Moral and philosophical issues of the tragedy “The Miserly Knight. Analysis of “The Miserly Knight” Pushkin The essence of the poem The Miserly Knight

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« Stingy Knight» - a dramatic work (play), conceived in 1826 (the plan dates back to the beginning of January 1826); created in the Boldino autumn of 1830, it is part of Pushkin’s cycle of small tragedies. The play was filmed.

The Miserly Knight shows the corrupting, dehumanizing, devastating power of gold. Pushkin was the first in Russian literature to notice the terrible power of money.

The result in the play is the words of the Duke:

...Terrible century - Terrible hearts...

With amazing depth, the author reveals the psychology of stinginess, but most importantly, the origins that feed it. The type of stingy knight is revealed as a product of a certain historical era. At the same time, in the tragedy the poet rises to a broad generalization of the inhumanity of the power of gold.

Pushkin does not resort to any moral teachings or discussions on this topic, but with the entire content of the play he illuminates the immorality and crime of such relations between people in which everything is determined by the power of gold.

Obviously, in order to avoid possible biographical connections (everyone knew the stinginess of the poet’s father, S.L. Pushkin, and his difficult relationship with his son), Pushkin passed off this completely original play as a translation from a non-existent English original.


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See what “The Miserly Knight” is in other dictionaries:

    The hero of the dramatic scenes of the same name (1830) by A. S. Pushkin (1799 1837), a miser and a miser. A common noun for people of this type (ironic). Encyclopedic dictionary of popular words and expressions. M.: Locked Press. Vadim Serov. 2003 ... Dictionary of popular words and expressions

    - “THE MISTERY KNIGHT”, Russia, Moscow theater “Vernissage”/Culture, 1999, color, 52 min. Teleplay, tragicomedy. Based on the drama of the same name by A. S. Pushkin from the series “Little Tragedies”. Cast: Georgy Menglet (see MENGLET Georgy Pavlovich), Igor... ... Encyclopedia of Cinema

    Noun, number of synonyms: 1 miser (70) Dictionary of synonyms ASIS. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Dictionary of synonyms

The tragedy “The Miserly Knight” by Pushkin was written in 1830, in the so-called “Boldino autumn” - the most productive creative period of the writer. Most likely, the idea for the book was inspired by the difficult relationship between Alexander Sergeevich and his stingy father. One of Pushkin’s “little tragedies” was first published in 1936 in Sovremennik under the title “Scene from Chanston’s tragicomedy.”

For reader's diary For better preparation for a literature lesson, we recommend reading online a summary of “The Miserly Knight” chapter by chapter.

Main characters

Baron- a mature man of the old school, a former valiant knight. He sees the meaning of all life in the accumulation of wealth.

Albert- a twenty-year-old young man, a knight, forced to endure extreme poverty due to the excessive stinginess of his father, the baron.

Other characters

Jew Solomon- a moneylender who regularly lends money to Albert.

Ivan- a young servant of the knight Albert, who serves him faithfully.

Duke- the main representative of power, subordinate to whom are not only ordinary residents, but also the entire local nobility. Acts as a judge during the confrontation between Albert and the Baron.

Scene I

Knight Albert shares problems with his servant Ivan. Despite his noble origin and knighthood, the young man is in great need. At the last tournament, his helmet was pierced by the spear of Count Delorge. And, although the enemy was defeated, Albert was not too happy about his victory, for which he had to pay a price too high for him - damaged armor.

The horse Emir also suffered, and after a fierce battle he began to limp. Besides, the young nobleman needs a new dress. During a dinner party, he was forced to sit in armor and justify himself to the ladies by saying that “he got into the tournament by accident.”

Albert confesses to the faithful Ivan that his brilliant victory over Count Delorge was caused not by courage, but by his father’s stinginess. The young man is forced to make do with the crumbs that his father allocates to him. He has no choice but to sigh heavily: “Oh poverty, poverty!” How she humbles our hearts!”

To buy a new horse, Albert is forced once again to turn to the moneylender Solomon. However, he refuses to give money without collateral. Solomon gently suggests to the young man that “it’s time for the baron to die,” and offers the services of a pharmacist who makes an effective and fast-acting poison.

In a rage, Albert drives away the Jew who dared to suggest that he poison his own father. However, he is no longer able to eke out a miserable existence. The young knight decides to seek help from the Duke so that he can influence his stingy father to stop keeping his own son, “like a mouse born in hiding.”

Scene II

The Baron goes down to the basement to “pour a handful of accumulated gold” into the still incomplete sixth chest. He compares his accumulations to a hill that grew thanks to small handfuls of earth brought by soldiers on the orders of the king. From the height of this hill the ruler could admire his possessions.

So the baron, looking at his wealth, feels his power and superiority. He understands that, if he wants, he can allow himself anything, any joy, any meanness. The feeling of his own strength calms a man, and he is quite “enough with this consciousness.”

The money that the baron brings to the basement has a bad reputation. Looking at them, the hero remembers that he received the “old doubloon” from an inconsolable widow with three children, who sobbed in the rain for half a day. She was forced to give the last coin to pay off the debt of her deceased husband, but the tears of the poor woman did not pity the insensitive baron.

The miser has no doubt about the origin of the other coin - of course, it was stolen by the rogue and rogue Thibault, but this in no way worries the baron. The main thing is that the sixth chest of gold is slowly but surely replenished.

Every time he opens the chest, the old miser falls into “heat and trembling.” However, he is not afraid of an attack by a villain, no, he is tormented by a strange feeling, akin to the pleasure experienced by an inveterate murderer who plunges a knife into the chest of his victim. The Baron is “pleasant and scary together,” and in this he feels true bliss.

Admiring his wealth, the old man is truly happy, and only one thought gnaws at him. The Baron understands that his last hour is near, and after his death all these treasures, acquired through many years of hardship, will end up in the hands of his son. Gold coins will flow like a river into “satin tattered pockets,” and the carefree young man will instantly spread his father’s wealth around the world, squander it in the company of young beauties and cheerful friends.

The Baron dreams of guarding his chests of gold with a “guard shadow” even after death in the form of a spirit. The possible separation from the wealth he has acquired is a dead weight on the soul of the old man, for whom the only joy in life is to increase his wealth.

Scene III

Albert complains to the Duke that he has to experience “the shame of bitter poverty” and asks him to bring his overly greedy father to reason. The Duke agrees to help the young knight - he remembers the good relationship between his grandfather and the miserly baron. In those days, he was still an honest, brave knight without fear or reproach.

Meanwhile, the Duke notices the Baron at the window, who is heading to his castle. He orders Albert to hide in the next room, and receives his father in his chambers. After exchanging mutual courtesies, the Duke invites the Baron to send his son to him - he is ready to offer the young knight a decent salary and service at court.

To which the old baron replies that this is impossible, since his son wanted to kill him and rob him. Unable to bear such blatant slander, Albert jumps out of the room and accuses his father of lying. The father throws the glove to his son, and he picks it up, thereby making it clear that he accepts the challenge.

Stunned by what he saw, the Duke separates father and son and angrily drives them out of the palace. Such a scene causes the death of the old baron, who in the last moments of his life thinks only about his wealth. The Duke is distraught: “Terrible age, terrible hearts!”

Conclusion

In the work “The Stingy Knight”, Alexander Sergeevich comes under the close attention of such a vice as greed. Under her influence, irreversible personality changes occur: the once fearless and noble knight becomes a slave to gold coins, he completely loses his dignity, and is even ready to harm his only son so that he does not take possession of his wealth.

After reading the retelling of “The Miserly Knight,” we recommend that you read the full version of Pushkin’s play.

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“The Miserly Knight” was conceived in 1826, and completed in the Boldin autumn of 1830. Published in 1836 in the magazine “Sovremennik”. Pushkin gave the play the subtitle “From Chenston’s tragicomedy.” But the writer is from the 18th century. Shenston (in the tradition of the 19th century his name was written Chenston) there was no such play.

Perhaps Pushkin referred to a foreign author so that his contemporaries would not suspect that the poet was describing his relationship with his father, known for his stinginess.

Theme and plot

Pushkin’s play “The Miserly Knight” is the first work in the cycle

Dramatic sketches, short plays, which were later called “Little Tragedies”. Pushkin intended in each play to reveal some side human soul, all-consuming passion (stinginess in “The Stingy Knight”). Spiritual qualities and psychology are shown in sharp and unusual plots.

Heroes and images

The Baron is rich, but stingy. He has six chests full of gold, from which he does not take a penny. Money is not servants or friends for him, as for the moneylender Solomon, but masters.

The Baron does not want to admit to himself that money has enslaved him. He believes that thanks to the money sleeping peacefully in his chests, everything is subject to him: love, inspiration, genius, virtue, work, even villainy. The Baron is ready to kill anyone who encroaches on his wealth, even his own son, whom he challenges to a duel. The duke prevents the duel, but the baron is killed by the very possibility of losing money.

The Baron's passion consumes him.

