Description of nature in Karamzin's "poor Lisa". "Poor Lisa"
The story " Poor Lisa" is best work N. M. Karamzin and one of the most perfect examples of Russian sentimental literature. It contains many wonderful episodes describing subtle emotional experiences.
The work contains beautifully picturesque pictures of nature that harmoniously complement the narrative. At first glance, they can be considered random episodes that are just a beautiful background for the main action, but in reality everything is much more complicated. Landscapes in “Poor Liza” are one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the characters.
At the very beginning of the story, the author describes Moscow and the “terrible mass of houses,” and immediately after that he begins to paint a completely different picture: “Below... along the yellow sands, a light river flows, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats... On the other side of the river an oak grove is visible, near which numerous herds graze; there young shepherds, sitting under the shade of trees, sing simple, sad songs..."
Karamzin immediately takes the position of everything beautiful and natural. The city is unpleasant to him, he is drawn to “nature.” Here the description of nature serves to express author's position.
Further, most descriptions of nature are aimed at conveying state of mind and experiences main character, because it is she, Lisa, who is the embodiment of everything natural and beautiful. “Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists... silence reigned everywhere, but soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation: the groves, bushes came to life, the birds fluttered and began to sing, the flowers raised their heads to be saturated with the life-giving rays of light.”
Nature at this moment is beautiful, but Lisa is sad because a new feeling is born in her soul, something she has never experienced before.
Despite the fact that the heroine is sad, her feeling is beautiful and natural, like the landscape around her.
A few minutes later there is an explanation between Lisa and Erast. They love each other, and her feelings immediately change: “What a beautiful morning! How fun everything is in the field! Never have larks sung so well, never has the sun shone so brightly, never have flowers smelled so pleasant!”
Her experiences dissolve in the surrounding landscape, they are just as beautiful and pure.
A wonderful romance begins between Erast and Lisa, their attitude is chaste, their embrace is “pure and immaculate.” The surrounding landscape is also pure and immaculate. “After this, Erast and Lisa, afraid not to keep their word, saw each other every evening... most often under the shade of hundred-year-old oaks... - oaks overshadowing a deep, clear pond, fossilized in ancient times. There, the quiet moon, through the green branches, silvered Liza’s blond hair with its rays, with which the zephyrs and the hand of a dear friend played.”
The time of innocent relationships passes, Lisa and Erast become close, she feels like a sinner, a criminal, and the same changes occur in nature as in Liza’s soul: “... not a single star shone in the sky... Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder struck...” This picture not only reveals Lisa’s state of mind, but also foreshadows the tragic ending of this story.
The heroes of the work are parting, but Lisa does not yet know that this is forever. She is unhappy, her heart is breaking, but there is still a faint hope glimmering in it. The morning dawn, which, like a “scarlet sea,” spreads “across the eastern sky,” conveys the heroine’s pain, anxiety and confusion and testifies to an unkind ending.
Lisa, having learned about Erast's betrayal, ended her unhappy life. She threw herself into the very pond near which she had once been so happy; she was buried under the “gloomy oak tree,” which witnessed the happiest moments of her life.
The examples given are quite sufficient to show how important it is to describe pictures of nature in work of art how deeply they help to penetrate into the soul of the characters and their experiences. It is simply unacceptable to consider the story “Poor Liza” and not take into account the landscape sketches, because they are the ones that help the reader understand the depth of the author’s thoughts, his ideological plan.
Methodological development based on literature.
The meaning of landscape in Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza.”
One of the features European literature 18th century compared to literature more early period is an aesthetic understanding of the landscape. Russian literature is no exception; landscape in the works of Russian writers has its own value. Most significant in this regard literary creativity N. M. Karamzin, one of whose many merits is the discovery of the multifunctionality of landscape in Russian prose. If the poetry of Russia could already be proud of nature sketches in the works of Lomonosov and Derzhavin, Russian prose of that time was not rich in pictures of nature. Having analyzed the descriptions of nature in Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza,” we will try to comprehend the meaning and functions of the landscape.
Karamzin's story is very close to European novels. We are convinced of this by the contrast between the city and the morally pure village, and the world of feelings and life of ordinary people (Lisa and her mother). The introductory landscape with which the story opens is written in the same pastoral style: “...a magnificent picture, especially when the sun shines on it...! Below are lush, densely green flowering meadows, and behind them, along the yellow sands, flows a light river, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats.” This landscape not only has a purely pictorial meaning, but also performs a preliminary function; it introduces the reader to the spatio-temporal situation created in the story. We see the “golden-domed Danilov Monastery;... almost on the edge of the horizon... turning blue Vorobyovy Gory. On the left side you can see vast fields covered with grain, forests, three or four villages and in the distance the village of Kolomenskoye with its high palace.”
