The fate of Matryona Korchagina. Analysis of the chapter "Peasant woman
He did not carry a heart in his chest,
Who did not shed tears over you.
In the work of N.A. Nekrasov, many works are devoted to a simple Russian woman. The fate of a Russian woman has always worried Nekrasov. In many of his poems and poems, he speaks of her plight. Starting with the early poem “On the Road” and ending with the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, Nekrasov spoke about the “female share”, about the dedication of the Russian peasant woman, about her spiritual beauty. In the poem “In full swing the village suffering”, written shortly after the reform, a true reflection of the inhuman hard work of a young peasant mother is given:
Share you! - Russian woman's share!
Hardly harder to find...
Talking about the hard lot of the Russian peasant woman, Nekrasov often in her image embodied high ideas about the spiritual power of the Russian people, about its physical beauty:
There are women in Russian villages
With calm gravity of faces,
With beautiful strength in movements,
With a gait, with the eyes of queens.
In the works of Nekrasov, the image of a “majestic Slav” appears, pure in heart, bright in mind, strong in spirit. This is Daria from the poem "Frost, Red Nose", and a simple girl from the "Troika". This is Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina from the poem "Who in Rus' should live well."
The image of Matrena Timofeevna, as it were, completes and unites the group of images of peasant women in Nekrasov's work. The poem recreates the type of the “dignified Slav”, a peasant woman of the Central Russian strip, endowed with restrained and strict beauty:
stubborn woman,
Wide and dense
Thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray hair,
The eyes are large, stern,
Eyelashes are the richest
Stern and swarthy.
She, smart and strong, the poet entrusted to tell about his fate. “Peasant Woman” is the only part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, all written in the first person. Trying to answer the question of the men-truth-seekers, can she call herself happy, Matrena Timofeevna tells the story of her life. The voice of Matrena Timofeevna is the voice of the people themselves. That is why she sings more often than talks, sings folk songs. "Peasant Woman" is the most folklore part of the poem, it is almost completely built on folk poetic images and motifs. The whole life story of Matrena Timofeevna is a chain of continuous misfortunes and suffering. No wonder she says about herself: “I have a downcast head, I carry an angry heart!” She is convinced: "It's not a matter of looking for a happy woman between women." Why? After all, there was love in the life of this woman, the joy of motherhood, the respect of others. But with her story, the heroine makes the peasants think about the question of whether this is enough for happiness and whether all those hardships and hardships that befall the Russian peasant woman will outweigh this cup:
Silent, invisible to me
The storm has passed,
Will you show her?
For me insults are mortal
Gone unpaid
And the whip passed over me!
Slowly and unhurriedly Matrena Timofeevna leads her story. She lived well and freely in her parents' house. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up with a "maiden's will to hell": a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunkard father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom her daughter-in-law had to work like a slave. With her husband, she, however, was lucky. But Philip only returned from work in the winter, and the rest of the time there was no one to intercede for her, except for grandfather Savely. A consolation for a peasant woman is her first-born Demushka. But due to Savely's oversight, the child dies. Matrena Timofeevna becomes a witness to the abuse of the body of her child (in order to find out the cause of death, the authorities perform an autopsy of the child's corpse). For a long time she cannot forgive Savely's "sin" that he overlooked her Demushka. But the trials of Matrena Timofeevna did not end there. Her second son Fedot is growing up, then misfortune happens to him. Her eight-year-old son is facing punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a hungry she-wolf. Fedot took pity on her, he saw how hungry and unhappy she was, and the wolf cubs in her den were not fed:
Looking up, head up
In my eyes ... and howled suddenly!
In order to save her little son from the punishment that threatened him, Matryona herself lies under the rod instead of him.
But the most difficult trials fall on her lot in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is likened to a hungry she-wolf. A recruiting set deprives her of her last intercessor, her husband (he is taken out of turn):
hungry
Orphans are standing
In front of me...
unkindly
The family looks at them
They are noisy in the house
On the street pugnacious,
Gluttons at the table...
And they began to pinch them,
Bang on the head...
Shut up, soldier mother!
Matrena Timofeevna decides to ask the governor for intercession. She runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the porter lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna:
How do I throw
At her feet: “Stand up!
Deception, not godly
Provider and parent
They take from children!
The governor took pity on Matryona Timofeevna. The heroine returns home with her husband and newborn Liodorushka. This incident cemented her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname "governor".
The further fate of Matryona Timofeevna is also full of troubles: one of the sons has already been taken to the soldiers, "they burned twice ... God anthrax ... visited three times." The "Baby Parable" sums up her tragic story:
Keys to female happiness
From our free will
abandoned, lost
God himself!
