The role of landscape in early romantic stories. The main features of a romantic hero: concept, meaning and characteristics
In his early works, Gorky appears to readers as a romantic and a realist at the same time. Romanticism presupposes the assertion of an exceptional personality, acting one on one with the world, approaching reality from the standpoint of his ideal, making exceptional demands on the environment. The hero is head and shoulders above the people who are next to him, he rejects their society. This explains the loneliness typical of the romantic, because people do not understand him and reject his ideal.
Therefore, the hero - a romantic finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, the sea, mountains, rocks. Creating images of such heroes, he was not afraid to embellish life, using artistic techniques, found by the romantics - predecessors: an exceptional personality in exceptional circumstances, an exotic landscape and portrait that emphasize this exclusivity, antithesis as the basis of the composition of the work, the proximity of the prose word to the poetic one, rhythm, saturation with paths, symbolism.
The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is the root feature of this literary direction. Gorky turns to the search for a new hero - a man with a “thirst for the future”, capable of feats ... We need words that would sound like a tocsin bell, disturb everything and, shaking, push forward, ”Gorky wrote. That is why in his early stories he turns to heroes capable of over a boring monotonous existence (“Chelkash”, “Once Upon a Fall”, “Emelyan Pilyai”). Exceptional characters appear, with powerful, all-subduing impulses: to freedom (“Makar Chudra”, “Song of the Falcon”), love (“The Girl and Death”), to the fight (“Song of the Petrel”).
These are the heroes of the story "Makar Chudra" - Loiko and Rada, two beautiful, smart and strong, in love with human freedom, ready to die, but not lose freedom, this precious gift of nature, even for the sake of another strong feeling- love.
In the work "Old Woman Izergil" the writer poses and solves the problem of purpose and meaning human life. Compositionally, the story is divided into three parts and a literary frame, which speaks of the vicissitudes of a fast-moving human existence about the diversity of human nature.
In the first part of the story, Larra's extreme individualism and egocentrism is denounced, for which life and immortality in solitude become torment. The tragedy of Larra is in alienation from her own kind, in the destruction of the connection between people, leading to the loss of the meaning of life. The wisest elders, who headed the clan, tried Larra for the murder of an innocent girl who had rejected his love. People understand that it is impossible to violate the sacred laws of humanity, love, unity, even if you are the son of an eagle and consider yourself superior to those around you. Life becomes meaningless for someone who is expelled from human society and withdrawn into himself, Larra "became like a shadow."
The second part of the story is the life story of the old woman Izergil. The writer calls this life "greedy". She was a rather selfish woman, indifferent to the suffering of others (her attitude to her beloved, to her daughter), only at the end of her life, having lost her former power over people and beauty, she begins to rethink what she did before, and remembers with gratitude those who loved her . She utters the phrase that "in life there is always a place for exploits." Everything in the image of Izergil reminds the author of Lara, first of all, her individualism, taken to extremes, almost approaching Larra's individualism, her antiquity, her stories about people who have long passed their circle of life. With the help of the portrait, the author achieves a convergence of two images - Larra and Izergil. Izergil herself cannot even think of such a rapprochement.
The third part of the story - the legend of Danko - is devoted to the affirmation of the idea of high happiness to give one's life in the name of saving people, the affirmation of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe high goal and the price of such a life. In an atmosphere of inertia, sleepy consciousness, selfishness, the hero wants to awaken bright impulses in the souls of miserable, cowardly fellow tribesmen. In anger and anger, people fall upon the one who undertook to lead them out of the Danko forest. And only love for the “lost”, the fire of desire to save them, bring them to easy way expelled from the heart of Danko indignation erupted, he chooses the only right path - forward. Danko's heart, torn out to save the people, "blazed as brightly as the sun, and brighter than the sun!" The darkness has been overcome, and cruel people do not even notice the death of Danko.
Each hero of the work - Larra, Danko, Izergil - is a bright personality, towering above the ordinary. But the presence of qualities strong personality still not enough for positive attitude to her .. In contrast and comparison of the heroes of the work, the idea of \u200b\u200bfeat in the name of common happiness is affirmed.
The landscape in the story not only creates an atmosphere of "fabulousness", unusualness, but also serves as a way of expressing in a generalized way - philosophical meaning works. There is a connection between the writer's romantic works and folklore. His heroes from the legend, even the very genre of the legend, fairy tale gives opportunities to Gorky's romantic pathos. The reception of the literary frame of the story is connected with the same traditions, when the narration is conducted not on behalf of the author, but on behalf of the narrator - the old woman Izergil, the old gypsy Makar Chudra.