IN in a certain sense the landscape not only precedes, but also frames the work, since the story also ends with a description of nature “near the pond, under a gloomy oak tree... the pond flows in my eyes, the leaves rustle above me,” although not as detailed as the first.
An interesting feature of Karamzin’s story is that the life of nature sometimes moves the plot, the development of events: “The meadows were covered with flowers, and Lisa came to Moscow with lilies of the valley.”
Karamzin’s story is also characterized by the principle of psychological parallelism, which is expressed in the comparison of the inner world of man and the life of nature.
Moreover, this comparison takes place on two levels – on the one hand, comparison, and on the other, opposition. Let's turn to the text of the story.
“Until now, waking up with the birds, you had fun with them in the morning, and a pure, joyful soul shone in your eyes, like the sun glows in the drops of heavenly dew...,” writes Karamzin, turning to Lisa and remembering the times, when her soul was in complete harmony with nature.
When Lisa is happy, when joy controls her entire being, nature (or “nature,” as Karamzin writes) is filled with the same happiness and joy: “What a wonderful morning! How fun it is in the field!
Never have larks sung so well, never has the sun shone so brightly, never have flowers smelled so pleasantly!..” At the tragic moment of Karamzin’s heroine’s loss of innocence, the landscape couldn’t be more in keeping with Lisa’s feelings: “Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder thundered. Lisa trembled all over... The storm roared menacingly, rain poured from black clouds - it seemed that nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence.”
The comparison between the feelings of the characters and the picture of nature at the moment of farewell between Lisa and Erast is significant: “What a touching picture! The morning dawn, like a scarlet sea, spread across the eastern sky. Erast stood under the branches of a tall oak tree, holding in his arms his poor, languid, sorrowful friend, who, saying goodbye to him, said goodbye to her soul. The whole nature was in silence.” Lisa’s grief is echoed by nature: “Often the sad turtle dove combined her plaintive voice with her lamentation...”
But sometimes Karamzin gives a contrasting description of nature and what the heroine experiences: Soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation: the groves and bushes came to life, the birds fluttered and sang, the flowers raised their heads to drink in the life-giving rays of light. But Lisa still sat sadly.” This contrast helps us more accurately understand Lisa’s sadness, duality, and her experience.
“Oh, if only the sky would fall on me! If only the earth would swallow up the poor one!..” Memories of former happy days bring her unbearable pain when, in a moment of grief, she sees ancient oak trees, “which a few weeks before were weak-willed witnesses to her delight.”
Sometimes Karamzin’s landscape sketches cross both descriptive and psychological boundaries, growing into symbols. Such symbolic moments of the story include a thunderstorm (by the way, this technique - punishing a criminal with a thunderstorm, a thunderstorm as God's punishment - later became a literary cliche), and a description of the grove at the moment of the heroes' parting.
The comparisons used by the author of the story are also based on a comparison between man and nature: “it is not so soon that lightning flashes and disappears in the clouds, as quickly as her blue eyes turned to the ground, meeting his gaze, her cheeks glowed like the dawn on a summer evening.”
Karamzin’s frequent appeals to landscape are natural: as a sentimentalist writer, he appeals primarily to the reader’s feelings, and it is possible to awaken these feelings through descriptions of changes in nature in connection with changes in the feelings of the characters.
Landscapes that reveal to the reader the beauty of the Moscow region, although not always life-like, are always truthful and recognizable; That’s why, perhaps, “Poor Liza” so excited Russian readers. Accurate descriptions gave the story special authenticity.
Thus, we can identify several lines of meaning of the landscape in N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”: the descriptive, pictorial role of the landscape, which is reflected in the detailed pictures of nature; psychological. The function of natural descriptions is in those cases when, with the help of a landscape, the author emphasizes the feelings of his characters, showing them in comparison or contrast with the state of nature, symbolic meaning paintings of nature, when the landscape carries within itself not only figurativeness, but also embodies a certain supernatural power.
The landscape in the story also has, in a sense, a documentary meaning, creating authenticity and veracity of the image, since all the pictures of nature are almost copied from nature by the author.
The appeal to pictures of nature also occurs at the linguistic level of Karamzin’s story, which can be seen in the comparisons used in the text.
With natural sketches and detailed landscapes, N.M. Karamzin significantly enriched Russian prose, raising it to the level at which Russian poetry was at that time.
At the end of the 18th century, the works of N. M. Karamzin aroused great interest in Russian literature. His heroes spoke for the first time in in simple language, and their thoughts and feelings were in the foreground. What was new was that the author openly expressed his attitude to what was happening and gave it an assessment. The role of the landscape was also special. In the story “Poor Liza” he helps to convey the feelings of the characters and understand the motives of their actions.
