Analysis of the work “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (N. Leskov)

Subsequent literary years Leskov continues to develop the problem of the fate of a strong, extraordinary personality in the conditions of “crowded Russian life”, the oppressive influence of life circumstances. He is increasingly attracted to complex, contradictory characters, unable to withstand the harmful influence and power of the surrounding reality over them, and hence subject to moral self-destruction. Leskov observed such characters more than once in everyday Russian reality; they amazed him with their inner power and passion.

Among them is the merchant’s wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, nicknamed “from someone else” for the crimes she committed. light words» Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district. But Leskov himself sees in his heroine not a criminal, but a woman “performing the drama of love,” and therefore presents her as a tragic person.

Katerina’s love attraction for Sergei is born from the boredom that overcomes her, reigning in the “merchant’s mansion with high fences and chained dogs,” where “it is quiet and empty... not a living sound, not a human voice.” Boredom and “melancholy reaching the point of stupor” force the young merchant’s wife to pay attention to “a young man with a daring, handsome face framed by jet-black curls.”

Katerina goes down into the yard solely out of a desire to unwind, to drive away the annoying yawning. The description of the heroine’s behavior on the eve of her first date with Sergei is especially expressive: “having nothing to do,” she stood “leaning against the doorframe” and “husking sunflower seeds.” In general, in the feeling of a bored merchant's wife towards the clerk there is more the call of the flesh than the yearning of the heart. However, the passion that captured Katerina is immeasurable. “She went crazy with her happiness,” and “it became unbearable for her to survive even an extra hour without Sergei.” Love, which exploded the emptiness of the heroine’s existence, takes on the character of a destructive force that sweeps away everything in its path. This becomes obvious when Izmailova's crimes are revealed. No, her inner world is not shocked by the court's decision. Not excited about the birth of a child: “for her there was neither light nor darkness, neither bad nor good, neither boredom nor joy.” Her whole life was completely consumed by passion. She “was now ready for Sergei into fire and water, into prison and to the cross.” Having never known love before, Katerina is naive and trusting in her feelings. Listening to love speeches for the first time, “fogged up” by them, she does not feel the falsehood hidden in them, is not able to discern a given role in the actions of her lover. For Katerina, love becomes the only thing possible life, which seems to her like “paradise”. And in this earthly paradise, the heroine discovers a beauty hitherto invisible to her: apple blossom, and a clear blue sky, and “moonlight, crushing on flowers and leaves of trees,” and “golden night” with its “silence, light, aroma and beneficial , revitalizing warmth." On the other hand, the new, heavenly life is full of a pronounced egoistic principle and unbridled willfulness of Katerina, who directly declared to her beloved: “...if you, Seryozha, change me, if you exchange me for anyone or anything else.” “I’m with you, my dear friend, forgive me, I won’t part with you alive.” But how bright and frantic Katerina appears against the backdrop of the colorless lackey Sergei. Unlike her lover, she will not give up her frenzied love either in the pillory or at the prison stage. Readers saw the character of a heroine of incredible strength and meaning, who contained within herself the cause and consequences of love-catastrophe and who drank the cup of such love in full, or, as Leskov said about his Katerina Izmailova, “performing the drama of love.” However, this incredible female character also has an incredibly terrible outcome: a spiritual impasse leading to death without repentance, when Katerina drags her hated rival Sonetka into the water shafts, from which her murdered father-in-law, husband and Fedya look at her.

A.A. Gorelov, teacher edited by V. I. Korovin, note the floor of the collection, op.

The story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” was published in January 1865. It was published under the title “Lady Macbeth of our County” by the magazine “Epoch”. According to the original plan, the work was to be the first in a cycle dedicated to the characters of Russian women. It was assumed that several more stories would follow, but Leskov never implemented these plans. Probably not least due to the closure of the Epoch magazine, which intended to publish the entire cycle. The final title of the story appeared in 1867, when it was published as part of the collection “Tales, Sketches and Stories by M. Stebnitsky” (M. Stebnitsky is Leskov’s pseudonym).

The character of the main character

At the center of the story is Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, a young merchant’s wife. She married not out of love, but out of need. Over five years of marriage, she failed to have children with her husband, Zinoviy Borisovich, who was almost twice her age. Katerina Lvovna was very bored, languishing in the merchant's house, like a bird in a cage. Most of the time she just wandered from room to room and yawned. However, no one noticed her suffering.

