Gorky early romantic stories list. §2

Early romantic stories by M. Gorky

“I came into the world to disagree,” these words of Gorky can be attributed to any of his heroes romantic works. Loiko Zobar, Radda, Makar Chudra, Danko, Larra, Izergil - they are all proud and independent, they are distinguished by personal originality, brightness of nature, exclusivity of passions. Gorky's romanticism was formed in an era seemingly not intended for romanticism - the nineties of the 19th century, however, it was the writer's furious rebellion against the "leaden abominations of life" that gave birth to the concept of a man-doer, the creator of his own destiny: Gorky's romantic heroes do not bow to circumstances, but overcome them. “We need feats, feats!” - Gorky wrote a few months before the creation of the story “Old Woman Izergil” and embodied in his romantic works heroes capable of accomplishing these feats, therefore works with a dramatic, or even tragic ending, reveal a bold, joyful view of the world of the young writer.

"Makar Chudra" (1892)

“Makar Chudra” is the first work that made Gorky famous. The heroes of this story - young gypsies Loiko Zobar and Radda - are exceptional in everything: in appearance, feelings, fate. Radda’s beauty cannot be expressed in words; it “could be played on a violin, and by the one who played the violin. He knows his own soul.” Zobar has “eyes like clear stars, shining,” “a smile like the whole sun, a mustache lay on his shoulders and mixed with his curls.” Makar Chudra cannot hide his admiration for Zobar’s daring, spiritual generosity, and inner strength: “I’ll be damned if I didn’t already love him, before he said a word to me. He was a daring fellow! Was he afraid of anyone? You need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only it would make you feel good. With such a person you become a better person. There are few such people, my friend!” Beauty in Gorky's romantic works becomes a moral criterion: one is right and worthy of admiration simply because one is beautiful.

Matches Zobar and Radda - and she has the same royal pride, contempt for human weakness, no matter what it is expressed in. The large purse of the Moravian magnate, with which he wanted to seduce the proud gypsy, only deserved to be carelessly thrown into the dirt by Radda. It is no coincidence that Radda compares herself to an eagle - independent, high soaring, lonely, because there are few who can match her. “Look for the dove - those are more pliable,” her father Danila advises the tycoon.

The basis of a romantic work is the conflict of the romantic hero with generally accepted values; in this case, two passions collide in the souls of Zobar and Radda - freedom and love as affection, responsibility, submission. “And I can’t live without you, just as you can’t live without me... I’ve never loved anyone, Loiko, I love you. And I also love freedom. Will, Loiko, I love more than you.” Gorky's heroes are faced with a choice that can be called tragic, since it is impossible to make - all that remains is the denial of the very necessity of choice, that is, life. “If two stones roll towards each other, you cannot stand between them - they will mutilate you.” Pride and love cannot be reconciled, since compromise is unthinkable for the romantic consciousness.

Compositional framing plays a special role in Gorky's story. A romantic story, in the center of which there are exceptional characters and situations, affirms a special system of values, into which ordinary, everyday human life does not fit. The antithesis of the narrator and Makar Chudra, who told the legend about the love and death of the proud, handsome gypsies, reveals the dual world characteristic of a romantic work - the inconsistency, the opposition of the everyday view of the world and life philosophy romantic hero. Freedom, not constrained by any attachments - neither to a person, nor to a place, nor to work - this in the eyes of Makar Chudra is the highest value. “This is how you need to live: go, go - and that’s it. Don't stand in one place for a long time - what's in it? Just as they run day and night, chasing each other, around the earth, so you run away from thoughts about life, so as not to stop loving it. But if you think about it, you’ll stop loving life, this always happens.”

"Old Woman Izergil" (1895)

The system of images in the story “Old Woman Izergil” is built on the principle of antithesis, which is typical for a romantic work. Larra and Danko are proud and beautiful, but already in the description of their appearance there is a detail that sharply distinguishes them: Danko has eyes in which “a lot of strength and living fire shone,” and Larra’s eyes were “cold and proud.” Light and darkness, fire and shadow - this will distinguish not only the appearance of Larra and Danko, but also their attitude towards people, their destinies, the memory of them. Danko has a fiery heart in his chest, Larra has a heart of stone, Danko will live in blue steppe sparks even after death, and the ever-living Larra will turn into a shadow. Larra sees nothing but herself. The son of Eagle, a lonely predator, he despises the laws of people, lives by his own laws, obeys only his momentary desires. “The punishment of a person is in himself” - this is why eternal lonely life became for Larra a punishment worse than death.

Burning is the ideal of life for another hero of this story - Danko. Danko saves those people who, from weakness, exhaustion and fear, were ready to kill him, those among whom there was one who stepped on his proud heart. It is no coincidence that Gorky introduces this episode into the artistic fabric of the story: people were poisoned not only by the poisonous fumes of the swamp, but also by fear, they were accustomed to being slaves, it is very difficult to free themselves from this “internal slavery”, and even Danko’s feat is not able to wrest fear out in an instant from human souls. People were frightened by everything: both the road back and the road forward; they blamed Danko, a man endowed with “the courage of the West,” for their weakness. And”, that is, the courage to be first. “People began to reproach him for his inability to manage them, they attacked Danko, the man who walked ahead of them, in anger and anger.” Danko gives his life to people, dreaming of awakening light in their souls.