Gorky uses a special syntactic structure of the work - rhythmic, melodious, similar to poetry. Rhythm is achieved by a special selection of words - setting a definition after the word being defined, an abundance of colorful epithets and metaphors (proud, free, free, rebellious, great), repetitive images (the image of a burning heart and blood)
Concepts art space and time are traditionally performed for scientific thought How the most important categories, constituting the author's picture of the world in the artistic "space" of the writer. The work of M. Gorky in this respect is no exception and has repeatedly attracted attention in this aspect, the productivity of which seems to be inexhaustible in its own way. At the same time, the experience accumulated by Gorky and literary science as a whole now needs a certain systematization in order to outline the initial conceptual and terminological premises. modern research in the context of the vast history and theory of the issue.
The categorical correlation of artistic space and artistic time has received famous definition"chronotope" in the works of M.M. Bakhtin. IN this case the dual nature of such a definition laid down an inevitable contradiction in the understanding of the dominant - spatial or temporal - beginnings, given their inseparability.
It is significant that M.M. Bakhtin, who noted leading value"of a temporary beginning, focused on the analysis of the dominants of the artistic space - "meeting-parting (separation)", "road", "everyday life", "wandering", "home", "provincial town", "picture of the world". These spatial landmarks, in contrast to the abstract perception of time perspective, concretize the model of the analytical interpretation of literary works.
Significant in this regard is the assessment of space and time in O. Spengler's Decline of Europe: “Space is a concept. Time is a word that hints at something incomprehensible, a sound symbol that is falsely interpreted if one tries to interpret it, according to the type of concept, in a scientific way. For primitive man the word "time" is meaningless. He lives without feeling the need for this word to oppose it to something else. He has time, but knows nothing about it. When we are awake, we are only aware of space, not time.
There is space, it exists in the world and with the world of our sensations, and, moreover, in a twofold way: as something self-expanding, as long as we dreamily, instinctively, contemplatively, "wisely" live our life, and as space in the strict sense - in moments of intense attention . "Time", on the other hand, is a discovery that we make only in the act of thought; we create it as a representation or concept, and only much later does it dawn on us that we ourselves, insofar as we live, are time.
Gorky throughout his life considered himself a successor of realism in Russian literature, but in the first period of his work he actively used the traditions of romanticism. In the early prose of the writer, realistic and romantic elements are intertwined. This difference in style is due to the two-pronged artistic task which Gorky set before himself. On the one hand, he portrayed the miserable, joyless existence of the social lower classes. On the other hand, this lead abominations life" he opposes his ideal view of the world.
Early Gorky works Stories with a Romantic Dominance: Stories mixed type romantic-realistic: "Old Woman Izergil", "Makar Chudra", "Song about "Chelkash", Sokol", "Konovalov", "Spouses Orlovs", "Twenty-six and one"
At the beginning creative way dominated by works of the romantic plan. Early Gorky's style is emphatically colorful and metaphorical. He creates multi-colored, magnificent landscapes, in which, as in an exquisite frame, amazing stories are "inscribed".
Unusual plots early stories, their heroes are extraordinary - strong-willed And proud people, "born in blood with the sun". When characterizing heroes of this type, Gorky repeatedly plays with this metaphor, using images of fire, flame, sparks, and torches. Makar Chudra, who narrates the legend, admires the "sunny" gypsy. Wishing to emphasize the originality, unusualness of the stories told, Gorky gives them the character of a legend, fairy tale, parable, song.
If for realism XIX century, the main thing was to explain the nature of those life circumstances social, domestic, ethical, aesthetic plan that influence it, then in the new type of realism, the emergence of which is associated precisely with the name of Gorky, the principles of typification change. The influence becomes, as it were, bidirectional: now not only the character is influenced by the environment, but the possibility and even the necessity of the personality's influence on the environment are also affirmed. A new concept of personality is being formed: a person is not reflective, but creative, realizing himself not in the sphere of private intrigue, but in the public arena. In the literature of this period, the artist's trust in his hero was manifested.
Romanticism presupposes the affirmation of an exceptional personality, entering into a one-on-one struggle with the world, approaching reality from the position of its ideal, making exceptional demands on the environment. The romantic hero is head and shoulders above the people around him, their company is rejected by him. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of a romantic, which is most often thought of by him as natural state because people do not understand him and reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communion with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, sea, mountains, coastal rocks. Such are the heroes of Gorky's early stories: Danko, Larra, Radda and others.
Big role landscape plays in romantic works - devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the most indomitable essence of the elements and its beauty and exclusivity. It is through the landscape that the eccentricity of the character of the hero is expressed. However, loneliness romantic hero can be interpreted both as the rejection of his ideal by people, and as a drama of incomprehension and non-recognition. But even in this case, attempts to get closer to the real world are most often futile: reality does not accept the romantic ideal of the hero due to his exclusivity. Evidence for this is that main feature romantic artistic world- the principle of romantic duality.