The life history of Matryona Timofeevna showed that the most difficult, unbearable conditions of life could not break a peasant woman. The harsh conditions of life honed a special female character, proud and independent, accustomed to relying on her own strength everywhere and in everything. Nekrasov endows his heroine not only with beauty, but with great spiritual strength. Not resignation to fate, not stupid patience, but pain and anger are expressed in the words with which she ends the story of her life:
For me insults are mortal
Gone unpaid...
Anger accumulates in the soul of a peasant woman, but faith remains in the intercession of the Mother of God, in the power of prayer. After praying, she goes to the city to the governor to seek the truth. Saved by her own spiritual strength and will to live. Nekrasov showed in the image of Matryona Timofeevna both a readiness for self-sacrifice when she stood up for her son, and strength of character when she does not bow to formidable bosses. The image of Matrena Timofeevna is, as it were, woven from folk poetry. Lyrical and wedding folk songs, lamentations have long told about the life of a peasant woman, and Nekrasov drew from this source, creating the image of his beloved heroine.
Written about the people and for the people, the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" is close to the works of oral folk art. The verse of the poem - Nekrasov's artistic discovery - perfectly conveyed the lively speech of the people, their songs, sayings, sayings, which absorbed centuries-old wisdom, sly humor, sadness and joy. The whole poem is a truly folk work, and this is its great significance.
ON THE. Nekrasov, a famous Russian poet, in many of his works describes with great sympathy the hard life of ordinary working women.
In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus'”, Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina tells about her fate to wanderers who are looking for happy people. Her life has developed, like many Russian peasant women. Since childhood, she has been a hard worker. But all the same, memories of life in childhood are only joyful, since she had, according to Matryona herself, “a good, non-drinking family.” Having married, Matrena went through difficult trials: conflicts in the family (nitpicking by her husband's relatives), hard work, the death of her first child, separation from her husband who had gone to work, eternal need.
This is how her life turned out. And there was both bad and good in her, of course, there is more bad, but this woman found the strength to live in herself. With what pain she endured the death of Demushka's son! And she is accused of the death of a child, and she still has to make excuses! Matryona Timofeevna. So she forgives grandfather Savely his oversight, which led to the death of her first son. Instead of another son, Matryona is punished and lies under the rods, suffers shame and humiliation for the sake of the child, and after punishment goes to the river and cries. When it became known that Matryona's husband was being taken into the soldiers, she went to the governor's wife, threw herself at her feet, and her husband was saved. Matryona is considered "lucky" in the village. But new troubles come instead of happiness. Such a share, like that of Matryona, fell to many. And there is no time to worry for a long time - you have to feed your family. They lived, accumulating grief and despair.
Nekrasov lovingly describes the portrait of this working woman, her beauty. She has big eyes, gray hair. Nekrasov sees the main advantage of a Russian woman in her ability to be a good mother, to take care of children, despite all the difficulties.
The image of Matryona Timofeevna in Nekrasov's poem turned out to be truly Russian thanks to songs, proverbs, sayings, the use of expressive means of the language: epithets, synonyms, comparisons. She laments over her dead son: “Fall, my tears, ... right on the heart of my villain!”
Matrena lived her life in constant work and struggle for her family. The author concludes: there is no happiness in Rus' for a peasant woman.
Nekrasov for the first time in literature so deeply and truthfully depicted a Russian woman, showed the features of the national character of Russian women. Living in inhuman, slavish conditions, oppressed and humiliated, they retained a pure soul, strong will, tenderness, love, fidelity. These qualities help them live and believe.
Option 2
The people are the entire population of the country. For N. A. Nekrasov, this is, first of all, the peasantry. The writer sympathized with the people, found in them the best human virtues, considered himself indebted to them for all his difficult life circumstances.
The image of a peasant woman, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, in Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” plays an important role, he appears in one of the parts of the work called “Peasant Woman”.
Matryona Timofeevna felt truly happy only when she was in her parents' house, in a wonderful peasant family, where the father and mother took care of their daughter, affectionately addressed her as "kasatushka". Being a member of a working-class family, Matryona had to do hard work from an early age, allocate little time for children's fun. Despite this, the peasant woman cherished the time she spent in her home, often recalled it with sadness.
Many guys looked at the hardworking Matryona. The girl was given to a man from another village. The house in which Matryona ends up is incomparable with her parents. The unfriendly family does not respect the new family member, calls the girl "drowsy, drowsy, messy", despite her great efforts. The husband was cruel to Matryona, beat her: "the whip whistled, blood spurted."