Solomon has a different attitude towards money: it is a way to achieve a goal, to survive. But, like the baron, he does not disdain anything for the sake of enrichment, suggesting that Albert poison his own father.

Albert is a worthy young knight, strong and brave, winning tournaments and enjoying the favor of the ladies. He is completely dependent on his father. The young man has nothing to buy a helmet and armor, a dress for a feast and a horse for a tournament, only out of despair he decides to complain to the duke.

Albert has excellent spiritual qualities, he is kind, he gives the last bottle of wine to the sick blacksmith. But he is broken by circumstances and dreams of the time when the gold will be inherited by him. When the moneylender Solomon offers to set Albert up with a pharmacist who sells poison to poison his father, the knight expels him in disgrace.

And soon Albert already accepts the baron’s challenge to a duel; he is ready to fight to the death with his own father, who insulted his honor. The Duke calls Albert a monster for this act.

The Duke in the tragedy is a representative of the authorities who voluntarily took on this burden. The Duke calls his age and the hearts of people terrible. Through the lips of the Duke, Pushkin also speaks about his time.

Issues

In every little tragedy, Pushkin gazes intently at some vice. In “The Stingy Knight,” this destructive passion is stinginess: a change in the personality of a once worthy member of society under the influence of vice; the hero's submission to vice; vice as a cause of loss of dignity.

Conflict

The main conflict is external: between a stingy knight and his son, who claims his share. The Baron believes that wealth must be suffered so as not to be squandered. The Baron's goal is to preserve and increase, Albert's goal is to use and enjoy.

The conflict is caused by a clash of these interests. It is aggravated by the participation of the Duke, to whom the Baron is forced to slander his son. The strength of the conflict is such that only the death of one of the parties can resolve it.

Passion destroys the stingy knight; the reader can only guess about the fate of his wealth.

Composition

There are three scenes in the tragedy. From the first, the reader learns about Albert’s difficult financial situation associated with his father’s stinginess. The second scene is a monologue of a stingy knight, from which it is clear that passion has completely taken possession of him.

In the third scene, the just duke intervenes in the conflict and unwittingly becomes the cause of the death of the hero obsessed with passion. The climax (the death of the baron) is adjacent to the denouement - the Duke’s conclusion: “A terrible age, terrible hearts!”

Genre

“The Miserly Knight” is a tragedy, that is, a dramatic work in which main character dies. Pushkin achieved the small size of his tragedies by excluding everything unimportant. Pushkin's goal is to show the psychology of a person obsessed with the passion of stinginess.

All “Little Tragedies” complement each other, creating a three-dimensional portrait of humanity in all its diversity of vices.

Style and artistic originality

All “Little Tragedies” are intended not so much for reading as for staging: how theatrical the stingy knight looks in a dark basement among gold flickering in the light of a candle! The dialogues of the tragedies are dynamic, and the monologue of the stingy knight is a poetic masterpiece. The reader can see how a bloody villain crawls into the basement and licks the hand of a stingy knight.

The images of “The Miserly Knight” are impossible to forget.


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Pushkin wrote the tragedy in the 20s of the 19th century. And it was published in the Sovremennik magazine. The tragedy of the Miserly Knight begins a series of works called “Little Tragedies.” In the work, Pushkin denounces such negative trait human character, like stinginess.

He transfers the action of the work to France so that no one would guess that we are talking about a person very close to him, about his father. He is the one who is the stingy one. Here he lives in Paris, surrounded by 6 chests of gold. But he doesn’t take a penny from there. He will open it, take a look, and close it again.

The main goal in life is hoarding. But the baron does not understand how mentally ill he is. This “golden serpent” completely subjugated him to his will. The miser believes that thanks to gold he will gain independence and freedom. But he does not notice how this serpent deprives him of not only all human feelings. But he even perceives his own son as an enemy. His mind was completely confused. He challenges him to a duel over money.

The son of a knight is a strong and brave man, he often emerges victorious in knightly tournaments. He is good-looking and appeals to the female sex. But he is financially dependent on his father. And he manipulates his son with money, insults his pride and honor. Even the most strong man you can break your will. Communism has not yet arrived, and money still rules the world now, as it did then. Therefore, the son secretly hopes that he will kill his father and take over the money.

The Duke stops the duel. He calls his son a monster. But the baron is killed by the very thought of losing money. I wonder why there were no banks back in those days? I would put the money at interest and live comfortably. And he, apparently, kept them at home, so he was shaking over every coin.

Here is another hero, Solomon, who also had his eye on the wealth of the stingy knight. For the sake of his own enrichment, he does not disdain anything. He acts cunningly and subtly - he invites his son to kill his father. Just poison him. His son drives him away in disgrace. But he is ready to fight with his own father for insulting his honor.

Passions have run high, and only the death of one of the parties can calm the duelists.

There are only three scenes in the tragedy. The first scene - the son admits his difficult financial situation. The second scene - the stingy knight pours out his soul. The third scene is the intervention of the Duke and the death of the stingy knight. And at the end of the day the words sound: “Terrible age, terrible hearts.” Therefore, the genre of the work can be defined as tragedy.

The precise and apt language of Pushkin’s comparisons and epithets allows us to imagine a stingy knight. Here he is sorting through gold coins in a dark basement amid the flickering light of candles. His monologue is so realistic that you can shudder, imagining how villainy in the blood crawls into this gloomy damp basement. And licks the knight's hands. It becomes scary and disgusting from the picture presented.

The time of the tragedy is medieval France. The end, a new system - capitalism - is on the threshold. Therefore, a stingy knight, on the one hand, is a knight, and on the other hand, a usurer, lends money at interest. That's where he got such a huge amount of money.

Everyone has their own truth. The son sees in his father a chain dog, an Algerian slave. And the father sees in his son a flighty young man who will not earn money by his own hump, but will receive it by inheritance. He calls him a madman, a young spendthrift who participates in riotous revels.

Option 2

The genre versatility of A.S. Pushkin is great. He is a master of words, and his work is represented by novels, fairy tales, poems, poems, and drama. The writer reflects the reality of his time, reveals human vices, and seeks psychological solutions to problems. The cycle of his works “Little Tragedies” is the cry of the human soul. The author in them wants to show his reader: what greed, stupidity, envy, and the desire to get rich look like from the outside.

The first play in Little Tragedies is The Miserly Knight. It took the writer four long years to realize the plot he had planned.

Human greed is a common vice that existed and exists in different times. The work “The Miserly Knight” takes the reader to medieval France. The main character of the play is Baron Philip. The man is rich and stingy. His chests of gold haunt him. He does not spend money, the meaning of his life is only accumulation. Money has consumed his soul and he is completely dependent on it. The Baron also manifests his stinginess in human relationships. His son is an enemy to him and poses a threat to his wealth. From a once noble man, he turned into a slave of his passion.

The baron's son is a strong young man, a knight. Handsome and brave, girls like him, often participates in tournaments and wins them. But financially Albert depends on his father. The young man cannot afford to buy a horse, armor, or even decent clothes for going out. The bright opposite of the father, the son is kind to people. The difficult financial situation broke the son’s will. He dreams of receiving an inheritance. A man of honor, after being insulted, he challenges Baron Philip to a duel, wanting him dead.

Another character in the play is the Duke. He acts as a judge of the conflict as a representative of the authorities. Condemning the knight's act, the Duke calls him a monster. The very attitude of the writer to the events occurring in the tragedy is embedded in the speeches of this hero.

Compositionally, the play consists of three parts. The opening scene is about Albert and his plight. In it, the author reveals the cause of the conflict. The second scene is a monologue of the father, who appears to the viewer as a “mean knight”. The ending is the denouement of the story, the death of the possessed baron and the author’s conclusion about what happened.

As in any tragedy, the outcome of the plot is classic - the death of the main character. But for Pushkin, who managed to reflect the essence of the conflict in a small work, the main thing is to show a person’s psychological dependence on his vice - stinginess.

The work written by A.S. Pushkin back in the 19th century is relevant to this day. Humanity has not gotten rid of the sin of accumulating material wealth. Now the generational conflict between children and parents has not been resolved. Many examples can be seen in our time. Children renting their parents to nursing homes in order to get apartments is not uncommon now. Said by the Duke in the tragedy: “Terrible age, terrible hearts!” can be attributed to our 21st century.

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Omsk

Moral and philosophical issues of the tragedy “The Miserly Knight”

“There is nothing to say about the idea of ​​the poem “The Miserly Knight”: it is too clear both in itself and in the title of the poem. The passion of stinginess is not a new idea, but genius knows how to make the old new...,” he wrote, defining the ideological nature of the work. G. Lesskis, noting some “mystery” of the tragedy in relation to its publication (Pushkin’s reluctance to publish the tragedy under his own name, attributing authorship to the non-existent playwright of English literature Chanston), believed that the ideological orientation is still extremely clear and simple: “In contrast to the rather mysterious the external history of the play, its content and conflict seem simpler than in the other three." Apparently, the starting point for understanding the ideological nature of a work was, as a rule, an epithet, which forms the semantic center of the title and is a key word in the code meaning of conflict resolution. And therefore the idea of ​​the first play in the series “Little Tragedies” seems “simple” - stinginess.