The life of Izergil, the third heroine of the story, was called “rebellious” by Gorky. This life was filled with rapid movement and vivid feelings; extraordinary, brave, strong people often found themselves next to her - especially the red-haired Hutsul and the “lord with the chopped up face.” She left the weak and vile without regret, even if she loved them: “I looked at him from above, and he was floundering there, in the water. I left then. And I never met him again” (about the nun), “Then I gave him kicked him and would have hit him in the face, but he recoiled and jumped up... Then I went too” (about Arcadek).

Izergil was not afraid to sacrifice herself in the name of love, but at the end of her life she was left alone, “without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire - also almost a shadow.” Izergil was absolutely free, she stayed with a person as long as she loved him, she always parted without regret and even remembered little of the person with whom she spent part of her life: “Where did the fisherman go? - Fisherman? And he...here... -Wait, where is the little Turk? - Boy? He died...” Izergil put her freedom above attachment to a person, calling it slavery: “I have never been anyone’s slave.”

Another romantic hero of Gorky's stories can be called nature, which in its exclusivity is akin to Zobar, Radda, Danko, Izergil. Only where there was steppe space and free wind could Gorky’s romantic heroes live. Nature in the story “Old Woman Izergil” becomes one of characters: This is a living creature that takes part in people's lives. And just like among people, there is good and evil in nature. The Moldavian night, the description of which precedes the events of the first legend, creates an atmosphere of mystery. Before Larra appears, nature dresses in bloody tones and becomes alarming. In the legend of Danko, nature is hostile to people, but its evil energy was defeated by Danko’s love: with his feat, he overcame the darkness not only in the souls of people, but also in nature: “The sun was shining here; the steppe sighed, the grass glittered in the diamonds of the rain, and the river sparkled with gold.”

The exclusivity and colorfulness of their characters, the desire for freedom and the ability to take decisive actions distinguish all the heroes of Gorky’s romantic works. The words given by the writer to the old woman Izergil have already become an aphorism: “In life, do you know, there is always room for exploits.” This reflects the concept of a human doer capable of transforming the world. At the turn of the century, this concept turned out to be consonant with a time when many already felt the approach of global historical changes.

The work of early Gorky should not be reduced only to romanticism: in the 1890s. he created works that were both romantic and realistic in style (among the latter, for example, the stories “The Beggar Woman,” “Chelkash,” “Konovalov” and many others). However, it is the group romantic stories was perceived as a kind business card young writer, it was they who testified to the arrival in literature of a writer who stood out sharply against the background of his predecessors.

First of all, the type of hero was new. Much in Gorky's heroes made us remember the romantic literary tradition. This is the brightness, exclusivity of their characters, which distinguished them from those around them, and the drama of their relationship with the world of everyday reality, and the fundamental loneliness, rejection, and mystery for others. Gorky's romantics make too stringent demands on the world and the human environment, and in their behavior they are guided by principles that are “crazy” from the point of view of “normal” people.

Two qualities are especially noticeable in Gorky’s romantic heroes: pride and strength, which force them to defy fate and boldly strive for boundless freedom, even if they have to sacrifice their lives for the sake of freedom. It is the problem of freedom that becomes the central problem of the writer’s early stories.

These are the stories “Makar Chudra” and “Old Woman Izergil”. The poeticization of love of freedom itself is a completely traditional feature for the literature of romanticism. It was not fundamentally new for Russian literature and appeal to the conventional forms of legends. What is the meaning of the conflict in Gorky’s early romantic stories, what are the specifically Gorky features of its artistic embodiment? The uniqueness of these stories lies in the fact that the source of conflict in them is not the traditional confrontation between “good” and “evil,” but the clash of two positive values. This is the conflict of freedom and love in Makar Chudra - a conflict that can only be resolved tragically. Loving friend friend Rudd and Loiko Zobar value their freedom so much that they do not allow the thought of voluntary submission to their loved one.

Each of the heroes will never agree to be led: the only role worthy of these heroes is to dominate, even if we're talking about about mutual feeling. “Will, Loiko, I love you more than you,” says Radda. The uniqueness of the conflict lies in the complete equality of equally “proud” heroes. Unable to conquer his beloved, Loiko at the same time cannot give up on her. Therefore, he decides to kill - a wild, “crazy” act, although he knows that he is thereby sacrificing his pride and his own life.

The heroine of the story “Old Woman Izergil” behaves in a similar way in the sphere of love: feelings of pity or even regret give way to the desire to remain independent. “I was happy... I never met those I once loved,” she tells her interlocutor. “These are not good meetings, it’s like meeting dead people.” However, the heroes of this story are involved not only and not so much in love conflicts: it is about price, meaning and various options for freedom.