The only joy in a dysfunctional family life was the birth of a child. This event serves as a consolation for the peasant woman. The need to work does not make it possible to independently raise Matryona's firstborn, she has to leave him in the care of an old man who once overlooked a child. The death of a child becomes a tragedy for a poor peasant woman.
The death of the firstborn did not break Matryona, she continues to live, to protect her children and family. So she takes upon herself the punishment of her son, Fedot, who lost a sheep while grazing, stands up for her husband, whom they want to take to the soldiers, asking the governor for help.
The image of Matryona cannot be called happy. Not everyone is able to withstand the difficulties that the peasant woman had to endure, to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others, so the heroine is admired.
The writer endowed Matryona with all the features of peasant women in order to show the life of the people as a whole. And now the reader is presented with a strong woman, an honest wife, hard-working, purposeful, gentle and simple.
Composition about Matryona
The Russian peasant woman is a character in various works by Nekrasov. All of them are imbued with sympathy for her fate. However, the peasant woman appears before us not only tortured by hard work, but also in the form of a “stately Slav woman”, who has high moral qualities, endured life's troubles and loves her family. Such is Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina.
Kindness, pleasant appearance, ingenuity, the glory of a lucky woman are inherent in this woman. We see how Nekrasov shows the life of Matryona from childhood to meeting with the seekers of a happy fate. It is interesting how the author portrays her thoughts and feelings, as well as the emotional upheavals that left a big mark on her life. It was especially difficult for her after the death of Demushka's first son.
At the beginning of the poem, which speaks of the tragic death of a child, the image of a bird is described, which inconsolably cries for its chicks who died during a thunderstorm. It helps the reader to understand the tragedy of the peasant mother. However, when the corpse of Demushka is opened, Matrena Timofeevna finds herself in the grip of hopelessness and rage. In her curses to the villains and executioners, she had a plan of revenge. And therefore, foreseeing such a situation, the police officer orders the mother to be tied up.
Saving the youngest Fedotashka, from undeserved punishment, she herself lay down under the rods, without even begging for forgiveness from the headman. She bore her shameful punishment with her head held high. Only in the evening by the river was the woman able to cry out all the pain of her suffering. Matryona is worried when she finds out that her husband is being sent to the soldiers. Seeing how her husband is beaten with sticks on the orders of Colonel Shalashnikov, and her children are begging for alms, she goes to hiccup intercession.
At night she goes to the city, praying to the heavenly intercessor. Unlike other heroines of the poet's works, she was lucky, as she asked for help from the governor, who helped her. And so, the peasant woman returns home with her husband, who was released from military service, and with the baby Liodorushka. Her heart was filled with joy, gratitude and love. In this state, she sees the world around her better. Matrena goes and admires the natural beauties that are present at the beginning of spring. But, with all her luck and natural talent, Matryona did not become happy. Saying goodbye to the seekers of happiness, she says that the keys to women's happiness are lost, and are unlikely to be found.
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The chapter "Last Child" switched the main attention of the truth-seekers to the people's environment. The search for peasant happiness (Izbytkovo village!) Naturally led the peasants to the "lucky" - "governor", the peasant woman Matryona Korchagina. What is the ideological and artistic meaning of the chapter "Peasant Woman"?
In the post-reform era, the peasant woman remained just as oppressed and deprived of rights as before 1861, and it was, apparently, an absurd undertaking to look for a happy woman among the peasant women. This is clear to Nekrasov. In the outline of the chapter, the “lucky” heroine says to the wanderers:
I think so,
What if between women
Are you looking for a happy
So you are just stupid.
But the author of “To whom it is good to live in Rus'”, artistically reproducing Russian reality, is forced to reckon with folk concepts and ideas, no matter how miserable and false they may be. He only reserves the copyright to dispel illusions, to form more correct views on the world, to bring up higher demands on life than those that gave rise to the legend of the happiness of the “governor”. However, the rumor flies from mouth to mouth, and the wanderers go to the village of Klin. The author gets the opportunity to oppose life to the legend.
The Peasant Woman begins with a prologue, which plays the role of an ideological overture to the chapter, prepares the reader for the perception of the image of the peasant woman of the village of Klin, the lucky Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina. The author draws a “thoughtfully and affectionately” noisy grain field, which was moistened “Not so much by warm dew, / Like sweat from a peasant’s face.” As the wanderers move, rye is replaced by flax, fields of peas and vegetables. The kids frolic (“children rush / Some with turnips, some with carrots”), and “women pull beets”. The colorful summer landscape is closely linked by Nekrasov with the theme of inspired peasant labor.