We see that this tragedy is devoted not so much to stinginess itself, but to the problem of its comprehension, the problem of comprehension of morality and spiritual self-destruction. The object of philosophical, psychological and ethical research becomes a person whose spiritual beliefs turn out to be fragile in the ring of temptation.

The world of knightly honor and glory was struck by a vicious passion; the arrow of sin pierced the very foundations of existence and destroyed moral supports. Everything that was once defined by the concept of “knightly spirit” was rethought by the concept of “passion”.


The displacement of vital centers leads a person into a spiritual trap, a unique way out of which can only be a step taken into the abyss of non-being. The reality of sin, realized and determined by life, is terrible in its reality and tragic in its consequences. However, only one hero of the tragedy “The Miserly Knight” has the power to understand this axiom - the Duke. It is he who becomes an involuntary witness to a moral catastrophe and an uncompromising judge of its participants.

Stinginess, indeed, is the “engine” of tragedy (stinginess as the cause and consequence of wasted spiritual strength). But its meaning is visible not only in the pettiness of the miser.

The Baron is not just a stingy knight, but also a stingy father - stingy in communicating with his son, stingy in revealing to him the truths of life. He closed his heart to Albert, thereby predetermining his end and destroying the not yet strong spiritual world his heir. The baron did not want to understand that his son would inherit not so much his gold, but his life wisdom, memory and experience of generations.

Stingy with love and sincerity, the Baron withdraws into himself, into his individuality. He withdraws himself from the truth of family relationships, from the “vanity” (which he sees outside his basement) of the world, creating his own world and Law: the Father is realized in the Creator. The desire to possess gold develops into an egoistic desire to possess the Universe. There should be only one ruler on the throne, and only one God in heaven. Such a message becomes the “footstool” of Power and the cause of hatred towards the son, who could be the successor of the Father’s Cause (this does not mean a destructive passion for hoarding, but the cause of the family, the transfer from father to son of the spiritual wealth of the family).

It is this stinginess that destroys and marks with its shadow all manifestations of life becomes the subject of dramatic comprehension. However, the latent, gradually “emerging” causal foundations of depravity do not escape the author’s gaze. The author is interested not only in the results of completion, but also in their primary motives.

What makes the Baron become an ascetic? The desire to become God, the Almighty. What makes Albert want his father dead? The desire to become the owner of the baron’s gold reserves, the desire to become a free, independent person, and most importantly, respected for both courage and fortune (which in itself, as a promise to existence, but not to being, is quite understandable and characteristic of many people of his age) .

“The essence of a person,” wrote V. Nepomnyashchy, “is determined by what he ultimately wants and what he does to fulfill his desire. Therefore, the “material” of “small tragedies” are human passions. Pushkin took three main ones: freedom, creativity, love [...]

His tragedy began with the desire for wealth, which, according to Baron, is the key to independence and freedom. Albert strives for independence - also through wealth [...]."

Freedom as an impetus, as a call for the implementation of plans, becomes an indicator, an accompanying “element” and at the same time a catalyst for action that has moral significance (positive or negative).

Everything in this work is maximally combined, syncretically focused and ideologically concentrated. The inversion of the commanded origins of being and the disharmony of relationships, family rejection and clan interruption (moral disconnection of generations) - all these are marked by the fact of the reality of synth e zy (synthetically organized indicators) of spiritual drama.


The illogical relationship at the level of Father - Son is one of the indicators of moral tragedy precisely because the conflict of a dramatic work receives ethical significance not only (and not so much) when it is resolved vertically: God - Man, but also when the hero becomes an apostate in real-situational facts, when consciously or unconsciously the “ideal” is replaced by the “absolute”.

The multi-level nature of meanings and conflict resolutions also determines the polysemy of subtextual meanings and their interpretations. We will not find any unambiguity in the understanding of this or that image, this or that problem noted by the author’s attention. Pushkin's dramatic work is not characterized by categorical assessments and extreme obviousness of conclusions, which was characteristic of classic tragedy. Therefore, when analyzing his plays, it is important to carefully read every word, note the changes in the intonations of the characters, and see and feel the author’s thought in every remark.

An important point in understanding the ideological and content aspect of the work is also the analytical “reading” of the images of the main characters in their inextricable correlation and direct relation to the level facts of resolving a conflict that has an ambivalent nature.

We cannot agree with the opinion of some literary scholars, who see in this work, just as in “Mozart and Salieri,” only one main character, endowed with the power and right to move the tragedy. Thus, M. Kostalevskaya noted: “The first tragedy (or dramatic scene) - “The Miserly Knight” - corresponds to the number one. The main, and essentially the only hero is the Baron. The remaining characters in the tragedy are peripheral and serve only as a background to the central person. Both philosophy and character psychology are concentrated and fully expressed in the monologue of the Miserly Knight [...]."

The Baron is undoubtedly the most important, deeply psychologically “written out” sign image. It is in correlation with him, with his will and his personal tragedy, that the graphically marked realities of Albert’s co-existence are visible.

However, despite all the visible (external) parallelism of their life lines, they are still sons of the same vice, historically predetermined and actually existing. Their visible differences are largely explained and confirmed by age, and therefore time, indicators. The Baron, struck by an all-consuming sinful passion, rejects his son, generating in his mind the same sinfulness, but also burdened by the hidden motive of parricide (at the end of the tragedy).

Albert is just as driven by conflict as the Baron. The mere realization that his son is the heir, that he is the one who will come after, makes Philip hate and fear him. The situation, in its tense intractability, is similar to the dramatic situation of “Mozart and Salieri,” where envy and fear for one’s own creative failure, an imaginary, justifying desire to “save” Art and restore justice force Salieri to kill Mozart. S. Bondi, reflecting on this problem, wrote: “In “The Stingy Knight” and “Mozart and Salieri”, a shameful passion for profit, stinginess that does not disdain crimes, envy that leads to the murder of a friend, a brilliant composer, are seized by people accustomed to the universal respect, and, most importantly, considering this respect well deserved [...] And they try to convince themselves that their criminal actions are guided either by high principled considerations (Salieri), or if passion, then some other, not so shameful, but high (Baron Philip)."

In “The Stingy Knight,” the fear of giving everything to someone who doesn’t deserve it gives rise to perjury (an act whose final results are in no way inferior to the effect of poison thrown into the “cup of friendship”).

A vicious circle of contradictions. Perhaps this is how it would be worth characterizing the conflict nature of this work. Here everything is “grown” and closed on contradictions and opposites. It would seem that father and son are opposed to each other, antinomic. However, this impression is deceptive. Indeed, the initially visible focus on the “sorrows” of poor youth, poured out by the angry Albert, gives reason to see the difference between the heroes. But one has only to carefully follow the son’s train of thought, and their immanent moral kinship with their father becomes obvious, even if marked in its original principle by oppositely polar signs. Although the baron did not teach Albert to appreciate and take care of what he dedicated his life to.

In the time period of the tragedy, Albert is young, frivolous, wasteful (in his dreams). But what happens next? Perhaps Solomon is right when he predicts a stingy old age for the young man. Probably, Albert will someday say: “I didn’t get all this for nothing...” (meaning the death of his father, which opened the way for him to the basement). The keys that the baron tried so unsuccessfully to find at the moment when life was leaving him will be found by his son and “the mud will be given to drink with the royal oil.”

Philip did not pass it on, but according to the logic of life, by the will of the author of the work and by the will of God, who tests the spiritual fortitude of his children by testing, against his own desire he “threw away” the inheritance, just as he threw down a gauntlet to his son, challenging him to a duel. Here the motive of temptation arises again (stating the invisible presence of the Devil), a motive that sounds already in the first scene, in the first voluminous monologue-dialogue (about the broken helmet) and the first ideologically significant dialogue (dialogue between Albert and Solomon about the possibility of getting his father’s money as soon as possible). This motive (the motive of temptation) is as eternal and old as the world. Already in the first book of the Bible we read about temptation, the result of which was expulsion from Paradise and the acquisition of earthly evil by man.

The Baron understands that the heir wants his death, which he accidentally admits, which Albert himself blurts out: “Will my father outlive me?”

We must not forget that Albert still did not take advantage of Solomon’s offer to poison his father. But this fact does not in the least refute the fact that he has a thought, a desire for the speedy death (but not murder!) of the baron. Wanting to die is one thing, but killing is something completely different. The knight’s son turned out to be unable to commit the act that the “son of harmony” could decide to do: “Pour... three drops into a glass of water...”. Y. Lotman noted in this sense: “In The Miserly Knight, the Baron’s feast took place, but another feast, at which Albert would have had to poison his father, was only mentioned. This feast will take place in “Mozart and Salieri”, connecting these two otherwise so different plays into a single “montage phrase” by “rhyme of provisions”. .