The first option is presented by the fate of Larra. This is another “proud” person (such a characteristic in the mouth of the narrator is more likely to be praise than a negative assessment). The story of his “crime and punishment” receives an ambiguous interpretation: Izergil refrains from direct assessment, the tone of her story is epically calm. The verdict was entrusted to the nameless " to a wise man»:

“- Stop! There is punishment. This is a terrible punishment; You wouldn’t invent something like this in a thousand years! His punishment is in himself! Let him go, let him be free. This is his punishment!”

So, Larra’s individualistic freedom, not enlightened by reason, is the freedom of rejection, turning into its opposite - into punishment by eternal loneliness. The opposite “mode” of freedom is revealed in the legend of Danko. With his position “above the crowd,” his proud exclusivity, and finally, his thirst for freedom, at first glance, he resembles Larra. However, the elements of similarity only emphasize the fundamentally different directions of the two “freedoms”. Danko’s freedom is the freedom to take responsibility for the team, the freedom to selflessly serve people, the ability to overcome the instincts of self-preservation and subordinate life to a consciously defined goal. The formula “in life there is always a place for achievement” is an aphoristic definition of this freedom. True, the ending of the story about Danko’s fate is not unambiguous: the people saved by the hero are not at all complimentary attested by Izergil. Admiring the daredevil Danko is complicated here by a note of tragedy.

The central place in the story is occupied by the story of Izergil herself. The framing legends about Larra and Danko are deliberately conventional: their action is devoid of specific chronological or spatial signs, and is attributed to an indefinite deep antiquity. On the contrary, Izergil’s story unfolds against a more or less specific historical background (during the course of the story, well-known historical episodes are mentioned and real place names are used). However, this dose of reality does not change the principles of character development - they remain romantic. The life story of the old woman Izergil is a story of meetings and partings. None of the heroes of her story are awarded detailed description- the metonymic principle dominates in the characterization of the characters (“a part instead of the whole”, one expressive detail - instead of detailed portrait). Izergil is endowed with character traits that bring her closer to the heroes of legends: pride, rebellion, rebellion.

Like Danko, she lives among people and is capable of heroic deeds for the sake of love. However, her image does not have the integrity that is present in Danko’s image. After all, the series of her love interests and the ease with which she parted with them evokes associations with Danko’s antipode, Larra. For Izergil herself (namely, she is the narrator), these contradictions are invisible; she tends to bring her life closer to the model of behavior that makes up the essence of the final legend. It is no coincidence that, starting with the story of Larra, her story rushes to Danko’s “pole”.

However, in addition to Izergil’s point of view, the story also expresses another point of view, belonging to the young Russian who listens to Izergil, occasionally asking her questions. This persistent character in Gorky’s early prose, sometimes called “passing,” is endowed with some autobiographical features. Age, range of interests, wandering around Rus' bring him closer to biographical Alexey Peshkov, therefore in literary studies the term “autobiographical hero” is often used in relation to him. There is also another version of the terminological designation - “author-narrator”. You can use any of these designations, although from the point of view of terminological rigor, the concept of “image of the narrator” is preferable.

Often, the analysis of Gorky’s romantic stories comes down to talking about conventional romantic heroes. Indeed, the figures of Radda and Loiko Zobar, Larra and Danko are important for understanding Gorky’s position. However, the content of his stories is broader: they themselves romantic stories are not independent, included in a larger narrative structure. Both in “Makar Chudra” and in “Old Woman Izergil” the legends are presented as stories of old people who have seen life. The listener of these stories is the narrator. From a quantitative point of view, this image takes up little space in the texts of the stories. But for understanding author's position its significance is very great.

Let's return to the analysis central plot story "Old Woman Izergil". This segment of the narrative - the heroine’s life story - is framed in a double frame. The inner frame consists of the legends about Larra and Danko, told by Izergil herself. External - landscape fragments and portrait characteristics of the heroine, communicated to the reader by the narrator himself, and his short remarks. The outer frame determines the spatio-temporal coordinates of the “speech event” itself and shows the narrator’s reaction to the essence of what he heard. Internal - gives an idea of ​​the ethical standards of the world in which Izergil lives. While Izergil’s story is directed towards Danko’s pole, the narrator’s meager statements make important adjustments to the reader’s perception.

Those short remarks with which he occasionally interrupts the old woman’s speech, at first glance, are of a purely official, formal nature: they either fill pauses or contain harmless “clarifying” questions. But the very direction of the questions is indicative. The narrator asks about the fate of the “others,” the heroine’s life companions: “Where did the fisherman go?” or “Wait!..Where is the little Turk?” Izergil tends to talk primarily about herself. Her additions, provoked by the narrator, indicate a lack of interest, even indifference, to other people (“The boy? He died, the boy. From homesickness or from love...”).

It is even more important that in the portrait description of the heroine given by the narrator, features are constantly recorded that associatively bring her closer not only to Danko, but also to Larra. Speaking of portraits. Note that both Izergil and the narrator act as “portrait painters” in the story. The latter seems to deliberately use in his descriptions of the old woman certain signs that she endowed legendary heroes, as if “quoting” her.

