The image and characteristics of the old woman Izergil in the story "Old Woman Izergil" by M. Gorky: description, life story

Essay text:

In life ... there is always a place for exploits. M. Gorky Alexei Maksimovich Gorky is a bright and talented writer. There was no such genre of literature in which the writer would not work. In his youth, Gorky paid tribute to romance, creating a number of interesting and original works: Makar Chudra, The Girl and Death, Old Woman Izergil and others. Gorky's talent as a narrator strikes with freshness and novelty. Aleksey Maksimovich uses the well-known form of a story in a story, where the author is a listener who finds interesting interlocutors, ordinary people, those who know fairy tales, legends who can wisely and simply tell about their interesting and meaningful life. Such is Izergil. She tells two unusual fairy tale legends, interspersing them with a story about her difficult and interesting life. The first legend tells about the proud and proud son of an eagle and a woman, Larra. His egoism and individualism are condemned. He despised people and thought he could do without them. As a punishment for cruelty, people doomed him to loneliness and immortality. This is a terrible punishment even for the proud Larra, his life outside of society becomes meaningless. For a thousand years, he has been loitering about as a restless shadow, reminding people of the value of human communication, camaraderie, and friendship. Talking about his life, Izergil recalls with special warmth the brave and noble people whom she met in her life. Freedom-loving and independent, she lived for herself, enjoying youth and beauty. She loved and was loved, she gave her heart only to noble and brave fighters against violence and slavery. Izergil never put up with human shortcomings and weaknesses. In life, you know, there is always a place for exploits, Izergil says. And those who do not find them for themselves are simply lazy or cowards, or do not understand life, because if people understood life, everyone would want to leave behind their shadow in it. In serving people is the true meaning of human existence; to give one's life for people is the greatest happiness available to man. This idea is confirmed by the legend of Danko, who sacrificed his life, illuminating the way out of darkness for people with his heart. Danko died, but he led people to the light, to happy life. He loved people and thought that maybe they would perish without him. And now his heart flared with the fire of desire to save them, to lead them on an easy path ... Danko sees human vices and weaknesses and forgives them to people. He is a strong and selfless hero, capable of sacrificing his life without expecting any reciprocal gratitude. This is the lot of strong and proud, independent and brave heroes. Gorky's story amazes readers not only with unusual topics, beautiful legends, but also in a beautiful melodious language. The author begins and ends the story with a description of the beautiful southern nature. The beauty of the language does not obscure the high ideology that the author tries to convey to readers. Gorky's romantic stories call for feats and great accomplishments, they evoke selflessness and love for others in people - this is their main value and unfading freshness.

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Two types of behavior, the existence of a person among people, were shown by A.M. Gorky in the story "Old Woman Izergil". Two legends told main character, - a prime example about the right and wrong to live in society. Larra - the son of an earthly girl and an eagle - opposed himself to society, not obeying its laws, moral principles. His desire to live the way he wants, without respect for elders, disregarding the desires of people, his arrogance - all this led to a tragic ending. Society just turned away from him. What could be worse than becoming an outcast, no one the right person when you are simply not noticed, much less expelled. Larra is doomed to eternal life. But does he need this eternity, if there is no one around who would be dear to him. "Freedom from everything is punishment."

Danko did everything to bring people out of the dark forest. When he realized that there was no way out, he tore his burning heart out of his chest, illuminating the way for people. “He loved people and thought that maybe without him they would die. And now his heart flared with the fire of desire to save them ..». Life for Danko is a desire to be the right people. Has society appreciated it? heroic deed. No, everyone was just happy to be released, forgetting about their savior. “But people, joyful and full of hope, did not notice his death and did not see that his brave heart was still burning next to the corpse of Danko. Only one cautious person noticed this and, being afraid of something, stepped on the proud heart with his foot ... And now it, crumbling into sparks, died out ... "

Yes, society does not always evaluate the actions of people worthy of respect. But this does not make indifferent those who wish to live for the sake of people. They don't need a reward. Their actions are the dictates of burning, flaming hearts.

How to live, how to find your place in society, how to build relationships with other people? Readers of this story think about it.