But then the wanderers approached the "unenviable" village of Klin. The joyful, colorful landscape is replaced by another, gloomy and dull:
Whatever the hut - with a backup,
Like a beggar with a crutch.
Comparison of "wretched houses" with skeletons and orphaned jackdaw nests on bare autumn trees further enhances the tragedy of the impression. The charms of rural nature and the beauty of creative peasant labor in the prologue of the chapter are contrasted with the picture of peasant poverty. By landscape contrast, the author makes the reader internally alert and distrustful of the message that one of the workers of this impoverished village is the true lucky woman.
From the village of Klin, the author leads the reader to an abandoned landowner's estate. The picture of its desolation is complemented by the images of numerous courtyards: hungry, weak, relaxed, like frightened Prussians (cockroaches) in the upper room, they crawled around the estate. This “whining household” is opposed by the people who, after a hard day (“the people in the fields are working”), return to the village with a song. Surrounded by this healthy work collective, outwardly almost not standing out from it (“Good way! And which Matryona Timofeevna?”), Making up part of it, appears in Matryona Korchagin's poem.
The portrait characterization of the heroine is very meaningful and poetically rich. The first idea of the appearance of Matryona is given by the replica of the peasants of the village of Nagotina:
Holmogory cow,
Not a woman! kinder
And there is no smoother woman.
The comparison - “a Kholmogory cow is not a woman” - speaks of the health, strength, stateliness of the heroine. It is the key to further characterization, it fully corresponds to the impression that Matryona Timofeevna makes on the truth-seeking peasants.
Her portrait is extremely concise, but it gives an idea of the strength of character, self-esteem (“a portly woman”), and moral purity and exactingness (“big, strict eyes”), and the hard life of the heroine (“hair with gray hair” in 38 years old), and that the storms of life did not break, but only hardened her (“severe and swarthy”). The harsh, natural beauty of a peasant woman is further emphasized by the poverty of clothing: a “short sundress”, and a white shirt that sets off the heroine’s skin color, swarthy from a tan. In Matryona's story, her whole life passes before the reader, and the author reveals the movement of this life, the dynamics of the depicted character through a change in the portrait characteristics of the heroine.
“Thoughtful”, “twisted”, Matryona recalls the years of her girlhood, youth; she, as it were, sees herself in the past from the outside and cannot but admire her former girlish beauty. Gradually, in her story (“Before Marriage”), a generalized portrait of a rural beauty, so well known in folk poetry, appears before the audience. Matrena's maiden name is "clear eyes", "white face", which is not afraid of the dirt of field work. “You’ll work in the field for a day,” says Matryona, and then, after washing in a “hot baenka,”
Again white, fresh,
For spinning with girlfriends
Eat until midnight!
In her native family, the girl blooms, “like a poppy flower”, she is a “good worker” and “sing-dance hunter”. But now comes the fatal hour of farewell to the girl's will... From the mere thought of the future, of the bitter life in "another God-given family" the bride's "white face fades". However, her blooming beauty, "handsomeness" is enough for several years of family life. No wonder the manager Abram Gordeich Sitnikov "boosts" Matryona:
You are a written kralechka
You are a hot berry!
But the years go by, bringing more and more troubles. For a long time, a severe swarthyness replaced a scarlet blush on Matrena's face, petrified with grief; "clear eyes" look at people strictly and severely; hunger and overwork carried away the "pregnancy and prettiness" accumulated in the years of girlhood. Emaciated, fierce by the struggle for life, she no longer resembles a "poppy color", but a hungry she-wolf:
She-wolf that Fedotova
I remembered - hungry,
Similar to kids
I was on it!
So socially, by the conditions of life and work (“Horse's attempts / We carried ...”), as well as psychologically (the death of the first-born, loneliness, the hostile attitude of the family) Nekrasov motivates changes in the appearance of the heroine, at the same time asserting a deep internal connection between images of a red-cheeked laughter woman from the chapter “Before marriage” and a graying, portly woman met by wanderers. Cheerfulness, spiritual clarity, inexhaustible energy, inherent in Matryona from her youth, help her survive in life, maintain the majesty of her posture and beauty.