Beginning of the work
The outskirts of “greedy” Moscow and the magnificent rural expanses with a bright river, lush groves, endless fields and several small villages - such contrasting pictures appear in the exhibition of the story. They are absolutely real, familiar to every resident of the capital, which initially gives the story credibility.
The panorama is complemented by the towers and domes of the Simonov and Danilov monasteries shining in the sun, symbolizing the connection of history with the common people who sacredly preserve it. And this is where the acquaintance with the main character begins.
Such a landscape sketch cultivates the idyll of village life and sets the tone for the entire narrative. The fate of the poor peasant woman Liza will be tragic: a simple peasant girl brought up close to nature will become a victim of the all-consuming city. And the role of the landscape in the story “Poor Liza” will only increase as the action develops, since changes in nature will be in complete harmony with what will happen to the heroes.
Features of sentimentalism
This approach to writing was not something unique: it is a distinctive feature of sentimentalism. The historical and cultural movement with this name first spread in the 18th century in Western Europe, and then in Russian literature. Its main features:
- the predominance of the cult of feeling, which was not allowed in classicism;
- the harmony of the hero’s inner world with the external environment - a picturesque village landscape (this is the place where he was born and lives);
- instead of the sublime and solemn - touching and sensual, associated with the experiences of the characters;
- the main character is endowed with rich spiritual qualities.
Karamzin became the writer in Russian literature who brought the ideas of sentimentalism to perfection and fully realized all its principles. This is confirmed by the characteristics of the story “Poor Liza,” which occupied a special place among his works.
The image of the main character
The plot at first glance seems quite simple. At the center of the story is tragic love a poor peasant woman (something that did not exist before!) to a young nobleman.
Their chance meeting quickly grew into love. Pure, kind, raised far from city life, full of pretense and deception, Lisa sincerely believes that her feeling is mutual. In her desire to be happy, she steps over the moral standards by which she has always lived, which is not at all easy for her. However, Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” shows how untenable such love is: very soon it turns out that her lover deceived her. The whole action takes place against the backdrop of nature, which has become an involuntary witness, first of boundless happiness, and then of the heroine’s irreparable grief.
Start of a relationship
The first meetings of lovers are filled with joy from communicating with each other. Their dates take place either on the river bank, or in a birch grove, but more often near three oak trees growing near a pond. Landscape sketches help to understand the smallest changes in her soul. During the long minutes of waiting, she is lost in thought and does not notice what has always been a part of her life: a month in the sky, the singing of a nightingale, a light breeze. But as soon as her lover appears, everything around is transformed and becomes amazingly beautiful and unique for Lisa. It seems to her that never before have the larks sung so well for her, the sun has not shone so brightly, and the flowers have smelled so pleasant. Absorbed in her feelings, poor Lisa could not think about anything else. Karamzin picks up the mood of his heroine, and their perception of nature in the happy moments of the heroine’s life is very close: this is a feeling of delight, peace and tranquility.
Lisa's Fall
But there comes a time when pure, immaculate relationships are replaced by physical intimacy. Poor Lisa, brought up on Christian commandments, perceives everything that happened as a terrible sin. Karamzin again emphasizes her confusion and fear of the changes occurring in nature. After what happened, the sky opened up above the heads of the heroes and a thunderstorm began. Black clouds covered the sky, rain poured from them, as if nature itself was mourning the girl’s “crime”.
The feeling of impending disaster is enhanced by the scarlet dawn that appeared in the sky at the moment of farewell to the heroes. It reminds me of the scene of my first declaration of love, when everything seemed bright, shining, full of life. Contrasting landscape sketches at different stages of the heroine’s life help to understand the transformation of her inner state during the acquisition and loss of the person dearest to her heart. Thus, Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” went beyond the classical depiction of nature in From a hitherto insignificant detail that played the role of decoration, the landscape turned into a way of conveying heroes.
The final scenes of the story
The love of Lisa and Erast did not last long. The nobleman, broke and in dire need of money, soon married a rich widow, which became the most important thing for the girl. a terrible blow. She could not survive the betrayal and committed suicide. The heroine found peace in the very place where the most passionate dates took place - under an oak tree by the pond. And next to the Simonov Monastery, which appears at the beginning of the story. The role of the landscape in the story “Poor Liza” in this case comes down to giving the work compositional and logical completeness.
The story ends with a story about the fate of Erast, who never became happy and often visited the grave of his former lover.
The role of landscape in the story “Poor Liza”: results
When analyzing a work of sentimentalism, one cannot fail to mention how the author manages to convey the feelings of the characters. The main technique is the creation of an idyll based on the complete unity of rural nature with its bright colors and a pure soul, sincere person, like poor Lisa was. Heroes like her cannot lie or pretend, so their fate is often tragic.
The meaning of landscape in the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”
Content:
Introduction 3 – 5 pp.
Main part 6 – 13 pages.