E.I. Zamyatin "We"

Man in totalitarian state. This topic began to appear in the literature already in the 1920s-1930s, when it became clear that the policy of V.I. Lenin, I.V. Stalin led to the establishment of a far from democratic regime. Of course, these works could not be printed at that time. Readers saw them only in the 1980s, during the period of perestroika and glasnost. Many of these works have become a real discovery. One of them was E. Zamyatin's novel "We", written in 1921. The dystopia depicted by the writer showed what totalitarianism, the silence of people, blind obedience to the regime could lead to. The novel is like a warning that everything depicted in it can happen if society does not resist the terrible system of repression, persecution, when any desire of a person to achieve the truth is literally strangled. The inaction of society in a totalitarian state can lead to the fact that everyone becomes part of a huge state machine, turning into a "faceless WE", losing individuality and even their name, receiving only a number among a huge crowd of people (D-503, 90, I-330) . "... natural way from insignificance to greatness: forget that you are a gram and feel like a millionth part of a ton ... ". Value specific person lost in such a society. It would seem that people built it to be happy. But did it happen? Is it possible to call happiness life by the clock in this United State, feeling like just a cog in a huge mechanism of the state machine (“Ideal is where nothing happens anymore ...”)? No, not everyone agrees with such a regimented life when others think for them. They want to feel complete joy, happiness, love, suffering - in general, to be a person, not a number. Beyond the walls of the state real life, which so attracts the heroine - I-330.

The benefactor decides everything, it is according to his laws that numbers live. And if someone opposes, then there are ways to make people either submit or die. There is no other way out. The author showed that some of the workers could not capture the spacecraft, involving one of the builders of the "Integral" D-503 (it was he who tried to charm I-330 for this purpose). Too strong is the Benefactor and his system. Dies in the Gas Bell I-330, unnecessary memory is erased from the number D-503, which continues to be confident in justice state structure(“I am sure that we will win, because reason must win!”) Everything in the state continues to go on as usual. How terrible the formula of happiness stated by the Benefactor sounds: “True algebraic love for a person is certainly inhuman, and an indispensable sign of truth is its cruelty.” to himself: “I ceased to be a term, as always, and became a unit.” A person must be part of society, continuing to remain an individual. “WE”, consisting of many “I”, is one of the formulas of happiness, which readers of the novel come to realize.

Man lives among people. It is in society that he becomes a person, realizes his abilities, achieves goals, dreams, suffers, loves. Be needed by society, not to fence oneself off from it, not to oppose oneself to it - this is the noble goal of man. Awareness of one's unity with people, people, country makes life filled with meaning. The classics of literature teach us this. 1.M.E. Saltykov - Shchedrin "The History of a City"

The history of the city of Glupova is a satire on Russia in the 19th century with its powerless position of the people, the permissiveness of the mayors, in the image of which the author portrayed " the mighty of the world this”, in whose hands the fate of the country and the people. Some of the names of the rulers are worth something: Organchik, Pimple (Stuffed Head), Wartkin, Rogues, Interception-Zalikhvatsky, Gloomy-Grumbling. It is clear that such people are unlikely to do something for the good of the people. All means of satire were used by the author to create images of these mayors: fantasy, grotesque, irony. The author wrote how, it turns out, little is needed for subjugation and arbitrariness, if there is power: just to know a few words that frighten everyone around, and the people will tremble with fear. The head is not needed at all, because Brodysty does without it, instead of whose head there is an organ that reproduces only two words - this is “I will not tolerate” and “I will ruin”. In a society in which they only do what they “grab and catch, flog and flog, describe and sell”, where callousness and cruelty have become something natural that justifies itself for centuries, people live simply awfully. The author loved his people, therefore, with bitterly wrote about his age-old humility. But there always comes a point of no return. At the end, the anger of the people is depicted, which is growing and growing. The work ends with this folk thunder, as if the author is confident in the strength of the people, that it is like a mountain river that did not let up, but with a noise “flowed, breathed, murmured and wriggled”, carrying water further. How modern is this piece! Which historical lessons taught by the author in it! A submissive society that does not fight for its rights, for freedom, can quickly turn into Fools (recall the years of the totalitarian regime in the USSR). You need to be able to stand up for yourself, and the people can do it, which was proved by the centuries-old history of Russia.

(368 words) “A person becomes a person only among people” - we know this truth from childhood, because we go to various social institutions (kindergarten, school, university) not only for the sake of knowledge, but also in order to learn how to behave in society and find mutual language with the team. Without this, a person will never be able to develop harmoniously, which is confirmed by many examples from Russian literature.