Belnova Oksana Alexandrovna
The system of lessons on the early romantic stories of M. Gorky.
The originality of the early romantic stories M. Gorky(“Song of the Falcon”, “Old Woman Izergil”).
Romantic characters and their motivation in stories"Makar Chudra", "Khan and his son".
Lesson Objectives:
Educational: to uncover ideological content early romantic stories by M. Gorky, to show the means by which the author achieves artistic perfection in romantic works.
Educational: to promote the formation of a sense of beauty, to help students "feel" the artistic word.
Developing: develop skills logical thinking, analysis of such literary concepts like romanticism, romantic hero.
Lesson on the topic
“The originality of the early romantic stories of M. Gorky” (“Song of the Falcon”, “Old Woman Izergil”).
Homework to 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 Isergil".
Type of lesson: receiving new knowledge with a repeat step
main method: heuristic conversation.
During the classes.
Checking homework.
A) Exercise. Name the main features of romanticism as a literary movement.
Answer. Romanticism - special kind worldview; simultaneously - 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 assertion of an exceptional personality, acting one on one with the world, approaching reality from the standpoint of his ideal, presenting exceptional
requirements. The hero is head and shoulders above other people who are next to him, he rejects their society. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of the romantic, which is most often thought of by him as a natural state, because people do not understand him and reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communion with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, sea, mountains, coastal rocks.
Therefore, so great importance receives in romantic works a landscape devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the most indomitable essence of the elements and its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape is thus animated and, as it were, expresses the eccentricity of the character of the hero.
For 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, therefore perfect world the hero opposes the real world, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The opposition of romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is a fundamental feature of this literary trend.
Features of romanticism:
the 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;
inclination towards fantasy, conventions of forms, mixture of low and high, comic and tragic, mundane and unusual;
painful experience of discord with reality;
rejection of the ordinary;
the desire of the individual 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 Gorky's "Song of the Falcon"?
Answer. In the frame of the "Song of the Falcon" appears vivid image spiritualized nature. 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 appear in the introductory part, perpetual motion, harmony and mystery.
The plot is based on the dispute between the Falcon and the Uzh about the meaning of life. The dialogue of the characters shows the incompatibility of their life positions. This is an ideological conflict.
"Old Isergil"
(the stage of obtaining new knowledge is a heuristic conversation).
problem 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 antiquity - this is, as it were, the time that preceded the beginning of history, the era of first creations. However, in the present there are traces directly related to that era - these are blue lights, left from the heart of Danko, the shadow of Larra, which Izergil sees.
A) Legend of Larry.
What motivates Larra's character?
What concept 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, embodying the ideal of strength and will. Pride and contempt for others - these are the two beginnings that the image of Larra carries in itself. The hero in proud solitude 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 - high in the sky with black dots, mighty eagles swam. There was so much longing in his eyes that one could poison all the people of the world with it. So, since then he was alone. Free, waiting to die. And here he is walking. He walks everywhere... You see, he has already become like a shadow and will be like that forever! He doesn't understand people's speech. Neither their actions, nothing. And everything is looking, walking, walking ... he has no life, and death does not smile at him. And there is no place for him among people ... That's how a man was struck for 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 in order to explain where they come from. "blue sparks". Do you agree with this opinion?
What act would you call a feat?
Who and in the name of what accomplishes the feat in the legend?
Is Danko's act reasonable or not?
What feelings did Danko's feat evoke in you?
In the legend of Danko there are words: “Only one cautious person noticed this and, being afraid of something, stepped on a proud heart with his foot.” What scared "careful person"?
Conclusion. Izergil carries in her character the only beginning that she considers the 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 degree, 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) The story of the old woman Izergil about her life.
- What role does the romantic landscape play in the legend?
In a romantic landscape, the heroine of the story appears before us - the old woman Izergil: “The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible, and, giving birth to a strong gust, blowing the hair of women into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. It made women strange and fabulous. They moved farther and farther away from us, and the 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 themselves. Their consciousness, their character, its sometimes mysterious contradictions turn out to be the main subject of the image. The landscape was introduced for the study of complex and conflicting characters heroes, their strengths and weaknesses.
How does Izergil evaluate the heroes of the legends she told?
“Do you see how much there is in the old days? .. But now there is nothing like that - no deeds, no people, no fairy tales such as in the frame ... Why? .. Come on, tell me! You won't tell... What do you know? What do you all know, young ones? Ehe-he! .. If we looked vigilantly into the old days - there are all the clues there ...<…>I see all sorts of people now, but there are no strong ones! Where are they?.. And there are fewer and fewer handsome men.”