While her husband was away for a long time, Katerina Lvovna fell in love with the clerk Sergei, who worked for Zinovy ​​Borisovich. Love flared up instantly and completely captured the woman. In order to preserve both Sergei and her social position, Izmailova decided to commit several murders. Consistently, she got rid of her father-in-law, husband and young nephew. The further the action develops, the more the reader is convinced that Katerina Lvovna has no moral barriers that can hold her back.

Passion for love first completely absorbed the heroine, and in the end it ruined her. Izmailova, together with Sergei, was sent to hard labor. On the way there, the man showed his true colors. He found himself a new love and began to openly mock Katerina Lvovna. Having lost her lover, Izmailova lost the meaning of life. In the end, all she had to do was drown herself, taking Sergei’s mistress with her.

As literary scholars Gromov and Eikhenbaum note in the article “N. S. Leskov (Essay on creativity),” the tragedy of Katerina Lvovna “is completely predetermined by the firmly established and steadily regulating the life of the individual by the everyday way of life of the merchant environment.” Izmailova is often contrasted with Katerina Kabanova, the heroine of the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky. Both women live with unloved spouses. Both are burdened by the life of a merchant. Both Kabanova and Izmailova’s lives change dramatically due to illicit love. But in similar circumstances, women behave differently. Kabanova perceives the passion that has gripped her as a great sin and eventually confesses everything to her husband. Izmailova rushes into the love pool without looking back, becoming decisive and ready to destroy any obstacles that stand in her and Sergei’s path.

Characters

The only character (besides Katerina Lvovna) who receives a lot of attention in the story and whose character is outlined in more or less detail is Sergei. Readers are presented with a handsome young man who knows how to seduce women and is distinguished by his frivolity. He was kicked out of his previous job because of an affair with the owner's wife. He apparently never loved Katerina Lvovna. Sergei started a relationship with her because he hoped to get a better life in life with their help. When Izmailova lost everything, the man behaved meanly and basely with her.

The theme of love in the story

The main theme of the story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” is the theme of love and passion. This type of love is no longer spiritual, but physical. Pay attention to how Leskov shows the pastime of Katerina Lvovna and Seryozha. The lovers hardly speak. When they are together, they are mainly occupied with carnal pleasures. Physical pleasure is more important to them than spiritual pleasure. At the beginning of the story, Leskov notices that Katerina Lvovna does not like to read books. It’s also difficult to call Sergei the owner of a rich inner world. When he first comes to seduce Izmailova, he asks her for a book. This request is due solely to the desire to please the hostess. Seryozha wants to show that he is interested in reading and is intellectually developed, despite his low social status.

The love-passion that gripped Katerina Lvovna is destructive because it is base. She is not capable of elevating, spiritually enriching. On the contrary, it awakens in a woman something of an animal, primitive nature.

Composition

The story consists of fifteen small chapters. In this case, the work can be divided into two parts. In the first, the action takes place in a limited space - the Izmailovs’ house. Here Katerina Lvovna’s love is born and develops. After the start of an affair with Sergei, the woman is happy. It's like she's in heaven. In the second part, the action takes place on the way to hard labor. Katerina Lvovna seems to be going to hell, serving a sentence for her sins. By the way, the woman does not repent at all. Her mind is still clouded by love. At first, next to Seryozha, for Izmailova, “and the hard labor path blooms with happiness.”

Genre of the work

Leskov called “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” an essay. The main feature of the genre is “writing from life,” but there is no information about Katerina Lvovna’s prototypes. Perhaps, when creating this image, Leskov partially relied on materials from criminal cases to which he had access while serving in the Oryol Criminal Chamber.

The genre of the essay was not chosen by the writer by chance. It was important for him to emphasize the documentary nature of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. It is known that based on real events works of art often have a stronger impact on the public. Apparently, Leskov wanted to take advantage of this. The crimes committed by Katerina Lvovna are more shocking if you think about them as real.

• “The Man on the Clock”, analysis of Leskov’s story

The image of Lady Macbeth is well known in world literature. The Shakespearean character was transferred to Russian soil by N.S. Leskov. His work “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” is popular to this day and has had many dramatizations and film adaptations.