In “Mozart and Salieri,” the words of the hero of the first tragedy, detailing the entire murder process, are restructured into the author’s remark with the meaning “action - result”: “Throws poison into Mozart’s glass.” However, in a moment of intense spiritual tension, the son accepts his “father’s first gift,” ready to fight him in a “game” where life is at stake.

The ambiguity of the conflict-situational characteristics of a work is determined by the difference in the initial motives for their occurrence and the multidirectionality of resolution. Level sections of the conflict are found in the vectors of moral movements and signs of spiritual disharmony, marking all the ethical messages and actions of the heroes.

If in “Mozart and Salieri” the opposition is defined by the semantics of “Genius - Craftsman”, “Genius - Villainy”, then in “The Miserly Knight” the opposition occurs in the semantic field of the antithesis “Father - Son”. The level difference in the initial indicators of spiritual drama also leads to differences in the final signs of its development.

Understanding the moral and philosophical issues of “The Miserly Knight”, one should draw a conclusion about the all-importance of the ethical sound of Pushkin’s tragedy, the comprehensiveness of the themes raised and the universal level of conflict resolution. All vector lines of action development pass through the ethical subtextual space of the work, touching on the deep, ontological aspects of human life, his sinfulness and responsibility before God.

Bibliography

1. . - M., 1985. - P. 484.

2. Pushkin’s path in Russian literature. - M., 1993. - P.298.

3. “Mozart and Salieri”, Pushkin’s tragedy, Movement in time. - M., 19с.

Lesson extracurricular reading in 9th grade on the topic “A.S. Pushkin. "Little tragedies." "The Stingy Knight"

Lesson objectives:

    teach to analyze a dramatic work (determine the theme, idea, conflict of the drama),

    give the concept of dramatic character;

    develop the ability to work with text literary work(selective reading, expressive reading, role-based reading, selection of quotes);

    cultivate the moral qualities of the individual.

Lesson progress

1. The history of the creation of “Little Tragedies” by A.S. Pushkin(teacher's word).

Today we continue our conversation about Pushkin’s dramatic works, namely “Little Tragedies”. In one of his letters, the poet gave the plays a capacious and The correct definition is “small tragedies.”

(Small in volume, but capacious and deep in content. With the word “small” Pushkin emphasized the extreme compactness of the tragedies, the density of the conflict, the instantaneousness of the action. They were destined to become great in the depth of content).

- Which dramatic genres You know? What genre is tragedy?

Tragedy - a type of drama, the opposite of comedy, a work depicting a struggle, personal or social catastrophe, usually ending in the death of the hero.

- When were “Little Tragedies” created?(1830, Boldino autumn)

In 1830, A.S. Pushkin received a blessing to marry N.N. Goncharova. The troubles and preparations for the wedding began. The poet had to urgently go to the village of Boldino, Nizhny Novgorod province, to arrange the part of the family estate allocated to him by his father. The cholera epidemic that suddenly began kept Pushkin in rural solitude for a long time. Here the miracle of the first Boldino autumn happened: the poet experienced a happy and unprecedented surge of creative inspiration. In less than three months, he wrote the poetic story “The House in Kolomna”, the dramatic works “The Miserly Knight”, “Mozart and Salieri”, “A Feast during the Plague”, “Don Juan”, later called “Little Tragedies”, and also created “Belkin’s Tales”, “The History of the Village of Goryukhin”, about thirty wonderful lyric poems were written, the novel “Eugene Onegin” was completed.

“The Miserly Knight” - Middle Ages, France.

"The Stone Guest" - Spain

"Feast in Time of Plague" - England, Great Plague of 1665

"Mozart and Salieri" - Vienna 1791, last days Mozart. And although events take place in different countries ah, all Pushkin’s thoughts are about Russia, about human destiny.

It would seem that Pushkin combines completely different works into a whole - a cycle and gives the general name “Little Tragedies”

- Why exactly the cycle?

A cycle is a genre formation consisting of works united by common features. “Little tragedies” are similar in organization art material: composition and plot, figurative system (small number of characters), - as well as ideological and thematic characteristics (for example, the goal of each tragedy is to debunk any negative human quality).

- Remember the tragedy “Mozart and Salieri”. What vice does Pushkin expose in her? (Envy).

The relationship between a person and the people around him - relatives, friends, enemies, like-minded people, casual acquaintances - is a topic that always worried Pushkin, so in his works he explores various human passions and their consequences.

Each tragedy turns into a philosophical discussion about love and hate, life and death, the eternity of art, greed, betrayal, true talent...

2.Analysis of the drama “The Miserly Knight” (frontal conversation).

1) - Which of the following topics do you think this work is devoted to?

(Theme of greed, the power of money).

What money-related problems might a person have?

(Lack of money, or, conversely, too much of it, inability to manage money, greed...)

2) "The Stingy Knight" What does "stingy" mean? Let's turn to the dictionary.

-Can a knight be stingy? Who were called knights in medieval Europe? How did knights appear? What qualities are characteristic of knights?(individual message).

The word "knight" comes from the German "ritter", i.e. horseman, in French there is a synonym “chevalier” from the word “cheval”, i.e. horse. So, initially this is what they call a horseman, a warrior on a horse. The first real knights appeared in France around 800. These were fierce and skillful warriors who, under the leadership of the leader of the Frankish tribe Clovis, defeated other tribes and by 500 conquered the territory of all of present-day France. By 800 they controlled even more of Germany and Italy. In 800, the Pope proclaimed Charlemagne Emperor of Rome. This is how the Holy Roman Empire arose. Over the years, the Franks increasingly used cavalry in military operations, invented stirrups and various weapons.

By the end of the 12th century, chivalry began to be perceived as a bearer of ethical ideals. The chivalric code of honor includes such values ​​as courage, courage, loyalty, and protection of the weak. Betrayal, revenge, and stinginess caused sharp condemnation. There were special rules for the behavior of a knight in battle: it was forbidden to retreat, to show disrespect for the enemy, it was forbidden to deliver fatal blows from behind, and to kill an unarmed person. The knights showed humanity to the enemy, especially if he was wounded.

The knight dedicated his victories in battle or in tournaments to his lady, so the era of chivalry is also associated with romantic feelings: love, infatuation, self-sacrifice for the sake of the beloved.)

What contradiction is contained in the name itself? (the knight could not be stingy).

3) Introducing the term "oxymoron"

Oxymoron – an artistic device based on the lexical inconsistency of words in a phrase, a stylistic figure, a combination of words that are opposed in meaning, “a combination of the incongruous.”(The term is written in the notebook)

4) - Which of the drama heroes can be called a stingy knight?(Barona)

What do we know about the Baron from scene 1?

(Students work with the text. Read out quotes)

What was the fault of heroism? – stinginess
Yes! It's easy to get infected here
Under one roof with my father.

Yes, you should have told him that my father
Rich himself, like a Jew...

Baron is healthy. God willing - ten, twenty years
And he will live twenty-five and thirty...

ABOUT! My father has no servants and no friends
He sees them as masters;...

5) Film fragment. Baron's Monologue (Scene 2)

Which main feature Does the Baron's character subjugate everyone else? Find a keyword, a key image. (Power)

Who does Baron compare himself to? (With the king commanding his warriors)

Who was the Baron before? (A warrior, a knight of sword and loyalty, in his youth he did not think about chests with doubloons)

How did a knight conquer the world? (using weapons and your valor)

How does the stingy one win it? (using gold)

But there is another nuance - the baron himself feels something demonic, devilish in himself...

What is behind the gold that the baron pours into his chests (everything: love, creativity, art... The baron can buy “Both virtue and sleepless labor”).

It’s scary not only that everything is bought with money, it’s scary that the soul of the one who buys and the one who is bought is deformed.

- Is there something that this all-powerful master is afraid of? What does he feel no power over? (he is afraid that his son will squander his wealth - “By what right?” - read how the stingy man lists all the deprivations to which he subjected himself).What does he dream about? (“Oh, if only from the grave...”)

The money that the baron pours into the chests contains human sweat, tears and blood. The lender himself is cruel and merciless. He himself is aware of the vicious nature of his passion.

6) The baron's son is Albert. The second most striking image is the son of Baron Albert.

Was Albert, the son of a knight, a knight? (the obvious answer is yes). Let us turn to the dialogue between Albert and the Jewish moneylender:

What will I give you as a pledge? Pigskin?

Whenever I could pawn something, long ago

I would have sold it. Ile of a knight's word

Isn't it enough for you, dog?

Every word here is significant. How do you understand the expression “pigskin”? This is a parchment with a family tree, with a coat of arms or knightly rights. But these rights are worthless. There is a knightly word of honor - it is already an empty phrase.

What motivates Albert when he surprises everyone with his courage at the tournament? What was the fault of heroism? Stinginess. But was Albert stingy?

(He gives the last bottle of wine to the sick blacksmith, he does not agree to poison his father, to commit a crime for the sake of money, but both father and son perish morally, drawn into the whirlpool of the thirst for money).

- How low does the baron go? (He slanderes his own son for the sake of money, accuses him of plotting parricide and of an “even greater” crime - the desire to steal, which for the baron is worse than death)

7) Analysis of scene 3.

