentiment of them. When dreams of a new social system took on real shape, his work transformed into socialist realism.

Main features

The main feature of romanticism in Gorky’s work is a clear division of characters into bad and good, that is, there are no complex personalities, a person has either only good qualities or only bad ones. This technique helps the author to more clearly show his sympathy and highlight those people who need to be imitated.

In addition, in all of Gorky’s romantic works a love for nature can be traced. Nature is always one of the main characters, and all romantic moods are conveyed through it. The writer loved to use descriptions of mountains, forests, seas, endowing every particle of the surrounding world with its own character and behavior.

What is revolutionary romanticism?

The early romantic works of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov were based on the ideas of classicism and, in fact, were a direct continuation of it, which did not correspond to the sentiments of progressive and radically thinking people of that period. There were few of them, so romanticism acquired classical forms: conflict between the individual and society, an extra person, longing for an ideal, etc. However, time passed, and there were more and more revolutionary-minded citizens.

The divergence of literature and popular interests led to a change in romanticism, to the emergence of new ideas and techniques. The main representatives of the new revolutionary romanticism were Pushkin, Gorky and the Decembrist poets, who, first of all, promoted progressive views on the prospects for the development of Russia. The main theme was folk identity - the possibility of independent existence of peasants, hence the term nationality. New images began to appear, and the main ones among them were the genius poet and hero, capable of saving society at any moment from the impending threat.

Old woman Izergil

In this story there is a contrast between two characters and two types of behavior. The first is Danko - an example of that very hero, the ideal who must save the people. He feels free and happy only when his tribe is free and happy. The young man is filled with love for his people, sacrificial love, which personifies the spirit of the Decembrists, who were ready to die for the well-being of society.

Danko saves his people, but at the same time dies himself. The tragedy of this legend is that the tribe forgets its heroes, it is ungrateful, but for the leader this does not matter, because the main reward for the feat is the happiness of the people for whom it was accomplished.

The antagonist is the son of the eagle, Larra, he despised people, despised their way of life and law, he recognized only freedom, turning into permissiveness. He did not know how to love and limit his desires; as a result, he was expelled from the tribe for violating social foundations. Only then did the proud young man realize that without the people he was nothing. When he is alone, no one can admire him, no one needs him. Having shown these two antipodes, Gorky brought everything to one conclusion: the values and interests of the people should always be higher than your values and interests. Freedom is to free people from the oppression of the tyranny of the spirit, ignorance, that darkness that hid behind the forest, unfit for life for the Danko tribe.

It is obvious that the author follows the canon of romanticism: here is the confrontation between the individual and society, here is the yearning for an ideal, here is the proud freedom of loneliness and unnecessary people. However, the dilemma about freedom was not resolved in favor of Larra’s proud and narcissistic loneliness; the writer despises this type, glorified by Byron (one of the founders of romanticism) and Lermontov. His ideal romantic hero is one who, being above society, does not renounce it, but helps it even when it persecutes the savior. In this feature, Gorky is very close to the Christian understanding of freedom.

Makar Chudra

In the story “Makar Chudra,” freedom is also the main value for the heroes. The old gypsy Makar Chudra calls her the main treasure of a person; in her he sees an opportunity to preserve his “I”. Revolutionary romanticism is colorfully manifested precisely in this understanding of freedom: the old man claims that under conditions of tyranny a moral and gifted individual will not develop. This means that it is worth taking risks for the sake of independence, because without it the country will never become better.

Loiko and Radda have the same message. They love each other, but they see marriage only as chains and shackles, and not as a chance to find peace. As a result, the love of freedom, which so far appears in the form of ambition, since the heroes cannot use it correctly, leads to the death of both characters. Gorky puts individualism above marriage ties, which only lull a person’s creative and mental abilities with everyday worries and petty interests. He understands that it is easier for a loner to sacrifice his life for the sake of freedom, it is easier to find complete harmony with his inner world. After all, a married Danko cannot really rip out the heart.

Chelkash

The main characters of the story are the old drunkard and thief Chelkash and the young village boy Gavrila. One of them was going to go on a “deal,” but his partner broke his leg, and this could complicate the whole operation, and that’s when the experienced rogue met Gavrila. During their conversation, Gorky paid great attention to Chelkash’s personality, noticed all the little things, described his slightest movements, all the feelings and thoughts that arose in his head. The refined psychologism of the image is a clear adherence to the romantic canon.

Nature also occupies a special place in this work, since Chelkash had a spiritual connection with the sea, and his mental state often depended on the sea. The expression of feelings and moods through the states of the surrounding world is again a romantic trait.