"In life ... there is always a place for exploits."
How does the life story of Izergil reveal her striving for a romantic ideal?
How does her portrait relate to the story of the search for high love?
Izergil is a deep old woman, anti-aesthetic features are deliberately forced into her portrait: “Time bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched like an old woman spoke with her bones.
What brings Izergil closer to Larra?
Izergil is sure that her life, filled with love, went completely differently than 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 long ago passed their circle of life.
Conclusion. Creating an image main character, Bitter compositional means gives her the opportunity to present both the romantic ideal, which expresses the extreme degree of love for people (Danko), and the anti-ideal, which embodied individualism and contempt for others brought to its climax (Larra). The composition of the story is such that two legends frame the story of her own life, which is the ideological center of the story. Unconditionally condemning Larra's individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and fate is more likely to strive for the Danko pole, which embodied the highest ideal of love and self-sacrifice. But the reader immediately draws attention to the ease with which she forgot her former love for the sake of a new one, how simply she left her once beloved people.
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 loftiness, 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) problem question
Works to study:
Makar Chudra.
Khan and his son.
Type of lesson: acquisition and consolidation of new knowledge,
main method: heuristic conversation.
During the classes.
"Makar Chudra"
(heuristic conversation with the stage of checking homework).
How Gorky creates romantic character?
Makar Chudra is depicted in the background romantic landscape: “A damp cold wind blew from the sea, spreading across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splashing of the oncoming wave and the rustle of coastal bushes. Occasionally his impulses brought with them shriveled, 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 on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra ... "
The landscape is animated, the sea and the steppe are boundless, they emphasize 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 who, from his point of view, is not free:“They are funny, those people of yours. They huddle together and crush each other. And there are so many places on earth…”; “Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe understandable? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that's it!
What are life values heroes of the legend?
Loiko Zobar: “Is he afraid of anyone!”; “He didn’t have a treasured one - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only you would feel good from him”; “With such a person, you yourself become better” (the 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 have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Here is my will, Loiko, I love more than you.
How does the legend reveal the worldview of Makar Chudra?
Implementation of homework.
Exercise. problem question. Why is the story about the story of Loiko and Radda named after 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 is written, and artistic means, used by the author, he needs 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 gets the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives him the right to speak about himself, freely expressing his views. The legend told by him, having artistic undoubted independence, nevertheless serves primarily as a means of revealing the image of the main character, whose name the work is named after.
What is the understanding of freedom by the heroes of the story?
What conflict is at the heart of the legend?
How is it allowed?
Makar Chudra (like the old woman Izergil) carries in his character the only beginning that he believes to be true: the maximalist desire for freedom. The same single beginning, brought to the maximum extent, is embodied by the heroes of the legend told by him. For Loiko Zobar true value too is freedom, openness and kindness. Radda is the highest, exceptional manifestation of pride, which even love cannot break.
Makar Chudra is absolutely sure that pride and love, two wonderful feelings brought by the romantics to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled, because a compromise is unthinkable for the romantic consciousness. The conflict between the feeling of love and the feeling of pride that the characters experience can only be resolved by the death of both: a romantic cannot give up either love that knows no boundaries or absolute pride.
Does the 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 taking place 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 end 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, "circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda." In the words of the narrator, the author's position is manifested - admiration for the beauty of the characters and their uncompromisingness, the strength of their feelings, understanding the impossibility for the romantic consciousness of the futility of such an outcome of the case: after all, even after the death of Loiko, in her pursuit, she will not be equal to the proud Radda.
"Khan and his son"
(consolidation and verification of knowledge).
Exercise. Make a table based on knowledge of the text of M. Gorky's story "Khan and his son."
References:
VV Agenosov Russian literature of the XX century. Grade 11: Textbook for general education. Proc. Institutions. - M., 2001.
VV Agenosov Russian literature of the XX century. Grade 11: Lesson developments. - M., 2000.
Gorky M. Favorites. - M., 2002.
Gorky M. Sobr. Op. in 30 volumes. T. 2. - M., 1949.
Zolotareva V.I., Anikina S.M. Pourochnye developments in literature. 7th grade. - M., 2005.
Zolotareva V.I., Belomestnykh O.B., Korneeva M.S. Pourochnye developments in literature. Grade 9 - M., 2002.
Turyanskaya B.I., Komissarova E.V., Kholodkova L.A. Literature in Grade 7: Lesson by Lesson. - M., 1999.
Turyanskaya B.I., Komissarova E.V. Literature in Grade 8: Lesson by Lesson. - M., 2001.
Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) "Makar Chudra" Romanticism. Literary heroes Romantic In his early works, Gorky appears to readers as a romantic. Romanticism presupposes the assertion of an exceptional personality, acting one on one with the world, approaching reality from the standpoint of his ideal, making exceptional demands on the environment. The hero is head and shoulders above the people who are next to him, he rejects their society. This explains the loneliness typical of the romantic, because people do not understand him and reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the world of nature, ocean, sea, mountains, rocks. Creating images of such heroes, he was not afraid to embellish life, using artistic techniques found by the romantics - predecessors: an exceptional personality in exceptional circumstances, an exotic landscape and portrait that emphasize this exclusivity, antithesis as the basis of the composition of the work, the proximity of a prose word to a poetic one, rhythm, saturation with paths , symbolism. The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is a fundamental feature of this literary movement. Consider the story "Makar Chudra" as an example. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears to the reader precisely in a romantic landscape: he is surrounded by the "gloom of the autumn night", which "shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea." Paying attention to the animation of the landscape, the boundlessness of the sea and the steppe, which, as it were, emphasize the boundlessness of the hero's freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything. Heroes of the story. Makar Chudra Main character- old gypsy Makar Chudra. For him, the most important thing in life is personal freedom, which he would never trade for anything. He believes that the peasant is a slave who was born only to pick the ground and die before he even had time to dig his own grave. His maximalist desire for freedom is also embodied by the heroes of the legend he tells. Radda The portrait of Radda is also given in romantic exaggeration. Rudda broke many hearts. One magnate threw any money at her feet, asked her to marry him, but Radda replied that the eagle had no place in the crow's nest “No matter how good the girl is, her soul is narrow and shallow, and even if you hang a pood of gold around her neck , anyway, it’s better than what she is, not to be her! The idea of the beauty and freedom-loving character of a gypsy is formed under the impression of these comparisons. The beauty of Radda is comparable to playing the violin: "Perhaps her beauty could be played on the violin, and even then to those who know this violin as their soul." Loiko Zobar The story gives a conditional portrait of Loiko, a gypsy who stole horses, by gypsy standards - this is not theft, but courage, bravery and prowess. The portrait of the hero is given in figurative exaggerations: “The mustache fell on the shoulders and mixed with curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and the smile is the whole sun, by golly! It was as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse. He stands all over, as if in blood, in the fire of a fire and sparkles with his teeth, laughing! The story is accompanied by emotional assessments that are needed to identify the events and images of the legend with real life and real people. Loiko Zobar and Radda A young, beautiful gypsy couple - Loiko Zobar and Radda - love each other. But in both the desire for personal freedom is so strong that they even look at their own love as a chain that binds their independence. Each of them, declaring his love, sets his own conditions, trying to dominate. This leads to a tense conflict, ending in the death of the heroes. Loiko yields to Radda, kneels in front of her in front of everyone, which is considered a terrible humiliation among the gypsies, and at the same moment kills her. And he himself dies at the hands of her father. A feature of the composition of this story, as already mentioned, is that the author puts a romantic legend into the mouth of the protagonist. It helps us to understand it deeper. inner world and value system. For Makar Chudry Loiko and Radda - the ideals of love of freedom. He is sure that two wonderful feelings, pride and love, brought to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled. A person worthy of imitation, in his understanding, must maintain 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 imperceptible, but we can easily guess the author himself in it. He does not quite agree with his hero. We do not hear direct objections to Makar Chudra. But at the end of the story, where the narrator, looking into the darkness of the steppe, sees how Loiko Zobar and Radda “circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda”, his position is manifested. The independence and pride of these people, of course, delight and attract, but these same traits doom them to loneliness and the impossibility of happiness. They are slaves of 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 entire storyline of the story. The sea is closely connected with state of mind heroes: at first it is calm, only a “wet, cold wind” carries “across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of a wave running ashore and the rustle of coastal bushes”. But now it began to rain, the wind grew stronger, and the sea roars dull and angry and sings a gloomy and solemn anthem proud pair of handsome gypsies. At all feature of this story is its musicality. Music accompanies the whole story about the fate of lovers. And even the conflict begins with a song. The denouement ” Loiko returned to the camp and told the old people that he looked into his heart and did not see the former free life there. "One Radda lives there." And he decided to fulfill her will, bow at her feet, kiss her right hand, and then said that he would check whether Radda had such a strong heart, as she claims. Everyone did not have time to guess, but he stuck a knife in her heart to the very handle. Radda pulled out the knife and plugged the wound with her hair, then said that she had expected such a death. Danilo picked up the knife thrown aside by Radda, examined it and stuck it in the back against Loiko's heart. Everyone is watching that Radda is lying, clutching the wound with her hand, and Loiko is at her feet. It seemed to Makar that he saw the regal Raddha, and Loiko Zobar was swimming on her heels. End)))))
In his early works "Makar Chudra" and "Old Woman Izergil" Gorky appears to readers as a romantic.
