Composition: Characteristic features of Lermontov's romantic poetry.

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 The main character is an old gypsy Makar Chudra. For him, the most important thing in life is personal freedom, which he would never exchange 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. In general, a characteristic 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)))))

The role of the landscape in the early romantic stories

Maxim Gorky.

In his early works, Maxim Gorky appears as a romantic. Romanticism presupposes the affirmation of an exceptional personality, acting one on one with the world, approaching reality from the standpoint of his ideal, making exceptional demands on those around him. 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 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.

“A damp, cold wind blew from the sea, spreading across the steppe the pensive melody of the splash of a wave running ashore 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 surrounding us shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened 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 old gypsy ... ". (Gorky M. Favorite Stories, essays, plays. - M., 1983.)

Therefore, so great importance gets 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.

“The sea was still whispering with the shore, and the wind still carried its whisper over the steppe”;

“The sea quietly echoed the beginning of one of the ancient legends that, perhaps, were created on its shores”;

The sea was muffled and mournful. (Gorky M. Selected Stories, essays, plays. - M., 1983.)

For romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic artistic world: 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.

This is how we see the heroes of Gorky's early romantic stories: "Old Woman Izergil", "Makar Chudra". 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."

So, the landscape is animated, the sea and the steppe are endless, they emphasize the boundlessness of the freedom of the heroes, their inability and unwillingness to change this freedom for anything. A little 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! (Gorky M. Selected Stories, essays, plays. - M., 1983.)

In a romantic landscape, the heroine of another story, 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, waving 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. (Gorky M. Selected Stories, essays, plays. - M., 1983.)

The concept of "romanticism" is often used as a synonym for the concept of "romance". This refers to the tendency to look at the world through pink glasses and active life position. Or they associate this concept with love and any actions for their own sake. loved one. But romanticism has several meanings. The article will talk about more narrow sense, which is used for a literary term, and about the main character traits romantic hero.

Characteristic features of the style

Romanticism is a trend in literature that arose in Russia in the late 18th - first half of the 19th century. This style proclaims the cult of nature and natural feelings person. New features romantic literature become freedom of expression, the value of individualism and the original character traits of the protagonist. Representatives of the direction abandoned rationalism and the primacy of the mind, which were characteristic of the Enlightenment, and put the emotional and spiritual sides of a person at the forefront.

In their works, the authors do not display the real world, which was too vulgar and vile for them, but the inner universe of the character. And through the prism of his feelings and emotions, the outlines of the real world are visible, the laws and thoughts of which he refuses to obey.

Main conflict

central conflict all works written in the era of romanticism, becomes a conflict between the individual and society as a whole. Here the protagonist goes against the rules established in his environment. At the same time, the motives for such behavior can be different - actions can both go for the benefit of society, and have a selfish intention. In this case, as a rule, the hero loses this fight, and the work ends with his death.

A romantic is a special and in most cases very mysterious person who tries to resist the power of nature or society. At the same time, the conflict develops into internal struggle contradictions that occurs in the soul of the main character. In other words, the central character is built on antitheses.

Although in this literary genre the individuality of the protagonist is valued, literary critics have nevertheless identified what features of romantic heroes are the main ones. But, despite the similarity, each character is unique in its own way, since they are only common criteria style selection.

Ideals of society

main feature romantic hero is that he does not accept the well-known ideals of society. The main character has his own ideas about the values of life, which he tries to defend. He, as it were, challenges the whole world around him, and not an individual person or group of people. Here in question about the ideological confrontation of one person against the whole world.

At the same time, in his rebellion, the main character chooses one of two extremes. Either these are unattainable highly spiritual goals, and the character is trying to catch up with the Creator himself. In another case, the hero indulges in all sorts of sins, not feeling the measure of his moral fall into the abyss.

Bright personality

If one person is able to withstand the whole world, then it is as large and complex as the whole world. The protagonist of romantic literature always stands out in society, both externally and internally. In the soul of the character there is a constant conflict between the stereotypes already laid down by society and his own views and ideas.

Loneliness

One of the saddest traits of the romantic hero is his tragic loneliness. Since the character is opposed to the whole world, he remains completely alone. There is no such person who would understand it. Therefore, he either himself flees from a society he hates, or he himself becomes an exile. Otherwise, the romantic hero would no longer be like this. Therefore, romantic writers focus all their attention on psychological portrait central character.