What does the Duke say about the Baron? What was the baron's name, what do we learn about him from his greeting to the Duke? (Philip is the name of kings and dukes. The Baron lived at the Duke’s court, was first among equals.)

Did the knight in the baron die? (No. The Baron is insulted by his son in the presence of the Duke, and this increases his insult. He challenges his son to a duel)

8) Film fragment. Deadly quarrel between father and son.

What does the baron think about in the last minutes of his life? (“Where are the keys? The keys, my keys?...”).

How do you view a father's challenge to his son? (Money spoils relationships between loved ones and destroys families). Why did the Baron die? (There's nothing sacred left that money hasn't corrupted)

Read last words Duke.

He died God!
Terrible age, terrible hearts!

What century is the Duke talking about? (About the age of money, the passion for hoarding replaces the desire for achievement and glory).

Remember, at first it seemed to us that Albert was not like his father. He does not agree to poison the Baron or commit a crime for money, but in the finale, the same Albert accepts his father’s challenge, i.e. ready to kill him in a duel.

3. Conclusions. The final part of the lesson.(Teacher's word)

- So what is this work about? What caused the tragedy?

(The theme of the tragedy is the destructive power of money. This is a work about the power of money that rules people, and not vice versa. Greed for the acquisition of money and its accumulation is a vice not only of the 15th century. And Pushkin could not help but be concerned about this problem. He understood well where this can lead humanity).

- What is the modernity of the play? Could the Baron figure appear now? Student answers. Modern barons are smaller: they don’t think at all about honor and nobility.

A recording of A. Dolsky’s song “Money, money, things, things...” is played.

The power of money brings great suffering to the world of the poor, crimes committed in the name of gold. Because of money, relatives and close people become enemies and are ready to kill each other.

The theme of stinginess and the power of money is one of the eternal themes of world art and literature. Writers from different countries dedicated their works to her:

    Honore de Balzac "Gobsek"

    Jean Baptiste Moliere "The Miser"

    N. Gogol “Portrait”,

    "Dead Souls" (image of Plyushkin)

4. Homework:

    In your notebooks, write a detailed answer to the question “How can you explain the name of the drama “The Miserly Knight”?

    “What did Pushkin’s tragedy “The Miserly Knight” make me think about?

The action of the tragedy "The Miserly Knight" takes place in the era of late feudalism. The Middle Ages have been portrayed in different ways in literature. Writers often gave this era a harsh flavor of strict asceticism and gloomy religiosity. This is medieval Spain in Pushkin’s “The Stone Guest”. According to other conventional literary ideas, the Middle Ages are a world of knightly tournaments, touching patriarchy, and worship of the lady of the heart.

Knights were endowed with feelings of honor, nobility, independence, they stood up for the weak and offended. This idea of ​​the knightly code of honor is a necessary condition for a correct understanding of the tragedy “The Miserly Knight.”

“The Miserly Knight” depicts that historical moment when the feudal order had already cracked and life entered new shores. In the very first scene, in Albert’s monologue, an expressive picture is painted. The Duke's palace is full of courtiers - gentle ladies and gentlemen in luxurious clothes; heralds glorify the masterful blows of knights in tournament duels; vassals gather at the overlord's table. In the third scene, the Duke appears as the patron of his loyal nobles and acts as their judge. The Baron, as his knightly duty to the sovereign tells him, comes to the palace upon first request. He is ready to defend the interests of the Duke and, despite his advanced age, “groaning, climb back onto the horse.” However, offering his services in case of war, the Baron avoids participating in court entertainment and lives as a recluse in his castle. He speaks with contempt of “the crowd of caresses, greedy courtiers.”

The Baron's son, Albert, on the contrary, with all his thoughts, with all his soul, is eager to go to the palace (“At any cost, I will appear at the tournament”).

Both Baron and Albert are extremely ambitious, both strive for independence and value it above all else.

The right to freedom was guaranteed to the knights by their noble origin, feudal privileges, power over lands, castles, and peasants. The one who had full power was free. Therefore, the limit of knightly hopes is absolute, unlimited power, thanks to which wealth was won and defended. But a lot has already changed in the world. To maintain their freedom, the knights are forced to sell their possessions and maintain their dignity with money. The pursuit of gold has become the essence of time. This restructured the entire world of knightly relations, the psychology of knights, and inexorably invaded their intimate lives.

Already in the first scene, the splendor and pomp of the ducal court are just the external romance of chivalry. Previously, the tournament was a test of strength, dexterity, courage, and will before a difficult campaign, but now it pleases the eyes of illustrious nobles. Albert is not very happy about his victory. Of course, he is pleased to defeat the count, but the thought of a broken helmet weighs heavily on the young man, who has nothing to buy new armor with.

O poverty, poverty!

How she humbles our hearts! -

he complains bitterly. And he admits:

What was the fault of heroism? - stinginess.

Albert obediently submits to the flow of life, which carries him, like other nobles, to the Duke's palace. The young man, thirsty for entertainment, wants to take his rightful place among the overlord and stand on a par with the courtiers. Independence for him is maintaining dignity among equals. He does not at all hope for the rights and privileges that the nobility gives him, and speaks ironically of the “pigskin” - the parchment certifying his membership in knighthood.

Money haunts Albert's imagination wherever he is - in the castle, at a tournament match, at the Duke's feast.

The feverish search for money formed the basis of the dramatic action of The Stingy Knight. Albert's appeal to the moneylender and then to the Duke are two actions that determine the course of the tragedy. And it is no coincidence, of course, that it is Albert, for whom money has become an idea-passion, who leads the action of the tragedy.

Albert has three options: either get money from a moneylender on a mortgage, or wait for his father’s death (or hasten it by force) and inherit the wealth, or “force” the father to adequately support his son. Albert tries all the paths leading to money, but even with his extreme activity they end in complete failure.

This happens because Albert does not just come into conflict with individuals, he comes into conflict with the century. The knightly ideas about honor and nobility are still alive in him, but he already understands the relative value of noble rights and privileges. Albert combines naivety with insight, knightly virtues with sober prudence, and this tangle of conflicting passions dooms Albert to defeat. All of Albert’s attempts to get money without sacrificing his knightly honor, all of his hopes for independence are a fiction and a mirage.

Pushkin, however, makes it clear to us that Albert’s dreams of independence would have remained illusory even if Albert had succeeded his father. He invites us to look into the future. Through the mouth of the Baron, the harsh truth about Albert is revealed. If “pigskin” does not save you from humiliation (Albert is right in this), then an inheritance will not protect you from them, because luxury and entertainment must be paid not only with wealth, but also with noble rights and honor. Albert would have taken his place among the flatterers, the “greedy courtiers.” Is there really independence in the “palace antechambers”? Having not yet received the inheritance, he already agrees to go into bondage to the moneylender. The Baron does not doubt for a second (and he is right!) that his wealth will soon transfer to the moneylender’s pocket. And in fact, the moneylender is no longer even on the threshold, but in the castle.

Thus, all paths to gold, and through it to personal freedom, lead Albert to a dead end. Carried away by the flow of life, he, however, cannot reject the knightly traditions and thereby resists the new time. But this struggle turns out to be powerless and in vain: the passion for money is incompatible with honor and nobility. Before this fact, Albert is vulnerable and weak. This gives birth to hatred of the father, who could voluntarily, out of family responsibility and knightly duty, save his son both from poverty and humiliation. It develops into that frenzied despair, into that animal rage (“tiger cub,” Herzog calls Albert), which turns the secret thought of his father’s death into an open desire for his death.

If Albert, as we remember, preferred money to feudal privileges, then the Baron is obsessed with the idea of ​​power.

The Baron needs gold not to satisfy the vicious passion for acquisitiveness and not to enjoy its chimerical brilliance. Admiring his golden “hill,” the Baron feels like a ruler:

I reign!.. What a magical shine!

Obedient to me, my power is strong;

In her is happiness, in her is my honor and glory!

The Baron knows well that money without power does not bring independence. With a sharp stroke, Pushkin exposes this idea. Albert admires the outfits of the knights, their “satin and velvet.” The Baron, in his monologue, will also remember the atlas and say that his treasures will “flow” into “torn satin pockets.” From his point of view, wealth that does not rest on the sword is “wasted” with catastrophic speed.

Albert acts for the Baron as such a “spendthrift”, before whom the edifice of chivalry that has been erected for centuries cannot withstand, and the Baron also contributed to it with his mind, will, and strength. It, as the Baron says, was “suffered” by him and embodied in his treasures. Therefore, a son who can only squander wealth is a living reproach to the Baron and a direct threat to the idea defended by the Baron. From this it is clear how great the Baron’s hatred is for the wasteful heir, how great his suffering is at the mere thought that Albert will “take power” over his “power.”

However, the Baron also understands something else: power without money is also insignificant. The sword laid the Baron's possessions at his feet, but did not satisfy his dreams of absolute freedom, which, according to knightly ideas, is achieved by unlimited power. What the sword did not complete, gold must do. Money thus becomes both a means of protecting independence and a path to unlimited power.