THE CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY IN ROMANTIC STORIES. Romanticism presupposes the assertion of an exceptional personality, acting one on one with the world, approaching reality from the position of his ideal, making exceptional demands on the environment. The hero is head and shoulders above the people around him, their society is rejected by him. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of the romantic, which is most often thought of by him as a natural state, because people do not understand him and reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communion with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, sea, mountains, coastal rocks.
Therefore, the landscape acquires such great importance in romantic works - devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the most indomitable essence of the elements and its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape is thus animated and, as it were, expresses the eccentricity of the character of the hero. However, the loneliness of a romantic hero can be interpreted both as the rejection of his ideal by people, and as a drama of incomprehension and non-recognition. But even in this case, attempts to get closer to the real world are most often futile: reality does not accept the romantic ideal of the hero due to his exclusivity.
CORRELATION OF CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES. For 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 opposes the real world, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is a fundamental feature of this literary trend.
This is how we see the heroes of Gorky's early romantic stories. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears to the reader precisely in a romantic landscape: he is surrounded by the “gloom of the autumn night”, which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea”.
A few lines later, Makar Chudra will state this position directly, speaking of a person who, from his point of view, is not free: “Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe understandable? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that's it! In a romantic landscape, the old woman Izergil also appears before us: “The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving rise to a strong impulse, fluttered the hair of women into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. It made women strange and fabulous. They moved farther and farther away from us, and the night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully.
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. For the sake of these heroes, stories are written, so all artistic means are aimed at studying their complexity and inconsistency, strength and weakness. Chudra and Izergil, being in the center of the story, get the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives them the right to speak about themselves, freely express their views. The legends they told, possessing an undoubted artistic value However, they are primarily a means of creating the image of the protagonist, whose name is given to the work. The legends express the ideas of Makar Chudra and Izergil about the ideal and anti-ideal in a person, i.e. Romantic ideal and anti-ideal are presented. Talking about Danko and Larra, Izergil speaks more about himself. The author needs them so that Izergil can express her own views on life in such a form that is most accessible to her. Let's try to determine the main qualities of these characters.
Izergil, like any romantic, carries in her character the only beginning that she considers the most valuable: she is sure that her whole life was subordinated to only one thing - love for people. Also, the only beginning, brought to the maximum degree, 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.
ROMANTIC MOTIVATION OF CHARACTER. Larra's exceptional individualism is due to the fact that he is the son of an eagle, embodying the ideal of strength and will. Such a motivation is quite enough for a romantic consciousness: “Everyone looked with surprise at the son of an eagle and saw that he was no better than them, only his eyes were cold and proud, like those of the king of birds. And they talked to him, and he answered if he wanted, or was silent, and when the oldest tribes came, he spoke to them as to his equals. Pride and contempt for others - these are the two beginnings that Larra carries in herself. Naturally, this dooms him to loneliness, but this is the desired loneliness of a romantic, arising from the impossibility of finding someone on earth who is even in something equal to himself: “We talked with him for a long time and finally saw that he considers himself the first on earth and, sees nothing but himself. Everyone even became scared when they realized what kind of loneliness he doomed himself to. He had no tribe, no mother, no livestock, no wife, and he did not want to sing anything.” Such a position forces the hero to embark on the path of selfish arbitrariness, which he openly declares. Having killed in front of the elders the girl whom he desired and who rejected him, the hero explains his position to people in this way:
I killed her because, it seems to me, she pushed me away ... And I needed her.
Oh, she's not yours! they told him.
Do you only use yours? I see that each person has only speech, hands and feet... and he owns animals, women, land... and much more...
He was told that for everything that a person takes, he pays with himself: with his mind and strength, sometimes with his life. And he replied that he wanted to keep himself whole.”
The romantic 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 sentence him ... to immortality.
Why is death not punishment enough for a romantic hero? Because by condemning the hero to death, people would only confirm his exclusivity, isolation from the general ranks, his right to command and speak with them as with slaves - and their powerlessness and fear of him. Punished by eternal existence and loneliness, i.e. having received what he claimed from the very beginning, the young man, who received the name Larra, which means outcast, thrown out, is doomed to the immortality of eternal wandering:
“So, from that time on, he was left alone, free, waiting for death. And now he walks, walks everywhere ... - Izergil finishes his story. - You see, he has already become like a shadow and will be like that forever! He understands neither the speech of people, nor their actions - nothing. And everything is looking for, walking, walking ... He has no life, and death does not smile at him. And there is no place for him among people ... That's how a man was struck for pride!