The portrait of Izergil is given in some detail in the story (“time has bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery,” “the skin on her neck and arms is all cut up with wrinkles,” etc.). Appearance The legendary heroes are presented through individually selected characteristics: Danko - “a handsome young man”, “a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes”, Larra - “a handsome and strong young man”, “only his eyes were cold and proud.”

The antithetical nature of the legendary heroes is already given by the portrait; however, the appearance of the old woman combines individual features of both. “I was alive, like a ray of sunshine” - a clear parallel with Danko; “dry, cracked lips”, “wrinkled nose, curved like an owl’s beak”, “dry... skin” - details that echo the features of Larra’s appearance (“the sun dried up his body, blood and bones”). The “shadow” motif common in the description of Larra and the old woman Izergil is especially important: Larra, having become a shadow, “lives for thousands of years”; the old woman is “alive, but withered by time, without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire, - also almost a shadow.” Loneliness turns out to be the common fate of Larra and the old woman Izergil.

Thus, the narrator does not at all idealize his interlocutor (or, in another story, his interlocutor Makar Chudra). He shows that the consciousness of a “proud” person is anarchic, not enlightened by a clear idea of ​​the price of freedom, and his love of freedom itself can take on an individualistic character. That is why the final landscape sketch sets the reader up for concentrated reflection, for the counter-activity of his consciousness. There is no straightforward optimism here, the heroism is muted - the pathos that dominated the final legend: “It was quiet and dark in the steppe. The clouds kept crawling across the sky, slowly, boringly... The sea rustled dully and sadly.” The leading principle of Gorky’s style is not spectacular external depiction, as it might seem if only “legends” came into the reader’s field of view. The internal dominant of his work is conceptuality, tension of thought, although this quality of style in his early work is somewhat “diluted” by stylized folk imagery and a tendency towards external effects.

The appearance of the characters and details of the landscape background in early stories Gorky’s images were created by means of romantic hyperbolization: showiness, unusualness, “excessiveness” - the qualities of any Gorky image. The very appearance of the characters is depicted with large, expressive strokes. Gorky does not care about the visual concreteness of the image. It is important for him to decorate, highlight, enlarge the hero, and attract the reader’s attention to him. In a similar way, Gorky's landscape is created, filled with traditional symbolism and imbued with lyricism.

Its stable attributes are the sea, clouds, moon, wind. The landscape is extremely conventional, it serves as a romantic decoration, a kind of screensaver: “... dark blue patches of sky, decorated with golden specks of stars, sparkled tenderly.” Therefore, by the way, within the same description, the same object can be given contradictory, but equally catchy characteristics. So, for example, the initial description moonlit night in “The Old Woman Izergil” contains in one paragraph contradictory friends friend color characteristics. At first the “disc of the moon” is called “blood-red,” but soon the narrator notices that the floating clouds are saturated with the “blue radiance of the moon.”

The steppe and the sea are figurative signs of the endless space that opens up to the narrator in his wanderings across Rus'. Art space a specific story is organized by the correlation of the boundless world and the “meeting place” of the narrator with the future narrator highlighted in it (the vineyard in “The Old Woman Izergil”, the place by the fire in the story “Makar Chudra”). In the landscape painting, the words “strange”, “fantastic” (“fantasy”), “fabulous” (“fairy tale”) are repeated many times. Fine precision gives way to subjective expressive characteristics. Their function is to present an “other”, “unearthly”, romantic world, and contrast it with the dull reality. Instead of clear outlines, silhouettes or “lace shadow” are given; lighting is based on the play of light and shadow.

The external musicality of speech is also noticeable in the stories: the flow of phrases is leisurely and solemn, replete with various rhythmic repetitions. The romantic “excessiveness” of the style is also manifested in the fact that nouns and verbs are entwined in the stories with “garlands” of adjectives, adverbs, participles - whole series of definitions. This stylistic manner, by the way, was condemned by A.P. Chekhov, who friendly advised the young writer: “...Cross out, where possible, the definitions of nouns and verbs. You have so many definitions that the reader finds it difficult to understand and gets tired.”

In Gorky’s early work, “excessive” colorfulness was closely connected with the young writer’s worldview, with his understanding of true life as a free play of unfettered forces, with the desire to introduce a new, life-affirming tone into literature. Subsequently, M. Gorky’s prose style evolved towards greater conciseness of descriptions, asceticism and accuracy portrait characteristics, syntactic balance of the phrase.