Either past or future

The features of the romantic hero do not allow him to live in the present. The character is trying to find his ideals in the past, when the religious feeling was strong in the hearts of people. Or he indulges himself with happy utopias that supposedly await him in the future. But in any case, the main character is not satisfied with the era of dull bourgeois reality.

Individualism

As already said, hallmark romantic hero is his individualism. But it's not easy to be "different from others." This is a fundamental difference from all the people who surround the main character. At the same time, if a character chooses a sinful path, then he realizes that he is different from others. And this difference is taken to the extreme - the cult of personality of the protagonist, where all actions have an exclusively selfish motive.

The era of romanticism in Russia

The poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. He creates several ballads and poems ("Ondine", "The Sleeping Princess" and so on), in which there is a deep philosophical meaning and desire for moral ideals. His works are saturated with his own experiences and reflections.

Then Zhukovsky was replaced by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. They put on public consciousness, impressed by the failure of the Decembrist uprising, the imprint of an ideological crisis. For this reason, the creativity of these people is described as a disappointment in real life and an attempt to escape into his fictional world, filled with beauty and harmony. The main characters of their works lose interest in earthly life and come into conflict with the outside world.

One of the features of romanticism is the appeal to the history of the people and their folklore. This is most clearly seen in the work "Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, a young guardsman and a daring merchant Kalashnikov" and a cycle of poems and poems dedicated to the Caucasus. Lermontov perceived it as the homeland of the free and proud people. They opposed the slave country, which was under the rule of Nicholas I.

The early works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin are also imbued with the idea of romanticism. An example is "Eugene Onegin" or "The Queen of Spades".

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Such a problematic of the Gorky epic also led to new art forms her incarnation. One of them was the pairing in each epic work of the artist of two objects of the image: objective reality - and the consciousness of the central character, who perceives this reality. Such a hero, in particular, was the narrator (early romantic stories, the cycle "Across Rus'"), main character(“The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”, “The Life of Klim Samgin”, an autobiographical trilogy). The interaction of these two objects of the image forms a conflict between reality and its perception and, ultimately, the problematics of the work.

Romantic stories by Gorky

In their early works Gorky appears to the reader as a romantic writer. (Clarify your understanding of romanticism as a literary movement.) Romanticism presupposes the approval of an exceptional personality, acting one on one with the world, approaching reality from the position of its ideal, making exceptional demands on it. The hero is head and shoulders above the people around him, their society is rejected by him. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of a 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 communion with the elements, with the world of nature.

Remember the romantic works of Pushkin and Lermontov.

Therefore, landscape plays such a big role in romantic works, usually devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the indomitable power of the elements, its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape, thus, is animated and, as it were, emphasizes the eccentricity of the hero's character. Attempts to bring the romantic hero closer to the real world most often unpromising: reality does not accept the romantic ideal of the hero due to his exclusivity.

The relationship of characters and circumstances in romanticism

For a 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 - 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 the main feature of this literary movement.

This is how we see the heroes of Gorky's early romantic stories. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader 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."

Pay 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.

A few lines later, Makar Chudra will state this position directly, talking about 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!

On the background romantic landscape the old woman Izergil is also depicted: “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 women’s hair into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads.”

It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful - that Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil, the main characters of these stories, can realize themselves. Their consciousness and characters with their sometimes mysterious contradictions become the main subject of the image. For the sake of these heroes, stories are written, and artistic means, used by the author, he needs in order to show the characters in all their complexity and inconsistency, in order to explain their strength and weakness. Makar Chudra and Izergil, being at the center of the story, get the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives them the right to speak about themselves, freely express their views. The legends told by them, having undoubted artistic independence, nevertheless serve primarily as a means of revealing the image of the main character, whose name the work is named after.

The legends express the ideas of Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil about the ideal and the anti-ideal in a person, that is, the romantic ideal and the anti-ideal are presented. Talking about Danko and Larra, about Radda and Loiko Zobar, Izergil and Chudra talk more about themselves. The author needs these legends so that Izergil and Chudra can express their own views on life in the most accessible form for them. Let's try to determine the main qualities of these characters.

Makar Chudra, like any romantic, carries in his character the only beginning which he considers valuable: the maximalist desire for freedom. Izergil is sure that her whole life was subordinated to only one thing - love for people. The same single beginning, brought to the maximum extent, is embodied by the heroes of the legends they tell. For Loiko Zobar, the highest value is also freedom, openness and kindness. Radda is the highest, exceptional manifestation of pride, which even love for Loiko Zobar cannot break. The insoluble contradiction between the two principles in the romantic character - love and pride - is thought by Makar Chudra as completely natural, and it can be resolved only in 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 tells. 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, embodying 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 such in their essence, such are they from the very beginning.

