The next chapter written by Nekrasov - "Peasant Woman"- also seems to be a clear deviation from the scheme outlined in the Prologue: the wanderers are again trying to find a happy one among the peasants. As in other chapters, the opening plays an important role. He, as in the "Last Child", becomes the antithesis of further narration, allows you to discover all the new contradictions of "mysterious Rus'". The chapter begins with a description of the ruined landowner's estate: after the reform, the owners abandoned the estate and the courtyards to the mercy of fate, and the courtyards ruin and break down a beautiful house, a once well-groomed garden and park. The funny and tragic sides of the life of the abandoned household are closely intertwined in the description. Yards are a special peasant type. Torn out of their familiar environment, they lose the skills of peasant life, and the main among them is the “noble habit of work”. Forgotten by the landowner and unable to feed themselves by labor, they live by plundering and selling the owner's belongings, heating the house, breaking arbors and chiselled balcony columns. But there are also genuinely dramatic moments in this description: for example, the story of a singer with a rare beautiful voice. The landlords took him out of Little Russia, they were going to send him to Italy, but they forgot, busy with their troubles.
Against the background of the tragicomic crowd of ragged and hungry courtyards, “whining domestics,” the “healthy, singing crowd of reapers and reapers,” returning from the field, seems even more “beautiful”. But even among these stately and beautiful people, Matrena Timofeevna, "famed" by the "governor" and "lucky". The story of her life, told by herself, is central to the story. Dedicating this chapter to a peasant woman, Nekrasov, I think, not only wanted to open the soul and heart of a Russian woman to the reader. The world of a woman is a family, and telling about herself, Matrena Timofeevna tells about those aspects of folk life that have so far been only indirectly touched upon in the poem. But it is they who determine the happiness and unhappiness of a woman: love, family, life.
Matrena Timofeevna does not recognize herself as happy, just as she does not recognize any of the women as happy. But she knew short-lived happiness in her life. The happiness of Matryona Timofeevna is a girl's will, parental love and care. Her girlish life was not carefree and easy: from childhood, from the age of seven, she performed peasant work:
I was lucky in the girls:
We had a good
Non-drinking family.
For father, for mother,
Like Christ in the bosom,
I lived, well done.<...>
And on the seventh for a burushka
I myself ran into the herd,
I wore my father for breakfast,
Grazed the ducklings.
Then mushrooms and berries,
Then: "Take a rake
Yes, hay!
So I got used to it...
And a good worker
And sing and dance the huntress
I was young.
“Happiness” she also calls the last days of a girl’s life, when her fate was decided, when she “bargained” with her future husband - argued with him, “bargained” her will in married life:
- You become, good fellow,
Straight against me<...>
Think, dare:
To live with me - do not repent,
And I don't cry with you...<...>
While we were trading
Must be what I think
Then there was happiness.
And hardly ever again!
Her married life is indeed full of tragic events: the death of a child, a cruel flogging, a punishment she voluntarily accepted in order to save her son, a threat to remain a soldier. At the same time, Nekrasov shows that the source of Matrena Timofeevna’s misfortunes is not only “strengthen”, the disenfranchised position of a serf woman, but also the disenfranchised position of the younger daughter-in-law in a large peasant family. The injustice that triumphs in large peasant families, the perception of a person primarily as a worker, the non-recognition of his desires, his "will" - all these problems are opened by the story-confession of Matryona Timofeevna. A loving wife and mother, she is doomed to an unhappy and powerless life: to please her husband's family and unfair reproaches of the elders in the family. That is why, even having freed herself from serfdom, having become free, she will grieve about the absence of a "volition", and hence happiness: "The keys to the happiness of a woman, / From our free will / Abandoned, lost / God Himself." And she speaks at the same time not only about herself, but about all women.