In the process of working on the image of Matrena, Nekrasov did not immediately determine the age of the heroine. From variant to variant there was a process of “rejuvenation” by its author. To "rejuvenate" Matrena Timofeevna makes the author strive for life and artistic truthfulness. A woman in the village grew old early. An indication of the age of 60 and even 50 conflicted with the portrait of the heroine, the general definition of “beautiful” and such details as “big, strict eyes”, “richest eyelashes”. The latter option eliminated the discrepancy between the heroine's living conditions and her appearance. Matryona is 38 years old, her hair has already been touched by gray hair - evidence of a difficult life, but her beauty has not faded yet. The "rejuvenation" of the heroine was also dictated by the requirement of psychological certainty. 20 years have passed since the marriage and death of Matryona's first-born (if she is 38, not 60!) and the events of the chapters "She-Wolf", "Governor" and "Hard Year" are still quite fresh in her memory. That is why Matryona's speech sounds so emotional, so excited.
Matrena Timofeevna is not only beautiful, dignified, healthy. A smart, courageous woman with a rich, generous, poetic soul, she was created for happiness. And she was very lucky in some ways: a “good, non-drinking” native family (not everyone is like that!), marriage for love (how often did this happen?), prosperity (how not to envy?), patronage of the governor (what happiness! ). Is it any wonder that the legend of the "governor" went for a walk in the villages, that fellow villagers "denigrated" her, as Matryona herself says with bitter irony, a lucky woman.
And on the example of the fate of the "lucky" Nekrasov reveals the whole terrible drama of peasant life. The whole story of Matryona is a refutation of the legend about her happiness. From chapter to chapter the drama grows, leaving less room for naive illusions.
In the plot of the main stories of the chapter "Peasant Woman" ("Before Marriage", "Songs", "Demushka", "She-Wolf", "Hard Year", "Woman's Parable"), Nekrasov selected and concentrated the most ordinary, everyday and at the same time the most events characteristic of the life of a Russian peasant woman: work from an early age, simple girlish entertainment, matchmaking, marriage, humiliated position and difficult life in a strange family, family quarrels, beatings, the birth and death of children, caring for them, overwork, hunger in lean years , the bitter lot of a mother-soldier with many children. These events determine the circle of interests, the structure of thoughts and feelings of the peasant woman. They are remembered and presented by the narrator in their temporal sequence, which creates a feeling of simplicity and ingenuity, so inherent in the heroine herself. But for all the outward everydayness of events, the plot of the “Peasant Woman” is full of deep inner drama and social sharpness, which are due to the originality of the heroine herself, her ability to deeply feel, emotionally experience events, her moral purity and exactingness, her disobedience and courage.
Matryona not only acquaints the wanderers (and the reader!) with the history of her life, she “opens her whole soul” to them. The tale form, the narration in the first person, gives it a special liveliness, spontaneity, life-like persuasiveness, opens up great opportunities for revealing the innermost depths of the inner life of a peasant woman, hidden from the eyes of an outside observer.
Matrena Timofeevna tells about her hardships simply, with restraint, without exaggerating her colors. Out of inner delicacy, she even keeps silent about her husband's beatings, and only after the question of the wanderers: “It’s like you didn’t beat it?”, Embarrassed, she admits that there was such a thing. She is silent about her experiences after the death of her parents:
Heard dark nights
Heard violent winds
orphan sadness,
And you don't need to say...
Matrena says almost nothing about those moments when she was subjected to the shameful punishment of whips... But this restraint, in which the inner strength of the Russian peasant Korchagina is felt, only enhances the drama of her story. Excitedly, as if re-experiencing everything, Matryona Timofeevna tells about Philip's matchmaking, her thoughts and anxieties, the birth and death of her first child. Child mortality in the village was colossal, and with the oppressive poverty of the family, the death of a child was sometimes perceived with tears of relief: “God cleaned up”, “one mouth less!” Not so with Matryona. For 20 years, the pain of her mother's heart has not subsided. Even now she has not forgotten the charms of her firstborn:
How written was Demushka!
Beauty is taken from the sun...etc.
In the soul of Matrena Timofeevna, even after 20 years, anger boils against the “unrighteous judges” who sensed prey. That is why there is so much expression and tragic pathos in her curse to the "villainous executioners" ...
Matryona is first of all a woman, a mother who devoted herself entirely to caring for children. But, subjectively caused by maternal feelings, aimed at protecting children, her protest acquires a social coloring, family adversity pushes her onto the path of social protest. For her child and with God, Matryona will enter into an argument. She, a deeply religious woman, alone in the whole village did not obey the hypocrite wanderer, who forbade breastfeeding children on fast days:
If you endure, then mothers
I am a sinner before God
Not my child
Moods of anger, protest, sounded in the curse of Matryona to the “villain-executioners”, do not stall in the future, but manifest themselves in forms other than tears and angry cries: she pushed the headman away, tore Fedotushka, trembling like a leaf, out of his hands, silently lay down under the rod ("She-wolf"). But year after year more and more accumulates in the soul of a peasant woman, barely restrained pain and anger.