The action of the legends 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, remaining from the heart of Danko, the shadow of Larra, which Izergil sees; smoothly and silently circling in the darkness of the night, the handsome Loiko and the proud Radda.

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 protagonist, whether it be Izergil or Makar Chudra. 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 the human character, shows which personality traits, from the point of view of his heroes, are worthy of respect or contempt. In other words, the characters in this way, as it were, set a coordinate system, based on 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.

How does Makar Chudra assess such a position? He believes that this is how life should be perceived. real man, worthy of imitation, and that only with such life position you can keep your freedom.

But does the author agree with his hero? What is the author's position and what are the artistic means of its expression? To answer this question, we must turn to such an important compositional features Gorky's early romantic stories, as the presence character of the narrator. Indeed, it is one of the most imperceptible images, he almost does not manifest himself in actions. But it is precisely the look of this man, wandering around Rus' and meeting on his way many of the most different people is very important for a writer. In the compositional center of any Gorky epic work there will always be a perceiving consciousness - a negative, distorting the real picture life, or positive, fulfilling being higher meaning and content. 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 a later cycle of stories "Across Rus'", Gorky will call the hero-narrator not a passer-by, but passing emphasizing his indifferent view of reality. In the fate and worldview of the "passing" features of Gorky himself are manifested. Therefore, many researchers propose to speak of Gorky's narrator in these stories as autobiographical hero.

It is the intent, interested look of the autobiographical hero that snatches out of 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. The author's attitude towards them is admiration for their strength and beauty (as in the story "Makar Chudra"), or poetry, a penchant for aesthetic perception 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. Such a complex relationship is expressed in the stories not directly, but indirectly, with the help of 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. 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, “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. In these words, the author's admiration for their beauty and uncompromisingness, the strength of their feelings, the understanding of the impossibility for the romantic consciousness of a different resolution of the conflict. At the same time, this is the realization of the futility of such an outcome of the case: after all, even after the death of Loiko, in his pursuit, he will not be equal to the proud Radda.

The position of the autobiographical hero in "Old Woman Izergil" is more complexly expressed. Creating an image main character, Bitter compositional means gives her the opportunity to present both the romantic ideal, expressing the highest degree of love for people (Danko), and the anti-ideal, which embodied individualism and contempt for others brought to its climax (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, as it were, frame the narrative of her own life, which constitutes the ideological center of the narrative. Of course, condemning Larra's individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and fate is more likely to strive for the Danko pole, which 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 her once beloved people. They ceased to exist for her when the passion passed.

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 again those whom I once loved. These are bad meetings, all the same, as if with the dead.

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. 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 pumped up: “Time has 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.

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! .. ”Izergil says 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 have long passed their circle of life: “And all of them are only 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, ”let’s remember that Larra turned into a shadow.

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, who made up the army of tramps, vagabonds, as if "breaking out" (B. V. Mikhailovsky) from the old social framework and have not found new strong public relations. Gorky's autobiographical hero belongs precisely to this stratum of people.

For all the drama of this process, it was positive: the horizons and worldview of people who set off on a journey through Rus' were incomparably deeper and richer than those of previous generations, completely new sides were opened to them. national life. Russia, as it were, came to know itself through these people. 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 and leading Izergil to complete exhaustion.

What features of romanticism are reflected in the "Song of the Falcon" (1895, second edition - 1899)? in "Song of the Petrel" (1901)? How can you define the genre of these works? What is an allegory? How is conflict embodied? What is the role of the landscape? What are the artistic means of creating images? How is the author's position expressed?

Drama "Down Under"

Remember what is the originality of drama as a kind of literature.

Drama, by its very nature, is meant to be staged. Orientation towards stage interpretation limits the artist in the means of expressing the author's position. He cannot, unlike the author of an epic work, directly express his position - the only exceptions are the author's remarks, which are intended for the reader or actor, but which the viewer will not see. The author's position is expressed in the monologues and dialogues of the characters, in their actions, in the development of the plot. In addition, the playwright is limited in the volume of the work (the performance can go on for two, three, at most four hours) and in the number actors(all of them must “fit” on the stage and have time to realize themselves in the limited time of the performance and the space of the stage).

