What signs of sentimentalism are inherent in the work of poor Lisa. Russian sentimentalism and N.M. Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa

Sentimentalism in the story of Karamzin N.M. "Poor Lisa".
The touching love of a simple peasant girl Liza and a Moscow nobleman Erast deeply shook the souls of the writer's contemporaries. Everything in this story: from the plot and recognizable landscape sketches of the Moscow region to the sincere feelings of the characters, was unusual for readers of the late 18th century.
The story was first published in 1792 in the Moscow Journal, edited by Karamzin himself. The plot is quite simple: after the death of her father, young Lisa is forced to work tirelessly to feed herself and her mother. In the spring, she sells lilies of the valley in Moscow and there she meets the young nobleman Erast. The young man falls in love with her and is ready even for the sake of his love to leave the light. The lovers spend evenings together, until one day Erast announces that he must go on a campaign with the regiment and they will have to part. A few days later, Erast leaves. Several months pass. One day, Liza accidentally sees Erast in a magnificent carriage and finds out that he is engaged. Erast lost his estate at cards and, in order to improve his shaken financial situation, he marries a wealthy widow. In desperation, Liza throws herself into the pond.

Artistic originality.

Karamzin borrowed the plot of the story from European love literature. All events were transferred to "Russian" soil. The author emphasizes that the action takes place in Moscow and its environs, describes the Simonov and Danilov monasteries, Sparrow Hills, creating the illusion of authenticity. For Russian literature and readers of that time, this was an innovation. Accustomed to happy endings in old novels, they met in Karamzin's work with the truth of life. The main goal of the writer - to achieve compassion - was achieved. The Russian public read, sympathized, sympathized. The first readers of the story perceived the story of Lisa as a real tragedy of a contemporary. The pond under the walls of the Simonov Monastery was named Lizina Pond.
Disadvantages of Sentimentalism.
The credibility in the story is only apparent. The world of heroes that the author depicts is idyllic, invented. The peasant woman Lisa and her mother have refined feelings, their speech is literate, literary and does not differ in any way from the speech of Erast, who was a nobleman. The life of the poor villagers resembles a pastoral: “Meanwhile, a young shepherd drove his flock along the river bank, playing the flute. Lisa fixed her eyes on him and thought: “If the one who now occupies my thoughts was born a simple peasant, a shepherd, and if he now drove his flock past me: ah! I would bow to him with a smile and say affably: “Hello, dear shepherd boy! Where are you driving your flock? And here green grass grows for your sheep, and flowers bloom here, from which you can weave a wreath for your hat. He would look at me with an affectionate air - he would, perhaps, take my hand ... A dream! The shepherd, playing the flute, passed by and with his motley flock hid behind a nearby hill. Such descriptions and reasoning are far from realism.
The story became a model of Russian sentimental literature. In contrast to classicism with its cult of reason, Karamzin affirmed the cult of feelings, sensitivity, compassion: heroes are important for their ability to love, feel, and experience. In addition, unlike the works of classicism, "Poor Liza" is devoid of morality, didacticism, edification: the author does not teach, but tries to arouse the reader's empathy for the characters.
The story is also distinguished by its “smooth” language: Karamzin abandoned grandiloquence, which made the work easy to read.

Aramzin, who was well acquainted with the latest trends in European culture, consciously focused on the principles of sentimentalism. In his story "Poor Lisa", published in the "Moscow Journal" in 1792, the vices of society are not denounced, but only depicted. The heroes of the work are ordinary suffering people, sweet and sensitive. The narrator sympathizes with them, but does not teach them, does not interfere in their relationship. It is not in vain that the author specifies that he learned the story of Erast and Lisa from the very culprit of the unfortunate events, so he exclaims: “Ah! For