For me insults are mortal
Gone unpaid... —
Matrena admits, in whose mind, apparently, not without the influence of grandfather Saveliy (she runs into his gorenka in difficult moments of her life!), The thought of retribution, retribution is born. She cannot follow the advice of the proverb: "Keep your head down, humble heart."
I bow my head
I carry an angry heart! —
she paraphrases the proverb in relation to herself, and in these words is the result of the ideological development of the heroine. In the image of Matrena, Nekrasov generalized, typified the awakening of the people's consciousness, the mood of emerging social anger and protest, observed by him in the 60-70s.
The author constructs the plot of the chapter “Peasant Woman” in such a way that more and more difficulties arise on the life path of the heroine: family oppression, the death of a son, the death of parents, the “terrible year” of lack of bread, the threat of Philip’s recruitment, twice a fire, three times anthrax ... On the example of one fate, Nekrasov gives a vivid idea of the deeply tragic circumstances of the life of a peasant woman and the entire working peasantry in "liberated" Russia.
The compositional structure of the chapter (gradual escalation of dramatic situations) helps the reader to understand how the character of Matrena Timofeevna develops and strengthens in the struggle with life's difficulties. But for all the typical biography of Matryona Korchagina, there is something in it that distinguishes her from a number of others. After all, Matryona was denounced as a lucky woman, the whole district knows about her! The impression of unusualness, originality, vital uniqueness of fate and, most importantly, the originality of her nature is achieved by the introduction of the chapter "Governor". How not a lucky woman, whose son the governor herself baptized! There is something to marvel at the fellow villagers ... But even more surprising (already for the reader!) Is Matryona herself, who, not wanting to bow to fate, is sick, pregnant, runs at night to an unknown city, “reaches” the governor’s wife and saves her husband from recruitment . The plot situation of the chapter “Governor” reveals the strong-willed character, determination of the heroine, as well as her sensitive heart for goodness: the sympathetic attitude of the governor evokes in her a feeling of deep gratitude, in excess of which Matryona praises the kind lady Elena Alexandrovna.
However, Nekrasov is far from the idea that "the secret of people's contentment" lies in the lord's philanthropy. Even Matryona understands that philanthropy is powerless before the inhuman laws of the existing social order (“peasant / Orders are endless ...”) and ironically over her nickname “lucky”. While working on the chapter "The Governor", the author, obviously, sought to make the impact of the meeting with the governor's wife on the further fate of the heroine less significant. In the draft versions of the chapter, it was indicated that Matryona, thanks to the intercession of the governor's wife, happened to help out her fellow villagers, that she received gifts from her benefactor. In the final text, Nekrasov omitted these points.
Initially, the chapter about Matryona Korchagina was called "The Governor". Apparently, not wanting to attach too much importance to the episode with the governor's wife, Nekrasov gives the chapter a different, broadly generalizing name - "Peasant Woman", and the story about the meeting of Matryona with the governor's wife (it is needed to emphasize the unusual fate of the heroine) pushes back, makes the penultimate plot episode of the chapter. As the final chord of the confession of the peasant woman Korchagina, there is a bitter "woman's parable" about the lost "keys to women's happiness", a parable expressing the people's view of women's fate:
Keys to female happiness
From our free will
abandoned, lost
God himself!
To remember this full of hopelessness legend, told by a passing wanderer, Matryona is forced by the bitter experience of her own life.
And you - for happiness stuck your head!
It's a shame, well done! —
she throws with a reproach to the strangers.
The legend of the happiness of the peasant woman Korchagina has been dispelled. However, with the entire content of the chapter "Peasant Woman" Nekrasov tells the contemporary reader how and where to look for the lost keys. Not “keys to female happiness”... There are no such special, “female” keys for Nekrasov; from social oppression and lawlessness.
In the image of Matryona Timofeevna, Nekrasov embodied the fate of all Russian peasant women. A lot of folklore elements surround this image, the heroine goes through all the stages typical for a married woman who lives in her husband's family and is a serf. The fate of Matryona is full of troubles and misfortunes, a rare joy, a warm human attitude brings the woman back to life and she again becomes cheerful and cheerful, as in her youth.