That is why in the drama a special burden falls on the conflict, the sharp clash between the characters on a very significant and significant issue for them. Otherwise, the characters simply will not be able to realize themselves in the limited amount of drama and stage space. The playwright ties such a knot, when unraveling it, a person shows himself from all sides. At the same time, there can be no “extra” heroes in the drama - all the heroes must be included in the conflict, the movement and course of the play must capture them all. Therefore, sharp conflict situation, which is played out before the eyes of the viewer, turns out to be the most important feature of drama as a kind of literature.

The subject of the image in Gorky's drama "At the Bottom" (1902) is the consciousness of people thrown out as a result of deep social processes to the bottom of life. In order to embody a similar subject of the image stage means, the author needed to find the appropriate situation, the appropriate conflict, as a result of which the contradictions of the consciousness of the overnight stays would be most fully manifested, its strong and weak sides. Is social, public conflict suitable for this?

Indeed, social conflict is presented in the play on several levels. Firstly, this is a conflict between the owners of the rooming house, the Kostylevs, and its inhabitants. It is felt by the characters throughout the play, but it turns out to be static, devoid of dynamics, not developing. This is because the Kostylevs themselves are not so far away in public plan left the inhabitants of the rooming house. Relations between owners and inhabitants can only create tension, but not become the basis dramatic conflict able to "tie" the drama.

In addition, each of the characters in the past experienced their own social conflict, as a result of which they ended up at the "bottom" of life, in a rooming house.

Remember what brought Satin, Baron, Klesch, Bubnov, Actor, Nastya, and other heroes to the Kostylevs' rooming house. Try to restore the backstory of these characters.

But these social conflicts are fundamentally taken out of the scene, relegated to the past, and therefore do not become the basis of a dramatic conflict. We see only the result of the social turmoil that so tragically affected people's lives, but not the clashes themselves.

The presence of social tension is already indicated in the very title of the play. After all, the very fact of the existence of the “bottom” of life also implies the presence of a “rapid stream”, its upper course, to which the characters aspire. But even this cannot become the basis of a dramatic conflict - after all, this tension is also devoid of dynamics, all attempts by the characters to escape from the "bottom" turn out to be futile. Even the appearance of policeman Medvedev does not give impetus to the development of a dramatic conflict.

Perhaps the drama is organized by the traditional love conflict? Indeed, such a conflict is present in the play. It is determined by the relationship between Vaska Ash, Vasilisa, Kostylev's wife, the owner of the rooming house, and Natasha.

Follow the development of the love plot in the drama "At the Bottom".

The exposition of the love plot is the appearance of Kostylev in the bunkhouse and the conversation of the bunkhouses, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the bunkhouse, who is cheating on him with Vaska Pepel. The plot of a love conflict is the appearance of Natasha in the rooming house, for the sake of which Pepel leaves Vasilisa. In the course of the development of the love conflict, it becomes clear that the relationship with Natasha enriches Ash, revives him to a new life.

Follow the evolution that the hero goes through under the influence of the relationship with Natasha.

climax of the love conflict is fundamentally taken out of the scene: we do not see exactly how Vasilisa scalds Natasha with boiling water, we only learn about it from the noise and screams behind the stage and the conversations of the roommates. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ashes turns out to be tragic ending love conflict.

Of course, love conflict is also a facet social conflict. He shows that the anti-human conditions of the "bottom" cripple a person, and the most sublime feelings, even love, lead not to the enrichment of the individual, but to death, mutilation and hard labor. Having thus unleashed a love conflict, Vasilisa emerges from it as a winner, achieves all her goals at once: she takes revenge former lover Vaska Peplu and her rival Natasha get rid of her unloved husband and become the sole owner of the rooming house. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and her moral impoverishment shows the enormity social conditions, in which both the inhabitants of the rooming house and its owners are immersed.

But a love conflict cannot organize a stage action and become the basis of a dramatic conflict, if only because, unfolding before the eyes of the roommates, it does not affect them themselves. They are keenly interested in the ups and downs of these relationships, but do not participate in them, remaining only outside spectators. Consequently, a love conflict also does not create a situation that could form the basis of a dramatic conflict.