The life of A. M. Gorky was varied and contradictory. Childhood was not easy, his mother died early, his grandfather went bankrupt, and his “life among people” began. What will save him from the hardships and blows of a hard life is his love of reading and the desire to become a writer, to describe what he sees. Literature played a huge role in Gorky's life. She helped him rise above the everyday routine of everyday life, showing how broad, difficult and at the same time beautiful human life is.
M. Gorky’s first story, “Makar Chud-ra,” was filled with enthusiastic admiration for the image of the gypsy Radda, who at the cost of her life experienced the mighty heart of Loika Zobar. The writing of this story marked the beginning of his further work in the spirit of heroic romanticism, since the writer himself was looking for ways to solve eternal problems humanity, the desire for better life. And change this life in better side, as he understood, could be deeply spiritualized, selfless, decent and purposeful people, who did not think for a moment about their personal well-being, who saw in life its beautiful sides, its spiritual values.
Such heroes in Gorky's works are Danko, Burevestnik, Falcon, Chelkash and others.
The first lines in most of these works by Gorky were a call to heroism. In the story “Old Woman Izergil” a connection is established between legend and reality. Two legends in the story oppose each other. Lar-ra is proud, selfish, selfish, he values ​​only himself and freedom. Danko strives to gain freedom for everyone. Larra did not want to give people even a particle of his “I”, but Danko gives all of himself.
The tale “The Girl and Death” is a remarkable expression of the writer’s abiding faith in the ability human heart win, survive difficult moment.
“Chelkash” is one of the stories from the cycle about people from the people who carry high aesthetic qualities. The conflict is associated with a situation of wandering, flight from one’s home. On the road of complicity in crime, two people collide - one is driven by habit, the other by chance. Distrust, envy, submissive readiness to serve, fear, servility of Gavrila are opposed to condescension, contempt, self-confidence, courage, love of freedom of Chelkash. The author emphasizes the spiritual superiority of Chelkash. However, Chelkash is not needed by society, unlike the little owner Gavrila. This is both the romantic and tragic pathos of the work. The romantic worldview is also present in the description of nature.
The genre of the works “Song of the Petrel”, “Song of the Falcon” is defined as a song. Both songs also have other genre characteristics - they contain features of a parable. Main characters point of view: contrast strong personality and society. Nature reflects internal state heroes. In the image of these brave and proud birds, the writer wants to see as much as possible more people who strive to change people's lives for the better, so that all people live in peace and harmony.
When creating his early works, Gorky wanted to see in the people who read them a desire to follow his example. goodies, the desire to use their example to change one’s inner and spiritual world, your appearance, and as a result, life itself. The writer himself strives for this.

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The concept of personality in romantic stories. Romanticism presupposes the affirmation of an exceptional personality, confronting the world one on one, 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 he most often thinks of as natural state, because people do not understand him, they reject his ideal. Therefore, the romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communication with the elements, with the world of nature, the ocean, sea, mountains, coastal rocks. (Remember the romantic works of Pushkin and Lermontov.).

That's why it's so great value receives in romantic works a landscape - devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the most indomitable essence of the element and its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape, thus, becomes animated and, as it were, expresses the originality of the character of the hero. However, the loneliness of a romantic hero can be interpreted both as rejection of his ideal by people, and as a drama of incomprehension and lack of 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 its exclusivity.

Correlation of characters and circumstances. For the romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic art world: the principle of romantic dual worlds. Romantic, and therefore ideal world The hero confronts the real world, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is the fundamental feature of this literary direction. In a romantic landscape, the old woman Izergil appears before us: “the wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving birth to a strong gust, fluttered the women’s hair into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. This made women strange and fabulous. They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully” Mann Yu.V. Studying artistic features M. Gorky's story “Old Woman Izergil” // Literature at school. 1996., No. 13, p. 13

Izergil, like every romantic, has in her character the only principle that she considers 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 extent, is carried by the heroes of the legends told by her. Danko embodies the extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people, Larra - extreme individualism.

Romantic character motivation. Larra's exceptional individualism is due to the fact that he is the son of an eagle, who embodies the ideal of strength and will. This motivation is quite sufficient for the romantic consciousness: “Everyone looked with surprise at the eagle’s son 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 remained silent, and when the elders of the tribe came, he spoke to them as to his equals.” Pride and contempt for others are the two principles that Larra carries within 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 equal to himself in some way: “We talked with him for a long time and finally saw that he considers himself the first on earth and, except himself, sees nothing. Everyone even became scared when they realized the loneliness he was dooming himself to. He had no tribe, no mother, no cattle, no wife, and he didn’t want any of this.” This position forces the hero to take the path of selfish tyranny, which he openly declares. Having killed the girl he desired and who rejected him in front of the elders, the hero explains his position to people like this:

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 sufficient punishment for the romantic hero? Because by sentencing the hero to death, people would only confirm his exclusivity, his isolation from the general ranks, his right to command and speak to them as slaves - and their powerlessness and fear of him. Punished with eternal existence and loneliness, that is, having received what he claimed from the very beginning, the young man, who received the name Larra, which means rejected, thrown out, is doomed to the immortality of eternal wandering:

There is simply no need to talk about the conditionality of Danko’s character - he is like that in essence, that’s how he was from the very beginning. The only thing Izergil can do to motivate his exclusivity is beauty. “Danko is one of those people, a handsome young man. Beautiful people are always brave.” People believe him only because “he is the best of all, because a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes.” The romantic simply does not need a more in-depth motivation for the hero’s exceptionalism.

But, despite the obvious contrast between the images of Danko and Larra, they have something in common, because both of them are poles of the same world - the world of Izergil, and for her they correspond 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 dual worlds in both legends is based. Contempt for people is natural for Larra with his exorbitant pride and individualism, but the humane 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 labored and saw that they were like animals. Many people stood around him, but there was no nobility on their faces, and he could not expect mercy from them.” Gorky M. complete. Collection cit.: Artist. prod; In 25 volumes. M., 1968 p.301.