“Lady Macbeth of Our County” - under this title the work first appeared in print in the magazine “Epoch”. Work on the first edition of the essay lasted about a year, from 1864 to 1865. The essay received its final title in 1867 after significant copyright edits.

It was assumed that this story would open a series of works about the characters of Russian women: landowner, noblewoman, midwife, but for a number of reasons the plan was not realized. “Lady Macbeth” is based on the plot of the widely circulated popular print “About a Merchant’s Wife and a Clerk.”

Genre, direction

The author's definition of the genre is essay. Perhaps Leskov with this designation emphasizes the realism and authenticity of the narrative, since this prose genre, as a rule, is based on facts from real life, is a documentary. It is no coincidence that the first name of the county is ours; after all, this is how every reader could imagine this picture in his own village. In addition, it is the essay that is characteristic of the direction of realism, which was popular in Russian literature of that time.

From the point of view of literary criticism, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” is a story, as indicated by the complex, eventful plot and composition of the work.

Leskov’s essay has many similarities with Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm,” written 5 years before “The Lady...” The fate of the merchant’s wife worried both authors, and each of them offers his own version of the development of events.

The essence

The main events unfold in a merchant family. Katerina Izmailova, while her husband is away on business, starts an affair with the clerk Sergei. The father-in-law tried to stop debauchery in his own home, but paid for it with his life. The husband who returned home also received a “warm welcome.” Having gotten rid of the interference, Sergei and Katerina enjoy their happiness. Soon their nephew Fedya comes to stay with them. He can lay claim to Katerina's inheritance, so the lovers decide to kill the boy. The scene of strangulation is seen by passersby coming from the church.

The main characters and their characteristics

1. Katerina Izmailova- a very complex image. Despite her countless crimes, she cannot be considered solely negative character. Analyzing the character of the main character, one cannot ignore the unfair accusations of her infertility, the contemptuous attitude of her father-in-law and husband. All the atrocities were committed by Katerina for the sake of love; only in her did she see salvation from that nightmarish life, which was filled only with cowardice and boredom. This is a passionate, strong and gifted nature, which, unfortunately, was revealed only in crime. At the same time, we can note the intelligence, cruelty and unscrupulousness of a woman who raised her hand even to a child.
2. Clerk Sergei, an experienced “girl,” cunning and greedy. He knows his strengths and is familiar with women's weaknesses. It was not difficult for him to seduce the rich mistress, and then cleverly manipulate her, just to take ownership of the estate. He loves only himself, and only takes advantage of women's attention. Even in hard labor, he looks for amorous adventures and buys them at the cost of the sacrifice of his mistress, begging her for what is valued in prison.
3. Husband (Zinovy ​​Borisovich) and father-in-law of Katerina (Boris Timofeevich)- typical representatives of the merchant class, callous and rude inhabitants who are only busy getting rich. Their harsh moral principles rest only on their reluctance to share their goods with anyone. The husband does not value his wife, he simply does not want to give away his property. And his father is also indifferent to the family, but he does not want unflattering rumors to circulate in the area.
4. Sonetka. A cunning, resourceful and flirtatious convict who is not averse to having fun even in hard labor. She has frivolity in common with Sergei, because she has never had firm and strong attachments.

Topics

• Love - the main theme of the story. It is this feeling that pushes Katerina to commit monstrous murders. At the same time, love becomes the meaning of life for her, while for Sergei it is just fun. The writer shows how passion can not elevate, but humiliate a person, plunge him into the abyss of vice. People often idealize feelings, but the danger of these illusions cannot be ignored. Love cannot always be an excuse for a criminal, a liar and a murderer.
• Family. Obviously, Katerina did not marry Zinovy ​​Borisovich out of love. Has not arisen between spouses over the years family life proper mutual respect and agreement. Katerina heard only reproaches addressed to her; she was called a “non-relative.” The arranged marriage ended tragically. Leskov showed what the neglect of interpersonal relationships within the family leads to.
• Revenge. For the order of that time, Boris Timofeevich quite rightly punishes the lustful clerk, but what is Katerina’s reaction? In response to the bullying of her lover, Katerina poisons her father-in-law with a lethal dose of poison. The desire for revenge drives the rejected woman in the episode at the crossing, when the current convict pounces on the homewrecker Sonetka.