The idea of ​​unlimited power turned into a fanatical passion and gave the figure of the Baron power and grandeur. The seclusion of the Baron, who retired from the court and deliberately locked himself in the castle, from this point of view can be understood as a kind of defense of his dignity, noble privileges, centuries-old life principles. But, clinging to the old foundations and trying to defend them, the Baron goes against time. The conflict with the century cannot but end in the crushing defeat of the Baron.

However, the reasons for the Baron's tragedy also lie in the contradiction of his passions. Pushkin reminds us everywhere that the Baron is a knight. He remains a knight even when he talks with the Duke, when he is ready to draw his sword for him, when he challenges his son to a duel and when he is alone. Knightly virtues are dear to him, his sense of honor does not disappear. However, the Baron's freedom presupposes undivided dominance, and the Baron knows no other freedom. The Baron's lust for power acts both as a noble quality of nature (thirst for independence), and as a crushing passion for the people sacrificed to it. On the one hand, lust for power is the source of the will of the Baron, who has curbed “desires” and now enjoys “happiness,” “honor,” and “glory.” But, on the other hand, he dreams that everything will obey him:

What is beyond my control? like some kind of demon

From now on I can rule the world;

As soon as I want, palaces will be erected;

To my magnificent gardens

The nymphs will come running in a playful crowd;

And the muses will bring me their tribute,

And the free genius will become my slave,

And virtue and sleepless labor

They will humbly await my reward.

I will whistle, and obediently, timidly

Bloody villainy will creep in,

And he will lick my hand and my eyes

Look, there is a sign of my reading in them.

Everything obeys me, but I obey nothing...

Obsessed with these dreams, the Baron cannot gain freedom. This is the reason for his tragedy - in seeking freedom, he tramples it. Moreover: the lust for power degenerates into another, no less powerful, but much baser passion for money. And this is no longer so much a tragic as a comic transformation.

The Baron thinks that he is a king to whom everything is “obedient,” but unlimited power belongs not to him, the old man, but to the pile of gold that lies in front of him. His loneliness turns out to be not only a defense of independence, but also a consequence of fruitless and crushing stinginess.

However, before his death, knightly feelings, which had faded, but did not disappear completely, stirred up in the Baron. And this sheds light on the whole tragedy. The Baron had long convinced himself that gold personified both his honor and glory. However, in reality, the Baron's honor is his personal property. This truth pierced the Baron at the moment when Albert insulted him. In the Baron’s mind everything collapsed at once. All the sacrifices, all the accumulated treasures suddenly seemed meaningless. Why did he suppress desires, why did he deprive himself of the joys of life, why did he indulge in “bitter thoughts”, “heavy thoughts”, “daytime worries” and “sleepless nights”, if before a short phrase - “Baron, you are lying” - he is defenseless, despite great wealth? The hour of powerlessness of gold came, and the knight woke up in the Baron:

Lesson in 9th grade on the topic "Boldino Autumn 1830. Cycle "Little Tragedies" Analysis of the tragedies "The Miserly Knight", "Mozart and Salieri" (2 hours)

The lesson is designed to familiarize students with the Boldinsky period of A.S.’s life. Pushkin;

for the purpose of analyzing tragedies and clarifying the theme and ideological sound, determining the artistic perfection of the tragedies.

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Subject: Boldino autumn.1830. Cycle "Little tragedies"

The ideological sound, theme and artistic perfection of the tragedies “The Miserly Knight”, “Mozart and Salieri”. (2 hours)

Goals and objectives:

1. Educational aspect:

a) familiarize students with the Boldinsky period of A.S.’s life. Pushkin;

b) consolidation of knowledge about drama as a type of literature;

recall the concept of the tragedy genre;

give an idea of ​​realism as a literary movement.

c) analysis of the tragedies “The Miserly Knight” and “Mozart and Salieri” in order to clarify the theme and ideological sound; definition of artistic perfection of tragedies.

2. Developmental aspect:

a) development of basic supra-subject skills: analysis, generalization;

b) development of the ability to conduct compositional and ideological analysis of works;

c) development of skills to prove your assumptions based on the text.

3.Educational aspect:

a) evoke an emotional response in students to the problems raised in the tragedies of A.S. Pushkin;

b) to awaken interest in the work of A.S. Pushkin and to the analysis of a literary work.

Key words: genre composition, conflict; objective meaning, world order, subjective meaning, self-awareness, requiem.

Methodical techniques : student messages, teacher’s word, conversation, commented reading, episode analysis.

Vocabulary work:

Requiem - a musical orchestral and choral work of a mournful nature.

Realism – depiction of typical characters in typical circumstances.

Tragedy - one of the types of drama, which is based on a particularly intense, irreconcilable conflict, most often ending in the death of the hero.

Conflict - a clash, a struggle, on which the development of the plot in work of art. Conflict is of particular importance in dramaturgy, where it is the main force, the spring driving the development of dramatic action and the main means of revealing characters.

Drama - one of the main types of literature (along with epic and lyric poetry). Fine type of literature. The specificity of drama as a type of literature is that it is usually intended for production on stage.

Oxymoron – a stylistic technique of juxtaposing seemingly incomparable, mutually exclusive concepts in order to create a certain artistic effect, for example: “Living corpse”

Progress of the lesson.

Today we have to dive into most interesting world heroes of “Little Tragedies” written by A.S. Pushkin in 1830 in Boldin.

Student message "1830 Boldino Autumn” (individual assignment) - Lebedev’s textbook 10th grade. p.152

Teacher's Note: But what is important is not the number of works created in the Boldino autumn, but their very character: Pushkin’s realism . Particularly indicative in this regard are “Little tragedy " - the final chord of this autumn. (vocabulary work)

Student message : « Brief description little tragedies." (ind. assignment).

Teacher's Assistant: And so, drawing other people’s national characteristics and the life of past centuries, Pushkin, brilliantly capturing them characteristic features, showed a remarkable ability to pack a lot of content into a very concise form. In its form, in the depth of its depiction of the spiritual life of the characters and the mastery of the verse, “Little Tragedies” belongs to greatest works world literature.

Boldino autumn works created with a brush genius artist, but at the same time also from the pen of a merciless analyst. The desire to understand the meaning of life, to find and explain its patterns is so characteristic of all social life of the post-Decembrist era. And it is no coincidence that small tragedies, which seemed infinitely far from Russian reality even by the very material on which they were based, were perceived by many sensitive readers as the poet’s direct thoughts about modernity.

Didn’t the personal, intimate experiences of Alexander Sergeevich form the basis for the creation of tragedies?

Student message about the most common point of view about the main motive for creating small tragedies (ind. task).

Teacher: In Boldin, Pushkin wrote another cycle: “Belkin’s Tales.”

Are there any connections between these cycles?

Student answer (individual task)

Teacher: Let us once again list the tragedies included in the collection:

"The Stingy Knight"

"Mozart and Salieri"

"The Stone Guest"

“A feast during the plague” and turn to the epigraph:

The truth of passions, the plausibility of feelings in the expected circumstances - this is what our mind requires from a dramatic writer. (A.S. Pushkin)

To which literary direction do these works relate?

(Discussing the epigraph, we determine that tragedies relate to realism (vocabulary work)

What is the essence of small tragedies?

(An accurate, merciless analysis of the motives of the characters’ behavior, and primarily the behavior of public (for for Pushkin the “alleged circumstances” were dictated primarily by the society and time in which the hero lives) -This is what makes up the essence of his little tragedies.

What is the plan for small tragedies?

(The hero of each of them idealizes his world and himself, he is imbued with faith in his heroic destiny. And this faith enters with real world with real relationships in it into a great conflict (vocabulary work). It turns out to be that “tragic delusion” that leads the hero to inevitable death.)

What is the objective and subjective meaning of tragedies?

(The objective meaning of tragedies lies in the world order that is hostile to the hero, the subjective meaning - in the character and self-awareness of the hero.

THAT. in small tragedies, in fact, one great problem is posed: in the end, we are talking about the ultimate capabilities of the individual, about the price of a person in human society.

What problems are posed by small tragedies?

(stinginess and chivalry, straightforwardness and deceit, immobility, “stoniness” and lightness, carelessness, feasting and death. Internal drama permeates the entire atmosphere of small tragedies: a father challenges his son and he accepts it, a friend kills a friend, terrible internal struggle tears apart the souls of the heroes).

Analysis of tragedies.

- In this lesson we will analyze two tragedies:"The Miserly Knight" and "Mozart and Salieri".

So, "The Stingy Knight".

What meaning do we give to the word “knight”?

(noble, honest, performing feats for the sake of ladies, respecting parents, loving the fatherland)

Is the word “miserly” comparable to the word “knight”?

What language means of expression did the author use? (oxymoron)

We have already talked about Pushkin’s ability to put a lot of content into a very concise form.