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 Larra, rejects those around him, or the crowd, fierce in its onslaught and deaf to his heart, rejects the romantic. Otherwise, this 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 too: even when indignation boiled in his heart, “it went out of pity for people. He loved people and thought that maybe they would die without him.”

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 this happened,” Izergil begins his story about Larra. But in the present there are traces directly related to that era - this blue lights, remaining from Danko’s heart, Larra’s shadow, which Izergil sees.

Naturally, the images of Danko and Larra can only be embodied against the background romantic landscape, bright and colorful, devoid of halftones, built on contrasts of light and darkness:

Composition of romantic stories. Clarify your ideas about the composition of a literary work.

The composition of the narrative in romantic stories is entirely subordinated to one goal: to recreate the image of the main character as completely as possible. By telling the legends of their people, the heroes give the author ideas about their value system, about the ideal and anti-ideal in human character, as they themselves understand it, and show which personality traits are worthy of respect or contempt. In other words, they, thus, seem to create a coordinate system based on which Mann Yu.V. themselves can be judged. Studying art. features of M. Gorky's story “Old Woman Izergil” // Literature at school., 1996, No. 13.

So the romantic legend is the most important means creating the image of the main character.

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. In fact, this is one of the most invisible images, he hardly shows himself 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 remember 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 consciousness 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, fulfilling existence highest meaning and content ( autobiographical trilogy, novel "Mother"). It is this perceiving consciousness that is ultimately the most important subject of the image, the criterion for the author’s assessment of reality and the means of expressing the author’s position. In the later cycle of stories “Across Rus',” Gorky will call the narrator not a passer-by, but a passer-by, emphasizing his caring view of reality that falls within the sphere of his perception and comprehension. Both in the early romantic stories and in the cycle “Across Rus'”, the fate and worldview of the “passing” person reveals the features of Gorky himself; the fate of his hero largely reflected the fate of the writer, who had known Russia from his youth in his travels. Therefore, many researchers suggest talking about Gorky’s narrator in these stories as an autobiographical hero. It is the close, interested gaze of the autobiographical hero that snatches from the meetings given to him by fate the most interesting and ambiguous characters - they turn out to be the main subject of depiction and research. In them the author sees a manifestation folk character turn of the century, tries to explore its weak and strengths. AND author's attitude to them - admiration for their strength and beauty, as in the story “Makar Chudra”, poetry, penchant for 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 expressed not directly, but indirectly, using a variety of artistic means.

The position of the autobiographical hero in “Old Woman Izergil” is more complexly expressed. Creating an image main character compositional means, Gorky gives her the opportunity to imagine a romantic ideal that expresses the highest degree of love for people (Danko), and a romantic anti-ideal that embodies individualism and contempt and dislike for others brought to its apogee (Larra). The ideal and the anti-ideal, the two romantic poles of the narrative, expressed in legends, set the coordinate system within which the old woman Izergil herself wants to place herself. The composition of the story is such that two legends seem to frame the narrative of her own life, which constitutes the ideological center of the work. Undoubtedly condemning Larv's individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and fate tends, rather, to the pole of Danko, who embodied the highest ideal of love and self-sacrifice. In fact, her life, like Danko’s life, was entirely devoted to love - the heroine is absolutely sure of this. But the reader immediately draws attention to how easily she forgot her former love for the sake of a new one, how simply she left the people she once loved. They simply ceased to exist for her when the passion passed. The narrator kept trying to bring her back to the story about those who had just occupied her imagination, and whom she had already forgotten:

It is through the eyes of the autobiographical hero that the reader sees Izergil. Her portrait immediately reveals a very significant aesthetic contradiction. About the beautiful sensual love should have been told by a young girl or young woman, full of strength woman. Before us is a very old woman, in her portrait anti-aesthetic features are deliberately intensified:

Izergil is sure that her life, full of love, passed completely differently from the life of the individualist Larra; she cannot even imagine anything in common with him, but the gaze of the autobiographical hero finds this commonality, paradoxically bringing their portraits closer together.

But the narrator sees almost the same features in the ancient old woman Izergil.

Everything about Izergil’s character reminds the narrator of Larra - first of all, of course, her individualism, taken to the extreme, almost approaching Larra’s individualism, her antiquity, her stories about people who have long ago passed their circle of life:

The fundamental distance between the position of the heroine and the narrator forms the ideological center of the story and determines its problematics. The romantic position, for all its beauty and sublimity, is denied by the autobiographical hero. He shows its futility and affirms the relevance of the realistic position. In fact, the autobiographical hero is the only realistic image in Gorky's early romantic stories. His realism is manifested in the fact that his character and fate reflected the typical circumstances of Russian life in the 1890s. The development of Russia along the capitalist path led to the fact that millions of people were torn from their places; it was they who made up the army of tramps, vagabonds, who seemed to have fallen out of their former social conditions and have not acquired new strong public relations. Gorky's autobiographical hero belongs to precisely this layer of people. Critic and literary critic, researcher of the works of M. Gorky B.V. Mikhailovsky called this character “breaking out” of the traditional circle of social relations. For all its drama, it was a positive process: the horizons and worldview of the people who set out on a journey through Rus' were incomparably deeper and richer than those of previous generations; completely new sides were revealed to them national life. Russia seemed to be getting 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, which leads Izergil to complete exhaustion and incineration.