This disbelief in the possibility of a woman's happiness is shared by the author. It is no coincidence that Nekrasov excludes from the final text of the chapter the lines about how happily the difficult position of Matryona Timofeevna in her husband's family changed after returning from the governor's wife: the text does not contain a story either about her becoming a "big woman" in the house, or about the fact that she "conquered" her husband's "grumpy, quarrelsome" family. Only lines remained that the husband's family, recognizing her participation in saving Philip from the soldiery, "bowed" to her and "obeyed" to her. But the chapter of the “Woman's Parable” ends, affirming the inevitability of bondage-misfortune for a woman even after the abolition of serfdom: “But to our female will / There are no and no keys!<...>/ Yes, they are unlikely to be found ... "
The researchers noted Nekrasov's idea: creating image of Matrena Timofeevna y, he aspired to the widest generalization: her fate becomes a symbol of the fate of every Russian woman. The author carefully, thoughtfully chooses the episodes of her life, “guiding” his heroine along the path that any Russian woman takes: a short carefree childhood, labor skills instilled from childhood, a girl’s will and a long powerless position of a married woman, a worker in the field and in the house. Matrena Timofeevna is going through all the possible dramatic and tragic situations that fall to the lot of a peasant woman: humiliation in her husband's family, beatings of her husband, death of a child, harassment by a manager, flogging and even - albeit not for long - the share of a soldier's wife. “The image of Matryona Timofeevna was created in this way,” writes N.N. Skatov, - that she seemed to have experienced everything and been in all the states that a Russian woman could be in. The folk songs and laments included in Matrena Timofeevna’s story, most often “replacing” her own words, her own story, further expand the narrative, allowing one to comprehend both the happiness and misfortune of one peasant woman as a story about the fate of a serf woman.
In general, the story of this woman depicts life according to God's laws, "divinely," as Nekrasov's heroes say:
<...>I endure and do not grumble!
All the power given by God
I believe in work
All in children love!
And the more terrible and unfair are the misfortunes and humiliations that have fallen to her lot. "<...>In me / There is no unbroken bone, / There is no unstretched vein, / There is no uncorrupted blood<...>"- this is not a complaint, but the true result of what Matryona Timofeevna experienced. The deep meaning of this life - love for children - is also affirmed by Nekrasov with the help of parallels from the natural world: the story of Dyomushka's death is preceded by a cry about a nightingale, whose chicks burned down on a tree lit by a thunderstorm. The chapter that tells about the punishment accepted in order to save another son - Philip from whipping, is called "The She-Wolf". And here the hungry she-wolf, ready to sacrifice her life for the cubs, appears as a parallel to the fate of a peasant woman who lay down under the rod to free her son from punishment.
The central place in the chapter "Peasant Woman" is occupied by the story of Savely, Holy Russian bogatyr. Why is Matryona Timofeevna entrusted with the story of the fate of the Russian peasant, the “hero of Holy Russia”, his life and death? It seems that this is largely because it is important for Nekrasov to show the “hero” Savely Korchagin not only in his opposition to Shalashnikov and the manager Vogel, but also in the family, in everyday life. “Grandfather” Savely, a pure and holy man, was needed by his large family as long as he had money: “As long as there was money, / They loved grandfather, groomed, / Now they spit in the eyes!” Savely's inner loneliness in the family enhances the drama of his fate and at the same time, like the fate of Matrena Timofeevna, gives the reader an opportunity to learn about the everyday life of the people.
But it is no less important that the “story within a story”, connecting two destinies, shows the relationship between two outstanding people, who for the author himself were the embodiment of an ideal folk type. It is the story of Matrena Timofeevna about Savely that makes it possible to emphasize what brought together different people in general: not only the disenfranchised position in the Korchagin family, but also the commonality of characters. Matrena Timofeevna, whose whole life is filled only with love, and Savely Korchagin, whom hard life has made “stone”, “fierce than the beast”, are similar in the main thing: their “angry heart”, their understanding of happiness as “will”, as spiritual independence.
Matrena Timofeevna does not accidentally consider Savely lucky. Her words about “grandfather”: “He was also lucky ...” is not a bitter irony, because in Savely’s life, full of suffering and trials, there was something that Matryona Timofeevna herself values \u200b\u200bhighest of all - moral dignity, spiritual freedom. Being a "slave" of the landowner according to the law, Savely did not know spiritual slavery.