Conclusion 14 pages
List of used literature 15 pages.
Introduction.
In the history of Russian literature at the end of the 10thVIII - early XIX century there is a transition period characterized by the coexistence of different directions, currents and philosophical worldviews. Along with classicism, another literary direction– sentimentalism.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is the head of Russian sentimentalism. He became an innovator in the genre of the story: he introduced the image of the author-storyteller into the story, used new artistic techniques to characterize the characters and express the author’s position. To reflect changes in the worldview of a person at the beginning of XVIIIcentury, sentimentalism needed to create a new hero: “He is represented not only and not so much in actions dictated by “enlightened reason”, but in his feelings, moods, thoughts, searches for truth, goodness, beauty.” Therefore, the appeal to nature in the works of sentimentalists is natural: it helps in depicting the hero’s inner world.
The image of nature is one of the most important aspects of the very essence of the figurative reflection of the world, in all types of art, among all peoples and in all centuries. Scenery is one of the most powerful means for creating an imaginary, “virtual” world of a work, an essential component of artistic space and time. Artistic images of nature are always saturated with spiritual, philosophical and moral meaning - after all, they are the “picture of the world” that determines a person’s attitude to everything around him. Moreover, the problem of depicting landscapes in art is filled with special religious content. Researcher of Russian icon painting N.M. Tarabukin wrote: “... The art of landscape is designed to reveal artistic image the content of nature, its religious meaning, as a revelation of the Divine spirit. The problem of landscape in this sense is a religious problem...”
There are almost no works in Russian literature that lack landscape. Writers have sought to include this extra-plot element in their works for a variety of purposes.
Of course, when considering the evolution of landscape in Russian literature of the endXVIII- startedXIXc., the main attention of researchers is drawn to the work of N.M. Karamzin, who became for his contemporaries the head of a new literary school, the founder of a new - Karamzin - period in the history of Russian literature. Karamzin, in his literary landscapes, most consistently and vividly presented that new perception of the world that distinguished both sentimentalist and pre-romantic Russian literature.
The best work of N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”, written by him in 1792, is considered to be. It touches on all the main problems, the disclosure of which requires a deep analysis and understanding of Russian reality of the 18th century and the essence of human nature as a whole. Most of his contemporaries were delighted with “Poor Liza”; they completely correctly understood the idea of the author, who simultaneously analyzed the essence of human passions, relationships and the harsh Russian reality. It is in this story that the picturesque pictures of nature, at first glance, can be considered random episodes that are just a beautiful background for the main action. But Karamzin’s landscapes are one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the heroes. In addition, they serve to convey the author’s attitude to what is happening.
Purpose of the work.
The purpose of this work is:
Determine the meaning of landscape in the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”;
Determine how the state of nature is connected with the actions and spiritual world of the characters, how the landscape helps to reveal the ideological and artistic intent of the writer. Determine what opportunities this technique opens up and what are the limitations of its use by Karamzin;
Compare landscapes with descriptions of nature in the works of his predecessors Lomonosov M.V. “Morning reflection on God’s majesty” and “Evening reflection on God’s majesty in the event of the great northern lights” and Derzhavin G.R. "Waterfall".
Tasks.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:
Get acquainted with literary and critical works.
Determine the purpose for which landscapes are introduced into works.
Work structure.
The work consists of an introduction, main part, conclusion and list of references.
The 18th century, as a transitional era in the development of Russian literature, gave rise to several types of literary landscape. Classicism was characterized by a conventional vision of nature and the genre fixation of one or another type of “ideal” landscape. The landscape of the “high” genres of classicism, primarily the solemn ode, had its stable features, saturated with allegories and emblems. Prayerful and reverent admiration for nature - the Universe, God's creation was heard in poetic transcriptions of the texts of the Holy Scriptures, primarily in transcriptions of psalms. There was also a system of landscape descriptions in the idyllic-bucolic, pastoral genres, in the love lyrics of classicism, especially in the early elegy XV III century.
Thus, Russian classicism partly created and partly inherited from its literary “samples” a fairly rich palette of landscape images. However, the conquest of sentimentalism can be called a new look at the world around a person. Nature is no longer regarded as a standard, as a set of ideal proportions; rational comprehension of the universe, the desire to understand the harmonious structure of nature with the help of reason is no longer placed in the foreground, as it was in the era of classicism. In the works of sentimentalists, nature has its own spirit of harmony. Man, being a part of nature, turns to it as a link with the Creator in search of true existence, which is opposed to meaningless secular life. Only alone with nature can a person think about his place in this world, understand himself as part of the universe. The action takes place, as a rule, in small towns, in the countryside, in secluded places conducive to reflection, while a lot of attention is paid to the description of nature, which is associated with the emotional experiences of the author and his characters, interest is shown in folk life and poetry. That is why in the works of sentimentalists close attention is paid to both the description of rural life and rural landscapes.