Homework for the lesson

1. Copy from the dictionary literary terms definition of the term romanticism.
2. Read Maxim Gorky’s story “Old Woman Izergil”
3. Answer the questions:
1) How many legends did Old Woman Izergil tell?
2) What happened to the girl from the “land of the big river”?
3) What did the elders name the eagle's son?
4) Why, when Larra came close to people, did not defend himself?
5) What feeling gripped the people lost in the forest, why?
6) What did Danko do for people?
7) Compare the characters of Danko and Larra.
8) Was Danko’s sacrifice justified?

Purpose of the lesson

Introduce students to Maxim Gorky’s story “Old Woman Izergil” as a romantic work; improve the skills and abilities of analyzing prose text; give an idea of ​​the romantic aesthetics of early Gorky.

Teacher's word

M. Gorky's story "The Old Woman Izergil" was written in 1894 and first published in 1895 in the Samara Gazeta. This work, like the story “Makar Chudra,” belongs to the early period of the writer’s work. From that moment on, Gorky declared himself as an exponent of a special way of understanding the world and the bearer of a very specific aesthetics - romantic. Since by the time the story was written, romanticism in art had already experienced its heyday, early work In literary criticism, Gorky is usually called neo-romantic.

At home, you should have written out the definition of romanticism from the dictionary of literary terms.

Romanticism- "V in a broad sense words, an artistic method in which the dominant role is played by the writer’s subjective position in relation to the depicted phenomena of life, his tendency not so much to reproduce, but rather to recreate reality, which leads to the development of particularly conventional forms of creativity (fantasy, grotesque, symbolism, etc.) , to highlighting exceptional characters and plots, to strengthening subjective-evaluative elements in the author’s speech, to the arbitrariness of compositional connections, etc.”

Teacher's word

Traditionally, a romantic work is characterized by the cult of an extraordinary personality. Moral qualities heroes do not have a defining meaning. At the center of the story are villains, robbers, generals, kings, beautiful ladies, noble knights, murderers - anyone, as long as their lives are exciting, special and full of adventures. A romantic hero is always recognizable. He despises the miserable life of ordinary people, challenges the world, often foreseeing that he will not be a winner in this battle. A romantic work is characterized by romantic dual worlds, a clear division of the world into real and ideal. In some works, the ideal world is realized as otherworldly, in others - as a world untouched by civilization. Throughout the entire work, plot development which is concentrated on the most striking milestones in the hero’s life, the character of the exceptional personality remains unchanged. The narrative style is bright and emotional.

Writing in a notebook

Features of the romantic work:
1. The cult of the extraordinary personality.
2. Romantic portrait.
3. Romantic dual world.
4. Static romantic character.
5. Romantic plot.
6. Romantic landscape.
7. Romantic style.

Question

Which of the works you have read previously can you call romantic? Why?

Answer

Romantic works of Pushkin, Lermontov.

Teacher's word

Distinctive Features romantic images Gorky - proud defiance of fate and daring love of freedom, integrity of nature and heroic character. The romantic hero strives for unfettered freedom, without which there is no true happiness for him and which is often dearer to him than life itself. Romantic stories embody the writer's observations of contradictions human soul and a dream of beauty. Makar Chudra says: “They are funny, those people of yours. They’re huddled together and crushing each other, and there’s so much space on earth...” Old woman Izergil almost echoes him: “And I see that people are not living, but everyone is trying on”.

Analytical conversation

Question

What is the composition of the story “Old Woman Izergil”?

Answer

The story consists of 3 parts:
1) the legend of Larra;
2) a story about Izergil’s life;
3) the legend of Danko.

Question

What technique underlies the construction of the story?

Answer

The story is based on the contrast between two characters who are bearers of opposite life values. Danko’s selfless love for people and Larra’s unbridled egoism are manifestations of the same feeling - love.

Question

Prove (according to the plan in your notebook) that the story is romantic. Compare the portraits of Larra and Danko.

Answer

Larra - young man “handsome and strong”, “his eyes were cold and proud, like those of the king of birds”. There is no detailed portrait of Larra in the story; the author draws attention only to the eyes and proud, arrogant speech of the “son of an eagle.”

Danko is also very difficult to visualize. Izergil says that he was a “young handsome man,” one of those who were always brave because he was handsome. Again special attention The reader is drawn to the hero’s eyes, which are called eyes: “...a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes”.

Question

Are they extraordinary individuals?

Answer

Undoubtedly, Danko and Larra are exceptional individuals. Larra does not obey the family and does not honor the elders, he goes wherever he wants, does what he wants, not recognizing the right of choice for others. Talking about Larra, Izergil uses epithets that are more suitable to describe the animal: dexterous, strong, predatory, cruel.