Why am I not writing a novel, but a sad story?”
The story begins with a description of the surroundings near the Simonov Monastery. Simple monotonous landscape. Natural nature does not change from year to year. It is as if Karamzin breathes into the sensitive reader a sense of eternal peace. So in the genre of idyll it was then customary to depict nature.
“.on the other side, an oak grove is visible, near which numerous herds graze.” Why not the peaceful life of shepherds and shepherds far from noisy cities?
However, traces of time are visible everywhere - they remind the sensitive author that the life of nature is not at all what it seems at first glance, calm and unchanging. He writes: “I often come to this place and almost always meet spring there; I also come there in the gloomy autumn days of autumn.”
Gradually, the narrator prepares us for the fact that the plot of the story will develop both against the backdrop of calm rural nature and in the city, where life almost always turns out to be unnatural, and sometimes destructive.
The writer wants to say that a village man cannot hide from the tragedies of the world in the bosom of nature, and a city dweller cannot fence himself off from simple and natural mores. “There is nothing permanent in the world, all boundaries are easily shifted,” the writer seems to think. The village where Liza lived with her mother was “seventy fathoms from the fortress wall”, that is, it bordered on the city. Then the writer draws natural nature, and against its background - a dilapidated hut. The theme of “all-destroying time” (“about thirty years before”) appears. This is an artistic device, so beloved by Karamzin.
Lisa's mother is a simple rural woman, a peasant woman, with her own patriarchal ideas about life. In sentimental literature, this was considered a positive quality. It is about this heroine that N. M. Karamzin says his significant words: “Even peasant women know how to love.” The old woman wants a happy marriage for her daughter, believing that wealth is not needed for this, everything should be built on honest work.
It turns out as follows. Liza meets a wealthy city dweller, Erast, when for the first time, on behalf of her mother, she comes to the city to sell lilies of the valley. He is kind and cordial. He liked Lisa. A young man from the fullness of feelings for a bouquet offers a ruble instead of five kopecks, wanting to please the girl. It never occurs to him that feelings and money cannot be together. People who passed by grinned wryly, mistaking what they saw for an attempt to buy love.
Sensitive Lisa gives flowers only for their price. When the girl reappears with bouquets in the city, Erast prefers to throw lilies of the valley into the river, answering passers-by that they are not for sale.
Karamzin's flowers have become a symbol of purity, love, which Lisa hopes for. Erast also believes in a brighter future. He thinks for the sake of Liza to leave the great light and live "in happy righteousness." The writer is ironic, realizing that the dream of a young man is subtracted from books. It is felt that Erast is not ready for love until the end of his days, he is thinking of leaving the city “at least for a while”.
Karamzin sadly looks at the heroes, realizing that class differences will not allow them to build a life together.
Lisa also doubts the happy outcome of events. She thinks about Erast: "Oh, if only he were a simple shepherd boy." But love captured all the feelings of Lisa, she hopes for a miracle, although she says to her beloved: “...you can’t be my husband!. I am a peasant."
Both Lisa and her dear friend adopted a lot from each other, changed in many ways, although in their hearts each remained himself. He believes that almost everything can be bought with money, she is still sensitive and kind.
After the chaste Liza gives herself to her lover, everything has changed. Erast did not come for five days, finally "he came with a sad face." Karamzin writes: “He forced her to take some money from him,” so that Liza would not sell flowers to anyone until he returned from the war. Probably, he still does not want to lose her, wishing that her youth (“flowers”) belonged only to him.
She doesn't sell her lilies of the valley. However, after some time he goes to Moscow in order to make the necessary purchases, meets Erast in the city, who, because of money (lost the estate), married a rich widow. After a short conversation, he again offers Liza money: “Here is a hundred rubles - take them, - he put the money in her pocket.”
It is interesting that Lisa, as the sentimental narrator tells, also sends money (ten imperials) to her mother in order to atone for her guilt before her. How she looks like Erast now!
Karamzin ends the story, reflecting on what happened: “I often sit in thought, leaning on the receptacle of Liza's ashes; a pond flows in my eyes.” The writer, as it were, justifies the heroes: “Now, perhaps, they have already reconciled!” Its morality coincides with the scale of values ​​of sentimental culture. The author does not know how and where the souls of the beloved will unite. The main thing for him is that every person needs sympathy and compassion, no matter what class he belongs to.
The contemporaries of N. M. Karamzin were acutely aware of the novelty of this marvelous story. But for us, readers living in the 21st century, much seems naive, although it was certainly very interesting to get acquainted with the work of a sentimentalist writer.

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1. Literary direction "sentimentalism".
2. Features of the plot of the work.
3. The image of the main character.
4. The image of the "villain" Erast.

In the literature of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries, the literary direction "sentimentalism" was very popular. The name comes from the French word "sentiment", which means "feeling, sensitivity". Sentimentalism called for paying attention to the feelings, experiences, emotions of a person, that is, the inner world acquired special importance. The story of N. M. Karamzin "Poor Lisa" is a vivid example of a sentimental work. The plot of the story is very simple. By the will of fate, a spoiled nobleman and a young naive peasant girl meet. She falls in love with him and becomes a victim of her feelings.