The story “Poor Liza” begins with a description of Moscow and the “terrible bulk of houses and churches,” and immediately after this the author begins to paint a completely different picture: “Lush, densely green, flowering meadows spread below, and behind them, along the yellow sands, a fresh river flows, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats... On the other side of the river you can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze..." Karamzin takes the position of defending the beautiful and natural; the city is unpleasant to him, he is drawn to “nature.” Thus, here the description of nature serves to express the author’s position.
Most of the landscapes in the story are aimed at conveying the state of mind and experience of the main character. It is she, Lisa, who is the embodiment of everything natural and beautiful, this heroine is as close as possible to nature: “Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists... but soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation..."
Nature at this moment is beautiful, but the heroine is sad, because a new, hitherto unknown feeling is born in her soul, it is beautiful and natural, like the landscape around her. Within a few minutes, when an explanation takes place between Lisa and Erast, the girl’s experiences dissolve in the surrounding nature, they are just as beautiful and pure. “What a beautiful morning! How fun everything is in the field! Never have larks sung so well, never has the sun shone so brightly, never have flowers smelled so pleasant!”
A wonderful romance begins between Erast and Lisa, their attitude is chaste, their embrace is “pure and immaculate.” The surrounding landscape is also pure and immaculate. “After this, Erast and Lisa, afraid not to keep their word, saw each other every evening... most often under the shade of hundred-year-old oaks... oaks overshadowing a deep, clear pond, fossilized in ancient times. There, the quiet moon, through the green branches, silvered Liza’s blond hair with its rays, with which the zephyrs and the hand of a dear friend played.”
The time of innocent relationships passes, Lisa and Erast become close, she feels like a sinner, a criminal, and the same changes take place in nature as in Liza’s soul: “Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder roared... The storm roared menacingly, rain poured from black clouds - it seemed that nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence,” This picture reveals not only Lisa’s state of mind, but also foreshadows the tragic ending of this story.
The heroes of the work are parting, but Lisa still does not know that this is forever, she is unhappy, her heart is breaking, but there is still a faint hope glimmering in it. “The morning dawn, which, like a “scarlet sea,” spreads “across the eastern sky,” conveys the pain, anxiety and confusion of the heroine and also indicates an unkind ending.
Lisa, having learned about Erast’s betrayal, ended her unhappy life, she threw herself into the very pond near which she had once been so happy, she was buried under the “gloomy oak tree,” which witnessed the happiest moments of her life.
Before the development of the plot begins, the themes of the main characters of the story are clearly indicated in the landscape - the theme of Erast, whose image is inextricably linked with the “terrible bulk of houses” of “greedy” Moscow, shining with the “golden domes”, the theme of Lisa, coupled with an inextricable associative connection with life beautiful natural nature, described using the epithets “blooming”, “light”, “light”, and the theme of the author, whose space is not physical or geographical, but spiritual and emotional in nature: the author acts as a historian, chronicler of the lives of his heroes and keeper of the memory of them.
The image of Lisa is invariably accompanied by a motif of whiteness, purity and freshness: on the day of her first meeting with Erast, she appears in Moscow with lilies of the valley in her hands; when Erast first appears under the windows of Lisa’s hut, she gives him milk, pouring it from a “clean jar covered with a clean wooden mug” into a glass wiped with a white towel; on the morning of Erast’s arrival for the first date, Liza, “distressed, looked at the white mists that were agitated in the air”; After the declaration of love, it seems to Lisa that “never has the sun shone so brightly,” and during subsequent dates, “the quiet moon silvered Liza’s blonde hair with its rays.”
Each appearance of Erast on the pages of the story is in one way or another connected with money: at the first meeting with Lisa, he wants to pay her a ruble for lilies of the valley instead of five kopecks; when buying Liza’s work, he wants to “always pay ten times the price she sets”; before leaving for the war, “he forced her to take some money from him”; in the army, “instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost almost all his estate,” which is why he is forced to marry “an elderly rich widow” (we involuntarily compare Lisa, who refused the “son of a rich peasant” for Erast’s sake). Finally, at the last meeting with Lisa, before kicking her out of his house, Erast puts one hundred rubles in her pocket.
The semantic leitmotifs set in the landscape sketches of the author's introduction are realized in the narration of images synonymous with them: the gold of the domes of greedy Moscow - the motif of money accompanying Erast; flowering meadows and a bright river of nature near Moscow - flower motifs; whiteness and purity surrounding the image of Lisa. Thus, the description of the life of nature extends extensively to the entire figurative system of the story, introducing an additional aspect of psychologization of the narrative and expanding its anthropological field by paralleling the life of the soul and the life of nature.