Savely, according to Matryona Timofeevna, called his youth "prosperity", although he experienced many insults, humiliations, and punishments. Why does he consider the past "good times"? Yes, because, fenced off by “swampy swamps” and “dense forests” from their landowner Shalashnikov, the inhabitants of Korezhina felt free:
We were only concerned
Bears ... yes with bears
We got along easily.
With a knife and with a horn
I myself am scarier than the elk,
Along the reserved paths
I go: "My forest!" - I scream.
"Prosperity" was not overshadowed by the annual flogging, which Shalashnikov arranged for his peasants, knocking out quitrents with rods. But the peasants - "proud people", having endured the flogging and pretending to be beggars, they knew how to save their money and, in turn, "amused" over the master, who was unable to take the money:
Weak people gave up
And the strong for the patrimony
They stood well.
I also endured
He hesitated, thinking:
"Whatever you do, son of a dog,
And you won't knock out your whole soul,
leave something"<...>
But we lived as merchants ...
The “happiness” that Savely speaks of is, of course, illusory, it is a year of free life without a landowner and the ability to “endure”, endure during the spanking and keep the money earned. But other "happiness" to the peasant could not be released. And yet, Koryozhina soon lost even such “happiness”: “penal servitude” began for the peasants when Vogel was appointed manager: “I ruined it to the bone! / And he fought ... like Shalashnikov himself! /<...>/ The German has a dead grip: / Until he lets him go around the world, / Without leaving, he sucks!
Savely glorifies non-patience as such. Not everything can and should be endured by the peasant. Saveliy clearly distinguishes the ability to "underbear" and "endure". To not endure means to succumb to pain, not to bear the pain, and to submit morally to the landowner. To endure means to lose dignity and to accept humiliation and injustice. Both that and another - does the person "slave".
But Savely Korchagin, like no one else, understands the whole tragedy of eternal patience. With him, an extremely important thought enters the narrative: about the wasted strength of the peasant hero. Savely not only glorifies the Russian heroism, but also mourns for this hero, humiliated and mutilated:
And so we endured
That we are rich.
In that Russian heroism.
Do you think, Matryonushka,
The man is not a hero?
And his life is not military,
And death is not written for him
In battle - a hero!
The peasantry in his reflections appears as a fabulous hero, chained and humiliated. This hero is more than heaven and earth. A truly cosmic image appears in his words:
Hands twisted with chains
Legs forged with iron
Back ... dense forests
Passed on it - broke.
And the chest? Elijah the prophet
On it rattles-rides
On a chariot of fire...
The hero suffers everything!
The hero holds the sky, but this work costs him great torment: “For the time being, a terrible thrust / He lifted something, / Yes, he himself went into the ground up to his chest / With an effort! On his face / Not tears - blood flows! But is there any point in this great patience? It is no coincidence that Savely is disturbed by the thought of a life gone in vain, a gift of wasted strength: “I was lying on the stove; / Lie down, thinking: / Where are you, strength, gone? / What were you good for? / - Under rods, under sticks / She left for trifles! And these bitter words are not only the result of one's own life: they are sorrow for the ruined people's strength.
But the author's task is not only to show the tragedy of the Russian hero, whose strength and pride "went away over trifles." It is no coincidence that at the end of the story about Savely, the name of Susanin appears - a hero-peasant: the monument to Susanin in the center of Kostroma reminded Matryona Timofeevna of "grandfather". Saveliy's ability to maintain freedom of spirit, spiritual independence even in slavery, not to submit to the soul - this is also heroism. It is important to emphasize this feature of the comparison. As N.N. Skatov, the monument to Susanin in the story of Matryona Timofeevna does not look like a real one. “A real monument created by the sculptor V.M. Demut-Malinovsky, the researcher writes, turned out to be more of a monument to the tsar than to Ivan Susanin, who was depicted kneeling near a column with a bust of the tsar. Nekrasov not only kept silent about the fact that the peasant was on his knees. In comparison with the rebel Savely, the image of the Kostroma peasant Susanin received for the first time in Russian art a peculiar, essentially anti-monarchist interpretation. At the same time, the comparison with Ivan Susanin, the hero of Russian history, put the final touch on the monumental figure of the Korezh bogatyr, Holy Russian peasant Savely.