For example, in Gorky's story "Old Woman Izergil", Danko becomes the ideal of a person, helping his tribe to get out of the forest. This help costs him his life, because he rips his heart out of his chest and carries it like a torch that cuts through the darkness. After a successful release from the thicket, the hero dies, but his people prosper, having found a place for a glorious home. We, the readers, admire the feat of the brave young man and dislike his ever-doubting and grumbling tribe. However, it was in him, only in him, that Danko was able to realize his potential. His personality was formed not without the influence of his fellow tribesmen, he fell in love with them, which means there was a reason for that. For them, he goes to his death, but if they were not there, the young man would not go anywhere, but lived his life solely for himself, and we would no longer admire him.

We see an opposite example in the same story. Larra, on the contrary, cannot socialize and accept the laws of the society where he is. And yet, he is a man, although he was born from the marriage of a woman with an eagle. Probably, from such heredity, he was initially unlike other people, had distinctive features such as strong pride and immoral cruelty. Therefore, he faced an internal choice, due to the conflict of the animal and human principles, namely, he had to make a decision: to overcome his vicious nature and live in harmony with society, or to indulge instincts and abandon morality. He chose the second option, and he was punished, but not by murder, but by exile. The tribe knew that out of society the hero would finally lose his human features, and would no longer be torn between two fires, which means that no one else would suffer from him. It is obvious that humanity and humanity are peculiar to the tribe, and not to the one who deleted himself from it.

Thus, only society can help a person to enrich himself and become full-fledged, but exile is the worst punishment for him, because isolation from people is also the death of a person, but spiritual, moral and intellectual, and not physical death. In fact, without society, the individual no longer lives, but exists.

In his "walks in Rus'" M. Gorky peered into the dark corners of life and spent a lot of writing effort to show what kind of hard labor their working days can become for people. He tirelessly searched at the "bottom" of life for something bright, kind, human, which can be opposed to the mundane, soulless world. But Gorky had little to say about how badly people live. Gorky began to look for those who are capable of a feat. He dreamed of strong, strong-willed natures, of fighters, but did not find them in reality. The writer contrasted the gray existence of people with the bright, rich world of the heroes of his stories.

main theme romantic stories Gorky became the theme of love and freedom. Already in one of his first stories - "Makar Chudra" - Gorky expresses his own point of view: freedom for a person is the main thing in the world. A hymn to freedom and love is the story of young gypsies Loyko Zobar and Radda. Their love burned with a bright flame and could not get along with the world of ordinary, dull living people. In the gray life that people have created, the beloved would have to "submit to the tightness that squeezed them." But Radda and Loiko preferred death. Heroes do not want to sacrifice their will even for each other. For them, freedom, will - the main thing in life. "I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. And I also love the will. I love the will, Loiko, more than you." Even love turned out to be powerless before a person's desire for freedom, which is achieved at the cost of life.

In another story by Gorky - "Old Woman Izergil" - the writer combines the legend of Larra, the story of the life of Izergil and the legend of Danko. The main idea repeated in all three parts - the dream of people ready for a feat - makes the story a single whole. A special place in the story is occupied by the image of Izergil, who carried self-esteem throughout her life. The story of her life is the personification of freedom, beauty, moral values person. And a reproach to the wingless, boring life of people, a reproach to many generations that have disappeared from the face of the earth without a trace: "In life, you know, there is always a place for exploits ... everyone would want to leave their shadow behind in it. And then life would not devour people without a trace." She knew what a feat was, but she could not live her life with dignity. The heroine can only rely on her mistakes to show people the right path.

The old woman Izergil is frightened by the fate of Larra, casting a shadow on her own life. The strength of character, pride and love of freedom in Larr turn into their opposite, because he despises people, treats them cruelly. In a rush to freedom, he set foot on the path of crime, for which people punish him, dooming him to eternal loneliness. Protesting against the everyday life, Larra forgot about moral laws. Thus, Gorky says that life for the sake of freedom in solitude loses its meaning. The writer condemns Larra's selfishness and cruelty, his pride and contempt for people.

According to Izergil, hallmark Danko was his beauty, and "beautiful - always bold." Danko was driven only by love and compassion for people, and despite all their evil thoughts, his heart "flared with the desire to save" them. He takes it upon himself to lead the people out of the dark forest. Saving people, the hero gives the most precious thing he has - his heart. Gorky calls for self-sacrifice in the name of people. But Danko's act was not appreciated: "People .. did not notice his death and did not see what was still burning .. his brave heart. Only one cautious person .. afraid of something, stepped on his proud heart with his foot .." says that the time of such heroes has not yet come.