The entire love story of Lisa and Erast is immersed in a picture of the life of nature, constantly changing according to the stages of development of love feelings. Particularly obvious examples of such correspondence between the emotional content of a landscape sketch and the semantic content of a particular plot twist are given by melancholic autumn landscape introduction, foreshadowing the overall tragic denouement of the story, a picture of a clear, dewy May morning, on which Lisa and Erast declare their love, and a picture of a terrible night thunderstorm that accompanies the beginning of a tragic turning point in the heroine’s fate. Thus, “the landscape from an auxiliary device with “framework” functions, from a “pure” decoration and external attribute of the text turned into an organic part of an artistic structure that realizes the overall concept of the work”, became a means of producing reader emotions, acquired “a correlation with the inner world of a person as a kind of mirror souls."
The above examples show how important it is to describe pictures of nature in a work of art, how deeply they help to penetrate into the soul of the characters and their experiences.
Not only Karamzin, but also his predecessors M.V. Lomonosov and G.R. Derzhavin paid great attention to the depiction of nature.
M.V. Lomonosov used ceremonial occasions to create bright and majestic paintings of the universe.Lomonosov made his extensive knowledge in the field of science the subject of poetry. His “scientific” poems are not a simple translation into poetic form of the achievements of science. This is truly poetry born of inspiration, but only in contrast to other types of lyrics, here the poetic delight was aroused by the inquisitive thought of the scientist. Lomonosov devoted poems with scientific themes to natural phenomena, primarily to the space theme. Being a deist philosopher, Lomonosov saw in nature a manifestation of the creative power of the deity. But in his poems he reveals not the theological, but the scientific side of this issue: not the comprehension of God through nature, but the study of nature itself, created by God. This is how two closely related works appeared: “Morning Reflection on God’s Majesty” and “Evening Reflection on God’s Majesty on the Occasion of the Great Northern Lights.” Both poems were written in 1743.
In each of the “Reflections” the same composition is repeated. First, phenomena familiar to a person from his daily impressions are depicted. Then the poet-scientist lifts the veil over the invisible, hidden region of the Universe, introducing the reader into new worlds unknown to him. Thus, in the first stanza of “Morning Reflection” the sunrise, the onset of morning, the awakening of all nature are depicted. Then Lomonosov begins to talk about the physical structure of the Sun. A picture is drawn that is accessible only to the inspired gaze of a scientist, capable of speculatively imagining what the “perishable” human “eye” cannot see - the hot, raging surface of the sun:
There are fiery shafts rushing
And they don’t find the shores;
Fiery whirlwinds swirl there,
Fighting for many centuries;
There the stones, like water, boil,
The burning rains there are noisy.
Lomonosov appears in this poem as an excellent popularizer of scientific knowledge. He reveals the complex phenomena occurring on the surface of the Sun with the help of ordinary, purely visible “earthly” images: “fiery shafts,” “fiery whirlwinds,” “burning rains.”
In the second, “evening” reflection, the poet turns to the phenomena that appear to man in the firmament at nightfall. At the beginning, just like in the first poem, a picture is given that is immediately accessible to the eye:
The day hides its face;
The fields were covered with gloomy night;<...>
An abyss full of stars opened;
The stars have no number, the bottom of the abyss.
This majestic sight awakens the inquisitive thoughts of the scientist. Lomonosov writes about the infinity of the universe, in which a person looks like a small grain of sand in a bottomless ocean. For readers who, according to the Holy Scriptures, are accustomed to considering the earth the center of the universe, this was a completely new look at the world around them. Lomonosov raises the question of the possibility of life on other planets, offers a number of hypotheses about physical nature northern lights.
G.R. Derzhavin takes a new step in depicting a person. In the poem “Waterfall,” dedicated to G. A. Potemkin, Derzhavin tries to draw people in all their complexity, depicting both their positive and negative sides.
At the same time, in Derzhavin’s work of these years, the image of the author significantly expands and becomes more complex. This is largely facilitated by the poet’s increased attention to the so-called Anacreontic songs - short poems written on the motives or “in the spirit” of the ancient Greek lyricist Anacreon. The basis of Derzhavin’s anacreontics is “the living and tender impression of nature,” in the words of Derzhavin’s friend and translator of Anacreon, N. A. Lvov. “This new and large section of Derzhavin’s poetry,” writes A. V. Zapadov, “served for him as an outlet into the joyful world of nature, allowed him to talk about a thousand small, but important things for a person, which had no place in the system of genres of classicist poetics Addressing Anacreon, imitating him, Derzhavin wrote his own, and the national roots of his poetry appear “especially clearly” in Anacreon songs.