We also see how Gavrila’s character changes over the course of the story, and if at first we felt pity and compassion for him, then in the end they turn into disgust. The main idea of the story is that it doesn’t matter what you look like or what you do, but what’s in your soul is important, the most important thing is to always remain a decent person in any matter. This thought itself carries a revolutionary message: how does it matter what the hero does? Does this mean that the murderer of a dignitary can also be a decent person? Does this mean that a terrorist can blow up His Excellency’s carriage and at the same time maintain moral purity? Yes, this is exactly the kind of freedom the author deliberately allows: not everything is a vice that society condemns. A revolutionary kills, but his motive is sacred. The writer could not say this directly, so he chose abstract examples and images.

Features of Gorky's romanticism

The main feature of Gorky's romanticism is the image of a hero, a certain ideal designed to save the people. He does not renounce the people, but on the contrary wants to lead them to the right path. The main values that the writer exalted in his romantic stories are love, freedom, courage and self-sacrifice. Their understanding depends on the revolutionary sentiments of the author, who writes not only for the thinking intelligentsia, but also for the ordinary Russian peasant, therefore the images and plots are not ornate and simple. They have the character of a religious parable and are even similar in style. For example, the author very clearly shows his attitude towards each character, and it is always clear who the author likes and who he doesn’t.

Nature in Gorky was also an active character and influenced the heroes of the stories. In addition, its individual parts are symbols that must be perceived allegorically.

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e as a literary direction.) Romanticism involves affirmation exceptional personality, serving alone with the world, suitable to reality from the standpoint of your ideal making exceptional demands on her. 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 is why it plays such a big role in romantic works. scenery, usually devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the indomitable power of the element, 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 the real world are most often futile: 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. Romantic, and therefore the hero's ideal world contrasts with 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 exactly how we see the heroes of Gorky’s early romantic stories. Old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader in a romantic landscape: he is surrounded by " haze of autumn night”, which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened for a moment to the left - boundless steppe, right - endless sea». Pay attention to the animation of the landscape, to the boundlessness of the sea and 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, 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 rise to a strong gust, blew the women’s hair into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. It made women strange and fabulous . They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasies dressed them more and more beautifully.».

It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful- Makar Chudra and 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 narrative, they receive the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives them the right to talk about themselves, to freely express their views. Legends stories told by them, possessing undoubted artistic independence, nevertheless serve, first of all, 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. presented romantic ideal and anti-ideal . Telling 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, in the most accessible form for them, can express your own views on life. Let's try to determine the main qualities of these characters.

Makar Chudra, like any romantic, has in his characterthe only beginning which he considers valuable: 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: « He loved only horses and nothing else, and even then not for long - he would ride and sell them, and whoever wants the money, take it. He didn’t have what he cherished - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only it would make you feel good" Radda - the highest, exceptional display of pride, which even love for Loiko Zobar cannot break: “ I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. And I also love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love you more than you. ...Bow at my feet in front of the whole camp and kiss my right hand - and then I will be your wife».

The insoluble contradiction between two principles in a romantic character - love and pride - is considered 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 so in essence, they are so from the beginning .

The action of the legends takes place in chronologically uncertain ancient times - then, 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. The composition of the narrative in romantic stories is 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 are two wonderful feelings, brought by the romantics to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled, because compromise is generally unthinkable for the romantic consciousness. TO 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 perceivelife is a real person worthy of imitation, and that only with such a life position can one preserve one’s own freedom. An interesting conclusion is that he made long ago from the story of Radda and Loiko: “Well, falcon, do you want me to tell you a true story? And you remember it and, as you remember it, you will be a free bird throughout your life.” In other words, a truly free person could only realize himself in love, as the heroes of “were”, told by Makar Chudra, did.

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 feature of Gorky’s early romantic stories as the presencenarrator's image. In fact, this is one of the most inconspicuous images; it hardly shows itself in action. But it is the view of this man, wandering around Russia and meeting many different people on his way, that is very important for the writer. At the compositional center of any Gorky epic work there will always be a perceiving consciousness - negative, distorting the real picture of life, or positive, filling existence with higher 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, butpassing, emphasizing his caring view of reality. Both in the cycle “Across Rus'” and in the early romantic stories, the fate and worldview of the “passing one” reveal the features of Gorky himself; the fate of his hero largely reflected the fate of the writer, who had known Russia from his youth in his travels. Therefore, many researchers suggest talking about Gorky’s narrator in these stories asautobiographical hero.

It is the close, interested gaze of the autobiographical hero that snatches from the meetings given to him by fate the most interesting and ambiguous characters - they turn out to be the main subject of depiction and research. In them the author sees a manifestation of the folk character of the turn of the century, tries to explore his strengths and weaknesses. Author's attitude to them - admiration for their strength and beauty(as in the story “Makar Chudra”), or poetry, a penchant for aesthetic perception of the world(as in “Old Woman Izergil”), but at the same time disagreement with their position, the ability to see contradictions in their characters. This 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, is their disagreement 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 there was no way the handsome Loiko could compare with the proud Radda,” shows his 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 catch up with the proud Radda.