Let us repeat once again: the subject of depiction in Gorky's play is not only and not so much the social contradictions of reality or possible ways their permissions; he is interested in the consciousness of the overnight stays in all its inconsistency. Such an object of the image is typical for the genre philosophical drama. Moreover, it also requires non-traditional forms of artistic expression: the traditional external action (event series) gives way to the so-called internal action. Played on stage everyday life: there are minor quarrels between the rooming houses, one of the heroes appears and disappears. But it is not these circumstances that turn out to be plot-forming. Philosophical issues makes the playwright transform traditional forms dramas: the plot is manifested not in the actions of the characters, but in their dialogues; the dramatic action is translated by Gorky into an extra-event series.

In the exposition, we see people who, in essence, have come to terms with their tragic situation at the bottom of their lives. The beginning of the conflict is the appearance of Luke. Outwardly, it does not affect the life of overnight shelters in any way, but in their minds hard work begins. Luka is immediately at the center of their attention, and the entire development of the plot is concentrated on him. In each of the characters he sees bright sides his personality, finds the key and approach to each of them. And this produces a true revolution in the lives of the heroes. The development of inner action begins at the moment when the heroes discover in themselves the ability to dream of a new and a better life.

It turns out that those bright sides that Luke guessed in each character of the play constitute his true essence. It turns out that the prostitute Nastya dreams of a beautiful and bright love; The actor, a drunken man, recalls his work and seriously thinks about returning to the stage; The "hereditary" thief Vaska Pepel finds in himself a desire for an honest life, he wants to go to Siberia and become a strong master there. Dreams reveal the true human essence of Gorky's heroes, their depth and purity. This is how another facet of social conflict manifests itself: the depth of the characters' personalities, their noble aspirations are in blatant contradiction with their current social position. The structure of society is such that a person does not have the opportunity to realize his true essence.

Find evidence of this in the text of the play. Show the dreams of other heroes. Are any of them ready to respond to Luke's words? What is Bubnov's position? Why does he refuse to dream?

Luka, from the first moment of his appearance in the rooming house, refuses to see swindlers in the rooming houses. “I respect crooks too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: everyone is black, everyone jumps,” he says, justifying his right to call his new neighbors “honest people” and rejecting Bubnov’s objection: “He was honest, Yes, the spring before last. The origins of this position are in the naive anthropologism of Luke, who believes that a person is initially good and only social circumstances make him bad and imperfect.

How can you prove it with text? How does Luka's story about how he guarded the dacha confirm his confidence in the original positiveness of every person? Why did crooks break into his house and want to rob him? How did Luke punish them? How did their relationship develop further? Why, according to Luke and their own words have they become thieves? Is it possible, in your opinion, to re-educate them as easily as Luke did?

This story-parable of Luke clarifies the reason for his warm and benevolent attitude towards all people - including those who found themselves at the "bottom" of life.

What are the artistic means of creating the image of Luke? What's happened speech characteristic? How does Luke's speech characterize him? What proverbs and sayings does he use? What role do the author's remarks play in creating his image? How does Luke's sermon characterize him? What characteristics does he get from other heroes after his disappearance? What is self-characterization? What is Luke's personality? How is his philosophical position justified? What role does the parable of the righteous land, told by him, play in its justification? How does it relate to the fate of the Actor? How is the author's position revealed in this ratio? Does Gorky agree with his hero, or is there a tense argument between them throughout the play?

Luke's position appears in the drama as very complex, and author's attitude looks ambiguous to him. On the one hand, Luke is absolutely disinterested in his preaching and in his desire to awaken in people the best, hidden for the time being sides of their nature, which they did not even suspect - they contrast so strikingly with their position at the very bottom of society. He sincerely wishes his interlocutors well, shows real ways to achieve a new, better life. And under the influence of his words, the heroes really experience a metamorphosis. The actor stops drinking and saves money in order to go to a free hospital for alcoholics, not even suspecting that he does not need it: the dream of returning to creativity gives him the strength to overcome his illness. Ash subordinates his life to the desire to leave with Natasha for Siberia and get back on his feet there. The dreams of Nastya and Anna, Klesh's wife, are quite illusory, but these dreams also give them the opportunity to feel happier. Nastya imagines herself the heroine of boulevard novels, showing in her dreams about the non-existent Raul or Gaston the feats of self-sacrifice that she is really capable of; dying Anna, dreaming about the afterlife, also partly escapes from a sense of hopelessness. Only Bubnov and Baron, people who are completely indifferent to others and even to themselves, remain deaf to Luke's words.