Thus, in romantic works Gorky, the author clearly protests against the meager life, humility, humility, contempt, selfishness, slave psychology. The heroes of the works destroy the usual course of life, strive for love, light, freedom. They refuse the miserable fate of serving things and money, their life has meaning, the main thing is will. Glorifying the beauty and grandeur of a feat in the name of people, they oppose people who have lost their ideals. Bright, passionate, freedom-loving - they glorify activity, the need to act. "The folly of the brave is the wisdom of life."

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The conflict between generations always looks natural and logical. Over time, people tend to abandon youthful maximalism, organize their lives in a more practical way. It is sometimes difficult for young people to imagine that older generation was young and the representatives of this generation were also related to impulses of love, passion, confusion and longing due to the lack of opportunity or not knowing how to realize oneself in society.

Stories of passionate love from the lips of today's old men and women make us smile, it seems that people of this age can only have a feeling of deep sympathy, devoid of all thoughts and actions in the direction of lust.

The story of Maxim Gorky "Old Woman Izergil" is just about a man whose life is not devoid of passion or changes in his personal life.

Appearance Izergil

Oddly enough, Izergil does not hesitate to talk about her past, in particular her love past - she is not embarrassed by any of the facts of her biography, although many of them could be challenged both from the point of view of the law and from the point of view of morality.

The eventful life of the old woman makes it possible for her to take a central place in the story.

The life of the old woman developed in such a way that she managed to visit many places and meet with different people. At the time of the story, Izergil lives not far from Akkerman, on the Black Sea coast, and is unlikely to change her place of residence - her age and physical condition will not make it possible to do this.

Old age had bent her once-beautiful figure in half, her black eyes had lost their color and often watered. The features of the face sharpened - the hook-shaped nose became like an owl's beak, the cheeks sunk down, forming deep depressions on the face. Hair turned gray and teeth fell out.

The skin became dry, wrinkles appeared on it, it seemed that now, now it will crumble into pieces and we will only have the skeleton of an old woman in front of us.

Despite such an unattractive appearance, Izergil is a favorite of young people. She knows many fairy tales, legends and traditions - they are of great interest to young people. Sometimes the old woman tells something from her life - these stories sound no less interesting and bewitching. Her voice is specific, it cannot be called pleasant, it is more like a creaking - it seems that the old woman speaks "with the bones themselves."

At night, Izergil often goes out to young people, her stories in the light of the moon are even more effective - in moonlight her face takes on the features of mystery, it shows pity for the quickly passed years. This is not a feeling of remorse for what she did, but regret that her young years passed too quickly, and she did not have time to fully enjoy kisses and caresses, passion and youth.

Izergil's life path

Izergil likes to communicate with young people. One day there's no one young man I had the opportunity to learn the details of the old woman's personal life. Despite the fact that, in terms of the number of participants, their conversation should have been in the nature of a dialogue, in reality this does not happen - the old woman’s speech, stories about her personal life and romance novels intertwined with two legends - about Danko and about Larra. These legends harmoniously become the introduction and epilogue of the story - this is not an accident. Their content allows for a more significant emphasis on the details of the old woman's life.

Their early years Izegil spent on the banks of the Byrlad in the city of Falchi. From the story we learn that she lived with her mother and their earnings consisted of the number of carpets sold and woven with her own hands. At that time, Izergil was very beautiful. She responded to compliments with a sunny smile. Her youth, cheerful disposition and, of course, external data were not unnoticed by young people. different provisions in society and prosperity - they admired her and fell in love with her. The girl was very emotional and very amorous.

At 15 she fell in love for real. Her lover was a fisherman, originally from Moldova. Four days after they met, the girl gave herself to her lover. The young man fell in love with her unconsciously and called with him beyond the Danube, but Izergil's ardor quickly dried up - the young fisherman no longer aroused her passion or interest either. She refused his proposal and began dating a red-haired Hutsul, bringing a lot of grief and suffering to the fisherman. Over time, he fell in love with another girl, the lovers decided to leave to live in the Carpathians, but their dream did not come true. On the way, they decided to visit a familiar Romanian, where they were captured and later hanged. The old woman no longer loved the fisherman, but what had happened greatly stirred her mind. She burned the house of the offender - she does not speak about this directly, arguing that the Romanian had many enemies, but she does not really reject her fate in the fire either.