Matryona's life before marriage
Matryona tells the wanderers about her girlish life, using vocabulary with a diminutive connotation. Father and mother spoiled their daughter, they didn’t force her to work, she didn’t hear a bad word. Only at that time the girl got enough sleep and enjoyed the caress and care of her relatives. Later, when she was sent to a strange village after her wedding, she learned how hard a woman's life can be, even if her husband loves and pities her. Matryona describes her fate as follows: “Now there is only one richness: three lakes are weeping with burning tears.” The heroine of the poem is a strong woman, not only physically (“Kholmogory cow”), but also morally: she experienced a lot of grief, but life did not break her.
The poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” contains the most beautiful folklore traditions, which are introduced directly into the text of the work. It is the chapter describing the life of Matryona that is especially rich in oral folk art.
Appearance of Matryona Timofeevna
The surname of the heroine is Korchagina, she lives in the village of Klin. Matryona is 38 years old, she calls herself an old woman, realizing that youth and beauty are lost due to hard work. The author lovingly describes his heroine of the poem: “Beautiful; gray hair, large, stern eyes, richest eyelashes, stern and swarthy. She has a white shirt on, and a short sundress, and a sickle over her shoulder ... ”. The words that the author uses are taken from folk songs: “written kralechka”, “poured berry”, “girl's eyes”, “ruddy face”, “pretty”, “beloved”, “white face”. The beauty of Matryona is the beauty of a Russian woman, strong, strong, hardworking. Describing Matryona at work, the author draws every stroke with pleasure: the heroine evokes sincere sympathy from the reader. She is honest, straightforward, patient, caring, smart, savvy, and a little brash.
Characteristics of Matryona, her life philosophy
Matryona Timofeevna has five children, she is ready to give her life for each of them. When trouble happened - the youngest son overlooked the herd of sheep entrusted to him, she came to the master instead of her son to save the child from whipping. The very first son, Dyomushka, died when he was very young, he was instructed to watch his grandfather Savely, but then he fell asleep. The child got into the corral, where there were pigs, they ate him alive. The authorities insisted on an autopsy, accusing Matryona of colluding with her convict grandfather in killing the child. The woman had to endure a monstrous spectacle that she will never forget. Husband Philip loves Matryona, but sometimes he still dissolves his hands. When he brings her a gift and rides on a sleigh, the heroine feels happy again. She knows that many women got a fate even more difficult than hers: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman between women ...”, “The keys to female happiness, from our free will are abandoned, lost from God himself! ..
". Matryona is frank with strangers, she found her woman's happiness in children, in work. The harsh mother-in-law, the bad attitude of her husband’s relatives led to the fact that a lot of pain, resentment and longing accumulated in her soul: “There is no unbroken bone in me, there is no unstretched vein, there is no unspoiled blood ...”
Matryona teaches her children to be honest, not to steal. She is a believing woman: “the more I prayed, the easier it became…”. It was faith that helped Matryona survive the most difficult moments in her life.
Our article contains quotes from Matryona Timofeevna, which characterize her image most clearly. The material will be useful in the analysis of the poem and writing creative works on the topic.
Artwork test
He did not carry a heart in his chest,
Who did not shed tears over you!
ON THE. Nekrasov
In the work of N.A. Nekrasov, many works are devoted to a simple Russian woman. The fate of a Russian woman has always worried Nekrasov. In many of his poems and poems, he speaks of her plight. Starting with the early poem “On the Road” and ending with the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, Nekrasov spoke about the “female share”, about the dedication of the Russian peasant woman, about her spiritual beauty. In the poem “In full swing the village suffering”, written shortly after the reform, a true reflection of the inhuman hard work of a young peasant mother is given:
Share you! - Russian woman's share!
Hardly harder to find...
Talking about the hard lot of the Russian peasant woman, Nekrasov often in her image embodied high ideas about the spiritual power of the Russian people, about its physical beauty:
There are women in Russian villages
With calm gravity of faces,
With beautiful strength in movements,
With a gait, with the eyes of queens.
In the works of Nekrasov, the image of a “majestic Slav” appears, pure in heart, bright in mind, strong in spirit. This is Daria from the poem "Frost, Red Nose", and a simple girl from the "Troika". This is Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina from the poem "Who in Rus' should live well."
The image of Matrena Timofeevna, as it were, completes and unites the group of images of peasant women in Nekrasov's work. The poem recreates the type of “stately Slav”, a peasant woman of the Central Russian strip, endowed with restrained and strict beauty:
stubborn woman,
Wide and dense.
Thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray hair,
The eyes are large, stern,
Eyelashes are the richest
Stern and swarthy.
She, smart and strong, the poet entrusted to tell about his fate. “Peasant Woman” is the only part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, all written in the first person. Trying to answer the question of the men-truth-seekers, can she call herself happy, Matrena Timofeevna tells the story of her life. The voice of Matrena Timofeevna is the voice of the people themselves. That is why she sings more often than tells, sang folk songs. “The Peasant Woman” is the most folklore part of the poem, it is almost entirely built on folk poetic images and motifs. The whole life story of Matrena Timofeevna is a chain of continuous misfortunes and suffering. No wonder she says about herself: “I have a downcast head, I carry an angry heart!” She is convinced: "It's not a matter of looking for a happy woman between women." Why? After all, there was love in the life of this woman, the joy of motherhood, the respect of others. But with her story, the heroine makes the peasants think about the question of whether this is enough for happiness and whether all those hardships and hardships that befall the Russian peasant woman will outweigh this cup:
Silent, invisible to me
The storm has passed,
Will you show her?
For me insults are mortal
Gone unpaid
And the whip passed over me!
Slowly and unhurriedly Matrena Timofeevna leads her story. She lived well and freely in her parents' house. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up with a "maiden's will to hell": a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunkard father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom her daughter-in-law had to work like a slave. With her husband, she, however, was lucky. But Philip only returned from work in the winter, and the rest of the time there was no one to intercede for her, except for grandfather Savely. A consolation for a peasant woman is her first-born Demushka. But due to Savely's oversight, the child dies. Matrena Timofeevna becomes a witness to the abuse of the body of her child (in order to find out the cause of death, the authorities perform an autopsy of the child's corpse). For a long time she cannot forgive Savely's "sin" that he overlooked her Demushka. But the trials of Matrena Timofeevna did not end there. Her second son Fedot is growing up, and misfortune befalls him. Her eight-year-old son is facing punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a hungry she-wolf. Fedot took pity on her, he saw how hungry and unhappy she was, and the wolf cubs in her den were not fed:
Looking up, head up
In my eyes ... and howled suddenly!
In order to save her little son from the punishment that threatened him, Matryona herself lies under the rod instead of him.
But the most difficult trials fall on her lot in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is likened to a hungry she-wolf. A recruiting set deprives her of her last intercessor, her husband (he is taken out of turn):
...Hungry
Orphans are standing
In front of me... Unkindly
The family looks at them
They are noisy in the house
On the street pugnacious,
Gluttons at the table...
And they began to pinch them,
Bang on the head...
Shut up, soldier mother!
Matrena Timofeevna decides to ask the governor for intercession. She runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the porter lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna:
How do I throw
At her feet: “Stand up!
Deception, not godly
Provider and parent
They take from children!
The governor took pity on Matryona Timofeevna. The heroine returns home with her husband and newborn Liodorushka. This incident cemented her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname "governor".
The further fate of Matryona Timofeevna is also full of troubles: one of the sons has already been taken to the soldiers, "they burned twice ... God anthrax ... visited three times." The "Baby Parable" sums up her tragic story:
Keys to female happiness
From our free will
abandoned, lost
God himself!
The life history of Matryona Timofeevna showed that the most difficult, unbearable conditions of life could not break a peasant woman. The harsh conditions of life honed a special female character, proud and independent, accustomed to relying on her own strength everywhere and in everything. Nekrasov endows his heroine not only with beauty, but with great spiritual strength. Not resignation to fate, not stupid patience, but pain and anger are expressed in the words with which she ends the story of her life:
For me insults are mortal
Gone unpaid...
Anger accumulates in the soul of a peasant woman, but faith remains in the intercession of the Mother of God, in the power of prayer. After praying, she goes to the city to the governor to seek the truth. Saved by her own spiritual strength and will to live. Nekrasov showed in the image of Matryona Timofeevna both a readiness for self-sacrifice when she stood up for her son, and strength of character when she does not bow to formidable bosses. The image of Matrena Timofeevna is, as it were, woven from folk poetry. Lyrical and wedding folk songs, lamentations have long told about the life of a peasant woman, and Nekrasov drew from this source, creating the image of his beloved heroine.
Written about the people and for the people, the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" is close to the works of oral folk art. The verse of the poem - Nekrasov's artistic discovery - perfectly conveyed the lively speech of the people, their songs, sayings, sayings, which absorbed centuries-old wisdom, sly humor, sadness and joy. The whole poem is a truly folk work, and this is its great significance.