Luka’s position is exposed by a dispute about what truth is, which arose between him and Bubnov and the Baron, when the latter ruthlessly exposes Nastya’s groundless dreams of Raul: “Here ... you say - the truth ... She, really, is not always due to illness to a person ... Truth does not always cure the soul…” In other words, Luke affirms charity for a man of comforting lies. But is Luke only asserting a lie?

Our literary criticism has long been dominated by the concept that Gorky unequivocally rejects Luke's consolatory sermon. But the position of the writer is more complicated.

Indeed, is Luka lying, showing Ash and Natasha the way to an honest life? Is he lying when he gives the Actor confidence in his strength? And if he convinces Anna of the existence of the afterlife (which, in essence, cannot also be considered a lie, but is a matter of faith and religious beliefs), then are his words really so bad - are there more humanity in them than in despair? Tick and vulgarity of Baron and Bubnov? How would you answer these questions yourself?

The author's position is expressed primarily in the development of the plot. After Luke's departure, everything happens in a completely different way, as the heroes expected and what Luke convinced them of. Vaska Pepel will indeed go to Siberia, but not as a free settler, but as a convict convicted of murdering Kostylev. An actor who has lost faith in his own strength will exactly repeat the fate of the hero of the parable of the righteous land told by Luke. Trusting the hero to tell this plot, Gorky himself will beat him in the fourth act, drawing directly opposite conclusions. Luke, telling a parable about a man who, having lost faith in the existence of a righteous land, strangled himself, believes that a person should not be deprived of hope, albeit an illusory one. Gorky, through the fate of the Actor, assures the reader and the viewer that it is precisely false hope that can lead a person to a noose. But let us return to the previous question: how did Luka deceive the inhabitants of the rooming house?

The actor accuses him of not leaving the address of the free clinic. All the heroes agree that the hope that Luke instilled in their souls is false. But after all, he did not promise to bring them out of the bottom of life - he simply supported their timid belief that there is a way out and that it was not ordered for them. That self-confidence that had woken up in the minds of the roommates turned out to be too fragile, and with the disappearance of the hero who was able to support it, it immediately faded away. It's all about the weakness of the heroes, their inability and unwillingness to do at least something a little in order to resist the ruthless social circumstances that doom them to existence in the Kostylevs' rooming house.

Therefore, the author addresses the main accusation not to Luke, but to the heroes who are unable to find the strength in themselves to oppose their will to reality. So Gorky manages to open one of characteristic features Russian national character: dissatisfaction with reality, a sharply critical attitude towards it and complete unwillingness to do anything to change this reality. That is why Luke finds such a warm response in their hearts: after all, he explains the failures of their lives by external circumstances and is not at all inclined to blame the heroes themselves for a failed life. And the thought of trying to somehow change these circumstances does not occur to either Luka or his flock. Therefore, the heroes experience the departure of Luke so dramatically: the hope awakened in their souls cannot find inner support in their characters; they will always need external support, even from a person as helpless in a practical sense as the "passportless" Luke.

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 a 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 background 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. The composition of the narrative 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 coordinate system, on the basis of which they themselves can be judged.

So, the romantic legend is the most important means of creating the image of the protagonist. 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 a real person worthy of imitation should perceive life, and that only in such a life position can one preserve one's own 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, true free man only in this way could he realize himself in love, as the heroes “were” did it.

To answer this question, we must turn to such an important compositional feature of Gorky's early romantic stories as the presence of the narrator's image. In fact, this is one of the most subtle images, it almost does not manifest itself directly. Ho, it is the look of this man, wandering around Rus', meeting many different people on his way, that is very important for the writer. Let us recall once again: in Gorky's epic, in the compositional center of any of his novels or short stories, there will always be a perceiving consciousness - negative, distorting the real picture of life, depriving it of meaning and perspective (the epic “The Life of Klim Samgin”, the novel “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”), or positive, filling being with the highest meaning and content (autobiographical trilogy, novel “Mother”). It is this perceiving consciousness that ultimately 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. 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 of the folk character of the turn of the century, tries to explore its strengths and weaknesses. And the author's attitude towards them is 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. A young girl or a young, full of strength woman should have told about beautiful sensual love. 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.

“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 on it, and her 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 arms is all wrinkled, and with every movement of the old Izergil one could expect that this dry skin would tear all over, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand in front of me.

“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, who, as it were, fell out of the old social conditions and did not acquire new strong social ties. 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 the people who embarked on a journey through Rus' were incomparably deeper and richer than those of previous generations, completely new aspects of national life were opened to them. 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.