In the ode “Waterfall,” Derzhavin goes from a visual impression, and in the first stanzas of the ode, in magnificent verbal painting, the Kivach waterfall on the Suna River in the Olonets province is depicted:
Diamonds are falling down the mountain
From the heights of four rocks,
Pearls abyss and silver
Boils below, shoots up with mounds<...>
Noisy - and in the middle of the dense forest
Then gets lost in the wilderness<...> .
However, this landscape sketch immediately takes on the meaning of a symbol of human life - open and accessible to the eye in its earthly phase and lost in the darkness of eternity after the death of a person: “Isn’t this the life of people for us // This waterfall depicts?” And then this allegory develops very consistently: the sparkling and thundering waterfall, open to the eye, and the modest stream that originates from it, lost in a deep forest, but feeding with its water all who come to its banks, are likened to time and glory: “Isn’t it time from heaven?” pours<...>// Honor shines, glory spreads?” ; “Oh glory, glory in the light of the mighty! // You are definitely this waterfall<...>»
The main part of the ode personifies this allegory in comparing the lifetime and posthumous destinies of two great contemporaries of Derzhavin, Catherine’s favoriteIIPrince Potemkin-Tauride and the disgraced commander Rumyantsev. It must be assumed that the poet, sensitive to words, was fascinated, among other things, by the possibility of contrasting play on their significant surnames. Derzhavin avoids calling Rumyantsev, who is in the darkness of disgrace, by his last name, but his image that appears in the ode is completely shrouded in the brilliance of luminous metaphors consonant with it: “like a ruddy ray of dawn,” “in a crown of lightning blushes.” On the contrary, Potemkin, brilliant, omnipotent, amazing his contemporaries with the luxury of his lifestyle, the brilliance of his extraordinary personality, in a word, who was in plain sight during his life, in the ode “Waterfall” he is plunged into darkness by an untimely death: “Whose corpse is like darkness at a crossroads, // Lying in the dark bosom of the night? The bright and loud fame of Potemkin during his lifetime, as well as his personality itself, are likened in Derzhavin’s ode to a magnificent but useless waterfall:
Marvel at the people around you
Always gathers in crowds, -
But if he uses his water
Conveniently doesn’t get everyone drunk<...>
The life of Rumyantsev, no less talented, but undeservedly bypassed by fame and honors, evokes in the poet’s mind the image of a brook, whose quiet murmur will not be lost in the stream of time:
Isn't it better than the less famous ones?
And to be more useful;<...>
And a quiet murmur in the distance
Attract offspring with attention?
The question of which of the two commanders is more worthy of living in the memory of posterity remains open for Derzhavin, and if the image of Rumyantsev, created by the poet in the ode “Waterfall,” is highly consistent with Derzhavin’s ideas about the ideal statesman (“Blessed is when, striving for glory, // He preserved the common benefit" , then the image of Potemkin, overtaken by sudden death at the highest rise of his brilliant destiny, is covered with the author’s heartfelt lyrical emotion: “Aren’t you from the height of honor // Suddenly fallen among the steppes?” The solution to the problem of human immortality in the memory of descendants is given in a universal human sense and in an abstract conceptual manner:
Hear, waterfalls of the world!
O glory to the noisy heads!
Your sword is bright, purple is colored,
Since you loved the truth,
When they only had meta,
To bring happiness to the world.
The considered natural landscapes in the works of M.V. Lomonosov and G.R. Derzhavin are as beautiful as in the story “Poor Liza” by N.M. Karamzin, but they were introduced into the works for a different purpose. In Karamzin’s work, nature conveys the state of mind and mood of the characters depicted. Lomonosov glorifies the universe in his works. And Derzhavin compares the greatness of nature with the greatness of the glorified heroes, but does not convey their state of mind.
Conclusion.
The work we have done allows us to conclude that the reflection of nature in Russian literature of the late 18th - early 19th centuries has a multifaceted significance. The landscape, literally from the very beginning of the work, receives an emotional characteristic - it is not just a dispassionate background against which events unfold, and not the decoration that adorns the picture, but a piece of living nature, as if rediscovered by the author, felt by him, perceived not with the mind, not with the eyes, but with the heart .
In “Poor Liza,” the landscape is not only used to create an atmosphere and mood, but also carries a certain symbolic meaning and emphasizes the close connection between “natural man” and nature.
A special role belongs to the narrator, whose image was also new to literatureXVIIIcentury. The beauty of direct communication had a surprising effect on the reader, creating an inextricable emotional connection between him and the author, which develops into the replacement of fiction with reality. With Poor Liza, the Russian reading public received one important gift - the first place of literary pilgrimage in Russia. Having experienced for himself what emotional charge the effect of co-presence conceals, the writer accurately indicates the location of his story - the environs of the Simonov Monastery. Even Karamzin himself did not imagine what impact his innovations would have on the reader. Almost immediately, “Poor Lisa” began to be perceived by readers as a story about true events. Numerous pilgrims flocked to the modest pond near the monastery walls. The real name of the pond was forgotten - from now on it became Liza's Pond.