Problems

1. Boredom. This feeling arises in heroes for a number of reasons. One of them is lack of spirituality. Katerina Izmailova did not like to read, and there were practically no books in the house. Under the pretext of asking for a book, Sergei sneaks in to the hostess on the first night. The desire to bring some variety to a monotonous life becomes one of the main motives for betrayal.
2. Loneliness. Katerina Lvovna spent most of her days completely alone. The husband had his own business, only occasionally he took her with him, going to visit his colleagues. There is also no need to talk about love and mutual understanding between Zinovy ​​and Katerina. This situation was aggravated by the absence of children, which also saddened the main character. Perhaps, if her family had given her more attention, affection, and participation, then she would not have responded to her loved ones with betrayal.
3. Self-interest. This problem clearly indicated in the image of Sergei. He masked his selfish goals with love, trying to evoke pity and sympathy from Katerina. As we learn from the text, the careless clerk already had the sad experience of courting a merchant’s wife. Apparently, in the case of Katerina, he already knew how to behave and what mistakes not to make.
4. Immorality. Despite their ostentatious religiosity, the heroes stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Treason, murder, attempt on the life of a child - all this fits into the head of an ordinary merchant's wife and her accomplice. It is obvious that the life and customs of the merchant province corrupt people secretly, because they are ready to commit sin so that no one finds out about it. Despite the strict patriarchal foundations that reign in society, the heroes easily commit crimes, and their conscience does not torment them. Moral issues opens before us the abyss of personal decline.

Main idea

With his work, Leskov warns of the tragedy that an ossified patriarchal way of life and the lack of love and spirituality in the family can lead to. Why did the author choose the merchant environment? There was a very large percentage of illiteracy in this class; merchants followed centuries-old traditions that could not fit into the modern world. The main idea of ​​the work is to point out the catastrophic consequences of lack of culture and cowardice. The lack of internal morality allows the heroes to commit monstrous crimes, which can only be atone for by their own death.

The heroine’s actions have their own meaning - she rebels against conventions and boundaries that prevent her from living. The cup of her patience is full, but she doesn’t know how or with what to draw it out. Ignorance is aggravated by debauchery. And so the very idea of ​​protest turns out to be vulgarized. If at first we empathize with a lonely woman who is not respected and insulted in her family, then in the end we see a completely decomposed person who has no way back. Leskov calls on people to be more selective in their choice of means, otherwise the goal is lost, but the sin remains.

What does it teach?

“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” teaches one main folk wisdom: you cannot build your happiness on someone else’s misfortune. Secrets will be revealed, and you will have to answer for what you have done. Relationships created at the expense of other people's lives end in betrayal. Even the child, the fruit of this sinful love, becomes of no use to anyone. Although it used to seem that if Katerina had children, she could be quite happy.

The work shows that an immoral life ends in tragedy. The main character is overcome by despair: she is forced to admit that all the crimes committed were in vain. Before her death, Katerina Lvovna tries to pray, but in vain.

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The work was originally a sketch from a series of female portraits, conceived at the end of 1864. In a letter to N. N. Strakhov, an employee and critic of the Epoch magazine, on December 7, 1864, N. Leskov writes: ““Lady Macbeth of our district” is the 1st issue of a series of essays exclusively on typical female characters of ours (Oka and partly Volga) area. I propose to write twelve such essays..."

As for the remaining essays, the idea of ​​writing remained unfulfilled.

As for “Lady Macbeth...”, then from an essay, according to the original plan of a “local” nature, this work during its creation grew into an artistic masterpiece of world significance.

Katerina Izmailova is a “villain unwillingly,” and not according to subjective data, a killer not by birth, but by the circumstances of her life. Finding herself a slave to her own feelings, Katerina successively overcomes a whole series of obstacles, each of which seems to her to be the last on the path to complete liberation and happiness. The persistence with which the heroine tries to subjugate circumstances to her will testifies to the originality and strength of her character. She stops at nothing, goes to the end in her terrible and, most importantly, useless struggle and dies only after completely exhausting the remarkable reserve of spiritual and vitality given to her by nature.

Leskov’s light self-irony, expressed in the title of the story, seems to indicate the transfer of Shakespeare’s character to a “lower” social sphere.

At the same time, self-irony is a purely Leskovian feature of social satire, consciously used by the writer, giving it an original coloring within the framework of the Gogolian direction of Russian literature.