The love of a girl with a Hutsul turned out to be not long - she easily changes him for a rich, but middle-aged Turk. Izergil keeps in touch with the Turk not for the sake of money, she is most likely driven by a sense of interest - she even lives in his harem for a week, being there the ninth in a row. However, she quickly gets bored with the company of women, and besides, she has a new love - the sixteen-year-old son of a Turk (Izergil herself was then about 30). The lovers decide to run away. They managed to carry out this action in full, but their further fate was not so rosy. The young man's life on the run was beyond his power - he dies. Over time, she realizes that the fate of the young Turk was predictable - it was a mistake to believe that such a young man could survive in difficult conditions, but the woman does not feel the pangs of remorse. Izergil recalls that at that time she was in her prime. Does his beloved feel grief or remorse at the realization that a young boy died at her whim? It is more like a slight regret, she is too cheerful to grieve for so long. The bitterness of the loss of children is also not familiar to her, so she does not see the consciousness of the gravity of her act.

New love smooths out the final negative memories of the death of a young man. This time the object of her love is a married Bulgarian. His wife (or girlfriend, time has erased this fact from Izergil's memory) turned out to be quite decisive - she injured her mistress in retaliation for love affair with her beloved knife. For a long time this wound had to be healed, but this story Izergil did not teach anything either. This time she runs away from the monastery where she was helped, with a young monk - the brother of the nun who is treating her. On the way to Poland, Izergil fell out of love and left this young man. The fact that she found herself in a foreign land does not frighten her - she agrees to the offer of a Jew to trade herself. And she does it quite successfully - not for one pan the girl became a stumbling block. Because of her, they fought and argued. One of the pans even decided to shower her with gold, if only she was his, but the proud girl rejects him - she is in love with another, and she does not strive for wealth. In this episode, Izergil shows herself disinterested and sincere - if she agreed to the offer, she could give the money for the ransom to the Jew and return home. But a woman prefers the truth - pretending to be loved for selfish purposes seems unthinkable to her.

Her new lover was a pan "with a chopped face." Their love did not last long - presumably he was killed during a riot. Izergil, this version seems reliable - the pan was too fond of exploits. After the death of the pan, the woman, despite the fact that the feelings of love were mutual, did not grieve for a long time - and fell in love with the Hungarian.

He was most likely killed by someone in love with her. Izergil sighs heavily: “No less people die from the love of people than from the plague.” Such a tragedy does not affect her and does not induce the blues. In addition, at that time she was able to accumulate the proper amount of money and redeem herself as a Jew, but, following the plan, she did not return home.

last love

By that time, Izergil's age was close to 40 years. She was still attractive, although not as much as in her younger days. In Poland, she met a very charming and handsome nobleman, whose name was Arkadek. Pan sought her for a long time, but when he got what he wanted, he immediately abandoned it. This brought a lot of suffering to the woman. For the first time in her life, she was in the place of her lovers - she was abandoned in the same way as she threw lovers into her. Unfortunately, this time Izergil's love ardor did not dry up so quickly. She sought love for a long time, but it was all to no avail. new tragedy for her was the news that Arkadek had been taken prisoner. This time, Izergil did not become an indifferent observer of events - she decided to free her beloved. Her strength and courage were enough to kill the guard in cold blood, but instead of the expected gratitude and appreciation, the woman receives ridicule - her pride was hurt, the woman did not endure such humiliation and left Arkadek.

A bitter trail after this event for a long time was in her heart. Izergil realizes that her beauty is disappearing without a trace - it's time for her to settle down. Under Ackerman, she "settles" and even gets married. Her husband has been dead for a year now.

Izergil has lived here for 30 years, we do not know if she had children, it is likely that she did not. Izergil now often goes to the youth. She does this not because she does not feel lonely, but because she likes such a pastime. Young people are also not opposed to the woman coming - her stories are very captivating.

What Izergil teaches us

The first impression after reading this story is always ambiguous - at first glance, it seems that the author to some extent encourages such a dissolute, by our standards, lifestyle - Izergil does not take lessons after another love (even if it ended tragically through her fault) and again rushes into the pool of passions and love. A woman's love has always been mutual, but as a result, only her beloved receive punishment - most of them died tragically. Presumably, Gorky used this technique to convey to the reader that all our actions have an impact on the course of other people's lives - we have no right to act recklessly, because for other people it can be disastrous. A significant series of such events, directly or indirectly related to Izergil, once again confirms this idea.

Izergil had every opportunity to realize her potential (whether she took advantage of it or not is another question), but a woman always made a choice, guided solely by her, to some extent, egocentric position. This does not mean that she had to live all her life with one person and also weave carpets from morning to night - but the harshness of her actions is unforgivable. The question of choice is another problem of the story. Which life position will be correct? Do you always have to do what they do to you? Izergil could live as she liked and stop at any moment, but the desire to love and give love to others prevailed in her until her old age.