The image of the main character Lisa is striking in its purity and sincerity. The peasant girl is more like a fairy-tale heroine. There is nothing everyday, everyday, vulgar in it. Lisa's nature is sublime and beautiful, despite the fact that the life of a girl cannot be called fabulous. Lisa lost her father early and lives with her old mother. The girl has to work hard. But she does not grumble at fate. Liza is shown by the author as an ideal, devoid of any shortcomings. She is not characterized by a craving for profit, material values ​​\u200b\u200bdo not have any meaning for her. Lisa is more like a sensitive young lady who grew up in an atmosphere of idleness, surrounded by care and attention from childhood. A similar trend was characteristic of sentimental works. The main character cannot be perceived by the reader as rude, down to earth, pragmatic. It should be cut off from the world of vulgarity, dirt, hypocrisy, should be a model of sublimity, purity, poetry.

In Karamzin's story, Lisa becomes a toy in the hands of her lover. Erast is a typical young rake, accustomed to getting what he wants. The young man is spoiled, selfish. The lack of a moral principle leads to the fact that he does not understand Lisa's ardent and passionate nature. Erast's feelings are doubtful. He used to live, thinking only about himself and his desires. Erast was not allowed to see the beauty of the girl's inner world, because Lisa is smart, kind. But the virtues of a peasant woman are worth nothing in the eyes of a jaded nobleman.

Erast, unlike Lisa, never knew hardship. He did not have to worry about his daily bread, his whole life is a continuous holiday. And he initially considers love a game that can decorate a few days of life. Erast cannot be faithful, his affection for Lisa is just an illusion.

And Lisa deeply experiences the tragedy. It is significant that when a young nobleman seduced a girl, thunder struck, lightning flashed. A sign of nature portends trouble. And Lisa feels that she will have to pay the most terrible price for what she has done. The girl was not wrong. Not much time passed, and Erast lost interest in Lisa. Now he has forgotten about her. For the girl, this was a terrible blow.

Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" was very loved by readers, not only because of the entertaining plot, which told about a beautiful love story. Readers highly appreciated the skill of the writer, who managed to truthfully and vividly show the inner world of a girl in love. Feelings, experiences, emotions of the main character cannot leave indifferent.

Paradoxically, the young nobleman Erast is not fully perceived as a negative hero. After Lisa's suicide, Erast is crushed with grief, considers himself a murderer and yearns for her all his life. Erast did not become unhappy, for his act he suffered a severe punishment. The writer treats his character objectively. He admits that the young noble has a good heart and mind. But, alas, this does not give the right to consider Erast a good person. Karamzin says: “Now the reader should know that this young man, this Erast, was a rather rich nobleman, with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and windy. He led a distracted life, thought only of his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, but often did not find it: he was bored and complained about his fate. No wonder that with such an attitude to life, love did not become something worthy of attention for a young man. Erast is dreamy. “He read novels, idylls, had a rather lively imagination and often mentally moved to those times (former or not former), in which, according to the poets, all people carelessly walked through the meadows, bathed in clean springs, kissed like doves, rested under roses and myrtle and in happy idleness they spent all their days. It seemed to him that he had found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time. What can be said about Erast if we analyze the characteristics of Karamzin? Erast is in the clouds. Fictional stories are more important to him than real life. Therefore, he quickly got bored with everything, even the love of such a beautiful girl. After all, real life always seems to the dreamer less bright and interesting than life invented.

Erast decides to go on a military campaign. He believes that this event will give meaning to his life, that he will feel his importance. But, alas, the weak-willed nobleman during the military campaign only lost his entire fortune at cards. Dreams collided with harsh reality. Frivolous Erast is not capable of serious deeds, entertainment is most important for him. He decides to marry profitably in order to regain the desired material well-being. At the same time, Erast does not think about Lisa's feelings at all. Why does he need a poor peasant woman, if he was faced with the question of material benefits.

Liza throws herself into the pond, suicide becomes her only possible way out. The suffering of love so exhausted the girl that she does not want to live anymore.

For us, modern readers, Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" seems like a fairy tale. After all, there is nothing similar to real life in it, except, perhaps, the feelings of the main character. But sentimentalism as a literary trend turned out to be very important for Russian literature. After all, writers who create in line with sentimentalism showed the subtlest shades of human experiences. And this trend has continued to develop. On the basis of sentimental works, others appeared, more realistic and believable.