Question

Answer

In the story “Old Woman Izergil” the ideal world is realized as the distant past of the earth, a time that has now become a myth, and a memory of which remains only in legends about the youth of mankind. Only a young earth could, according to the author, give birth heroic characters people possessed by strong passions. Izergil emphasizes several times that modern “ pathetic" Such power of feeling and greed for life are inaccessible to people.

Question

Do the characters of Larra, Danko and Izergil develop throughout the story or are they initially set and unchanged?

Answer

The characters of Larra, Danko and Izergil do not change throughout the story and are interpreted unambiguously: the main and only character trait of Larra is selfishness, the denial of any law other than will. Danko is a manifestation of love for people, but Izergil subordinated her entire existence to her own thirst for pleasure.

Question

Which of the events described by the old woman can be considered extraordinary?

Answer

Both stories told by Izergil contain descriptions of extraordinary events. The genre of legend determined their initial fantastic plot basis(the birth of a child from an eagle, the inevitability of the completed curse, the light of the sparks of Danko’s burning heart, etc.).

Working with text

Compare the heroes (Danko and Larra) according to the following parameters:
1) portrait;
2) the impression made on others;
3) understanding of pride;
4) attitude towards people;
5) behavior at the time of trial;
6) the fate of the heroes.

Analytical conversation

Question

What is the source of Larra's tragedy?

Answer

Larra could not and did not want to compromise between his desires and the laws of society. He understands selfishness as a manifestation of personal freedom, and his right is the right of the strong from birth.

Question

How was Larra punished?

Answer

As punishment, the elders doomed Larra to immortality and the inability to decide for himself whether to live or die, they limited his freedom. People deprived Larra of what, in his opinion, was the only thing worth living for - the right to live according to their own law.

Question

What feeling is the main one in Larra’s attitude towards people? Support your answer with an example from the text.

Answer

Larra does not experience any feelings towards people. He wants "keep yourself whole", that is, to get a lot from life without giving anything in return.

Question

What feeling does Danko experience as he looks into the crowd of people judging him? Support your answer with an example from the text.

Answer

Looking at those for whom he, risking his life, went into the swamps, Danko feels indignant, “But out of pity for people it went out. Danko’s heart flared with the desire to save people and lead them “to the easy path”.

Question

What is the function of the "cautious man" episode?

Answer

The mention of a “cautious man” is introduced into the legend of Danko in order to emphasize the exclusivity of the hero. The “cautious person” is perceived as one of many, thus the author defines the essence ordinary people, “not heroes” who are not capable of sacrificial impulses and are always afraid of something.

Question

What do the characters of Larra and Danko have in common and what is the difference between them?

Answer

This question may lead to ambiguous answers. Students may perceive Larra and Danko as opposite characters (selfish and altruistic), or interpret them as romantic characters who oppose themselves to people (for various reasons).

Question

What place does society occupy in the inner thoughts of both characters? Can we say that heroes exist in isolation from society?

Answer

The heroes imagine themselves outside of society: Larra - without people, Danko - at the head of people. Larra “he came to the tribe and kidnapped cattle, girls - whatever he wanted”, He "hovered around people". Danko was walking “ahead of them and was cheerful and clear”.

Question

What moral law determines the actions of both heroes?

Answer

The actions of the heroes are determined by their own value system. Larra and Danko are a law unto themselves; they make decisions without asking the elders for advice. Proud, triumphant laughter - this is their answer to the world of ordinary people.

Question

What is the function of the image of the old woman Izergil in the story? How do the images of Larra and Danko relate to each other using the image of the old woman Izergil?

Answer

Despite the brightness, completeness and artistic integrity of both legends, they are only illustrations necessary for the author to understand the image of the old woman Izergil. It “cements” the composition of the story both at the content and at the formal level. In the general narrative system, Izergil acts as a narrator; it is from her lips that the I-character learns the story about the “son of an eagle” and about Danko’s burning heart. At the level of content, in the portrait of the old woman one can detect features of both Larra and Danko; the way she loved insatiably reflected Danko’s character, and the way she thoughtlessly abandoned her loved ones was the stamp of Larra’s image. The figure of Izergil connects both legends together and makes the reader think about the problem of human freedom and his right to dispose of his life force at his own discretion.

Question

Do you agree with the statement that “there is always room for achievement in life”? How do you understand it?

Question

Is a feat possible in every life? Does every person enjoy this right of achievement in life?

Question

Did the old woman Izergil accomplish the feat she talks about?

These questions do not require a clear answer and are designed for independent answers.

Conclusions written in notebooks independently.

Gorky's early romantic works reflected some philosophical and aesthetic ideas Nietzsche. Central image early Gorky has a proud and strong personality, embodying the idea of ​​freedom. "Strength is virtue", Nietzsche argued, and for Gorky, the beauty of a person lies in strength and achievement, even aimless ones: « strong man has the right to be “beyond good and evil”, to be outside of ethical principles, and a feat, from this point of view, is resistance general flow life.

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson-based developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005