There is simply no need to talk about the conditionality of Danko's character - he is such in essence, such from the very beginning. The only thing Izergil can motivate his exclusivity is beauty: “Danko is one of those people, a handsome young man. The beautiful are always bold.” People believe him only because "he is the best of all, because in his eyes a lot of strength and living fire shone." The romantic simply does not need a deeper motivation for the exclusivity of the hero.
Ho, despite the obvious opposition of the images of Danko and Larra, they have something in common, because both of them are the poles of the same world - the world of Izergil, and for her they correlate as an ideal and an anti-ideal. Consequently, they are not only opposed, but also compared.
The undoubted commonality between the images of Larra and Danko predetermines their confrontation with the world of people, on which the principle of romantic duality in both legends is based. Contempt for people is natural for Larra with his exorbitant pride and individualism, but the philanthropic Danko could not avoid this conflict. If Larra rejects others out of contempt for them, then Danko, a hero who sacrifices himself out of love for others, himself finds himself in the position of an outcast: “Danko looked at those for whom he had toiled, and saw that they were like animals. Many people stood around him, but they were not on the faces of their nobility, and it was impossible for him to expect mercy from them.
The principle of romantic duality, the opposition of the romantic hero to the crowd, is due to the exclusivity of his image: either he himself, like Larre, rejects those around him, or the crowd, fierce in its onslaught and deaf to his heart, rejects romance. Otherwise, it will be a step towards realistic aesthetics. Another thing is that Danko's love for people is so great that he can forgive them for this: even when indignation boiled in his heart, “it went out of pity for people. He loved people and thought that maybe without him they would perish.”
The action of the legends takes place in ancient times - this is, as it were, the time preceding the beginning of history, the era of first creations. “Many thousands of years have passed since the time when this happened,” begins his story about Larra Izergil. Ho in the present there are traces directly related to that era - these are the blue lights left from the heart of Danko, the shadow of Larra, which Izergil sees.
Naturally, the images of Danko and Larra can only be embodied against the backdrop of a romantic landscape, bright and colorful, devoid of halftones, built on contrasts of light and darkness:
“And then it became so dark in the forest, as if all the nights had gathered in it at once, how many of them had been in the world since he was born ... and the lightning, flying over the tops of the forest, illuminated it for a minute with a blue, cold fire and disappeared as quickly as they appeared, frightening people”; “And the forest kept buzzing and buzzing, echoing their cries, and lightning tore the darkness to shreds.” Of course, only against the backdrop of the terrible darkness of the forest, torn by flashes of lightning, can Danko’s heart burn - “as bright as the sun, and brighter than the sun, and the whole forest fell silent, lit by this torch great love to people, and the darkness scattered from his light and there, deep in the forest, trembling, fell into the rotten mouth of the swamp.
COMPOSITION OF ROMANTIC STORIES. Narrative composition in romantic stories is entirely subordinated to one goal: the most complete recreation of the image of the protagonist. Telling the legends of their people, the heroes give the author ideas about their system of values, about the ideal and anti-ideal in the human character, as they themselves understand it, show what personality traits are worthy of respect or contempt. In other words, they thus create, as it were, a system of coordinates, on the basis of which they themselves can be judged.
So, romantic legend is the most important means creating the image of the main character. Makar Chudra is absolutely sure that pride and love, two wonderful feelings brought by the romantics to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled, because a 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 give up 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 that neither Loiko nor Rudda can do. But the most interesting thing is how Makar Chudra assesses such a position. He believes that this is how life should be perceived. real man, worthy of imitation, and that only in such life position you can keep your freedom. Significant is the conclusion that he made a long time ago from the story of Radda and Loiko: “Well, falcon, do you want me to tell you one true story? And you remember her and, as you remember, you will be a free bird for your life. In other words, a truly free person could only realize himself in love, as the heroes “were” did.