Yasyreva Anastasia
Download:
Slides captions:
"…To me
happiness in the girls fell out:
We had a good
Non-drinking family.
For father, for mother,
Like Christ in the bosom,
I lived
well done…”
"…Yes
no matter how I run them
And the betrothed turned up,
On the mountain - a stranger!
Philip Korchagin -
Petersburger
,
By skill
baker…”
Life before marriage
N. A. Nekrasov
Who lives well in Rus'
Chapter "Peasant Woman"
"WITH
big gray mane,
Tea, not cut for twenty years,
With a big beard
Grandpa looked like a bear
Especially from the forest
Bending down, he left.
Grandpa has an arched back, -
At first I was afraid
Like in a low hill
He entered. well straighten out?
will punch a hole
bear
In the light of the head
!»
Savely - branded
but not a slave!
"Family
was the biggest
Grumpy... I got it
From girlish holi to hell
!»
Life in a new family
Slides captions:
"How
written was
Demushka
Beauty
taken from
sunshine...
Whole
anger from the soul, my handsome
Driven away with an angelic smile,
Like the spring sun
Drives snow from the fields
...»
Birth of a child
Death
Demushki
His
death was too hard for her.
N. A. Nekrasov
Who lives well in Rus'
Chapter "Peasant Woman"
“
Keys to women's happiness
,
From
our free will
Abandoned
, lost
At
God himself!”
Life of Matrena Timofeevna
is a constant struggle for survival, and she manages to emerge victorious from this struggle.
Love to
children, to your family
- this is the most important thing that a peasant woman has, so Matrena Timofeevna is ready for anything, just to protect her
kids and her husband.
Preview:
The image of Matryona Timofeevna (based on the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who should live well in Rus'”)
The image of a simple Russian peasant woman Matrena Timofeevna is surprisingly bright and realistic. In this image, Nekrasov combined all the features and qualities characteristic of Russian peasant women. And the fate of Matrena Timofeevna is in many ways similar to the fate of other women.
Matrena Timofeevna was born into a large peasant family. The very first years of life were truly happy. All her life, Matryona Timofeevna remembers this carefree time, when she was surrounded by the love and care of her parents. But peasant children grow up very quickly. Therefore, as soon as the girl grew up, she began to help her parents in everything. Gradually, the games were forgotten, there was less and less time left for them, hard peasant work took the first place. But youth still takes its toll, and even after a hard day's work, the girl found time to relax.
Matrena Timofeevna recalls her youth. She was pretty, hardworking, active. It's no wonder the boys were looking at her. And then the betrothed appeared, for whom the parents give Matrena Timofeevna in marriage. Marriage means that now the free and free life of the girl is over. Now she will live in a strange family, where she will not be treated in the best way.
Matrena Timofeevna shares her sad thoughts. She did not want to change her free life in her parents' house for life in a strange, unfamiliar family.
From the very first days in her husband's house, Matrena Timofeevna realized how hard it would be for her now. Relations with the father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law were very difficult, in the new family Matryona had to work hard, and at the same time no one said a kind word to her. However, even in such a difficult life that the peasant woman had, there were simple and simple joys. The relationship between Matryona Timofeevna and her husband did not always develop smoothly. A husband has the right to beat his wife if something does not suit him in her behavior. And no one will stand up for the poor thing, on the contrary, all relatives in the husband's family will only be happy to look at her suffering.
Such was the life of Matrena Timofeevna after marriage. The days dragged on monotonous, gray, surprisingly similar to each other: hard work, quarrels and reproaches from relatives. But a peasant woman has truly angelic patience, therefore, without complaining, she endures all the hardships that have fallen to her lot. The birth of a child is the event that turns her whole life upside down. Now the woman is not so embittered at the whole wide world, love for the baby warms and pleases her.