The position of the autobiographical hero in “Old Woman Izergil” is more complexly expressed. By creating the image of the main character, Gorky, using compositional means, gives her the opportunity to present a romantic ideal that expresses the highest degree of love for people (Danko), and an anti-ideal who 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. Undoubtedly condemning Larra’s individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and destiny tend more towards 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. The narrator is constantly trying to bring her back to the story about those who just occupied her imagination, and whom she has already forgotten:

“Where did the fisherman go? - I asked.

— Fisherman? And he... here...<...>

— Wait!..Where is the little Turk?

— Boy? He's dead, boy. From homesickness or love...»

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 had 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.». « Her creaky voice sounded as if all forgotten centuries were grumbling, embodied in her chest by the shadows of memories».

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!..” says Izergil about Larra. But the narrator sees almost the same features in the ancient old woman Izergil: “ Ilooked 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 on it, and her wrinkled nose, curved like an owl's beak. 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 rip all apart, 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, who seemed to have “broken out” of the previous social framework and did not find new strong social ties. Gorky's autobiographical hero belongs to precisely this layer of people. Researcher of M. Gorky’s work B.V. Mikhailovsky called such a character “broke out” from the traditional circle of social relations.

Despite all the drama of this process, it was positive: the outlook and worldview of the people who set off on a journey through Russia 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)? How can you determine the genre of this work? 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?

Sergey VOLKOV

“Inscribed” portrait

Speaking about the skill of creating a portrait in a literary work, we should not forget about one type of it, which can conventionally be called “inscribed”. A person is not only “described”, but also “fits in”, is included in a broader background, becoming its constructive part. And at the same time, this background environment casts its light on a person, makes him look different, reveals essential features in his appearance that are hidden from the eye without such inclusion.

And we find interesting examples of “inscribed” portraits in the prose of the turn of the century. M. Gorky uses it in his first story “Makar Chudra”: “A humid wind blew from the sea, spreading across the steppe the pensive 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 trembled and, fearfully moving away, revealed for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra, an old gypsy...” The hero of the story is presented against the backdrop of nature, powerful, elemental; The position of Makar Chudra in this almost mise-en-scène is interesting - he is exactly in the center, the “boundless” steppe and the “endless” sea are like two wings behind his back (the dash sign helps to read this fragment of text, making pauses and gestures after words indicating directions: “left”, “right”, “directly opposite me”). The next sentence of the story is again arranged symmetrically, but now the main attention is given to the character. The element surrounding him has already been named and characterized (in the sentence it is “removed” into adverbial phrases), now it is important to emphasize that the hero is not only similar to it, but also higher, stronger than it (the symmetry of the negative particles accompanying the hero’s actions in relation to elements): “ Not paying attentionattention to the fact that the cold waves of the wind, having opened the checkmen, exposed his hairy chest and beat it mercilessly, he reclined in beautiful, strong pose, facing me, methodically sipped from his huge pipe... and... talked to me, without stopping And without making a single move to protection from sharp wind blows” (italics hereinafter are ours. - S.V.).

Another function is performed by the landscape environment in the description of Princess Vera from Kuprin’s “Garnet Bracelet”. The heroine appears against a background of autumn flowers: “...she walked around the garden and carefully cut flowers with scissors for the dining table. The flower beds were empty and looked disorganized. Multi-colored double carnations were blooming, as well as gillyflower - half in flowers, and half in thin green pods that smelled like cabbage; the rose bushes were still producing - for the third time this summer - buds and roses, but already shredded, sparse, as if degenerated. But dahlias, peonies and asters bloomed magnificently with their cold, arrogant beauty, spreading an autumnal, grassy, sad smell in the sensitive air. The remaining flowers, after their luxurious love and excessive motherhood, quietly scattered countless seeds of future life onto the ground.” The heroine, it seems, does not exist yet - we have a description of the flowers that she cuts. Let's take a closer look at it: from all the flowers, dahlias, peonies and asters are highlighted (and again placed in the center of the fragment) - the union “but” contrasts them with left-handed flowers and roses, which bloom not so “lush”, “coldly” and “arrogantly”, the word “ the rest” at the beginning of the next sentence again distinguishes them from the series - this time by the attribute sterility. All the other flowers not only bloomed, but also gave seeds, they knew the love and joy of motherhood, autumn for them is not only the time of dying, but also the time of the beginning of the “future life”.

“Human” motives in the description of flowers prepare the characterization of the heroine herself. On the same page we read: “...Vera took after her mother, beauty Englishwoman, my highly flexible figure, gentle, but cold And proud face..." The definitions we have highlighted connect in the reader’s mind Vera, who has no children and whose passion for her husband has long passed, with beautiful but barren flowers. She's not just among them - it seems that she is alone from them. Thus, the image of the heroine, who has entered the time of her autumn, is again integrated into a broader landscape context, which enriches this image with additional meanings.