How many verses does the tragedy “The Miserly Knight” contain? (380)

How many characters? (5: Albert, Ivan, Jew, baron, duke)

There are only 5 heroes, but we are faced with an accurate and expressive picture of France during the late Middle Ages.

Confirm this with artistic details from the text (swords, helmets, armor, the baron's castle with towers and gloomy dungeons, the brilliant court of the duke with feasting ladies and gentlemen, a noisy tournament where heralds glorify the masterful blows of the brave men)

What helps you better imagine the scene? (author’s remarks: “Tower”, “Basement”, “Palace” - these remarks provide rich food for the imagination)

- We are in the tower of a medieval castle. What's going on here? (a conversation between a knight and a squire. We are talking about a tournament, about a helmet and armor, about victory in a fight and a lame horse.)

Albert's first words precisely, sparingly and at the same time somehow quickly introduce us to the setting of the action. What is the name of this element of composition?

(Approximately a third of the first scene before the loan shark arrives is exposition, painting a picture of the humiliating poverty in which the young knight lives (not a word has yet been said about the rich father).

Albert won the knight's tournament. Is this tournament a test before a difficult campaign, identifying the strongest, or fun, entertainment, albeit dangerous?

Let's listen to Albert's story about the tournament. (reading Albert's monologue)

How is the romantic flair mercilessly torn from all knightly accessories in this story?

Why did Albert whitewash?

Why is it impossible to wear a broken helmet to a tournament?

Why didn’t Albert remove his helmet from the defeated enemy? (The helmet and armor cease to play the main protective role and become decoration first of all. A broken helmet cannot be put on, not because it will not protect in battle, but because it is a shame in front of other knights and ladies. And it is just as shameful to remove it from a defeated enemy helmet, because this will be perceived not as a sign of victory, but as robbery by the right of the strong.

We are talking about the capacity of Pushkin’s small dramas. In the very first replicas you can see how this capacity is achieved.

Is it just about the tournament? What other topic arises? (money theme)

(The conversation is about a tournament - a holiday, but this is also a conversation about money - harsh prose, and in a conversation about money and the troubles associated with it, the moneylender and the countless treasures of his father inevitably come up. In remarks related to a specific occasion, all the time it’s as if the entire space of the play opens up. Behind Albert’s petty, momentary concerns, the whole life of the young knight arises, and not just his current position.

What is Albert's reaction to Solomon's proposal to poison his father? (read text)

Why does he refuse to take the Jew's chervonets? (read text)

Why does he go to the Duke to solve his problems?

(As Solomon suggested using poison, a knight wakes up in Albert, yes, he is waiting for the death of his father, but to poison? No, for this he is a knight, he was shocked that they dared to offer dishonor to him, a knight, and who dared!

The decision to go to the Duke is deeply traditional. After all, the principle of personality was a privilege in the Middle Ages. Knightly honor stood on the protection of personal dignity in knightly society. However, this honor could gain real power by resting on material possessions.

So, two themes determine the dramatic node of the first scene of the tragedy - the theme of knightly honor and the theme of gold, which pushes a person to the most base acts, to crimes.

And at the intersection of these two themes, the ominous figure of the Miserly Knight, who serves gold, first appears.

How does it serve?

What characterization does Albert give of Father? (read text)

Apart from this characteristic, do we know anything about the Baron: about the past, about the reasons that led to the dominance of gold over man?

Let's go down to the basement, there the baron pronounces his monologue (read out)

What theme is beginning to resonate in full force? (gold theme).

(Before Nami is the poet of gold, the poet of the power that gives a person wealth.

What does gold mean to the baron? (power, might, enjoyment of life)

Prove that gold guides the actions of people who have brought debt to the baron.

And again in the “feast” scene we see a formidable feudal lord:

But the rapture of power ends with horror of the future. (read text confirming this)

Moneylender Widow with three children

Threads stretch from gold to everyone acting persons plays. It determines all their thoughts and actions.

Pushkin shows here not just the role and significance of gold, but also with great force reveals the influence of gold on the spiritual world and the psyche of people.

Prove it with text.

(It makes the son want his father dead, it allows the moneylender to offer Albert poison to poison the Baron. It leads to the son throwing down the gauntlet to the father, who accepts the son's challenge. It kills the Baron.

Is Albert's behavior heroic in the scene of the challenge to a duel? (he dreams of going to the tournament, but ends up going to a duel with his old father)

Who opposed Albert? An all-powerful servant and master of gold or a decrepit old man? (the author denies Baron the right to be called a person) - Why?

Gold corroded the soul of the Miserly Knight. The shock he experienced was moral and only moral.

What is the Baron's last line? (-Keys, my keys...)

Thus ends the tragedy of the omnipotence of Gold, which brought nothing to the man who imagined himself to be its owner.

Does the death of the Miserly Knight resolve the main conflict of the tragedy? (No. Behind the end of the Baron one can easily discern both the end of Albert and the end of the Duke, powerless with his feudal power to change anything in the world of profit.

Terrible age, terrible hearts!

Pushkin sensitively grasped what moral content the transitional era of the Middle Ages brought to humanity: the replacement of the feudal formation with the bourgeois one. Terrible hearts are the product of a terrible age.

"Mozart and Salieri" - This is how Pushkin entitled the second of his small tragedies.

Tell us about the history of the name (ind. task).

What technique did Pushkin use in the title? (antithesis)

Teacher's word: The Duke's exclamation about a terrible century in which the entire established legal order is disrupted is immediately picked up by the opening phrase of the following little tragedy:

Everyone says: there is no truth on earth.

Reading a monologue by a teacher.

- Does Salieri remind you of anyone?

(Yes, he is the closest descendant of the Miserly Knight. The character of this hero, like the character of the Baron, is revealed primarily through a monologue. True, the Baron’s monologue is a lyrical outpouring without any external address. We seem to be eavesdropping on his most secret thoughts and revelations .

And Salieri’s thoughts are also secret. But he is a musician, a priest of art, that is, a man who cannot do without listeners. Salieri's monologues are thoughts addressed to himself, but addressed to the whole world!)

What feelings does Salieri have?

How did he get to fame? (from monologue) (At first it seems that the path is truly heroic)

The first disharmonious note bursts into the monologue. Which? Say it. (“Having killed the sounds, I tore apart the music like a corpse”)

Which second note brings disharmony? (seeks power over harmony, which he continuously verifies with algebra)

Has he gained power over music, like the Miserly Knight over gold? (No. Power is illusory; he, like the Miserly Knight, is not a ruler, but a servant of music, an obedient executor of someone else’s will in art).

Prove it with text. (When the great Glitch...)

Yes, he turned out to be only the first student, an excellent student, and in this he found his happiness.

What does he compare himself to now?

What is the reason for Salieri's torment?

(The inner strength of Salieri (like the Baron) is in the fanatical belief in the inviolability of the foundations of his world, his system. Art, in the opinion of his faithful priest, should be subject only to those who have mastered it at the cost of selflessness, at the cost of deprivation, even to the point of abandoning their “I.” Art did not exalt, but depersonalized Salieri, it turned him into a slave of the system.

And suddenly this system begins to collapse right before our eyes! The laws of harmony suddenly incongruously obey the “idle reveler.”

Why is he jealous of Mozart?

What decision did Salieri make, why is it important for him to prove to himself: “I was chosen to stop him”?

What is the theme here? ( superhuman theme)

What motivates Salieri? Ordinary low envy?

Follow his attitude towards Mozart - words of amazement and delight... and suddenly - a terrible denouement!

How is Mozart portrayed in the tragedy? (wife, son, lunch, beauty, blind violinist)

Prove that he is an “idle reveler.”

In this episode, a collision occurs, and the collision, despite its apparent lightness, is very serious.

What are we talking about here? (about the main thing in music - its final purpose)

What did Salieri see as his happiness? (see the first monologue: “I found consonance with my creations in the hearts of people”)

Why does he refuse to understand the joy of Mozart, who heard the harmony of his creations in the heart of a street musician?

(The playing of a street violinist is elevated by Salieri to a principle, to a shock to the foundations of art!)

What did Mozart's music awaken in the poor violinist? (good feelings) – let’s remember Pushkin’s “Monument”)

Salieri (the musician) drives away the blind man (the musician) with a rude shout: “Get off, old man!”

Yes, Mozart is interested in the blind violinist whom he picks up at the tavern (in the thick of life!), he himself can spend time in the tavern, but the main thing for the artist, for the creator, is open to him - “and creative night and inspiration” and what comes to his mind not just sounds, but thoughts.

- What makes us understand this episode? Opposition. And what?

An abyss is opening up between Salieri and Mozart! Salieri had enough of his judgment, enough of analysis, he created for himself, for music, but what is music without listeners? Mozart brings what he created to people. It is so important for him to hear their opinion.

For Mozart, the parody of the “despicable buffoon” and his brilliant “trifle” are equally interesting. Mozart plays Salieri a piece composed at night.

Who does Salieri compare Mozart to after listening? (with God) – genius theme

- What does Mozart say about himself? (...but my deity got hungry)

In what mood does he leave Salieri? (happy that I found an understanding of my consonances)

And what mood does Salieri remain in?