The joy of a peasant woman from the birth of her son did not last long. Work in the field requires a lot of effort and time, and then there is a baby in her arms. At first, Matrena Timofeevna took the child with her into the field. But then the mother-in-law began to reproach her, because it is impossible to work with a child with full dedication. And poor Matryona had to leave the baby with grandfather Savely. Once the old man overlooked - and the child died.
The death of a child is a terrible tragedy. But peasants have to put up with the fact that very often their children die. However, this is Matryona's first child, so his death turned out to be too difficult a test for her. And then there is an additional misfortune - the police come to the village, the doctor and the camp officer accuse Matryona of having killed the child in collusion with the former convict grandfather Saveliy. Matryona Timofeevna begs not to do an autopsy in order to bury the child without desecration of the body But no one listens to the peasant woman. She almost goes crazy from everything that happened.
All the hardships of a difficult peasant life, the death of a child still cannot break Matryona Timofeevna. Time passes, she has children every year. And she continues to live, raise her children, do hard work. Love for children is the most important thing that a peasant woman has, so Matrena Timofeevna is ready for anything to protect her beloved children. This is evidenced by an episode when they wanted to punish her son Fedot for an offense.
Matryona throws herself at the feet of a passing landowner to help save the boy from punishment. And the landowner said:
“Guardian of a minor
By youth, by stupidity
Forgive ... but a daring woman
Approximately punish!”
Why did Matrena Timofeevna suffer punishment? For his boundless love for his children, for his willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Readiness for self-sacrifice is also manifested in the way Matryona rushes to seek salvation for her husband from recruitment. She manages to get to the place and ask for help from the governor, who really helps Philip free himself from recruitment.
Matrena Timofeevna is still young, but she has already had to endure a lot, a lot. She had to endure the death of a child, a time of hunger, reproaches and beatings. She herself says what the holy wanderer told her:
“The keys to female happiness,
From our free will
abandoned, lost
God himself!”
Indeed, a peasant woman can by no means be called happy. All the difficulties and difficult trials that fall on her lot can break and lead a person to death, not only spiritual, but also physical. Very often this is exactly what happens. The life of a simple peasant woman is rarely long, very often women die in the prime of life. It is not easy to read the lines that tell about the life of Matryona Timofeevna. Nevertheless, one cannot help but admire the spiritual strength of this woman, who endured so many trials and was not broken.
The image of Matrena Timofeevna is surprisingly harmonious. The woman appears at the same time strong, hardy, patient and gentle, loving, caring. She has to cope on her own with the difficulties and troubles that fall to the lot of her family, Matryona Timofeevna does not see help from anyone.
But, despite all the tragic that a woman has to endure, Matrena Timofeevna causes genuine admiration. After all, she finds the strength in herself to live, work, continues to enjoy those modest joys that from time to time fall to her lot. And let her honestly admit that she cannot be called happy in any way, she does not fall into the sin of despondency for a minute, she continues to live.
The life of Matrena Timofeevna is a constant struggle for survival, and she manages to emerge victorious from this struggle.
Slides captions:
"Not
everything between men
Find a happy
Let's feel the woman
!»
“...
we don't like that
And there is in the village of Klin:
Holmogory cow,
Not a woman!
wiser
And more ironically - there is no woman.
Ask Korchagina
Matryona Timofeevna,
She is the Governor
...»
N. A. Nekrasov
Who lives well in Rus'
Chapter "Peasant Woman"
"It's not your business!
Now it's time for work
Leisure to interpret
?..
At
an ear is pouring down on us,
Not enough hands, dear."
"And what are we, godfather?
Come on sickles! All seven
How will we become tomorrow - by evening
We will burn all your rye
!...
A
give us your soul!"
"I won't hide anything!"
"Matryona
Timofeevna
portly
woman,
Wide
And
dense
Years
thirty
axles
.
beautiful
; gray hair,
Eyes
big, strict
Eyelashes
the richest
Surov
and swarthy
.
On
her shirt
white,
Yes
sundress short
,
Yes
sickle through
shoulder."