Actually, with “Poor Liza” a new era began in Russian literature, from now on the sensitive person becomes the main measure of everything.
Undoubtedly, N.M. Karamzin is one of the most significant figures in the history of Russian literature of the late 18th - early 19th centuries.
List of used literature:
G. Derzhavin. N. Karamzin. V. Zhukovsky. Poems. Stories. Journalism. – M.: Olimp; LLC Publishing House AST-LTD, 1997.
M.V. Lomonosov. Selected works. Northwestern book publishing house. Arkhangelsk 1978.
T.A. Kolganova. Russian literatureXVIIIcentury. Sentimentalism. – M.: Bustard. 2002.
Vishnevskaya G.A. From the history of Russian romanticism (Literary and theoretical judgments of N.M. Karamzin 1787-1792).M., 1964.
Tarabukin N.M. Landscape problem. M., 1999.
Grigoryan K.N. Pushkin's elegy: National origins, predecessors, evolution. - L., 1990.
V. Muravyov Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. M., 1966.
Orlov P.A. Russian sentimental story. M., 1979.
Zapadov A.V. G. Derzhavin. N. Karamzin. V. Zhukovsky. Poems. Stories. Journalism. – M.: Olimp; LLC Publishing House AST-LTD, 1997. P. 119
G. Derzhavin. N. Karamzin. V. Zhukovsky. Poems. Stories. Journalism. – M.: Olimp; LLC Publishing House AST-LTD, 1997. P. 123
In almost all works Russian literature there is a landscape.
Landscapes - This is one of the main means of revealing the emotional experiences of the heroes. In addition, they serve to convey the author’s attitude to what is happening. Writers strive include this extra-plot element in works for different purposes.
In the story “Poor Liza” Karamzin uses picturesque scenes of nature, at first glance, as random episodes, as a beautiful background for the main action. Most of the landscapes in the story are aimed at conveying the state of mind and experience of the main character, because Lisa is as close to nature as possible.
Exercise: determine what the role of landscape is in the passages:
1. Let's turn to Lisa. Night came - the mother blessed her daughter and wished her a gentle sleep, but this time her wish was not fulfilled; Lisa slept very poorly. The new guest of her soul, the image of the Erasts, appeared so vividly to her that she woke up almost every minute, woke up and sighed. Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists that were agitated in the air and, rising up, left shiny drops on the green cover of nature. Silence reigned everywhere. But soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation; The groves and bushes came to life, the birds fluttered and sang, the flowers raised their heads to drink in the life-giving rays of light. But Lisa still sat there, saddened. Oh, Lisa, Lisa! What happened to you? Until now, waking up with the birds, you had fun with them in the morning, and a pure, joyful soul shone in your eyes, like the sun shines in drops of heavenly dew; but now you are thoughtful, and the general joy of nature is alien to your heart - Meanwhile, a young shepherd was driving his flock along the river bank, playing the pipe. Lisa fixed her gaze on him and thought: “If the one who now occupies my thoughts was born a simple peasant, a shepherd, - and if he were now driving his flock past me; ah! I would bow to him with a smile and say kindly : "Hello, dear shepherd! Where are you driving your flock?" And here green grass grows for your sheep, and here flowers grow red, from which you can weave a wreath for your hat." He would look at me with an affectionate look - maybe he would take my hand... A dream! " A shepherd, playing the pipe, passed by and with his motley flock disappeared behind a nearby hill...
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2. She threw herself into his arms - and at this hour her integrity had to perish! Erast felt an extraordinary excitement in his blood - Liza had never seemed so charming to him - never had her caresses touched him so much - never had her kisses been so fiery - she knew nothing, suspected nothing, was afraid of nothing - the darkness of the evening fed desires - not a single star shone in the sky - no ray could illuminate the delusions. - Erast feels awe in himself - Lisa also, not knowing why, but knowing what is happening to her... Ah, Lisa, Lisa! Where is your guardian angel? Where is your innocence? The delusion passed in one minute. Lisa did not understand her feelings, she was surprised and asked. Erast was silent - he searched for words and did not find them. “Oh, I’m afraid,” said Lisa, “I’m afraid of what happened to us! It seemed to me that I was dying, that my soul... No, I don’t know how to say it!.. Are you silent, Erast? Are you sighing?.. My God! What is it? Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Lisa trembled all over. “Erast, Erast!” she said. “I’m scared! I’m afraid that the thunder will kill me like a criminal!” The storm roared menacingly, rain poured from the black clouds - it seemed that nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence. Erast tried to calm Lisa down and walked her to the hut. Tears rolled from her eyes when she said goodbye to him...