At the end of the 18th century, sentimentalism, like classicism, which came to us from Europe, was the leading literary trend in Russia. N. M. Karamzin can rightly be considered the head and propagandist of the sentimental trend in Russian literature. His "Letters from a Russian Traveler" and stories are an example of sentimentalism. So, the story "Poor Lisa" (1792) is built in accordance with the basic laws of this direction. However, the writer departed from some of the canons of European sentimentalism.
In the works of classicism, kings, nobles, generals, that is, people who performed an important state mission, were worthy of depiction. Sentimentalism, on the other hand, preached the value of an individual, even if insignificant on a national scale. Therefore, Karamzin made the main character of the story the poor peasant woman Liza, who was left without a father-breadwinner early and lives with her mother in a hut. According to sentimentalists, the ability to deeply feel, benevolently perceive the world around is possessed by both people of the upper class and low origin, "for even peasant women know how to love."
The sentimentalist writer did not have the goal of accurately reflecting reality. Lizin's earnings from the sale of flowers and knitting, on which the peasant women live, could not provide them. But Karamzin depicts life without trying to convey everything realistically. Its purpose is to arouse compassion in the reader. This story, for the first time in Russian literature, made the reader feel the tragedy of life with his heart.
Already contemporaries noted the novelty of the hero of "Poor Lisa" - Erast. In the 1790s, the principle of a strict division of heroes into positive and negative was observed. Erast, who killed Lisa, contrary to this principle, was not perceived as a villain. A frivolous but dreamy young man does not deceive a girl. At first, he has sincere tender feelings for the naive villager. Without thinking about the future, he believes that he will not harm Lisa, that he will always be by her side, like a brother and sister, and they will be happy together.
The language in the works of sentimentalism has also changed. The speech of the heroes was “freed” from a large number of Old Slavic words, became simpler, close to colloquial. At the same time, it became saturated with beautiful epithets, rhetorical phrases, and exclamations. The speech of Lisa and her mother is florid, philosophical (“Ah, Liza!” she said. “How good everything is with the Lord God! .. Ah, Liza! Who would want to die if sometimes we didn’t have grief!”; about a pleasant moment in which we will see each other again." - "I will, I will think about her! Oh, if she would come sooner! Dear, dear Erast! Remember, remember your poor Lisa, who loves you more than herself!" ).
The purpose of such a language is to influence the soul of the reader, to awaken humane feelings in it. So, in the speech of the narrator "Poor Liza" we hear an abundance of interjections, diminutive forms, exclamations, rhetorical appeals: "Ah! I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow! "Beautiful poor Liza with her old woman"; “But what did she feel when Erast, embracing her for the last time, pressing her to his heart for the last time, said: “Forgive me, Liza!” What a touching picture!
Sentimentalists paid great attention to the image of nature. Events often unfolded against the background of picturesque landscapes: in the forest, on the banks of the river, in the field. Sensitive natures, the heroes of sentimentalist works, acutely perceived the beauty of nature. In European sentimentalism, close to nature, "natural" man was supposed to have only pure feelings; that nature can uplift the soul of man. But Karamzin tried to challenge the point of view of Western thinkers.
"Poor Liza" begins with a description of the Simonov Monastery and its environs. So the author connected the present and past of Moscow with the history of an ordinary person. Events unfold in Moscow and in nature. "Natura", that is, nature, following the narrator, closely "observes" the love story of Lisa and Erast. But she remains deaf and blind to the experiences of the heroine.
Nature does not stop the passions of a young man and a girl at a fatal moment: "not a single star shone in the sky - no ray could illuminate delusions." On the contrary, “the darkness of the evening nourished desires.” An incomprehensible thing happens to Lisa’s soul: “It seemed to me that I was dying, that my soul ... No, I can’t say this!”. Liza's closeness to nature does not help her in saving her soul: she seems to give her soul to Erast. The storm breaks out only after - "it seemed that all nature complained about Liza's lost innocence." Lisa is frightened of thunder, "like a criminal." She perceives the thunder as a punishment, but nature did not tell her anything earlier.
At the moment of Lisa's farewell to Erast, nature is still beautiful, majestic, but indifferent to the heroes: “The dawn, like a scarlet sea, spilled over the eastern sky. Erast stood under the branches of a tall oak ... all nature was silent. The "silence" of nature at the tragic moment of parting for Lisa is emphasized in the story. Here, too, nature does not suggest anything to the girl, does not save her from disappointment.
The heyday of Russian sentimentalism falls on the 1790s. The recognized propagandist of this direction, Karamzin, developed in his works the main idea: the soul must be enlightened, made it cordial, responsive to other people's pain, other people's suffering and other people's worries.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin became the most prominent representative in Russian literature of a new literary trend - sentimentalism, popular in Western Europe at the end of the 18th century. In the story "Poor Lisa" created in 1792, the main features of this trend appeared. Sentimentalism proclaimed a priority attention to the private life of people, to their feelings, equally characteristic of people from all classes. Karamzin tells us the story of the unhappy love of a simple peasant girl, Lisa, and a nobleman, Erast, in order to prove that "peasant women know how to love." Liza is the ideal of the "natural man" advocated by the sentimentalists. She is not only “beautiful in soul and body,” but is also able to sincerely love a person who is not quite worthy of her love. Erast, although he surpasses his beloved in education, nobility and wealth, turns out to be spiritually smaller than her. He is not able to rise above class prejudices and marry Liza. Erast has a "fair mind" and a "kind heart", but at the same time he is "weak and windy." After losing at cards, he is forced to marry a rich widow and leave Lisa, which is why she committed suicide. However, sincere human feelings did not die in Erast and, as the author assures us, “Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. Having learned about the fate of Lizina, he could not be consoled and considered himself a murderer.