To answer this question, we must turn to such an important compositional features Gorky's early romantic stories, as the presence of the image of the narrator. Indeed, it is one of the most imperceptible images, it almost does not manifest itself directly. But it is precisely the look of this man, wandering around Rus', meeting on his way many of the most different people is very important for a writer. Let us recall once again: in Gorky's epic, in the compositional center of any of his novels or stories, there will always be a perceiving consciousness - a negative, distorting the real picture life, depriving it of meaning and perspective (the epic “The Life of Klim Samgin”, the novel “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”), or a positive, filling being higher meaning and content ( autobiographical trilogy, novel "Mother"). It is this perceiving consciousness that is ultimately the most important subject of the image, the criterion author's assessment reality and means of expression author's position. In the later cycle of stories “Across Rus'”, Gorky will call the narrator not a passer-by, but a passing one, emphasizing his indifferent view of reality that falls within the sphere of his perception and comprehension. And in the early romantic stories, and in the cycle “Across Rus'”, the fate and worldview of the “passing” show the features of Gorky himself, the fate of his hero largely reflected the fate of the writer, who from his youth in his wanderings knew Russia. Therefore, many researchers propose to speak of Gorky's narrator in these stories as an autobiographical hero. It is the intent, interested look of the autobiographical hero that snatches from the meetings bestowed on 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 folk character turn of the century, trying to explore its weaknesses and strengths. AND author's attitude to them - admiration for their strength and beauty, as in the story "Makar Chutsra", poetry, a tendency to almost artistic perception world, as in "Old Woman Izergil", and at the same time, disagreement with their position, the ability to see contradictions in their characters - is not expressed 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 remains, as it were, behind the scenes of the narrative. Ho 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, “circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda”, shows him position. These words contain admiration for their beauty and uncompromisingness, the strength and irresistibility of their feelings, an understanding of the impossibility for a romantic consciousness of a different resolution of the conflict - but also an awareness of the futility of such a position: 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 the image of the main character by compositional means, Gorky gives her the opportunity to present a romantic ideal that expresses the highest degree of love for people (Danko), and a romantic anti-ideal that embodies individualism brought to its apogee and contempt and dislike for others (Larra). The ideal and the anti-ideal, the two romantic poles of the narrative, expressed in legends, set the coordinate system within which the old woman Izergil herself wants to place herself. The composition of the story is such that two legends, as it were, frame the story of her own life, which is the ideological center of the work. Unconditionally condemning Larra's individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and destiny tend, rather, to the pole of Danko, who embodied the highest ideal of love and self-sacrifice. In fact, her life, like the life of Danko, was entirely devoted to love - the heroine is absolutely sure of this. But the reader immediately draws attention to the ease with which she forgot her former love for the sake of a new one, how simply she left the people she once loved. They simply ceased to exist for her when the passion passed. The narrator keeps trying to bring her back to the story.
about those who just occupied her imagination and which she had already forgotten:
Where did the fisherman go? I asked.
Fisherman? And he... here...<...>
Wait! .. And where is the little Turk?
Boy? He's dead boy. From homesickness or from love...”
Her indifference to the once beloved people amazes the narrator:
“I left then. And I didn't see him again. I was happy about it: I never met after those whom I once loved. These are bad meetings, all the same, as if with the dead.”
It is through the eyes of the autobiographical hero that the reader sees Izergil. Her portrait immediately reveals a very significant aesthetic contradiction. Oh beautiful sensual love a young girl or a young girl would have to tell full of energy woman. Before us is a deep old woman, in her portrait anti-aesthetic features are deliberately forced:
“Time had bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched like an old woman spoke with her bones”; “Her raspy voice sounded like everyone was murmuring about it. forgotten centuries, embodied in her chest as shadows of memories.
Izergil is sure that her life, filled with love, went completely differently than the life of the individualist Larra, she cannot even imagine anything in common with him, but the look of the autobiographical hero finds this commonality, paradoxically bringing their portraits closer.
“He has already become like a shadow now, - it's time! He lives for thousands of years, the sun dried up his body, blood and bones, and the wind pulverized them. That's what God can do with a man for pride!..” - says Izergil about Larra.
But almost the same features are seen by the narrator 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, chapped lips, her pointed chin with gray hair he also has a wrinkled nose, curved like an owl's beak. There were black pits where her cheeks had been, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair that had fallen out 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 the old Izergil one could expect that this dry skin would tear all over, fall apart in pieces and stand in front of me. naked skeleton with dull black eyes.
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 long ago passed their circle of life:
“And all of them are just pale shadows, and the one they kissed sits next to me alive, but dried up by time, without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire, is 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 loftiness, is denied by the autobiographical hero. He shows its futility and affirms the relevance of the realistic position. Indeed, 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, it was they who made up the army of tramps, vagabonds, as if dropped out of their former social conditions and did not find new strong public relations. Gorky's autobiographical hero belongs precisely to this stratum of people. Critic and literary critic, researcher of M. Gorky B.V. Mikhailovsky called this character "breaking out" from the traditional circle of social relations. For all its drama, this was a positive process: the horizons and worldview of people who embarked on a journey through Rus' were incomparably deeper and richer than those of previous generations, completely new sides were opened to them. national life. Through these people, Russia, as it were, came to know itself. That is why the view of the autobiographical hero is realistic, it is possible for him to realize the limitations of a purely romantic worldview, dooming Makar Chudra to loneliness, leading Izergil to complete exhaustion and incineration.