The appearance of the heroine
The grandiose idea of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was to show a large-scale cross-section of the entire Russian rural life of that time through the eyes of ignorant peasants, freedmen. From the bottom to the very heights, the heroes go in search of the “happiest person”, ask everyone they meet, listen to stories that are very often filled with worries, sorrows and troubles.
One of the most touching, soul-stirring stories: a story in which Matryona Timofeevna is described as a peasant woman, wife, mother. Matrena tells about herself fully, without fantasies, without concealment, she pours out her whole self, lyrically retelling such an ordinary story of a woman of her class for that time. In it alone, Nekrasov reflected the terrible and bitter, but not devoid of bright moments of happiness, truth about the most bonded, the most dependent. Not only from the will of the tyrant-master, but from the all-powerful master of the husband, from the mother-in-law and father-in-law, from her own parents, to whom the young woman was obliged to obey unquestioningly.
Matryona Timofeevna remembers her youth with gratitude and sadness. She lived with her father and mother like Christ in her bosom, but, despite their kindness, she did not mess around, she grew up as a hardworking and modest girl. They begin to welcome grooms, send matchmakers, but from the wrong side. Matrena's mother does not rejoice at the imminent separation from her beloved, she understands what her own child is waiting for:
» Someone else's side
Not sprinkled with sugar
Not watered with honey!
It's cold there, it's hungry there
There is a well-groomed daughter
Violent winds will blow,
Shaggy dogs bark,
And people will laugh!
This quote shows well how Nekrasov's poetic lines are filled with the lyricism of folk wedding songs, traditional lamentation for the outgoing girlhood. Maternal fears are not in vain - in a strange house, Matrena Timofeevna does not find love from new relatives, who always reproach her: “Drowsy, drowsy, messy!” The work that is thrown on the shoulders of a young woman seems exorbitant. There is no need to wait for intercession from Philip, the legal spouse, he spends all the time away from his young wife, looking for work to live on. Yes, and he himself does not hesitate to “teach” Matryona with a whip, although he treats her with affection, and if luck happens in business, he pampers the chosen one with gifts:
“Filipushka came in winter,
Bring a silk handkerchief
Yes, I took a ride on a sled
On Catherine's day
And there was no grief!
Sang like I sang
In my parents' house."
But now, among all the troubles of life, an event happens that turns the whole existence of Matryona - the birth of her first child! She gives him all her tenderness, unable to part, look at the wonderful gift of fate, with these words she describes the appearance of the boy:
“How written was Demushka
Beauty taken from the sun
The snow is white
Poppies have scarlet lips
The eyebrow is black in sable,
The Siberian sable
The falcon has eyes!
All the anger from my soul is my handsome
Driven away with an angelic smile,
Like the spring sun
Drives snow from the fields ... "
However, the happiness of a peasant woman is short-lived. It is necessary to harvest, Matryona Timofeevna, with a heavy heart, leaving the baby in the care of the old man Savely, and he, having dozed off, does not have time to save the boy who has got out of the cradle. The tragedy reaches its peak at the moment when Matryona is forced to look at the autopsy of Demushka's body - the city authorities decide that the mother herself planned to kill the child and conspired with the old convict.
Not broken by this grief, Matryona Timofeevna continues to live, embodying the whole strength of a Russian woman, able to endure many blows of fate and continue to love. The feat of her maternal heart does not stop, each of the subsequent children is dear to Matryona no less than the firstborn, for them she is ready to endure any punishment. Devotion to her husband, against all odds, is no less great. Saving Philip from being taken to the soldiers, she convinces the governor's wife to let the father of the family go home, and returns with a victory, for which the villagers give the woman the nickname "governor".
Self-denial, fidelity and a great ability to love - all these are the features of the image of Matrena Timofeevna, a Russian peasant woman who embodied all the difficult female lot.