For Karamzin, the village becomes a hotbed of natural moral purity, and the city becomes a source of debauchery, a source of temptations that can destroy this purity. The heroes of the writer, in full accordance with the precepts of sentimentalism, suffer almost all the time, constantly expressing their feelings with abundantly shed tears. As the author himself admitted: "I love those objects that make me shed tears of tender sorrow." Karamzin is not ashamed of tears and encourages readers to do the same. As he describes in detail the experiences of Lisa, left by Erast, who had gone into the army: “From now on, her days were days

longing and sorrow, which had to be hidden from a tender mother: the more her heart suffered! Then it was only relieved when Liza, secluded in the dense forest, could freely shed tears and moan about separation from her beloved. Often the sad dove combined her mournful voice with her groaning. Karamzin forces Liza to hide her suffering from her old mother, but at the same time he is deeply convinced that it is very important to give a person the opportunity to openly express his grief, in plenty, in order to ease his soul. The author examines the essentially social conflict of the story through a philosophical and ethical prism. Erast sincerely would like to overcome class barriers on the way of their idyllic love with Liza. However, the heroine looks at the state of affairs much more soberly, realizing that Erast "cannot be her husband." The narrator already quite sincerely worries about his characters, worries in the sense that he seems to live with them. It is no coincidence that at the moment when Erast leaves Lisa, a penetrating author's confession follows: “My heart bleeds at this moment. I forget a man in Erast - I'm ready to curse him - but my tongue does not move - I look at the sky, and a tear rolls down my face. Not only the author himself got along with Erast and Lisa, but also thousands of his contemporaries - readers of the story. This was facilitated by the good recognition not only of the circumstances, but also of the place of action. Karamzin quite accurately depicted in "Poor Lisa" the surroundings of the Moscow Simonov Monastery, and the name "Lizin's Pond" was firmly entrenched behind the pond located there. Moreover: some unfortunate young ladies even drowned themselves here, following the example of the main character of the story. Lisa herself became a model that they sought to imitate in love, however, not peasant women who did not read the Karamzin story, but girls from the nobility and other wealthy classes. The hitherto rare name Erast became very popular in noble families. Very much "Poor Lisa" and sentimentalism corresponded to the spirit of the times.

It is characteristic that Karamzin's Liza and her mother, although declared to be peasant women, speak the same language as the nobleman Erast and the author himself. The writer, like the Western European sentimentalists, did not yet know the speech distinction of the heroes, representing classes of society that were opposite in terms of the conditions of existence. All the heroes of the story speak Russian literary language, close to the real spoken language of that circle of educated noble youth to which Karamzin belonged. Also, the peasant life in the story is far from the true folk life. Rather, it was inspired by the notions of the “natural man” characteristic of sentimentalist literature, the symbols of which were shepherds and shepherds. Therefore, for example, the writer introduces an episode of Lisa's meeting with a young shepherd who "drives a flock along the river bank, playing the flute." This meeting makes the heroine dream that her beloved Erast would be "a simple peasant, a shepherd", which would make their happy union possible. The writer, nevertheless, was mainly occupied with truthfulness in the depiction of feelings, and not with the details of the folk life unfamiliar to him.

Having affirmed sentimentalism in Russian literature with his story, Karamzin took a significant step in terms of its democratization, abandoning the strict, but far from real life schemes of classicism. The author of "Poor Liza" not only sought to write "as they say", freeing the literary language from Church Slavonic archaisms and boldly introducing new words borrowed from European languages ​​into it. For the first time, he refused to divide heroes into purely positive and purely negative, showing a complex combination of good and bad traits in Erast's character. Thus, Karamzin took a step in the direction in which realism, which replaced sentimentalism and romanticism, moved the development of literature in the middle of the 19th century.