What did Mozart's music give birth to from Salieri? (thought of poison)

What evidence does Salieri use to base his decision? (see 1st monologue, end, dialogue... It all comes down to one thing. - Why? What is the theme here? ( theme of being chosen)

Teacher: Salieri claims to be chosen, but what a strange chosenness it is: a musician destroys a musician in the name of music!

In the first scene, he drove away the blind violinist, artlessly performing a Mozart melody; in the second scene, he destroys the creator of the melody.

Does his position remind you of anyone from the previous tragedy we discussed?

(Albera from The Miserly Knight)

Yes, his position surprisingly coincides with Albert’s position in relation to the Miserly Knight.

Albert is humiliated by poverty and sees his worst enemy in his father, the owner of untold wealth.

And Salieri? (He is humiliated by art, his enemy is the owner of countless spiritual riches.

But is it possible to write about a poet, artist, composer without passing through his works?

What did we miss when talking about Mozart and Salieri? (The only creation of the brilliant Mozart is “Requiem”.

What image in Mozart's monologue is inseparable from the Requiem?

Mozart has a brilliant premonition of his end; he cannot, cannot understand where his blow will come from.

Genius and crime! Violation of ethical standards, simple human morality, even in the name of a sublime idea, the greatest goal - is this justified or not?

And Mozart? (A lofty thought, said in passing, immediately reconciles him with the world. He drinks the “cup of friendship.”

Sounds like "Requiem"

Why is Salieri crying? Does he repent? (No, he is shocked, first of all, by his suffering)

What words in Pushkin’s tragedy become like an epigraph to it?

Why do these words “genius and villainy” sound twice: in the mouth of Mozart and in Salieri’s final monologue?

What will be the consequences of Salieri’s terrible act: will he be freed from torment or will more terrible torment haunt him all his life?

Is Mozart right that “genius and villainy are two incompatible things”?

Teacher: Let's summarize, let's conclude:

What unites the two tragedies analyzed?

The superhuman, and, consequently, deeply immoral, began to break chivalry and cut family ties. Now the creative union (the most sacred type of friendship for Pushkin) cannot withstand his blows, and genius is sacrificed to it. But Salieri, this new demon of the “terrible century,” turned out to be smaller than the Stingy Knight.

The Baron, in a moment of despair, grabbed the “honest damask steel”; he was horrified that he had ceased to be a knight, and, consequently, a man. Salieri, as if following the advice of the “despicable moneylender,” prudently used poison in the matter and was not horrified, but only thought: is he really not a genius?

Which artistic device is the basis of the plot of the tragedy "Mozart and Salieri"? (ANTYTHESIS of two types of artists)

What is a moving spring tragic conflict? (envy)

Final word: This tragedy reflected in an extremely generalized form the characteristic features of Pushkin’s personal fate and his relationship with society at the turn of the 30s.

Both in “The Miserly Knight” and in “Mozart and Salieri” the tragic ending does not remove the main tragic conflict, plunging readers and viewers into thinking about the meaning of life, about true and imaginary harmony, about meanness and nobility, about friendship, about envy, about creativity.

D/Z. Written assignment. Answer the questions in detail (optional):

1. Who is the “central person” of the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri"?

2. Whose fate is more tragic: Mozart or Salieri?

3. Why is the requiem commissioned from the composer not in demand?

Oral task.

Prepare a message - presentation " Recent years life of A.S. Pushkin."

Poems “Message to the Censor”, “Prophet”, “Arion”, “Poet”, “I have erected a monument to myself...”. Think about what theme unites these poems.

in Wikisource

"The Stingy Knight"- one of Pushkin’s “little tragedies”, written in the Boldino autumn of 1830.

Plot

The young knight Albert complains to his servant Ivan about his lack of money, about the stinginess of his old father-baron, and about the reluctance of the Jewish moneylender Solomon to lend him money. During a conversation with Albert, the Jew hints that receiving the long-awaited inheritance can be brought closer by poisoning his miserly father. The knight indignantly drives Solomon out.

While the old baron languishes in the basement over his treasures, indignant that the heir will one day lose everything he has accumulated with such difficulty, Albert files a complaint against his parent to the local duke. Hiding in the next room, he overhears the Duke's conversation with his father.

When the old baron begins to accuse his son of intending to kill and rob him, Albert bursts into the hall. The father throws down the gauntlet to his son, who readily accepts the challenge. With the words “terrible age, terrible hearts,” the Duke, in disgust, expels both of them from his palace.

The last thoughts of the dying old man are again turned to money-grubbing: “Where are the keys? Keys, my keys!..."

Characters

  • Baron
  • Albert, son of the Baron
  • Ivan, servant
  • Jew (loan shark)
  • Duke

Creation and publication

The idea for the play (possibly inspired by the poet’s difficult relationship with his stingy father) was in Pushkin’s head back in January 1826 (entry in the manuscript of that time: “The Jew and the Son. Count”). The Boldino manuscript has the date “October 23, 1830”; it is preceded by an epigraph from Derzhavin: “Stop living in cellars, Like a mole in underground gorges.”

Pushkin decided to publish “The Miserly Knight” only in 1836, in the first book of Sovremennik, signed by R. (the French initial of Pushkin’s surname). To avoid accusations that the play was incomplete, the publication was framed as a literary hoax, with the subtitle: “Scene from Chanston’s tragicomedy: The Covetous Knight" In fact, Chanston (or Shenstone) does not have a work with this title.

“The Miserly Knight” was scheduled for production at the Alexandrinsky Theater three days after the author’s death, but was eventually replaced by vaudeville (perhaps under pressure from the authorities, who feared the public expressing sympathy for the murdered poet).

Adaptations

  • “The Miserly Knight” - opera by S. V. Rachmaninov, 1904
  • "Little Tragedies" - Soviet film from 1979

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Notes

Excerpt characterizing the Miserly Knight

“You will go far,” he told him and took him with him.
Boris was one of the few on the Neman on the day of the emperors' meeting; he saw rafts with monograms, Napoleon's passage along the other bank past the French guard, saw the thoughtful face of Emperor Alexander, while he sat silently in a tavern on the bank of the Neman, waiting for Napoleon's arrival; I saw how both emperors got into the boats and how Napoleon, having first landed on the raft, walked forward with quick steps and, meeting Alexander, gave him his hand, and how both disappeared into the pavilion. Since his entry into the higher worlds, Boris made himself a habit of carefully observing what was happening around him and recording it. During a meeting in Tilsit, he asked about the names of those people who came with Napoleon, about the uniforms that they were wearing, and listened carefully to the words that were said by important persons. At the very time the emperors entered the pavilion, he looked at his watch and did not forget to look again at the time when Alexander left the pavilion. The meeting lasted an hour and fifty-three minutes: he wrote it down that evening among other facts that he believed were of historical significance. Since the emperor’s retinue was very small, for a person who valued success in his service, being in Tilsit during the meeting of the emperors was a very important matter, and Boris, once in Tilsit, felt that from that time his position was completely established. They not only knew him, but they took a closer look at him and got used to him. Twice he carried out orders for the sovereign himself, so that the sovereign knew him by sight, and all those close to him not only did not shy away from him, as before, considering him a new person, but would have been surprised if he had not been there.
Boris lived with another adjutant, the Polish Count Zhilinsky. Zhilinsky, a Pole raised in Paris, was rich, passionately loved the French, and almost every day during his stay in Tilsit, French officers from the guard and the main French headquarters gathered for lunch and breakfast with Zhilinsky and Boris.
On the evening of June 24, Count Zhilinsky, Boris's roommate, arranged a dinner for his French acquaintances. At this dinner there was an honored guest, one of Napoleon's adjutants, several officers of the French Guard and a young boy of an old aristocratic French family, Napoleon's page. On this very day, Rostov, taking advantage of the darkness so as not to be recognized, in civilian dress, arrived in Tilsit and entered the apartment of Zhilinsky and Boris.
In Rostov, as well as in the entire army from which he came, the revolution that took place in the main apartment and in Boris was still far from taking place in relation to Napoleon and the French, who had become friends from enemies. Everyone in the army still continued to experience the same mixed feelings of anger, contempt and fear towards Bonaparte and the French. Until recently, Rostov, talking with Platovsky Cossack officer, argued that if Napoleon had been captured, he would have been treated not as a sovereign, but as a criminal. Just recently, on the road, having met a wounded French colonel, Rostov became heated, proving to him that there could be no peace between the legitimate sovereign and the criminal Bonaparte. Therefore, Rostov was strangely struck in Boris’s apartment by the sight of French officers in the very uniforms that he was accustomed to look at completely differently from the flanker chain. As soon as he saw the French officer leaning out of the door, that feeling of war, of hostility, which he always experienced at the sight of the enemy, suddenly seized him. He stopped on the threshold and asked in Russian if Drubetskoy lived here. Boris, hearing someone else's voice in the hallway, came out to meet him. His face at the first minute, when he recognized Rostov, expressed annoyance.