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 obviously 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 laconic, but it gives an idea of the strength of character, self-esteem (“a dignified woman”), and of moral purity and exactingness (“big, strict eyes”), and of the hard life of the heroine (“gray-haired hair” at 38), and that the storms of life did not break, but only tempered 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 the images of the red-cheeked laughter from the chapter “Before marriage” and the 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's wife" went for a walk in the villages, that fellow villagers "denounced" 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 characteristic events for 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, and, the birth and death of children, caring for them, overwork, hunger in lean years, the bitter lot of a mother with many children, a soldier. 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 introduces 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
The moods of anger and protest that sounded in Matryona’s curse on the “villain-executioners” do not fade away 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, from 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 builds the plot of the chapter “The 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 breadlessness, the threat of Philip’s recruitment, twice a fire, three times anthrax ... Using 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 surprise (already for the reader!) Is Matryona herself, who, not wanting to bow to fate, 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, the fate of a peasant woman for him is inextricably linked with the fate of the entire working peasantry, the issue of women’s liberation is only part of the general issue of the struggle for the liberation of the entire Russian people from social oppression and lawlessness.
Korchagina Matrena Timofeevna
TO WHOM IN Rus' LIVE WELL
Poem (1863-1877, unfinished)
Korchagina Matrena Timofeevna is a peasant woman, the third part of the poem is entirely devoted to her biography. “Matryona Timofeevna / A portly woman, / Broad and thick, / Thirty-eight years old. / Beautiful; gray hair, / Large, stern eyes, / The richest eyelashes, / Harsh and swarthy. / She has a white shirt on, / Yes, a short sundress, / Yes, a sickle over her shoulder "; The glory of a lucky woman leads wanderers to her. M. agrees to "lay out her soul" when the peasants promise to help her in the harvest: the suffering is in full swing. The fate of M. was largely prompted by Nekrasov, published in the 1st volume of "Lamentations of the Northern Territory", collected by E. V. Barsov (1872), the autobiography of the Olonets wailer I. A. Fedoseeva. The narrative is based on her laments, as well as other folklore materials, including "Songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov" (1861). The abundance of folklore sources, often almost unchanged included in the text of "Peasant Woman", and the very title of this part of the poem emphasize the typical fate of M.: this is the usual fate of a Russian woman, convincingly indicating that the wanderers "started / It's not a deal - between women / To look for a happy one." In the parental home, in a good, non-drinking family, M. lived happily. But, having married Philip Korchagin, a stove-maker, she ended up “from a girl’s will to hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunkard father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom the daughter-in-law must work like a slave. True, she was lucky with her husband: only once it came to beatings. But Philip only returns home from work in winter, and in the rest of the time there is no one to intercede for M., except for grandfather Savely, father-in-law. She has to endure the harassment of Sitnikov, the master's manager, which ceased only with his death. Her first-born Demushka becomes a consolation in all troubles for a peasant woman, but due to Savely's oversight, the child dies: he is eaten by pigs. An unrighteous judgment is being carried out over a heartbroken mother. Not guessing in time to give a bribe to the boss, she becomes a witness to the abuse of the body of her child.
For a long time K. cannot forgive Savely for his irreparable oversight. Over time, the peasant woman has new children, "there is no time / Neither to think nor be sad." The heroine's parents, Savely, are dying. Her eight-year-old son Fedot is threatened with punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a she-wolf, and his mother 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. Recruitment deprives her of her last intercessor, her husband (he is taken out of turn). In delirium, she draws terrible pictures of the life of a soldier, soldier's children. She leaves the house and 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. With her husband and newborn Liodo-rushka, the heroine returns home, this incident cemented her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname "governor". Her further fate is also full of troubles: one of her sons has already been taken to the soldiers, "We burned twice ... God anthrax ... visited three times." In the "Woman's Parable" her tragic story is summed up: "The keys to a woman's happiness, / From our free will / Abandoned, lost / God Himself!" Part of the criticism (V. G. Avseenko, V. P. Burenin, N. F. Pavlov) met the "Peasant Woman" with hostility, Nekrasov was accused of implausible exaggerations, false, fake common people. However, even ill-wishers noted some successful episodes. There were also reviews about this chapter as the best part of the poem.
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