Pikhter is a large wicker basket with a bell for carrying hay and other livestock feed.

A quitrent bailiff is a peasant headman appointed by the landowner to collect quitrents.

Yasmen Falcon is a daring fellow.

Kitty is a leather tightening bag, purse.

Patericon - a collection of the lives of the reverend fathers.

Throne - a throne, or temple, holiday - a day of remembrance of an event or “saint” in whose name this temple was built.

Forshlag (German) - a small melodic figure (of one or more sounds) that decorates a melody, a trill. Roomy - shared.

Job is a biblical righteous man who meekly endured the trials sent to him by God.

“Outside the window in the shadows flashes...” is a not entirely accurately conveyed excerpt from Y. P. Polonsky’s poem “Challenge”, in the original - not “hollow”, but “cloak”.

Sources:

Leskov N. S. Novels and stories / Comp. and note L. M. Krupchanova. - M.: Moscow. worker, 1981.- 463 p.

The idea of ​​the work “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by N. S. Leskov The idea of ​​the work and problems. and got the best answer

Answer from Alain Sokratov[guru]
Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, main character story - a tragic heroine. She is usually perceived as a selfish predator, sweeping away everything in her path in satisfying her own passion. But there is no reason for such an understanding. This is a very one-sided and biased interpretation of the image.
At the very beginning of the story, there are no hints of Katerina Lvovna’s selfishness and predation. She was married without love to a rich merchant. Such an environment is “too small” for her. She is bored, her strength of character is not in demand, and her rich spiritual potential requires an outlet. And this solution is in love: Katerina Lvovna falls in love with the clerk Sergei. She throws herself into this love without looking back. Love-passion, love-hate becomes the main thing in her life. Before this love, her entire past fades. And Katerina Lvovna will spare nothing and no one to preserve this passion. In the fight for her, she kills her father-in-law, husband, and nephew. In terms of willpower, she is similar to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The destructive power of this passion ultimately destroys itself. But she does this not out of cruelty or self-interest. She is controlled by the hidden forces put into her by God. But at the same time, Katerina Lvovna is not Anna Karenina. Leskov has a question: could she have protected herself from these crimes? And he answers it: no, she couldn’t.
The heroine can also be compared with Katerina Kabanova from “The Thunderstorm”. Leskov nowhere talks about her morality. In her soul there are no moral boundaries that cannot be crossed, and this leads her to crime. And Katerina Kabanova just found the strength not to cross the line that a person should not cross. She is committed to God, she has a deep moral feeling, a sense of sin. This moral boundary must always be present in a person, otherwise he is doomed to death - this is Leskov’s main idea.
Much space in the story is devoted to the description of the love of Katerina and Sergei. There are also many lyrical landscapes in it, against the backdrop of which this love unfolds. It seems that the heroes have gone to heaven. And Katerina Lvovna will kill anyone for this paradise on earth. And this is the main mistake of the heroine - after all, according to true Christian dogmas, there cannot be heaven on earth. This concept is extraterrestrial. You can have it in your soul while improving spiritually. And all attempts to build heaven on earth end in bloody crimes. This was confirmed by the subsequent history of Russia with attempts to establish a new socialist government. But Leskov, long before this, had shown the impossibility of implementing and the criminality of such plans using the example of the fate of an individual. In accordance with this Christian idea, Leskov builds his story.
The story has a two-part structure. In the first part, the heroine tries to build heaven on earth by committing crimes. Already in this part, the motive of repentance and atonement occasionally arises (in a dream she sees a cat turning into a father-in-law or husband and demanding retribution. A cat, according to mythological ideas, is a symbol of death). In the second part, the heroine is punished, she is tried, she is sent to hard labor and dies on the stage. In this part, Katerina Izmailova finds herself in the role of a victim. Her lover refuses her, everyone laughs at her. It was impossible to imagine any other end other than death in relation to her, because she never repented and did not even realize her crimes, and only by death can she atone for her sins.
Leskov needs the name “Lady Macbeth” as a symbol: it shows that the story is about tragedy human soul, endowed with incredible power directed towards evil. The “eternal”, universal theme is transferred by Leskov to Russian soil. But this does not make the scale of the tragedy any less. Katerina Izmailova directs all her potential, all the heroic power of her soul towards destruction.
But K.I. never came to her senses (